Remote Sensing of Protected Lands

National parks, wildlife refuges and sanctuaries, natural reserves, conservation areas, frontier lands, and marine-protected areas are increasingly recognized as essential providers of ecosystem services and biological resources. As debates about climate change and sustainability intensify, protected areas become more important as indicators of ecosystem conditions in particular environments or in comparison with adjacent environments.

The first book of its kind, Remote Sensing of Protected Lands showcases state-of-the-art remote sensing applications for the inventory and monitoring of protected areas. Contributions from renowned scholars and experts from around the world are organized into four sections covering the use of remote sensing in:

• Changing landscapes and change detection
• Inventory, mapping, and conservation
• Inventory and monitoring of frontier lands
• Decision support for the management of protected lands

 

A View of Both the Forest and the Trees

Combining reviews of theories and methods with analysis of case studies, the book gives readers both a systematic view of the field and detailed knowledge of specific topics. Case studies explore key topics in the context of a wide range of protected areas, including national parks in the United States and Canada, the Albertine Rift in eastern Africa, the Amazon forests, the Changbai Mountain region in Northeast Asia, the frontier lands in Siberia and the Tibetan Plateau, and marine protected areas along the tropical and temperate Pacific and Atlantic coasts.

Alongside each case study, the book examines advanced remote sensing technologies such as airborne and spaceborne high spatial resolution imageries, multispectral and multitemporal time series data, satellite interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR), and the integration of remote sensing and field measurements for information extraction and modeling. Discussing challenges, lessons learned, and recommendations, this book provides a snapshot of how remote sensing techniques can be used to gather extensive spatial, spectral, temporal, and thematic information on protected lands and waters.

Author Biography

Dr. Yeqiao Wang is a professor at the Department of Natural Resources Science, University of Rhode Island. He has received several awards for his work, including the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from President William J. Clinton in 2000. Dr. Wang’s specialties are terrestrial remote sensing and modeling in natural resources analysis and mapping. He has published more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, 70 abstracts and conference papers, and contributed more than 20 peer-reviewed book chapters. He also edited Remote Sensing of Coastal Environments (CRC Press 2009). Dr. Wang serves as the editor in chief for Encyclopedia of Natural Resources (Taylor & Francis), a three-volume set of Land, Air, and Water. Besides his professional publications in English, he has also authored and edited several science books in Chinese.

For more information, see Dr. Wang’s web site at the University of Rhode Island.