2nd International Convention on Geosciences and Remote Sensing November 8-9, 2017 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Tanya Saxena is currently pursing Bachelor’s degree of Business from CQ University, Melbourne. She has vast experience on feasibility analysis of different products. She has presented many papers at national as well as international level conferences

Agricultural crop inventories provide important baseline information that can be used by stakeholders to assess the sustainability of the agricultural sector. Changing climatic conditions and the changing economics of the agriculture sector continually force producers to adapt or alter their growing practices year to year. Annual inventories provide an information base to determine the impacts of policies and programs designed to encourage production that is beneficial to the long-term sustainability of the sector. Remote sensing watershed management in dry land agricultural areas, improving irrigation efficiency, addressing disaster management, providing farmer’s advisories and agro-meteorological services have been helpful in rejuvenation of agriculture. In this paper a feasibility study is carried out for using remote sensing satellite images for wheat crop inventory in the Indore district of Madhya Pradesh, India. After a study on availability of different imagery resources covered this area and the way of accessing such data in a good manner, LISS-III for flowering stage of wheat crop and AWiFS images from wheat sowing to harvesting is selected as the source of data. After that the image processing steps required for extracting useful information are discussed and finally a practical model is proposed that should be implemented for applying the model on the real condition. The simulation results based on prototype data and previous studies showed the effectiveness of the proposed model.

Vishavjeet Singh Goraya is a student of Geoscience Engineering at University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, India. The author has presented various papers across India and internationally he has presented the paper in 4th International conference on Geology and Geosciences . He is aan emerging geoscientist from India

India’s upstream oil industry travelled a long way since the discovery of oil in the historic Digboi well no. 1. At present India’s estimated resource base is 28 Billion Metric Tonnes (BMT) of oil and oil equivalent gas (O+OEG) and proven in place reserve is about 10 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT) of O+OEG. Apart from conventional sources; there are other types of hydrocarbon sources which can serve as alternative energy sources. As the global hydrocarbon resource is declining fast, attention is given on these unconventional sources. In India also exploration & research for these special types of hydrocarbons are being carried out since goodprospects are indicated in various basins.Coal Bed Methane: The adsorbed methane in coal bed is now economically exploited through bore holes at a depth of 500 m to 1000 m. The Gondwana basins containing huge deposits of coal are the best source for CBM. Exploration in almost all the Gondwana Basins is in progress. The prognosticated CBM resource is calculated as 92 TCF and in place gas reserve as 8.39 TCF for 33 blocks under exploration. Commercial production has commenced from one block in Raniganj (South) in Damodar Basin. Gas Hydrate: Frozen layer of methane hydrate over the seabed sediment is a prolific source of gas hydrate containing both biogenic and thermogenic gas. This ice –like compound is stable in permafrost regions as well as in low temperature/high pressure regimes present in deep oceans. Presence of Gas Hydrates has been established in deep offshore of Krishna Godavari, Mahanadi and Andaman areas. Oil Shale: Shales highly rich in organic matter from which significant quantities of oil and gas can be generated by synthetic methods are called shale oil. These are generally immature source rocks. In India oil shale prospects has been identified in Cambay, Upper Assam, Assam –Arakan & Rajasthan basins. Shale Gas: After the extraction of shale gas in USA, India has also started the expedition for the shale. Such gas could either be biogenic and/or thermogenic. Post-migration residual gas or adsorbed gas in shales is exploited by special drilling technology. Targeted basins are Gondwana basins and Petroliferous basins like Cambay, Krishna Godavari, Cauvery, Bengal and Upper Assam. The Gondwana basins could be considered as an important exploration frontier in view of the gas shows, favourable stratigraphy and igneous activities that may help maturation. Deep seated Gondwana rocks below the eastern pericratonic basins are prospective targets for deep basin gas, exploration for CBM started in prospective Gondwana basins in a big way. It is expected that within 5 years

CBM will be a major source for supplementary gas production. Gas Hydrates (GH) and Shale Gas are in research stage. It is expected that soon actual exploration could be started.

Ernest Berkman has graduated from the Colorado School of Mines in Geophysical Engineering, 1958. He has worked for Mobil Oil for 20 years and then started EMEX. At EMEX, his experience includes prospect analysis and regional geological/geophysical studies including reflection, gravity, magnetics, MT, refraction analysis, in North America and worldwide; plus a lot of shallow seismic for coal mine development and site characterization. Interpretation background includes site characterization, and technical writing, modeling, quality control, project and team management, industrial teaching, and mentoring. He has been a Member of the SEG since 1955. He has 28 geological and geophysical papers.

