International Archives of Photogranunetry' and Remote Sensing. Voi. XXXII Part 7C2, UNISPACE III. Vienna, 1999 
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UNISPACE III- ISPRS/EARSeL Workshop on 
f *1 T\ + li f 
‘Remote Sensing for the Detection, Monitoring 
and Mitigation of Natural Disasters” 
2:30-5:30 pm, 22 July 1999, VIC Room B 
I W| 
Vienna, Austria 
Natural Hazards of Geological Origin 
Bannert of BGR and Missotten of UNESCO showed that natural geological hazards have become a significant threat to a large part of the 
world population. Remote sensing methods can be used to assess the potential for many natural and man made geological hazards. The 
Geological Application of Remote Sensing (GARS) Programme is addressing a wide variety of these issues in order to have more powerful 
tools developed to assess potential hazards, to monitor on going geological catastrophes and to register and appraise the damages occurred. 
The programme lias addressed a number of essential problems in the past, including new methods for the integration of multisensor data to 
improve lithologic mapping in tropical environments (East-Africa); landslide mapping using GIS technology based on satellite data and 
new Radar information on test sites in Colombia and has demonstrated the use of remote sensing, SAR in particular, for the analysis of 
volcanic and associate hazards in the Philippines. 
Drought and Desertification Monitoring 
Belaid (Moroccan Royal Centre for Remote Sensing (CRTS)) addressed the problems of drought and desertification with reference to a case 
study from Morocco. The approach adopted in Morocco includes diagnosis, assessment and analysis. The diagnostic activity demonstrated 
that excessive deterioration of vegetation and soil had occurred because of physical factors and human impact, of which mainly 
deforestation, overgrazing, erosion and salinization were dominant. Remote sensing was used in an operational way at national level for the 
development of environmental indicators (vegetation index, albedo, surface temperature, emissivity and thermal inertia) with the aim of 
producing risk maps. At local level, several applications were implemented in relation to the deterioration of vegetation and soil as well as 
the management of water resources. 
The sectorial applications and the thematic projects reviewed above have demonstrated the operationality of remote sensing and GIS for 
studying the principal components of desertification. The complexity of the phenomenon requires the development of a desertification 
information system (DIS) permitting the integration and the modelization of the sectorial results. 
Prediction and Prevention of Environmental Disasters 
Linsenbarth (Institute of Geodesy and Cartography, Poland) discussed the use of photogranunetry and remote sensing in assisting with the 
problems brought about by environmental disasters such as floods, forest fires, volcanic eruptions or earthquakes which result in huge 
damage to the environment. Data should be georeferenced hence they should be created within the frame of spatial information systems. In 
many cases several disasters such as floods or forest fires liave huge areal extent which sometimes also have a trans-boundary character. For 
the monitoring of such disasters remote sensing data are of first importance. This was illustrated by the catastrophic flooding which 
occurred in the summer of 1997 that affected the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland. The system described is incorporated in to the 
Polish National Crisis Management System. 
The role of remote sensing in the forest fire disasters 
Linsenbarth also discussed how remote sensing techniques and GIS systems can be used for prediction of the forest fire risk, monitoring 
of the forest fires and their spatial extent, inventory of the areas affected by fire and assessment of losses and monitoring of recultivation 
and reforestation efforts. He gave the example of the largest ever forest fire in Poland which was observed on satellite images. Analyses of 
the results were mapped in a georeferenced spatial data system and damage could be related to forest parameters. 
Pollution and Hazardous Waste Sites 
Singhroy (CCRS) provided a review of current remote sensing techniques for tlie monitoring of pollution on land and water. Several 
operational remote sensing and GIS techniques are now being used for mapping polluted areas and for monitoring the clean up and 
restoration activities. These techniques are also constantly being revised with the availability of higher spatial and spectral resolutions of 
new remote sensing systems. Singhroy focused on the integration of remote sensing and GIS techniques. Examples of the application of 
high resolution optical and SAR satellite images, as well as airborne hyperspectral were discussed.