forests are being depleted at a rate of 11.5 
million hectares per year. According to Rao 
(1991) the countries of the region share acute 
environmental problems due to indiscriminate 
exploitation of natural resources as a result of a 
growing demand for food, drinking water, energy 
and pressure on land resources. Deforestation, 
over irrigation and overgrazing have caused 
large areas of land to be degraded by erosion , 
increased salinity, waterlogging or 
desertification. In India and Vietnam, for 
example, 50 per cent of the land has been 
degraded. Although many countries have begun 
to implement programmes to reduce erosion, the 
problem remains serious and widespread (FAO, 
1989). 
The vast expanse of tropical ocean, the climate 
and the geological history of the region 
predispose it to natural hazards. Typical of 
these are typhoons and cyclones, storm surges 
and floods, bushfires and drought, tsunami, 
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. However 
again these are  differentially distributed 
throughout the region. For example, of the 30 or 
so major floods worldwide each year, 80 per cent 
of the victims live in Bangladesh, China and 
India (ESCAP, 1993c). Forest fires severely 
affect Indonesia and Australia, while 
earthquakes and volcanic activity affect an arc 
stretching from New Zealand to Japan, the ring 
of fire. 
A major problem common to many countries of 
the region is that rapid economic development is 
resulting in environment and resource 
depletion, an overtaxed physical and social 
infrastructure and the exponential growth of 
cities due to urban migration and rapidly 
expanding populations. Currently economic 
growth in Asia is of the order of 8 per cent per 
annum compared with only 2 per cent for the 
whole world. It is predicted that many cities of 
this region will have doubled their population 
in the 20 years to the year 2000, for example 
Shanghai, 13.4 to 22 million, Jakarta, 7.3 to 16 
million, Manila, 5.7 to 12 million, and Bangkok, 
4.9 to 11 million, (Graetz et al, 1992). In the 
same time period India may have joined China as 
the second country to have a billion plus 
population. 
Rapid urbanisation has created or exacerbated 
many significant problems in the region, 
including shortage of fresh water, inadequate 
waste management and mass public transport, 
and widespread pollution. Meeting the minimal 
requirements of the rapidly growing population 
has often driven decision makers to accelerate 
the pace of economic development with 
ecologically unsound decisions (Rao, 1991). 
52 
Strong growth in per capita use of energy, due to 
rapid economic development, has also 
contributed to an increase in greenhouse gas 
emissions and acid rains (ESCAP, 1994). 
With the new laws of the sea soon to come into 
operation countries such as Australia and 
Indonesia will control vast areas of ocean, and 
will need to take on the huge task of 
environmentally managing and controlling these 
areas. Many Pacific island countries will 
control greater proportions of ocean than they 
will of land. 
3. REMOTE SENSING APPLICATIONS 
To monitor, manage and overcome these problems 
countries of the region are increasingly turning 
to remote sensing tools (and GIS) to provide 
appropriate answers. This is best illustrated by 
an analysis of the papers published in the 
Asian-Pacific Remote Sensing Journal over the 
past five years. The journal is published by the 
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and 
the Pacific (ESCAP, United Nations) through its 
Regional Remote Sensing Programme. While 
remote sensing specialists of the region publish 
there application results in a number of 
international and national journals, it is 
suggested that those published in the Asian- 
Pacific Remote Sensing Journal will provide a 
representative sample allowing an analysis of 
the different applications and their relative 
importance. 
The papers from 1991 to 1995 were categorised 
according to application type and also according 
to sub-regional areas. These sub-regional areas 
were considered to be North and East Asia ( 
which included papers from China, Japan, 
Mongolia, Korea), South East Asia (Indonesia, 
Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, 
Singapore, Myanmar), Australasia and Oceania 
(Australia New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji), 
South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, 
Sri Lanka) and West Asia (Iran, Saudi Arabia). 
Table 1 lists the papers from each region by 
application areas given as a percentage of total 
papers from that region. 
In considering the table it should be recognised 
that the greatest sample of papers came from the 
South Asia and South East Asia sub-regions with 
the other sub-regions being under represented,, 
nevertheless some conclusions can be drawn for 
all sub-regions. In the Australasian and 
Oceania sub-region it can be seen that the 
greatest percentage of papers were in ocean and 
near coastal water studies as would be expected 
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B6. Vienna 1996 
  
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