Geoffrey Hay
GEOgraphic Object-Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA): A new name for a new discipline

Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Building 3 Auditorium - 3:30 PM
(Refreshments at 3:00 PM)

A paradigm shift in remote sensing image analysis has been stealthy taking place over the last two decades that is changing the way we think about, analyze and use remote sensing imagery. With it we will have moved from more than 30 years of a predominantly pixel-spectra based model to a dynamic multiscale object-based contextual model that attempts to emulate the way humans interpret images. However, along this new path from pixels, to objects, to intelligence and the consolidation of this new paradigm, which we call Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA - pronounced ge-o-be-uh), there are numerous challenges still to be addressed. We highlight a number of GEOBIA Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats; discuss its main objective, tenets and plausible future; and present an overview of related research taking place in our research facility.

Dr. Hay is an Assistant Professor (2005) in GIScience at the University of Calgary (UofC), Alberta, Canada, Department of Geography, where he co-directs the Foothills Facility for Remote Sensing and GIScience, and directs an active graduate research program (8 team members) in multiscale geo-object-based image analysis emphasis Forestry applications. He is the chair for the international conference GEOBIA, 2008 - Pixels, Objects, Intelligence: GEOgraphic-Object Based Image Analysis for the 21st Century (Aug 6-7, 2008) and is co-editing the first book on Object-Based Image Analysis (published by Springer, 2007). He has a PhD in Biology from Université de Montréal specializing in Landscape Ecology and Geographic Information Science (2002), an MSc in Geography from the University of Victoria, specializing in high-resolution remote sensing forest texture (1993), and a BSc (Hon's) in Physical Geography from the UofC (1991). In 2005, Dr. Hay was the guest editor of a special issue on Scale for the International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation. He is currently on the editorial board of the Canadian Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences, and in 2009 will guest edit a special issue on Geo-Object Based Image Analysis for Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing. Dr. Hay has been the recipient of numerous scholarships and awards of excellence, is the author of more than 45 scientific papers, and remains active in national and international remote sensing and landscape ecology communities. He enjoys Jazz and blues music, cooking, martial arts and mountain biking with his life partner, and fly-fishing and skateboarding with their 6yr old son.

Related Web links
Personal Information: www.ucalgary.ca/f3gisci
GEOBIA, 2008 : International Conference: www.ucalgary.ca/GEOBIA
Department of Geography, University of Calgary: www.geog.ucalgary.ca/

IS&T Colloquium Committee Host: James C. Tilton