Perspective on needs and
problems in Remote Sensing development in the Escap Region
He
Changchui ESCAP/UNDP Regional Remote Sensing Programme UN/ESCAP, Bangkok, Thailand Abstract This paper reviewed the general status of Remote Sensing development in the ESCAP region and presented a perspective on regional needs and problems encountered by regional countries in the area of Remote Sensing development and applications. The paper, having carefully analyzed the situation, gave some thoughts on future regional Remote Sensing cooperation in terms of education and training, methodology developments, information exchange and national infrastructure building. 1. A Philosophical View Modern science and technology is reaching the point where we are able to consider the earth as a system. With Remote Sensing technology we can provide data about the entire earth through space-borne instruments. These data can be processed to derive useful information on the earth's natural resources and its environment, directly relevant for development planning, which is, in many parts of the world, very much dependent on efficient management of the earth's resource and environment. Notwithstanding that the technological opportunities for information gathering have increased exponentially in one parts of the world, other parts of the world consider these opportunities to be miracles and are not necessarily able to share in the benefits from this phenomenal growth. One of the key problems among others, leading to this uneven distribution of the merits of modern science and technology lies with the mechanism for technology transfer and adaptation for development which is a complex process always needful of a systems approach. The perspective on regional needs and problems in Remote Sensing developments presented herein shows that the greatest opportunities for the effective use of Remote Sensing are to assist in the developing countries, where the information environment has remained persistently problematic in the process of decision making. 2. General Status of Remote Sensing Development in the ESCAP Region Remote Sensing technology is one of the fastest growing information technologies in the ESCAP region (Asia and the Pacific). Since mid -1970's many countries in the region have attached great importance to the development of Remote Sensing technology and applications. Commendable progress has since been made. At present, 20 full - fledged national Remote Sensing centres, with numerous sub-centres in some countries, have been established in the member states, and 9 Remote Sensing satellite ground receiving stations are operating in the region, with some US$200 million invested in infrastructure. About 10,000 Remote Sensing scientists and technologists are at work in these countries. They are implemented more than 1,000 projects related to Remote Sensing applications and development in the past few years. In an effort to promote and co-ordinate Remote Sensing development in the ESCAP region, the ESCAP/UNDP Regional Remote Sensing programme (RRSP) has established a networking mechanism for bringing about regional interaction between heads of the national Remote Sensing technology development and applications. The programme, established in 1983, is financed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and executed by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in cooperation with two associate executing agencies, namely, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the United Nations Department of Technical Co-operation for Development. Since 1983, the project has organized 42 regional seminars and workshops. Through these regional efforts RRSP has exposed more than 1,200 scientists and specialists of the ESCAP region to various activities in Remote Sensing of sustainable natural resources and environment development. Through the training programmes of RRSP, more than 350 scientists and technologists have been trained in the 35 regional training courses organized by RRSP to use Remote Sensing and related technologies in their natural resource development programmes. RRSP has also completed 15 pilot projects for demonstrating the application of Remote Sensing in 20 member countries to assist in the transfer of technology in key application areas such a coastal zone monitoring, flood plain mapping. GIs for soil erosion and snow melting study. In addition RRSP has also provided a unique forum for regional information exchanges and has become a regional centre of excellence for information service in the field of Remote Sensing through its more than 100 publications including meeting/seminar proceedings, reports, a biannual Remote Sensing journal, a quarterly Remote Sensing newsletter, a roster of scientists, a bibliography and an inventory of faculties. A matrix of activities of RRSP in regional member countries of the ESCAP region is seen in the Appendix. Combined efforts at both the national and the regional level have made ESCAP one of the fastest developing regions in the field of Remote Sensing. Consequently, such technological development has helped significantly in improving natural resource and environmental management, and ultimately, has contributed positively to the social and economic growth seen in the past few years in the ESCAP region. 3. Perspective on Regional Needs and Problems Despite improving recognition of the important role of Remote Sensing information technology in natural resource development and environmental management in most of the regional member countries, the integration of technological consideration into the overall national development planning process has encountered numerous obstacles, hampering further technological development and its optimum use. Some of the constrains noted below are of major importance and are perhaps unique to the region. Others, however, may be commonly faced by developing countries in all parts of the world. Institutionalization of Policies The institutionalization of policies for the use of Remote Sensing to improve efficiency by various sectors related to resources and environment management has emerged in some countries but has yet a long way to go to become fully realized throughout region. Transferring political awareness into policy setting and then implementation is of a complicated process. As