This talk outlines the state of our research using remote sensing, GIS, and agricultural land use modeling to evaluate long term demographic trends among the ancient Maya. Remote sensing using false-color composites of IKONOS and Landsat ETM+ data has proven a valuable tool for identifying the locations of buried Maya settlements under the dense tropical canopy of parts of Central America. In this talk I’ll outline further refinement of this method to better distinguish vegetation communities, the results of which are supported by field survey of forest inventory and soil analysis. Combined, these methods of microenvironment delineation give a good approximation of agricultural valuation of land types. The value of this indirect application of remote sensing to archaeological research is demonstrated through an evaluation of prehistoric carrying capacity. Maize, the staple crop for ancient Maya peoples and constituting about 60% of their daily caloric intake, is used here to roughly model maximum population sizes around ancient sites.