IEEE/IGARSS 2007: Sensing and Understanding our Planet

The theme of this year symposium -"Sensing and Understanding our Planet"- suggests what remote sensing scientific activity should ultimately achieve: Information gathered by all sensors and techniques must be wisely used mainly to understand our Earth. This will improve prediction of natural disasters or global climate change and provide tools to prevent their consequences. Moreover, understanding Earth is needed to devise ways for using natural resources in a sustained way. Goal 7 of the UN millennium goals commits us to "Ensure environmental sustainability" and this is not just a nice sentence. According to the UN report, achieving the goal will require greater attention to the plight of the poor, whose day-to-day subsistence is often directly linked to the natural resources. As experts on the leading-edge technologies of Earth observation, we should play a prominent role in achieving this goal, as IGARSS is the forum where tools and technological advances for understanding our planet are presented. This is our contribution to the important task of assuring people of all around the world access to resources for their subsistence without endangering the fragile equilibrium of our planet.