PE&RS June 2000

Cover Image

The cover for this special issue on Africa shows an area of western Burkina Faso, West Africa, as imaged by Landsat 1 and Landsat 7 satellites in 1972 and 1999, respectively. At top is a standard color infrared Multispectral Scanner image from 14 November 1972. At bottom is a color infrared Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus image from 20 October 1999. Both images were acquired at the beginning of the dry season. In the 1972 image, numerous annual grass fires had swept through the wooded plateaus that dominate the region (burned areas are dark blue-green). The 1999 image was acquired following a very wet rainy season and shows major inundation (dark blue and black) along the Volta Noire River floodplain. In the later image, a major expansion of agriculture is visible (mottled texture, light tones). Agricultural expansion has been driven by migrants from Burkina’s densely populated Central Plateau who are seeking new land with better soil and rainfall conditions. The recent settlers are planting cotton, along with subsistence crops. Here, as in many parts of Africa, agricultural expansion is a critical driving force of environmental change. Several protected woodlands (red) have been spared from this expansion; the vegetation of numerous plateaus (green) has been degraded by drought and human pressure.

For more information about Landsat 7 data, please see http://landsat7.usgs.gov/. For information about the U.S. Geological Survey/EROS Data Center’s International Program, see http://edcintl.cr.usgs.gov/ip/ip.html.

Introduction

672 GIS Applications in Africa (Adobe .pdf 477kb)
Merrill Conitz

Highlight Article

674 Development and Utilization of Remote Sensing Technology in Africa (Adobe .pdf 595kb)
Adigun Ade Abiodun

Peer-Reviewed Articles (Click the linked titles to see the full abstract)

709 Radar and Optical Data Integration for Land-Use/Land-Cover Mapping
Barry N. Haack, Nathaniel D. Herold, and Matthew A. Bechdol

Sensor integration improved the accuracy of mapping land covers, especially settlements, for three sites in East Africa but required different radar data manipulations.

717 Applications of Orbital Imaging Radar for Geologic Studies in Arid Regions:  The Saharan Testimony
Mohamed G. Abdelsalam, Cordula Robinson, Farouk El-Baz, and Robert J. Stern

The data were used to explore the eastern Sahara, including lithological and structural mapping, geomorphological studies, and mineral exploration.

727 Use of Argon, Corona, and Landsat Imagery to Assess 30 Years of Land Resource Changes in West-Central Senegal
G. Gray Tappan, Amadou Hadj, Eric C. Wood, and Ronald W. Lietzow

Argon, Corona, and Landsat Images document for history a major transformation in Senegal’s natural and agricultural resources.

737 Generalizing El Niño Effects Upon Maasai Livestock Using Hierarchical Clusters of  Vegetation Patterns
Randall B. Boone, Kathleen A. Galvin, Nicole M. Smith, and Stacy J. Lynn

Results from household-level interviews may be quantitatively extrapolated to broader areas if the results are associated with changes in remotely sensed images.  

745 Use of Radar Data to Delineate Palaeodrainage Flow Directions in the Selima Sand Sheet, Eastern Sahara
Cordula Robinson, Farouk El-Baz, Mutlu Ozdogan, Michael Ledwith, Daniel Blanco, Susan Oakly, and Jennifer Inzana

Radar data show that palaeodrainage directions in the Selima Sand Sheet are to the NE and ENE such that the slope of the North African plate remained generally northward during the Cenozoic period, and ground-water accumulation will have preferentially occurred to the northeast of the Selima Sand Sheet.

755 Remote Sensing and GIS Modeling for Selection of a Benchmark Research Area in the Inland Valley Agroecosystems of West Central Africa
Prasad S. Thenkabail, Christian Nolte, and John G. Lyon

The focus here is on a methodology for Level II characterization for benchmark research-area selection using SPOT HRV data, secondary GIS datasets, and detailed ground-truth data with GPS locations.

769 Mapping Land Rights in Mozambique
Paul S. Anderson

Local residents can use highly enlarged aerial photography to delimit property and community boundaries for entry into a GIS database. 

777 Satellite Observations of the Interplay between Wind and Water  Processes in the Great Sahara
Farouk El-Baz

Space-borne images reveal that Saharan sand was deposited in inland lakes by former rivers to be later shaped by wind into dunes and sand sheets.

Announcements
735 ASPRS/ACSM Conference – “Pratical Applications in the Geospatial Information Sciences”

Columns & Updates
687 Headquarters News – 1996-2000 National Report to ISPRS
695 Grids & Datums – Ghana
698 Industry News

Departments
704 Who’s Who in ASPRS
705 Sustaining Members
706 New Members
708 Index to Advertisers
708 Corporate Description
736 Instructions to Authors
754 Forthcoming Articles
783 Calendar
784 Classifieds
787 Bookstore
791 Professional Directory
795 Membership Application

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