KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? More federal funding and better coordination among agencies would help local governments reap the benefits of photographs taken from space, researchers told a U.S. House subcommittee Monday.

Four researchers including two from Kansas University testified before three members of the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics during a field hearing at the KU Med Center. They discussed the future of remote-sensing programs, which can be used for everything from urban planning to responding to terrorism.

“I think this hearing is particularly helpful because my constituents, as well as Americans in general, see the whole discussion of satellite imagery as something esoteric,” said U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Kan., a subcommittee member. “They don’t see how it applies to their daily lives.”

But the researchers who testified said there already are many practical applications for the satellite images, and there likely will be more in the future. The images are taken both by commercial and government satellites.

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks created a new emphasis for using remote sensing programs. Ed Martinko, director of the Kansas Biological Survey at KU, cited the LandScan database developed by Jerry Dobson, a KU research professor, which combines aerial maps and population data to help emergency crews respond.

Ray Williamson, a research professor with George Washington University, said aerial photos were used by crews at the World Trade Center to determine where to send personnel and what hot spots to avoid.

And Kevin Price, associate director of the Kansas Applied Remote Sensing program at KU, said vegetation maps would help determine the spread of bioterrorism agents on crops.

“We would detect that from our remotely sensed data much faster than we would notice it from the ground,” Price said.

But the researchers said terror response isn’t the only reason to boost federal support of remote-sensing programs. For instance, Price said the vegetation tracking helped researchers determine the average wheat yield in Kansas would be 34.5 bushels per acre this year the same estimate used by agriculture experts using traditional methods.

Ronald Birk with NASA said a project is under way to determine the correlation between lightning strikes and tornado formation, which could help forecasters warn people in advance of severe weather.

Remote-sensing data also is used to help cities determine appropriate locations for new developments, track populations of wildlife and determine the paths of flood waters.

Martinko suggested Congress create regional centers that could distribute remote-sensing information to local governments. Price urged the federal government to find ways to make the data affordable to local states, cities and counties.

“They need the remotely sensed data, but their budgets often don’t allow them to invest in research,” he said.