INTERPRETATION OF REMOTE-SENSING IMAGERY TO ASSESS THE SUSTAINABILITYOF AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS

The province of Misiones (Argentina) is currently being spontaneously colonized by a high inflow of farmers with few resources who are settl ing on state-owned lands covered by primeval rain forest. We are devel oping a tool using SPOT images to monitor this extremely dynamic proce ss and to locate and assess problems of sustainability. Indicators ext racted from SPOT images were constructed for 50 farms on a settlement site, for the recognition is a diagnosis based on equilibration theory . Successful classification of the farms was obtained in 70 to 80 per cent of cases by applying multivariate statistical methods to these in dicators. On this research site, the overall sustainability diagnosis using SPOT data was found to be satisfactory. These results will now e nable us to adapt and extend the diagnosis to the organisational level of local agrarian systems.