International Arcliives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXII Part 7C2, UNISPACE III, Vienna, 1999 
29 
ISPR5 
UNISPACE III - ISPRS Workshop on 
“Resource Mapping from Space” 
9:00 am -12:00 pm, 22 July 1999, VIC Room B 
Vienna, Austria 
I5PR5 
Meeting food and fiber demands in the next century will require 
higher productivity levels for land now in production, the 
addition of new land not currently in production and tire 
restoration of degraded lands to reasonable of productivity 
(Pierce and Lai, 1991). 
Globally, an estimated 1,965 million ha of land are subject to 
some kind of degradation. Of this, 1,094 million ha of land are 
subject to soil erosion by water and 549 million ha of land to soil 
erosion by w ind (UNEP / ISRIC, 1991). In addition, an estimated 
954.8 mha of land are affected by salinity and sodicity or both 
(Szabolcs, 1992) and another 3,600 million ha of global area 
comprising of hilly regions of the humid tropics of India, 
Manchuria, Korea, south-west China and Africa are under 
shifting cultivation (Schlippe, 1956; Conklin, 1957). The rate of 
soil degradation in the year 1991 was estimated at five to seven 
million ha per year which may increase to 1 million ha by the 
year 2000 (FAO, 1983). In fact, soil erosion alone may account 
for the world-wide loss of 14 million tons of grain (Brown et al. 
1990). In India alone, out of 328 million ha geographical area. 
150 million ha of land are affected by wind and water erosion 
(Anonymous, 1976). Annually, an estimated 6000 million tons of 
soil is lost through soil erosion by water (Das, 1985). Apart from 
this, shifting cultivation, waterlogging, and salinization and / 
alkalinization have affected an estimated 4.36 million ha, 6 
million ha and 7.16 million ha of land respectively (Anonymous, 
1976). 
World soils contain about three times more reserves of organic 
carbon than world vegetation -1500 billion versus 560 billion 
metric tons, respectively (Parr et al. 1989).Soil degradation 
contributes to an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide through 
rapid decomposition of organic matter. In addition, rapid 
industrialization and deforestation have led to building up of 
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere which has resulted in global 
warming. Carbon dioxide concentration lias increased from 280 
ppm during 1850 to 350 ppm at present. Similarly, the 
concentration of methane (CH4) lias increased from 0.85 ppm 
during 1850 to 1.7 ppm at present. Besides, chlorofluoro carbons 
(CFCs) with veiy long residence time (over 100 years) and 
nitrous oxide (N20) have further added to environmental 
problem. The increase in the concentration of green-house gases 
have resulted in the average increase in temperature of 0.5K. 
Even with the adoption of revised Montreal Protocol regulation 
0.5K, the global mean temperature rise is likely to reach 3K 
which can result hi the rise of sea level by 18-20 cm, leading to 
recession of shoreline by 27-30m, cliange in rainfall pattern 
particularly in the tropical regions, fall in food production by 
about 15.0 per cent and 10.0 per cent depletion of ozone 
(Rao,1991). The process of this degradation, unless detected 
early and action taken to arrest or mitigate may lead to further 
environmental deterioration. Anthropogenic activities along the 
coast may further deteriorate the delicate coastal ecosystem. In 
the event of major climatic change, coastal areas are going to be 
affected more. In addition, exploitation of marine resources 
especially off-shore oil drilling and ocean water pollution due to 
effluents from industries, solid wastes and oil-spilled over from 
ships may affect the ocean environment. Apart from land and 
water resources, the natural calamity too comes in the way of 
sustainable development. 
Since the unsustainable patterns of production and consumption 
in the industrialized society and developing countries have led to 
environmental degradation, the Governments of the different 
countries have made the commitment to foster sustainable 
development at the Earth Summit of 1992 in Rio de Janeiro. 
Agenda 21 of the summit addresses these issues in detail and 
identifies the action items for sustainable development. One of 
the issues which is addressed in tire agenda is the conservation 
and management of resources for development (U.N,1992). It 
could be achieved by planning and management of land 
resources, combating deforestation and conservation of 
biodiversity, combating desertification and drought, protection of 
the quality and supply of fresh waiter, protection of the oceans 
and coastal areas, rational use and development of their living 
resources, and protection of the atmosphere from pollution. It is 
amply clear from the foregoing that the environmental 
degradation process unless detected early and action taken to 
arrest / mitigate, may lead to further deterioration. 
2. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 
The sustainable development paradigm is built on tlie premise 
that neither of the two objectives-economic development and 
environmental protection-can be ignored and that an acceptable 
balance must be achieved between the two (Haimes, 1992). 
Sustainable development refers to indefinite maintenance of 
resource productivity or indefinite system performance or a 
combination of these two concepts (Hart and Sands, 1992). 
Sustainable development is underlain by an ethical nonn 
focusing on a new relationship of cooperation and coexistence of 
human with nature as compared to prevailing conquest and 
exploitation of nature by human (Batie, 1989). The World 
Commission on Environment and Development (WCED, 1987) 
defines sustainable development as that which meets the needs of 
the present without compromising the ability of future 
generations to meet their own needs. FAO (1989) defines 
sustainable development as the management and conservation of 
natural resources base and the orientation of technological and 
institutional changes in such a manner as to ensure the attainment 
and continued satisfaction of human needs for present and future 
generations. Such sustainable development conserves land, 
water, plant and animal genetic resources, is environmentally 
non-degrading, technically appropriate, economically viable and 
socially acceptable. 
Sustainable development of natural resources refers to 
maintaining a fragile balance between productivity functions and 
conservation practice through identification and monitoring of 
problem areas, and calls for application of alternate agriculture 
practices, crop rotation, use of bio-fertilizers, energy - efficient 
farming methods and reclamation of un-utilized and under-