7 Conclusions
Monitoring the health of water—Earth’s most precious resource—relies upon an
astute understanding of the land surfaces which supply, transport, filter and store
water, and regulate water temperatures as it flows to lakes, rivers, and aquifers.
Remote sensing’s use of airborne and satellite sensors forms the foundation of our
ability to monitor large expanses of the Earth’s surface and, in fine detail, to record
variations in water resources.
These capabilities provide a better understanding of the impacts of human
alterations to the Earth’s surface upon water quality and water supply. The spatial
perspective of remotely sensed imagery provides insight into interactions between
varied land covers and land uses. It allows anticipating threats of hazardous
materials for water quality, forecasting variations in water supply, and assessing
diversions for agriculture, industry, recreation, and other confining impacts of
hazardous spills along with mitigating such threats. Remote sensing technologies
have significant potential for understanding climate change impacts.
The land use and land cover analyses outlined in this chapter provide some of the
most important tools for sustaining, and improving, our ability to monitor the extent
and quality of water resources. Employed in coordination with other capabilities
described in this chapter, remote sensing can form a framework for understanding
interrelationships between the many dimensions of water resources and for illuminating their spatial and temporal variations.
With continued launching of land observation satellites, our ability to map and
monitor the Earth’s changing surface will become more robust. As sensor technologies continue to change and additional analyses of existing imagery are identified,
the ability to classify land cover and land use will be accomplished in even finer
detail across broader regions, with greater flexibility in timing, and in acquiring
sequential coverage. Greater computing power will allow us to store greater
volumes of data over time, acquire larger volumes of data in the future, and fuse
various data sources with imagery to perform superior evaluations of water quantity
and quality. Looking forward with these advances, as outlined in Sect. 6, Lidar will
enhance our ability to visualize and analyze in three dimensions, hyperspectral
imagery will allow us to identify spectral signatures of features/objects at finer
details, and unmanned aerial systems will be able to map land cover and identify
land uses in areas previously not accessible to humans.
Acknowledgement We thank Dr. Valerie Thomas, Virginia Tech, Department of Forest
Resources and Environmental Conservation, Blacksburg, Virginia, for providing the Lidar data
mentioned in Sect. 6.1 Lidar.
28
T.E. Parece and J.B. Campbell
Monitoring the health of water—Earth’s most precious resource—relies upon an
astute understanding of the land surfaces which supply, transport, filter and store
water, and regulate water temperatures as it flows to lakes, rivers, and aquifers.
Remote sensing’s use of airborne and satellite sensors forms the foundation of our
ability to monitor large expanses of the Earth’s surface and, in fine detail, to record
variations in water resources.
These capabilities provide a better understanding of the impacts of human
alterations to the Earth’s surface upon water quality and water supply. The spatial
perspective of remotely sensed imagery provides insight into interactions between
varied land covers and land uses. It allows anticipating threats of hazardous
materials for water quality, forecasting variations in water supply, and assessing
diversions for agriculture, industry, recreation, and other confining impacts of
hazardous spills along with mitigating such threats. Remote sensing technologies
have significant potential for understanding climate change impacts.
The land use and land cover analyses outlined in this chapter provide some of the
most important tools for sustaining, and improving, our ability to monitor the extent
and quality of water resources. Employed in coordination with other capabilities
described in this chapter, remote sensing can form a framework for understanding
interrelationships between the many dimensions of water resources and for illuminating their spatial and temporal variations.
With continued launching of land observation satellites, our ability to map and
monitor the Earth’s changing surface will become more robust. As sensor technologies continue to change and additional analyses of existing imagery are identified,
the ability to classify land cover and land use will be accomplished in even finer
detail across broader regions, with greater flexibility in timing, and in acquiring
sequential coverage. Greater computing power will allow us to store greater
volumes of data over time, acquire larger volumes of data in the future, and fuse
various data sources with imagery to perform superior evaluations of water quantity
and quality. Looking forward with these advances, as outlined in Sect. 6, Lidar will
enhance our ability to visualize and analyze in three dimensions, hyperspectral
imagery will allow us to identify spectral signatures of features/objects at finer
details, and unmanned aerial systems will be able to map land cover and identify
land uses in areas previously not accessible to humans.
Acknowledgement We thank Dr. Valerie Thomas, Virginia Tech, Department of Forest
Resources and Environmental Conservation, Blacksburg, Virginia, for providing the Lidar data
mentioned in Sect. 6.1 Lidar.
28
T.E. Parece and J.B. Campbell