4 
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXII Part 7C2, UNISPACE III, Vienna 1999 
5 
M84/C.2/L.2 
UNISPACE III - ISPRS Workshop on 
■ y Pi g BH “Resource Mapping from Space” 
9:00 am-12:00 pm, 22 July 1999, VIC Room B ISbIi RS3 
Vgÿgÿ? 7 Vienna, Austria 
f the world is 
regional levels 
racy. As more 
iods. 
THE ROLE OF REMOTE SENSING IN NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 
ional Oceanic 
possibility to 
Andrew K. Skidmore 
International Institute for Aerospace Survey 
PO Box 6 
pled with the 
rements made 
cost-effective 
7500 Enschede 
The Netherlands 
Email : skidmorefaitc.nl 
m increase in 
ABSTRACT 
; taken by the 
(e.g. NOAA- 
it priority' for 
In the last 100 years, agriculture and forestry have developed from a resource economy based on access to land and labour, into 
activities where capital (ie. investment in equipment) dominate. In developed countries, land managers access capital to buy 
equipment in order to reduce costs and increase production, though poor access to capital lias constrained most farmers in less 
developed countries. Associated with the transition from resources to capital, prices have fallen, a global trend predicted 30 years 
ago by Drucker (1991). Today, the most rapidly growing segment of the economy is "information’; the question posed here is 
whether spatial information derived from remote sensing (and geographical information systems) can improve production, decrease 
costs, or reduce environmental degradation, for natural resource managers, in both developed and developing countries. 
A number of operational applications in rural areas using remote sensing have been developed by national and international agencies. 
These applications are generally at a regional scale, such as food early warning systems in the Sahel, tropical deforestation 
monitoring, liazard monitoring (eg. bush fires, or pests such as locusts or gypsy moth), vegetation mapping (crop, rangeland and 
forest), mapping and monitoring land degradation, weather forecasting, and even mapping farm cadastre (using photogrammetry'). At 
the local level, little use is made of remote sensing, though many commentators in the industry, research and government sectors see 
this as a major growth area for remote sensing and GIS. 
A number of new satellite remote sensing systems are being launched which may be of use at a local and regional scale for natural 
resource managers. These systems offer improvements in spatial, spectral, or temporal accuracy. High spatial resolution imageiy is 
planned to be available from satellites, and will directly compete with aerial photographs. High spectral resolution (liyperspectral) 
imagery offers images across a wider band width (ie. visible to short wave infrared) and the individual bands are narrower (less than 
10 nm). In addition, imagery in the thermal infrared and microwave (radar) wavelengths is available. As more satellites are placed in 
orbit, imagery over a geographical location will be accessible at shorter time periods. New application fields are predicted to take 
advantage of these sensors; the potential of these new sensors for these applications will be explored. 
Finally, given the high growth rate of GIS, and the relatively poor uptake of remote sensing, the integration of these two technologies 
are explored. 
THE (SPATIAL) INFORMATION ECONOMY factories. Eventually, a third sector which produces services. 
increasingly dominates the labour market. In most developed 
There are three broad sectors of employment, being agriculture economies the service sector comprises over 70 per cent of 
(production of food), manufacturing or industrial (production of economic activity. Products from the service sector include 
goods in factories), and service industries. The agriculture telecommunication, teaching, research, medical care, 
sector dominates the economies of traditional societies, where administration and political services, art, tourism, advertising, 
the productivity of agricultural labour is low and virtually the retailing, architecture, software etc. 
whole population must be employed in farming. For example, at 
the beginning of the 18th century, 92 per cent of the work force Robinson (1982) suggests that the service sector of the 
worked on farms to feed the other 8 per cent (Britannica, 1989). economy should be subdivided into the information sector as 
As a country becomes able to feed itself, demand increases for well as the traditional service sector. The information sector 
manufactured goods such as clothes, shelter and books. For includes all jobs involved in manufacturing computers, as well 
example, by 1992, only 5.3 per cent of Australia's working as the production, processing, transmission, distribution and 
population remained employed in the agricultural sector selling of data, knowledge or information. The information 
(OECD, 1994) With industrialisation, production of sector is the dominant sector in the US economy (Figure 1 taken 
manufactured goods becomes more efficient and organised into from Robinson, 1982).