1061 
Symposium on Remote Sensing for Resources Development and Environmental Management/ Enschede / August 1986 
© 1987Balkema, Rotterdam. ISBN 90 6191 674 7 
Working Group 5: Non-renewable resources 
B.N.Koopmans 
Liaison 
1 INTRODUCTION 
The Working Group was chaired by D. Mouat with co- 
chairmen B. Koopmans and N. Rengers. 5 Working Group 
sessions have been held during the symposium and one 
combined session jwith Working Group II Microwave 
Data. A total of fifteen, papers were presented oral 
ly and about as much posters. During the main ses 
sions, two "invited-speaker" presentations were pre 
sented on Non-renewable resources topics. 
The Working Group sessions were dealing with the 
following topics: 
1. remote sensing for regional geological mapping 
and global resource assessment 
2. radar application in geology (combined session) 
3. remote sensing for engineering and mining pro 
jects 
4. various methods of geological data extraction 
5. environmental hazard studies using remote sensing 
During these sessions also topics as geo-informa 
tion systems, geobotany, and advanced sensor/data 
handling techniques were treated. 
Twenty scientists participated in the business 
meeting of the Working Group in order to discuss 
activities of the group as well as problems and fu 
ture activities involving remote sensing and geol 
ogy. 
2 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 
The recommendations from the Toulouse symposium 
(1982) were partially solved by the meeting of the 
Working Group in Enschede (1986). 
It was agreed that the Working Group should con 
tinue as an ad-hoc group. No direct activities were 
planned before the Kyoto Congress (1988). With the 
experience gained during the Enschede meeting it was 
advised for the Kyoto meeting to programme more pos 
ter sessions relative to oral presentations. The 
poster sessions were felt as very informative and 
allowing for ample discussions and getting acquain 
ted with the different research topics in progress 
in the different countries. It was also felt recom- 
mendable to have more sessions directed to specific 
topics of interest during the Kyoto congress and to 
plein more/joint sessions with other Working Groups 
covering overlapping fields of interest. The joint 
session on radar and geology with Working Group II 
during the symposium was felt as being successful 
and recommended also for Kyoto. Other joint sessions 
could be: image processing for geology, geobotany, 
and thermal infrared for geology. 
Concern was expressed regarding the rising cost of 
satellite data, specifically with respect to educa 
tion and research. New problems have arisen in addi 
tion to costs. The continuity of availability of 
satellite data needs to be guaranteed if research is 
to be maintained. 
The wish for stereoscopy of satellite data, an im 
portant long-standing requirement of the geological 
remote sensing community, has been partially met by 
SPOT. Future research of stereoscopy with SPOT im- 
agery will show the benefit of this new technique. 
The different remote sensing systems remain somewhat 
incompatible as far as data integration is concerned. 
However, it should be realized that systems are some 
what application-specific. 
Integration of different data sets is felt as being 
of prime importance in applications. Not only that 
the remote sensing data sets should be made compat 
ible, and combinations of microwave, thermal and vis 
ible part of the spectrum should allow for optimal 
data extraction, but also combinations with geophysi 
cal, geochemical and geological field data should 
allow for geological/geographical information sys 
tems. These methods for data integration should re 
ceive attention of the Working Group and are proposed 
as future specific topic. 
Other topics which have been proposed to receive 
more attention by remote sensing geologists are: 
1. Importance of new sensor systems (including micro- 
wave, high spectral resolution systems and thermal 
systems); 2. Methods for analysis; 3. Geobotany and 
bio-geochemistry aspects. 
Finally the importance of government policy in dic 
tating the future of research and development in geo 
logical remote sensing cannot be understated. It is 
imperative that geological remote sensing scientists 
lobby government policy makers to ensure an effective 
dissemination of data. 
3 SUNMARY 
3.1 At the Enschede symposium, 15 papers were pre 
sented and as many poster session topics of: 
- geo-information systems 
- lineament analysis 
- mineral exploration 
- geobotany 
- geomorphology 
- advanced sensors/techniques 
- microwave remote sensing for geology. 
3.2 Since the last symposium we have seen the follow 
ing changes in satellite data: 
- spatial resolution has increased 
- spectral resolution has increased 
- radiometric resolution has increased 
- stereo capability 
- data integration through geo-information systems 
- cost of R.S. data has increased 
3.3 The following problems were identified: 
- lack of system compatibility 
- difficulty in data acquisition 
- cost of data 
- cost of data processing facilities 
3.4 Recommendations for future directions 
- data integration and geo-information systems 
- attention to basin analysis 
- emphasis on exploration research 
- geobotany and metal stress 
- computational techniques for multidata integration 
- solicitate papers from industry 
3.5 Recommendations for Kyoto Working Group V: 
- emphasis on poster sessions