Editorial

Introduction to this special issue on Geostatistics andGeospatial Techniques in Remote Sensing

The germination of this special Computers & Geos-

ciences (C&G ) issue began at the Royal GeographicalSociety (with the Institute of British Geographers)(RGS±IBG) annual meeting in January 1997 held atthe University of Exeter, UK. The snow and cold of

the English winter were tempered greatly by warm andcordial discussion of how to stimulate and enhance co-operation on geostatistical and geospatial research in

remote sensing `across the big pond' between UK andUS researchers. It was decided that one way forwardwould be to hold parallel sessions in 1998 on geostatis-

tical and geospatial research in remote sensing atappropriate venues in both the UK and the US.Selected papers given at these sessions would be pub-

lished as special issues of C&G on the UK side andPhotogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing(PE&RS ) on the US side. These issues would highlightthe commonality in research on geostatistical and geos-

patial research in remote sensing on both sides of theAtlantic Ocean. As a consequence, a session on ``Geos-tatistics and Geospatial Techniques for Remote Sen-

sing of Land Surface Processes'' was held at the RGS±IBG annual meeting in Guildford, Surrey, UK in Jan-uary 1998, organized by the Modeling and Advanced

Techniques Special Interest Group (MAT SIG) of theRemote Sensing Society (RSS). A similar session washeld at the Association of American Geographers(AAG) annual meeting in Boston, Massachusetts in

March 1998, sponsored by the AAG's Remote SensingSpecialty Group (RSSG).The 10 papers that make up this issue of C&G, com-

prise 7 papers from the UK and 3 papers from the

US. We are both co-editors of each of the journal

special issues, with the lead editor of each journal issuebeing from their respective side of the Atlantic. Thespecial issue of PE&RS (vol. 65) that constitutes theother half of this co-edited journal series was published

in early 1999, comprising 6 papers by US authors.We are indebted to the International Association for

Mathematical Geology for allowing us to use C&G as

a vehicle to convey how geostatistics and geospatialtechniques can be used to analyze remote sensing andother types of spatial data. We see this special issue of

C&G, and its complementary issue of PE&RS, as a tes-tament to the vitality and interest in the application ofgeostatistical and geospatial techniques in remote sen-

sing. We also see these special journal issues as thebeginning of a fruitful, and hopefully long-term re-lationship, between American and British geographersand other researchers interested in geostatistical and

geospatial techniques applied to remote sensing andother spatial data.

Peter Atkinsona

Dale A. QuattrochibaDepartment of Geography, University of Southampton,

High®eld,Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK

E-mail address: pma@soton.ac.ukbNASA, Global Hydrology and Climate Center, SD60,

Marshall Space Flight Center,Huntsville, AL 35812, USA

E-mail address: dale.quattrochi@msfc.nasa.gov

Computers & Geosciences 26 (2000) 359

0098-3004/00/$ - see front matter 7 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

PII: S0098-3004(99 )00116-8