subject is being covered in schools at both primary and 
secondary levels with a surprising amount and diversity of 
interest being shown. Standards have also been defined 
in the new National Curriculum. 
At undergraduate level, remote sensing is taught most 
commonly as part of another degree course, for example 
in geography, geology, environmental sciences, planetary 
or atmospheric physics, surveying, meteoroiogy, or 
geographical information systems. Length and content of 
these remote sensing courses can therefore be expected 
to vary from course to course. In the past two years 
several Undergraduate Diploma and BSc Honours 
courses have been started which have remote sensing as 
the core subject.. For example, the University of 
Greenwich (BSc) and the Bath College of Higher 
Education (DipHE and BSc) both offer named 
undergraduate degrees in remote sensing. 
Courses at the postgraduate level have also increased. 
The Directory of UK Activities in Space Education lists 15 
institutions offering diploma courses and 27 offering 
masters courses involving remote sensing. Principal 
amongst these courses are the MSc programmes offered 
at the Universities of London, Dundee, Aberdeen, 
Cambridge, Edinburgh, Silsoe College and Greenwich. 
Postgraduate courses in GIS, incorporating remote 
sensing teaching, have also increased with courses now 
available at Edinburgh, Nottingham, Leeds, Leicester, 
and UCL. 
The Remote Sensing Society Special Interest Group in 
Education (EdSIG) has been particularly active in 
promoting greater dialogue between those involved and 
interested in teaching remote sensing at all levels in the 
curriculum. A regular newsletter is produced detailing 
activities, availability of relevant curriculum materials 
ranging from textbooks through teaching packs to 
software products. In addition, the Space Education Trust 
is involved in coordinating the space education activities 
of independent professional and non-professional 
organisations and has recently established a Space 
Education Council. 
3.5 Products, Services, Facilities 
Responses to facilities manufactured and supplied, 
provided as contract services or used internally are 
summarised in Table 3.4. 
3.6 Research and development 
There was continuing and considerable activity in all 
sectors of the remote sensing community. This can 
largely be attributed to new sources of data, a more 
coordinated national programme, increased participation 
in projects under European Union research programmes, 
increased focus on a multidisciplinary approach and the 
development of new processing techniques. The 
rationalisation of the national programme with research 
responsibilities transferred to NERC and with a 
coordinated approach with BNSC have already been 
mentioned. Several university departments reported on 
  
   
the development on new centres designed to increase the 
interdisciplinary approach to remote sensing research 
across their universities as well as establishing formal 
partnerships with overseas institutions. 
TABLE 3.4 Remote sensing products, services and 
  
  
facilities: 
Facility Manuf. Con- Internal 
or tract Facility 
Supply Service 
Aircraft/Space Platform 1 1 5 
Air survey cameras 2 6 
Terrestrial cameras 3 
Other sensors - Airborne 3 6 
Other sensors - 1 4 7 
Spectroradiometry 
RS receiving stations 4 2 6 
Ground control/data 4 5 15 
Photographic processing 1 2 10 
Image analysers 4 6 20 
Stereoplotters/Comparators 1 1 5 
Analytical plotters 1 
Orthophotographs 2 5 
Digital mapping 5 13 
Data processing software 6 7 21 
GIS/LIS user systems 2 10 22 
Other - Models 2 
Other - Satellite prods 1 1 
Other - Training 2 1 
Other - Rainfall Radar 1 
Other - Software seu 
Other - SAR Processor 1. 1 1 
  
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International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B6. Vienna 1996 
All organisations reported widespread activity 
geographically, centred naturally on activities in the UK, 
but expanding activities into Europe (24), Scandinavia (2), 
North America (7), South America (9), Central America 
(2), Asia (16), Africa (12), Former USSR (1), Middle East 
(6), Oceania (2), Polar (3) and Global (6). 
Other developments of more strategic benefit and which 
were mentioned included: 
e Rationalisation of NERC Airborne facility and the 
purchase of new digital sensors 
e Integration of spatial data using GIS 
e Increased quantitative applications through the use of 
numerical models of environmental processes 
e Development and widespread use of the Internet 
e An increased number of applications and products 
from SAR data from both space and airborne 
platforms (e.g. flood extent mapping, soil moisture 
estimation, tropical forest inventory) 
e Rapid development of SAR interferometric techniques 
e Development of integrated suites of image 
processing, GIS and stereomatching software 
e Development of multisource algorithms 
Applications developed and other activities during this 
period included: 
e Environmental hazard assessment research. 
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
   
  
   
   
   
    
   
  
   
    
  
   
  
   
  
  
   
  
   
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
   
   
   
   
   
  
  
  
   
   
  
   
   
  
  
  
   
    
   
   
    
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