content Main features ITC delegation visits Mongolia 2 ICG Norway 4 Announcements Land administration in post- conflict areas 6 UNESCO Geopark 7 Education News Double MSc degree ITC / Wuhan 8 Short course for Indian Chamber of Commerce 9 Refresher course Mozambique 10 Planning and coordination for NRM 11 GIM students participate in seminar 13 National basemap using ESRI PLTS 14 Fellowships for CLAS Bolivia 14 Biodiversity conservation specialisation NRM programme 15 Project News Off-reserve tree management in Ghana 15 Life after ITC Messages from alumni 18 Join a network of 15,000 alumni 23 Alumni association Mongolia 24 Alumni association Bolivia 25 Letter to the editor 25 CONFERENCE CALENDAR 26 Can you think of a relationship between ITC and Genghis Khan - Is there any such relationship? Perhaps not one that immediately springs to mind. So let’s put the theory of six degrees of separation to the test, but with a slight modification - instead of a chain of six linking stages of circumstance or acquaintance, we’ll try to establish six individual links, based on this issue of ITC News. Well, to start off with, an ITC delegation recently visited Mongolia, land of that famous overlord, to explore the possibilities for cooperation and to attend an international workshop (page 2). What’s more, earlier in the year, an ITC Mongolian alumni association was set up, and its inaugural party was celebrated in - yes, you’ve probably seen which way the wind’s blowing - the Genghis Khan Restaurant in Ulaan Baatar (page 24). No stranger to con- flict, Genghis Khan, leading his warrior hordes across the steppes, increased his domains to such an extent that his rule stretched from the Black Sea to the Pacific. But he was more than just a conqueror, he was an able adminis- trator, creating a permanence within the subject states on which his succes- sors could build. So that’s two reasons why his participation in the symposium on land administration in post-conflict areas (page 6) would have attracted considerable interest. Moreover, silk undershirts to prevent arrows piercing the skin, or at the very least to aid their removal, would have been considered advanced technology back in the 13th century - and advanced technology and its applications is something ITC certainly knows all about, as you’ll read on pages 15 and 10. Now for the sixth link. Well, I confess to feeling somewhat at a loss, so perhaps it’s time to follow the good example set on page 11 and adapt to circumstances, which in this case means ‘reconstructing’ the task, and settling for five links only. Can’t win ‘em all! Turning our attention elsewhere, on several occasions we’ve urged alumni to get in touch with us and we’re happy to say this call has met with a tremendous response. Perhaps old friends will be among the names on pages 18-22. Fortunately e-mail addresses are attached to these names, so the rest is up to you. And while you’re about it, why not drop us a line too! Janneke Kalf Managing Editor 1 ITC News 2004-2 INTRO introduction Managing Editor: Janneke Kalf Editing: Janice Collins Design&PrePress: Henk Scharrenborg (Composer DTP service) Andries Menning Printing: PlantijnCasparie Zwolle Correspondence to: Managing Editor ITC NEWS P.O.Box 6 7500 AA Enschede Phone: +31 (0)53 487 44 11 Fax: +31 (0)53 487 45 54 E-mail: [email protected] colofon ITC NEWS is published quarterly, by ITC, Enschede, the Netherlands The views expressed by the contributors do not necessarily reflect those of ITC 2004 number 2
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Main featuresITC delegation visits Mongolia 2ICG Norway 4
AnnouncementsLand administration in post-conflict areas 6UNESCO Geopark 7
Education NewsDouble MSc degree ITC/Wuhan 8Short course for Indian Chamber of Commerce 9Refresher course Mozambique 10Planning and coordination for NRM 11GIM students participate inseminar 13National basemap using ESRI PLTS 14Fellowships for CLAS Bolivia 14Biodiversity conservation specialisation NRM programme 15
Project NewsOff-reserve tree management in Ghana 15
Life after ITCMessages from alumni 18Join a network of15,000 alumni 23Alumni association Mongolia 24Alumni association Bolivia 25Letter to the editor 25
CONFERENCE CALENDAR 26
Can you think of a relationship between ITC and Genghis Khan - Is thereany such relationship? Perhaps not one that immediately springs to mind. Solet’s put the theory of six degrees of separation to the test, but with a slightmodification - instead of a chain of six linking stages of circumstance oracquaintance, we’ll try to establish six individual links, based on this issue ofITC News.
Well, to start off with, an ITC delegation recently visited Mongolia, land ofthat famous overlord, to explore the possibilities for cooperation and toattend an international workshop (page 2). What’s more, earlier in the year,an ITC Mongolian alumni association was set up, and its inaugural party wascelebrated in - yes, you’ve probably seen which way the wind’s blowing -the Genghis Khan Restaurant in Ulaan Baatar (page 24). No stranger to con-flict, Genghis Khan, leading his warrior hordes across the steppes, increasedhis domains to such an extent that his rule stretched from the Black Sea tothe Pacific. But he was more than just a conqueror, he was an able adminis-trator, creating a permanence within the subject states on which his succes-sors could build. So that’s two reasons why his participation in thesymposium on land administration in post-conflict areas (page 6) wouldhave attracted considerable interest. Moreover, silk undershirts to preventarrows piercing the skin, or at the very least to aid their removal, wouldhave been considered advanced technology back in the 13th century - andadvanced technology and its applications is something ITC certainly knowsall about, as you’ll read on pages 15 and 10.
Now for the sixth link. Well, I confess to feeling somewhat at a loss, soperhaps it’s time to follow the good example set on page 11 and adapt tocircumstances, which in this case means ‘reconstructing’ the task, andsettling for five links only. Can’t win ‘em all!
Turning our attention elsewhere, on several occasions we’ve urged alumnito get in touch with us and we’re happy to say this call has met with atremendous response. Perhaps old friends will be among the names onpages 18-22. Fortunately e-mail addresses are attached to these names, sothe rest is up to you. And while you’re about it, why not drop us a line too!
Janneke KalfManaging Editor
1ITC News 2004-2
I N T R O
introduction
Managing Editor: Janneke Kalf
Editing: Janice CollinsDesign&PrePress: Henk Scharrenborg
(Composer DTP service)Andries Menning
Printing: PlantijnCasparie Zwolle
Correspondence to: Managing EditorITC NEWSP.O.Box 6
7500 AA EnschedePhone: +31 (0)53 487 44 11Fax: +31 (0)53 487 45 54E-mail: [email protected]
colofonITC NEWS is published quarterly, by ITC, Enschede, the Netherlands
The views expressed by the contributors do not necessarily reflect those of ITC2004number 2
Mongolia evokes
the name of
Chinggis Khan and
his 13th century
conquest of most of
the known world.
His empire
extended from the
Mediterranean Sea
to the Pacific Ocean,
and the reputation
of his hordes of
soldiers has endured
until today.
Now Mongolia is landlocked between twolarge neighbours: the Russian Federationand China. With an area of more than 1.5million square kilometres and a populationof less than 2.5 million, Mongolia has a pop-ulation density of only 1.5 people per squarekilometre, one of the lowest in the world.
After 1990, when Mongolia was releasedfrom Soviet control, the country opened uprapidly. ITC's involvement in Mongolia datesback to that time. The first Mongolian stu-dent, Mr Bataar Enkhtuvshin, came to ITC in1990 for the short course GIP.5, while thefirst MSc student, Mr DamdinsurenAmarsaikhan, graduated in 1992 from theIGP.2 course. In the following years severalMongolian students came to ITC, with thetotal number of Mongolian alumni to datestanding at 32, of which half are femalegraduates. Furthermore, from 1990 to 1995ITC was involved in a UNDP remote sensingproject in Mongolia.
A four-strong delegation from ITC visitedMongolia in the first week of June 2004 tofurther explore the possibilities for ITC in thecountry of endless steppes and to participatein the 1st International Workshop on LandCover Study of Mongolia Using RemoteSensing/GIS. The workshop was organisedby the National University of Mongolia andthe Mongolian Geoscience and RemoteSensing Society. Professor Andrew Skidmoregave a keynote address at the workshop andProfessor John van Genderen chaired theopening session. Dr Hein van Gils presenteda paper, and Ms Marjan Kreijns gave a briefintroduction to ITC and its relations withMongolia. The workshop was attended bymany GIS and remote sensing specialistsfrom Mongolia, while the foreign contingent
was composed of participants from Japan,Belgium, Hungary and the Netherlands. Theworkshop was very well organised by DrRenchin Tsolmon of the Research Centre forGeophysics, National University of Mongolia.
During its visit to Mongolia the ITC delega-tion visited several organisations active in theuse of GIS and remote sensing applications.We were very pleasantly surprised to meetITC alumni at almost all these organisations.ITC's alumni play a key role in the relativelysmall GIS and remote sensing sector inMongolia. During the alumni receptionhosted by ITC on Tuesday, 8 June, we metmany of them and enjoyed many interestingdiscussions on the way ahead for this sectorin Mongolia and ITC's potential role. In a bigcountry such as Mongolia GIS and remotesensing are crucial tools for monitoring andmanaging the resources, and our discussionswith Mongolian organisations clearly indi-cated that more attention will be given tothe use of these tools in the future.
We visited the Ministry of Agriculture, whoasked for our help in establishing an efficientinformation system, which would includedata on pasture degradation, snow cover
2 ITC News 2004-2
ITC Delegation VisitsMongolia
Marjan Kreijns [email protected]
M A I N F E A T U R E S
The alumni reception
and land use, as well as data to support bet-ter crop yield forecasting. We had similar dis-cussions at the Ministry of Nature andEnvironment (MNE). There is a lack of (geo-)information, but most important is to trans-late data into useful information for decisionmakers. The Ministry informed us that 80%of Mongolia's GDP is related to natural re-sources and that the ambitious goal theMongolian government has set itself is to in-crease the area of national parks inMongolia from 13.5% to 30% in the next10 years. MNE has its own Information andComputer Centre (ICC), which also hosts theNational Remote Sensing Centre. Its director,Dr Khudulmur, explained the main tasks ofthe centre, also referring to the huge needfor additional staff capacity building. Webriefly discussed the difficulties surroundingthe sharing of data and information. Later inJune Dr Khudulmur attended a conferenceon scientific data sharing held in Beijing,which gave us the opportunity to continueour discussions.
Turning to the field of projects, we visitedthe UNDP office and were informed thatthere was a need for GIS in most of its proj-ects. In close contact with our alumni whoare presently working on several UNDP proj-ects, we will monitor opportunities to be-come involved in these projects. ITC is alsoactively involved in preparing a tender forthe AsDB project Capacity Building forCadastre and Land Registration. Under theleadership of the Belgian companyEurosense, a consortium with MonMap andITC will bid for this contract. We will makeuse of our alumni network to execute thetraining at provincial and district levels.
