research (10,29,-) and consultancy (-,5,4)- 
Government institutions figured more highly in the 
survey, mapping and environmental monitoring 
applications, whereas private institutions were 
fairly evenly distributed over most of the 
headings. 
No response fell within a single heading. Nearly 
60% of all respondents include some education or 
training, and about the same number undertake 
research to a greater or lesser extent. A 
significant number seem to undertake a little of 
most things. 
3.3 Education and training 
The growth of awareness of remote sensing at all 
levels in the education sector has already been 
mentioned. The provision of teaching material for 
schools and training courses for teachers is a 
healthy portent for the future. Undergraduate 
courses in environmental sciences have increased, 
the remote sensing content in geography courses, 
as well as in physics courses has also grown. 
There are also more postgraduate courses and 
research posts now. Postgraduate courses in remote 
sensing are given at the Universities of London, 
Dundee, Aberdeen, Cambridge and Edinburgh and at 
Silsoe College. Courses in GIS are available in 
the Universities of Nottingham, Edinburgh, 
Leicester and Leeds. Other courses in 
photogrammetry, meteorology, climatology etc may 
include some remote sensing but several "modular” 
MSc courses, although ostensibly called remote 
sensing courses, may contain only a few modules in 
remote sensing amongst others such as computing, 
land management, pattern recognition and 
artificial intelligence, neural network theory, 
GIS etc. 
One significant development during this reporting 
period has been the huge expansion in the 
availability of image processing facilities at all 
levels. PC-based systems were being introduced 
during the previous reporting period, but many 
educational establishments were still relying on 
mainframe and mini-based systems and 12 of the 25 
establishments had none. Many educational image 
processing packages now exist at all levels, and 
sophisticated processing is now available even to 
undergraduates. 
Specialist workshops for training in particular 
applications or techniques (analysis of  ERS-1 
data, image processing etc) are becoming 
increasingly popular as a way of updating 
employees in specific areas. 
3.4 Research and development 
There is considerable activity in all sectors of 
the community. New data sources, more national 
and international programmes and new techniques 
and equipment have all contributed to increased 
activity in the standard research fields as well 
as in new applications areas. The 
multidisciplinary approach and the growing 
political awareness of environmental issues have 
also helped, as has the increased use of GIS. 
56 
A number of new developments were mentioned: 
* new, cheaper image processing and software; 
* high resolution display systems; 
* graphical user interfaces; 
* applications of neural networks; 
*  UNIX-based software; 
* interactive hypertext interfaces; 
* parallel processing; 
* integration of raster and vector data sets; 
* the development of intelligent knowledge-based 
systems; 
* low cost SAR processing; 
* integration of satellite data into GIS; 
* applications of microwave remote sensing; 
* gtudies of climatic change; 
* non-meteorological uses of meteorological 
satellite data; 
* development of global environmental data bases. 
3.5 Significant changes in the period 1989-1992 
A number of factors, commercial, technological and 
sociological, have contributed to the increase in 
remote sensing activity in this period: 
* The reduced cost and increased reliability of 
computing 
* The advances in Geographical Information 
Systems 
* The commercialisation of remote sensing 
* The increased awareness of environmental 
matters 
* The launch of ERS-1 
* The opening up of Eastern and Central Europe 
* The Europeanisation of Britain and involvement 
in European projects under EC programmes 
Involvement in international programmes such as 
the International Satellite Land Surface 
Climatology Programme (ISLSCP), the World 
Climate data Programme (WCDP), the World Ocean 
Circulation Experiment (WOCE) etc. 
The setting up of a European Environmental 
agency.