Distr. : LIMITED
ECA/NRD/CART.9/ORG.36 Add.l October 1996
Original: ENGLISH
Ninth United Nations Regional
Cartographic Conference for Africa
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
11-15 November 1996
A Report on the activities of The Regional Centre
for Services in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing
S'i
REGIONAL CENTRE FOR SERVICES IN SURVEYING, MAPPING AND REMOTE SENSING
1. Introduction
The Regional Centre for Services in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing is an Inter-governmental organization established in 1975 under the aegis of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. It serves the 24 countries of East and Southern Africa.
Out of these 14 countries are contracting member States having signed the statutes establishing the Centre. These countries are:
Botswana, Comoros, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
The main objectives of the Centre is to provide services in surveying, mapping and remote sensing. Since 1993, the Centre has planned and undertaken activities mainly within the realm of six programmes namely: Surveying and Aerial Photography; Remote Sensing and GIS; Map Production; Maintenance and Calibration of Scientific Equipment; Training; and Administrative and General Services.
2. Surveying and Aerial Photography
The Centre held a two-day meeting to develop a project proposal to carry out a Zero Order GPS Network. The meeting was attended by representatives from national mapping agencies and academic institutions of Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe. The main objective of the project was to establish a Zero Order Network which will be used to re-derive the Arc Datum which forms the basis of the Arc Meridian control network.
Further discussions were carried out between the Centre and the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) whereby an agreement was reached that a joint project document be prepared by the Centre and the Royal Institute of Technology of Sweden.
The Centre participated in the discussions of the African Reference Frame (AFREF) by GPS project proposal at the XXIst IUGG General Assembly held in Boulder, USA in July, 1995. The Centre also attended the 3rd WIOBC meeting in Zanzibar, Tanzania.
During the year 1995, the Centre undertook an evaluation mission to Tanzania to study the cadastral surveying problems of the country.
The Centre completed the aerial photography of Shinyanga project for Tanzania Government.
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A number of baselines were established and measured as follows:- Kenya constructed 4 measured 4 baselines
Tanzania constructed 6 measured 3 baselines
3. Remote Sensing and GIS
The Centre continued to receive enquiries for its services from individuals, institutions and organizations. Cooperation with other organizations continued including the feasibility studies for the establishment of the portable receiving facility at the Centre.
Data bases were developed under the SIRENE project for Botswana, Seychelles, Mauritius, Lesotho, Ethiopia and Malawi. Exhibitions were, also mounted in these countries.
The photo laboratory produced more than 668 items including photographic prints consisting of large format colour, medium colour, colour film, large format black and white, medium small black and white, black and white film and slides*
Efforts by the Centre to build an Earth Resources Data Receiving and Processing facility continued- During this period, discussions were held between the European Consortium (CNES, Telespazzio and Dornier), the European Union and the Centre regarding the reduction of the cost of the facility. Although Kenya pledged to remit ECU 10 million from its Lome Convention funds to the Earth Resources Data Receiving and Processing facility, it was not enough to get the station constructed since other members had not pledged any funds.
Negotiations for the establishment of a Portable Ground Receiving facility started during the year 1993 and culminated in the construction of the facility during the second quarter of 1994.
The facility operated until May, 1995 when it was re-located elsewhere due to inadequate demand for the data. However, the data that was collected can be purchased from EOSAT, USA.
The Remote Sensing component of the Early Warning Systems for IGAD countries was terminated towards the end of 1993. Apart from the project officer of the project, other junior staff were absorbed by the Centre. FAO accepted to continue providing the Centre with ARTEMIS data through DIANA System. This enabled the Centre to process the Cold Cloud Duration (CCD) Meteosat and NDVI (NOAA) data and archive it at the Centre.
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Efforts continued in looking for a donor for the project. France accepted to fund the project through FAO for a period of one year starting middle of 1996.
A supplementary project funded by the Netherlands Government for one year commenced in May 1994. The emphasis for this project was the use of Meteosat Evapotranspiration and Relative Growth data.
