GIScience and remote sensing in natural resource and environmental research: Status quo and future perspectives

Abstract

Geographic information science (GIScience) and remote sensing have long provided essential data and methodological support for natural resource challenges and environmental problems research. With increasing advances in information technology, natural resource and environmental science research faces the dual challenges of data and computational intensiveness. Therefore, the role of remote sensing and GIScience in the fields of natural resources and environmental science in this new information era is a key concern of researchers. This study clarifies the definition and frameworks of these two disciplines and discusses their role in natural resource and environmental research. GIScience is the discipline that studies the abstract and formal expressions of the basic concepts and laws of geography, and its research framework mainly consists of geo-modeling, geo-analysis, and geo-computation. Remote sensing is a comprehensive technology that deals with the mechanisms of human effects on the natural ecological environment system by observing the earth surface system. Its main areas include sensors and platforms, information processing and interpretation, and natural resource and environmental applications. GIScience and remote sensing provide data and methodological support for resource and environmental science research. They play essential roles in promoting the development of resource and environmental science and other related technologies. This paper provides forecasts of ten future directions for GIScience and eight future directions for remote sensing, which aim to solve issues related to natural resources and the environment.

Keywords

Natural resource / Environmental science / GIScience / Remote sensing / Information technology

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. L1924041, 41525004) and the Research Project on the Discipline Development Strategy of Academic Divisions of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XK2019DXC006).

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