From Environmental Risks, As Problems, To Earth Observations As Solutions To Those Problems

This paper introduces the topic of space techniquesfor environmental risks. It does this by giving someexamples of the damage and havoc wrought in recent tragic events –mudslides, floods, cyclones, earthquakes and theChernobyl disaster. It introduces the concept ofa Geographic Information System where informationderived from remote sensing observations made fromspace is combined with other types of informationand processed in a computer. Seven examples are then considered in more detail –the early 1995 flood in The Netherlands and otherhydrological issues, land use studies for agriculture,the Vegetation Index and land degradation ordesertification, hurricane Fran over South andNorth Carolina in September 1996, change detection,ocean catastrophes and atmospheric disasters. Theyillustrate some ways in which information derivedfrom space observations can be used to benefitthe Earthʹs population.