위성에 의한 원격탐사와 지구환경보호

Remote Sensing by Satellite and the Protection of the Global Environment

Nowadays, the area of using remote sensing by satellite has been rapidly expanding due to the rapid development of remote sensing technology and the increase of demand of the technology. Especially, the expending is conspicuous in the area of the environmental protection of the Earth owing to the improved correctness of information provided by remote sensing technology and to possible periodical observation of the same point of a certain place of the Earth by satellite. The aim of this article is to see how the remote sensing by satellite can contribute to the environmental protection of the Earth and how the remote sensing activities is regulated internationally and what kind of problem is arising from the regulation and to make an endeavor to find possible solutions for the problem. Remote sensing by satellite has contributed in the development of two areas of environmental protection of the Earth: 1) providing assistance for the conclusion, implementation and compliance of environmental conventions through finding environmental situation, monitoring of implementation, confirmation of convention violation and assessment of damage and 2) providing evidence for contentious environmental cases. The development of the regulation of remote sensing by satellite has not been appropriately facing the explosive advancement of remote sensing technology and its various exploitations. The problem of violation of sensed state's territorial sovereignty, which was claimed at the period of beginning of remote sensing, is not an issue any more. However, the problem of technical aspects of information acquired by remote sensing and of the legal aspects of present situation of international law regulation has still been awaiting to solve. The main cause of the technical problem is the features of the sensed digital information. On the other hand, legal problems have been arising due to the 'soft' character of main legal rules such as the UN Resolution on the Principles relating to Remote Sensing and the absence of remote sensing related provisions in the environmental conventions. The article suggests that new and 'hard' international regulation system needs to be developed to adapt the technical development of remote sensing and to respond to arising legal problems appropriately.