The findings are derived from public domain sources in the area of Kazakhstan. The geologic setting, plate tectonics, geothermal regime, satellite imagery, and gravity and magnetic data are discussed. Our analysis shows the presence of basin areas. These basins appear to contain sedimentary rocks of Paleozoic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous age, which are considered to be prospective for hydrocarbon accumulation, since they produce in the adjacent prolific Caspian and West Siberian basins. The basins are underlain

with a thick section of Paleozoic strata resting on a variegated granitic basement, associated with several tectonic plates. The Paleozoic

strata contain a series of extensional/trans-tensional older basins. Uplift and movement along strike-slip faults associated with

major lineaments produced a regional angular unconformity, was followed by further deposition. This can easily be identified on

nonproprietary seismic data. Abrupt surface elevation variations relate to the sub-thrusting and movement of the underlying tectonic

plates. Regional gravity shows the basin shape and major structural elements involving the geologic features. The work of Sandwell

etal, 1997, was reviewed and compared to WGM2012 to ensure that the best data was utilized. The difference between the Isostatic

and Bouguer values was displayed. This regional map portrays major tectonic features as positive features, and basins as negative

“noses” from larger negative elements. The magnetic data is enhanced with the utilization of published high resolution aeromagnetic

data. Observations from the magnetic data are consistent with the other data. There are amplitude and character changes between the

magnetic data overlying the various tectonic plates.

Zhipeng Lin is a Post-graduate student, doing his research work in the Department of School of Geosciences, Yangtze University, Wuhan, Hubei, China. He has his expertise in the research of fluvial sedimentology, fluvial morphology, fluvial environment, reservoir architecture and unconformity structure. He has carried out research of Geology for 6 years and has completed 11 more academic papers. Firstly, he proposed the unconformity structure of “two-dimensional structure” and “three-dimensional structure” and the channel platform migration architecture of meandering rivers. He is now been serving as an Editorial Board Member of the “SciFed Journal of Global Warming

The techniques of the sedimentary and depositional process are increasingly becoming a globalization trend of the advancement and development of earth science research at home and abroad, and are gradually penetrating into the geological disciplines, which is based on the geomorphology foundation. Especially, the evolution of the meandering river is definitely calling for this kind of method to reveal the historical evolution rule of the geological elements and guides. Combined the modern geomorphologic features with the ancient deposition cause, the sedimentary architectures of meandering channel underground are accurately uncovered. Currently, the reservoirs of the meandering river are one of the most important types of continental reservoirs. The study of the structure of the underground body is also the key for scientists and geologists to prove the distribution of remaining oil reserving in the underground space. Therefore, in order to tackle the problem of reservoir heterogeneity of temporal and spatial distributions of the underground meandering river and reconstruct the past depositional process, the prime task is to master the disciplines of modern geomorphology. Though the study of migration architectures of the modern meandering river, the evolution process and the structural response to the sedimentary hierarchy can be revealed originally from beginning to an end.

Akaninyene Okon Akankpo holds PhD degree in Geophysics from Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Nigeria. He is currently lecturing at the Department of Physics, University of Uyo, Nigeria. He has published more than 30 articles in reputable journals both locally and internationally. He is a Member of some professional bodies including Nigerian Institute of Physics (NIP) and Physics Writers Creation Series (PWCS).

This paper presents the results of the seismic compressional, P- and shear, S-wave measurements carried out on unconsolidated top-soil at the different locations in the Akwa Ibom, Nigeria to determine Poisson’s ratio. Seismic refraction data was used to determine the Poisson’s ratio as an aid to the engineering foundation. A 12-channel seismograph with signal stacking ability was used together with the high frequency (100 Hz) geophones on the top-soil. The geophone intervals were set to the 5 m at all locations. In all locations, Vp/Vs ratio ranged from 1.0289 to 1.4185 for the top layer. Vp/Vs ratio in the second layer ranged from the 1.0512 to 1.5834. The Poisson’s ratio for the first layer ranged from the −8.0324 to 0.2060. For the second layer, the Poisson’s ratio ranged from the −0.7567 to 0.1683. The values of Vp/Vs ratio less than 2 in the first layer and in some locations in second layer resulted in negative Poisson’s ratio. The negative and low values of Poisson’s ratio are the symptomatic of occurrence of ripable anisotropic materials in the locations where they occur, which suggests that the indicated average depth should be removed and refilled with the geomaterials that may be resilient to carry engineering loads. 

