ITC News 2002-2 · As laid down in the Strategic Plan 2001-2004, ITC is going through a period of change. The challenging conditions ITC faces justify special attention to marketing

content

Main featuresITC’s education goes digital 2SAB activities 2000-2001 4Visit directorate to E-Africa 6Visit directorate to W-/S-Africa 7

EventsWater seminar 8GISDECO conference 9Education fairs in Vietnam 11

Staff news 12

AnnouncementsILWIS 3.1 Academic 14ITC Journal 15

Project newsCooperation MICOA, Mozambique and ITC 16Special programme for DLS,Cyprus 17ITC activities in Croatia 18Special course Trujillo, Peru 19

Research newsPhD Graduation: Yaolin Liu 21

ObituaryProf. Ferdinand Jan Ormeling 23Henk Scholten 24

Life after ITCNews of our Honorary Fellows 25Alumni receptions 26Letter to the editor 27

CONFERENCE CALENDAR 27

When I started out as acting managing editor of ITC News, never did I imag-ine that a year or so later I would be appointed acting head of theCommunication Department, the department responsible for publishing ITCNews.

“Acting” again? … yes … but does this mean I’m just pretending? No, cer-tainly not! As laid down in the Strategic Plan 2001-2004, ITC is goingthrough a period of change. The challenging conditions ITC faces justifyspecial attention to marketing and promotion. For instance, ITC will developstronger relationships with its alumni, both by strengthening existing ITCalumni associations, or ITC chapters within Netherlands AlumniOrganisations, and by establishing new ones. Promising steps have alreadybeen taken to update and upgrade the ITC website. And a pilot for a VirtualAlumni Community on this website is under development right now.Printing material -as you will notice if you take a good look at the lay-out ofthis issue of ITC News- will be updated according to ITC’s house style. We’llkeep you informed through ITC News.

With marketing and promotional activities high on the agenda, theDirectorate is reconsidering the tasks, responsibilities and positions of thestaff of the Communication Department. Until decisions are final - and thatshould be at end of 2003 - I will be “acting” and after that ... well, we’llsee!

Janneke KalfActing Managing Editor

1ITC News 2002-2

I N T R O

introduction

Acting 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 42 11Fax: +31 (0)53 487 42 00E-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 ITC2002number 2

Computers have

long been used in

ITC’s courses. They

are indispensable in

classes dealing with

ITC’s core business

of GIS and remote

sensing. Now, how-

ever, ITC has started

to use computers

and the Internet for

delivering courses

too - and that’s

something new.

This new system

will be used both

for courses taught

at ITC and for

courses taught at a

distance.

Individual staff members have been involvedin distance education for several years now,in most cases in the (co-)production ofstand-alone packages on CD-ROM.Consequently, last year ITC felt the time wasripe to run an institute-wide pilot project ondistance education. This pilot proved a valu-able experience for all concerned, with theresult that Blackboard was selected as themost suitable digital learning environmentfor ITC.

Digital Learning EnvironmentWhat is a digital learning environment? Theanswer an environment created by softwarefor a module, where all information, materi-als (if students are to receive hard copies,these will simply be described), communica-tion tools, etc. are available. Most digitallearning environments have three functional-ities:• delivery of the module content (reading

materials, assignments, tests, lecture slides)• communication between students and

teacher, and among students (e-mail,chat, discussion board, digital drop box)

• administration of the module.Figure 1 shows the home page of an ITCmodule in Blackboard. On the left you cansee the main navigation buttons.

Which functionalities are used, and how, willdiffer for courses taught at ITC and distancecourses. In courses at ITC the lectures andpracticals will continue to be the main partof the module. In distance courses, however,the communication functionalities will bemuch more important - for receiving instruc-tions from the lecturer, for asking questions,for chatting with the lecturer and fellow par-

ticipants, for getting feedback on assign-ments.

Project Activities 2002-2004The new project covers three main activities:• The first is implementing the digital learn-

ing environment for courses taught at ITC.We are using the GFM.4 course thatstarted in March 2002 as a pilot, and thenew PM and MSc courses starting inSeptember will be next in line. In a futureissue of ITC News we will give an accountof our first experiences.

• ITC News 2002-1 published an interviewwith Director External Affairs SjaakBeerens on ITC’s efforts to decentralise ed-ucation. Many of ITC’s participants whoare mid-career professionals have difficultyin leaving their work and family for an ex-tended period of time. To accommodatethem, parts of ITC’s courses will be taughtin the region or country of the students.Although ultimately the decentralisedmodules will be taught entirely by staff ofthe partner institutes, we do foresee aneed for support from ITC in the earlyyears. ITC staff might go to the partner in-stitutes to teach; staff of the partner insti-tutes might come to ITC for trainingbefore they teach the module themselves.We are developing a kind of intermediatestage in the decentralisation process: thestudents are taught by local teachers butsupport is given from a distance by ITCstaff to the local teachers and/or as ateaching contribution directly to the stu-dents. Here too the use of Blackboard isindispensable. In December 2001 a pilotusing this new format in Wuhan, China,proved very successful. Future issues of

2 ITC News 2002-2

ITC’s EducationGoes Digital

Ineke ten Dam [email protected]

S T R A T E G I C P L A N 2001-2004

M A I N F E A T U R E S

ITC News will keep you abreast of our ex-periences with this form of distant sup-port.

• ITC is getting more and more requestsfrom individual clients for full distance ed-ucation short courses. ITC is willing to ac-commodate these requests, yet ishesitant. So far the experience of insti-tutes across the world that have provideddistance education to individual partici-pants has not proved very positive. Thesocial isolation (difficult to motivate your-self) and technical problems (no techni-cian around to solve these problems) hasled to drop-out rates of over 50%. Theexperiment with full distance educationundertaken by ITC in 2001, although suc-cessful, still suffered from a high drop-outrate. Nevertheless, ITC will continue to de-

velop distance education short courses inorder to gain more experience. During theperiod 2002-2003 we will be developingand offering such a course on remotesensing. Again ITC News will keep youposted about this module and aboutother distance education activities.

A small project group is responsible for coor-dinating and executing the project activities.There is much to do. We will share our expe-riences and keep you informed.

3ITC News 2002-2

M A I N F E A T U R E S

Have you had any experience ofweb-supported teaching or study-ing? Would you like to share yourexperiences with ITC? Would youlike to share your experiences withthe readers of ITC News? We arelooking forward to your e-mails and letters.

Figure 1: the home page of an ITC module in Blackboard. On the left the main navigation buttons

Reflecting on the

SAB experiences of

2000/2001 takes me

back to my first day

at ITC. Welcome to

the ITC “world”,

welcome to the

Netherlands! So

many friendly faces

were introduced to

us, the new stu-

dents.

One face I remember in particular - it wasDorman’s, the SAB secretary general. Hetalked about the Student Association Board.I paid special attention to him; somehow Ifelt he was “on my side” He knew what ITCwas all about, and he had already had expe-riences that reflected not only his own per-spective, but also my perspective and theperspective of almost the entire auditorium -the students’ perspective.

Two weeks later I was missing all thosespeeches of welcome. My luggage was stilltravelling around Paris and, when it came toattending the official opening ceremony, Idid not have the clothes I wanted. It was notuntil many weeks later that I heard aboutthe SAB again, when the programme direc-tor asked the course participants to electtwo class representatives, one from the PMcourse and one from the MSc course.

I was elected as student representative ofthe PM course. The election happened sofast that I didn’t know what to say. Somepeople mentioned my name, the pro-gramme director asked me if I was willing,and the answer was “yes”. At the first SABmeeting, all the student representativesbegan to realise that this meant somethingmore than being the “voice” of the courseparticipants. It required commitment and ad-ditional work in one of the board functions.

Jenny, James, Wang, Andrew, José, Charles,Julian, Isah, Leslie, Gilbert, Rheza, Fabianand myself, Ivonne, had been given the en-joyable, as well as challenging opportunityto build social spaces to increase friendship,

sharing, and moral and academic supportamong the students. For sure we repre-sented the course participants, but at thesame time several regions of the world. Westarted with a mix of enthusiasm and con-cern for the responsibilities to be faced, butalso plenty of ideas and respect for the inter-national environment of ITC.

PartiesActivities started with parties at the end ofevery module. In the former SIC room thejoy and social interaction released the ten-sion of exams and reports. Parties rechargedour batteries for another three weeks ofhard work. One of the best parties was thefarewell party of the 1998-2000 MSc stu-dents. So many people came along that fora while they could hardly fit in the SIC room,and music from all regions of the world keptthe spirit of celebration alive.

4 ITC News 2002-2

M A I N F E A T U R E S

Friendship, Sharing, and Moral

and Academic SupportReport on SAB Activities 2000-2001

Ivonne Moreno Horta [email protected]

Words of welcome during the Opening of theAcademic year by the SAB

SportsIn March the International Sports Day washeld in Rotterdam. Andrew and many col-leagues organised a sports committee thatworked feverishly for about two months. Inthis case the non-competitors played a greatsupporting role. When the ITC contingentarrived at the Erasmus campus, we were animposing presence. It took three buses toferry the competitors and a huge crowd ofsome 100 student supporters. The training,the support and the early wake-up call ofthat morning worked like a charm - ITC, thedefending champion, won the tournamentfor second consecutive time.

