Remote sensing of desert regions: a tool to aid research and development

This paper explores the role and uses of remote sensing methods and imagery as an essential part of any research and development programme. The study focuses on an area of semi-arid/arid land, covering 11200 km², known as the Eastern Badia of Jordan in the Middle East. Recent overgrazing of the vegetation and degradation of the soil resource has raised the need for increasing the awareness about these important physical resources. Remote sensing research has focused on three areas that are not mutually exclusive. Firstly using ERS SAR data, initially over a time period of two years, work is being undertaken to monitor and extract information about surface properties understood to influence the backscatter coefficient, for example soil moisture and surface roughness. Secondly, using coarse resolution NOAA AVHRR and ERS-2 ATSR-2 imagery, research is being carried out to assess the sensitivity of the reflectance values to changes in seasonal vegetation conditions. Accompanying this work, progress is being made to establish the added usefulness of the off-nadir view angle of the ERS ATSR-2 instrument in semi-arid regions. The third aspect of the work is using Landsat TM data to monitor longer term land use change, for example observations indicate an increase in the number of permanent agricultural fields being established in part of the region. TM data are also being used with SAR data to monitor and map habitat features and boundaries. For example, such parameters that may be considered important to some animal species may be shelter, proximity to vegetation for food and burrowing and the location of areas of standing water