the mode of decision making in Asia is traditionally a top- down approach, convincing policy makers and planners (especially in the budget and planning sector) to accept any new technology should be given a top priority. Thailand has set an excellent example by involving the Royal Family in the promotion of Remote Sensing in the country. Many cases have shown that creating an awareness of Remote Sensing among decision makers is an essential step for the institutionalization of policies. Recognizing Remote Sensing at the cabinet level and giving the government's blessing for a multi million - dollar project to establish a national Remote Sensing centre for a coordinate development endeavour is another successful model seen in Malaysia. Institutionalized policies, though still fragmentary, for using Remote Sensing technology in some sectors of resources management have also been found in China and India, among others. A deputy minister form one least developed country once stated that "Remote Sensing has become part of life for environmental programmes and related activities". This statement shows that politicians may be becoming concerned with technological development. Notwithstanding the increased awareness in some parts of the region, many parts of the region still need to encourage their decision makers and planners and sometimes even have fight seriously for priority because Remote Sensing in these places is placed in the "no direct cash return" category. Apparently intensified programmes for creating awareness among decision makers and planners should be considered in order to pave the way for formulating policies and giving Remote Sensing priority. Programmes for decision makers and planners could include brief but broad-based technical tours abroad, short-term seminars highlighting technological merits and the presentation of successful projects to decision makers. Remote Sensing Economics Remote Sensing offers a technologically appropriate method of addressing information needs in decision making for resource and environment development. Satellite-based Remote Sensing since its inception in 1972, has been providing what appeared to be cost-effective data for resource inventories and environment monitoring. However, there is a big disparity between various economic analyses, as reflected by the reported cost of forest inventories in Thailand (US$ 0.07 per km2) and in the Philippines (US$ 7.00 per km2). A land-use survey in a river basin of Thailand completed for US$ 0.02 per km2, while a nation wide land-use survey in 1988 in China cost 0.04 per km2. This disparity shows that there is a need for developing a unified system with quantitative economic models to enable decision makers, planners and even project managers to evaluate various technical options. There have been strongly worded complaints about excessive data costs and the non-availability of timely data. Moreover, acquiring data from satellite operators and / or around receiving station operators requires hard currency for which users in many developing countries have to fight all the way up to the cabinet level to get approval for budget allocations. This usually casts shadows on user groups having small budgets, and it may also hinder users in dealing with time-dependent activities such as forest fire detection and flood monitoring. Such constrains have created a negative impact on the popularization of Remote Sensing applications. As Asia already has the densest receiving station coverage of any region on earth, the time has come for the ground station operators to join hands to form a coordinated receiving network to bring down the operational fees through cost sharing schemes. Countries without ground receiving stations should be encouraged to enter into agreements with stations operators for batch supply arrangement rather than investing in their own infrastructure. Of course issues related to Remote Sensing economics, such as data costs, cost/benefit analysis and operational models should be continuously addressed at the national, regional and international levels. Applications Areas The key Remote Sensing application areas in the region in the new decade will be the environment and sustainable resource development. It can be foreseen that there will be a growing regional interest in the following major application fields: disaster monitoring and reduction, soil erosion, deforestation/afforestation, desertification, agriculture, highland development and ocean management. Including coastal zone and ocean biomass studies. Many of these application areas extend across national boundaries or require the development of methodologies that are transferable between countries. Some extreme regional problems are flood disaster monitoring, desertification and global climate change, which will be the focus of intense international Remote Sensing activity during this decade. Three main streams of technology can also be discerned while promoting Remote Sensing applications in the decade. First is the use of geographic information system (GIS) technology and its integration with Remote Sensing. This will be an important dimension of the modernization of natural resources and environment management. There are growing pressures from technology vendors and donor agencies to accept GIS technology. Secondly, as the cost of high resolution satellite data remains high, the low resolution but high frequency meteorological satellite data such as NOAA AVHRR data will become extremely useful supplementary data for meeting applicational needs for projects of a regional scale. Existing technologies that have overlooked such a possibility need to be modified compatible in handling such low cost data, as these data are widely accessible in most of the developing countries. The third area is microwave Remote Sensing applications. Due to frequent cloud cover in the tropical region of Asia, microwave Remote Sensing has become indispensable if data are needed at a specific time, regardless of the presence of clouds. Large area coverage with airborne radar data in Indonesia has already demonstrated the advantages of microwave technology. However, the users are not yet prepared for handling and interpreting microwave Remote Sensing data, which will be available form ERS-1 Radarsat and MOS-2 in the coming years. 