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Thematic mapping from satellite imagery: A guidebook
466
Book Reviews
and Barry Thomas use marginal economics to look at the growth of presentations about the past as businesses. Although the neo-classical rhetoric of neutrality unfortunately suppresses a range of issues ('conserve' and 'deteriorate' are used as if they could be neutral descriptors), they highlight how heritage is being produced, that it is not a fixed stock, and has expanded to meet demands. The benefit of their approach is they do not see such expansion as the sign of the apocalypse, the disadvantage is they are debarred from investigating the causes of the expansion and are left positing state intervention as a response to market failure. The last group of papers make clear there are many more concrete reasons for state intervention. The detailed and eloquent chapter by Pyrs Gruffud provides an object lesson in the mobilisation of the past for various political projects, suggesting the often conflicting ways a sense of Welsh identity has been utilised. He relates differing visions of Welsh history, showing how ideas contrasting a 'folk' people with an urban, modern proletariat have been used to support political projects, how these cross-cut with senses of what should be preserved, what form of 'modernity' might be best in the Welsh landscape, and how this intersects with such projects as the Welsh Folk Museum. Particularly interesting is the account of contested 'curatorial' rights and power, with anglicised preservers stressing the visual aspects of Welsh vernacular, or rather suggesting that Welsh culture may privilege the aural, and the resistance of campaigners seeing an anglicised lanscape aesthetic being imported, Such a struggle over national identity neatly sets off Gregory Ashworth's argument over the possibilities of a European heritage promoting a European identity. In a review of objections and political positions, he certainly suggests a vacuum in creating a sense of shared history within Europe - - and ends on a suitably uncertain note, as to the nature of that history. The chapter provokes questions of whether forging a European identity on the model of heritage would not replicate all the suppressions and exclusions that national histories have done. It is indeed, as he suggests, a challenging agenda for policy and research. In summary, this collection addresses several issues but tends to do so in a rather limited manner. In part that is due to the brevity of contributions on each topic, where even successful chapters leave more questions than answers. In part it is the targeting of works at policy accounts, which leaves many of the causes and implications unexamined. Very rarely did any authors (apart from the last two above) discuss what might constitute 'heritage' and what the implications of that might be. If the reader is looking for an examination of assumptions, both about heritage and tourism, they will have to look hard indeed. This book is long on possible implications and short on theory.
earlier Environment and Development, but it introduces a new sustainable development perspective and brings together a wealth of recent ideas, concepts and themes. It is well written, extensively referenced, and highly engaging. David Pearce, on the back cover, suggests that it is 'essential reading'. Bartelmus writes from a relatively unique vantage point, from a professional background within the United Nations, and with a global and interdisciplinary perspective. This is no dry text or sweeping polemic. Rather, it offers some very practical propositions for identifying, quantifying and tackling conflicts (particularly the macroeconomic conflicts) between economic production and consumption, and loss of natural resources and environmental quality. Inevitably much of the material is economic, but the analysis also encompasses social, cultural, aesthetic and ethical issues. The format works well, with many small text boxes focusing on key techniques, concepts or case studies. Examples are drawn from many different countries, and the emphasis on the post-Rio environmental debate is lively and valuable. The material is covered in six chapters. Chapter 1 explores the evidence for the non-sustainability of human activity on Earth, and concludes that much of the available data (e.g. on resource depletion and environmental degradation) is partial or contradictory. Bartelmus proposes a new integrated System of Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA) in Chapter 2, and calls for the development of new (environmentally-adjusted) indicators of Domestic Product and National Income. The argument unfolds further in Chapter 3, where a new workable (and environmentally-sound) type of sustainable economic growth is defined and outlined. The policies which would logically underpin such an approach to economic growth are charted in Chapters 4 and 5, which deal with sustainable growth and sustainable development respectively. The discussion comes full circle in Chapter 6, picking up the global themes introduced in Chapter 1 and calling for an international commitment to move forward in implementing the Rio recommendations. The books would make an ideal course text in sustainable development because it seeks to put flesh on many of the conceptual ideas which have so extensively written about since the Brundtland Report in 1987. In many ways Bartelmus's book is the next major sustainable development landmark after Brundtland. It deserves to be widely read, and its ideas and arguments should inform the sustainable development debate through to the close of the millennium. CHRIS PARK
