## 8 Discussion
Apart from this, there are certainly possibilities for commercialization within the context of environmental policies, particularly where budgets are available from within operational policy interventions. From a societal perspective, however, there is a need for those activities, which are more difficult to link to budgets within running policies, such as the timely recognition of problems and the critical evaluation of policy outcomes. We suggest that generous public funding should remain available to support those functions of EO which cannot be covered from within operational environmental policy interventions. In this review, we argue that the societal support for environmental remote sensing applications relies strongly on the question of whether remote sensing addresses policy relevant issues. This is because policies largely determine the demand for EO products. The major societal benefit EO could make to environmental policy is to improve a policy's effectiveness and efficiency. The review has shown that remote sensing may contribute to this while supporting the need to address environmental problems, to implement interventions to address these issues, to control whether policies are executed, and to evaluate whether such policies influence the system as intended. It is interesting to note that initially (in the 1970s and 1980s), remote sensing was used almost exclusively to identify problems and contribute to the implementation of policy. More recently, interest also developed in applying remote sensing in policy control and evaluation. It is information on these later parts of the policy cycle which allows remote sensing to assess whether policy is effective. This assessment of the effectiveness of a policy forms a crucial part of good governance, and we suggest that remote sensing holds the potential to contribute to governance while filling this information gap. Initially, those typically urging for policy development, the public and NGOs, had limited access to remotely sensed information, since the technical expertise required to process satellite imagery was restricted to state agencies. The proliferation of freely available satellite imagery and image processing capacity has resulted in increased capacity outside government. This trend is further stimulated by the availability of web-based information systems, such as Google Earth and Google Maps, which provide users easy access to satellite imagery. Nowadays, researchers, as well as NGOs, apply RS to mobilize support for cases requiring policy development, a process which has been called satellite imagery activism [74]. The media play an important role here, while distributing remote sensing studies to wide audiences. This enhances the effectiveness of the remote sensing information, because wider awareness increases the demand for policy development. Our literature review was focused on the specific search within those papers that dealt with earth observation and environmental policy. If we turn to the wider policy literature, we find stark divisions regarding the role of technical information (which includes remote sensing) in policy making. Policy scholars are divided between those who express confidence in the capacity of bureaucratic circles to acquire and use high quality technical information by integrating the talents of large numbers of technical specialists and those who _\"have frequently concluded that such information is often -and, perhaps, primarily -used to legitimate decisions reached on other grounds, that is, prior to an adequate analysis of the magnitude of the problem and the probable consequences of alternative policies\"_[6]. For example, in spatial policy making, some assume geo-information to be an objective and scientifically accurate resource, with the role of providing spatially relevant information to rational decision making. Critics argue that geo-information and spatial policy do not have an unproblematic, linear, and direct relationship [75].