APPLICATION OF REMOTE SENSING FOR PREPARATION OF NATURE 
CONSERVATION MAPS AND NATURAL PROCESSES DYNAMICS STUDY 
N.G. KHARIN, A.BABAYEV 
Desert Institute, Turkmen SSR 
Academy of Sciences 
Ashkhabad, 744000, Gogol str., I5 
USSR 
SUMMERY 
In the USSR deserts greet changes of natural environment take 
place. They are caused by human activity. Remote sensing technigue 
is a useful tool to study these changes. Repeated aerial photos and 
space imagery were used by the Desert Institute in this work. The 
time interval between repeated photographic missions was II-I5 years. 
Spectral band 0,5-0,6 mkm is the most suitable to study soil erosion, 
salinization and waterlogging. The band 0,6-0,7 mkm is suitable to 
study desert vegetation. In the band 0,8-I,0 mkm man-made changes in 
the landscape and water erosion can be studied. 
Nowadays the great changes of desert environment take place 
in connection with human activity. They are accompanied by some nega- 
tive by-processes. These by-processes are not desirable because they 
disturb the stable egnilibrium in the nature. That problem should be 
solved by mankind by elaborationg special measures of nature conser- 
vation and land improvement. Application of cartographic methods is 
very useful in this work. 
In the deserts of the USSR these changes in natural environ- 
ment are especially noticeable because the human pressure increased 
durung the last 30 years. As a result new industrial and agricultural 
oases have been formed. The great irrigation canal, Karakum Canal na- 
med after V.I.Lenin, have been constructed. Its length is more that 
I 000 km, the Canal has crossed Karakum, one of the greatest desert 
in the world. New railways and motor highways, gas mains and oil pipe 
lines have been constructed, new mineral deposits have been descove- 
red, pasture resources are ufiliged. 
Remote sensing technigue is very useful tool in the study of 
desert environment and elaboration of nature conservation methods. It 
includs aerial and space photography, radar survey and multispectral 
Scanning. Above that remote sensing is an indispensable method of de- 
sert investigation taking into account vast areas of the desert zone 
and severe climatic conditions. 
The role of space imagery should be especially emphazised bere. 
Space photography, supporting aerial photography and ground study of 
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