A E Radwan is a PhD student and Geologist at Gulf of Suez Petroleum Company which is a joint venture of British Petroleum, Egypt. He has published more than 5 papers in reputed journals. He has participated with SEG, AAPG and SPE and in a lot of conferences in Europe and Egypt. He volunteered some organizations in Egypt related to Science and Education

Determination of the fluid type in a reservoir is considered one of the main essential purposes of the formation evaluation processes. Badri field is one of the most prolific areas in the Gulf of Suez, which locates in the southern part of Gulf of Suez. Presence of sandstone streaks in Baba and Sidri members within Belayim Formation in some wells among this field of comparitively high resistivity signature in Electric logs is that the main reason to analyze its petrophysical parameters, to delineate the most characterization of those sands and to judge their ability for hydrocarbon accumulation and production. This study aims to estimate the fluid varieties in these two untested members; particularly they are sandwiched between two productive sandstone zones; Hammam Faraun Member and Kareem Formation. The fluid type can be determined using formation pressure and pressure gradient, which play a great role to differentiate between the different formations fluids (oil, gas and water). Because of the absence of pressure information in studied wells, a new simulation technique was applied using well logging crossplot responses within the totally different hydrocarbon types (oil and/or gas), which were tested before to estimate the fluid type in the untested two studied zones. These include (Density-Neutron, Sonic-Neutron, M-N and MID) crossplots. This can be performed by correlation of the crossplot responses within the two productive sandstone zones; Hammam Faraun and Kareem Formation Member versus the untested studied Sandstone zones of Sidri and Baba members, depend upon the similarities and therefore the variations between the crossplot responses or signatures in the oil and gas fluids. The results of this approach revealed that the most fluid type in (BDR-A8) and (BDR-B9) wells is gas in Baba and Sidri zones and oil in the (BDR-A9) well for Baba zone.

Siwei Li graduated from Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, State University of New York, Albany, and now is a Research Scientist at NOAA Center For Atmospheric Sciences, Howard University. He is also Adjunct Graduate Professor at Graduate School of Howard University. His research focuses on radiative transfer model, remote sensing of aerosols, clouds and aerosol cloud interactions.

The remote sensing of PM2.5 (particulate matter concentration with aerodynamic diameter d≤2.5 μm) mass concentration is mostly based on the measurements of AOD (aerosol optical depth) that is a common product of satellite and ground instruments which measure spectral radiance. The relationship between surface PM2.5 and column integrated AOD is found associated with vertical and size distribution of aerosols. In this study, a non-linear regression model combining AOD and near surface backscatter for estimation of PM2.5 is developed and tested based on 6 years ground measurements from HUBC (Howard University Beltsville Campus) facility. Overall, the non-linear model explains ~60% of the variability in hourly PM2.5. The RMSE (root-mean-square error) is ~5.83 μg/m3 with a corresponding average PM2.5 of 15.43 μg/m3. That is a big improvement to the linear model using AOD alone (~40% of the variability, RMSE is ~7.14 μg/m3). The ceilometer measured near surface backscatter is found to improve the estimation of PM2.5-AOD relationship the most compared to other factors, such as aerosol size indicator, surface temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and pressure especially when AOD is large (AOD≥0.3). As aerosol size indicator, two Angstrom exponents are calculated by AOD at three wavelengths of 415, 500, 860 nm and are found also important to the PM2.5-AOD relationship. In addition to the HUBC site, the model is tested based on the 4 years (2012 to 2015) measurements from ARMSGP site and the nearest EPA site. The results also show the significant role of the ceilometer measured near surface backscatter on improving estimation of PM2.5. This study illustrated the potential of ceilometer on investigation of air pollution. With broad ceilometer network, ground-level particle concentrations can be better determined.

