Preface List of contributors 1. Small satellite missions - the tool for global change studies 2. Spatial pattern analysis of water-driven land cover change in Aridzone, Northwest of China 3. A spatial logistic regression model for simulating land use patterns: a case study of the Shiraz Metropolitan Area of Iran 4. Abu Dhabi Island: analysis of development and vegetation change using remote sensing (1972-2000) 5. Remote sensing of coastal water quality in the Baltic Sea using MERIS 6. Remote sensing for water quality monitoring in Apalachicola Bay, USA 7. Extracting cryospheric information over lowlands from L-band polarimetric SAR data 8. Variability of Northern hemisphere spring snowmelts dates using the AVHRR polar pathfinder snow cover during 1982-2004 9. MODIS snow monitoring over the Tibetan Plateau 10. The global geodetic observing system (GGOS): detecting the fingerprints of global change in geodetic quantities 11. Monitoring radial tectonic motions of continental borders around the Atlantic Ocean and regional sea level changes by space geodetic observations 12. GNSS activities for natural disaster monitoring and climate change detection at GFZ - an overview 13. Satellite imagery for landslide mapping in an earthquake-struck area 14. Relations between human factors and global fire activity 15. The use of remote sensing data and meteorological information for food security monitoring, examples in East Africa 16. Application of an early warning system for floods 17. L-band and C-band combined interferometric monitoring of the Wenchuan Earthquake 18. Uncovering the space-time patterns of change with the use of change analyst - case study of Hong Kong 19. Change detection of sea ice distribution in SAR imagery using semi-variogram of intrinsic regionalization model