Europe's needs in the field of remote sensing

Recommendation 845 (1978)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 2 October 1978 (14th Sitting) (see Doc. 4196, report of the Committee on Science and Technology). Text adopted by the Assembly on 2 October 1978 (14th Sitting).

Thesaurus

The Assembly,

1. Recalling its Orders Nos. 310 (1971), 323 (1972) and 360 (1976), instructing its Committee on Science and Technology :

to promote European collaboration in specific scientific fields,

to strengthen liaison between parliamentarians and scientists, and

to establish a European Joint Committee on Scientific Co-operation, bringing together parliamentarians of the Committee on Science and Technology and scientists from the various working parties and study groups set up by that committee within the framework of its exercise in scientific co-operation ;

2. Welcoming the holding of the European public parliamentary hearing in Toulouse, on 11 March 1978, on the theme : "Europe's needs in the field of remote sensing" ;

3. Convinced of the value of organising such parliamentary hearings as a means of informing parliamentarians as an aid to political decision-making ;

4. Emphasising the importance of the part played on the scientific and technical level by the European Association of Remote Sensing Laboratories, created jointly by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Commission of the European Community and the European Space Agency ;

5. Considering that remote sensing technology, in addition to its potential benefits for the detection and conservation of resources and for the surveillance of maritime and coastal zones to protect them against pollution, could provide better information on land use, plant diseases, forestry, fisheries and meteorology, and thus enable more accurate forecasts to be made to the general benefit of agriculture and fisheries,

6. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers :

a request the European Space Agency :

to continue to establish its data acquisition network (Earthnet) and to pursue its studies on application programmes in the field of earth and marine resources on the basis of platforms using optical and micro-wave sensors, in the framework of either short-term projects (the Spacelab Programme) or long-term projects (the Satellite Programme) ;

to take the initiative of creating a study group open to non-member states of the Space Agency, in order to ensure that remote sensing programmes and techniques are compatible and complementary ;

to create a co-ordination group of persons in charge of European and national remote sensing programmes with the task of forwarding recommendations to the Council of the European Space Agency in order that industrial commitments entered into under national programmes do not impair the organisation of a European remote sensing programme or the "Europeanisation" of national programmes ;

to arrange for a series of economic studies on the use of remote sensing techniques in specific fields, highlighting the cost/benefit aspects ;

to promote the development of a European remote sensing satellite programme, directed to particular European needs in agriculture, forestry and fisheries ;

in co-operation with the Council of Europe's Council for Cultural Co-operation (CDCC), the European Association of Remote Sensing Laboratories and national space agencies, to pursue the project of the Council for Cultural Co-operation concerning the production of teaching modules for the training of staff employing remote sensing techniques ;

b request the European Conference of Ministers responsible for Regional Planning to arrange for the harmonisation in Europe of the parameters taken into account, especially for the purposes of cartography, on the basis of the data yielded by remote sensing techniques.