National Academies Press: OpenBook
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1998. People and Pixels: Linking Remote Sensing and Social Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5963.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1998. People and Pixels: Linking Remote Sensing and Social Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5963.
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~1 al Inl He d Linking Ren~ote Sensing and Social Science Diana Liverman, Emilio F. Moran, Ronald R. Rindfuss, and Paul C. Stern, Editors Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education National Research Council NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS Washington, D.C. 1998

NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS · 2101 Constitution Ave., N.W. · Washington, DC 20418 NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competencies and with regard for appropriate balance. This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sci- ences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The project that is the subject of this report was funded by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration through Grant Number NAGW-4939. Additional support came through Con- tract No. 50-DKNA-7-90052 between the National Academy of Sciences and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which supports the activities of the Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change with funds contributed by the consortium of federal agencies that support the U.S. Global Change Research Program. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recom- mendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the organizations or agencies that provided support for this project. People and Pixels: Linking Remote Sensing and Social Science is available for sale from the National Academy Press, 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Box 285, Washington, D.C. 20055. Call 800-624-6242 or 202-334-3313 (in the Washington Metropolitan Area).

COMMITTEE ON THE HUMAN DIMENSIONS OF GLOBAL CHANGE 1996-1997 DIANA LIVERMAN (Chair), Latin American Area Center and Department of Geography, University of Arizona ERIC J. BARRON, Earth System Science Center, Pennsylvania State University PAUL R. EPSTEIN, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University BONNIE McCAY, Department of Human Ecology, Cook College, Rutgers University EMILIO F. MORAN, Department of Anthropology, Indiana University EDWARD PARSON, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University RONALD R. RINDFUSS, Department of Sociology and Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill VERNON W. RUTTAN, Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota ROBERT SOCOLOW, Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, Princeton University JAMES SWEENEY, Department of Engineering-Economic Systems, Stanford University EDWARD FRIEMAN (Ex officio, Chair, Board on Sustainable Development), Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego ORAN R. YOUNG (Ex officio, International Human Dimensions Programme liaison), Institute of Arctic Studies, Dartmouth College PAUL C. STERN, Study Director HEATHER SCHOFIELD, Senior Program Assistant . . .

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distin- guished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences. The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the Na- tional Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. William A. Wulf is president of the National Academy of Engineering. The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Kenneth I. Shine is president of the Institute of Medicine. The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts and Dr. William A. Wulf are chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.

Contents Preface Linking Remote Sensing and Social Science: The Need and the Challenges Ronald R. Rindfuss and Paul C. Stern A Brief History of Remote Sensing Applications, with Emphasis on Landsat Stanley A. Morain 3 "Socializing the Pixel" and "Pixelizing the Social" in Land-Use and Land-Cover Change Jacqueline Geoghegan, Lowell Pritchard, Jr., Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, RinEu Roy Chowdhury, Steven Sanderson, and B. L. Turner II Linking Satellite, Census, and Survey Data to Study Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon Charles H. Wood and David Skole Land-Use Change After Deforestation in Amazonia Emilio F. Moran and Eduardo Brondizio v 1 28 51 70 94

v! 6 Land-Use/Land-Cover and Population Dynamics, Nang Rong, Thailand Barbara Enwistle, Stephen J. Walsh, Ronald R. Rindfuss, and Aphichat Chamratrithirong 7 Validating Prehistoric and Current Social Phenomena upon the Landscape of the Peten, Guatemala Thomas L. Sever 8 Extraction and Modeling of Urban Attributes Using Remote Sensing Technology David J. Cowen and John R. Jensen CONTENTS 121 145 164 9 Social Science and Remote Sensing in Famine Early Warning 189 Charles F. Hutchinson 10 Health Applications of Remote Sensing and Climate Modeling Paul R. Epstein APPENDICES A An Annotated Guide to Earth Remote Sensing Data and Information Resources for Social Science Applications Robert S. Chen B Glossary Mark Patterson Biographical Sketches of Contributors and Editors 209 229 237

Preface The U.S. government has been collecting data about the earth's surface and atmosphere from planes and satellites for decades. In the past, technology and routines of data collection and management have been developed primarily for the earth science community. More recently, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been paying increased attention to the potential value of remote data for other users, including social scientists; farmers; local govern- ment officials; and land-use, urban, and coastal planners. Remotely sensed data have potential scientific value for the study of human-environment interactions, especially land-cover and land-use change (LUCC), a research area that is now the focus of a joint international research effort of the International Geosphere- Biosphere Programme and the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change. Remotely sensed data also have potential scien- tific value for addressing questions in other areas of social science, including urban studies and human population dynamics, and practical value for providing predictive information about socially significant events, such as famine and epi- demics of disease. As part of an effort to realize more of the apparent potential of remotely sensed data, NASA asked the National Research Council (NRC) to organize a workshop that would bring social scientists who have tried to use satellite data together with experts in remote sensing technology. The participants were to discuss the lessons of success and failure that have emerged from efforts to link remote sensing and social science, and to identify ways of making satellite obser- vations more useful sources of data for social science, research on human- environment relations, and other applications. The workshop was organized by . . vat

. . . vile PREFACE the NRC's Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change and held on November 12-13, 1996. The workshop included presentations on a variety of applications of remote sensing, as reflected in this volume. More than 50 participants including social scientists; remote sensing specialists; experts in geographic and data information systems; and staff members from NASA, four other federal agencies, the White House, and the World Bank engaged in lively discussion about the presenta- tions, the opportunities created by remotely sensed data for social science and related fields, and the limitations and pitfalls that can be encountered in trying to exploit those opportunities. This volume includes revised versions of most of the presentations made at the workshop, as well as two overview chapters that identify major conceptual, methodological, and organizational issues faced by those who attempt to make greater use of remote sensing for social scientific and related purposes. In addi tion, it provides a guide to information resources and a glossary designed to facilitate interaction and understanding between social scientists new to the field of remote sensing and remote sensing specialists unfamiliar with social science. The committee believes this book will make remotely sensed data more accessible and its potential uses more evident to researchers in the human dimen- sions of global change and eventually to the broader social science community. We hope it will also encourage and sharpen the dialogue between these potential users of remotely sensed data and those who collect and transform the data for scientific use, thus making the data even more useful over time. On behalf of the NRC's Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change, I thank Nancy Maynard of NASA, who first asked us to develop this project. I also thank my colleagues who collaborated with me in organizing the workshop and this volume Emilio Moran, Ronald Rindfuss, and Paul Stern. The four of us were equal partners in this effort, a fact incompletely reflected by the listing of our names alphabetically on the title page. I wish to thank as well Eugenia Grohman and Rona Briere, who provided essential help in editing and producing the volume, and especially Heather Schofield, whose efforts were essential to organizing a successful workshop, collecting the written contribu- tions, and getting the volume ready for publication. Diana Liverman, Chair Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change

PEOPI add .~. ~

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Space-based sensors are giving us an ever-closer and more comprehensive look at the earth's surface; they also have the potential to tell us about human activity. This volume examines the possibilities for using remote sensing technology to improve understanding of social processes and human-environment interactions. Examples include deforestation and regrowth in Brazil, population-environment interactions in Thailand, ancient and modern rural development in Guatemala, and urbanization in the United States, as well as early warnings of famine and disease outbreaks. The book also provides information on current sources of remotely sensed data and metadata and discusses what is involved in establishing effective collaborative efforts between scientists working with remote sensing technology and those working on social and environmental issues.

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