Aims of GRNS research

The Global Research Network System (GRNS) is a five year program initiated by the Science and Technology Agency of Japan (STA). The program sponsors research activities with the aim of promoting coordination between Japanese Agencies and International research organisations. CSIRO joined the program in 1994 in collaboration with AUSLIG (Australian Survey Land Information Group) to develop and demonstrate the applicability of remotely sensed data to a variety of applications in Australia. Activities by CSIRO as part of the Desertification Working Group of GRNS are documented on this CD-ROM .

The aims of the GRNS study within the Desertification Working Group project are:

• to find ways of assessing desertification in the arid lands of Australia using data from remote sensing satellites.
• to separate changes in the landscape arising from desertification from the impact of climate variation and temporary effects of sustainable grazing.
• to make sure that the desertification signals in remotely sensed data are not confused with natural landscape variability and the processes of natural erosion.
• to test whether desertification can be assessed from several different remote sensing satellites.
• to provide sample datasets which show how the methods can be used to obtain practical results.

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