v 
- 279 - 
INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR PHOTOGRAMMETRY AND REMOTE SENSING 
Commission VI 
Symposium held in Mainz, FR Germany, 22 - 25 September 1982 
T.H E NEED FOR M'U-L T IDZJg'sSCTLIPLINARY EDUCATION 
IN REMOTE SENSING AND A 
P RoA-0 TIC AL SOU UT I ON 
Dr. S..Pala 
Ontario Centre for Remote Sensing, Toronto, M5S 128, Canada 
ABSTRACT 
Remote sensing is not a discipline in itself, but a tool which has been effectively 
employed in a wide range of disciplines - for example, forestry, geology, geo- 
graphy, pedology agriculture, biology hydrology, meteorology, and geotechnical 
and civil engineering. A single data type is used simultaneously in several 
disciplines; but each scientist tends to see only the features immediately re- 
levant to his own discipline. More information can be extracted from the data, 
however, even within one discipline, by an interpreter who is aware of features 
pertinent to other disciplines as well. Within the not-too-distant future, in 
fact, scientists will be obliged to take a multidisciplinary approach to pro- 
blems. The urgent question is, how can they be better prepared for this respons- 
ibility? 
This paper presents specific examples of the advantages of multidisciplinary 
education in remote sensing, and describes a collaborative program to develop 
multidisciplinary remote sensing training and to raise the general standard 
of remote sensing education, undertaken in the Province of Ontario, Canada, 
by an organization composed of professors from twelve universities and Scientists 
from the Ontario Centre for Remote Sensing. 
Introduction 
Remote sensing encompasses a wide range of sensor types, each with a different 
range of applications. Some of the data types available, from the familiar to 
the less well known, are aerial photography (black and white, colour and colour 
infrared); satellite data; radar, thermal and sonar data; gamma ray survey data; 
and data from non-imaging sensors such as the laser fluorosensor. The mere 
diversity of the data types attests to the diversity of application areas. 
Remote sensing does not belong exclusively to any single discipline, nor does 
it constitute a discipline in itself. To date, it has been effectively employed 
in geography, forestry, geology, agriculture, biology, hydrology, meteorology, 
soil science, civil and geotechnical engineering, and oceanography. The function 
served by remote sensing in each case has been to study or monitor resources. 
The methods by which information is extracted from a given remote sensing data 
type need not vary greatly from one discipline to the next. For example, the 
capabilities of all disciplines which employ satellite data have been significantly 
expanded by the development of a computerized mapping system. 
Digital satellite data has the potential for providing the foundation for geo- 
graphically-indexed computerized data bases. One of the major objectives of 
these data bases is to superimpose and combine data from several different dis-- 
ciplines into a single easily-accessed body of information - ultimately, a single 
computer-printed map. With information in this form, the resource scientist 
Bibliographic quotation : 
Pala, S. : The need for mulitdisciplinary education in remote sensing and a practical 
solution. In: Int. Archive of Photogrammetry, 24 -VI, pp 279 - 282, Mainz 1982