Remote Sensing has numerous applications in the civilian government sector. These include: Land Use and Mapping, Geology, Hydrology, Coastal Resources, Environmental Monitoring, Forestry, Wildlife Habitat Assessments, and monitoring the spread of insect infestations and disease. Accurate cartographic mapping can track the evolution of terrains with the passage of time. Expanding populations has resulted in urban growth with attendant problems such as traffic and air pollution. Observations of the time evolution of urban areas also allows making predictions of future growth and land use. Hyperspectral imaging brings the additional dimension of high spectral resolution across multiple spectral bands to better characterize spatial and temporal trends across multiple sectors.
Detailed assessments of the impact of both natural and man-made disasters are made possible through advanced data analytics applied to high spatial and temporal resolution remote-sensing hyperspectral imagery. Fresh water supplies are becoming an increasingly important resource with multiple demands being placed on it for agriculture, urban and natural uses. Therefore, monitoring both the sources of fresh water such as snow cover, streams, rivers, lakes and reservoirs and their usage is becoming critical in the 21st century. Finally, with the increasing awareness of global warming and other man-made environmental disasters, remote-sensing is the only global and economically viable option for accurate assessments of the impact of industrial and other human activities on the environment.
