Remote Sensing for Assessing Environmental Impacts Based on Sustainability Indicators

Sustainable development is that which meets the needs of the present without foreclosing the needs or options of the future. Many studies have been published on how to assess sustainability using indicators that describe the different activities that impact on the environment. These can be related to the three pillars of sustainability, ecological, economic and environmental dimensions of development. Early warning indicators need to be developed that identify and monitor impacts before excessive damage on the environment occurs. As well, indicators should be able to assess the effectiveness of policies that may impact on the environment. This paper will introduce the topic of sustainable development and the formulation of sustainability indicators. Current literature emphasises the use of hierarchical sets of indicators that aim to cover environmental, sociological and economic aspects of sustainability. The paper then considers the indicators that can be assessed using remote sensing technologies and gives examples of how they may be applied in practice.