Matt Hansen, the co-director of South Dakota State University’s Geographic Information Science Center for Excellency, spoke with Mongabay.com about the importance of Landsat data to forest cover monitoring. The historical Landsat database together with the satellites’ regular coverage and its free data have made Landsat a vital tool for assessing forest conservation. Such assessments are growing in importance as tropical forest conservation is incentivized (e.g., the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) program).
Further Information:
+ “Free availability of satellite imagery has boosted deforestation monitoring
applications, but risk of data gap looms” Mongabay.com, Sept. 29 [external link] [pdf]
Above the Earth, Below the Surface: Landsat’s Role in Monitoring Water Quality
September 18, 2023
Safeguarding freshwater resources is crucial, and while scientists use a variety of ground-based techniques to gauge water quality, the Landsat program has provided water quality data from orbit for decades.