ExcursionsSpring showed up on the calendar but thegood weather remained hidden. Hard to be-lieve, but snow was falling during the springparty. Nearly everyone exclaimed: “That’sDutch weather for you!”

Easter arrived and the SAB went to Paris.The driver, Rudy, took us around the city.One night the plan was a cruise along theSeine to enjoy the lights, but it seemed thatevery tourist in town had the same idea andwanted to make the same trip at the sametime. With so many people around, we de-cided to get on the boat together, queuinglike school children crossing the street.

The Keukenhof gardens provided the perfectopportunity to enjoy the famous Dutchtulips. The SAB and the SMIT (StudentAssociation Board of the UT) jointly organ-ised the activity. It was a blue-sky day, defi-nitely a lovely trip, which ended up with aflower parade.

In the “catch-up” week Berlin was the desti-nation. We took photos of the BrandenburgGate but were a bit sceptical about thethousands of original pieces of the BerlinWall on sale. In the summer the long hoursspent on the bus to reach Vienna were reallyworthwhile. We enjoyed the city, and thefree opera at night time - of course it wasnot a live one, but the big screen and thepower of the performance drew us into thespirit of classical music.

Academic MattersThe SAB played an active part in academicmatters. During the board meetings theneed for a commissioner to focus on com-ments and questions regarding academic is-sues became clearly apparent. Therefore theposition of academic commissioner was cre-ated. With the help of this new function, theSAB put forward concerns regarding elec-tives, IFA supervision during the summertime, and improving the evaluation of mod-ules.

Handing Over Suddenly it was September 2001. The activi-ties of welcoming new students, the returnfrom fieldwork and embarking on a thesisconfirmed that our period was nearly over.After a long period of SAB activities, insideeach of us was a feeling prompting us to re-main as commissioners and active boardmembers. However, the pressure of a thesisleaves too little time for SAB activities.

In October and November the meetings withthe new student representatives showedtheir enthusiasm and readiness to work.New ideas emerged and again the SAB isready to ease the students’ life at ITC.

5ITC News 2002-2

M A I N F E A T U R E S

International Sportsday.

ITC won the tournamentin 2001 for the secondconcecutive time

Recently ITC

Rector Prof. Martien

Molenaar and Direc-

tor of External Af-

fairs Sjaak Beerens

visited East Africa.

The purpose of the

trip was two-fold:

to establish contacts

with educational in-

stitutes in the re-

gion, within the

framework of the

Institute’s policy of

decentralised (or

better still glob-

alised) joint educa-

tion, and to partici-

pate in an ISPRS

workshop.

In accordance with Memoranda ofUnderstanding signed with Moi University(Eldoret, Kenya) and the University Collegeof Lands (UCLAS, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania),possibilities to set up joint educational pro-grammes will be investigated. These pro-grammes will eventually lead to theestablishment of postgraduate degreecourses that will be organised and imple-mented under the joint responsibility of thepartner institutes. Whereas the cooperationwith Moi University is still in an early phase,UCLAS has long been a partner of ITC in thefields of education and research. Plans forestablishing a joint educational programmein Dar es Salaam have already reached anadvanced stage of development.

The ISPRS Workshop on Developments andTechnology Transfer for Environmental andResources Management was organised inDar es Salaam from 25 to 28 March anddealt with issues of education, training andtechnology transfer within the framework ofinternational cooperation. The workshopwas opened by the Hon. G.A. Cheyo,Minister for Lands and Human SettlementDevelopment, who challenged the workshopparticipants to come up with feasible solu-tions to such complexities facing developingcountries as the development of human re-sources in the field of geospatial data andinformation provision.

Responding to this challenge in his keynoteaddress, Prof. Molenaar presented ITC’s viewon capacity building for geo-informatics, andits application in Africa. He outlined the con-cept of globalisation and joint educationalprogrammes, as described in the Institute’sStrategic Plan 2001-2004 (see ITC News2001-4).

In one of its recommendations the workshopemphasised the great need to establish anetwork of educators and trainers in thefield of GIS and remote sensing. The ITC ini-tiative is aiming at just that - by building onnational and regional capacity and linkingeducational institutes into a solid network ofGIS and remote sensing training facilities.

6 ITC News 2002-2

M A I N F E A T U R E S

Dual-Purpose Visit toEast Africa

Tom Loran [email protected]

Ministry of Lands, Dept. of Surveying and Mapping

Signing the Memorandum of Understanding with theUniversity College of Lands (UCLAS), Dar es Salaam,Tanzania

Signing the Memorandum of Understanding withMoi University, Eldoret, Kenya

Within the frame-

work of assessing

decentralisation

possibilities, visits

were made by

Rector Martien

Molenaar, Director

of External Affairs

Sjaak Beerens and

Senior Project Offi-

cer Eric Holland to

Nigeria, Namibia,

South Africa and

Mozambique

during the period

8 to 24 April 2002.

As well as visiting our sister institute RECTAS(the Regional Centre for Training inAerospace Surveys), the delegation had talksat the University of Lagos, at the ObafemiAwolowo University, Ile-Ife, with ICP/Leica(Industrial and Commercial Projects/Leica), atthe ARCSSTE (African Regional Centre forSpace Science and Technology Education),and at the Federal School of Surveying.While in Nigeria the opportunity was takento pay a courtesy call on ITC HonoraryFellow Chief Coker.

An overnight flight took the party on toNamibia, where visits were made to thePolytechnic of Namibia, the Ministry ofLands Resettlement and Rehabilitation, theRoyal Netherlands Embassy and the DesertResearch Foundation of Namibia. At the an-nual graduation ceremony at the Polytechnicof Namibia, Prof. Molenaar made a keynotespeech on the globalisation of education.This ceremony was attended by thePresident of Namibia, ministers, and poly-technic staff, students and their families, al-together some 5,000 people. A memorableevening was spent with ITC alumni who areworking in Namibia.

In South Africa the delegation visited theUniversity of Natal and Prof. Molenaar

chaired the annual steering committeemeeting of the INSHURD/TELMSA Phase 2(IT-2) project, which was hosted by theCentre for Environment and Development ofthe University.

In Mozambique the main aim of the visitwas to sign a five-year Memorandum ofUnderstanding with the Ministry forCoordination of Environmental Affairs(MICOA). At the same time a contract tostart collaborative activities was signed. Thecollaboration is estimated at US $ 3.7 millionover the next five years. Representatives ofthe Dutch embassy were present at the sign-ing ceremony. A visit was also made to theUniversity Eduardo Mondlane, a partner inthe collaboration with MICOA.

7ITC News 2002-2

M A I N F E A T U R E S

ITC Directorate VisitsWest and Southern AfricaEric Holland [email protected]

Rector of ITC and Deputy Minister forCoordination of Environmental Affairs(MICOA) sign five-year Memorandum ofUnderstanding

University of Natal INSHURD/TELMSA Phase 2 Steering Committee (April 2002)

Land management graduates at thePolytechnic of Namibia (April 2002)

Meeting with RECTAS staff and PhD students (April2002)

To ensure national and internationalcooperation in water, many complexissues must be addressed in an inte-grated approach. Consequentlythere is a need for professionalswho can work together in collabo-rative partnerships in order to iden-tify, develop and implementequitable and sustainable solutionsin water resources management.

This seminar in the Netherlandsbrought together 100 postgraduatestudents from more than 40 coun-tries, representing a broad spectrumof fields concerned with ensuringwater security and the prevention ofconflicts. The seminar provided aunique setting in which the partici-pants were able to meet their coun-terparts in other sectors anddisciplines, and begin building thepersonal relationships and networksthat could form the basis for effectiveprofessional partnerships in the fu-ture. Twenty-six ITC students from thedifferent educational programmestook part in the event.The participants were encouraged to

explore the potential of state-of-the-art Internet-based tools for sharingknowledge, experiences and ap-proaches to policy development andintegrated water management, withthe aim of enhancing cross-sectoraldialogue at the national or interna-tional level. In this learning process,the participants worked in teamsguided by Dutch water experts, whoacted as facilitators and provided sup-port via a dedicated “collaborativeplatform” on the NWP websitewww.nwp.nl/community.

Dates and venues of the seminarwere:• Day 1: 25 January 2002,

Netherlands Congress Centre, TheHague

• Interim period: 26 January to 21March 2002, teamwork on the col-laborative platform

• Day 2: 22 March 2002, The PeacePalace (seat of the InternationalCourt of Justice), The Hague.

The use of the dedicated collabora-tive platform, similar to the ITC’s

Blackboard for Internet-based learn-ing, sparked intensive cooperationamong participants from the differentinstitutes in the Netherlands. DuringDay 2, the 11 teams presented the re-sults of their creations and projects.Prizes were awarded to three groups,known by then as the AguaGeneration, Water Fuse and Salmonteams. The evaluation criteria wereinnovation, quality, learning and com-munication. The members of the win-ning teams - eight ITC studentsamong them - received prizes of 600Euros per person. During the after-noon session in the Peace Palace, theaward-winning teams gave presenta-tions in the presence of His RoyalHighness, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands (seephoto). On behalf of the Vice-Minister of Transport, Public Worksand Water Management of theNetherlands, Mrs J.M. De Vries, semi-nar certificates were awarded to allparticipants.

