Special UNISPACE III volume

Marsteller, Deborah

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Persistent identifier:: 856485039

Author:: Marsteller, Deborah

Title:: Special UNISPACE III volume

Sub title:: including: ISPRS Workshop on "Resource Mapping from Space", ISPRS-EARSeL Workshop on "Remote Sensing for the Detection, Monitoring and Mitigation of Natural Disasters", ISPRS-NASA Seminar on "Environment and Remote Sensing for Sustainable Development", July 1999, Vienna, Austria

Scope:: IV, 170 Seiten

Year of publication:: 1999

Place of publication:: Coventry

Publisher of the original:: RICS Books

Identifier (digital):: 856485039

Illustration:: Illustrationen, Diagramme, Karten

Language:: English

Usage licence:: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Publisher of the digital copy:: Technische Informationsbibliothek Hannover

Place of publication of the digital copy:: Hannover

Year of publication of the original:: 2016

Document type:: Monograph

Collection:: Earth sciences

Chapter

Title:: ISPRS/NASA Seminar on "Environment and Remote Sensing for Sustainable Development"

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Chapter

Title:: HIGH RESOLUTION EARTH IMAGING FROM SPACE - A COMMERCIAL PERSPECTIVE ON A CHANGING LANDSCAPE. John T. Neer

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXII Part 7C2, UNISPACE III, Vienna. 1999 134 UNISPACE III - ISPRS/NASA Seminar on “Environment and Remote Sensing for Sustainable Development” 9:00 am -12:00 pm. 23 July 1999, VIC Room A Vienna, Austria ABSTRACT Since the dawn of the space age, more titan forty years ago, remote sensing from space has been the purview of governmental organizations. Pursuits for nation security interests and scientific/civil applications have dominated the remote sensing market for decades. Changing world dynamics and associated geo-political landscapes; rapidly advancing (i.e. Moore’s law' of computer redoubling of performance to cost every 18-24 months) high speed, low cost commercial computer technology; and the ever increasing demand for content rich, digital Earth information has encouraged tire private sector to enter the domain of commercial high resolution Earth imaging from space. As the dawn of tire 21 st century approaches, so approaches the “Dawn of the Age of Transparency” foreseen by Sir Arthur Clarke. Clarke’s “PeaceSats” will materialize in the form of commercial high resolution imaging satellites, which are soon to be placed into operation by Space Imaging, Orblmage, Earthwatch, and others. Operating in low' Earth orbit, a constellation of satellites will provide a diverse set of high resolution geospatial data and information products and sendees to: digitally map the world, monitor the land cover & land use at the level of man’s scale and impact, and contribute to the peaceful-sustainable development of “planet Earth”. Without such critical and collateral new information sources, there will be a limitation to the rate at which knowledge develops of the micro and macro changes occurring in the world. The pressing demands of population growth, migration, consumption of resources, proliferating crises, and globalization of the economy create the need for more timely, accurate, cost effective information products to meet these challenges. Commercial (private) Earth imaging satellites soon will take their place along with national satellite systems. UNISPACE III occurs at a critical “defining moment” in the evolution of the use of space for peaceful purposes. Much has changed in the w'orld, politically, economically, and technologically since UNISPACE II in 1982. It is critical to realize that just as commercial comsats have risen to dominate national comsat systems so will be the case 25 years from now for remote sensing systems. This reality must be a (if not The) key consideration and deliberation at UNISPACE Iff. This paper helps frame the key issues for discussion and formulation into a set of codified recommendations that can be advanced to and approved by the General Assembly. SUSTAINABLE GROWTH: THE CHALLENGES TO BE MET AND A NEW DIRECTION TO FOLLOW Since 1900 the world population has tripled, now approaching 6 billion and potentially reaching 10 billion by 2025. Our industrial production has increased 50-fold from 1900, our consumption of fossil fuel has increased 30-fold, and our gross global production has increased over 20-fold. Today, we consume 40% of the world’s plant growth annually. Since 1950, over 3 million square kilometers of forestry have been destroyed and we continue to consume our forests at an annual rate approaching 200,000 square kilometers. As the population continues to increase, urban and rural stresses increase. Human migration is increasing, south to north and rural to urban, changing the distribution of the world's population and demanding greater production of ever diminishing tillable lands. Observing the impact of man on his planet-home is an ever pressing need of our “Global Village”. Monitoring change, movement, and impact on the planet at the scale of a human, i.e. a meter, has become a critical need to provide time critical, spatially accurate, information content (i.e. spatially, spectrally, and radiometrically). Earth imagery will provide a new source of power to fuel the ever expanding information based global society. It is critical to realize and appreciate that information is developed only after data is collected. When UNISPACE II met in 1982, data collection from and data access to remote sensing satellites was a dominant theme. Appreciating the value of the new sources of Earth data, the United Nations Programs on Space Applications (UN-PSA) recommended the development of indigenous capability at the national level of space science and technology. Thus began a global process of national expenditures to develop educational systems and infrastructures to be able to access space and benefit from the associated space technologies in order to help solve earthly problems. Countries that could not allocate discretionary research and development funds to space endeavors would not be able to benefit from this space technology. Organizations like the UN began playing a role in encouraging developing countries to institute local programs for developing and using space technologies. Throughout the decade of the eighties and into the nineties numerous countries adopted the UN-PSA recommendations and initiated space programs. Resulting remote sensing systems were paid for by governments, and the price paid by the users was well below the real cost of production, if not “free”. The conventional “wisdom” developed that if the real cost was charged no one could afford to buy the data. Tins led to the assessment in 1992 at the 17°’ ISPRS Congress, panel on Remote Sensing at the Crossroads, that: “To become an economically viable enterprise the operation of a remote sensing system must generate products that are both needed and affordable. To be needed requires that it be user-driven. Globally, remote sensing has yet to achieve this status. Although producers of remote sensing products have consistendy demonstrated annual gains in their market strength, the limited appreciation and knowledge of remote sensing and its capabilities, particularly in the developing countries, preclude the wide spread demands for and applications of space-acquired images and digitized data.” This assessment seven years ago was veiy astute and signaled the change in the “paradigm” of thinking as to how the world’s complex problems can be most responsively addressed, i.e., focus on the end results desired, not on the means to the end. Today, at the UNISPACE III, we need to turn our attention toward information needs and redirect the UN-PSA away from the desire to create space technology. In its place the

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