For the years 1997 to 2000 it is expected that a number of new satellites will be launched into orbit by private companies [Gupta (1995), Doyle (1996)] which are specified to deliver imagery of the earth surface of a spatial resolution as fine as 1 m.
This fine a resolution has so far been the privilege of airborne rather than spaceborne overhead imagery - at least as far as the civilian community and multispectral (in contrast to panchromatic) imagery is concerned. Airborne image flights have a longstanding importance for cadastre, local planning and environmental monitoring (e.g. the health status of public trees in the city of Hamburg is monitored on aerial Color Infrared (CIR) photographs). So far the necessary image flights are conducted by private enterprises on particular customer request. They are thus rather expensive.
Multispectral spaceborne imagery on the other hand has been exploited for a number of environmental issues (such as deforestation, desertification, plant stress, water polution, climate warming etc.) but always on a global or regional scale - due to its limited spatial resolution (LANDSAT TM images have a pixel size of 30x30m).
With the arrival of meter-range spaceborne imagery which can be purchased off-the-shelf by local authorities at the moment when the demand arises, overhead imagery may become a serious option even for purposes of local interest which up to now could not justify the higher cost of image flights.