As far as education is concerned, we havehad close contact with the NationalUniversity of Mongolia for many years.During this visit Professor Andrew Skidmoregave a guest lecture for the students in theFaculty of Geography and we were presentat the opening of the new GIS/remote sens-ing laboratory at the university. On that oc-casion Professor Skidmore presented theuniversity with a package of recent literatureand ITC PhD theses on geo-information ap-plications in natural resources. Furthermore,we visited the Eco-Asia Institute and dis-cussed ITC's interest in conducting a tailor-made training course in sustainabledevelopment and environmental manage-ment for their staff.
We enjoyed two field trips outside UlaanBaatar, which gave us the feeling we hadstepped back in history. Relatively un-changed for centuries, Mongolia has one ofthe last remaining horse-based nomadic cul-tures in the world, and we were warmly wel-comed by one of the nomadic families intheir traditional ger (felt tent).
Our second trip took us to the HustaiNational Park, located 95 km west of UlaanBaatar. Hustai has a unique landscape and isnow home to the only species of wild horse,the Takhi (Przewalski's) horse. These horseswere reintroduced in Hustai with financialsupport from the Netherlands government.Hustai has a research centre that deals
3ITC News 2004-2
M A I N F E A T U R E S
Professor Skidmore presented the National Universityof Mongolia with a package of recent literature andITC PhD theses on geo-information applications innatural resources
Marjan Kreijns in front of a traditional ger (felt tent)
ICG is a centre of
excellence funded
by the Research
Council of Norway.
mainly with ecosystem research. One of theirspecialists is using GIS for storing their largedata set but would be interested to learnmore about using GIS for analysis and aboutusing remote sensing.
We were certainly impressed by Mongolia, aland of undisturbed nature and untouchedculture. Our whole visit was extremely well
Its objective is to be an international centreof expertise with regard to basic and appliedresearch into geo-related natural hazards(geohazards) such as landslides and earth-quakes. Its first aim is to develop knowledgethat can help to save lives and prevent dam-age to infrastructure and the environment;its second is to train students and highlyqualified researchers from Norway andabroad. The centre will also focus on the useof new information technology, GIS, 3Dmodelling and simulation. Further details can be found on the ICG website(www.geohazards.no).
The centre was established in 2003 andforms a research consortium with the follow-ing partners:• Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI)
(http://www.ngi.no/english/)• University of Oslo (UiO)
(http://www.uio.no/english/)• Norwegian University of Science and
Technology (NTNU)(http://www.ntnu.no/indexe)
• Norwegian Seismic Array (NORSAR)(http://www.norsar.no)
• Geological Survey of Norway (NGU)(http://www.ngu.no)
organised by Ms Davaa Narantuya, an ITCalumna, and she provided excellent transla-tion services when needed. Mongolia offersmany opportunities, and we hope that ITCwill become involved in projects, researchand educational activities in a country withsuch a rich nomadic cultural heritage datingback to the time of Chinggis Khan.
4 ITC News 2004-2
M A I N F E A T U R E S
Contact with International Centrefor Geohazards (ICG) in Norway
Cees van Westen [email protected]
Hustai National Park has a research centre that dealsmainly with ecosystem research
Professor John van Genderen chaired the openingsession of the 1st International Workshop on LandCover Study of Mongolia Using Remote Sensing/GISin the presence of the Vice-minister of the Ministry ofNature and Environment Mr. Bolat A. (left)
ICG has a budget of around Euro 3 millionper year, and 15 to 20 person-labour yearsper year, including visiting scientists and PhDstudents.
On 11 June a meeting was held in Oslo toevaluate the possibilities for collaborationbetween ICG and ITC. This meeting was at-tended by Farrokh Nadim (director ICG), JanKetil Rød (NTNU), Bernd Etzelmüller andBård Romstad (UiO), and Cees van Westen(ITC).
After the discussion and presentations theparticipants came to the conclusion thatthere are many similarities between ICG andITC in the field of geohazards. These includecommon interests, research with PhDs andvisiting scientists, and development coopera-tion in the field of capacity building. NGI hasalso been quite active in regions similar tothose of ITC.
ICG and ITC signed a Memorandum ofUnderstanding, which may lead to coopera-tion in the following areas of interest, whereappropriate: • postgraduate studies in geohazards and
related fields• application of state-of-the-art GIS, remote
sensing and modelling tools to naturalhazards
• exchange of knowledge on disaster reduc-tion and risk assessment
• organisation of training courses and work-shops for specialists in developing coun-tries
• establishment of European and interna-tional university networks
• decision support systems in hazard reduc-tion policy
• geological hazards and risk assessmentmethodologies
• studies on providing assessment of land-slide, earthquake and flood hazards
• other areas of mutual interest, as agreedby the participants.
Cooperation may come in such forms as:• exchange visits of individual scientists,
teaching staff and students• training and education of research person-
nel, including joint financing of PhD can-didates
• collaboration on individual research prob-lems of mutual interest, and the study oftechniques and methods
• development of contacts (both nationallyand internationally) in the industrial sec-tors and academia.
Research cooperation with ICG is one of theaspects related to the ITC research pro-gramme Strengthening Local Authorities inRisk Management.
5ITC News 2004-2
M A I N F E A T U R E S
Commission 7, Cadastre and LandManagement, of the InternationalFederation of Surveyors held a sym-posium entitled "Land Administra-tion in Post-conflict Areas" in thePalais des Nations, Geneva,Switzerland, from 29 to 30 April2004. Commission 7 is chaired byPaul van der Molen, who is a visitingprofessor of land management andcadastre at ITC. Professor van derMolen also chaired the symposiumin Geneva. The subject of the sym-posium is relevant in many areasthroughout the world.
The causes of conflicts and violenceare many - for example, ethnic envy,nationalistic tendencies, opposing in-terests, class conflicts, disputed fron-tiers, acts of expansion, or economicinterests. During such conflicts peopleare killed or disappear, buildings andphysical infrastructure are wrecked,legal frameworks are set aside, publicregisters are destroyed, markets ceaseto function, properties are confis-cated, and lands are occupied.
When the conflict comes to an end,peace treaties, UN resolutions or na-tional development plans are put inplace, with the aim of restoring gov-ernance and the rule of law in all itsvariety. In many cases, a substantialcomponent of the restorative processconsists of (re)introducing secure landtenure, mechanisms for resolving landconflicts, land allocation, restitution,transparent land markets, land useplanning, land taxation and the like.
Papers PresentedDuring the symposium, presentationswere given on the following subjects: • Challenges to sustainable peace:
land disputes following conflict• Strategic action planning in post-
conflict societies• Legal aspects of land administra-
tion in post-conflict areas• Land administration in post-conflict
Cambodia• Experiences with land administra-
tion in Guatemala• Putting registration in perspective in
rural areas: the case of Afghanistan• Land administration in post-conflict
Chile• Land administration in Kosovo be-
fore and after the war (1999)• Land administration in post-conflict
Serbia• The creation of an immovable prop-
erty registration system in Albania• Transition of land administration in
post-war Croatia• Land administration in Bosnia and
Herzegovina after the war• Slovenian experiences: an example
from a transition country.
Unfortunately a paper entitled "Landadministration in Rwanda post-geno-cide" could not be presented, as theauthor was unable to attend the sym-posium because of visa problems.
ConclusionsProfessor van der Molen concludedthat land registration represented notthe beginning of a reconciliationprocess but its end. The relationshipbetween land reform and reconcilia-tion was very strong, so that land re-form might indeed be part of thereconciliation process. It was mostlikely that differing approaches wouldbe needed in different post-conflictsituations. Apart from the fact thatcountries differed in history, cultureand attitude, post-conflict situationsmight themselves differ, requiring aspecific policy. Land registration con-cepts might result in unconventionalapproaches. He went on to say thatsurveyors often failed to be involvedin peace treaties. Experience hadbeen built up on such unconventionalapproaches, but further research wasrequired here.
6 ITC News 2004-2
A N N O U N C E M E N T S
announcements
Symposium on Land Administration in Post-conflict Areas
Paul van der Molen [email protected]
Christiaan Lemmen [email protected]
Palais des Nations, Geneva
Attention to this subject will be givenin ITC's research plan on land admin-istration, which is currently under de-velopment.
RecommendationsThe relationship between land admin-istration and land policy is relevantand should be recognised in peacetreaties. Parties involved in formulat-ing peace agreements and/or strate-gic action plans should embed wider
"Preservation of geological heritagesites needs concerted efforts by in-ternational organisations, govern-mental departments, academic andresearch institutions, as well asother social forces." These were theremarks that signalled the openingof the 1st International Conferenceon Geoparks, which was held from27 to 29 June in Beijing, China.
Have you ever walked across a land-scape and wondered how so many va-rieties of rocks and so many shapes ofmountains, hills and valleys came intobeing? If so, welcome to the world ofgeoparks! On the initiative of UNESCO,a large number of countries across theworld are beginning to learn about thegeopark concept and have started todevelop schemes for recognising and
protecting important geological sitesfor sustainable development.
At this first conference on geoparks,experts from eight countries were in-vited to explain about the establish-ment and management of geoparksin their home countries, and amongthem was Dr José Luis Palacio-Prietofrom Mexico, an ITC alumnus.
Dr Richard Sliuzas and Marjan Kreijnsfrom ITC greatly enjoyed the openingceremony, but the large exhibition onthe 40 national geological parks ofChina even more so. At the requestof the Ministry of Land and Resources(MLR), ITC's most important partnerin China, Marjan Kreijns brought herson Joost along to show him thebeautiful images of the Chinese
geoparks. Geoheritage conservationis crucial if we want our children tobe able to enjoy these unique geolog-ical features in the future. Their visitattracted much media attention, andthe next day a picture appeared inthe national English-language news-paper China Daily.
development and land policy in suchplans rather than simply mention landregistration as an isolated objective.Territorial land issues are a basis forconflict; there is acceptance withinthe international community that weneed to be better prepared for this.
Workshops and reference materialshave to be organised for humanitar-ian practitioners. FIG Commission 7 iscommitted to informing the UnitedNations on the importance of landpolicy and land administration in rela-tion to peace treaties, in order toraise awareness on this issue.
Crux of the SymposiumIn our view the most important con-clusion is that there are basically twoways of dealing with land administra-tion in post-conflict areas. When, atthe end of the day, a land registrarwrites down the name of an owner ina land register, and a land surveyordraws a boundary line on a cadastralmap, it could be either the start of
prosperous economic development orthe overture to a new conflict. It alldepends on how wisely and sensi-tively the peace treaties or (interim)governmental action plans deal withthe allocation of land ownershiprights and access to land-related op-portunities, and whether these areperceived by the people as being fairand bringing social justice.
ProceedingsProceedings are published atwww.oicrf.org and www.fig.net/commission7/indexA printed version is available; pleasecontact Mrs Pauline van Elsland([email protected]).
The symposium was supported by: UN-HABITAT, FAO, Land TenureService, Kosovo Cadastral Agency,The Central European LandKnowledge Center (Celk Center),Budapest, Hungary, and theNetherlands Cadastre and LandRegistry Agency.
