A/CONF. 184/C.2/L.2
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXII Part 7C2, UNISPACE III, Vienna. 1999
3
Distr.: Limited
23 July 1999
Original: English
THIRD UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE
ON THE EXPLORATION AND PEACEFUL USES OF OUTER SPACE
Vienna
19-30 July 1999
Committee II
Agenda item 8
Status and applications of space science and technology
Technical Forum
Conclusions and proposals of the Workshop on Resource
Mapping from Space
1. The conclusions and proposals below concern paragraphs 102-115 and 119-
127 of the draft report of the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration
and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III) (A/CONF. 184/3 and Corr. 1 and
2).
A. New global developments in technology
2. In the last 100 years, natural resource industries have developed from an
economy based on access to land and labour into industries where capital (i.e.
investment in equipment) dominates. Today, the most rapidly growing segment of
the economy is “information”: spatial information derived from remote sensing and
geographic information systems can help natural resource mangers, in both
developed and developing countries, to improve food production and water
management, decrease costs or reduce environmental degradation.
B. Resource issues
3. Agricultural statistics clearly show that the world food balance is becoming
more and more fragile. Since the mid-1980s per capita food production at the global
level has decreased steadily.
4. There will be a considerable shortage of water for drinking, for sanitation and.
most importantly, for growing crops in the twenty-first century'. Water as a scarce
commodity needs to be properly managed.
5. The degradation of limited arable land by various processes, namely, soil
erosion by water and wind, salinization and alkalinization, waterlogging, shifting
cultivation, mining and so on, resulting from over-exploitation lias resulted in the
significant decrease in per capita arable land.
