Promotion of Education and
Training on Geoinformatics in Asia Shunji
Murai Abstract Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo 7-22-1 Roppongi, Minatoku, Tokyo 106 Japan Fax: 81-3-3479-2762 Email : murai@shunji.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp The paper introduces the author's activities of education and training on geoinformatics in Asia and the future directions, recognizing that education and training are a key issue for successful application of remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) in Asia. Introduction Geoinformatics includes conventional surveying, photogrammetry, remote sensing, GIS, cartography, geodesy, GPS etc. that can be integrated into a multi-disciplinary science and technology to obtain reliable information about the Earth and the environment through record, measure, input process analyze and represent geo-referenced data or geospatial data. Inorder to achieve the goal of geoinformatics, a lot of advanced technologies including digital image processing, GIS, computer assisted cartography, information extractionfrom images, geospatial database and so on should be well educated and trained. The following five targets will be most important to promote and popularize geoinformatics.
Because advanced technologies cannot covered by a single author, most of test books of remote sensing and GIS are compiled with independent chapters written by different authors. They are sometimes too much duplicated or too much unified. Some books too much theoretical or too much application oriented. Nowadays particularly in Asia, well organized text books remote sensing and/or GIS are required for fundamental courses, that will be easily understood not only the concept, theory and principles but also the applications. In this sense, Japan Association of Remote Sensing (JARS) has published "Remote Sensing Note" (edited by Shunji Murai) in the following languages. - Japanese, 1992 JARS - English 1993 JARS - Chinese, 1993 Mr. Liu Yong Wei - Persian, 1996 Iraian Remote Sensing Center - Thai, 1996 NRCT - Mongolian, 1996 Dr. Saandar The copy right was given free of charge to the responsible organization or the person who wished to translate into local language. For the purpose of popularizing remote sensing and GIS, JARS has published a book on "Understandable Remote Sensing and GIS" (Japanese version) under the sponsorship of NASDA/RESTEC with a target on local government level. The author has edited "Application of Remote Sensing in Asia and Oceania" (Publisher: Geocarto International) in 1991 in cooperation of AARS (Asian Association on Remote Sensing) members. This book is consisted of fifty application of remote sensing in various countries in Asia and the Pacific. The author has just completed two volumes of "GIS Work Book : Fundamental and Technical Course" in both English and Japanese. The motivation came from the fact that there has been no better organized test book on GIS in the world. The contents are shown in Table 1.
Public Domain Software for Education Hands-on-training (HOT) or computer assisted technical (CAT) with PCs is one of most important factors for education and training on geoinformatics. Particularly developing counties are required to prepare public domain software free of charge or at very cheap price for educational purpose. Concerning remote sensing including digital image processing, NASDA/RESTEC of Japan has developed a public domain software called "WIN Asean" of Windows version, Which used to be freely distributed the trainees of Regional Remote Sensing Seminar on Tropical Eco-syster Regional Seminar on Space Information since 1995. Concerning GIS, there are several public domain software, such as GRASS (free) and IDRISI (560 US $), but they are only based on either vector model or raster model. Beijing University, China has developed a public domain software of GIS called "Geo-star" (500U$$), though English version is now under development, that is based on both vector and raster model. Nevertheless we Asian look forward to making use of "Trainee Friendly GIS Software" for educational purposes. Free Dataset for Education and Training Because satellite remote sensing images are so expensive and digitizing map data are so time consuming, dataset for education and training on remote sensing and GIS should be well prepared depending on the purpose of principles and applications. For remote sensing course, at least the following dataset are to be prepared.
International Education and Training Center Education refers to a long course (two or three years) with degree (eg. Master or Doctor degree), while training a short course (not more than three months)with only certificate. Both education and training are necessary to promote geoinformatics in Asia. Though each country has domestic education and training centers, international centers will international standard should be also founded in Asia. Unfortunately there are very few international centers avail in Asia. The author is pleased to introduce the following courses in his relation.
Good teachers are of course very important for successful education and training. Keeping permanent teachers is becoming more difficult due to not only economic burden but also rapid changes of requirements. Therefore, exchange of personnel based on short visit (eg. Three months), caravan style seminars or workshops by well known experts or self learning software package would minimize the cost and maximize the efficiency. Recognizing that continuous education service is a key issue, particularly in remote sensing and GIS, or geoinformatics, good teachers are essential to human resources. Conclusions The author recognized that education and training on geoinformatics are particularly important in promoting remote sensing and GIS in Asia. Well organized text books, computer-assisted-teaching software and free dataset should be prepared through cooperation between experts, space agencies, education centers and other related organizations. International education and training centers with well recognized teachers are also to be more available in Asia. |