ISPRS
- 2000
suns
sensing and GIS; Ground water modelling for sustainable
development using GIS techniques and hydrogeomorphic
criteria in ground water modelling. The proceedings of the
Workshop have been published as ISPRS Archive Vol. XXXII
Part 7-W9.
Dr. D.P. Rao attended the UNISPACE-III at Vienna in Sep-
tember, 1999 and presented a paper on "Sustainable Devel-
opment and Remote Sensing" in the ISPRS Workshop on
Resource Mapping from Space. He also discussed the
future activities of the Working Group VII/2 with the Council
President Prof. L.W. Fritz, Secretary General Prof. John C.
Trinder and Commission President Gabor Remetey.
Commission VII has invited Dr. D.P. Rao to deliver a lecture
in the "Flagship" session of the Commission VII on the “Role
of Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System in
Sustainable Development" at the ISPRS Congress "Geoin-
formation for All”. In addition to the above, the topics of the
Technical Session at ISPRS Congress 2000 in Amsterdam
will include “Remote Sensing and GIS techniques for sus-
tainable development" (in two parts) and "Mapping and
monitoring natural and environmental hazards". A pre-con-
gress workshop is also planned on the theme "Disaster Mit-
igation".
Working Group VII/3 - Thematic Applications of High
Spatial Resolution Satellite Imagery
Chair: Prof. Bruce Forster, UNSW, AUSTRALIA
(Since August 1996)
Co-Chair: vacant (Former: Dr. Tina K.Cary, EOSAT,
USA till 1997)
Terms of Reference
- Data integration for urban planning and management
- Applications for improved rural management, including
precision farming
- Support of local environmental impact studies
Accomplishments of the WG VII/3
This is a new Working Group for Commission VII and so has
no history of previous activities. It was considered that the
proposed launch, from 1997 and onwards, of a number of
commercially operated satellite systems carrying sensors
with resolutions of less than 1 metre would have a major
impact on the spatial information sciences and industries,
and it was critical that a new working group address the the-
matic applications of this new data. This was highlighted at
the Vienna Congress in a paper by Dr Lawrence Fritz, the
now President of ISPRS. It was anticipated that the first of
several commercially owned and operated, very high resolu-
tion, digital Earth observing satellite systems would be
launched into polar orbit in January 1997. It was considered
that such an event would initiate a new era of commercial
Earth observation satellites which may well revolutionise the
infrastructure, processes and products of the entire pho-
togrammetric/remote sensing/GIS community. It was pro-
posed that "high resolution" should encompass all satellite
imagery of 30 metre or less resolution, although greatest.
Resolution is taken to be the picture element (pixel) size and
not the IFOV (instantaneous field of view) nor the EIFOV
(effective IFOV).
It was intended that the working group provide a series of
scientific forums to demonstrate the applicability of the data
in urban planning, precision farming, rural development and
206 ——
thematic mapping. It was considered that water, forestry and
civil engineering applications were also consistent with the
terms of reference. In the first part of the period seven com-
panies; Earth Watch, Space Imaging, Orbital Sciences, GDE,
Resource 21 and Israeli Aircraft Industries have imaging sys-
tems under development and are establishing international
strategic partnerships for reception, value-added process-
ing, distribution and sales. In addition, there are the existing
5 metre resolution Indian IRS-1 system, now providing data
in association with EOSAT, Landsat TM (30 metre), SPOT P
and XS (10 and 20 metres), and a number of other govern-
ment-proposed high resolution satellite systems planned by
China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, South Africa
and Spain. The highest resolution systems proposed were by
Earth Watch and GDE at 0.8 metres.
The Chair and Co-Chair of the working group proposed to
contact a number of interested scientists, users and satellite
operators to join the working group, to provide advice on
possible research programmes, potential applications, and
technical advice and launch information. This matter is now
being actively progressed. It was also proposed to hold
three international seminars in association with planned
remote sensing conferences.
The major activity of the WG VII/3, was the organisation and
conduct of a special session on high spatial resolution data
at the Asian Remote Sensing Conference, held in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia in October 1997. Approximately 280 dele-
gates were in attendance at the conference and 192
abstracts were submitted for presentation. Papers were pre-
sented in parallel and poster sessions. Session topics
included agriculture/soils, water resources, disaster monitor-
ing, education and training, forestry, mapping from space,
land use, coastal zone, oceanography and meteorology, dig-
ital image processing, geology, GIS, and global environ-
ments. In addition, three special sessions were conducted
under the auspices of the International Society for Pho-
togrammetry and Remote Sensing as part of the activities of
ISPRS Working Groups (WG). The special session for WG3
had the following programme and was attended by approx-
imately fifty persons. The agenda of the Special Session
*High Spatial Resolution Image Data", under the auspices of
ISPRS WG VII/3 and Chaired by Prof. Bruce Forster (WG
VII/3 Chairman) at the 18th Asian Conference on Remote
Sensing was as follows: “Current and Future High Spatial
Resolution Satellites.” (Prof. Shunji Murai), “Earth Observa-
tion Programme - Indian Scenario” Representative of the
Indian Space Research Organisation. “Future SPOT High
Resolution Satellite Systems.” (Mr Yves Bechacq, Spot Asia).
“Comparitive Analysis of the Resolution of Air Photo and
Satellite Digital Images.” (Prof. Bruce Forster) “Space Imag-
ing Satellite Systems and their Applications.” Speaker: Susan
Sinclair, Managing Director, Worldwide Distribution, Space
Imaging EOSAT. “Earthwatch Satellite Systems and their
Applications.” (Representative of Earthwatch Incorporated,
John Douglas) “Potential Market for High Spatial Resolution
Data in the Asian Region.” (Prof. Bruce Forster). The Session
closed with an open forum.
On December 24th, 1997 Earthwatch launched the first of
their high spatial resolution systems. Unfortunately, it was
understood that contact failed to be made with the satellite,
and according to a late January announcement, it has been
lost.
The advent of high spatial resolution remote sensing image
data from space means that the fields of feature extraction
International Archives of Photogrammerty and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXIII, Part A. Amsterdam 2000.
