A/CONF. 184/C.2/L.2 
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXII Part 7C2, UNISPACE III, Vienna. 1999 
3 
Distr.: Limited 
23 July 1999 
Original: English 
THIRD UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE 
ON THE EXPLORATION AND PEACEFUL USES OF OUTER SPACE 
Vienna 
19-30 July 1999 
Committee II 
Agenda item 8 
Status and applications of space science and technology 
Technical Forum 
Conclusions and proposals of the Workshop on Resource 
Mapping from Space 
1. The conclusions and proposals below concern paragraphs 102-115 and 119- 
127 of the draft report of the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration 
and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III) (A/CONF. 184/3 and Corr. 1 and 
2). 
A. New global developments in technology 
2. In the last 100 years, natural resource industries have developed from an 
economy based on access to land and labour into industries where capital (i.e. 
investment in equipment) dominates. Today, the most rapidly growing segment of 
the economy is “information”: spatial information derived from remote sensing and 
geographic information systems can help natural resource mangers, in both 
developed and developing countries, to improve food production and water 
management, decrease costs or reduce environmental degradation. 
B. Resource issues 
3. Agricultural statistics clearly show that the world food balance is becoming 
more and more fragile. Since the mid-1980s per capita food production at the global 
level has decreased steadily. 
4. There will be a considerable shortage of water for drinking, for sanitation and. 
most importantly, for growing crops in the twenty-first century'. Water as a scarce 
commodity needs to be properly managed. 
5. The degradation of limited arable land by various processes, namely, soil 
erosion by water and wind, salinization and alkalinization, waterlogging, shifting 
cultivation, mining and so on, resulting from over-exploitation lias resulted in the 
significant decrease in per capita arable land.