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REMOTE SENSING, VISUALIZATION AND DECISION SUPPORT FOR WATERSHED MANAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
Citation:
Rochon*, G, F B. Daniel*, D C. Szlag*, AND C Chifos**. REMOTE SENSING, VISUALIZATION AND DECISION SUPPORT FOR WATERSHED MANAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE. Presented at European Association of Remote Sensing Laboratory (EARSeL) Symposium, Observing our Environment from Space: New Solutions for a New Millennium, Marne-la-Vallee, France, 5/19-21/2001.
Description:
The integration of satellite and airborne remote sensing, scientific visualization and decision support tools is discussed within the context of management techniques for minimizing the non-point source pollution load of inland waterways and the sustainability of food crop production in an array of divergent ecosystems. Case studies are drawn from the US, Europe and Africa. The dual objectives of this study were to ascertain the utility of environmental decision support, informed by visualization of archival satellite data and generation of alternative future scenaries, and to explore site-specific sensitivity to such technologies in support of inter-generationally prudent management of watersheds and sustainable regional food security. Specific study sites included the Little Miami River Watershed, Ohio, which as a tributory of the Mississippi River Watershed, may be a potential contributing factor to the expanding hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Water quality management procedures investigated in this context include reforestation and afforestation of riparian buffer zones as a mitigative agent both to agricultural pesticide and fertilizer runoff and to urban effluent impact on surficial water. The other American case study focused on several wetlands in LA, including the Barataria Basin and the Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge, wherein remotely sensed data was combined with x-ray fluorescence analysis of soil and vegetation samples, collected in situ. Earlier factors potentially affecting wetland sustainability included logging of bald cypress. Continuing threats to sustainability include urban sprawl and salt water intrusion.
Applicability of the decision support concept are also described for the Gezira, an irrigated agricultural area in Sudan, proximate to the Blue Nile River, subject to a wide array of complex externalities, including civil war, endemic infectious diseasek prodromal climatic change and periodic crop infestation.
The applicability of the prototype decision support system will be assessed for selected European watersheds and associated food production, utilizing temporal analysis and visualization of archival satellite data and projection of alternative future scenarios. The crucial remaining factors are the degree to which decisions made with the benefit fo such hindsight and foresight, within the context of an information-rich environment, actually improves the quality of environmental decisions and how best to quantify such qualitative improvement.