Lancaster University
MIKE C R A N G
Department of Geography University of Durham
Environment, Growth and Development, Peter Bartelmus,
163 pp., 1994, Routledge, London and New York, £10.99 pbk This interesting and timely book builds on the author's
Thematic Mapping from Satellite Imagery: A Guidebook,
J. Den~gre, 1994, Published on Behalf of the International Cartographic Association by Pergamon, UK, £65 hbk The aim of the book "Thematic Mapping from Satellite Imagery: A Guidebook" is summarised in the preface by D.R.F. Taylor: ' . . . its purpose is to draw on practical application experience to formulate general rules for cartographic production from satellite imagery'. This is an original and laudable objective for a book which deals
Book Reviews exclusively with satellite earth observation systems and methods for the generation of thematic information. Given that there are currently many different types of satellite data that can be spatially referenced and visualised, the establishment of cartographic standards to represent the thematic content of satellite imagery is important for any practitioner of cartography or remote sensing. I was, therefore, eager to have the opportunity to satisfy my curiosity about methods of formal map making from satellite imagery given the increasingly wide variety of data sources continually becoming available. The book is the culmination of international collaboration between several different scientists and research groups. Consequently, it is hi-lingual in presentation (English and French) and has five chapters in total. Initially, this presentation format can be confusing although with perseverance, a structure emerges. Chapters 1 through 4 summarise, in English, standard methodologies for producing thematic maps from remotely sensed digital imagery. Chapter 5 is comprised exclusively of demonstrations of satellite cartographic maps with summaries in English and French. Chapters 1 to 4 are then repeated in French after Chapter 5, For me, the five chapters conveniently fall into three broad sections: methodologies outlining collection of satellite data and conversion of data to thematic information (Chapters 1 and 2), techniques used to represent cartographically thematic information (Chapters 3 and 4) and sample applications of the methods used in the first two sections (Chapter 5). As a guidebook for inexperienced satellite data users, the formalisation of these sections might have assisted the newcomer to remote sensing. Chapter I introduces the reader to sources of satellite digital imagery. Whilst the chapter describes adequately the characteristics of many 'conventional' satellite systems used for earth observation (e.g. Landsat, SPOT and M E T E O S A T ) , it fails to give adequate detail of sensors which are less commonly used but which are becoming increasingly important for earth observation, particularly at a global scale (e.g. DMSP SSM/I and ERS-I/2 systems). The categorisation of platforms and instruments follows the 'traditional" classification of meteorological versus land observation satellites, which for an inexperienced user can be confusing (the literature is full of examples where meteorological satellites are used for land applications and vice-versa). Since this book is aimed at cartographers, a classification based on sensor spatial resolution might have worked better. The section on Russian environmental satellites is very timely since it includes material about sources of data that have only recently become available. However, the remaining sensor descriptions are a little out of date and overall this chapter has a rather disordered layout. Chapter 2 provides a good overview of the production processes used to extract information from satellite digital data. In a very well structured chapter, "standard" methods arc described for visual and computer-assisted image analysis from pre-processing stages through to stages of thematic information extraction. The only sticking point is the lack of reference to methods used to extract thematic information from newer sensors; not all satellite image data is Landsat or TM and many scientists use synthetic aperture radar and passive microwave imagery in conjunction with visible/infra-red data. In Chapter 3, methods to combine satellite digital imagery
467
with conventional cartographic data are outlined. Initially, the chapter is concerned with geometric and radiometric correction of satellite imagery as a pre-requisite for fusion of different data sources. It then proceeds to describe methods of digital image presentation of satellite data that are used as the final map background. This latter part includes an interesting, but brief summary on the role of geographical information systems for such a task. I found this section more in keeping with the book's overall aim, as was the fourth chapter on design and semiology for cartographic representation. However, both GIS and design semiology aspects were disappointingly shorter than expected and did not completely satisfy the original objectives of the book. It would have been better to have devoted more space to these subject areas at the expense