Integration of remote sensing technology to geographic information system for sustainable planning of water resources

Remote sensing provides much of the information that is input to a GIS, from global scale vegetation and climatic data to the roof outlines entered into a municipal GIS. As with other fields, to make effective use of remote sensing technology requires technically skilled personal as well as the appropriate technology. Remote sensing and GIS technology developed separately. In part this was a result of the use of different technical skills. While a user of remote sensing technology may develop expertise in sensor systems and image processing methods, the expert GIS user may become more familiar with principles of map projections, spatial analysis, and the design of spatial data bases. Although the technology may encourage different technical orientations, in both cases the user must understand the nature of the information being collected-the forestry, geology, building structures, roadway design and so on. Ultimately, remote sensing and GIS technology are both used to collect, analyze, and report information about the earth's resources and the infrastructure we have developed to use them. The two technologies provide complementary capabilities. Remote sensing analyses are improved by the verification data retrieved from a GIS, and GIS applications can benefit from the information that remote sensing can generate. Often the image data are the most current spatial information available for an area. The use of digital image data offers the additional advantage of a computer compatible format that can be input directly to a GIS. The integrated use of remote sensing and GIS methods and technology can not only improve the quality of geographic information but also enable information previously unavailable to be economically produced. Over the past few years manufacturers have developed more sophisticated technology for integrating remote sensing systems and geographic information systems. The effective use of these tools, however, depends on user sufficiently knowledgeable to apply them. The objective of this paper is to examine geographical information system and its integration with Remote Sensing Technology for agricultural engineering applications in general but specifically related to water resources planning.