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For instance the geology of a given region is the context for its geomorphology, sedimen 
tary cover and thus for soils, vegetation and finally landuse. GIS provides the tools and 
the methodology for integrating these different information levels into models for survey 
and monitoring of resources. 
Obviously from the foregoing there is a definite need for hands-on training in Remote 
Sensing and Geo-Information Systems. This has become the recent trend in various course 
curriculae at Technical Training Colleges and Universities from undergraduate to post 
graduate level; this is noticed in developed as well as underdeveloped countries. 
Educators in instrument use may be faced with the problem of students with limited 
computer/mathematical background for working with remote sensing models in combina 
tion with two- and three-dimensional measurements of phenomena and properties which 
can be variable in time. This will require special student friendly software, for example via 
menu-driven or graphical user interfaces. It is also necessary to make hands-on training 
less machine dependent by concentrating more on the critical understanding of underlying 
concepts and principles. 
2. Interdisciplinary education 
Today, the educational challenge in training professionals for environmental management 
is to think in an interdisciplinary way. Effective interdisciplinary cooperation is difficult to 
achieve because of the institutionalized monodisciplinary approach both within academia 
and government administrations. Truly interdisciplinary education in life- and earth sci 
ences is rare; courses with equal emphasis on socio-economic and biophysical aspects of 
the environment are even more rare: less than one in ten universities offers such a 
curriculum. 
Interdisciplinary training does NOT mean teaching a number of single disciplines one after 
the other. At best that is a multidisciplinary course. Interdisciplinary education implies 
supplying both concepts (as land unit, landscape ecology, modelling, ecosystem) and tools 
(like remote sensing, G.I.S.) to analyze all environmental aspects from the very start as 
part of a whole. Interdisciplinary training should be facilitated in the realm of bio- and 
geosciences by starting courses with aerial photo- and satellite image interpretation; these 
tools allow observations and measurements of various single attributes and processes 
simultaneously and in relation to each other. 
However we often see that information is discarded as irrelevant. For instance image 
interpretations of soil and geomorphology often neglect interpretation of vegetation and 
the other way around. 
When gathering field data in an interdisciplinary context it is essential that bio- and 
geodata collection is carried out at the same location, following compatible sampling 
schemes. Processing of field data (classification, ordination, correlation, modelling, etc.) 
should follow compatible procedures for all mono-disciplinary data in order to achieve an 
interdisciplinary result.