of some of the earlier sections on digital image processing. The final chapter is a collection of 2(i demonstrations of general 'satellite cartography' from many different research institutions. It is categorised into several application sub-sections ranging from mapping of urban areas to snow and ice mapping. In many cases, there are no references to preceding chapters and all too frequently, the summaries are too frugal to give the reader anything but an instant "overview' of the final product. Additionally, the applciations exclusively use visible and infra-red imagery from the conventional satellite platforms of Landsat, SPOT and TIROS-N: there are no demonstrations included which use passive or active microwave sensors from, for example, ERS-1/2 or DMSP platforms. It might have been better to tie specific examples with aspects from the preceding four chapters rather than present the demonstrations as stand-alone products. Given its original and unusual objective, the book does not satisfy its primary aims. This was a disappointment since it is not often that one is confronted by a book with a challenging objective. The book is an expensive guidebook aimed at new users of remotely sensed imagery and as such, its structure needs to be clarified to take full advantage of the wealth of examples included in Chapter 5. In addition, since its mission is to formulate general rules for cartographic production of satellite imagery, more emphasis could have been placed on the cartographic aspects rather than the standard image processing methods. However, the book does raise the important issue that standardised cartographic constraints should be developed for the presentation of the thematic content of satellite remotely sensed data. With the growing availability of new satellite data sources, such rules can only help in the effective and efficient dissemination of satellite information. R I C H A R D KELLY
Department qf Geography, Birkheck College University of London Broken Promises: Agrarian Reform and the Latin American Campesino, William C. Thiesenhusen, 226 pp., 1995, Westview Press. Boulder, San Francisco and Oxford, £44.5(I hbk, £13.51) pbk
This is a most timely and insightful volume. It proceeds from a baseline of semi-feudal colonial and post-colonial proprietary and social institutions and practices to a wellarticulated discussion of the pros and cons of remedies/ policies executed and/or merely contemplated pragmatic,
Book Reviews
and Barry Thomas use marginal economics to look at the growth of presentations about the past as businesses. Although the neo-classical rhetoric of neutrality unfortunately suppresses a range of issues ('conserve' and 'deteriorate' are used as if they could be neutral descriptors), they highlight how heritage is being produced, that it is not a fixed stock, and has expanded to meet demands. The benefit of their approach is they do not see such expansion as the sign of the apocalypse, the disadvantage is they are debarred from investigating the causes of the expansion and are left positing state intervention as a response to market failure. The last group of papers make clear there are many more concrete reasons for state intervention. The detailed and eloquent chapter by Pyrs Gruffud provides an object lesson in the mobilisation of the past for various political projects, suggesting the often conflicting ways a sense of Welsh identity has been utilised. He relates differing visions of Welsh history, showing how ideas contrasting a 'folk' people with an urban, modern proletariat have been used to support political projects, how these cross-cut with senses of what should be preserved, what form of 'modernity' might be best in the Welsh landscape, and how this intersects with such projects as the Welsh Folk Museum. Particularly interesting is the account of contested 'curatorial' rights and power, with anglicised preservers stressing the visual aspects of Welsh vernacular, or rather suggesting that Welsh culture may privilege the aural, and the resistance of campaigners seeing an anglicised lanscape aesthetic being imported, Such a struggle over national identity neatly sets off Gregory Ashworth's argument over the possibilities of a European heritage promoting a European identity. In a review of objections and political positions, he certainly suggests a vacuum in creating a sense of shared history within Europe - - and ends on a suitably uncertain note, as to the nature of that history. The chapter provokes questions of whether forging a European identity on the model of heritage would not replicate all the suppressions and exclusions that national histories have done. It is indeed, as he suggests, a challenging agenda for policy and research. In summary, this collection addresses several issues but tends to do so in a rather limited manner. In part that is due to the brevity of contributions on each topic, where even successful chapters leave more questions than answers. In part it is the targeting of works at policy accounts, which leaves many of the causes and implications unexamined. Very rarely did any authors (apart from the last two above) discuss what might constitute 'heritage' and what the implications of that might be. If the reader is looking for an examination of assumptions, both about heritage and tourism, they will have to look hard indeed. This book is long on possible implications and short on theory.
