PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
February 2020
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Chapter 8: Societal Benefits - Methods and Examples for
Estimating the Value of Remote Sensing Information
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Remotely sensed data and information
(RSDI) is a form of
infrastructure for decision-making that supports many societal
activities. Remotely sensed data range over a wide array of spatial,
temporal, and spectral resolutions and have many applications that
can contribute to economic prosperity. Data collected using remote
sensors have improved society’s understanding of an array of Earth’s
natural and human systems by establishing baselines and monitoring
changes. Monitoring spatiotemporal change provides a means to
analyze how land use, land cover, air quality and sub-surface processes
are affected by human and natural activities. Increasingly, these
improvements in information have been applied in decision-making
processes that take place in both the public and private sectors.
RSDI provides an input to other activities that are considered an
intermediate economic good. As an intermediate good, the same
RSDI can have many uses simultaneously. Because RSDI is digital,
the cost of supplying the data is greatest to the first user; the cost of
disseminating information to additional users is much smaller than
the cost of obtaining information for the first user. In eco-nomics this
situation is referred to as jointness-of-supply. This is true for the great
majority of in-formation goods and gives rise to the need for studies
to demonstrate the socioeconomic benefits of the information. The
benefits of RSDI are best demonstrated when an analysis explains
how the da-ta can be applied and used to make a particular decision.
This chapter is an overview of the approaches that have been
undertaken to estimate the
value of information
(VOI) of RSDI and
other digital geospatial information. The VOI for RSDI depends on
what is at stake in a decision and how uncertain decision-makers
are. In its simplest form, VOI is defined as the gains that result from
making better decisions that are based on additional infor-mation
in the presence of uncertainty (e.g., benefits of improved weather
forecasts). In addition to providing realized cost savings, RSDI
provides new societal benefits from innovative applications (e.g.,
benefits of improved regulation of water quality). Examples of both
types of analyses are provided in summaries of several case studies.
Section 1 is an introduction that presents an overview of the VOI
concept from an economist’s perspective. Descriptions of the
microeconomics approach in Section 2 and macroeconomics ap-proach
in Section 3 follow the introduction. The microeconomic models focus
on quantitative evaluations of individual decisions with uncertain
information. The approach requires a specific application of remote
sensing information and involves a comparison of the benefits in a
scenario in which data are used to a scenario in which the data are not
available. Included in this part of the chapter are: a formal development
of a Bayesian decision model to determine VOI in Section 2.3, a
summary of cost – benefit analysis in Section 2.5.1, and empirical
valuation of publicly provided RSDI using stated preference methods
in section 2.5.2. In Section 3 macroeconomic approaches are described
that include input/output analysis in Section 3.2 and computable
equilibrium models in Section 3.3. These models address the VOI
problem in a different manner. The models are assumed to represent
an economy that is in equilibrium. The economic impact of remotely
sensed data can be evaluated at the national, regional, and local scales
to evaluate policies and regulations. Follow-ing the description of the
various approaches to quantifying VOI from RSDI, there are brief
sum-maries of fifteen case studies. A discussion and summary follows.
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Chapter 9: Space Policy and Space Law
INTRODUCTION
This chapter takes a holistic look, from the perspective of a data
user, of the legal considerations that ought to be accounted for
when acquiring data. To this end, a discussion of data gathering
plat-forms is integrated into these considerations rather than
having the chapter organized according to platform type.
The chapter takes a U.S.-centric perspective but also includes
non-U.S. materials and perspec-tives as well. Laws and regulations
of other nations are also addressed. Lessons learned and thoughts
about moving forward to increase the effectiveness of data
access and use are also includ-ed. The chapter is written for a
professional layperson; that is, a remote sensing professional.
