Creation, Analysis, and Evaluation of Remote Sensing Sinkhole Databases for Pinellas County, Florida

Creator

Larry D. Seale

Files

Publication Date

October 2005

Type

Thesis

Abstract

A database of likely sinkholes in Pinellas County, Florida, created using airborne laser swath mapping (ALSM a.k.a LIDAR for light detection and ranging), correlates poorly with other databases of likely sinkholes created from modern and historic aerial photographs. Urbanization appears to be the cause of the poor correlation. Buildings obscure much of the ground surface in urban areas, and many man-made depressions can be confused with natural sinkholes. Additionally, the lack of air photos contemporaneous with the ALSM data hinders ALSM analysis in rapidly developing areas. Selecting a lightly-developed portion of the county for further study reduced the effects of urbanization. Air photos of this focus area, taken two years after the ALSM data were collected, image essentially the same surface as the ALSM data; therefore, ALSM and the air photos can be considered concurrent. While correlations among the two databases in the focus area were better than in the county-wide comparisons, the incongruencies were still numerous and the validity of the databases was unsubstantiated.

Institution

University of South Florida

Keywords

GIS, Karst, Airborne, Laser, Mapping, ALSM, Light, Detection, Ranging, LIDAR

Geographic Location

Pinellas County (Fla.)

Language

English

Identifier

K26-01257

Recommended Citation

Seale, Larry D., "Creation, Analysis, and Evaluation of Remote Sensing Sinkhole Databases for Pinellas County, Florida" (2005). KIP Theses and Dissertations. 3.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/kip_etd/3