7ITC News 2004-2
A N N O U N C E M E N T S
UNESCO Geopark Conference in Beijing
Marjan Kreijns [email protected]
Madam Shou Jiahua of the Ministry of Landand Resources (MLR) and Joost, MarjanKreijns' son
Professor Paul van der Molen summing up
ITC and Wuhan University, China,enjoy a relationship that dates backmore than 25 years (see article inITC News 2003-4 pp 9-11). OnThursday, 24 June 2004, the partner-ship between the two organisationsproduced its first graduates when11 students received two MSc de-grees: one from ITC and one fromWuhan University. The students hadspent a total of three years on theirstudy, of which six months wasspent at ITC working on their re-search and thesis writing. The re-mainder of the time was spent atthe School of Urban Studies inWuhan, where they studied subjectscomparable to those of ITC's UPLAprogramme and also executed a sec-ond research study and thesis writ-ten in Chinese.
At the degree ceremony, which wasopened by the vice-president ofWuhan University, Professor HuangCongxing, ITC was represented byDrs Sjaak Beerens, Dr Richard Sliuzasand Drs Paul Schoonackers. In total47 students received MSc degrees
from Wuhan and 11 of these also re-ceived MSc degrees from ITC. Four ofthe new ITC alumni have passed thePhD entrance examinations at WuhanUniversity and will continue with theirstudies; the other seven will soontake up professional positionsthroughout China.
It was a unique and exciting occasionfor all, marking the end of three yearsof dedicated work from all sides. ITCis extremely grateful for the dedicatedefforts made by Professor Zhao Bing,Ms Du Ningrui, Ms Xiao Yinghui andthe many other SUS staff who arecommitted to making this course asuccess, and looks forward to ex-panding its cooperation in both edu-cation and research activities.
As we know, China is changing rap-idly and these changes are also af-fecting education. The duration ofthe Chinese MSc courses has recentlybeen reduced to two years, requiringthe two partners to modify their jointMSc degree course. A new structureis being developed that would allow
students to follow one of two op-tions: an 18-month MSc stream lead-ing to an ITC degree or a 24-monthstream leading to a double degree.The course is scheduled to start inSeptember 2005. Details of the con-tent, and information on costs andapplication procedures can be ob-tained from Ms Xiao Yinghui at theSchool of Urban Studies, Wuhan([email protected]), or Dr RichardSliuzas at ITC ([email protected]).
8 ITC News 2004-2
E D U C A T I O N N E W S
Students Receive Double MSc Degree in Wuhan, China
Richard Sliuzas [email protected]
education news
Group photograph of staff and new graduates Professor Huang Congxing (centre), vice-president of Wuhan University
Awarding the degrees: 47 students receivedMSc degrees from Wuhan, of whom 11 alsoreceived MSc degrees from ITC
Over the period 26th April to 21stMay ITC was pleased to welcometwo staff members, Mr. DebanjanBandyopadhyay and Mr. NilanjanPaul, from the Indian Chamber ofCommerce, Calcutta, for a specialshort course on Applications of GISand Remote Sensing to RiskAssessment.
The course was based upon ITC's an-nual elective module on 'RiskAssessment' which was coordinatedby Dr. Cees van Westen. In additionthree days personalised training wasprovided on specific industrial risk as-sessment scenarios.
This collaboration took place underthe "Environmental Risk Reportingand Information Systems (ERRIS)"project which is part of the CorporateSocial Responsibility (CSR) Initiativefor the eastern region of India. Theproject is funded by the EuropeanCommission under the Economic-Cross Cultural Program.
Every year, industrial accidents taketheir toll on business and communi-ties - in terms of lives, injury to work-ers and financial resources. The mosttelling example of such an accidenthas been the Bhopal gas tragedy of1984, which killed or maimed over20,000 people. There also been nu-merous other industrial emergenciesacross the world in which the deathtoll may have been as high as inBhopal if the areas where the acci-dents took place were not sparselypopulated.
Hazardous industries that are prima-rily responsible for such incidents in-herently involve reactors, conduitsand storage vessels in which haz-ardous substances or chemicals arehandled at high temperatures or pres-sure. Accidents in such units, havebeen caused either by material failure(such as a crack in a storage vessel),operational mistakes (such as rising ofpressure, temperature or flow-ratebeyond critical limits), or external per-turbation (such as damage caused bya projectile).
The project envisages the setting upof a spatial management informationsystem for dealing with industrialemergencies at the towns of Haldiaand Durgapur in West Bengal, Indiaand creating the supporting frame-work to enable proper functioning ofthe system.
Further collaboration is planned, bothin terms of further training courses atITC and short advisory missions toIndia.
An expanded (three-month) shortcourse on 'GIS and RemoteSensing for Natural Hazard andRisk Assessment' is scheduled tocommence on 14 February 2005.Full details can be found on ITC'swebsite under:http://www.itc.nl/education/programme_levels/short_courses/2005/004.asp
9ITC News 2004-2
E D U C A T I O N N E W S
Short course on Applications of GIS and Remote Sensing to Risk Assessment forIndian Chamber of Commerce, Calcutta
John Horn [email protected]
Cees van Westen [email protected]
Dr Cees van Westen, Mr. Nilanjan Paul, Mr. Debanjan Bandyopadhyay and Mr. John Horn during the closing of training course
10 ITC News 2004-2
E D U C A T I O N N E W S
In recent decades the number ofnatural disasters has increased, andvulnerability is rising worldwide. Inaddition to the human tragedy, dis-asters hamper economic growth.Over the past decades, developingcountries have suffered more than90% of all fatalities and have alsobeen burdened by a disproportion-ate share of the costs because oftheir lower GDP, limited reservesand underdeveloped insurance in-dustry, among other reasons.
Drought, often leading to famine, is asevere disaster affecting nearly allparts of Africa. Therefore, NUFFIC al-located funding for two ITC refreshercourses, which were given in Ethiopiain October 2003 and in Mozambiquein June 2004 respectively. Thesecourses addressed the problem ofnatural disasters, and particularlydrought, from a geo-information per-spective, aiming at capacity buildingin regional institutions concernedwith agriculture, resource manage-ment and rural development. NUFFICalso granted funds for a three-weekshort course on the same topic, thisto be held at ITC in April 2005.
The two-week refresher course inMozambique was held from 7-8 June2004 at the premises of SETSAN, agovernmental organisation in chargeof food security in Mozambique.Participants were ITC alumni, andSETSAN and FAO staff. Lectures weregiven by staff from ITC (NormanKerle, Wietske Bijker, Louise vanLeeuwen), from the SADC-RRSU earlywarning unit based in Harare (ElijahMukhala, Tamuka Magadzire,Dorothy Nyamhanza, TinasheMandaza) and from FAO (FranceLamy, Patrizia Monteduro). Some ofthe participants stayed for an extra
week to attend a course on the toolsdeveloped by FAO for drought moni-toring and early warning.
A warm welcome was extended byMr Raul Varela of SETSAN, host ofthe course, who then gave the floorto to the Permanent Secretary of theMinistry of Agriculture for the open-ing speech. After an introduction tothe course, and an inventory of theexperience of course participants inrelated fields and their expectationsof the course, an overview of currentinternational and continental disastermanagement efforts set the stage.This was followed by a lecture on themain components of remote sensing-based monitoring systems. Togetherwe took a look at the different typesand aspects of drought and howthese could be monitored directly orindirectly using remote sensing.Regional practice was illustrated bythe SADC/RRSU regional disastermanagement strategy, providing vividexamples of what can be done re-gionally in the case of volcanic erup-tions, as well as for monitoringdrought. Hands-on experience withimagery from Mozambique and soft-ware developed by SADC/RRSU madeit all the more tangible.
Many drought monitoring and earlywarning systems use crop modelsbased on remote sensing data,weather data, etc. to predict yields.Therefore, both empirical and ex-planatory models passed across thestage. A lecture on the use of radarfor crop monitoring complementedthe section on crop yield.
Since data availability and data han-dling are important issues, we lookedat available data sets, new sensor de-velopments, data infrastructure anddata sharing issues, both in generaland with specific reference to theSADC region. New techniques forfield data capturing, using a hand-held GPS with IPAQ computer, werepractised on the SETSAN premisesand during the excursion. The excur-sion took us to an area northwest ofMaputo, which had been prone toboth drought and flooding.
The second week started off by ex-amining with food security aspects:the analytical framework for food se-curity including the socio-economiccontext with emphasis on vulnerabil-ity and coping strategies, availabilityversus needs. The role of GIS/Remotesensing in food security information
Refresher Course on the Potential of Geoinformatics to Combat Drought, Desertification and Food Insecurity in Southeast Africa
Wietske Bijker [email protected]
Participants and some of the lecturers of the refresher course in the garden behindthe SETSAN building
participants had calculated biomassmaps. SADC/RRSU gave presentationson their currently implemented EarlyWarning information system, FAOstaff presented some tools to dissemi-nate information to decision makers,and gave a presentation on datamanagement, standardisation andmetadata. One morning was spendon a role play and discussions on datasharing and data quality. The weekwas concluded with a presentation ofother monitoring products such asdrought risk maps, the start andlength of the growing season, graz-ing capacity and a bioclimatic zoningmaps.
systems, identification of areas withhigh risk of food insecurity, areas withsurplus, analysis of anomalies andtrends as well as immediate problemareas, was covered with lectures andpracticals using WINDISP softwareand series of NDVI images fromNOAA-AVHRR. Using these images,graphs of vegetation developmentover time were created, and linked tocrop calendars. Maximum and anom-aly images were calculated, facilitat-ing the analysis of the history of ananomaly area, to be used in detectionof high risk areas for early warning.By the end of the second week, asmall group of ‘experts’ amongst the
At the end of their specialisationmodules, participants of the special-isation Planning and Coordinationfor NRM undertook a study tour ofthe Province of Overijssel. The aimof the tour was to appreciate ele-ments of regional planning in theNetherlands, with a focus on therural areas.
At Provincial House in Zwolle, officialsgave introductory talks on the re-gional planning and the provincialspatial plan, as well as the "recon-
struction" of the rural areas. Ruralareas in the Netherlands are presentlyundergoing reconstruction as a re-sponse to the shift from intensive live-stock agriculture. These presentationswere followed by lively discussions,where representatives of the Provincewere interrogated by ITC course par-ticipants regarding spatial planningprocesses at provincial level, the in-volvement of the various stakehold-ers, and the use of GIS in theprovincial planning efforts.Participants were quite surprised to
hear that such use was relativelymodest.
In the afternoon the participants paida visit to the farm of Mr and MrsBrunninkhuis, which is located inSpringendaal, Hezingen, in the mid-dle of an area of high natural value.Ancestors of the Brunnikhuis familystarted farming in the area over 400years ago. About 10 years ago, thefarmer and his wife decided to giveup intensive livestock agriculture andconvert the farm into a recreation
The two-week course was intenseand well appreciated. Apart from re-freshing their GIS and remote sensingknowledge and learning more aboutthe use of geo-information science tomitigate natural disasters, participantsappreciated the networking possibili-ties, both with former classmates aswell as with professionals from SADCand FAO. To quote one participant'sevaluation form: "Please keep it upand organise more courses in future."
