DIRECT SATELLITE RECEPTION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL 
MANAGEMENT IN AFRICA AND AMERICA 
Christopher Watts 
Jim Williams, Luis Cervera 
John Stephenson 
Centro de Investigaciön y Desarrollo de Recursos Naturales en Sonora 
B. Reyes y Aguascalientes, Esquina, Col. San Bento 
Hermosillo, Sonora 83190 Mexico 
ISPRS Commission VII / Working Group 3 
ABSTRACT 
Modem technology has made it possible to produce low-cost, high-performance digital receiving stations for 
many different satellites. The reception and processing of "local area" images may be accomplished using 
personal computers. Systems have been produced for the NOAA polar orbiters as well as geostationary 
satellites such as METEOSAT and GOES. Furthermore, it is quite feasible technically (and only slightly 
more expensive) to produce systems for high spatial resolution satellites. Thus institutions with relatively 
modest resources are now able to have immediate access to these data, which is of paramount importance if 
they are to be used effectively in natural resource management. 
In the past few years, many stations have been established throughout Africa for diverse applications: locust 
control in Algeria, famine early warning in Ethiopia, fire monitoring in the Ivory Coast and the evaluation of 
fishery potential in Lake Malawi. The paper will present these applications as well as more recent work on 
vegetation and forest monitoring in Mexico and Nicaragua. 
054