Canopy - Generating random points to use on my own aerial

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DavidCallow
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2013 10:36 pm

Canopy - Generating random points to use on my own aerial

Post by DavidCallow » Fri Feb 08, 2013 10:46 pm

Can you use Canopy to bulk generate random survey points to overlay on an aerial image within a GIS program (without having to manually generate all of the points)? I'd like to be able to use a recent (and known date) aerial image for assessment.

David
Jason.Henning
i-Tree Team
Posts: 340
Joined: Fri Dec 21, 2012 7:45 am

generating random sample points for use outside of Canopy

Post by Jason.Henning » Mon Feb 11, 2013 11:08 am

One of the goals of i-Tree Canopy is to create an easy method to assess canopy coverage without the use of GIS software which can be expensive and generally requires specialized training.

However, I can see why you may want to be able to use imagery outside of that Canopy currently uses.

Here are a couple solutions that I see:

1. If you are only interested in knowing and/or controlling the date of the imagery. You could use the method for change detection that you can see by clicking on the "?" next to the "Load Previous i-Tree Canopy Project for Change Survey" tool on the Canopy web page. You could first generate as many points as you want in a new project but just leave them as the default covertype. Export the .kmz file as described then import that into Google Earth (where you can see and control the imagery date) and use that imagery to change the covertypes in Canopy appropriately.

2. You could export the .kmz as described above then import it into a GIS (in ArcGIS 10 http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop ... 004w000000 or the free QGIS http://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/ ... -kmz-files).

3. Create the sample completely within a GIS and avoid any steps using Canopy. (e.g. in ArcGIS 10 http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop ... 002r000000 or using the "Random Points" tool in the free QGIS http://www.qgis.org/). You could use i-Tree Canopy to record the data and calculate the statistics and just ignore the locations Canopy generates.

Please let us know if you try any of the methods.
DavidCallow
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2013 10:36 pm

Post by DavidCallow » Mon Mar 04, 2013 3:56 am

Hi Jason. Thanks for your Comprehensive reply!

David
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