Summary of the workshop
26
intersect, combine without validation or control a large number of overlays with different scales
and meanings. There is a real danger of being carried away by the ease of digital maps and not to
advance in the field of their rational utilization.
Promising applications
Among the most operational applications of data obtained from remote sensing, integration with
GIS appears to be expanding the fastest, be it for the intersection of overlays, as a tool for the
spatial management of multiple data or for the support to hydraulic management of a given area.
These applications will continue to develop in the coming years as GIS make it possible to
elaborate synthetic cartographic documents, that are the basis of discussion between stakeholders
and therefore essential tools, for example, for the resolution of conflicts on the use of resources.
Now, it is known that with the increased uses of water, the number of regions in which this
resource becomes rare also increases. Several communications expressed these preoccupations
and provided examples of applications of GIS to the management of water resources in sudanosahelian catchments (Traoré).
The interest of data from remote sensing is also strongly demonstrated by the mapping of the
variable parameters of hydrological models, where only point observations were previously
available (moisture, evapotranspiration, temperature). Thus, for certain parameters, there is an
evolution in the acquisition of data. Other examples of runoff modelling through spatial models
provide encouraging results, notwithstanding all the incertitude that is still associated to these.
The specific interest of the new data has been shown particularly by insisting on the association
between remote sensing imagery representative of surface conditions and of land cover and the
DEM, representing the topographic knowledge of the watersheds.
Finally, the images now offer a surface memory of exceptional events (floods for example).
With the increase of the image archives, these can be considered as chronicles of landscape
evolution or of hydrological events on the same level as records of discharge. Applications
connected to the use of this data will certainly experience important developments in the future.
26
intersect, combine without validation or control a large number of overlays with different scales
and meanings. There is a real danger of being carried away by the ease of digital maps and not to
advance in the field of their rational utilization.
Promising applications
Among the most operational applications of data obtained from remote sensing, integration with
GIS appears to be expanding the fastest, be it for the intersection of overlays, as a tool for the
spatial management of multiple data or for the support to hydraulic management of a given area.
These applications will continue to develop in the coming years as GIS make it possible to
elaborate synthetic cartographic documents, that are the basis of discussion between stakeholders
and therefore essential tools, for example, for the resolution of conflicts on the use of resources.
Now, it is known that with the increased uses of water, the number of regions in which this
resource becomes rare also increases. Several communications expressed these preoccupations
and provided examples of applications of GIS to the management of water resources in sudanosahelian catchments (Traoré).
The interest of data from remote sensing is also strongly demonstrated by the mapping of the
variable parameters of hydrological models, where only point observations were previously
available (moisture, evapotranspiration, temperature). Thus, for certain parameters, there is an
evolution in the acquisition of data. Other examples of runoff modelling through spatial models
provide encouraging results, notwithstanding all the incertitude that is still associated to these.
The specific interest of the new data has been shown particularly by insisting on the association
between remote sensing imagery representative of surface conditions and of land cover and the
DEM, representing the topographic knowledge of the watersheds.
Finally, the images now offer a surface memory of exceptional events (floods for example).
With the increase of the image archives, these can be considered as chronicles of landscape
evolution or of hydrological events on the same level as records of discharge. Applications
connected to the use of this data will certainly experience important developments in the future.