Remote Sensing for Environmental Sciences

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XIII

   PDF

2. Introductory Remarks on Remote Sensing

   • E. Schanda

   Pages 1-10

3. Aerospace Photography

   • A. E. Salerno

   Pages 11-83

4. Infrared Sensing Methods

   • P. W. Schaper

   Pages 84-109

5. Laser Applications in Remote Sensing

   • R. T. H. Collis, P. B. Russell

   Pages 110-146

6. Radar Methods

   • G. P. de Loor

   Pages 147-186

7. Passive Microwave Sensing

   • E. Schanda

   Pages 187-256

8. Applications of Gamma Radiation in Remote Sensing

   • R. L. Grasty

   Pages 257-276

9. Sonar Methods

   • D. J. Creasey

   Pages 277-303

10. Digital Picture Processing

    • Ph. Hartl

    Pages 304-350

11. Back Matter

    Pages 351-370

    PDF

The public's serious concern about the uncertainties and dangers of the conse­ quences of human activities on environmental quality demands policies to control the situation and to prevent its deterioration. But far-reaching decisions on the environmental policy are impaired or even made impossible as long as the relevant ecological relations are not sufficiently understood and large-scale quantitative information on the most important parameters is not available in sufficient quality and quantity. The techniques of remote sensing offer new ways of procuring data on natural phenomena with three main advantages - the large distance between sensor and object prevents interference with the environmental conditions to be measured, - the potentiality for large-scale and even global surveys yields a new dimension for the investigations of the environmental parameters, - the extremely wide, spectral range covered by the whole diversity of sensors discloses many properties of the environmental media not detectable within a single wave band (as e.g. the visible). These significant additions to the conventional methods of environmental studies and the particular qualification of several remote sensing methods for quantitative determination of the natural parameters makes this new investigation technique an important tool both to the scientists studying the ecological relationship and the administration in charge of the environmental planning and protection.

• environment
• environmental policy
• environmental science
• environmental sciences
• remote sensing

• Institut für Angewandte Physik, Universität Bern, Bern, Switzerland

  Erwin Schanda

Policies and ethics