The Centre has been involved in the following projects:-
- land use and land capability mapping of Mara Region of Tanzania.
The land use component of the project was completed and the maps delivered. The maps of the land capability mapping are under preparation to date.
- the Centre implemented a project on Monitoring Kenya Lakes in the Central Rift Valley. It was sponsored by the European Union and was jointly executed by Earth Observation Sciences of United Kingdom and Aquater Spa of Italy.
- the Centre cooperated with UNEP in mapping the Coastal resources of the Kenya Coast. Monochrome maps at scale 1:250,000 were completed.
- the Centre is collaborating with three institutions in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in participating in a world wide project to evaluate Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data in preparation for use of data generated by Radarsat.
- the Centre cooperated with other institutions including the International Institute for Biological Sciences in conducting research on the ecology of water hyacinth on Lake Kyoga.
- the Centre has been involved in the completion of the premises to accommodate the AFRICOVER project funded by the Government of Italy and executed by FAO. The project will cover all the Great Horn of African countries and those that are drained by the River Nile.
4. Map Production
The Centre completed the revision of cattle distribution in Africa maps for OAU at scale of 1:10 million. Also the generalized small scale versions of these maps were produced on transparencies in colour to be used by OAU for educational purposes.
Amendments were completed on the Taita Taveta Nature Reserve in Kenya. Thematic maps were completed for the countries of Lesotho and Swaziland within the work program of the SIRENE project. Work on other countries was started including Ethiopia.
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A large format overlay of scale 1:250,000 covering Tsavo National park in Kenya was prepared for the Kenya Wildlife Services.
The Centre collaborated with UNECA in completing a poster on Space Science and Technology, Remote Sensing Services and GIS for Sustainable Development.
1500 copies of maps of Africa were produced for OAU. They were three types each 500 of general features, aridity zones and tsetse fly infested areas.
5. Maintenance and Calibration of Scientific Equipment
The Centre mounted missions to member countries including Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The work performed is shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Country Type of Instrument
Theodolites Levels EDM Plotters Other Total 9
11 5
3 11 5
20 4
4 Botswana
Ethiopia Kenya Malawi Mauritius Seychelles Swaziland Zambia
9 22 8 2
9 26
9 4 17 18
27 38 53 26 13 4 20 18
Total 41 3 51 21 83 199
6. Training
The Centre continued to offer short term training courses to individuals and institutions from the member States. The activities of training show that 323 people were trained during this period (see Table 2).
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Table 2
Type of Training Country
Surve ying
RS &
GIS
Carto graphy
Instru ment Mainte nance
Geodesy Infor- Total mation
Techno logy
Botswana Ethiopia Kenya Malawi Mauritius Seychelles Sudan
Swaziland Tanzania Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe Eritrea Djibouti S. Africa ICRAF
22
8 16 98 4 3 5 19 3 25 24 4 2 2 5 1 1
31
19
16 16 137 4 3 9 19 3 74 24 7 2 2 5 1 1
Total 23 220 16 11 40 323
The Centre also involved its staff in training in various categories of the staff and disciplines. A notable achievement is
the training in the French language which has been sustained by the French Technical Assistance.7. Administrative and General Services
Sensitization mission have been mounted in most of those states
which are not yet members. During these missions, user needs have been assessed in the region and results have been used in the
planning.The Centre has participated in many meetings such as Symposia,
Conferences, workshops and seminars. During these meetings, the
Centre has been able to expund in its role in surveying, mapping
and remote sensing in the region.- 6 -
The Centre has been active in carrying out its business according to its plans. It has been able to hold its regular meetings of the Governing Council, Technical Committee, Appointments and Promotion Committees, etc.
8. Cooperation with Other Institutions
The Centre has maintained routine consultations with UNECA for advice and encouragement.
The same has been done with other institutions with which we have carried our activities together.
9. Future Plans
The Centre recently launched its Fourth Development Plan for the next four years starting with 1996. Biannual planning is derived