earlier Environment and Development, but it introduces a new sustainable development perspective and brings together a wealth of recent ideas, concepts and themes. It is well written, extensively referenced, and highly engaging. David Pearce, on the back cover, suggests that it is 'essential reading'. Bartelmus writes from a relatively unique vantage point, from a professional background within the United Nations, and with a global and interdisciplinary perspective. This is no dry text or sweeping polemic. Rather, it offers some very practical propositions for identifying, quantifying and tackling conflicts (particularly the macroeconomic conflicts) between economic production and consumption, and loss of natural resources and environmental quality. Inevitably much of the material is economic, but the analysis also encompasses social, cultural, aesthetic and ethical issues. The format works well, with many small text boxes focusing on key techniques, concepts or case studies. Examples are drawn from many different countries, and the emphasis on the post-Rio environmental debate is lively and valuable. The material is covered in six chapters. Chapter 1 explores the evidence for the non-sustainability of human activity on Earth, and concludes that much of the available data (e.g. on resource depletion and environmental degradation) is partial or contradictory. Bartelmus proposes a new integrated System of Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA) in Chapter 2, and calls for the development of new (environmentally-adjusted) indicators of Domestic Product and National Income. The argument unfolds further in Chapter 3, where a new workable (and environmentally-sound) type of sustainable economic growth is defined and outlined. The policies which would logically underpin such an approach to economic growth are charted in Chapters 4 and 5, which deal with sustainable growth and sustainable development respectively. The discussion comes full circle in Chapter 6, picking up the global themes introduced in Chapter 1 and calling for an international commitment to move forward in implementing the Rio recommendations. The books would make an ideal course text in sustainable development because it seeks to put flesh on many of the conceptual ideas which have so extensively written about since the Brundtland Report in 1987. In many ways Bartelmus's book is the next major sustainable development landmark after Brundtland. It deserves to be widely read, and its ideas and arguments should inform the sustainable development debate through to the close of the millennium. CHRIS PARK
Lancaster University
MIKE C R A N G
Department of Geography University of Durham
Environment, Growth and Development, Peter Bartelmus,
163 pp., 1994, Routledge, London and New York, £10.99 pbk This interesting and timely book builds on the author's
Thematic Mapping from Satellite Imagery: A Guidebook,
J. Den~gre, 1994, Published on Behalf of the International Cartographic Association by Pergamon, UK, £65 hbk The aim of the book "Thematic Mapping from Satellite Imagery: A Guidebook" is summarised in the preface by D.R.F. Taylor: ' . . . its purpose is to draw on practical application experience to formulate general rules for cartographic production from satellite imagery'. This is an original and laudable objective for a book which deals
Book Reviews exclusively with satellite earth observation systems and methods for the generation of thematic information. Given that there are currently many different types of satellite data that can be spatially referenced and visualised, the establishment of cartographic standards to represent the thematic content of satellite imagery is important for any practitioner of cartography or remote sensing. I was, therefore, eager to have the opportunity to satisfy my curiosity about methods of formal map making from satellite imagery given the increasingly wide variety of data sources continually becoming available. The book is the culmination of international collaboration between several different scientists and research groups. Consequently, it is hi-lingual in presentation (English and French) and has five chapters in total. Initially, this presentation format can be confusing although with perseverance, a structure emerges. Chapters 1 through 4 summarise, in English, standard methodologies for producing thematic maps from remotely sensed digital imagery. Chapter 5 is comprised exclusively of demonstrations of satellite cartographic maps with summaries in English and French. Chapters 1 to 4 are then repeated in French after Chapter 5, For me, the five chapters conveniently fall into three broad sections: methodologies outlining collection of satellite data and conversion of data to thematic information (Chapters 1 and 2), techniques used to represent cartographically thematic information (Chapters 3 and 4) and sample applications of the methods used in the first two sections (Chapter 5). As a guidebook for inexperienced satellite data users, the formalisation of these sections might have assisted the newcomer to remote sensing. Chapter I