Follow-upActually the Dutch Water Partnership(NWP) and the organising committeemembers (IHE, ITC, ISS, WUR,Clingendael) are looking into the pos-sibility of collating the participants’work into a larger project, to be pre-sented at the Dutch Water Dome atthe Johannesburg World Summit onSustainable Development, which is tobe held from 2 to 11 September2002.

Ideas are also being exchangedamong sponsoring and coordinatingorganisations and partner institutes,

8 ITC News 2002-2

E V E N T S

Water and Human (In)security - Building Innovative Partnerships in Water

An International Seminar for Students in the Netherlands

Chris Mannaerts [email protected]

events

Seminar presentation by ITC MSc Student, Mrs. P.M. Rupasingha from Sri Lanka

with a view to organising this eventon a regular (for example) two-yearlybasis. As such, the investment of thestudents in water partnership build-ing across the world could form anintegral part of their course curricu-lum in the faculties of the interna-tional education Institutes in theNetherlands (IHE, ITC, ISS) and collab-orating universities.

9ITC News 2002-2

E V E N T S

His Royal Highness, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands talking internationalwater management issues with organizing Committee members at the Peace Palace, The Hague

His Royal Highness, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands with one ofthe prize winning teams

Sponsored by:Partners for Water, Ministry ofTransport, Public Works andWater Management

Coordinated by:Dutch Water Partnership(NWP)

Partner institutes:- International Institute forInfrastructural, Hydraulic andEnvironmental Engineering(IHE), Delft- International Institute forGeo-Information Sciences andEarth Observation (ITC),Enschede- Institute for Social Studies(ISS), The Hague- Wageningen University andResearch Centre (WUR),Wageningen- Institute Clingendael, TheHague

Collaborating universities:Erasmus University, RotterdamFree University, AmsterdamDelft University of Technology

From 15 to 18 May ITC hosted the6th GISDECO conference, on thetheme “Governance and the Use ofGIS in Developing Countries”.A hundred and twenty-five participantsfrom more than 30 countries came toITC to discuss how GeographicInformation Technology (GIT) can, orshould contribute towards improvinggovernance in developing countries,with such questions as: How do public,private and civil society stakeholders ad-dress governance through using GIS?How in turn does GIT explicitly or im-plicitly affect governance systems andstructures in urban and rural areas?

The practice of what is “good gover-nance” depends upon the historical,cultural and political circumstances ofparticular societies. The scope of gov-ernance is not just the efficiency ofgovernment service delivery, but istypically defined through constructsof accountability, legitimacy, respectfor basic rights, competence (effi-ciency and effectiveness) and equity.Spatial information is relevant inthese five dimensions, and the devel-opment and use of GIT can be ex-pected to impact on governancerelationships. Concomitantly, the po-tential of GIT/GIS for improving the

quantity and quality of spatial infor-mation and enhancing analytical ca-pabilities can alter power relation-ships in governance.

6th GISDECO Conference Examines Links between GIS and Governance

Mike McCall [email protected]

Richard Sliuzas [email protected]

Members of the International and LocalOrganising Committees

After the formal opening by SjaakBeerens on behalf of the rector ofITC, Dr Pieter van Teeffelen said a fewwords of welcome on behalf of theGISDECO International Committee.Then in his opening address DrBamidele Olowu of Nigeria and ISSchallenged the participants to con-sider what governance means anddoesn’t mean in developing coun-tries, and how spatial data mightcontribute. Two other keynote ad-dresses were given during the semi-nar, the first by Prof. Carole Rakodi(Birmingham) on urban governanceand GIS, and the second by Dr SuanPheng Kam (IRRI) on GIS in rural gov-ernance for sustainable development.These set the scene for more than 40other contributions.

Papers and posters introduced practi-cal applications of GIS in the public,private and civil society sectors, andincluded such topics as:• GIS and social responsibility in

urban planning• informal settlements• urban agriculture• community-based natural resource

management• community infrastructure manage-

ment and service delivery• training in GIS & governance• capacity building in government

agencies and in the private sector,linking governance issues with par-ticipatory GIS and with technical GIT.

The seminar finished with a panel dis-cussion relating to the main theme ofspatial information and GIS for bettergovernance.

A new idea was a short “break-out”session for participants to discuss avariety of special issues, including“good practice” ideas for local gover-nance, eliciting indigenous knowl-edge for local GIS, and guidance forsuccessful publishing. There was alsothe opportunity for six companiesand institutions to exhibit their GIShardware, programmes and/or appli-cations.

Three parallel workshops were pro-vided to about 50 participants on thefirst day: a debate on the primarytheme of the seminar, “Local Gover-nance and GIS” (P. van Teeffelen andE. de Man); “Participatory Geo-infor-mation Acquisition & Analysis inCollaborative Space”, including mo-bile GIS (M. McCall and R. Gonzalez);and “GIS for Governance - EffectiveUse of Data from Multiple Sources”organised by ESRI and L. Montoya.

The event was well supported by anumber of commercial and govern-ment sponsors, including ARCADIS,ESRI, DIME, Kadaster Nederland, PCIand SIA, as well as ITC itself. Espe-cially appreciated was the supportfrom the city of Enschede, which pre-sented their e-governance initiatives,hosted a reception in City Hall andled an excursion to the redevelop-ment site of the fireworks disaster of 2000.

At the end of this fruitful seminar, theInternational Committee invited ITCto host the GISDECO secretariat - tofollow the first 10 years of successfulmanagement by the University ofUtrecht in the person of Pieter vanTeeffelen. Within ITC, responsibilitywill lie with the new Department ofUrban & Regional Planning and Geo-Information Management, withRichard Sliuzas being the coordinator.

For now, GISDECO remains an infor-mal network and platform of experts,planners and project managers en-gaged in GIS applications in develop-ing countries. The network providesan open forum among researchersand practitioners, geared towardsprogress in problem solving in apply-ing GIS technology in developmentprocesses. Such applications involvethe participation of different actors inthe acquisition and use of geo-infor-mation. GISDECO seeks both to pro-

10 ITC News 2002-2

E V E N T S

Conference Delegates during Civic Receptionat the Enschede Town Hall. (L-R) Dr. AhrisYaakup, Susilawati Sulaiman, Prof. CharlesChoguill, Dr. Marisa Choguill

Ravi Gupta M. Tech. (Centre for Spatial Data-base Management and Solutions) from Indiaduring his presentation "Can ElephantsDance?"

Final Panel Discussion with Richard Sliuzas MSc, Prof. Carole Rakodi, and Dr. Suan Pheng Kam

“Success breeds success” … or doesit? Once in a while these old sayingsshould be put to the test. So hardon the heels of the successfulHolland Education Fair in Vietnamlast year, Nuffic and EVD have or-ganised two fairs in Vietnam thisyear, both in cooperation with theVietnamese Ministry of Educationand Training. The first was held on 11 and 12 Mayin Hanoi, and the second on 15 and16 May in Ho Chi Minh City. What’smore, NUFFIC is still actively promot-ing the idea of opening an educationsupport office in Vietnam.

Together with FION and KIT, ITCmanned booths at both fairs, whichattracted a good number of people.Most of the visitors knew only toowell what they wanted to study andbombarded the representatives withpointed questions. It goes withoutsaying that these representativescoped admirably under fire and livedto tell the tale.

mote technology transfer for man-aging GIS, and to apply geo-informa-tion towards goals of sustainableequitable development - while safe-

11ITC News 2002-2

E V E N T S

Professor Ian Masser Chairing the final PanelDiscussion

The ITC booth in Hanoi

At the reception hosted by the Dutch em-bassy Paul Schoonackers and LyandeEelderink had a most enjoyable dinner in the company of alumni

Holland Education Fairs in Vietnam

Lyande Eelderink [email protected]

More information on GISDECOcan be obtained via e-mail: [email protected] and very soon aweb page will be opened at theITC site www.itc.nl.

Lively debate during the panel discussion(Rene Senapo, Cebu, The Philippines)

guarding the biophysical environ-ment - in the context of goodgovernance principles. The majorforum for the exchange of knowl-

edge and practical experience is semi-nars and workshops, though somenew initiatives are being considered.Many ITC alumni are already involvedin these practices and are well awareof the need to develop improved sys-tems of governance. GISDECO invitesITC alumni and other interested peo-ple to visit the GISDECO website tolearn more about and participate inthe network.

A one-day workshop under the theme“Deposits and Geo-EnvironmentalModels for Resources Exploitationand Environmental Security” washeld on 5 April 2002 to mark the re-tirement of Prof. Dr Andrea G.Fabbri, professor of geology.

Prof. Fabbri had been with ITC forover 12 years and during that time hewas instrumental in developing vari-ous geo-environmental models thathave since become part and parcel ofthe Institute’s training packages.Among the many models he devel-oped, special emphasis should begiven to the themes of predictivemineral potential mapping, weight ofevidence modelling, the theory offuzzy sets, logistic regression, predic-tive spatial data analysis in the geo-sciences, and environmental impactassessment for earth scientists. Overthe last few years, many PhD andMSc researchers at ITC and elsewherehave benefited from using his tech-niques as part of their research.