If you are interested in following asimilar course, please take a lookat the description of the shortcourse Remote Sensing-basedMonitoring of ContinuousProcesses and Discrete Events, withFocus on Vegetation and DisasterApplications that appears on theITC web pages (www.itc.nl/educa-tion/shortcourses.aspx) and theNFP website (www.nuffic.nl/nfp).
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Planning and Coordination for NRM in the Province of Overijssel
Emile Dopheide [email protected]
Practising with GPS and mobile GIS
and camping site. The Province as-sisted them with the various proce-dures necessary to comply with theland use regulations.
Participants could appreciate the suc-cessful combination of their occupa-tion with concern for a sensitivenature area, and were impressed bythe resilience of the couple in re-sponding to the less favourable cir-cumstances for agriculture byadapting their activities. Issues thatstimulated further discussion were thefuture role of agriculture and food se-curity in the Netherlands and the pri-vate and public resources required tomake these changes possible.
At the end of the day, participantshad a somewhat better insight intospatial planning processes and hadlearned about ways of reconcilingpossibly conflicting land uses in theNetherlands.
Some student reactions:
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Jan Eleveld (civil servant, Province of Overijssel) explaining the provin-cial land use zoning plan
Farmer Jan Brunninkhuis and ITC student Santoso Edy WidayatAnggoro exchanging Dutch shag and Indonesian kretek
It was very good to see how theProvince of Overijssel and farmersare jointly shaping the future ofagriculture in the Netherlands. Thelevel of collaboration and consulta-tion is very high, making the wholeprocess a success. Change is a verydifficult thing to handle. Overijsselshould give farmers like Jan andMarjan, who have voluntarily de-cided to play a part in the recon-struction project, a pat on theback. Issues being raised at globallevel (WTO) are very real, and it isgood to plan ahead. (Student from Zambia)
The desire and confidence shownby Overijssel in planning for soci-ety's advantage is impressive. Itsability to link central governmentand society was demonstratedduring our visit in the afternoon.We could see in practice what hadbeen related in the presentations.The province serves as a good ex-ample when it comes to turningproblems into opportunities forcollaborating with society. For ex-ample, animal disease and the ef-fects of manure on water qualityhave become an opportunity todevelop tourism. (Student from Ethiopia)
The study tour was really interesting. However, I do have one concern.If this tendency leads to a change from agricultural activities to touristactivities, this country will surely have to import the majority of its food -with the implication that the developing countries that provide theNetherlands with food would be forced to extend their agricultural land.This would put greater pressure on the natural forest and cause majorlosses of natural resources and biodiversity in these countries. I do notknow whether the authorities have already thought about these issues;if so, what action would they take to avoid this situation? (Student from Ecuador)
Another important lesson I learnedwas that putting plans into effectrequires strong determination. Intimes gone by, the land was la-belled for farming purposes butnow the reverse is being done. Ialso admire Mr Jan and MrsMarian for being models in re-sponding to change. I also learnedthat all the staff we met realisedwhat the consequences of their ef-fort could be in the future.(Student from Ethiopia)
ITC's Geo-Information Management(GIM) programme focuses on pro-fessionals working in organisationswhere large volumes of geo-infor-mation are produced, used and ex-changed. Such professionals neednot only GIS knowledge and expert-ise but also appropriate manage-ment skills to make these dataavailable, affordable and accessibleto different application fields.
The programme is organised in mod-ules. GIM module 12, held in June2004, dealt with spatial data infra-structure development, and this yearincluded a visit to Austria andGermany. In Germany the BayerischesLandesvermessungsamt (BavarianSurvey Department) was the port ofcall. A lively discussion between theGIM students and top managementand experts of this organisation cov-ered a range of topics, includingusers of products and services, userrequirements, spatial data infrastruc-ture developments, quality manage-ment, pricing policy, methodologies,ICT, GPS services, impressions of thelatest developments, marketing andcustomer satisfaction. The atmos-phere was highly positive, with bothsides appreciating the open andtransparent debate. Moreover, the in-formation provided proved very use-ful during the module.
Commission 7, Cadastre and LandManagement, of the InternationalFederation of Surveyors (FIG) held aninternational seminar on e-LandAdministration from 2 to 4 June 2004in Innsbruck, Austria. The GIM stu-dents participated in this seminar andcontributed to the discussions. It alsoturned out to be a good opportunityfor networking, as many contacts
were established between the ITCstudents and professionals in thisarea.
Cadastral data as part of geographi-cal information has developed into anew tool for crucial political, eco-nomic and legal decision making. Butthere is still a lack of awareness con-cerning the importance of digitalcadastral data. e-Government has be-come an issue in all fields of publicadministration, requiring transforma-tion of background procedures intomodels offering the client simple so-lutions as a product of differing con-tent on various levels of quality yetwithout evidence of unique stan-dards. e-Land Administration is amajor part of e-Government and maybe considered a strong fundament forlegal, administrative and technicalstructures for an entire public admin-istration. Land administration dataare indicators for a wide range of re-lated information and are essential
for creating value-added data for e-Government.
Ms Gerda Schennach organised thesymposium on behalf of FIG, in closecooperation with the Austrian Societyfor Surveying and Geoinformation(OVG) and the Austrian Federal Officefor Metrology and Surveying (BEV).Thanks to the efforts of MsSchennach, we were provided withaccommodation at the Olympic Hotelin Innsbruck.
The GIM group was pleased to partic-ipate, to attend the social events, toenjoy the hospitality, to learn fromSDI developments in many countries,and to witness the performance ofProfessor Paul van der Molen (chair ofFIG Commission 7) in an environmentoutside ITC. (Further details and con-clusions can be found atwww.fig.net; look for Commission 7.)
13ITC News 2004-2
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GIM Students Participate in International Seminar
Christiaan Lemmen [email protected]
Commission 7, Cadastre and Land Management, of the InternationalFederation of Surveyors (FIG) held an international seminar on e-LandAdministration; ITC's GIM students participated in this seminar andcontributed to the discussions
In April 2004 ITC organised thethree-week short course Buildingand Publishing a National Basemapusing PLTS, which was attended by11 participants. The course wasopen to both regular ITC studentsand external parties, and includedparticipants from VIDAGIS inVietnam and Buraidah Municipalityin Saudi Arabia, as well as a groupof IIRS students.
PLTS (production line tool set) hasbeen developed by ESRI to providenational mapping agencies with anapplication that can be successfullyemployed in high-volume productionenvironments. PLTS operates on topof ArcGIS and provides tools for data-base creation and maintenance, andthe creation of high-quality output.The functionality includes feature-driven validation and symbolisation,batch and visual quality assurance,and customisable cartographic andmap series generation.
Starting in 2005, in connection withthe programme of Decentralisationof Education, NUFFIC will offer fel-lowships to study on theProfessional Masters courses at CLAS(within the Univsersidad Mayor SanSimon, Cochabamba, Bolivia). Thesecourses have been set up in cooper-ation with ITC under theNetherlands funded CLAS project.
The courses available are:• Water Resource Survey • Irrigation and Drainage• Soil information for Natural
Resource ManagementThe fellowships will be available not
only to Bolivians, but to all other na-tionals eligible for NetherlandsFellowships, although as the coursesare run in Spanish, interest is ex-pected mainly from candidates inSouth and Central America.
To apply for the fellowship, interestedcandidates need to first send a courseapplication form to ITC (by 1stSeptember).
If accepted on to the course, the can-didate then needs to apply for thefellowship via the NetherlandsEmbassy in their own country (by 1October).
Information on the courses can befound on the CLAS website athttp://www.clas.umss.edu.bo alterna-tively, you may contact Ronald Vargas at CLAS.E-mail: [email protected] orJohn Horn at ITC. E-mail [email protected]
Information on the NetherlandsFellowship Programme can be foundon the NUFFIC website at:http://www.nuffic.nl/nfp-npt
This course, part of a lasting relation-ship between ESRI and ITC, wasbased on a similar training course of-fered by ESRI in Redlands (USA).Ellen-Wien Augustijn was present inRedlands the first time ESRI offeredthe course and was also responsiblefor the course given at ITC. Mr Javier
Morales and Ms Jantien Stoter pro-vided special lectures.
Although no immediate repeat hasyet been scheduled, the course maybe given again as a special course, ifsufficient interest is shown.
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Building and Publishing a National Basemap Using the ESRI Production Line Tool Set (PLTS)
Ellen-Wien Augustijn [email protected]
Fellowships for courses at CLAS, Bolivia
ITC staff and participants of the short course Building and Publishing a National BasemapUsing PLTS
ITC is continuously upgrading its cur-riculum. In 2003 we reconsidered thecontent of the Rural Land Ecology(RLE) specialisation in the NRM pro-gramme. As this specialisation was in-creasingly attracting participants withan interest and background in themanagement of natural ecosystemsand biodiversity conservation, it wasdecided to modify the title and con-tent to better satisfy the demand for
While the Ghanaian Forestry Com-mission regularly monitors the con-dition of the forest reserves underits authority, relatively little isknown about the quantity and con-dition of the tree resources outsidethese reserves (Figure 1). An inven-tory of the off-reserve tree resourceshas been made only once, in 1995,and then only of timber trees. This ispartly due to the highly dynamic,scattered nature of these resourcesand partly due to the fact that con-ventional inventories are costly andlabour-intensive.
However, with the ongoing intensivelogging and gradual degradation ofmany forest reserves, these so-calledoff-reserve tree resources are becom-ing increasingly important as a sourceof wood products (for local commu-
nities as well as the commercial sec-tor) and for biodiversity conservation(Figure 2).
With the establishment of protectedforest reserves in the first half of the20th century, the pressure on off-re-serve areas has increased. Discussionswith the Forestry Commission revealthat agricultural intensification, re-stricted forest reserve accessibility for
professionals capable of applying spa-tial information in the field of biodi-versity conservation. It was decided tochange the title of the specialisationto Geo-information for BiodiversityConservation (BIOCON). The speciali-sation will focus on techniques to ac-quire and analyse spatial informationfor the management of naturalecosystems and biological diversity.
More information on the BIOCONspecialisation, which will be of-fered from 2005 onwards, can beobtained by contacting the special-isation adviser Eduard Westinga([email protected]).
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New Specialisation on Biodiversity Conservation in NRM Programme
Jan de Leeuw [email protected]
project news
Geoinformation Applications for Off-Reserve Tree Management in Ghana
Louise van Leeuwen [email protected]
Martien Gelens [email protected]
FIGURE 1 Off-reserve tree resources in annualcropland
FIGURE 2 Local use of off-reserve trees: mortarsfor pounding grain and plantain
local communities, increasing de-mand from the commercial sector fortimber to a level beyond the annualallowable cut from the forest re-serves, and the absence of effectiveprotection mechanisms have all con-tributed to a situation in which thedegradation of off-reserve tree re-sources is now taking place at a pro-hibitive rate. Importantly, thisincreasing degradation underscoresthe growing importance of these off-reserve tree resources, making it im-perative to know more about theiroccurrence, distribution, functionsand management, in order to sustain-ably maintain or even enlarge suchresources.
