International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXII Part 7C2. UNISPACE HI, Vienna. 1999 44 
UNISPACE III-ISPRS Workshop on 
“Resource Mapping from Space” 
9:00 am -12:00 pm, 22 July 1999, VIC Room B 
Vienna, Austria 
ISPR5 
MONITORING FROM SPACE OF GLOBAL VEGETATION AND LAND USE CHANGE - RECENT ADVANCES AND 
IMMINENT POSSIBILITIES 
Global monitoring of vegetation and other climate related changes have undergone a tremendous development since the previous 
UNISPACE conference in 1982. Particularly the advent of global data sets of comparatively high spatial and temporal resolution have 
enabled us to improve our understanding of the global ecosystem. 
The paper focus on the possibilities of studying vegetation and land use changes of significance at the global but also continental to 
regional scale. There are particularly two important aspects of vegetation change that we need to concentrate on: 
• vegetation and land use changes with impact on the global carbon budget 
• vegetation and land use changes with impact on the global and regional food production capability 
The global carbon cycle lias been subject to intensive research the last years, partly due the large imbalance in the carbon budget as it is 
currently understood, the so called “missing carbon sink”. Remote sensing from space has the potential of contributing to a solution to 
the enigmatic missing carbon sink. 
Agricultural statistics clearly show that the world food balance is becoming more and more fragile. Since the mid 1980s the per capita 
food production at the global level decreases steadily. Our ability to monitor vegetation and land use changes in the major production 
regions of the world is important, and remote sensing is the only technique offering such a capability. 
Examples on the use of global remote sensing data sets for studies of the global carbon budget will be demonstrated as well as 
examples from food production issues. A review of current capabilities with the data sets already available will be presented as well as 
a projection on what we can expect from the new sensing systems in the near future. 
Lennart Ols son 
Lund, University, Sweden 
ABSTRACT