By instigating and encouraging activi-ties directed towards the geo-envi-ronmental modelling of processes, healso played a major role in shapingand steering the activities of the for-mer Geological Survey Division in thedirection of environmental geology.

On 21 May 2002 Prof. Dr WolfgangKainz, professor of spatial informa-tion theory and applied computer sci-ence, gave his valedictory address,entitled Mass Information:Information for the Masses. In his ad-dress he said that we lived in an in-formation society, with the amount ofinformation offered by the media andother sources growing exponentially.He pointed out that, although in thedeveloped world an increasing num-ber of households owned at least onecomputer linked to the Internet, thequestion of whether we really madeefficient and effective use of all thisinformation still remained.

The presentation addressed the issuesof technology and societal impact inan information society. Emphasis wasplaced particularly on geo-informa-tion and the problems that arise in aheterogeneous world between thosewho have the means to access infor-mation and those who do not.Starting from a general perspective,Prof. Kainz went on to focus on thedevelopments that had taken place inthe world during his time at ITC andwhat – from his perspective – ITC wasable to contribute and might be ableto contribute in the future.

After 10 years with ITC, Prof. Kainzhas now accepted a new position atthe Department of Geography andRegional Science at the University ofVienna.

On 22 April 2002 Prof. Dr J. AlfredZinck, professor of soil survey, wasawarded the title of HonoraryProfessor of the Universidad deNacional de Tucumán (Argentina).

12 ITC News 2002-2

S T A F F N E W S

Dr Jacek Gurwin Post-doctoral Fellow, Department of Water Resources andEnvironmental Studies (per 6 March 2002), e-mail: [email protected]

Dr Susanne Groten Assistant Professor, Department of Agriculture, Conservation andEnvironment (per 1 July 2002)

Prof. Dr Ian Masser Professor of Urban Planning and Management, Head ofthe Department of Urban, Planning and Management (per 1 October 2002)

staff news

Welcometo ITC

Staffleaving

Prof. Dr Andrea G. Fabbri

Prof. Dr Wolfgang Kainz

On 23 April 2002 former rector Prof.Dr. Ir. Karl Harmsen (1997-2000) wasappointed director of the Centre ofSpace Science Technology Educationfor Asia and the Pacific (CSSTEAP),which is located in Dehra Dun, India,on the campus of ITC’s sister institute,the Indian Institute of RemoteSensing.

The CSSTEAP operates under theaegis of the United Nations Office forOuter Space Affairs, based in Vienna,Austria.

Prof. Harmsen is on secondment fromITC at the explicit request of theGoverning Council of CSSTEAP,chaired by Dr K. Kasturirangan, thechairman of the Indian SpaceResearch Organisation (ISRO). An

agreement to this effect was signedbetween the CSSTEAP GoverningCouncil and ITC in March this year.Prof. Harmsen remains a staff mem-ber of ITC and as such will act as liai-son between CSSTEAP and ITC, whohave agreed to pursue collaborationin the field of joint education and re-search programmes.

CSSTEAP was established in 1995 inresponse to the UN General Assemblyresolution (45/72 of 11 December1990) endorsing the recommenda-tions of UNISPACE-82. The objectiveof CSSTEAP is to enhance the capa-bilities of the member states in differ-ent areas of space science andtechnology that can advance their so-cial and economic development.CSSTEAP has a regional function, at-

tracting staff from professional or-ganisations in the various memberstates (India, DPR Korea, Indonesia,Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia,Mongolia, Myanmar, Nauru, Nepal,Philippines, Republic of Korea, SriLanka and Uzbekistan).

13ITC News 2002-2

S T A F F N E W S

Prof. Dr Ir Karl Harmsen

Prof. Karl Harmsen Appointed Director CSSTEAP

Sjaak Beerens [email protected]

The IALE book MM-I, Landscape Ecology Applied In Land Evaluation,Development And Conservation: Some Worldwide Selected Examples,containing papers invited, selected and edited for the IALE by D. van derZee and I.S. Zonneveld, appeared at the end of 2001. It comprises 22 pa-pers by 33 authors from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe, 17 ofwhich are ITC alumni. This overview of the practice of landscape ecologyin various countries, mainly outside Europe and North America, is ofcourse far from exhaustive. Of the papers 11 concern case studies in Asia,five in Africa and four in Latin America.

Common to all papers is the description of environmental problems re-lated to change, degradation and the development of certain types ofland(scape) use. Moreover, in all papers the land is approached as a sys-tem, a correlative complex of factors that cannot be studied in isolation.This justifies incorporation in this book. While the main aim in some pa-pers may be to describe and draw attention to a specific type of land use,other papers may focus on a certain methodology (e.g. in respect to in-ventory or land evaluation, scenario use in planning and management).Some papers incorporate more than one of these aspects of land ecologi-cal application.

The contents of the book have been grouped into three parts:I: Various land uses, change and sustainabilityII: Evaluation, planning, policyIII: Methodology, management.

NEW ITC PUBLICATIONLandscape Ecology Applied In Land Evaluation,

Development And ConservationSome Worldwide Selected Examples

EditorsD. van der Zee and I.S. Zonneveld

Price: Euro 36.50 (excluding mailing costs)ITC Publication number 81

For information on ordering, please contact Ms Joke Bunk, ITC Bookshop:[email protected] or fax +31 (0)53 487 44 00

International Institute for Geo-Information Scienceand Earth Observation (ITC)P.O. Box 67500 AA EnschedeThe Netherlands

Website: http://www.itc.nl

After a year’s hard work ILWIS 3.1Academic has been released … inMay 2002 to be precise. Besides several improvements in thesoftware and on-line help, ILWIS 3.1contains important new functionali-ties, for example:• Creating stereo pairs from two

aerial photographs.Viewing the stereo pair with astereoscope mounted onto themonitor.When using black-and-white pho-tographs, the stereo pair can beviewed as an anaglyph.

• Pyramid layers for raster maps inorder to increase display speed.

• The Classify operation has been ex-tended with a prior probability op-tion.

• When writing applications on topof ILWIS, all expressions availableon the ILWIS command line of theMain Window are now also avail-able for using ILWIS as a COMserver.

• Access to external databasesthrough OLE DB.

• In a Map Window, multiple rasterand polygon maps can now be dis-

14 ITC News 2002-2

A N N O U N C E M E N T S

announcements

Introducing ILWIS 3.1 Academic!

Lyande Eelderink [email protected]

played on top of each other, usingtransparency.

• Graphs have become separate ob-jects. A Graph Object can beshown in a Graph Window, andcan be stored on disk.

For more detailed information on thenew functionalities, please visit theILWIS website at:http://www.itc.nl/ilwis.

We would also like to drawyour attention to the ILWISmailing list. This is meant toserve as an informal user-to-user discussion forum, and of-fers you support from fellowILWIS users.

The list is archived and sub-scription requests may be sentto [email protected].

The body of the subscriptionmessage should be:subscribe ILWIS-list.

Messages for the list (which isthen sent to all members)should be sent [email protected]

In the 2001-4 issue of ITC News weread that the International Journalof Applied Earth Observation andGeoinformation, the former ITCJournal, had been transferred toElsevier Science. That story has now acquired an inter-esting follow-up. Elsevier Science hasasked me to become editor-in-chieffor the coming years. After some de-liberation I have agreed to this pro-posal and am most happy to take upwhere Prof. Martin Hale left off.Although it will be difficult if well-nigh impossible to match him - letalone to surpass him - in his dedica-tion to the journal, I have decided totake up the gauntlet. The journal is toremain embedded within the ITCcommunity!

The journal will continue to be a sci-entific publication. It is also to remaina means of scientific communicationbetween ITC, its alumni and interna-tional institutes. As you will seebelow, papers from developing coun-tries are most welcome. An essentialstep will be a change in the editorialstructure. A small group of very activescientists have been appointed as as-sociate editors. This group is beingasked to ensure a constant stream ofhigh-quality manuscripts. In this waywe hope to increase the scientificlevel of the journal yet further. Butthere is more. The move to Elsevieralso ensures that the journal will beavailable on line via Science Direct,thus guaranteeing a wider spreadand better accessibility. Finally, thejournal will receive an impact factor.This makes it easier to see whetherthe journal and individual papers areenjoying any spin-off, and should alsoreveal how well individual papers arereceived and to what extent theyreach the public.

Of course everything has its price.One drawback that we have to faceand to deal with is that the journalwill no longer be free - not even toour alumni. Still, the price has beenkept to a very reasonable level. It is now my pleasure to invite you allto submit original high-quality scien-tific manuscripts to the new journal.The new address is: Elsevier Science,Mr. Friso Veenstra, P.O. Box 1930,1000 BX Amsterdam.

All in all, I am convinced that this is aprudent step into the new future - anessential step and a wise one.Without doubt, Martin Hale and histeam have managed to do a great jobpublishing the Journal and I sincerelyhope that I can continue this.Publishing, printing and distributionare specialised tasks and Elsevier hasa extremely good reputation in thisfield. Similarly good science is, andwill continue to be the province of allscientists who actively participate inthe field of earth observation andgeo-information. Clearly the commu-nity of present and former ITC scien-tists belongs to this group. As can beseen from the section below, there isplenty of opportunity for the journalto serve as an outlet for ITC’s scien-tific activities.

