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ERS Data for Environmental Applications
Risks and hazards in the marine environment : Earth observation data from the ERS satellite is helpful in the
assessment and/or forewarning of a range of environmental risks and hazards in the marine environment, whether natural or manmade. Warning
or forecasting systems may cover: risk assessment and management, hazard monitoring and forecasting, warning formulation, transmission
and dissemination of warnings, and response mechanisms.
Natural disasters : In 1990 the United Nations launched in the International Decade for Natural disaster Reduction to "reduce
through concerted international action, especially in developing countries, the loss of life, property damage, and social and economic disruption
caused by natural disasters".
Coastal Zone monitoring and management : For millennia, coastal zones of the world have been major centres
of human population. For example, in the Mediterranean region 38% of the populations of countries bordering the Sea live in coastal areas.
Coastal waters serve as primary routes of transportation and communication amongst these population centres. Many coastal problems that are
now being encountered worldwide have resulted from the unsustainable use and unrestricted development of coastal areas and resources. These
problems include the accumulation of contaminants and pollutants in coastal areas, erosion, and the rapid decline of habitats and natural resources.
Climate Monitoring : Climate monitoring concerns the monitoring of the atmosphere and of other
components of the earth system as well as the monitoring of global climate indicators (e.g. global mean earth surface temperature and
precipitation). Satellite measurements appear to satisfy the need for global measurements.
Mapping land cover and monitoring land use : Globally, forest resources now attract unprecedented attention.
The concern extends both to their value and to the environmental effects of their destruction. There are approximately 3400 million ha of forest
globally, representing nearly 25% of the world's land area. Pressures on forests to provide economic resources are increasing rapidly. The rate of
tropical forest destruction is not known with any accuracy, but is estimated by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations
as around 15.4 million ha per year. Their destruction has many serious long term environmental implications.
Exploitation of natural resources : As known global oil and gas reserves diminish, oil companies are under a
great deal of pressure to tap new sources. In the past few years, exploration managers have been looking increasingly to frontier areas offshore,
such as the Arctic and South East Asia to supplement existing reserves. Exploration in these frontier areas brings a whole new set of problems,
however, as these areas have seldome been surveyed by conventional ship survey methods, and additional problems may exist through harsh
environmental conditions, especially in the Arctic. In order to make large scale surveying of as yet unexplored regions as cost-effective as possible,
exploration managers are looking to new methods, such as the use of satellite data.
Topography and cartography : Highly developed areas of the world have been mapped to a very high accuracy
and precision, using ground and aerial surveying methods which are on the whole expensive and labour intensive. However, particularly in the
frontier regions where an impact from human development is being felt, the land's topography is still poorly mapped and any existing maps are
out-of-date or of insufficient scale. A cost-effective method is required for the production of new maps, and updating old ones.
» ERS SAR Data Applications
» ERS ATSR Data Applications
» ERS Radar Altimeter Data Applications
Keywords: ESA European Space Agency - Agence spatiale europeenne, observation de la terre, earth observation, satellite remote sensing, teledetection, geophysique, altimetrie, radar, chimique atmospherique, geophysics, altimetry, radar, atmospheric chemistry