| Mapping/Remote Sensing: Remote Sensing Technology Transfer:
A Success for Tanzania
Over 10 years of interest and effort culminate in a national land use/land cover mapping
project using Landsat data.
By Barry Haack Even before the successful launch of Landsat 1 in 1972 (then known as the Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS)), many members of the remote sensing community recognized that one of the greatest potential benefactors of spaceborne remote sensing would be developing countries.
It was widely understood that a common problem in development planning was the inadequacy of information on the current land cover/use and available resource base. Without accurate information, policy-makers often fail to make decisions or make incorrect decisions. Sound decisions depend on accurate information, yet every country, and especially low income countries, faces severe competing demands for the financial and human commitments necessary to staff an information system equal to its policy-making requirements.
The frequent inadequacy of land cover and resource information may be due to difficulties in accessing some regions because of limited or failed infrastructure or civil and military disturbances; lack of trained personnel, equipment, or funds to collect information properly; or rapid changes in the resource base not detectable by traditional data collection methods such as the high rates of deforestation in many areas of the world caused by increased population pressures. Spaceborne remote sensing can often provide this information for developing countries.
Beginning about the time of Landsat-1, there were a host of efforts at technology transfer of spaceborne remote sensing to developing countries. Those efforts were most evident in the 1970s and 1980s but even continue today. Many of those early efforts were by the U. S. government as an extension of the Landsat program but eventually included many international organizations such as FAO, UNEP, UNDP, and the World Bank. Other nations initiated similar programs as they entered the remote sensing arena.These include France and other ESA nations in support of SPOT and quite recently the Canadians with RADARSAT.
The success of any technology transfer activity is often difficult to determine, in part because the process of accepting new technologies is often very lengthy. Certainly there have been both successes and failures in introducing remote sensing. Some of the failures or delays in acceptance were a result of the technology being oversold and too often the approach was supply rather than demand driven. The costs of the data especially during the commercialization of the 1980s were barriers to utilization as were the costs of equipment needed to utilize the data.
There were many different approaches to the technology transfer of spaceborne remote sensing including traditional studies such as a classic by the National Academy of Science in 1977. One of the early USAID funded attempts was a series of case studies in developing countries with included indigenous scientists. The Environmental Research Institute of Michigan (ERIM) and the Laboratory for the Application of Remote Sensing (LARS) at Purdue University managed a number of these case studies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Several organizations such as the USGS EROS data center, the Technology Application Center (TAC) at the University of New Mexico, and LARS conducted remote sensing workshops and training courses for international scientists as technology transfer strategies.
During the second half of the 1970s, USAID recognized that too much of the effort for international technology transfer was bringing foreign scientists to the United States. It was felt that greater effort should be directed toward establishing in-country resources and capabilities. This recognition resulted in the support of national and regional remote sensing centers. Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan were among the supported national centers. Regional centers were established in Thailand, Burkina Fasso (then Upper Volta), and Kenya.
In Nairobi, Kenya, USAID funded the Regional Remote Sensing Facility (RRSF) which was a component of the Regional Centre for Services in Surveying, Mapping, and Remote Sensing (RCSSMRS). RCSSMRS is an African regional organization set up under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. The center provides services to a number of member countries in a region extending from Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan to Swaziland and Lesotho.
In the early stages of development, remote sensing activities at RCSSMRS were directed toward training and providing data for pilot demonstrations and specific projects. More than 1,000 natural resource scientists and administrators attended RCSSMRS short courses since 1979.
Training courses were typically for three weeks and would include about 15 to 20 mid-career scientists from governmental departments and occasional university faculty or staff from non- governmental organizations. The thematic topics included applications of remote sensing to rangeland management, cartography, forestry, geology, highway engineering, hydrology, agriculture, and urban planning. Courses were presented at the Nairobi headquarters and in Tanzania, Botswana, Uganda, Malawi, and Swaziland.
