Bulletin Spring‧Summer 1995

An Intelligent Environmental Monitoring System The Need for Environmental Monitorin g Changes in the environment can be caused by either natural catastrophies like floods, typhoons, and volcanic eruptions, or the human factor like industrial pollution and urban development. Whatever the cause, such changes may result not only in the loss of life and property in the short term, but also environmental degradation in the long term. To conserve the environment, it is essential that environmental changes such as variations in the conditions, patterns, and dynamics of air, water, and land resources, are effectively monitored. The First Generation of Integrated Geographic Information Systems (IGIS) Recent advancement in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology has enabled environmental scientists to incorporate spatial data collected via diverse sources for monitoring purposes. In the GIS can be found digitized maps, demographic figures, and mu l t i t empora l information about the temperature, humidity, size, boundary, etc. of specific locations. Closely linked with GIS is remote sensing technology under which special data are acquired in the form of images depicting spatial variation of terrestrial objects in terms of spectral reflectance. ThewesternNewTerritorie s as portrayed by IGIS Research 26