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HIGH-RESOLUTION SPACE IMAGERY FOR REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING - STATUS QUO AND
FUTURE TRENDS
Elmar Csaplovics, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Dresden, Germany
Commission VII, WG 3
KEY WORDS: Space Imagery, High-Resolution, Environmental Monitoring, Regionalization
ABSTRACT
Regional environmental monitoring highly depends on medium to large scale topographic and thematic mapping of
landcover and landuse. Mapping the spatio-temporal dynamics of landcover change is an essential condition for
environmental and ecological modelling. Environmental information systems set up on a regional level have to focus on
the integrated analysis of multitemporal high-resolution remotely sensed data. Existing non-operational photographic
and forthcoming operational digital space-borne earth observation data provide or will provide users with highest
geometric (<2m) and medium spectral (VIS,nIR) resolution imagery. It is thus evident that environmental scientists and
ecologists interested in large scale multitemporal 3D-thematic mapping of landcover will increasingly use earth
observation data with high spatial, temporal and spectral resolutions.
RÉSUMÉ
La cartographie thématique de l'environnement à l'echelle des regions dépend des informations actuelles en haute
résolution sur l'utilisation du sol. Les camerás russes KFA et KVR sont les liens entre les images satellitaires en
résolution moyenne et les photographies aériennes. Au moment (avril 1998) les photos satellitaires russes représente
encore les seuls images de la télédétection ayantes une résolution geómétrique de 2m sur terrain. Plusieurs groupes ont
annoncés le lancement des satellites de la télédétection avec une charge utile des instruments de prise de vue avec
une résolution définie par des pixels de 1m (P) et 4m (XS) pour l'année 1998. Les systémes des informations
environnementales à | “echelle des regions ont besoin d ' integrer les données satellitaires en résolution très fine. Si les
difficultés actuelles du lancement des ces satellites devront étre surmonter, les écologists vont utiliser les images
satellitaires en résolution géometrique, spectrale et temporale plus fine de plus en plus pour augmenter | ‘efficacité de
la cartographie environnementale à les echelles 1:10000 au 1:5000.
KURZFASSUNG
Regionales Umweltmontioring bedarf hochauflósender Daten der Landnutzung und Landbedeckung. Aus Fernerkundung
und GIS gewonnene Zeitreihen der Veránderungen der Landnutzung sind essentielle Grundlagen für ókologisches
Modellieren in bedrohten Naturráumen. Derzeit verfügbare hochauflósende photographische Fernerkundungsdaten der
russischen Satellitenmissionen (KFA,KVR) bieten Bilddaten mit geometrischer Auflósung von bis zu 2m im
panchromatischen und de facto 8m im bispektralen (R,nIR) Bereich des elektromagnetischen Spektrums. Für 1998
angekündigte Missionen von NASA und privaten Firmenkonsortien in den U.S. sollen diese Bildqualitáten bis zu
Auflösungen von 1m (P) bzw. 4m (vis,nIR) verbessern. Es ist zu erwarten, da(3 diese multispektralen, im operationellen
Modus multitemporal verfügbar seinwerdenden Satellitenbilddaten den hohen Anforderungen an regionales Monitoring
von Landschaften im Sinne umweltrelevanter ókologisch determinierter Themata weitgehend entsprechen werden und
demzufolge ein brisanter und umfassender Anspruch an methodische und anwendungsorientierte Forschung besteht.
1. INTRODUCTION community is still (April 1998) waiting for the first high-
resolution remote sensing satellite to be launched into a
Limited planimetric and height accuracies as well as
spectral resolutions of spaceborne sensor data are still
impediments for operational topographic and thematic
mapping in scales 1:25000 and larger. Operational space-
borne CCD-systems with a geometric resolution of 4m in
a VIS * nIR-mode and 1m in a P-mode as well as along-
track stereoscopic data acquisition allowing the
determination of heights with an accuracy of +5m have
been announced by U.S.agencies for 1997 and 1998.
After the failure of Lewis of NASA with its Hyper-
Spectral Imager (30m-resolution with 384 spectral
channels between 0.4um to 2.5um and 5m-
panchromatic) in August 1997 and the failure of EarlyBird
of EarthWatch (3m-panchromatic and 15m-multispectral
data in the G,R and nIR) in December 1997, the user
stable orbit and to work operationally. Actually it is
Spacelmaging having announced launching of its 1m-
resolution Ikonos 1 already for December 1997 and now
announcing a postponed launch definitely for spring
1998. The Kodak-CCD-camera system on board of
Ikonos 1 is designed to collect 1m-panchromatic and 4m-
multispectral (B,G,R,nIR) data.
Thus panchromatic imagery of IRS-1C and IRS-1D
sensors is still the spaceborne digital earth observation:
(EO) data with the highest geometric resolution available
- 5.8m nominally, though limited radiometric resolution
of the data decreases de facto resolution to about 8m.
Furthermore semi-operational Russian space photography
of the KVR-1000- and KFA-3000-cameras is still the only
spaceborne data with a geometric resolution better than
Intemational Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXII, Part 7, Budapest, 1998 211
