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This presentation refers in the first place to the new global perspective of environmental 
monitoring. As important and very much interdependent for the proper management of 
planet Earth is the environmental monitoring at micro level. At this level education faces 
similar challenges although the tool box becomes more diverse: the advent of space obser 
vation with a higher spatial (1-5 meters) and spectral resolution is significant to comple 
ment airborne remote sensing. Social, economic, cultural and ethical factors influencing 
the environment present challenges to education, which have not been elaborated further 
in this paper. 
However, students should become aware of the need for technology assessment to avoid or 
reduce the negative social effects of new technology. In GIS and remote sensing this may 
include aspects of privacy, access to digital data bases, the concentration of information, 
resource exploitation in developing countries by western nations. 
So what are the challenges for education given these conditions? They are to develop: 
(1) knowledge and use of appropriate tools for monitoring (RS and GIS); 
(2) interdisciplinary perspectives and communication; 
(3) questioning of established paradigms and techniques; 
(4) attitudes and skills to influence decision makers. 
1. Instrumental Training in Remote Sensing and G.I.S. 
Measurements of phenomena with short temporal scales covering large areas can not be 
done simply by conventional point samples, but require repetitive area measurements 
which can only be achieved by remote sensing. 
Processes with both large spatial coverage and long temporal scales, such as ozone-hole, El 
Niño current, desertification, deforestation, require archives to detect environmental 
change rates retrospectively. For both these processes satellite imagery seems the only 
feasible tool. A classical example of the use of remote sensing is the retrospective confir 
mation of the widening stratospheric Antarctic ozone-hole by analyzing imagery produced 
by the TOMS scanner on the NOAA Nimbus-7 satellite (Stolarski 1988). 
Remote sensing not only extends the spatiotemporal possibilities for observation, it also 
increases the number of sensors. Visible, Infrared, RADAR and thermal sensors are be 
coming to produce satellite imagery. 
But this multitude of new sensors for data collection have generated a data overload in the 
bio- and geosciences. In remote sensing much filtering, decoding, preprocessing and com 
pression of raw data into information are necessary. 
GIS is indispensable in the handling of short temporal and/or large spatial scale environ 
mental data and for the analysis and prediction of temporal and spatial trends. Also 
linking with socio-economic models becomes feasible. GIS has the most appealing faculty 
to deal with scenario’s in space and time based on different assumptions about environ 
mental management strategies.