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Published: 1997

Total Pages: 79

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This document provides an organized guide to currently available and near-term remote sensors for land managers. Inexperienced as well as more advanced users can use this guide as a source of information and guidance in remote sensing decision making. The Selection Key, contains three sections; vegetation, soils, and land management objectives. Each of the three sections is organized by ecoregion, allowing the user to identify the imagery capable of meeting their needs. Many of the management objectives within the keys contain references to applicable articles describing scientific investigations. These referenced articles can provide the resource manager with information and ideas of how to approach their management objectives. Sensor Fact Sheets provide details on each sensor, and includes information on spatial resolution, band width, cost, revisit time, and other image characteristics. Sheets can be removed from the binder to allow side-by-side comparison of the sensors identified by the Selection Key. Sample Statements of Work and sources of Acquisition Assistance are included. Land managers can use the examples given to help them procure imagery themselves or to determine if additional assistance is needed. Brief explanatory sections cover the elements that make up a remotely sensed image, and how image interpreters use those elements to extract information from the image. There are also appendices, more appropriate for advanced users, that discuss spectral information and imagery sources. This guide will be successful if it helps resource managers better understand the nature of remotely sensed imagery, how to select specific sensors for specific tasks, decide whether to work independently or to use contractor expertise, find literature that discuss case studies similar to theirs, interpret historical imagery, and locate free or inexpensive imagery already owned by government agencies.