Читать книгу Climate Impacts on Sustainable Natural Resource Management - Группа авторов - Страница 31

Natural resources are essential to a nation's economy as they are a source of food, energy, medicine, and raw materials for industries. The ever‐increasing human population has overstretched the use of these natural resources, thus creating pressure on existing forest cover, increasing human‐wildlife conflicts, and creating desert‐like conditions. The depletion of our limited resources has led to changes in local weather patterns, apart from declining benefits in terms of social, economic, and cultural aspects of utilizing these resources. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how to use these resources sustainably to ensure that future generations enjoy their benefits (Oisebe 2012). Sustainable resources development plan starts with the assessment of the natural resources' availability. The assessment process involves four essential functions:

1 Mapping: the collection of qualitative and quantitative data in the spatial format.

2 Measuring: the process of quantifying the attributes of a phenomena and documenting them.

3 Modeling: the process of representing a phenomenon through a set of mathematical equations and simulating the past, present, or future behavior.

4 Monitoring: the routine assessment of the conditions by recording natural phenomena and human activities changes.

Geospatial assessment supported by the Geographic Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS), and Global Positioning System (GPS) caters for compelling techniques of mapping, monitoring, surveying, classification, characterization, and change detection of natural resources. These techniques provide a platform for generating valuable data, creating cartographic products, and performing timely analysis to make sound sustainable development decisions. Remote sensing involves the recording of information distantly without coming in contact with the object using the various electromagnetic spectrum. It employs the use of cameras, lasers, scanners, and specialized sensors that are located on the ground or aerial platforms (Jensen and Im 2007). The principle geospatial components of a study are derived using various methods such as aerial photographs, satellite imaging, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS)/Drone data, GPS survey, etc., based on the study's objective. Figure 2.1 displays different remote sensing components for collecting NRM data. Remotely sensed data captured through different satellites and other platforms such as drones platforms has wide applications in natural resource management disciplines. Multiple data from various sources also serve as input for other environmental models (Melesse and Graham 2004). The combined use of GIS, remote sensing data, and GPS has enabled researchers and natural resource managers to establish management plans for various applications (Philipson et al. 2003). The rest of this chapter will focus on multiple geospatial technologies and their application in different natural resource management areas.

Figure 2.1 Different components of remote sensing used for collecting a wide range of information. Based on Manfreda et al. (2018).