Current remote sensing in natural resource management

Natural resource management agencies continue to be one of the heavy users of remote sensing data. From the earliest days of aerial photography, managers have depended upon broad area coverage in various levels of resolution for information needed to conserve and preserve the Earth's resource base. The USDA Forest Service is one agency that has been an active user of remote sensing data since the days when foresters began using aerial photographs to analyze timber crops. To this day, the use of data acquired by aerial reconnaissance is an important part of the tools used to gather information. Last year, in April of 2002, the Forest Service, Remote Sensing Applications Center with headquarters in Salt Lake City. Utah, sponsored The Ninth Biennial Remote Sensing Applications Conference in San Diego, California. Presentations at that conference demonstrate that airborne reconnaissance techniques continue to be of importance to managers of our natural resources. This paper is an overview of papers presented at the conference with emphasis upon applications that either use or have the potential to use airborne reconnaissance in data collection. Primary areas of interest include data collection for natural resource management and for law enforcement purposes on public lands and other remote, inaccessible back country areas.