For example, habitat fragmentation of a floodplain is different and has different effects than fragmentation of a forest or grassland community. Identifying how different elements vary across a landscape is important. This research may be aided by the use of predictive models. Participants observed that there was an issue pertaining to access to existing data. NASA doesn't own all data for all regions, so there is a need for a good global classification system to which everyone has access.
Information is particularly lacking regarding non-forested and marine areas.
In order to understand what remote-sensing instruments can tell us, a stepwise approach is necessary. First, compile existing data. Next, have an expert workshop devoted to naming quality locations and ecological levels. Finally, look at how to correlate remote sensing capabilities with quality versus degraded sites. This will establish the limitations of remote-sensing instruments and indicate the types of data that are needed.