ABSTRACT

Satellite images of the Earth have been routinely collected for close to two decades, providing world-wide environmental information to resource managers and planners. This imagery has been largely provided by the American Landsat satellites, the first of which was launched in 1972. In 1986, France entered the spotlight with its higher resolution, dual-sensor satellite called SPOT. Both satellites are continuously providing environmental information across Canada and around the world; information that is being used by forest and range managers, wildlife habitat biologists, agrologists, and environmental planners for operational mapping and monitoring programs.

This paper presents a number of the most significant current operational programs using this imagery within Canada and to a limited extent internationally. Forest management agencies and private companies routinely purchase and analyze large volumes of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and SPOT Panchromatic (P) imagery for cutover updating, insect and disease monitoring, change detection and other forest management planning purposes. Range managers are using Landsat TM information for range utilization assessment, biomass measurements and grazing management planning. Current wildlife habitat mapping applications range from a North America-wide wetland inventory and monitoring program using Landsat TM, to woodland caribou habitat mapping along potential pipeline routes. Agrologists use both Landsat and SPOT images to repetitively monitor crop conditions and productivity throughout the growing season; the shortwave infrared wavelengths of the imagery are critical to the detection and determination of areal extent of crop drought and damage. Finally, government and industry's environmental planners are employing this timely data for a wide variety of applications ranging from landfill site detection and inventory, to flood monitoring, control and preparedness, to global climate change and tropical deforestation monitoring.

These operational applications are a clear demonstration that satellitederived information has come of age to the environmental/renewable-resource manager. The research and development conducted in the 1970's and continuing into the 1980's has been fruitful. Current applications-oriented research and development using airborne imagery to simulate the satellite sensors of the 1990's, such as RADARSAT, will provide even more precise and timely environmental information in this decade.

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