PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
May 2014
399
BOOK
REVIEW
Remote Sensing
Siamak Khorram, Frank H. Koch, Cynthia F.
van der Wiele and Stacy A.C. Nelson.
Springer Briefs in Space Development. New York,
Heidelberg, Dordrecht, London. 2012. v and 134 pp.,
diagrams, maps, photos, images, index. Paperback. $49.95
ISBN 978-1-4614-3102-2.
Reviewed by:
Demetrio P. Zourarakis, Ph.D.,
GISP, CMS-RS, CMS-GIS/LIS, Remote Sensing
and GIS Analyst, Kentucky Division of Geographic
Information, Frankfort KY.
This brief but significant and appealing volume – 134 pages in
all – is published as a collaboration including the International
Space University (France). The book is organized into eight
chapters, plus a section with the authors’ biographical
sketches, a table of contents and an index. As a primer on the
subject, the book unavoidably possesses a compressed feel; it
also succeeds in providing - within those bounds as much an
up-to-date and as inclusive a view as possible of the various
scientific and technological fields of knowledge encompassed
by remote sensing. A compendium of this nature is committed
by force to be a sweeping view of a vast field. The authors state
their objective to “. . . provide [the reader] . . . with a basic
introduction to remote sensing and [to] showcase a variety of its
applications . . .” The book is not basic in the sense that it uses
concepts and vocabulary that reflect the vastness and maturity
of the sciences and technologies attendant to remote sensing.
The first three chapters explore foundational topics, covering
the definition, history and fundamentals of remote sensing
and image processing and analysis. The examples chosen
are appropriate for the enumeration of type of sensor data,
instruments, platforms and missions. Chapters 4-6 deal with
the applications of remote sensing for terrestrial, atmospheric,
oceanic and planetary exploration (refreshing to see that space
exploration is acknowledged as an important counterpart in the
use of remote sensing –one of the first applications of remote
sensing). The last two chapters cover the aspects of legislation
and governmental policies, and of future trends in the field,
respectively. The authors devote a section to the International
Charter on Space and Major Disasters, which is a program
of global relevance and value. The individual chapters are
structured in a logical way: a brief abstract of the subject
matter to be discussed, the title, the exposition, a section on
references, one with web resources and one with suggested
readings – these two not always present. Only the first chapter
includes key questions at the end; it would be beneficial to
have all those elements present consistently in every chapter.
The last chapter sports a text box (7.1) – which could have
been very useful as a focal point resource in other chapters.
One aspect that would require attention in future editions
is that the index only lists as entries the section headings
rather than the keywords boldfaced on the text, which makes
searching difficult for the occurrence of a term. On the other
hand, a comprehensive listing would have possibly extended
the length of the book. The use of the term “ground truth”
is objectionable, as it has been replaced in the literature by
“field-check” and “reference data”. Among the most noticeable
omissions are: (1) the term “reflectance” only used in the text
and on graphics, but not defined or referenced in the index; (2)
the text failing to mention that aerial digital imagery now is
commonly issued in 4-band, high radiometric resolution (Ch. 2);
(3) the credits to the development of NDVI (Ch. 3); (4) and the
pre-processing step of orthorectification or terrain correction
(Ch. 3). Illustrations, which are both the book’s strength and
liability, are well chosen, and most of them are useful and offer
good examples of what is being discussed on the text. However,
a number of figures refer in their captions to colors when the
figures are rendered black and white (e.g. Figs. 2.5, 2.6, 5.3,
5.9, and 6.8). Other figures have text in black on a grayscale
image, which makes it hard to read (e.g. Figs. 3.9, 5.4). Other
figures exhibit a legend in grayscale that is confusing (e.g. Fig.
4.1). Some figures would have benefited from the insertion
of arrows pointing to features (e.g. Fig. 4.10). Other figures
lack symbolization or legends (e.g. Fig. 6.2). The book is well
written, and is virtually free from typographic errors. In a
work of this nature, conciseness is of the essence and in some
cases accuracy suffers (e.g. On page 77: “… Infrared images
can differentiate between sub-surface materials.”). As a
primer in remote sensing, this book can be of extreme value for
a relatively early use in the educational continuum. It should
be recommended for potential use by secondary – high school
