Application of high-resolution satellite data for land use studies in anthropology

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We investigated the potential of high-resolution satellite images (e.g., IKONOS, QUICKBIRD) and middle-resolution satellite images (e.g., Landsat TM, Landsat MSS) for producing geo-referenced maps that will be used in anthropological data collection or for reconstructing the transformation of human-environment relationships in the regions. The target regions were located in Papua New Guinea, China, Republic of Palau, and Solomon Islands. Our analysis indicated that remote sensing by utilizing high-or middle resolution satellite images will benefit anthropological studies in the following fields : (1)assessment of commercial logging impact on tropical forest (Solomon Islands), (2)reconstruction of past land use patterns (Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Hainan in China), (3)calculation of vegetation index for biomass evaluation (Papua New Guinea, Hainan in China), (4)utilization of folk-knowledge for land use studies (Hainan in China), (5)construction of geographic database for the prevention of infectious diseases (Palau), and (6)assessment of demographic impact on food production (Papua New Guinea). Further studies on the utilization of hyper-spectral satellite data or spatial statistics will provide useful information for anthropologists, though simplified analytical framework of satellite images should be presented for the utilization by non-professionals.