Dilemma of Remote Sensing
Education for Surveyors in Meeting Market Needs and Expectations
IntroductionNoordin Ahmad and Muhammad Jaafar Department of Surveying Science and Geomatic, School of Engineering Mara Institute of Technology, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia noordin@sel.itm.my Remote sensing has been widely recognized as an efficient tool in collecting and providing information about the earth. It has been used in various applications such as resource inventory and the monitoring of the environment. In many developing countries, the development of remote sensing technology does not progressed so well due to shortage of qualified personnel and professionals who are able to make judicious use of this technology . Promoting of education and training in remote sensing applications thus becomes an important agenda in the developing countries so as to fully benefit from this new technology. Often the technology takes the centre stage while the human and personnel dimension is neglected. The technology has no values if it is not carefully run and managed properly With this premise it is important to educate Surveyor, which has long been engaging in collection of data by remote technique e.g. photogrammetry, with remote sensing knowledge However . while remote sensing is a tool for extracting information , surveying educator are faced with several dilemmas when running remote sensing subjects and courses. This paper intend to highlight some of the major dilemmas faced. The experiences gather from MARA Institute of Technology (ITM) and Malaysia in general are presented. Surveying Education and Remote Sensing Traditionally most surveying schools only taught the “geometry” aspects of the earth (coordinate, scale, bearing, distance, projection etc) to produce maps and plans. Information are collected using “geometry” too where data are referenced to each other. Even photogrammetry, which form part of remote sensing, is only widely taught as mapping too since it can provide the information (photo interpretation) and more importantly the “height geometry” i.e. the contours. The effect of technological change, like remote sensing, on surveying should be mirrored in the education process. Changes in educational programs to accommodate technological change, in reality, is a compromise between recognized traditional practices and playing a professional role in a new diverse area. In the same way it is hope that graduates can utilize technological change to diversify their activities. While accepting the need to change, ITM has faced two major dilemmas in providing remote sensing education for the surveyors. a) Student’s interest Being off-line from the traditional surveying discipline, remote sensing is mainly considered as a small scale mapping tool and an input to LIS (Angus-Leppan and Trinder, 1991). In most surveying schools the subject is considered a specialised surveying subject and is introduce at the later stage of the course of a degree program. The student interest could be easily monitored from students final year project where they are given a choice to carry out any surveying related project. The record at ITM (and many other institution offering surveying) shows that the number of students taking remote sensing as their final year special projects is too few compared to the more demanding field such as LIS/GIS, engineering surveying and hydropgraphy. b) Field of applicability A technology will have values if it is applicable and beneficial to a discipline. Although department like Surveying offers remote sensing subject but the focus in mainly n the fundamentals. This is due to the limited field of remote sensing applicability in surveying. There is a real dilemma as to the extent and ways in which remote sensing should be taught. This is also the main reason why in the United States remote sensing, image processing and photo interpretation are mainly conduct in non-engineering science departments like geography, forestry and agriculture (PE&RS, 1993). The use of remote sensing in the production of small scale maps has been well documented. In the production of small scale map (1:50000), it has been stated that Landsat image could not meet the mapping standards required while Spot image has been successfully used the mapping projects of 1:50000 scale map of Malaysia. This is unfortunate for a small country like Malaysia where small scale mapping are carried out primarily by the Directorate of Surveying and Mapping and thus ruling out the possibilities of its usage for mapping application in private sectors in the production of large scale maps, remote sensing technology has not yet being able to satisfy the mapping standards. Thus the perception of practicing surveyors in Malaysia, remote sensing has not yet reached its full potential to be profitable to be used as an alternatives tool for mapping work. This create a dilemma for surveying graduates to apply their new gained knowledge in his/her chosen profession. It is also realised that demand by the industries plays a major role in developing a comprehensive curriculum. The following flowchart describe the relationship between technology and the changing requirement which is supposedly tackled by higher education institution. Surveying Professional Practices and Remote Sensing Surveying profession is a profession which del closely with the collection, processing and analysis of data. As highlighted earlier the concept of coordinate system and map projection used to represent spatial information are a few of the basic knowledge that are well taught in the surveying disciplines and which are very important in the understanding of remote sensing technology. Nevertheless the potential of remote sensing for truly land surveying application are limited as highlighted by Ahmad (1989). In the commercial area, there are more growing demand for higher accuracy data than that can be offered by current remote sensing resolution. This does not fits well with the surveying profession and expertise. At the same time everywhere around the world remote sensing is mainly used for large areas application as in resource and environmental sensing is mainly used for large areas application as in resource and environmental management (Brannon et. al. 1994) This type of application requires personnel which can extract useful biophysical, geochemical and socio-economic information from the remotely sensed data. Furthermore this area of application and specialization are usually carried out by government sectors and thus being one of the reason for the slow commercial growth. As pointed out by NASA other reasons include prohibitive cost of data analysis and lack of knowledge concerning its potential applications (Davis et. al, 1993). Another interesting factor is the timeliness of remote sensing data. Although it is accessible but the time taken to acquire the data has become an inconvenience to users. Countries which does not have its own receiving stations suffered the most. Surveying application are mainly geared towards producting maps and plans for awaiting project. Delay in getting a proper data is a clear disadvantage here. This includes the problems of clouds and bad data. Usually most professional are working within their own activities. With remote sensing, likewise GIS, being a public domain surveyors can have no inalienable right to expect that in remote sensing they will have an exclusive profile of activity and application (Roberts and Ellis, 1991). This supposedly provide a healthy competition but mainly this work are compartmentalized where surveyors end up providing ground control points for the image. Remote Sensing for Better Surveying In discussing the future direction of surveying and mapping, many have foreseen that information technology (especially data management) combining with land management will play a major role in determining the image of the profession (e.g. Willimson, 1991; Davies, 1991). Against the backdrop of this direction, surveying educator are facing unperfected pressure to produce marketable graduates. This requires much broader understanding of the applications of technology such as remote sensing to surveying since investment in technology must be understood as an investment in human resources more tan simply machinery and software. a) LIS/GIS Much has been talked about surveyors involvement in LIS/GIS. Surveyors gains his place on the team because his measurement provide fundamental layer of the system e.g. cadastral or topographic map. This should be further extended to resource mapping (thematic) using remote sensing. b) Mapping Currently photogram metric technique is employed in producing maps. Maps ranging from small scale map (1:200000), medium scales (1:50000) and lare scale (1:500) to 1:5000) are (being) produced by this technique which able to satisfy that required mapping accuracy. But the cost is high and the progressed is slow, and by the time the map is completed it may already be out of date. Thus remote sensing is seen as a good alternative to be used in the production of maps. c) Resource management Historically activities of remote sensing, mapping and resource management have been performed independently. The resource sector requires support from the other two activities and thus forming an integrated resource management. There are plenty of commercial areas yet to be fully developed in the are of integrated resource management. References
|