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© Automatic compilation of distortionless digital
orthophoto.
© Digital definition of environmental impact
maps.
® Topological aspects of topographic mapping.
® Relative correlation of geographic information
layers.
® Accuracy of DTM databases and of derived
applications.
® Mapping from SPOT images.
® Development of a geographical information
system for urban transportation management.
® Temporal land information systems.
e Research projects
© Automatic generation of digital elevation
models from SPOT images in Israel.
© Using digital photography and orthophoto for
the preparation of registration plans.
© Extraction of ground coverage of aerial images.
CO Extraction of uniformly covered areas from
aerial and satellite images.
© the creation and evaluation of environmental
impact statements via information systems.
® Analytical cadastre in Israel.
© Documentation of industrial plants by
semiautomatic 3-D reconstruction from digital
images.
3. REMOTE SENSING
Although remote sensing is becoming more and more
widespread in many walks of life, one must remember
that a small country (approximately 20,000 square
kilometres) leans naturally towards large scales in
mapping and higher resolutions in the national
databases.
Considering, however, tasks such as monitoring of the
environment, the development of GIS databases,
participation in regional and global projects and the
ever increasing data volume, one comes to the
conclusion that remote sensing has a raison d’étre,
even in a small country.
Sharp transition from Mediterranean to extreme
desert and high intensities of human interference
with nature characterises Israel's environment.
The country is going through intensive processes
of environmental change due to population
increase and the consequent growth of residential,
commercial and industrial areas and of the
infrastructures keeping them alive. A major part of
these processes take place in the Mediterranean and
semi arid regions resulting in one of the highest
intensities of population activity per area in the world.
The fact that the country is small, resulted in slow
adoption of environmental monitoring technologies as
many of the scientists, experts and government officers
have felt that they are well aware of the processes
37
taking place. One of the major obstacles for the use of
remote sensing was the relatively low resolution
provided by commercial satellites. During the last few
years, a major shift has been noted in these attitudes,
due to the understanding that remote sensing data
allows visualisation of processes which cannot
otherwise be discovered or perceived. The spread of
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and digital
image processing technologies was an instrumental
force motivating this shift. The aim of this paper is to
discuss the following two main aspects of
environmental remote sensing in Israel:
e the establishment of data infrastructure supporting
environmental processes and hazards monitoring.
e the development of interpretation methods for
deriving information from single and multiple
images.
3:1 Data Infrastructure
Historical remote sensing images are important source
for discovering environmental changes and
determining their frequencies. Data infrastructure
involves the development of acquisition, organisation
and maintenance procedures facilitating environmental
change detection.
3.2 Applications
Since the beginning of the 1990's there have been
some major developments concerning digital imagery
infrastructures:
e A receiving station of SPOT and ERS-1 & 2
satellites was established by the Israeli Aviation
Industry (IAI) Company, facilitating the
acquisition and archiving of images from these
satellites.
e A receiving station of NOAA AVHRR and
METEOSAT satellites was established in the
Institute of Desert Research (Sde Boker) as an
interuniversity collaborative research facility.
e A joint project of five government agencies was
established for assessing environmental changes in
the whole country by developing a database of
images coverage. Within this framework 6 Landsat
scenes were acquired in 1995. A full mosaic of 36
SPOT multispectral images (for the year 1992)
covering the whole country was also created in the
Survey of Israel with the help of the Israeli Space
Agency. Further extension of these databases will
be considered on a yearly basis with the intention
of formalising the agreements between the different
agencies according to the success of their
utilisation.
Future development of the remote sensing data
infrastructure are linked to the availability of small
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B6. Vienna 1996
