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In-Depth Information
the bibliometric analysis in more detail, we considered
three elements: authorships and journals, platforms and
sensors and topical areas of study.
(6.8% and 6.4) are similar. Germany has weak research
in this domain compared to its scientific weight in river
and river management research (5.2% and 4.8%), similar
to Japan (4.4% and 2.3%).
The papers dealing with Fluvial Remote Sensing were
published in 91 journals. 81% of these journals only
published one or two manuscripts (Figure 1.3). Among
the remaining 19%, specialised journals in geomatics and
remote sensing such as
International Journal of Remote
Sensing
and
Remote Sensing of Environment
are the most
popular (respectively 7.5 and 10% of the manuscripts).
The thematic journals
Earth Surface Processes and Land-
forms
and
Geomorphology
are almost as attractive as these
specialised journals. They are followed by the
Journal
of Hydrology
and the
Journal of the American Water
Resources Association
. In the field of ecology, the remote
sensing papers are published in a large set of ecolog-
ical journals none of which is devoted exclusively to
remote sensing. Overall, 33% of papers found in our
search are published in Geomatics/Remote Sensing Jour-
nals, 17% in Ecology/Biology, 16% in Earth Sciences,
13% in Hydrology, 9% in Water Environment, 6%
in Ocean Environment, 5% in Environment and 1%
in Agriculture.
1.3.1 AuthorshipsandJournals
First authorship is dominated by the USA (36%) and the
UK (12%). However, a set of countries are quite well
invested in this domain such as Australia (9%), China
(9%), France (6%), Canada (6%), Holland (3.6%) and
India (4.5%) (Figure 1.2). Many of these countries have
active satellite remote sensing programs. If we compare
these results to a broad WOS search with the single
term 'rivers' (
>
100 000 papers) or 'river management'
(
15 000 papers), the UK (5.7% and 7.7% of papers
respectively), or India (2.5% and 2.0% of papers respec-
tively) are significantly stronger in Fluvial Remote Sensing
whereas USA is slightly stronger (31% and 34%) as well
as France (5.0% and 4.3%), Australia (4.7 and 8%) and
China (11%and 7%), Holland (2.3%and 3.8) andCanada
>
USA
UK
1.3.2 PlatformsandSensors
Australia
Within our search results, papers based on satellite data
are slightly more frequent than aerial/airborne data with
34% of papers referring to 'satellite' against 27% to
'aerial/airborne' (Figure 1.4a). Landsat is the most fre-
quently used satellite platform (21%) following by Terra
(16%) and Spot (7.5%). In terms of satellites capable of
delivering imagery with spatial resolutions at or below
a meter, Quickbird is more popular than Ikonos, but
both are still quite infrequently used in the literature
(respectively 5.5% and 2% of manuscripts). Envisat and
Formosat are cited only in a very few papers. The Shut-
tle Radar Topography Mission was mentioned in the
abstracts of two contributions. The terms 'UAV' or 'drone'
do not appear in any of the abstracts. The terms 'blimp',
'balloon' and 'Unmanned' in one manuscript each and
'helicopter' in four of the 200 abstracts.
When considering sensors, we observe a range of equip-
ment used, from spacecraft imagers such as ASTER or
MODIS to ground or airborne equipment covering a
large part of the electromagnetic spectrum in both pas-
sive and activemodes (Figure 1.4b). If we combine satellite
imagery (both panchromatic and three-band colour), film
based archival photography, ground based photography
China
France
Canada
India
Netherlands
Italy
South Africa
Taiwan
Portugal
Mexico
Germany
Bangladesh
0
10
20
30
40
Figure 1.2
Distribution of the manuscripts according to the
laboratory citizenship of the first author (in % of the studied
papers).
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