Gervais Wafo Tabopda has completed his PhD in Geography and Regional Planning from University of Orleans in France in September 2008. He is a Lecturer in College of Design at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). He was a Lecturer at the University of Orleans in France and Head of Research Division at The Center of Innovation of Orleans. He has published several papers in reputed French journals in the field of remote sensing and geographic information systems. He currently teaches introduction to GIS (Geographic Information System), environmental GIS and remote sensing to undergraduate and graduate students at School of City Regional Planning

Protected areas in tropical dry Africa appear to be excellent support structures for the sustainable management of natural resources. However, they are increasingly subject to anthropogenic pressures linked to the dual factor of urban growth and domestic energy needs. It is the case of the Laf-Madjam Forest Reserve (5000 ha) in Cameroon, located 60 kilometers south of the city of Maroua (350,000 inhabitants). Since the late 1980s, this forest reserve has become the main area for the exploitation of fuelwood for households in the city of Maroua, where two forest reserves disappeared in the 1970s, under the pressure of timber harvesting. The decline of woody vegetation following the timber harvesting and the lack of public policy strategy for reforestation and management of cuts in Laf-Madjam Forest Reserve, profoundly disturb the ecosystem of this protected area, which would represent both a climate regulator and a shelter of the vegetal cover in the whole of the Diamare plain. This paper, which focuses on the interactions between urban areas and protected areas in relation to energy needs in the Far North region of Cameroon, presents a dual thematic and methodological concern. First, it aims at better understanding of the difficult integration of conservation policies in urban functions in sub-Saharan Africa and secondly, to implement a study approach adapted to the analysis of the relationships between cities and protected areas in a context of obvious environmental vulnerability. The remote sensing data enabled us to highlight the dynamics of vegetation cover in this reserve between 1986 and 2015, using GIS analysis. Multispectral Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) satellite images from 1986, 2001 and 2010 were acquired and pre-processed. Multidate hybrid classification of the images was performed and four land use/land cover classes (woody savanna, shrub savanna, crops, little bare ground vegetation) was derived. The post-classification change detection techniques were performed to characterize and quantify changes in land cover and land use. The results show a decrease of the vegetation cover since 1986 with a rate of 0.51% per year. Thus, between 1986 and 2015, the clear forest and the savannah, mainly woody species have experienced a considerable decline. The dynamics of the woods characterized by satellite image processing and GIS tools is the consequence of the ever increasing demand for fuelwood in the surrounding localities. Moreover, field observations and analyses of fuelwood distribution flows in the city of Maroua enable us to highlight the contribution of the protected areas in this activity. More than 40% of the fuelwood distributed in the city of Maroua comes from protected areas (i.e., around 700 m3 of volume per year) with an estimated average consumption of 0.9 kg per household per day.

Terri Bannister has completed her MSc in Geology from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and undergraduate studies specializing in Geomatics at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. She is a Research Associate with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette at the USGS Wetland and Aquatic Research Center. She has seven papers published to her credit. Her research interests focus on remote sensing and GIS as they can be applied to geology. She has been a Board Member of the Lafayette Geological Society for three years.

Degradation in the Churia region of Nepal related to landslides, unregulated gravel mining and deforestation are believed to be increasing exponentially in frequency and magnitude in recent decades. Little work has been done in Bara and Rautahat districts to quantify these geohazards and correlate with changes in landuse/deforestation/urbanization in the study area. Other objectives of this project include quantifying the extent monsoon flooding exacerbates the Churia degradation process, quantifying the extent gravel mining exacerbates the degradation process and generating a landslide hazard risk map. Remote Sensing and GIS provided accurate, efficient and cost-effective tools to quantify the degradation of these geohazards using optical imagery, NDVI analysis, unsupervised landuse classifications, lineament detection, landslide detection, temporal change, field investigations, gravel and mining excavation data, historic precipitation data and rock descriptions. GIS and remote sensing analysis spanned 40 years (1976-2016) with field work taking place during summer 2014. The research found that while gravel mining has decreased in recent years, the damage has been done and continues (weakened infrastructure, barren and wider river beds and increased river velocities). Other findings include, deforestation is increasing 1.03% annually, the total area impacted by landslides continues to increase and 70% of the Siwalik has moderate to high risk for landslides. The algorithm modified to detect landslide scars over estimates scars but provides an integral starting point for efficiently detecting landslide scars. Improved understanding of the linkages between these dynamic geohazards and the human dimension are vital for policy makers to develop sound geohazard mitigation.

A E Radwan is a PhD student and Geologist at Gulf of Suez Petroleum Company which is a joint venture of British Petroleum, Egypt. He has published more than 5 papers in reputed journals. He has participated with SEG, AAPG and SPE and in a lot of conferences in Europe and Egypt. He volunteered some organizations in Egypt related to Science and Education.