In this context the Ghanaian tradi-tional land and tree tenure system isnot the most favourable when itcomes to protecting trees on farm-lands. In this system revenues comingfrom timber exploitation go exclu-sively to the local chiefs or stools andnone to the individual farmer whotends the land and the trees on it.The situation is further aggravated bythe fact that insufficient compensa-tion is paid to farmers for damagesuffered on removal of timber treesfrom their land by logging compa-nies.
With the aim of preventing or reduc-ing damage and losses, farmers ille-gally remove or kill potentiallyharvestable specimens of timber treesin particular, and/or remove seedlings,saplings and trees well before theyreach harvestable size (Figure 3).During a recent field visit by the au-thors, dead ring-barked or partiallyburned trees were frequently seen,especially in annual cropland. Frominterviews with farmers it emergedthat only those trees that have an ex-plicit function in the farming systemor in rural livelihoods are allowed togrow to sizeable dimensions, whichimplies that the function of a tree isvery much the key to its occurrence infarmlands. This means that the in-
volvement of local communities iscrucial, and information on the usesand functions of trees in rural liveli-hoods essential, to ensure the properprotection and management of off-reserve tree resources, and the halt-ing and even reversal of theirdegradation.
Some studies have been carried outon the general role of trees in rurallivelihoods, but relatively little infor-mation is available on the specificuses and functions of the various treespecies, their place or role in specificland use systems, and (the mecha-nisms affecting) their spatial distribu-tion - and even less on theimplications of all this for their con-servation and management.
The Forestry Commission recognisesthe increasing importance of the off-reserve tree resources and intends toimprove their use and management,but lacks the funds, methods andtools to regularly monitor the woodytree stands outside the boundaries ofthe forest reserves or study their rolein rural livelihoods. Consequently theabsence of appropriate (spatial) infor-mation on off-reserve tree resourcesin terms of quantity, functions, distri-
bution and dynamics hampers the de-velopment of management plans.
The GORTMAN project(Geoinformation Applications for Off-Reserve Tree Management) aims tocontribute to the above-mentionedefforts to improve off-reserve treemanagement by the GhanaianForestry Commission. More specifi-cally, the project aims to develop andtest methods and tools focusing onthe collection and analysis of espe-cially spatial data (of both a biophysi-cal and a socio-economic nature) onoff-reserve tree resource conditionsand current and past use/manage-ment practices. This will ultimatelylead to the development of scenariosfor improved land use. Within thiscontext the project is in the processof making a detailed inventory of thepresent situation, assessing the pro-ductive potential of the land and ex-ploring various options for "change",including alternative farming systemsand incentive mechanisms to en-hance stakeholder collaboration, suchas income generation through NTFP.Furthermore, possibilities to extendthe proposed national certificationscheme into the off-reserve areas willbe explored
A GIS will be used to visualise and in-tegrate spatial data on the currentconditions of the remaining off-re-serve tree resources in terms of quan-tity and diversity (including NTFPs),other aspects related to the biophysi-cal potential of the land, and theneeds and aspirations of local stake-holders. This will lead to the identifi-cation of zones based on currentquality or future potential, for whichdifferent options for a more sustainedtype of use/management will be rec-ommended. The strength of the proj-ect lies in its spatial integration ofbiophysical as well as socio-economicaspects.
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FIGURE 3 Illegal removal of a tree by farmers
The project is strongly connected withthe Forestry Commission and its out-puts will be incorporated in the na-tional forest sector informationsystem that is currently being estab-lished at the Forestry Commission'sheadquarters in Accra.
The research is carried out in Ghana'sso-called high forest zone, in GoasoForest District, Brong Ahafo Region(Figure 4), where off-reserve tree re-sources occur mainly as individualtrees scattered in or around agricul-tural fields, as shade trees on cacaoplantations, or as small groups oftrees in older fallow systems. Largeparts of the area have been con-
verted into cacao plantations which,for a long time, were considered as adriving force for improving the na-tional economy. Fields of half ahectare on average, mainly with sub-sistence crops such as plantain, cas-sava and maize, are scattered inbetween these plantations. Remnantsof intact natural forests are scarce,but several forest reserves (in variousstages of exploitation/degradation)are located in the area. The project is carried out under theauspices of the Tropenbos GhanaProgramme, with the cooperatingbodies being ITC, the Netherlands(Figure 5), the University of Ghana(UG), the Resource Management and
Support Centre of the ForestryCommission in Ghana (RMSC), andthe University of Freiburg, Germany.A major component of the project isknowledge, skills and technologytransfer and related capacity buildingthrough informal on-the-job training,as well as more formal training andeducation provided to relevant insti-tutes/organisations at various (district,national) levels.
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FIGURE 4 Map and satellite image (from the ASTER sensor) of the project area in Goaso Forest District, Brong Ahafo Region, Ghana
FIGURE 5 Field data collection by ITC staff and students and Forestry Commission
In 2002 ITC started offering itsalumni a free lifelong alumni e-mailaccount in order to stimulate com-munication between fellow courseparticipants and to keep them in-formed about the latest activitiesand developments at ITC. Since then1,200 e-mail addresses have beendistributed. Since December 2002,students leaving ITC - and so becom-ing alumni - have been given theoption of keeping a free e-mail ad-dress at ITC. Those who graduatedfrom ITC before December 2002 canapply for an alumni e-mail accountvia Internet (www.itc.nl/alumni).
Together with their applications,many alumni have sent messages ad-dressed to fellow alumni, students,ITC staff or ITC in general. Thesemessages will soon be posted on ouralumni web pages but below is aforetaste.
•Mohammed El Mahdi SiddigABDEL RAHMAN, [email protected], 2002I like to share in all activities, at ITCand all over the world, related toearth resources exploration, evalua-tion and management using remotesensing and geological, geostatisticaland geophysical sciences. Further, Ienjoy all forms of sharing and com-munication, such as refresher courses,workshops and exchanging ideaswith ITC staff, students and alumni.
•Haleem ABDUL, [email protected], 2002I think that I was the last studentfrom Pakistan who was offered ascholarship to study at ITC, as sincethen I haven't heard of anybody from
Pakistan being granted a scholarshipto study at ITC. I did my GIMProfessional Master's degree in 2002.Although I have tried to apply GIS inmy field (project management, plan-ning and development), I haven't hadany opportunity to carry out progres-sive work since then. It is difficult toapply GIS in our routine work be-cause of financial constraints and theshortage of personnel trained in GIS.But now GIS is being rapidly intro-duced in our country, and many ofthe foreign aid projects and multina-tional companies have started workin this field. I am now planning towork with one such organisation andI have got leave without pay from myoffice for two years to refresh my GISknowledge.
•Asmat ALI, [email protected], 1998I would like to be in contact after Ihave received my ITC alumni account.I thank you very much for now.
•Ermias AYNEKULU, [email protected], 2003I was quite impressed by the interna-tional evening, which reminds me ofprincipal components analysis (PCA).The ITC auditorium was like PCA1, inwhich culture from the differentbands, in this case at least 20 coun-tries, came together to design andprint out what the world is all aboutin a very short time. The Philippinefinger was the tip of the night, whichstretched to touch the ceiling, whilethe strong Ugandan leg hit the ITCauditorium floor to the maximum.This is what the world is all about.Thank you ITC for organising suchevents that stay long in the memory.
•Jiban B. BAJRACHARYA, [email protected], 1994The time I spent at ITC was unforget-table, and with the help of thisalumni interaction programme wewill be able to share our experiencesand see old pals again in action. It'salways very difficult to catch up withthe advances in new technology. I amsure this alumni interaction will keepus up to date on new developmentsin our field.
•Ralph BELAPUNA, Papua [email protected], 1998I am currently working for a mineralexploration company in MorobeProvince, Papua New Guinea (PNG).After completing my studies at ITC inAugust 1998, I returned to PNG andworked for a while for the PNGDepartment of Agriculture andLivestock. Then I moved on to workfor Morobe Consolidated GoldfieldsLtd (MCG), who are exploring forminerals in Morobe Province. After
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life after itc
Messages from Alumni
Janneke Kalf [email protected]
three and a half years with MCG, Imoved on to work as a database ana-lyst for Chevron Niugini Ltd for a yearand a half. Last October, I movedback to MCG and am currently work-ing there. My training at ITC has hon-estly enabled me to carry out my GISand database management tasks veryeffectively. To all GIR, GIC and GIU in-takes in 1997, wherever you are,hope all is going well for you.
•Jane BEMIGISHA, [email protected], 1998I commend the effort ITC puts intomaintaining links with us the alumni,which I have found very useful and amotivation in my academic and careerdevelopment. I'm very proud to bepart of the linkage.
•Prisca CHAPUIS, [email protected], 2002Hello my dear friends, Though we are far away, let's be to-gether. The world is becoming smallerand smaller.
•Andrew Kangwa CHILUFYA,[email protected], 2003Geographical information technologyis just beginning to be appreciated ona wide scale in Zambia. Issues of ICTinfrastructure and training havecaught the attention of government,the rationale being that ICT con-tributes a great deal to quick decisionmaking. Any ideas to support mygovernment's initiative are welcome.Please share!
•Thirumalaivasan DEVARAJAN,[email protected] Course GIS, 1997I am very glad that ITC is providingsuch a valuable service to the alumni,enabling them to keep in touch withthis great Institute. I sincerely believethat it will be of immense value tomany alumni, as they will be able tokeep themselves updated on the lat-est developments in the fields of ex-cellence at ITC. Thank you!
•Itai DHLIWAYO, United [email protected] Planning, 2001I retired as chairman and president ofCerteza Surveying and AerophotoSystems Inc., a Philippine aerial surveyfirm, in March 2003, after 32 years ofservice. I am now pursuing a PhDprogramme in mathematics at theUniversity of the Philippines, which Istarted in June 2003. My professor,president of Certeza, is also an ITCalumnus, Reynaldo R. Adorador bythe name, MSc in photogrammetryfrom ITC Enschede.
•L. LAUD, [email protected], 1999Hi to the ITC alumni management. It'sbeen quite sometime since I commu-nicated with my Alma Mater. Anyway,I wish to thank the group for makingthis website available. At least we cancommunicate. I do miss Holland andI'd really love to go back again to thatbeautiful place. I've missed a lot ofthose places I visited, the people, andthe friends I met. Thanks a lot to theNFP and the Dutch government forgiving me the opportunity to study atITC. I'm proud to say that it has reallyhelped my career. It's already morethan a year since I was appointed byour organisation, the DENR, to ahigher position. I was given an oppor-tunity to handle the Forest ResourcesDevelopment Division under the um-brella of Forest Management Services- DENR region 6, Iloilo City. So this is it
for now. I should like to thank ITC forthe technology, the knowledge I'veacquired. It has really helped me a lot.Lastly, I hope and pray that I will bepromoted someday ... God bless, andI hope to return to ITC soon. Regardsto my DoS, Robert Albricht of Forestry.