introduces the reader to sources of satellite digital imagery. Whilst the chapter describes adequately the characteristics of many 'conventional' satellite systems used for earth observation (e.g. Landsat, SPOT and M E T E O S A T ) , it fails to give adequate detail of sensors which are less commonly used but which are becoming increasingly important for earth observation, particularly at a global scale (e.g. DMSP SSM/I and ERS-I/2 systems). The categorisation of platforms and instruments follows the 'traditional" classification of meteorological versus land observation satellites, which for an inexperienced user can be confusing (the literature is full of examples where meteorological satellites are used for land applications and vice-versa). Since this book is aimed at cartographers, a classification based on sensor spatial resolution might have worked better. The section on Russian environmental satellites is very timely since it includes material about sources of data that have only recently become available. However, the remaining sensor descriptions are a little out of date and overall this chapter has a rather disordered layout. Chapter 2 provides a good overview of the production processes used to extract information from satellite digital data. In a very well structured chapter, "standard" methods arc described for visual and computer-assisted image analysis from pre-processing stages through to stages of thematic information extraction. The only sticking point is the lack of reference to methods used to extract thematic information from newer sensors; not all satellite image data is Landsat or TM and many scientists use synthetic aperture radar and passive microwave imagery in conjunction with visible/infra-red data. In Chapter 3, methods to combine satellite digital imagery
467
with conventional cartographic data are outlined. Initially, the chapter is concerned with geometric and radiometric correction of satellite imagery as a pre-requisite for fusion of different data sources. It then proceeds to describe methods of digital image presentation of satellite data that are used as the final map background. This latter part includes an interesting, but brief summary on the role of geographical information systems for such a task. I found this section more in keeping with the book's overall aim, as was the fourth chapter on design and semiology for cartographic representation. However, both GIS and design semiology aspects were disappointingly shorter than expected and did not completely satisfy the original objectives of the book. It would have been better to have devoted more space to these subject areas at the expense of some of the earlier sections on digital image processing. The final chapter is a collection of 2(i demonstrations of general 'satellite cartography' from many different research institutions. It is categorised into several application sub-sections ranging from mapping of urban areas to snow and ice mapping. In many cases, there are no references to preceding chapters and all too frequently, the summaries are too frugal to give the reader anything but an instant "overview' of the final product. Additionally, the applciations exclusively use visible and infra-red imagery from the conventional satellite platforms of Landsat, SPOT and TIROS-N: there are no demonstrations included which use passive or active microwave sensors from, for example, ERS-1/2 or DMSP platforms. It might have been better to tie specific examples with aspects from the preceding four chapters rather than present the demonstrations as stand-alone products. Given its original and unusual objective, the book does not satisfy its primary aims. This was a disappointment since it is not often that one is confronted by a book with a challenging objective. The book is an expensive guidebook aimed at new users of remotely sensed imagery and as such, its structure needs to be clarified to take full advantage of the wealth of examples included in Chapter 5. In addition, since its mission is to formulate general rules for cartographic production of satellite imagery, more emphasis could have been placed on the cartographic aspects rather than the standard image processing methods. However, the book does raise the important issue that standardised cartographic constraints should be developed for the presentation of the thematic content of satellite remotely sensed data. With the growing availability of new satellite data sources, such rules can only help in the effective and efficient dissemination of satellite information. R I C H A R D KELLY
Department qf Geography, Birkheck College University of London Broken Promises: Agrarian Reform and the Latin American Campesino, William C. Thiesenhusen, 226 pp., 1995, Westview Press. Boulder, San Francisco and Oxford, £44.5(I hbk, £13.51) pbk
This is a most timely and insightful volume. It proceeds from a baseline of semi-feudal colonial and post-colonial proprietary and social institutions and practices to a wellarticulated discussion of the pros and cons of remedies/ policies executed and/or merely contemplated pragmatic,