The comprehension of the abnormal pore pressure is most becoming increasingly important to the both drilling and completion operations. Actually, the optimum well design requires, understanding of pore pressures, fracture pressure. If the abnormal pressures are not accurately predicted prior to drilling, catastrophic incidents could occur as kicks, well blowouts and well pack off. The high rates of sedimentation in El-Morgan and Badri especially through the Miocene time has created state of disequilibrium compaction that finally lead to the development of overpressure through certain horizons. The paper addresses defining the geopressure horizons in addition to the magnitudes of these abnormal pressures. Using datasets of five wells (three in Badri field and two in El-Morgan field) including well logs data (GR, resistivity and Sonic) and well site reports that including detailed about drilling

problems are used to calculate and calibrate the pore pressure. In the paper, Eaton's resistivity and the sonic methods are used for the pore pressure calculation with some modification in the Eaton exponent to be fit in the area of interest. In Eaton method, pore pressure calculated based on the primary generation of the overpressure redirection than the normal compaction trend due to the compaction disequilibrium and the effective stress theory. Edfu and the Saqqara fields are the case studies in the GOS region illustrate how to define the horizons of the geopressure and to improve pore pressure prediction in sedimentary formations 

Odonkhuu Daria is a Researcher from Mongolia who has completed his Master of Science degree in 2012 at University of Twente, the Netherlands in the field of Natural Resources Management. He is the Scientist in Animal Ecology and specialized his carrier in studying biodiversity distribution by GIS and Remote sensing application. He has published 5 articles on wildlife ecology and distribution in major scientific journals.

Wild Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus ferus) is a critically endangered large ungulate species. Only three distinct populations remained in the Desert of Central Asia. Population size in Mongolia is approximately 500 and distribution range has been shrinking. Application of GIS and remote sensing has not been used to study its distribution. The main objective was to identify the environmental factors influencing the distribution of the species in the study area. Distribution was predicted by MaxEnt modelling approach using presence only data with integrating the selected environmental predictors. Land surface temperature, NDVI, water sources, vegetation and soil types were used as main predictors in the modelling. Data set was separated into four seasons and model outputs were compared. Both the results of t-test (p<0.0001) and model prediction revealed that land surface temperature in summer has a significant influence on camel that preferring cooler areas avoiding hot temperatures of surrounding environment. Biomass abundance did not affect the camel distribution strongly. Camel preference to intermediate level of NDVI in most seasons can imply that food intake is based on forage quantity but not quality. Positive relationship of camel probability to higher NDVI in summer suggests that they prefer to herbaceous species which appear after rainfall. Model predicts that distance to the water sources is critical for camel distribution in all seasons and high probability of camel occurrence was predicted near water sources. Shallow mountain soils were predicted as desired soil types for distribution in summer. Spatial coexistence of herbaceous plants, mountain soils and areas of lower temperature are the favourable conditions in camel distribution during summer. There was a common distribution range predicted in spring, summer and autumn which can be considered as core distribution areas of annual range. Distribution of winter range is differed from other seasons. Distribution range predicted from the MaxEnt modelling was similar to the camel ranges described by other researchers. It can justify that there is a consistency between survey data and satellite tracking data to model the species distribution.

Long Guo has completed his PhD from Wuhan University. Currently, he is the Lecturer of Huazhong Agricutural University. He has published more than 6 papers in reputed journals. His research focuses on the quantitative remote sensing of soil, the geostatistics and the digital soil mapping.

The soil sampling plan plays an important role in digital soil mapping because it can directly influence the quality of the sample datasets and hypothesis testing of different soil models. However, traditional sampling methods pay more attention to the geographical locations of the soil samples and ignore the spatial distribution characteristics of the soil types. The objective of this research was to check the performance of three traditional soil sampling methods, namely, random sampling, grid sampling and Latin hypercube sampling (LHS), and choose the suitable soil sampling numbers by three new indices: the ratio of sampling efficiency to performance (RSEP), the number of soil samples index (NSSI) and the comprehensive evaluation index of prediction accuracy (CEPA). Headwall hyperspectral sensors carried on a helicopter were used to collect visible and near-infrared spectral images (400–

1,700 nm) to predict the continuous the soil total carbon (STC) map. Our results showed that hyperspectral images can be used to estimate the spatial distribution of STC at a spatial resolution of 3 m, the performance of the grid sampling method was better than random sampling and LHS, and RSEP can be used to choose a suitable number of soil samples for the study region. Moreover, the actual field sampling plan can further certify the results of this study, and the hyperspectral images and the RSEP can be helpful in choosing a suitable soil sampling plan based on different demands and can offer useful information for digital soil mapping.