This is a detailed description of the steps leading from raw signals measured in space, to calibrated comparable long term data sets, to its final form: useful information for user communities. Examples of applications and data validations result from different investigations in the Mediteranean area. An appendix summarizes useful formulas of the evaluation of satellite data.

Land degradation and desertification are amongst the most severe threats to human welfare and the environment, as they affect the livelihoods of some 2 billion people in the worlds drylands, and they are directly connected to pressing global environmental problems, such as the loss of biological diversity or global climate change. Strategies to co

Mohamed Larbi Selassi Deputy Director of the National Meteorology, Morocco Welcome address (translated from French) WMO, WCRP, Medias-France and scientific institutions representatives, ladies and gentlemen, to thank WMO and MEDIAS-France, who have honoured us by I want first organizing the two workshops, climate indices in Africa and data assessment for global change research in the Mediterranean region, in Casablanca and I welcome all of you here in Morocco. It is with great pleasure that I open these two workshops on behalf of myself and on behalf of the Direction of the Meteorologie N ationale of Morocco. Climate change is becoming the focus of the international community because of its global scale and unpredictable effects, the numerous impacts it causes, its global feature and the complexity of the solutions that can mitigate its impacts. Global warming and the greenhouse effect became a subject of study at the international level since the United Nations Conference on the human environment that was held in Stockholm in 1972. The research and coordination efforts that have been made in this area have led to an "International Scientific consensus". High level meetings like those held in Toronto in 1988, in Lahaye in 1989 and in Geneva in 1990, did confirm the greenhouse threat and the emergency to treat it.

Remote Sensing of Soil and Land Surface Processes: Monitoring, Mapping, and Modeling couples artificial intelligence and remote sensing for mapping and modeling natural resources, thus expanding the applicability of AI and machine learning for soils and landscape studies and providing a hybridized approach that also increases the accuracy of image analysis. The book covers topics including digital soil mapping, satellite land surface imagery, assessment of land degradation, and deep learning networks and their applicability to land surface processes and natural hazards, including case studies and real life examples where appropriate. This book offers postgraduates, researchers and academics the latest techniques in remote sensing and geoinformation technologies to monitor soil and surface processes. - Introduces object-based concepts and applications, enhancing monitoring capabilities and increasing the accuracy of mapping - Couples artificial intelligence and remote sensing for mapping and modeling natural resources, expanding the applicability of AI and machine learning for soils and sediment studies - Includes the use of new sensors and their applications to soils and sediment characterization - Includes case studies from a variety of geographical areas

During geologic spans of time, Earth's shifting tectonic plates, atmosphere, freezing water, thawing ice, flowing rivers, and evolving life have shaped Earth's surface features. The resulting hills, mountains, valleys, and plains shelter ecosystems that interact with all life and provide a record of Earth surface processes that extend back through Earth's history. Despite rapidly growing scientific knowledge of Earth surface interactions, and the increasing availability of new monitoring technologies, there is still little understanding of how these processes generate and degrade landscapes. Landscapes on the Edge identifies nine grand challenges in this emerging field of study and proposes four high-priority research initiatives. The book poses questions about how our planet's past can tell us about its future, how landscapes record climate and tectonics, and how Earth surface science can contribute to developing a sustainable living surface for future generations.

A volume in the three-volume Remote Sensing Handbook series, Remote Sensing of Water Resources, Disasters, and Urban Studies documents the scientific and methodological advances that have taken place during the last 50 years. The other two volumes in the series are Remotely Sensed Data Characterization, Classification, and Accuracies, and Land Reso