Contributions of Land Remote Sensing for Decisions About Food Security and Human Health Workshop Report (2007) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
2 The Current State: Opportunities for Applying Land Remote Sensing to Human Welfare
2 The Current State: Opportunities for Applying Land Remote Sensing to Human Welfare
Pages 11-28
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 11... ...
This section summarizes presentations made at the workshop, including an overview of the use of land remote sensing for human welfare applications, and case studies in the food security and human health domains. SOuRCES OF REMOTELy SENSED DATA Space-based remotely sensed data are obtained via several satellite platforms.
|
From page 12... ...
is a radiation detection imager used by the U.S.National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to remotely determine cloud cover and the temperature of land, water, and sea surfaces with global daily coverage at approximately 1 km spatial resolution.These polar-orbiting series of satellites provide regional and global data useful for tracking forest fires and hurricanes.The data have also been used to determine land cover based on phenological variations in vegetation.
|
From page 13... ...
and thus provide a unique view of the environmental context of human activities over broad regions. MONITORINg FOR FOOD PRODuCTION AND SECuRITy Workshop participants considered the current and future opportunities for applying remote sensing in the context of improving food security worldwide.
|
From page 14... ...
In developing countries, remote sensing applications are useful for predicting and minimizing breakdowns in food production that often cause food crises and famine. Because it takes a considerable amount of time for remote sensing technologies to evolve into applications useful for human welfare, workshop participants also considered the history of the use of remotely sensed data as applied to agriculture.
|
From page 15... ...
to create and test a wheat crop forecasting system. The crop monitoring system was designed to provide information on the area planted with a particular crop and to provide information on crop health based on temporal remotely sensed data and ancillary data such as weather data and USDA reports.
|
From page 16... ...
Remotely sensed data, in combination with other types of data, can reveal valuable information about environmental conditions that can subsequently impact the livelihoods of farmers. Environmental constraints on subsistence agriculture are revealed by comparing spatial distributions of agricultural indicators -- such as the local abundance of humans, crops,
|
From page 17... ...
Potential applications of remotely sensed data depend on the types and values of crops, geographic features such as soils of the area being farmed, farmer's use of fertilizer, irrigation and other types of management, the remote sensing expertise available to the farmer, and the timeliness of remotely sensed data. Cost is a large barrier to the application of precision farming.
|
From page 18... ...
. Remotely sensed data, combined with numerical modeling and GIS, are important tools for FEWS NET (see Box 2-4 for Current FEWS NET programs)
|
From page 19... ...
Box 2-4 summarizes a presentation made by James Verdin of the U.S. Geological Survey on how FEWS NET uses and treats remotely sensed data in its efforts to predict incidents of food insecurity.
|
From page 20... ...
Remotely sensed data are used to fill in the gaps in ground based observations, as the routine monitoring of rainfall, vegetation, crops, and market prices is made more meaningful by assembling information on how house holds access food and income. Remotely sensed data are used to develop vegetation index imagery to identify changes in seasonal landscape that could indicate drought (Hutchinson, 1991)
|
From page 21... ...
SOURCE: FEWS NET, 2004. Image provided by Gabriel Senay, USGS.
|
From page 22... ...
However, remotely sensed data are useful for predicting food shortages and vulnerabilities only when combined with other environmental, political, economic, and social data. Richard Choularton, contingency and response planning advisor at FEWS NET, presented the use of remotely sensed data to provide actionable information to decision makers trying to prevent or respond to famines and food crises.
|
From page 23... ...
However, regardless of the amount of data and analysis available, analysis has little value without action. Monitoring and Disseminating Working with analyzing food early warning decision makers security and food to use the security analysis analysis Capacity Building FIGURE: A summary of FEWS NET's operational plan, which incorporates remotely sensed data and livelihood-based food security analysis into decision-making support systems.
|
From page 24... ...
Remotely sensed data, especially in combination with other GIS data, can be used to determine the relationships between environmental conditions across the world's air- and seaport network and the dramatic emergence and re-emergence of disease fostered by the transport of pathogens. By analyzing these relationships and understanding past trends, we can better predict and anticipate future disease patterns and movements.
|
From page 25... ...
It appears that increased late winter and spring precipitation in the southwestern United States driven by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation was responsible for an increase in plant primary produc tivity, which in turn resulted in increased rodent population densities. A direct but delayed correlation exists between increases in deer mouse population densities, increases in density of infected rodents, and increased incidence of HPS.
|
From page 26... ...
Cholera Rita Colwell presented a case study using remotely sensed data to correlate water surface temperature and population densities with known cases of cholera infection (see Box 2-7)
|
From page 27... ...
Simply stated, there is a positive correlation between the seasonal increased sea surface temperature and sea surface height and subsequent outbreaks of cholera that occur in the late spring and fall months in Bangladesh.Thus, remote sensing has the potential to contribute to a global warning system for increased plankton production and associated cholera outbreaks.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.