Global Change studies are increasingly being considered a vital source of information to understand the Earth Environment, in particular in the framework of human-induced climate change and land use transformation. Satellite Earth Observing systems provide a unique tool to monitor those changes. While the range of applications and innovative techniques is constantly increasing, this book provides a summary of key case studies where satellite data offer critical information to understand the causes and effects of those environmental changes, minimizing their negative impacts.This book will be of interest to researchers and practitioners in the field of remote sensing, geographical information, meteorology and environmental sciences. Also scientists and graduate up to post-graduate level students in environmental science will find valuable information in this book.

Few books cover the contributions of Remote Sensing to Global Change issues

The Role of Small Satellite Missions in Global Change Studies.- Spatial Pattern Analysis of Water-Driven Land Cover Change in Aridzone, Northwest of China.- A Spatial Logistic Regression Model for Simulating Land Use Patterns: A Case Study of the Shiraz Metropolitan Area of Iran.- Abu Dhabi Island: Analysis of Development and Vegetation Change Using Remote Sensing (1972-2000).- Remote Sensing of Coastal Water Quality in the Baltic Sea Using MERIS.- Remote Sensing for Water Quality Monitoring in Apalachicola Bay, USA.- Extracting Cryospheric Information over Lowlands from L-Band Polarimetric SAR Data.- Variability of Northern Hemisphere Spring Snowmelt Dates Using the AVHRR Polar Pathfinder Snow Cover During 1982-2004.- MODIS Snow Monitoring Over the Tibetan Plateau.- The Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS): Detecting the Fingerprints of Global Change in Geodetic Quantities.- Monitoring Radial Tectonic Motions of Continental Borders Around the Atlantic Ocean and Regional Sea Level Changes by Space Geodetic Observations.- GNSS Activities for Natural Disaster Monitoring and Climate Change Detection at GFZ - An Overview.- Satellite Imagery for Landslide Mapping in an Earthquake-Struck Area.- Relations Between Human Factors and Global Fire Activity.- The Use of Remote Sensing Data and Meteorological Information for Food Security Monitoring, Examples in East Africa.- Application of an Early Warning System for Floods.- L-Band and C-Band Combined Interferometric Monitoring of the Wenchuan Earthquake.- Uncovering the Space-Time Patterns of Change with the Use of Change Analyst - Case Study of Hong Kong.- Change Detection of Sea Ice Distribution in SAR Imagery Using Semi-variogram of Intrinsic Regionalization Model.