Aims and Scope of the JournalThe journal publishes original papersthat apply earth observation data tothe inventory and management ofnatural resources and the environ-ment. In this context earth observa-tion data are normally those acquiredfrom remote sensing platforms suchas satellites and aircraft, comple-mented and supplemented by surfaceand subsurface measurements andmapping. Natural resources includeforests, agricultural land, soils, waterresources, mineral deposits, and land

itself as a foundation for infrastruc-ture and housing. Environmental is-sues include biodiversity, landdegradation, industrial pollution andnatural hazards such as earthquakes,floods and landslides. The focus,which can be either conceptual ordata-driven, includes all major themesin geo-information, for example cap-turing, databasing, visualising and in-terpreting data, as well as issues ofdata quality and spatial uncertainty.

Since the scope is broad, contribu-tions should be of the highest quality.Some will convey important recom-mendations for environmental man-agement and policy, but we also wishto encourage articles that stimulatestatistically sound dialogue betweenmanagers and earth observation sci-entists.

Papers addressing such topics withinthe context of the social fabric andeconomic constraints of developingcountries are particularly welcome.

15ITC News 2002-2

A N N O U N C E M E N T S

Transfer of the Journal to Elsevier Science - Part 2

Alfred Stein [email protected]

Alfred Stein, editor-in-chief of theInternational Journal of Applied EarthObservation and Geoinformation

On 22 April 2002 the Hon. FranciscoT.C. Mabjaia, Deputy Minister forCoordination of EnvironmentalAffairs (MICOA), Mozambique, andProf. Martien Molenaar, rector ofITC signed a five-year Memorandumof Understanding and a one-yearcontract to formally start coopera-tion between MICOA and ITC.The agreements concern institutionalsupport and human resource devel-opment in the area of environmentalaffairs in Mozambique (SEAM). WhileUS$ 100,000 has been agreed for thestart-up activities in 2002, the totalvalue of the agreements is estimatedat US$ 3.65 million. This is the firstproject that we have been awardedunder the new so-called Herfkensmodel for Dutch bilateral assistance.Our client is MICOA, not the Dutchembassy. SEAM is considered a pro-gramme with long-term perspectives,not a five-year project with limitedobjectives. The beneficiaries of the in-stitutional support and human re-source development come from allline ministries involved in the environ-mental sector in Mozambique and, ofcourse, from MICOA itself.

ITC’s Department of Agriculture,Conservation and Environment (ACE)will lead the SEAM MICOA pro-gramme, which has a number of in-teresting aspects. Three training andeducation programmes will be devel-oped: one at polytechnic level, one atmaster’s level and an in-service on-the-job component. A formal trainingneeds analysis will be undertaken foreach of these programmes and thedeveloped methodology will be inter-esting for our decentralisation activi-ties in other areas.

The polytechnic-level programme in-volves upgrading MICOA’s existingterrestrial planning (town and countryplanning) course and establishing anew environmental planning course.Material from the Polytechnic ofNamibia land management courseswill be used in the upgrading processand in the design of the new environ-mental course. Both courses will betranslated and taught in Portuguese.The English language curricula of theenvironmental planning course willbe made available to the Polytechnicof Namibia for use in Windhoek.

The master’s-level programme in envi-ronmental affairs will be hosted by,and developed with the assistance ofthe University Eduardo Mondlane(UEM). Cooperation with the Centrefor Environment and Development(CEAD) of the University of Natal isplanned, and it is anticipated thatmaterial developed under theTELMSA/IT-2 projects and under otherCEAD programmes will be madeavailable to UEM.

On-the-job training will be providedto MICOA staff and to staff from lineministries by developing two casestudies, which will also be useful inthe education programme. MER, theDutch EIA agency, will participate inthe case studies. Advice will be pro-vided to establish GIS labs and a doc-umentation and information centre.Key staff from across the environ-mental sector in Mozambique will beexposed to awareness training illus-trating best practice in the southernAfrican region and in theNetherlands. Training the trainers is akey activity for both polytechnic- andmaster’s-level courses, with fellow-ships provided for study at ITC,CEAD/UoN and PoN.

16 ITC News 2002-2

P R O J E C T N E W S

ITC to Support Environmental Affairs in Mozambique

Eric Holland [email protected]

project news

MICOA Director of Territorial Planning Arlindo Dgedge with his students

MICOA classroom facilities

The SEAM programme will benefitconsiderably from ITC’s establishednetwork in southern Africa.

The team leader of the SEAM pro-gramme is Dr Bert Toxopeus, and EricHolland, as project supervisor, pro-vides financial and administrative

back-stopping. Joost Teuben will leadthe training needs analysis compo-nent, and the Mozambique experi-ence and language skills of LizaGroenendijk (eight years at UEM) andKees Bronsveld (six years at INIA/FAO)will be invaluable.

organisations are dealing with valua-tion models, cartography and state-of-the-art aerial surveying andmapping. Guest speakers from AR-CADIS and the Netherlands Cadastrealso made a valuable contribution tothe programme.

The three-day seminar bringing theprogramme to a close provided theopportunity to present acquiredknowledge and skills to senior man-agement of the various DLS sections.

17ITC News 2002-2

P R O J E C T N E W S

Special Programme on Mapping and Property Valuation for the Department of Lands and Surveys of Cyprus

Lyande Eelderink [email protected]

John Horn [email protected]

The Government of Cyprus and theDepartment of Lands and Surveys(DLS), the official national agency forall surveying and mapping opera-tions, have embarked on a pro-gramme to improve the efficiencyand effectiveness of departmental ac-tivities, taking advantage of availableinformation technology and moderncost-effective survey instrumentationand techniques.

The general strategic objectives areto:• establish, after a systematic resur-

vey, a fixed-boundary coordinatedcadastre system

• computerise the land records andcadastral plans

• develop a number of computerisedsystems to support the survey, reg-istration, valuation and land man-agement functions of thedepartment

• develop and implement in stages anational land information systemwhere all agencies with land-re-lated activities can share availabledata for the benefit of the coun-try’s economy.

ITC prepared a compact and compre-hensive tailor-made programme tomeet the training needs of the DLS.

This programme, funded by the EUand supervised by ITC’s BarendKöbben, ran from 8 April to 8 May2002. Twelve employees from differ-ent branches of the DLS came toEnschede and followed intensivetraining courses in photogrammetry,remote sensing, digital cartographyand computer-assisted valuation.

During the programme, participantsvisited such companies as OrtaX,Waarderingskamer, HansaLuftbild andPlantijnCasparie in order to gain animpression of how certain European

Participants after their graduation, withsenior DLS staff and ITC’s Barend Köbben

ITC has traditionally focused ontransferring knowledge to the de-veloping countries of Asia, Africaand South America. Under the newStrategic Plan 2001-2004, the list ofpartner countries will be extendedto include all that are “economi-cally and technologically less devel-oped”.In that sense, the so-called transi-tional European countries (mainlyfrom Eastern Europe) are also inter-esting clients. This is a brief overviewof recent ITC activities and furtherpossibilities for cooperation inCroatia.

Croatia is a young and relatively small(4.5 million inhabitants) country,which is moving from a government-run to a free-market economy. Acharacteristic of former socialist coun-tries is that they generally investedheavily in collecting and organisinggeo-information. In fact, any govern-ment agencies involved in the pro-duction of geo-information useup-to-date technologies and meth-ods. But the state sector is being bothdecentralised and restricted in accor-dance with current thinking on therole of government. This has signifi-

cant implications for geo-informationproviders and users. For example, thegovernment agencies in Croatia willsoon be privatised, but the privatisa-tion model and future data owner-ships are still unclear. Second, thereare many geodata in analogue formatthat are of high quality and requireintegration. However, it is not clearwho is to achieve this and how, orhow these data will be applied inmanagement and decision making.Moreover, communication among thedifferent institutions involved in geo-information production is limited andoften based on competition.Multidisciplinary teams or institutesthat would strengthen cooperationare lacking. ITC has experience of allthese issues and could play an impor-tant role.

The list of ITC alumni and joint proj-ects in Croatia is comparatively short.There is considerable interest in set-ting up more projects, particularly be-cause ITC enjoys a good educationalreputation in Croatia. But there areproblems. Although there are suffi-cient funds in the public sector tosend people to ITC as own-accoun-ters, bureaucratic procedures are a

limiting factor. On the other hand,private companies involved in geo-in-formation production lack the fundsto send their employees to Enschede.In recent years, however, collabora-tion has been increasing, and here isa summary of the main points:• Since independence in 1992 three

Croatian students have gained MScdegrees at ITC, and currently onePhD student is studying at theInstitute. In total, there are around10 alumni in Croatia.

• ITC is collaborating with theCroatian Mine Action Centre on aproject to develop a methodology(based on remote sensing) for de-tecting mines.

