Remote sensing techniques in environmental monitoring

Increasing public awareness about environmental concerns is creating pressures on land managers. There is a need to develop provincial land use policy that benefits the majority of British Columbians, rather than representing the wishes of special interest groups. Before such a policy can be developed, information is required about the land base, its uses and socio-economic benefits, and about the wishes of its owners, as well as those affected by possible changes in the current landscape and ecological equilibrium. Air and spaceborne remote sensing techniques provide cost effective tools for acquiring fundamental information that is required in land use planning and resource management. Geographic information systems, on the other hand, are needed for the management, manipulation and application of this land related information. In this paper, the author gives a brief overview of the state-of-the-art technology that is currently used, or may be applied in the future, for geo-referenced land information systems.Non UBCUnreviewedOthe