4. Some Thoughts on Future Regional Remote Sensing Co-Operation As new technologies for Remote Sensing data acquisition and handling emerge and as applications areas expand, both donors and technology providers as well as recipients will face opportunities and challenges. It is the exclusive responsibility of the governments of the recipient countries of formulate national Remote Sensing development plans, priorities and objectives. Therefore, any external development efforts should emphasize the integration of the activities with national plans and objectives, so as to enhance the impact and relevance of those activities. International and regional Remote Sensing co-operation endeavours should aim at contributing to self-reliance in the developing countries through building or strengthening national capabilities in the development of Remote Sensing and its applications. For this purpose, several fundamental areas can be identified. Education and Training International cooperation on education and training leading to human resource development in the developing countries continue to be an essential activity due to rapid technological changes and the demand for updated knowledge in the developing countries. Experience in China and India has shown that approximately every 500,000 to 1 million people need one working level Remote Sensing specialist. Assuming that each specialist needs training for updating his or her knowledge every five years, India and China would require 500 and 700 training opportunities a year, respectively. In the case of the least developed countries, the need is more obvious. Bangladesh, for example would require 40 to 50 training opportunities annually and perhaps about 60 more new specialists to be trained, if Remote Sensing is to move from specialized agencies to broad user agencies. Such training needs should be resolved mainly at the national level as many of the regional countries have already established facilities for basic training. However, resources should be also explored to meet the need for seminars, workshops, conferences and special short-term training courses to exchange experience at the international level. Methodology Developments As a prerequisite for sustainable development, Remote Sensing itself must advance from the experimental to the operational stage. Many research and development has so far been concentrated in Remote Sensing centres: thus there is a need to develop subsidiary operational networks among user agencies, with the national Remote Sensing centres serving as nuclei. To facilitate technology transfer from the technical sector to the applications sector within a country, it is necessary to identify several pilot projects as test case. In some countries, such as the Islamic Republic of Iran this process has begun. The Remote Sensing agency has started to explore the needs of user agencies in order to transfer operational expertise to these users through joint pilot projects. The experience of the RRSP has been the international or regional co-operation can hasten the transfer of operational Remote Sensing technology to resource management agencies through organizing pilot projects. Information Exchange Information is essential for rational and scientific decision making. Information on Remote Sensing technological development such as new sensor systems and image processing equipment ongoing applications projects and the availability of tested methodologies, is needed for operational Remote Sensing planning. It appears that in many developing countries the information flow among brother agencies has been impeded by administrative regulations. The competition for funds to implement projects (especially when hard currency is required) is also a factor hampering free information exchange within a country. The Remote Sensing information service network established among the ESCAP member countries has helped ease to some degree the "information hunger" of the developing countries of the region by providing newsletters journals, proceedings, bibliographies and inventories of facilities. This operational activity should be strengthened by expanding the networking to user agencies at the national level. When such a network can be formulated within the region, extending from the national Remote Sensing centers to the grassroots user agencies, true information sharing can taken place. Infrastructure Building The ultimate responsibility for natural infrastructure building lies with the countries themselves. However, as technology has developed and evolved, many facilities have been weakened due to non-availability of spare parts or incompatibility with the new generation data. One satellite ground receiving station established in the region early stage has already experienced serious technical problems. Some early generation technological systems. Such as some computer image processing systems installed in many of the regional countries are not useful anymore in an operational sense, while many other developing countries can only dream of having such "modern antiques". The technology providers of today should display their technological capability and promote credibility in the developing countries. Financial assistance from donor agencies for basic infrastructure improvement or basic capability building is considered necessary for assisting the developing countries, particularly the least developed, while emphasizing on the improvement of human resource. To conclude, coordinated policies programmes and planning for these endeavours are required both at the regional and the national level for the substantive contribution of Remote Sensing to sustainable national resource and environment development. A network for regional co-operation on Remote Sensing is still prematured; therefore enhanced promotions/efforts from both the governments and interested international bodies are still in high demand on order to further foster TCDC efforts, networking and technology transfer in the region. Acknowledgements The author deeply acknowledges Dr. B. Haack of George Mason University, Dr. B. Ryerson of Canadian Centre for Remote Sensing and Dr. B. Worcester of Asian Development Bank with whom the author has benefited from many discussions. The author also made reference to some of the works of the three experts. |