13 
has 
ndia, 
is is 
i the 
lack 
; and 
n of 
fined 
these 
land 
and 
Dland 
h as 
does 
rsity. 
d for 
have 
at ura I 
water 
better 
their 
nation 
ations 
•urces 
heme 
atural 
s and 
i at ion 
tional 
:a on 
e not 
, and 
forest 
one 
orests 
losecf 
ine is 
arests. 
aiding 
pecies 
: form 
ent of 
ansing 
ith the 
an this 
;an be 
;s for 
amesh 
of the 
distribution of endemic plants of the evergreen and 
semi-evergreen forests of the Western Ghats, using data 
from herbaria, literature and field sampling of the 
French Institute over fifteen years. Such data can be 
correlated with the presence of different vegetation 
cover types, and prove invaluable for formulating 
strategies for conservation of these species. 
FUTURE DIRECTIONS 
It is essential then, to organize a system by which 
data collected at all these different scales - land/water 
cover maps as well as data on distribution of various 
natural resources - can be collated and compared. To 
begin with, a look at various land/water cover maps used 
for monitoring various natural resources, will facilitate 
the design of a more universal mapping scheme which 
can be used for surveying several kinds of resources. 
Such a mapping system should ideally be organized at 
several hierarchical levels, like those used for land use 
mapping in several countries. 
The next step would be to identify the level in the 
hierarchy at which remote sensors are capable of 
accurate mapping, inter-observer variation in 
identification is minimal, and correspondence with 
distribution of the various natural resources being 
assessed is maximal. This level may possibly differ 
based on the nature of remotely sensed data available, 
the ease with which data collection is possible, and the 
type of resource being monitored. 
Finally, for specific natural resources such as water 
quality, soil type, fossil fuel level, biomass or species 
diversity, on which fairly large amounts of data are 
available in different formats, attempts should be made 
to relate this data to specific spatial locations, and hence 
to specific water/land cover types. This will then enable 
analysis of the nature and extent of correlation between 
cover types and levels of distribution of such resources. 
Based on such analysis, future data collection exercises 
can then be planned to fill in lacunae in the data, and 
also answer new scientific questions which will 
inevitably arise as a result of this data analysis. 
Of course, all this would involve coordination of 
efforts by various agencies involved in this effort all 
over India - a task which is by no means an easy one, 
but one that must be undertaken, considering the 
benefits. 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
The ideas expressed here have benefitted greatly 
from discussions with N.V. Joshi, C.B.S. Dutt, U. Ghate 
and P.G. Diwakar, whom we gratefully acknowledge. 
Our field studies were greatly assisted by M.B. Naik and 
S.G. Patgar. We thank the Ministry of Environment and 
the Department of Space, Government of India, for 
financial support. 
REFERENCES 
Atkinson P.M. (1991). Optimal ground based sampling for 
remote sensing investigations: estimating the regional mean. 
International Journal of Remote Sensing, 12(3): 559-567. 
Condit R. (1996). Defining and mapping vegetation types in 
mega-diverse tropical forests, Trends in Ecology and 
Evolution, 11(1 ):4-5. 
Dobbertin M. and Biging G.S. (1996). A simulation study of 
the effect of scene autocorrelation, training sample size and 
sampling method on classification accuracy, Canadian 
Journal of Remote Sensing, 22(4):360-367. 
Dutt C.B.S., Udayalakshmi V. and Sadhasivaiah A.S. (1994). 
Role of remote sensing in forest management, Proceedings of 
the 15th Asian Conference on Remote Sensing, 1(E):2.1 -2.7. 
Fisher P.F. (1994). Visualization of the reliability in classified 
remotely sensed images, Photogrammetric Engineering and 
Remote Sensing, 60(7):905-910. 
Forman R.T.T. and Godron M. (1987). Landscape Ecology, 
John Wiley and Sons, New York. 
Forman R.T.T. (1995). Land mosaics : The ecology of land 
scapes and regions, Cambridge University Press; Cambridge. 
England. 
Franklin S.E., Connery D.R. and Williams J.A. (1994). 
Classification of Alpine vegetation using Landsat Thematic 
Mapper, SPOT HRV and DEM data, Canadian Journal of 
Remote Sensing, 20( 1 ):49-56. 
Gaussen H., Legris P. and Viart M. (1961). Carte 
Internationale du Tapis Vegetal et des conditions ecologiques, 
a 1/1,000,000, Cape Comorin, French Institute, Pondicherry. 
Gaussen H., Legris P., Viart M., Meher-Homji V.M. and 
Labroue L. (1965). Carte Internationale du Tapis Vegetal et 
des conditions ecologicpies, a 1/100,000, Mysore, French 
Institute, Pondicherry. 
Hansen A.J. and di Castri F. eds. (1992). Landscape 
boundaries: consequences for biotic diversity and ecological 
flows, New York, Springer-Verlag. 
Janssen L.L.F. and van der Wei F..I.M. (1994). Accuracy 
assessment of satellite derived land-cover data: a review, 
Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, 
60(4):419-426.