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Use of remote sensing and GIS for sustainable land management

Remote sensing provides the basic data to undertake inventory of land, as well as the temporal information required to monitor sustainable land management practices. In this paper, the current use of remote sensing for sustainable land management is reviewed, and the potential of future (new) satellite systems to contribute to sustainable development is explored. Other elements for successful sustainable development (ie, good policy and participatory approaches) are then compared and contrasted with information requirements. Sustainable land management refers to the activities of humans and implies that activity will continue in perpetuity. It is a term which attempts to balance the often conflicting ideals of economic growth and maintaining environmental quality and viability. Economic activities may range from intensive agriculture to the management of natural areas. It is argued that in order to effectively “manage” resources, three elements must be present. These are information about natural resources, clear policies on how the resource may be managed (eg, Acts of Government, policy papers, administrative procedures), and participation of everyone (including local people) with an interest or “stake” in the land. In this paper, we concentrate on methods to generate information about the resources, with an emphasis on how recent innovations in remote sensing fit with sustainable land management methods. In particular, we assess how resources may be inventoried by remote sensing, and techniques and data which may ascertain whether the activity is indeed sustainable. A concluding section discusses how the information (generated from remote sensing) is linked to policy and local participation. Thus, three specific questions are addressed. First, what cover is present? This question requires that remote sensing provides information on land cover as well as terrain attributes such as slope, aspect and terrain position. The second question addresses whether the use (management) of the cover is sustainable. This question requires temporal data collection to monitor whether the environment is degrading or otherwise changing. The third question is: How can remote sensing and GIS contribute to the policy tools of generating policy, providing information and ensuring participation by all stakeholders?