Anthropological Application of Remote Sensing

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The analysis of land cover or land use is a fundamental part for anthropologists, particularly, who are interested in ecological aspects of. the human populations. However, because of the methodological difficulty, the analysis has been limited to very small areas of the short period. In this concern/ remote sensing can be a strong tool for the anthropologists. This study aimed to investigate whether the remote sensing technology can contribute to the land cover/use analysis in anthropology.The study areas are three Papua New Guinea populations: the Oriomo plateau in the lowland, Tari basin in the Highlands, and the Balopa Island in the Northern sea. All the member of the study have collected various land use data in the populations for more than 10 years. For each area, we purchased several remote sensing data in different time period; they are Landsat MSS, Landsat TM, Landsat ETM+ and Ikonos. Major findings are summarizedas follows : (1) change in forest area could be detected by Landsat MSS or TM, but (2) the difference between area of slush-and burn cultivation field and secondary forest could not. (3) Ikonos could divide the stage of shifting cultivation, at least, into three types. (4) Digital Elevation Model was essential for the small-scale analysis of remote sensing.For the anthropologists, the information for the past or neighboring areas of the field have importance for the spatial or longitudinal generalization of the findings. The present study suggested that remote sensing is a strong tool for this point.