Satellite imagery with fine spectral and spatial resolution and high temporal resolution provides a unique opportunity to map and monitor biodiversity. The aim of this article is (i) to review the state of the use of high-resolution remote sensing for ecological studies in the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) and (ii) to suggest further potential avenues of research in the region using this technology.

Polarimetry is a technique for quantitatively estimating the change in polarization in a backscattered electromagnetic signal (in this case a radar signal) with reference to the polarization of the incident signal for estimating the geophysical properties (roughness and dielectric constant) of surface elements. In this study, quadrapole Radarsat-2 data have been utilized for mapping geological elements in Archaean terrain based on their geophysical parameters preserved in the four polarization channels of Radarsat-2 data.

Measures to select despeckling filter to remove speckles from TerraSAR-X image have been evaluated for an area having varied land cover classes. Gamma, Lee, Sigma, Mean, Median and Frost filters were applied in different window sizes. These images are visually compared and four parameters viz. Noise Mean Value (NMV), Noise Variance (NV), Mean Square Difference (MSD) and Equivalent Numbers of Looks (ENL) are calculated.

Geographically isolated wetlands (GIWs) are common features of the Dougherty Plain physiographic region in southwestern Georgia. Due to lack of protection at the state and federal levels, these wetlands are threatened by intensive agricultural and silvicultural land uses common in the region.

Updating land cover maps from remotely sensed data in a timely manner is important for many areas of scientific research. Unfortunately, traditional classification procedures are very labor intensive and subjective because of the required human interaction. Based on the strategy of updating land cover data only for the changed area, we proposed an integrated, automated approach to update land cover maps without human interaction.

Urban structural units (USUs) are work (or similar) units in urbanized areas. In this study, USUs based on urban land use and land cover were used to explain and compare urban ecological conditions within Beijing. This study focused on the spatial pattern of land use for different USUs in urban areas. The results showed that 453 USUs belong to 12 primary USUs and to 38 different secondary USUs. The percentage of built-up area was highest in those regions with hotels, and lowest in areas with cemeteries.

To provide a quantitative spatial analysis of the riverscape (open-water bodies and their surrounding areas) of the Western Amazonian lowlands using a consistent surface of remotely sensed imagery. Taking into account the essential significance of fluvial environments for the Amazonian biota, we propose that an enhanced understanding of the Amazonian riverscape will provide new insight for biogeographical studies in the region and contribute to the understanding of these megadiverse tropical lowlands.

The objective of this paper is to exploit the potential application of an evidential belief function model to landslide susceptibility mapping at Kuala Lumpur city and surrounding areas using geographic information system (GIS). At first, a landslide inventory map was prepared using aerial photographs, high resolution satellite images and field survey. A total 220 landslides were mapped and an inventory map was prepared. Then the landslide inventory was randomly split into a testing dataset 70% (153 landslides) and remaining 30% (67 landslides) data was used for validation purpose.

Land cover classification using remotely sensed data requires robust classification methods for the accurate mapping of complex land cover area of different categories. In this regard, support vector machines (SVMs) have recently received increasing attention. However, small number of training samples remains a bottleneck to design suitable supervised classifiers. On the other hand, adequate number of unlabeled data is available in remote sensing images which can be employed as additional source of information about margins.

The patterns of urban sprawl over a 20-year period presented in the study indicate unplanned development in the urban agglomerations of Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad. The visual interpretation of Landsat (1986, 1991, 1996 and 2001) and IRS-P6 (2005) was used to map land use/land cover and analyse urban sprawl. The saturation of urban areas within municipal limits, along with pressure from the growing population, resulted in the densification of the core urban areas within Dhanbad and Jamshedpur.

Flood regulation is a widely valued and studied service provided by watersheds. Flood regulation benefits people directly by decreasing the socio-economic costs of flooding and indirectly by its positive impacts on cultural (e.g., fishing) and provisioning (e.g., water supply) ecosystem services. Like other regulating ecosystem services (e.g., pollination, water purification), flood regulation is often enhanced or replaced by technology, but the relative efficacy of natural versus technological features in controlling floods has scarcely been examined.

Critical to effective urban climate adaptation is a clearer understanding of the sensitivities of resource demand to changing climatic conditions and land cover situations. We used Bayesian Maximum Entropy (BME) stochastic procedures to estimate temperature and precipitation at the very small scale of urban Census Block Groups (CBGs) in Phoenix, Arizona and Portland, Oregon, and then compared average household water use patterns by climate conditions and land cover characteristics between and within the two cities.