This article by Mary Jo Wagner first appeared in The American Surveyor Magazine
Energized by the launch of the International Polar Year in 2007, two companies came together that same year to initiate their own commitment to the planet: Planet Action (PA). Co-founded by satellite data provider Spot Image (now Astrium GEO-Information Services) and GIS provider Esri, Planet Action provides geospatial technology and expertise to organizations working on climate change causes, impacts and solutions.
To understand the significantly challenging mission of Planet Action’s projects, consider the small sampling of some of the land issues before them.
• Mexico loses on average 350,000 hectares of forested land every year, an area about the size of Rhode Island.
• Colombia loses nearly 200,000 ha of forests every year–though the true figure may be higher since an estimated 100,000 ha of native forest are illegally cleared annually.
• France has a mountainous region in the Pyrenees with an uncertain environmental future. The abrupt abandonment of this formerly human-dominated land in the Pyrenees in the 20th century, coupled with natural afforestation, has produced an organically grown land-use conundrum–how to understand the impacts of this severe land-cover change and create a balanced ecosystem that supports both biodiversity and the return of human interest in the land.
These three examples are only a razor-thin slice of the environmental issues layering the globe. However, they do represent three successful beginnings on that elusive road to environmental sustainability, the ultimate goal for the hundreds of projects supported by Planet Action. And on a personal note for five students at the University of Vermont (UVM), these three projects seeded a unique work-study class and helped to launch five budding careers in the geospatial industry.
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