A remote sensing monitoring system for a settlement area in tropical rain forest

Many areas in the Amazon basin experience rapid change in land use and land cover, mainly related to a process of (re)settlement of people from other parts of the country. The area around San Jose del Guaviare in the Colombian Amazon is one such area. Due to this (re)settlement process, the rain forest disappears, and is replaced by crops and ultimately by pastures. Various governmental organisations make an effort to control this process in such a way that wise and sustainable use of natural resources is possible. Due to rapid changes, any information on land cover is relatively fast outdated (within a few years). An operational monitoring system is a powerful tool for planners, enabling them to be up-to-date with respect to the spatial distribution of the various land cover types and the location, speed, extend and direction of changes in the land cover. Satellite radar remote sensing products are potentially an ideal tool for monitoring. In principle, they can be made available at regular intervals and independent of weather conditions. This research focuses on the development of an operational monitoring system for Guaviare, the generic aspects of its architecture and functional components. Some of these components comprise models and rules that are specific for this area, such as a land cover change model. Other functional components use more generally applicable techniques, such as backscatter modelling and image processing. A dynamic (i.e. allowing re-interpretation) accumulator of interpreted data is introduced as a new component, essential for the monitoring system. The system will be interfaced with a GIS developed for this area. Through (pre-)operational use of the system insight into user requirements can be increased