• In the last three years Dr Rossiter ofthe Soil Science Division has visitedCroatia twice to supervise field-work. During these visits he visitednumerous land use planning agen-cies and university departments.Last year he held seminars in Split(entitled “Geo-information andModern Land Use Planning”) andin Osijek (entitled “Status andProspects for the Use of Geo-infor-mation for Land Use Planning inCroatia”).

• In February this year Mr S. Husnjak,assistant professor from theUniversity of Zagreb, visited ITC inthe capacity of visiting scientist. Heworked on quantifying and evalu-ating the adequacy of the soil datacoming from the Croatian NationalSoil Survey (see seminar abstract athttp://intranet.itc.nl/research/semi-nars/0016.asp).

Two of the main initiators interestedin more concrete cooperation areGeodata, a private company fromSplit, and the AGIS Centre, thenewly-established GIS division at theUniversity of Osijek. The primary con-cern of these and similar organisa-

18 ITC News 2002-2

P R O J E C T N E W S

ITC Activities in Croatia

Tomislav Hengl [email protected]

David G. Rossiter [email protected]

Tomislav Hengl with Mr and Ms Bauvcic from Geodata during the

graduation ceremony in March this year

tions is to cooperate with ITC in com-peting for numerous projects, espe-cially those funded by the EU.Secondly, all Croatian ITC alumniwould support the initiation of shortor permanent courses organised byITC in Croatia. Moreover, Geodatahave come up with an interestingsuggestion: establishing an educa-tional GIS centre in Split, whichwould focus on applications in theMediterranean. To give proof of its in-tentions, Geodata hosted an ITC MScstudent, Ms Yongjun Zhao fromChina. Ms Zhao worked withGeodata on a noise management sys-tem for Split airport. The result hasproved remarkable and ITC recentlyselected Ms Zhao for an ESRI intern-ship (see ITC News 2002-1, page 13).

All in all, there is room for improve-ment in the area of cooperation.Many of our colleges in Croatia haveasked for a tutorial course on ILWIS.Although the number of copies soldin Croatia is only small, there is con-siderable interest. The new version ofILWIS has high potential in Croatia,especially in small government agen-cies, extension services and universi-ties, and could be easily adoptedthrough cooperation and better pro-motion.

From 18 March to 17 May 2002 aspecial course on urban environ-mental mapping was conducted atITC for 15 people from different in-stitutions and several universities, allworking in Trujillo, the third largestmunicipality of Peru. The course wasmade possible through NUFFIC’sspecial fellowship programme.

Ing. José Murgía Zannier, mayor ofTrujillo, and Arq. Nelly AmemiyaHoshi, head of the Urban PlanningBureau, were invited by ITC to partici-pate in the presentation of the courseresults and also to attend the GIS-DECO (GIS in Developing Countries)conference.

ITC Activities in PeruAs reported in an earlier issue of ITCNews, since 1998 ITC, together withthe Institute for Housing and UrbanDevelopment Studies (IHS) ofRotterdam, has been involved in thePEGUP project (Programa deEducación en Gestión Urbana para elPerú; Peru Urban ManagementEducation Programme).

In Trujillo ITC is assisting the munici-pality to develop a municipal informa-tion system (currently better knownas a local spatial data infrastructure).The development and above all theimplementation and measurable ben-efits of such systems are consideredcomplex due to the required inter-in-stitutional relationships. ICT and GISshave been introduced in many devel-oping countries but the benefits haveonly been modest. This is because nochanges have taken place in the tech-nical or organisational structure ofthe organisations, and digital data-bases and particularly CAD mapshave been allowed to mushroom in agreat variety of formats within differ-ent private and public institutions,municipal organisations and evenwithin individual departments.

SIMTRU (Sistema de InformaciónMunicipal de Trujillo), which takes along-term perspective, has been con-verted into a conceptual model, anda pragmatic step-by-step approachused. The first project was improvingthe property tax systems, the second

19ITC News 2002-2

P R O J E C T N E W S

Special Course “Urban Environmental Mapping,Trujillo, Peru”

Jan Turkstra [email protected]

Course Director, Dr Jan Turkstra presenting course certificate to former ITC student PabloManuel Arteaga Zavaleta MSc of the Universidad Privada Antenor Orrego who was a key con-tributor to the realisation of the Atlas

project an environmental atlas of thecity. Both activities can be seen as at-tractive products of a process to de-velop and strengthen relationshipsbetween producers and consumers ofenvironmental data sets and geo-graphical data sets such as censusand cadastre data sets. This requiresnot only the political will but also aninstitutional willingness to cooperateand exchange information - commit-ments that exist in Trujillo.

Urban Environmental AtlasWithin the local administration, andalso among society at large, there isan increasing awareness that environ-mental management is urgently re-quired (Agenda 21). It is within thiscontext that the city of Trujillo re-quested ITC, during a visit of ITCDirector of External Affairs SjaakBeerens, to assist with the develop-ment of an urban environmentalatlas.

The purpose of the atlas is not only toprovide environmental informationbut also to strengthen the SIMTRUprocess. Compared with the cadastreproject, more institutions have be-come involved. The Water IrrigationBoard, the Water and SewerageCompany, the Public Register, othermunicipal departments, four universi-ties (for specific environmental data)and the private sector via theChamber of Commerce are all partici-pating in the development of theatlas.

Preparations to develop the data onthe basis of SIMTRU were carried outin Trujillo over the period of one year.Most data were in digital (AutoCad,ArcView, ILWIS) format at the begin-ning of the course. At ITC a learning-by-doing approach was used. In thefirst two weeks lectures were givenon GIS, cartography and environmen-tal modelling, but most time was re-served for developing the atlas. Thisatlas consists of some 40 maps (scales1:50,000, 1:100,000 and 1:200,000)and a further 80 pages of illustra-tions, graphs, text and statistics (allpages in A3 format).

At ITC on 15 May, Ing. José MurgíaZannier presented the draft version ofthe atlas in the presence of ConsulGeneral of Peru Señor Carlos ErnestoRetes Rivero, a representative ofNUFFIC, and ITC staff. ITC’s Dr KoertSijmons and Ruben Vargas Francohave been intensively involved andthe Institute will also support the finalediting and printing of the atlas inPeru.

Moreover, in September-October2002 ITC will assist with the presen-tation of the atlas, with educationalawareness programmes for secondaryschools and universities, and withtechnical workshops for the furtherdevelopment of SIMTRU.

The intention is to develop a CD-ROM and a web-based version of theatlas in order to facilitate wider distri-bution of the environmental informa-tion.

20 ITC News 2002-2

P R O J E C T N E W S

Members of the course, ITC Staff,Mayor of Trujillo, Representative ofNUFFIC, Consul of Perú followingthe official presentation of the Atlas

Categorical Database Generalisation in GISCategorical databases are widely used in GISfor different kinds of application, analysis,planning, evaluation and management.Database generalisation, which derives dif-ferent resolution databases from a single,more detailed database, is one of the key re-search problems and a hot research topic inthe field of GIS and cartography. This disser-tation presents a framework for categoricaldatabase generalisation in GIS. Among otherthings, it defines the conceptual aspects ofcurrent categorical database generalisationtransformation and the constraints for gen-eralisation transformation; elaborates onsupporting data structure and transforma-tion units; develops auxiliary analysis meth-ods; and demonstrates some applicationexamples.

Database generalisation is considered atransformation process. Three kinds of trans-formation are defined, based on the charac-teristics of a categorical database andcategorical database generalisation. They

are geospatial model transformation, objecttransformation and relation transformation.Each transformation has a certain functionand deals with some aspects of the data-base.

Database generalisation (transformation) re-quires a data structure that strongly supportsdata organisation, spatial analysis and deci-sion making in a database. The design of adata structure should take two functionsinto account. The first provides the basis fordescribing and organising spatial objects andthe relationships between them, the secondis for analysing and supporting operationson spatial objects.

In a categorical database, similarity betweenobject types can be described by a similaritymeasure. The similarity is application-de-pendent. In a sense, the similarity will con-trol and guide database transformationoperations. A similarity evaluation modeland similarity matrix are proposed foranalysing and representing similarity be-

21ITC News 2002-2

R E S E A R C H N E W S

PhD Graduation: Yaolin Liu

Menno-Jan Kraak [email protected]

research news

Liu Yaolin was born in 1960 in the city of Huanggang, Hubei Province, China. He re-ceived his BSc in geo-mechanics from the China University of Geo-science in 1982.From 1982 until now, he has been working in the Department of Cartography of theformer Wuhan Technical University of Surveying and Mapping (merged into WuhanUniversity in August 2000). In the meantime, he received an MSc in remote sensingapplication in automated classification methods from the China University of Geo-sci-ence in 1988 and a Postgraduate Diploma in soil surveying, with a specialisation in re-mote sensing, from ITC in 1989.

He became vice-dean of the School of Cartography and Land Information at the for-mer Wuhan Technical University of Surveying and Mapping in 1994 and dean in 1997.Since 2000, he has been dean of the School of Resource and Environment at WuhanUniversity.

In the course of his research he published many scientific papers and completed a PhDthesis entitled Categorical Database Generalization in GIS, which he defended success-fully at ITC on 8 May 2002.

tween objects and object types in thisstudy, based on set theory and classi-fication and aggregation hierarchies.

