Proceedings of the Symposium on Global and Environmental Monitoring: Proceedings of the Symposium on Global and Environmental Monitoring

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Persistent identifier:: 856665355

Title:: Proceedings of the Symposium on Global and Environmental Monitoring

Sub title:: techniques and impacts ; September 17 - 21, 1990, Victoria Conference Centre, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Year of publication:: 1990

Place of publication:: Victoria, BC

Publisher of the original:: [Verlag nicht ermittelbar]

Identifier (digital):: 856665355

Language:: English

Document type:: Multivolume work

Volume

Persistent identifier:: 856669164

Title:: Proceedings of the Symposium on Global and Environmental Monitoring

Sub title:: techniques and impacts; September 17 - 21, 1990, Victoria Conference Centre, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Scope:: XIV, 912 Seiten

Year of publication:: 1990

Place of publication:: Victoria, BC

Publisher of the original:: [Verlag nicht ermittelbar]

Identifier (digital):: 856669164

Illustration:: Illustrationen, Diagramme, Karten

Signature of the source:: ZS 312(28,7,1)

Language:: English

Usage licence:: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Editor:: International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Commission of Photographic and Remote Sensing Data

Publisher of the digital copy:: Technische Informationsbibliothek Hannover

Place of publication of the digital copy:: Hannover

Year of publication of the original:: 2016

Document type:: Volume

Collection:: Earth sciences

Chapter

Title:: [TA-1 OPENING PLENARY SESSION]

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Chapter

Title:: GLOBAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING: TECHNOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. by John S. MacDonald, MacDonald Dettwiler, Richmond, B.C., Canada

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

does imply limits — not absolute limits but limitations imposed by the present state of technology and social organization on environmental resources and by the ability of the biosphere to absorb the effects of human activities. But technology and social organization can both be managed and improved to make way for a new era of economic growth." 1 Achieving the goal of sustainable development is a process which must be managed. In other words, if we are to achieve the goal of sustainable development, we must manage our activities toward that end. The essential first step in any management process is the acquisition of timely, reliable and accurate information. Because the problems of resource and environmental management are global, and the planetary systems we are attempting to describe are interdependent in as yet ill-understood ways, the information system for global environmental and resource management must be capable of encompassing the earth as a whole. This requirement points toward space-based measurement of the earth as the basis for such a system. This is not to say that such a system would deal only with space-based measurements, it simply means that the system would be conceived around the idea of measuring the earth from space as a "backbone" concept which serves to define the framework within which all measurements including those from non-space sources are processed, stored, accessed and interpreted. Learning to understand what all these measurements mean in terms of the trends in the health of the planet will be facilitated by imbedding them in a framework which, as an intrinsic characteristic, deals with the earth system as a whole. Only when we approach the problem in this way, will we be able to objectively understand the trends in the health of the planet's biosphere and the effects we as a species are having on that health through our activities. Remote sensing technology, which seeks to measure the parameters of planetary systems from a distance, will form the technological basis of the required information delivery system. MEASURING THE EARTH FROM SPACE It is important to emphasize that what we are dealing with here is measurement, not just observation. Remote sensing of the earth from space has, since its inception in the early 1970's, been regarded largely as an exercise in "picture taking". We have produced and visually interpreted magnificent pictures of the earth’s surface and its atmosphere from spaceborne platforms. The instruments which we fly in space are however capable of far more than simple observation. They are precise measuring instruments which can be calibrated both spatially and radiometrically to high accuracy. This capability is necessary to be able to monitor trends over time in an objective way. It allows us to quantify changes in the earth's system which can be related to physical processes in an objective and quantifiable way. Being able to deal with the data in this way is essential to being able to utilize spaceborne data successfully as inputs to earth system models. The use of these models will be fundamental in gaining the understanding necessary for the successful management of the resources and environment of our planet in the long term. From the point of view of spaceborne measurement, the earth can be thought of as having four major components: the land, the ocean, the atmosphere, and the icecaps. When sensing these various components, it must be remembered that they are all interrelated. One cannot consider the atmosphere independently of the ocean or the land, and one certainly cannot sense the land without taking into account the effects of the atmosphere through which it must be observed. For example, to one who is concerned with tracking atmospheric phenomena, the effects of the atmosphere on the observed radiation contains information (i.e. it is "signal"), while one who is interested in tracking phenomena on the surface, such as ocean surface temperature for example, would regard the effects of the atmosphere on the radiation as an interfering signal or "noise". An information system put in place to objectively monitor the planet must be capable of satisfying the needs imposed by many diverse requirements such as these. 1 World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future Oxford University Press 1987, page 8. 1

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