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will reach conclusions on a particular area by understanding the significance 
of the data contributed by each discipline and by comparing data from several 
disciplines. A mundane example is the soil Scientist who would obtain useful 
information from data on agricultural practices and forest types contained with- 
in a single map. 
Scientists of many disciplines already share the techniques and benefits of 
remote sensing, and, therefore have the basis for a multi-disciplinary approach. 
Scientists of the future will be required to solve problems within their own 
disciplines by interpreting the data from several disciplinary viewpoints. Edu- 
cational institutions bear the primary responsibility for preparing scientists 
for this role. 
The Value of Multidisciplinary Interpretation 
  
Although the same remote sensing datamay be used simultaneously by scientists 
of different disciplines, there is a tendency for each to see in the data only 
those fatures which directly interest him. More information, however, can be 
extracted from the data, even for one given discipline, by an interpreter who 
is aware of features pertinent to other disciplines. For example, an interpreter 
who is aware of the relationship that exists between different forest types and 
the underlying bedrock or surficial materials can make deductions as to structure, 
materials and morphology from satellite imagery of forest types. 
In our time, decisions regarding resource and environmental management are fre- 
quently made very quickly, and for more extensive areas than ever before. Remote 
sensing technology must be integrated into the decision-making process to give 
the maximum amount of data on an area that can be obtained within a relatively 
short period of time. 
For remote sensing data to be used to best advantage in this context, it must 
be interpreted and evaluated from different disciplinary perspectives. The inter- 
pretative ability of the scientists providing the data to the decision-makers 
will, in large part, determine the impact of the decision. It is vital, therefore, 
that the individual scientist be aware of factors affecting the problem on which 
he is working, which are normally studied by disciplines other than his own. 
It is equally necessary for this scientist to be experienced in interacting with 
scientists of other disciplines, as part of a team. 
Recent examples from the Province of Ontario, Canada, can be cited to demonstrate 
the advantage and necessity of a multidisciplinary approach. The author, a geo- 
morphologist by discipline, mapped the surficial geology of a 500,000 km? area 
of Northern Ontario, with extensive use of satellite imagery, on the basis of 
the relationship between the forest types distinguishable on the imagery and 
the underlying surficial materials. Only knowledge and experience of the habitat 
of forest types permitted this program to be successfully completed. Similarly, 
wetland types were mapped over a 250,000 km’ region within the Hudson Bay-James 
Bay Lowland, and the physiographic units ot the region determined from the re- 
lationship between wetland types and underlying surficial deposits. As the sur- 
ficial geologic materials were covered by a 2 to 3 m thick layer of peat, it 
was only by their wetland associations that they could be mapped. 
Ample evidence exists that a multidisciplinary approach to the use of remote 
sensing for resource management-related studies is valuable, and that a single- 
discipline approach may result in large-scale error. 
The Need for Multidisciplinary Education in Remote Sensing 
The user of remote sensing data, regardless of discipline, must receive education 
(or, as a substitute, experience) in interpreting remote sensing data from the 
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