Credit: NASA – Terra Satellite image for oil spill

Monitoring the earth through satellites has contributed to the efforts of environmental protection and environmental changes, which helped reduce the risks faced by many areas. It also supported pollution control operations by monitoring the sources of pollution, determine the location of its spread, monitor its movement, and measuring the results of its treatment.

The Arabian gulf is rich in marine life, such as sea turtle, sea bird, dugong, whale, dolphin, and fish. It also has the largest hydrocarbon reserve in the world and is known for its active oil production. Most of the oil production is transported worldwide by tankers, which exposes the gulf to a high risk of oil pollution which is critical to the potable water supply which relies mainly on desalination and marine life.

Some of the important Remote Sensing applications related to environment are:

• Environmental monitoring for air, sea and land
• Assess environmental impacts for industries and power plants
• Water quality monitoring
• Developing baseline environmental profiles and compilation of emission inventory
• Monitoring coastal ecosystems and marine pollution