Remote sensing of tropical forest environments: Towards the monitoring of environmental resources for sustainable development

The potential to derive indicators of sustainable resource use from satellite remote sensing is discussed. Particular attention focuses on indicators related to land cover condition and type in tropical forest environments. This includes the mapping of forest cover, estimation of biomass and biodiversity as well as the impacts of extreme events such as drought on the forest. Each of these issues is discussed with emphasis placed on the potential to increase the level of information extraction beyond that derived with conventional approaches in order to more usefully inform sustainable development practices.