Using Remote Sensing to Evaluate Environmental Institutional Designs: A Habitat Conservation Planning Example

Satellite-based remote-sensing analysis is a beneficial, yet underused, tool for environmental policy, planning, and evaluation. We identify its benefits and costs to encourage social scientists to consider the use of remote sensing as a tool for planning and evaluating environmental institutions. M...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social science quarterly 2002-03, Vol.83 (1), p.244-262
Main Authors: Schweik, Charles M., Thomas, Craig W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Artificial satellites
Biodiversity
Conservation
Conservation areas
Cost control
Design
Ecology
Endangered & extinct species
Environment
Environmental conservation
Environmental institutions
Environmental policy
Environmental Strategies and Policies
Habitat conservation
Habitats
Image analysis
Land
Land cover
Landsat
Landsat satellites
Performance evaluation
Pixels
Planning
Principal components analysis
Remote sensing
Sand
Satellite systems
Satellites
Sensors
Social sciences
Social sciences research
Wildlife conservation
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Satellite-based remote-sensing analysis is a beneficial, yet underused, tool for environmental policy, planning, and evaluation. We identify its benefits and costs to encourage social scientists to consider the use of remote sensing as a tool for planning and evaluating environmental institutions. Methods. We analyze two multispectral Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite images to evaluate a habitat conservation plan (HCP) implemented pursuant to the Endangered Species Act. Results. Image analysis provides useful broad spatial scale information on HCP performance that is not discernible to the naked eye or through other methodologies. Conclusions. Satellite image analysis should be considered as a tool for planning and evaluating environmental institutional designs—despite the financial costs and requisite technical training. These images provide ecological and land cover change information that may not be available elsewhere. We provide lessons learned to help make analysts cognizant of some important issues surrounding the use of satellite-based imagery for environmental institutional analysis.
ISSN:0038-4941
1540-6237
DOI:10.1111/1540-6237.00081