Constraints such as transformationconditions play a key role in theprocess of database generalisation.Constraints can be used to identifyconflicting areas, guide choices of op-erations and trigger operations, aswell as govern the database generali-sation. The processes of generalisa-tion should be performed by a seriesof operations under the control ofconstraints. Three types of con-straints, data model, object and rela-tionships based on an object-orienteddatabase, are proposed in land usedatabase generalisation. These con-straints can be specified interactivelyby users and varied to reflect differentobjectives or purposes. These types ofconstraints are application-depend-ent. This will make the database gen-eralisation process very flexible/adaptive, and decision making can bebased on geographical meaning, notsimply on the geometry of an object.

An important element proposed inthis study is the transformation unit.It is an important process unit be-cause many generalisation problems

need to be solved by considering asubset of related objects as a whole,rather than treating them individually.In a sense, the transformation unit isa basic analysis processing decision-making unit that triggers aggregationoperation processes, and it plays animportant role in database transfor-mation. The conflicted objects and re-lated objects are organised into atransformation unit. A transformationunit that “brings together” a subsetof objects can be created by conflictsin the thematic and/or geometric as-pects of objects, by spatial relationsamong objects, or by integratingthem. The main purpose of creating a

transformation unit is to prepare foran aggregation operation. It limits thearea and number of a set of relatedobjects in an aggregation operation.The different conflict types will createdifferent types of transformationunits. In this study, four types oftransformation unit are considered,based on the constraints discussed,each of which has a correspondingaggregation operation.

22 ITC News 2002-2

R E S E A R C H N E W S

Copies of Categorical Database Generalization GIS by Dr Liu Yaolin are available from the ITC Bookshop.P.O. Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede, The NetherlandsE-mail: [email protected], Fax: +31 (0)53 487 44 00Price: Euro 13,61 (excluding mailing costs), Publication number: DIS088

On 1 May 2002 ITC lost one of itsfellows. After a severe illness thatlasted a couple of months, Prof. Ormeling died in his home inLonneker at the good old age of 90.For more than 70 years of his life he was engaged in geography andcartography, and he undoubtedlymade great contributions to thefurther international developmentof both disciplines.

He started his career as a geographyteacher but then went to Indonesia,where he became the co-founder andfirst director of the GeographicalInstitute of the Topographical Service(1948-1955). In 1955 he obtained hisPhD at the University of Indonesia inJakarta with the topic The TimorProblem: A Study of an Underdevel-oped Island. After his return to theNetherlands he became responsiblefor editing all atlases, wall maps, text-book maps, etc. published by thecompany J.B. Wolters in Groningen.He was the founder of the Geo-carto-graphical Institute J.B. Wolters and,for a period of 22 years, he was theeditor-in-chief of nine editions of themost widely used Dutch school atlas,the Bosatlas. Through these succes-sive editions he gradually introducedthematic cartography into Dutch ge-ography classes. In the period from1964 to 1970 he was professor ofeconomic geography at the Universityof Amsterdam. And he became thefounder and first director of theEconomic Geographical Institute atthe same university.

With all this experience in foundinggeographical and cartographic insti-tutes, there could be no better scien-tific cartographer to establish a newCartography Department at ITC. In1971 he became the first ITC profes-

sor of cartography. With his profes-sional knowledge, his infectious en-thusiasm and his gift to inspire, in notime at all he had created an ex-tremely productive team of highlymotivated cartographic experts fromdifferent backgrounds and from allfields of cartography - the depart-ment was blossoming. He performedso well in his function as head of de-partment that it took quite a numberof years before a suitable replace-ment could be found after his retire-ment from ITC in 1982. Not only didhe inspire his staff, he also won hisstudents (registered for the variouscartography programmes that hadbeen established) over to the carto-graphic discipline. And in so doing,he helped to alleviate the world’sbacklog in mapping, thus contribut-ing to the mission of ITC. The successof Prof. Ormeling and his team wasreflected in the ever-increasing num-ber of applicants for the ITC cartogra-

phy courses - a number that rapidlybecame three to four times higherthan the number of places available.

At the same time, Prof. Ormeling pro-moted cartography through his longmembership (23 years) of the Execu-tive Committee of the InternationalCartographic Association (ICA). Hewas “Mr ICA” and chairman of thisassociation from 1976 to 1984.Because of his diplomacy and hisgenuine interest in other cultures andparticularly in developing countries,he managed to bring about an enor-mous increase in the number ofmember states. In view of this contri-bution to international cartography,but also by virtue of his 150 or morecartographic publications, several car-tographic societies in various coun-tries appointed him an honorarymember. Of course he also receivedthe highest ICA award, theMannerfelt Medal.

23ITC News 2002-2

O B I T U A R Y

Obituary

Prof. Dr Ferdinand Jan Ormeling (1912-2002)

Martien Molenaar [email protected]

Two months after the doctors dis-covered an incurable variant of can-cer in his body, Henk Scholtenpassed away peacefully at home inVasse on 27 May 2002. He was only62 years of age and still led a veryactive life. Henk was an instructor inthe Cartography Department from1971 to 1996. We are convinced thathe left a deep lasting and very posi-tive impression on all the ITC stu-dents he introduced to the basicprinciples of cartographic reproduc-tion and offset printing. We are alsosure that he left similar impressionsbehind in the countries he visited onITC consulting missions: Venezuela,Ecuador, Iran, Indonesia and, in par-ticular, Bhutan.

Regular readers of ITC News who didnot know Henk Scholten in personwill still be familiar with his name, asonce a year this newsletter containsan announcement of a new winnerof the so-called Henk ScholtenAward. This award is presented to astaff member or student who has fos-

tered and promoted the social andworking relationships within theInstitute. The award was establishedon the occasion of Henk Scholten’sretirement in 1996 and bears hisname because he was the perfect ex-ample of a good team player andteam builder. Last December Henkwas at ITC to present the HenkScholten Award 2001. There are notmany people after whom such anaward has been named. Thereforeneedless to say, the ITC communitywas shocked to hear of his illness and

death. Even more than five years afterhis retirement, many ITC staff andstudents rendered the last honours toHenk Scholten at his funeral. We willmiss him a lot.

24 ITC News 2002-2

O B I T U A R Y

Obituary

Henk Scholten (1939-2002)

Colleagues Division of Geoinformatics, Cartography and Visualization [email protected]

The team-building capacities of Henk Scholten: who else could have coaxed the entire staff ofthe Cartography Department to turn out in soccer strip for a match against the cartographystudents (1980)

ICA was an ideal platform fromwhich he could function as oneof ITC’s most important interna-tional ambassadors. We still sus-pect him of deliberately mixingup ICA with ITC in formalspeeches at ICA meetings.Through ICA he also promotedITC staff and his (former) ITC stu-dents, particularly those from de-veloping countries. He involvedthem in conferences and

brought them into contact withthe rest of the cartographicworld. In the ‘70s he was one ofITC’s strong pillars and supportedthe great expansion of theInstitute’s activities, which camewith the move from Delft toEnschede. In recognition of hismany merits, he was officially ap-pointed Honorary Fellow of theInstitute in 1986.

Prof. Ormeling possessed a veryspecial gift, the ability to fasci-nate people with his perform-ance and with his words. He wasable to make people enthusias-tic, to inspire them, and to tiethem into common goals. In hiswork for ITC he made highlyconstructive use of this gift - tothe benefit of this Institute andof our staff and students. Weowe him a lot.

It is directorate policy to pay due re-spect to ITC’s honorary fellows andconsult them on policy issues, andwithin this framework certain meet-ings have already taken place thisyear.

Dr D.P. RaoMost recently, Dr Rao was appointedHonorary Fellow in December 2000on the occasion of the 50th DiesNatalis. I met Dr Rao in February thisyear at the International Workshopon Tropical Forest Cover Assessmentand Conservation Issues in SoutheastAsia, which was organised by theIndian Institute of Remote Sensing incollaboration with the EuropeanCommission Joint Research Centre inIspra, Italy. Dr Rao retired at the endof 2001 as director of NRSA but isstill active in workshops, committees,and the like.

Prof. Dr P. MisraI met Prof. Misra in February this yearat the Map India 2002 Conference inNew Delhi, India. He was appointedHonorary Fellow of ITC in 1986. He isthe former dean of the IndianInstitute of Remote Sensing (IIRS) andformer director of the Survey TrainingInstitute. Prof. Misra, who is now 72years old, is still very active and isworking as a consultant with CSDMSin land information technologies. Wehad extensive talks on ITC’s futurerole in India. He responded most posi-tively to ITC’s decentralisation strat-egy and change of name,commenting that ITC kept well up todate with developments. He stronglyrecommended that ITC should payparticular attention to capacity build-ing in the context of management,institutional capabilities and raisingawareness at the top level of organi-sations.

Chief R. Oluwole CokerIn April I, together with Prof. MartienMolenaar, met with Chief Coker, whowas appointed Honorary Fellow on17 September 1976 on the occasionof ITC’s 25th anniversary. Chief Cokerwas the first indigenous director ofsurveys in Nigeria, and served in thiscapacity from 1963 till 1978.