•M. MAANGO Samuel Chembe,[email protected], 2000Dear Editor, I graduated from ITC in April 2000. Iwas in the Geological SurveyDepartment and majored in environ-mental systems analysis and monitor-ing (ESM.2). Truly, the knowledge Iacquired from ITC has proved to bean asset in my life, scientifically, pro-fessionally and socially. Scientificallyand professionally, I realised that myanalytical abilities had been greatlyenhanced. I can clearly see how toenhance the lives of different com-munities through my improved ana-lytical abilities. Coincidentally, I havebeen involved in projects that dealwith the environment, and natural re-sources management and develop-ment. To my surprise (if I can put itthis way), most of my contributionsto project operations have beenhighly appreciated. I have since beenlinked to various other natural re-sources-based projects. All in all, thetool (knowledge) that ITC handed tome has proved to be a success in en-hancing the lives of people in the de-veloping world. My thanks to ITC!
•M.G.C. MANDENG Gweth,[email protected] Geomorphology, 1993Since I left ITC in 1993, this highereducation institute has always kept intouch with the alumni, by informingthem of changes at ITC, by register-ing in news magazines such as GIMInternational, by sending them vari-ous brochures. But I am sorry that asa Cameroonian there is no chance forme to follow a short course, since my
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country is no longer eligible forNetherlands fellowships. Thank youfor keeping us up to date with thechanges in IT.
•Esther Ngina MANDI, [email protected], 1991ITC Lecture Notes on DatabaseManagement Systems by Dr Rolf deBy helped me to analyse food aid dis-tribution. THANK YOU Dr Rolf de By!
•R.S.M. MSHALI, MalawiMineral Exploration, 1984I was working for the GeologicalSurvey of Malawi as a governmentgeologist from 1981 to 2001 beforejoining Mzuzu University as a lecturerin earth sciences/physical geography.While at the Geological Survey ofMalawi, I served in various capacities,namely as mineral exploration geolo-gist, senior geologist (exploration),principal geologist (industrial mineralresearch and development) and assis-tant chief geologist (deputy director)responsible for planning and field lo-gistics. All this has been achievedbased on the knowledge originallyacquired from ITC Delft and DelftTechnical University, where I did post-graduate research in coal petrologyand coal mining. Currently, I amteaching geological aspects to geog-raphy and forestry students, remotesensing, aspects of GIS applied tonatural resources evaluation and wa-tershed management. I have actuallyput all the skills and knowledge fromITC, as well as their applications ingeosciences while I was a geologist atthe national geological survey, to op-timum use in my present job as a lec-turer. I hope ITC will keep me postedon recent developments with regardto refresher courses in line with theprofessional fields indicated.
•S.M. MSUYA, [email protected], 1999Since I left ITC I have been working inthe real world, using the technology
(especially GIS) I gained at ITC, and Icertainly do not regret having beenone of ITC's students. All my workhas been good and received good re-marks. Keep it up! I am now workingfor a Swiss agency, trying to map mydistrict with the aid of MapInfo.However, all the basic knowledge Igained from ITC has been useful. Iam trying to support the use of ILWISin my programme.
•Douglas M. MUSIEGA, Kenya/[email protected] 3 and IGP 2, 1996Hello ITC, My name is Douglas Musiega, fromKenya. I was an ITC student for the1995-96 period and followed theIGP.2 course of the GeoinformaticsDepartment then. I remember thegreat time I had both as a student ofcartography under Corné vanElzakker, Conny Blok, the late AllanBrown, and of course RichardKnippers and Professor Stein, not for-getting Jeroen van den Worm. I waslater supervised by Chris Paresi forthe MSc at ITC. I was glad to gradu-ate with an ITC MSc; it prepared mefor the challenges of being employedas a lecturer. However, the goodnews came, and the greatest value ofthe ITC diploma was realised, when Iwon a scholarship to come to Japanto enrol for a PhD course. Most otherMSc degree holders from other coun-tries were asked to re-do the MSc de-gree in Japan, but the ITC MSc wasconsidered the right standard for pur-suing a PhD course in Japan. It wasindeed held in high esteem by the in-terview panel. The ITC diploma savedme time and made me proud that Ihad had the privilege to study at ITC.Since that time I have indeed realisedthe impact ITC has had on the world,and the revered name it has made foritself is indeed the source of our prideas alumni.
I pass my best regards to current ITCstudents from Africa. I wish themgreat success in the completion of
their courses. Africa needs your skillswhen you have finished. And we areproud of your achievements so far.And to NFP, we are ever grateful forthe scholarships. Thanks ITC!
•Charles M. MURIUKI, [email protected], 1997Hallo,I always get electrified when I readany bit of information from ITC.Besides reading about the latest newtechnology in my line of GIS, I alsoget excited to see what is happeningat ITC itself, to the ever-friendly staff,and in Holland in general, with itsbeautiful climate. And NOW here'sthe chance to reach my long-lost lov-ing friends with whom I associated. Awhile ago I gave up hope of ever talk-ing to them or hearing from themagain. Let's all rise up and share ourviews and report on the progress wehave made so far and what we areintending to do. THANKS!
•Odetha Vianney NYARUBAJI(Karamaga), [email protected] for Cadastral Applications, 1999I am very happy with the creation ofthe alumni mailbox and discussiongroups. This shows how ITC cares forher students all over the world andmakes them utilise and update theknowledge acquired. Please keep itup; we will cooperate fully with allyour efforts. I will write more nexttime!
•Aaron PHIRI, [email protected], 2000I had an opportunity to take part inthe first-ever Internet development
20 ITC News 2004-2
L I F E A F T E R I T C
project in my department. The de-partment used a group of only five ofour own staff, including me, to man-age this site. The knowledge I gainedat ITC on website development wassuch a good investment for me andmy department. Our website addressis www.zamstats.gov.zm. My thanksgo to ITC and the entire staff, Ms Sunand Mr Lemmens and all the lecturersin GFM.4. Your labour has not beenin vain but has affected the entireworld for the better. Regards.
•Virupakshaiah PRAKASH, [email protected], 1992It instilled thinking capabilities. I fol-lowed the postgraduate diplomacourse in water resource survey dur-ing the period 1991-1992 under theNFP. The thinking capabilities andconfidence gained during my one-year stay at ITC has helped me inmany ways. The knowledge is beingused in my day-to-day work as the di-rector of the Drought MonitoringCell, Government of Karnataka.
•Lilia RAFLORES, [email protected], 1987The Netherlands Fellows Foundationof the Philippines, Inc. (NFFPI), an as-sociation of graduates of Netherlandstraining courses, celebrated its 25thanniversary in May 2003. A congresswith the theme "25 years of Dutch-Filipino educational cooperation:sharing of best practices" was held atthe Bayview Hotel, Manilla, from 29to 30 May 2003 to celebrate the oc-casion. Despite heavy rains, the con-gress was well attended. Theambassador of the Netherlands to thePhilippines, Ambassador Theo Arnold,was the guest speaker. One of thehighlights of the occasion was theBalik Holland Raffle, where a ticketfor a round trip to Holland wasawarded to the lucky winner.
•Rodolfo SALAZAR, [email protected], 2001I was the CLIRSEN director headingresearch on natural resources and theenvironment. We have been talkingto ITC about signing an agreementfor cooperation in Ecuador and theAndean Region because of the strate-gic position of our country. I hope itcan be the starting point for develop-ing further research cooperation andprojects involving remote sensing,GIS, natural resources and the envi-ronment. We are also developing thenational clearinghouse for nationalnatural resources (seewww.clirson.com), then a clearing-house as part of the NSDI. I think theintroduction of the new ITC is verydifficult, and is hard for many currentstaff managers to understand.Considerable effort must be made,but I think that is our goal as ITCalumni.
•Swarna Kumari SENEVIRATNE, [email protected] Cart., 1989I thank you so much because youhave allowed me to use the ITCalumni web page and sent me a replyto my letter. I am still reminded of myITC life in 1988/89 in Holland. It wasa tough course, but I followed it suc-cessfully and received a certificate.This certificate is very useful to mewhen I apply for promotion and alsofor my future career. I am very keento follow a GIS and remote sensingcourse. If you are conducting anyshort training courses, please sendme the details through my e-mail.
•Gwendoline NAKAMBA SEKE,[email protected], 2002After graduating from ITC with a PMin WREM, specialising in GREM, Iwent back home to Zambia. I was im-mediately transferred to run thewhole province as provincial water of-ficer. I have several engineers andother support staff working underme. The knowledge acquired fromITC in GIS and remote sensing as ap-plied to water resource managementhas helped me to handle my dutieswith confidence. I would like to saythanks to ITC and its staff, especiallythe WREM group, for everything. Istill want to pursue an MSc at thesame Institute as it is very relevant tomy field of operations. I hope I getthat chance soon. Long live ITC andGod bless! Your work and input, aswell as your impact on my life, havenot been in vain.
•Rachapudi SIVA KUMAR, [email protected], 1994I have been in touch since I left andITC has shown keen interest in ouractivities, especially in building ournational spatial data infrastructure.
•Bitew Bezu TILAYE, [email protected], 2001It is almost three years since I gradu-ated from ITC. Just after graduation Icame back to my home country ofEthiopia and immediately joined mypresent organisation, the Bureau ofFinance and Economic Development(BoFED). Since the date of joining Ihave been working on an informationsystem, as team leader for one year,as programmer for one year and asdepartment head for nine months.My knowledge from ITC has helpedme a lot in working with our new in-formation system, which is called theIntegrated Planning InformationSystem (IPIS). This is an automatedsystem that replaces all the manual
21ITC News 2004-2
L I F E A F T E R I T C
work in the planning, budgeting,monitoring and evaluation tasks ofBoFED. At this moment we are con-verting a huge amount of paper/ana-logue format data of previous yearsto digital format in order to start theactual automated service. At this timeI am following short-term trainingcourses related to computer program-ming for three months in Mumbai,India. Mumbai (Bombay) is a city witha population of about 20 million. It'ssurprising that Bombay is a city whereeverything happens peacefully, notwith any of the violations that I haveseen in other continents that I havevisited in my lifetime. Therefore, Iwould like to have more news andtraining courses related to computerscience.
•Victor Francis URBAN, [email protected], 1962Although retired now, I would like tohear from 1961 and 1962 ITC gradu-ates.
•Epaphrodite UTABAJIMANA,[email protected], 2001What I'd like to say is that I have ben-efited much from my ITC course. I
now have a good job because of theITC course taken. My special thanksto ITC's lecturers and to the Dutchgovernment, which guaranteed me ascholarship. I plan to come back toITC for further studies, and count ongiving some sort of contribution toITC and also to all alumni. Thank youfor having made this mailbox facilityavailable.