A participant in one of the early courses on Forestry was Ligusy Okello, a forester from the Ministry of Lands, Natural Resources and Tourism in Tanzania. Okello became quite interested in the possibility of using spaceborne remote sensing to provide current information on vegetation cover in Tanzania. He established a cooperative agreement with RRSF to compile a map of Tanzania Vegetation Cover Types from Landsat MSS prints. The MSS images at a scale of 1:1,000,000 were produced by the photographic laboratory at RRSF and the original interpretation was completed by Okello in Nairobi. Tanzania, with an area of 945,166 sq. kms, is one of the largest countries in sub-Saharan Africa. It required portions of 48 Landsat frames for complete coverage. Tanzania is also one of the most scenic countries in Africa including the highest point, Mount Kilimanjaro, and some of the largest numbers of wildlife.
After initial interpretations, extensive field work was conducted to verify, and where necessary, modify the mapping. Okello was accompanied on the field verifications by Luka Isavwa, then a RRSF ecologist/remote sensing applications specialist and now director of the remote sensing department of RCSSMRS. Twelve classes of vegetation cover were extracted, compiled on a national base map at a scale of 1:2,000,000, and printed in 1984. This was one of the earliest national land cover maps created from spaceborne imagery in the world.
Recognizing that a national map at 1:2,000,000 scale is not suitable for many informational needs, yet still enthusiastic about spaceborne remote sensing as a data source, Okello pursued agreements to produce as a demonstration a vegetation cover map from Landsat for an area around Dar es Salaam, the capitol of Tanzania, at a scale of 1:250,000. This mapping effort modified and expanded the national classification scheme to 16 classes more appropriate for the coastal environment. This map, printed in 1989, was based on a 1988 Landsat image.
The success and interest in this map resulted in an effort to provide similar vegetation maps for the entire country. That effort resulted in the "National Reconnaissance Level Land Use and Natural Resource Mapping Project." This project is one component of the World Bank supported Forest Resources Management Project located within the Ministry of Tourism, Natural Resources and Environment. This two year project was formally started in mid-1994 with the signing of a contract with Hunting Technical Services as the principle consultant. Technical oversight of the project for the Tanzania government is provided by the Institute of Resource Assessment at the University of Dar es Salaam.
The primary output of this project will be 500 copies of land cover maps from Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery for each of the 64 1:250,000 scale topographic maps of Tanzania. The land cover maps will have 28 classes. Okello is one of the lead image interpreters on this project.
There are many individuals and organizations in addition to Okello who have used and promoted spaceborne remote sensing in Tanzania. For example, Dr. Idris Kikula, the current director, and his colleagues at IRA have been especially important in Tanzania. Merrill Conitz and Alan Falconer were very important in the conceptualization and implementation of the RRSF. Okello, however, has been a constant advocate and participant in the national mapping of vegetation using spaceborne remote sensing.
The use of satellite image maps for producing national land cover/land use information is an important component in providing information for environmental and economic management decisions in many of the southern African countries. In addition to the ongoing project in Tanzania, similar efforts are in various stages of completion in Uganda, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and South Africa. This interest in spaceborne remote sensing has been driven by a number of forces, certainly including the need for reliable, current information in a GIS, but, to some degree, that interest is a result of successful technology transfer programs including the RRSF in Nairobi. Summary
The national land cover/use mapping of Tanzania should be completed during 1997. The use of satellite image maps provides an accurate product quickly and at a cost much less than traditional techniques. A comparable effort using aerial photography would be very expensive and take many years to complete. The land cover information will be very useful for decision makers and planners who are often making decisions without reliable data. This effort is part of a World Bank funded parallel program to create the Tanzania Natural Resources Information Centre. This broader based set of information will increase the utility of the land cover data. Current land cover can be compared to historic conditions to assess change and prioritize management and development activities. These data will also estabish baseline conditions to measure future changes such as new agricultural areas, deforestation, and wetland conditions. About the Author:
Barry Haack is currently a faculty member in the Department of Geography at George Mason University near Washington, DC. His primary professional interest is the technology transfer and application of remote sensing and associated spatial techniques such as GIS to developing countries. He was a remote sensing expert for several years at the Regional Remote Sensing Facility in Nairobi, has worked extensively in South and Southeast Asia, and recently spent a year at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. He may be reached at 703-993-1210. Back |