Chief Coker is now 78 years old.Although he retired 23 years ago, heis still active in the Nigerian Instituteof Surveyors and in the StandingCommittee of the Regional Centrefor Training in Aerospace Surveys(RECTAS), ITC’s sister institute inNigeria.

25ITC News 2002-2

L I F E A F T E R I T C

News of Our Honorary Fellows

Sjaak Beerens [email protected]

From left to right: P.S. Rao (Dean IIRS), Sjaak Beerens, Dr D.P. Rao (Honorary Fellow)

Chief R. Oluwole Coker

Following the success of the alumnireception organised in November2001 in Nairobi, Kenya, in conjunc-tion with the AFRICAGISConference, similar events were or-ganised in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania,and Windhoek, Namibia, to coincidewith the visit of Prof. MartienMolenaar (rector) and Sjaak Beerens(director external affairs).

Dar es Salaam, TanzaniaDuring the visit of the ITC Directorateto Tanzania, an alumni reception wasorganised on the evening of 27March at the Masasani Slipway, apleasant sea-sice venue at the out-skirts of Dar es Salaam. Around 100ITC alumni attended the reception. Asizable delegation from the Dutchembassy was also present. The recep-tion formed the closing activity of thetour through East Africa. An ILWIS3.0 package was raffled among thealumni present and the happy winner

was Mr. Mohamed Bakari, staff mem-ber of the Surveys and MappingDivision (Ministry of Lands) in Dar esSalaam.

Windhoek, NamibiaIn Namibia an alumni reception wasorganised on Monday, 15 April 2002,at the Omaere Restaurant of theNamPower Convention Centre. Some30 people participated besidesalumni, including representativesfrom the Ministry of Lands,Resettlement and Rehabilitation, thePolytechnic of Namibia and the Dutchembassy. One person had driven noless than 500 (!!) km to attend thegathering and to meet up with visit-ing ITC staff and old friends again.

The traditional raffle with ILWIS 3.0software for the winner was onceagain a great success. Ms MariaKasita, ITC alumna and training coor-dinator with the IT-2 Land Informa-

tion Management project emergedthe winner (her daughter being theperson to draw the lucky number!).

Photographs of the alumni receptionsat Nairobi, Dar es Salaam andWindhoek on the ITC websitehttp://www.itc.nl

26 ITC News 2002-2

L I F E A F T E R I T C

Alumni Receptions

Tom Loran [email protected]

Sjaak Beerens [email protected]

Tanzania Windhoek

27ITC News 2002-2

L I F E A F T E R I T C

CONFERENCE CALENDAR

UN Regional Workshop on the Use ofSpace Technology for Disaster

1 - 5 July 2002Ethiopia, Addis Ababa

www.oosa.unvienna.org/SAP/stdm/e-mail [email protected]

ESRI Education User Conference 2002

5 - 7 July 2002USA, California, San Diego

www.esri.com/events/e-mail [email protected] attendance: Lalit Kumar, LyandeEelderink, Mark Noort, Rolf de By

2nd Annual ESRI International UserConference

8 - 12 July 2002USA, California, San Diego

www.esri.com/events/e-mail [email protected] attendance: Lyande Eelderink, MarkNoort, Rolf de By

Geospatial Theory, Processing andApplications

9 - 12 July 2002Canada, Ontario, Ottawa

www.geomatics2002.orge-mail [email protected]

GIS Ecuador 2002

10 - 12 July 2002Ecuador, Quito

www.gisecuador.orge-mail [email protected]

SVG Open / Carto.net

15 - 17 July 2002Switzerland, Zurich

www.svgopen.orgITC attendance: Barend Köbben

Dear Sirs,

Thank you very much for sending methe ITC News journal regularly. Thesatellite image that is covering theback of the journal is from my coun-try, I am very happy for that.

For ITC News journal readers, I wouldlike to brief them about the satelliteimagery which is covering the centralpart of the Ethiopian rift valley ( thenorthern part of the East African RiftValley) that is called “Lakes district”.The lakes on the image are; LakeKoka, Lake Zeway, Lake Langano,Lake Abyata, lake Awassa and LakeShalla

The calderas and craters on theimage are; Zokalla crater, Wengicrater, Aluto caldera, Korbetti calderaand Awassa caldera

The area is having the most beautifulscenario that is a place for entertain-ment and watching natural forest,birds and wild animals, the endemicin particular. In addition to these, it isknown for mineral potential, such asdiatomite, bentonite, caustic soda,

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

soda ash, basaltic breccia (for rockmulching), pumice, epithermal goldand geothermal energy.

The Haddar area (Afar depression) islocated just north of the image cov-ered area, which is world wideknown as the best site for anthropo-logical and archaeological, where thefamous Lucy (about 3.6 million yearsold) and other anthropological rem-nants were found.

Best regards,Abdelwahab BeshirGeophysics Department Head

Email: [email protected]. +251-4-405452

+251-4-408780Fax: +251-4-405453,P.O. Box: 788 Mekele

Mineral Development & ConsultingServices in Geophysics, Laboratoryand Groundwater

ATB 2002

29 July - 2 August 2002Panama, Panama City

www.stri.org/atb2002/e-mail [email protected] attendance: Hans Ter Steege

Map Asia 2002

7 - 9 August 2002Thailand, Bangkok

www.mapasia.org/index.htme-mail [email protected]

17th World Conference of Soil Science

14 - 21 August 2002Thailand, Bangkok

www.17wcss.ku.ac.the-mail [email protected] attendance: Abbas Farshad, Bart Krol,David Rossiter, Dhruba Shrestha

Integrated System for Spatial DataProduction, Custodian and DecisionSupport

20 – 23 August 2002China, Xi’an

www.isprs2.nsdi.gov.cne-mail [email protected]

ISPRS Commission V

2 - 6 September 2002Greece, Corfu

www.erasmus.gre-mail [email protected]

Geographical Study of Central Asiaand Mongolia

6 - 11 September 2002Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar

www.softwellweb.it/homeofgeography/uk/events/sep020906.aspe-mail [email protected] attendance: John van Genderen

ISPRS Commission III Symposium 2002

9 - 13 September 2002Austria, Graz

www.icg.tu-graz.ac.at/pcv02e-mail [email protected]

EUGISES 2002

12 - 15 September 2002Spain, Girona

www.giscampus.org/eugises2002/e-mail [email protected] attendance: Barend Köbben

GSDI 6 Conference

16 - 19 September 2002Hungary, Budapest

www.eurogi.org/gsdi6/menu.htmle-mail [email protected] attendance: Ian Masser, MarcoHuisman, Niek Rengers, Robert Hack,Siefko Slob, Yola Georgiadou

EADI: 10th General Conference

19 - 21 September 2002Slovenia, Ljubljana

www.eadi.org/generalconference.htme-mail [email protected]

GISIDEAS 2002

25 - 28 September 2002Vietnam, Hanoi

www.gisws.media.osaka-cu.ac.jp/jvgc/e-mail [email protected]

2nd World Space Congress

10 - 19 October 2002USA, Texas, Houston

www.aiaa.org/wsc2002e-mail [email protected]

4th International Conference ofAfrican Association of RemoteSensing

14 - 18 October 2002Nigeria, Abuja

www.aarse.org/e-mail [email protected]

VII International Earth SciencesConference

21 - 25 October 2002Chile, Santiago

www.igm.cl/cct2002/Ingles/cct2002_in.htme-mail [email protected]

SPIE’s 3rd International Asia-PacificSymposium

23 - 27 October 2002China, Hangzhou

www.spie.org/Conferences/Calls/02/ae/e-mail [email protected]

IST 2002

4 - 6 November 2002Denmark, Copenhagen

www.europa.eu.int/information_society/programmes/research/ist_event_2002/indexe-mail [email protected]

Space Applications for HeritageConservation

5 - 8 November 2002France, Strasbourg

www.eurisy.asso.fre-mail [email protected]

European Research 2002

11 - 13 November 2002Belgium, Brussels

www.europa.eu.int/comm/research/con-ferences/2002/e-mail [email protected]

GIS Day 2002

20 November 2002Events will be held worldwide

www.gisday.come-mail [email protected]

23rd Asian Conference on RemoteSensing

25 - 29 November 2002Nepal, Kathmandu

www.acrs2002kathmandu.gov.npe-mail [email protected] attendance: Martien Molenaar, PaulSchoonackers, Sjaak Beerens

ISPRS Commission VII Symposium

3 - 6 December 2002India, Hyderabad

www.commission7.isprs.orge-mail [email protected] attendance: Andrew K. Skidmore, Irisvan Duren, Jelle Ferwerda, Kees de Bie,Martien Molenaar, Sjaak Beerens, YolaGeorgiadou

ASPRS 2003

3 - 9 May 2003USA, Alaska, Anchorage

www.asprs.org/alaska2003/index.htmle-mail [email protected]

5th Hutton Symposium on the Originof Granites and Related Rocks

2 - 6 September 2003Japan, Toyohashi

www.gsj.jp/Info/event/huttone-mail [email protected]

XXth ISPRS Congress

12 - 23 July 2004Turkey, Istanbul

www.isprs2004-istanbul.come-mail [email protected]

28 ITC News 2002-2

C A L E N D A R