•Cris VEIGA, [email protected] Survey, 1989My stay at ITC, in two different peri-ods, 1985/86 and 1987/89, is full ofbeautiful stories and good friends.The MSc degree in urban survey andhuman settlements analysis was oneof my achievements. It was just agreat period of my life and it's a pity Ihaven't been able to come backmany other times to refresh the goodmemories, to explore the new build-ing and to see ITC friends again. Iknow some of them I won't see any-more, which makes me very sad, butmany are still there. The MSc diplomaobtained at ITC opened a profes-sional door for me and I'm workingtoday at IBGE, the most importantnational mapping organisation inBrazil.
But the period I spent at ITC broughtme also some good friends withwhom I still keep in touch today, suchas Mrs Anne van Adrichen fromEnschede, Luisa Pereira fromPortugal, Fernanda Guerrieri fromItaly and mi hermana Silvia Erni fromPeru, without mentioning the friendsstill working at ITC. So all the time Ithink about ITC I just feel happiness.
•Gary WASHBURN, [email protected], 1973Our class was the first in Enschede.Time has gone by very fast, however.I went on to finish my MA, UCR, andstarted a small company with othergraduate students. We did the earlyphoto interpretation work for ESRI inRedland, CA. Later on I got involvedin local government and becamemayor of Lake Elsinore. I taught ge-ography and photo interpretation,and now work as a consultant and dosite selection work for clients. I wouldlike to hear what the other class-mates are doing.
22 ITC News 2004-2
L I F E A F T E R I T C
Jantien Stoter Assistant Professor, Department of Geo-information Processing (per 1 April 2004)
André Kooiman Lecturer Department of Natural Resources (per 1 April 2004)
Bert Boer Senior Project Officer, Bureau Project Services (per 1 May 2004)
Patrick van Laake Assistant Professor, Department of Natural Resources (per 17 May 2004)
Willem Kruijer Project Assistant, Department of Earth Observation Science (per 15 April 2004)
Blanca Perez Lapena Instructor, Department of Geo-Information Processing (per 1 May 2004)
Welcometo ITC
Staffleaving
staff news
23ITC News 2004-2
L I F E A F T E R I T C
Since its establishment in 1950, ITC'salumni corps has grown to a com-munity of more than 15,000 namesand spreads across all continents,with some 160 countries being rep-resented.
In 2002 ITC started investigating thedesirability of, and prospects for, set-ting up more ITC alumni associations.At that time there were two ITCalumni associations, one in Nepal andone in Uganda. The Institute activelypromoted, among both students andalumni, the opportunity to set upalumni associations, and this hasborne fruit. No less than eight newITC alumni associations have been, orare in the process of being, estab-lished.
Would you like to join the ITC alumniassociation in your country? Thencontact the local coordinator (ad-dresses below)!
Alumni who would like to set up sim-ilar associations in their own countryor who wish to obtain more informa-tion on alumni associations are in-vited to contact the alumnicoordinator (e-mail: [email protected]).
Regularly check out ITC's website toview the latest developments(www.itc.nl/alumni).
BOLIVIAITC Alumni Association of BoliviaMr Ronald Job Vargas Rojas, CountryCoordinatorFortin Conchitas st #866Cochabamba, BOLIVIA
Phone: +591-4-4282445 (home) /+591-4-4540750 (office)
Fax: +591-44256551E-mail: [email protected] /
CANADAITC Alumni Association of CanadaMr Rex CamitApt 1108, Rose Avenue 135M4X 1P1 Toronto, CANADA
E-mail: [email protected]
ETHIOPIAITC Alumni Association EthiopiaDr Tenalem Ayenewc/o Department of Geology andGeophysicsAddis Ababa UniversityP.O. Box 1176Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA
Phone: +251.1.553214Fax: +251.1.553214
E-mail: [email protected]
INDIAITC Alumni Association of IndiaProf. Dr. Mahavir Professor of Planning and Head ofCentre for Remote Sensing c/o School of Planning and Architecture 4-B, I. P. Estate, New Delhi 110002,INDIA
Phone: + 91.11.23702378 / 23702375-80 (office)
Fax: + 91.11.23702383 (office)E-mail: [email protected]
MONGOLIAITC Alumni Association of MongoliaMrs D. Narantuya
Phone: +976-11353892 (home) / +976-99187780 (mobile)
E-mail: [email protected] /[email protected]
NEPALITC Alumni Association of Nepalc/o GPO Box 9046Kathmandu, NEPAL
Phone: +977.1.251625 / 482903Fax: +977.482957
E-mail: [email protected] / [email protected]
PAKISTANITC Alumni Association of PakistanMr Falak Nawazc/o National Centre of Excellence inGeologyUniversity of Peshawar, PAKISTAN
Phone: +92.91.9216427 / 9216429Fax: +92.91.9218183
E-mail: [email protected]
PERUITC Alumni Association of PeruMr Hildebrando Palacios BerriosPsje Hermanos Carcamo 175,Urbanización AsteteLima 32, PERU
Phone: +51-1-4606827E-mail: [email protected]
orMr Luis Urbina ZárateMunicipalidad Provincial de TrujilloPizarro 412 - Trujillo, Peru
Phones: +51-44-293119 (trabajo) +51-44-9653683 (Móvil)
Fax: +51-44-261122E-mail: [email protected]
SURINAMITC Alumni Association of SurinamMs Virginia P. Atmopawiro, MScc/o CELOS - Narena departmentProf. Dr. J. RuinardlaanP.O. Box 1914Paramaribo-SouthSURINAM
E-mail: [email protected]
UGANDAITC Alumni Association of UgandaDepartment of Forest ProductsEngineeringFaculty of Forestry and NatureConservationMakerere University P.O. Box 7062Kampala, UGANDA
Phone: +256.41.543647 / 543648Fax: +256.41.533574
Join a Network of 15,000 ITC Alumni!
Janneke Kalf [email protected]
ITC Alumni Associations
On the initiative of Ms Narantuya(NRM.2, 2001), an ITC Mongolianalumni association was establishedin Mongolia on 19 April 2004. Onthat day, an ITC alumni party wasorganised in the Chengis KhanRestaurant in Ulaan Baatar, the capi-tal city of Mongolia. It was attendedby more than 20 ITC alumni.
Since the first Mongolian student ar-rived at ITC in 1990, more than 30Mongolians have studied at ITC.During the ITC alumni party, MrEnkhtuvshin, the first Mongolian tostudy at ITC, made a speech thankingITC's head of CommunicationsDepartment, Ms Janneke Kalf, forhosting this event and for ITC's sup-port in establishing the ITC alumni as-sociation. ITC was represented on thisoccasion by Professor John vanGenderen, who has been active inMongolia since 1992 and who is alsoan honorary professor at the NationalUniversity of Mongolia's Departmentof Geography.
The ITC Mongolian alumni associa-tion has drawn up an interesting planof activities for its first year. This in-cludes establishing an up-to-datedatabase of all Mongolian ITC gradu-ates, with such information as theircurrent job positions, addresses andcontact details; organising an annualITC alumni association meeting; andarranging for guest lectures to begiven by ITC staff members visitingMongolia, in order to update thealumni on new developments at ITC.
In June, five ITC staff members(Professor Andrew Skidmore and DrHein van Gils of the NaturalResources Management Department,Drs Paul Schoonackers of the Bureauof Project Services, Ms Marjan Kreijnsfrom ITC's Beijing office in China, andProfessor John van Genderen of the
Department of Earth ObservationScience) will visit Ulaan Baatar to at-tend an international workshophosted by the National University ofMongolia. During their stay inMongolia, they will not only give pre-sentations at the workshop but alsogive guest lectures at the university,as well as visit various organisationsto discuss cooperation with ITC in thefield of research and in joint projects.
On 8 June, another ITC Mongolianalumni association party will be or-
ganised, which the five staff mem-bers will also attend. For more infor-mation about the ITC AlumniAssociation of Mongolia, please con-tact:
Ms D. NarantuyaCoordinator ITC Mongolian AlumniAssociationE-mail: [email protected];
[email protected]: +976-11353892 (home) or
+976-99187780 (mobile)
24 ITC News 2004-2
L I F E A F T E R I T C
ITC Alumni Association Established in Mongolia
John van Genderen [email protected]
An ITC alumni party organised in the Chengis Khan Restaurant in Ulaan Baatar was at-tended by more than 20 ITC alumni
On the evening of Saturday 26thJune, the inaugural ITC - BoliviaAlumni Association was held at theRestaurant Estancia in Cochabamba.Attended by 17 ITC alumni and in-vited guests, the event marked theestablishment of the first formal ITCalumni association in SouthAmerica. At present there are ap-proximately 80 ITC alumni in Boliviawith the major concentrations beingin La Paz and Cochabamba. The lat-ter group largely result from theseven year long Dutch Governmentfunded CLAS project in the city.
The objective of the association is tofoster closer links between ITC and itsalumni as well as between the alumnithemselves.
The principal guests at the eventwere Lic. Roberto Iriate Noya, theVice Rector of the Universidad Mayorde San Simon, and Ing. EnriqueFernandez Sangueza, the Director ofthe CLAS centre. Whilst not alumnithemselves, they have contributed
significantly to ITC's CLAS project inBolivia, under which several dozenBolivians have studied at ITC.
Earlier in the day, Lic. Iriate, had reaf-firmed the commitment of the UMSSto the continuation of the courses atCLAS in the period after the end ofthe Dutch funded project.
On behalf of ITC, Mr. John Horn wel-comed the guests and was pleased toannounce that for the first time inyear 2005, Netherlands Fellowshipswill be available for students to fol-low the courses at CLAS.
It was fitting on this inauguralevening that both early and recentalumni were present. Representingthe 'CLAS of '66' was AlvaroFernandez, whilst six other alumnihad only returned from ITC this yearafter having successfully completedtheir Master's degrees.
The local coordinator of the associa-tion will be Ronald Vargas (who re-
cently completed his MSc in NaturalResource Management at ITC). Whilst the association is in contactwith many alumni, Ronald would bedelighted to hear from others whohave lost touch.
He can be contacted at CLAS or viae-mail ([email protected] [email protected]).
25ITC News 2004-2
L I F E A F T E R I T C
Inaugural meeting of the ITC Bolivia Alumni Association
Ronald Job Vargas Rojas [email protected]
Dear Editor,
Indeed its my pleasure to receive ITC News. It is also my privilege to get the opportunity to introduce Mr. Tom Loran whowas one of our instructor while I was in ITC during the period of 1988-89 in SOL 5 course.
Anyway I want to express my gratitude to all of the allumni of ITC. I hope this massage will go to my fellow course matewho may be in much higher position in their respective country.
Regards to all. I am excited to get the news letter.
