European efforts in the use of remote sensing from satellites were initially largely derivative from United States systems and information extraction techniques. Increasingly, independent capabilities have been developed, in part associated with European sensor development and data reception and distribution capabilities. A wide range of applications of land cover data derived from satellites has been developed. In many cases, however, the quality of the results is inadequate for operational use. The latter will become more feasible with the application of new information extraction techniques, the use of data from new sensors, notably spaceborne radars, improved preprocessing of data and better co-ordination of research efforts.