Introduction

Abstract

The papers in this supplementary issue of Arctic emerged from the First International Circumpolar Symposium on Remote Sensing of Arctic Environments held in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, 1-3 May 1990. From 1987 to 1990 personnel from the territorial government, the federal government and the private sector were trained in remote sensing techniques and applications as part of a remote sensing technology transfer program operating in the Northwest Territories. Demonstration projects were undertaken in a variety of fields and the results showed that remote sensing can be an important tool in natural resource management in the North. In order to share the knowledge and experience gained from this program and to exchange information on other programs in the circumpolar regions, a symposium was organized. This was the first symposium to deal specifically with remote sensing applications in northern environments, and the results proved to be of interest to scientists, scholars, and professionals involved in renewable and non-renewable resource management. It provided a forum for the exchange of current applied international research, the presentation of new technologies, and the advancement of international cooperation in the circumpolar regions of the world. The seven plenary sessions focused on the application of remotely sensed data to resource monitoring and management and included facilities and programs, remote sensing techniques, oceanography, hydrology, snow and ice, wildlife and wildlife habitat, geology, forestry and vegetation, and radar remote sensing. Over 80 scientists from Greenland, Norway, Denmark, the United States, Great Britain, and Canada attended the three-day symposium, which was jointly sponsored by the Department of Renewable Resources, Government of the Northwest Territories, and the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing, Energy, Mines and Resources Canada. ... This was the first of, we hope, many symposia at which northern scientists will be able to share their knowledge of the uses of remotely sensed data and geographic information systems.