Jalal Uddin Md. ShoaibPrincipal Scientific OfficerSoil Resource Development Institute (SRDI)Ministry of Argriculture, Govt. of BangladeshE-Mail: [email protected]. [email protected], [email protected]
letter to the editor
15th International Symposium onEarth Tides
2 August 2004 - 6 August 2004Canada, Ottawa
http://www.yorku.ca/ets/[email protected]
International Conference on WaterResources of Arid and Semi-AridRegions of Africa
3 August 2004 - 6 August 2004Botswana, Gaborone
http://www.ub.bw/departments/science/[email protected]
GITA Annual Conference
9 August 2004 - 11 August 2004Australia, Melbourne
http://www.gita.org.au/confer-ence_2004.html
ESRI International User Conference
9 August 2004 - 13 August 2004United States, San Diego
http://www.esri.com/events/uc/[email protected] attendance: Rolf de By, LyandeEelderink, Mark Noort, Jan Turkstra
International Workshop onGeographic Hypermedia
9 August 2004 - 13 August 2004United States, Santa Cruz
http://www.ht04.org/workshops/GeographicHypermedia/[email protected]
30th Congress of the InternationalGeographical Union
15 August 2004 - 20 August 2004United Kingdom, Glasgow
http://www.meetingmakers.co.uk/igc-
uk2004/[email protected]
GIS Brazil 2004
17 August 2004 - 20 August 2004Brazil, Sao Paulo
http://www.gisbrasil.com.br/english/
ITALIA 2004, International GeologicalCongress # 32
20 August 2004 - 28 August 2004Italy, Florence
http://www.32igc.orgITC attendance: Sabine Maresch, PhilWesterhof
World Library and InformationCongress: 70th IFLA GeneralConference and Council
22 August 2004 - 27 August 2004Argentina, Buenos Aires
26 ITC News 2004-2
L I F E A F T E R I T C
22 May 2004
A word of gratitude
I am Mesfin from Ethiopia and followed the PM course on the planning and coordination of natural resources manage-ment (NRM3) from 2001 to 2002. Basic knowledge, skills, dedication, and esteem are just a few of the credentials I ac-quired during my stay at ITC. Since graduating, I have been working for the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) forthe Benishangul-Gumuz region. Benishangul-Gumuz is one of the newly emerging regions of Ethiopia. I am a generalmanager and it is the diverse modules that I followed at ITC that enable me to carry out my present tasks.
Although I live far away from ITC, ITC News keeps me in touch with ITC events around the world. Moreover, the establish-ment of the ITC Alumni Association of Ethiopia allows me to develop personal networks and share ideas, experiences andknowledge with other alumni and our Dutch counterparts. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to send my heart-felt gratitude to those who are contributing to the realisation of ITC's Alumni Association of Ethiopia. From now on, I canfeel that I am still at ITC!
If any one is interested in sharing ideas, experiences or knowledge on the issue of environmental protection, please get intouch with me by e-mail or post.
Mesfin Kebede Retta [email protected]. Box 218Assosa, ETHIOPIA
letter to the editor
CONFERENCE CALENDAR
CALENDAR CALENDAR CALENDAR CALENDAR CALENDAR CALENDAR CALENDAR CALENDAR CALENDAR CALENDAR CALENDAR
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla70/[email protected] attendance: Marga Koelen
SDH 2004
23 August 2004 - 25 August 2004United Kingdom, Leicester
http://www.geog.le.ac.uk/sdh2004/[email protected] attendance: Rolf de By, RichardKnippers, Menno-Jan Kraak, Jantien toter
EuroScience Open Forum 2004
25 August 2004 - 28 August 2004Sweden, Stockholm
http://www.esof2004.org/[email protected]
Map Asia 2004 (rescheduled dates!)
26 August 2004 - 29 August 2004China, Beijing
http://www.mapasia.org/[email protected]
URISA's 6th Annual GIS in AddressingConference
29 August 2004 - 1 September 2004United States, St. Louis, Missouri
http://www.urisa.org/[email protected]
Governance for Urban Change
5 September 2004 - 8 September 2004Norway, Oslo
http://[email protected]
ArabMap 2004
6 September 2004 - 7 September 2004Egypt, Cairo
http://[email protected]
International Conference on SpatialPlanning and Decision SupportSystem 2004
7 September 2004 - 8 September 2004Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur
http://www.iiu.edu.my/advert/[email protected]
Remote Sensing and PhotogrammetrySociety Annual Conference
7 September 2004 - 10 September 2004United Kingdom, Aberdeen
http://www.rspsoc.org/[email protected]
RSPSoc 2004 Annual Conference
7 September 2004 - 10 September 2004United Kingdom, Aberdeen
http://www.rspsoc.org/[email protected]
SVG Open 2004
7 September 2004 - 10 September 2004Japan, Tokyo
http://www.svgopen.org/2004/call_en.html [email protected]
GIS - GRASS Users Conference
12 September 2004 -14 September 2004Thailand, Bangkok
http://gisws.media.osaka-cu.ac.jp/grass04/[email protected]
SPIE International Symposium RemoteSensing Europe
13 September 2004 - 16 September 2004Spain, Maspalomas (Canary Islands)
http://spie.org/Conferences/programs/04/ers/[email protected]
URISA's 2004 Caribbean GISConference
13 September 2004 - 17 September 2004Barbados, St. Michael
http://www.urisa.org/Caribbean/[email protected]
GIS IDEAS 2004
16 September 2004 - 18 September 2004Vietnam, Hanoi
http://gisws.media.osaka-cu.ac.jp/gisideas04/[email protected]
IGARSS 2004
20 September 2004 - 24 September 2004United States, Anchorage
http://www.igarss04.org
ISG 2004
21 September 2004 - 23 September 2004Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur
http://www.itma.upm.edu.my/isg2004
3rd Workshop of the EARSeL - SIG onRemote Sensing for DevelopingCountries
26 September 2004 - 29 September 2004Egypt, Cairo
http://www.geoweb.ugent.be/earsel/[email protected]
GIS 2004
27 September 2004 - 29 September 2004Bahrain, Manama
http://www.engineer-bh.com/gis3/[email protected]
14th International Symposium onRemote Sensing and Development
27 September 2004 - 30 September 2004Syria, Damascus
http://[email protected]
Waste 2004
28 September 2004 - 30 September 2004United Kingdom, Stratford-upon-Avon
http://www.waste2004.com/[email protected]
GeoSolutions 2004
29 September 2004 - 30 September 2004United Kingdom, Birmingham
http://[email protected]
FIG Regional Conference for Asia andthe Pacific
3 October 2004 - 7 October 2004Indonesia, Jakarta
http://www.fig.net/figtree/jakarta/[email protected]
Conference on Laser ScannerApplication for Landscape Assessment
4 October 2004 - 6 October 2004Germany, Freiburg
http://www.natscan.de/conference/[email protected]
24th INCA International Congress
6 October 2004 - 9 October 2004India, Calcutta
GGRS2004
7 October 2004 - 8 October 2004Germany, Göttingen
http://[email protected]
INTERGEO 2004 (German languagemostly)
13 October 2004 - 15 October 2004Germany, Stuttgart
http://[email protected]
27ITC News 2004-2
C A L E N D A R
4th Trans Tasman SurveyorsConference
13 October 2004 - 16 October 2004New Zealand, Auckland
http://www.conventions.co.nz/ttsc04/[email protected]
5th AARSE Conference
Kenya, Nairobi18 October 2004 - 21 October 2004
http://www.itc.nl/~aarse/aace/[email protected] attendance: Sjaak Beerens, JannekeKalf, Tom Loran, Wouther Siderius,Tsehaie Woldai (ITC Booth)
International Conference on RemoteSensing Archaeology
18 October 2004 - 21 October 2004China, Beijing
http://www.rsarch.cn/[email protected]
12th Australasian Remote Sensingand Photogrammetry AssociationConference
18 October 2004 - 22 October 2004Australia, Fremantle
http://www.rss.dola.wa.gov.au/12arspc/[email protected] attendance: Andrew K. Skidmore
8th International Earth SciencesCongress 2004
18 October 2004 - 22 October 2004Chile, Santiago
http://www.igm.cl/[email protected]
UN International Workshop on theUse of Space Technology for DisasterManagement
18 October 2004 - 22 October 2004Germany, Munich
http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/SAP/stdm/[email protected] attendance: Tom Loran, WoutherSiderius, Andrew K. Skidmore, TsehaieWoldai
RADAR 2004
19 October 2004 - 21 October 2004France, Toulouse
http://[email protected]
TOPCART 2004 (in Spanish)
19 October 2004 - 22 October 2004Spain, Madrid
http://www.top-cart.com
5th International Symposium onMining Science and Technology
20 October 2004 - 22 October 2004China, Xuzhou
http://ismst.cumt.edu.cn/[email protected]
Workshop on Vision TechniquesApplied to the Rehabilitation of CityCentres
25 October 2004 - 27 October 2004Portugal, Lisbon
http://www.visiontec-workshop.org/[email protected]
UDMS 2004
27 October 2004 - 29 October 2004Italy, Venice
http://[email protected]
International Symposium onEducation and Professional Practice inGeodesy
4 November 2004 - 5 November 2004Bulgaria, Sofia
http://acstre-ma.tu-sofia.bg/sofia2004/[email protected]
URISA 2004
6 November 2004 - 10 November 2004United States, Reno
http://www.urisa.org
ISWC 2004
7 November 2004 - 11 November 2004Japan, Hiroshima
http://iswc2004.semanticweb.org
INGEO2004
11 November 2004 - 13 November 2004Slovakia, Bratislava
http://www.fig.net/bratislava/
ACM GIS 2004
12 November 2004 - 13 November 2004United States, Washington DC
http://acmgis2004.cti.gr
11th Latin American Remote Sensingand Spatial Information SystemSymposium
15 November 2004 - 19 November 2004Chile, Santiago
http://www.cprsig.cl/
ISPRS Workshop on Processing andVisualization
18 November 2004 - 20 November 2004Thailand, Pitsanulok
http://www.photogrammetry.ethz.ch/pit-sanulok_workshop/[email protected]
1st Asian Space Conference
22 November 2004 - 25 November 2004Thailand, Chiang Mai
http://acrs2004.gistda.or.th/[email protected] attendance: Paul Hofstee, PaulSchoonackers
ACRS 2004
22 November 2004 - 26 November 2004Thailand, Chiang Mai
http://www.aars-acrs.org/invitation.htmITC attendance: Paul Hofstee, PaulSchoonackers
Advanced Remote Sensing for EarthObservation: Systems, Techniques andApplications
4 December 2004 - 7 December 2004Saudi Arabia, Riyadh
http://[email protected]
Workshop on Standardization in theCadastral Domain
9 December 2004 - 10 December 2004Germany, Bamberg
http://www.gdmc.nl/[email protected]
Environment 2005
30 January 2005 - 2 February 2005UAE, Abu Dhabi
http://www.ee-uae.com/conference/[email protected]
6th Barcelona Geomatic Week7 February 2005 - 11 February 2005Spain, Barcelonahttp://www.ideg.es/
28 ITC News 2004-2
C A L E N D A R
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