ITC News 2009-Q4

content

Main features59th Dies Natalis 2Farewell trip Asia 10

Education NewsRefresher course Uganda 15Refresher course Rwanda 16Short courses Hanoi 17Refresher courses 2010 18

Research NewsEAGER award 19Alexander Goetzinstrument programme 19

Partnership NewsITC extends agreement UNU 21GITHRA Vietnam 21MoU with Waternet 23CASITA 24

AnnouncementsCordaid Urban Challenge 26

Life after ITCAlumni meet Uganda 28Alumni meet Chile 29ITC’s first PhD student ever 30Best reviewers award 31Letter to the editor 32

1ITC News 2009-4

I N T R O

2009number 4

Presenting the fourth issue of ITC News 2009! Astride the turn of the year, a fourth quarter issue often conjures up mixed emotions, and this one is noexception. As amazing displays of fireworks lit up the midnight sky on 31 December 2009, heralding the arrival of the New Year, ITC the institutebecame ITC the sixth faculty of the University of Twente. Consequently, the59th Dies Natalis celebrated on 17 December was a very special occasion indeed. Change was the order of the day, with not only new status for ITCbut also a new hand at the wheel. After nine years in the driving seat,Professor Martien Molenaar was stepping down as rector, and it wasProfessor Tom Veldkamp who picked up the gauntlet − or rather the mace.And as if that wasn’t enough, the scheduled programme was interrupted bya unexpected “firecracker”. But you can read all about that on page 2.

ITC’s mission will remain unaffected, with capacity building for organisationsin less developed countries and countries in transition continuing to be theprimary focus. Another interview, a different story (page 30). Many alumniand students will be interested to read about the twists and turns in the ca-reer of Dr Joseph Akinyede, ITC’s very first PhD student. Perhaps these expe-riences will chime in with their own experiences, perhaps they will suggestthe shape of things to come.

Despite the far-reaching organisational adjustments mentioned above, manyarticles reassuringly demonstrate that it’s still business usual – with alumnigatherings in Uganda (page 28) and Chile (page 29), award harvested invarious fields of endeavour (page 19, 26 and 31) refresher courses con-ducted in Uganda (page 15) and Rwanda (page 16), and agreements signedwith the United Nations University (page 21) and WaterNet (page 23). In fact “business” is thriving − which indicates a bright and healthy futurefor the new university faculty.

ITC can look back on an illustrious past, it’s true, but resting on laurels hasnever been a temptation. This integration with UT will bring new challenges,exciting opportunities, and no doubt plenty of surprises along the way. So anew chapter of history is waiting to be written – with a goodly amount ofmaterial for ITC News in the process!

Virtually yours, Janneke Kalf Jorien TerlouwManaging Editor Editor

introduction

Managing Editor: Janneke KalfEditor: Jorien TerlouwEditing: Janice CollinsDesign&PrePress: Henk Scharrenborg

(Composer DTP service)Printing: Thieme MediaCenter ZwolleISSN: 1389 9368

Correspondence to: Managing EditorITC NEWSP.O.Box 6

7500 AA EnschedePhone: +31 (0)53 487 44 11Fax: +31 (0)53 487 45 54E-mail: [email protected]

colofonITC NEWS is published quarterly, by ITC, Enschede, the Netherlands

The views expressed by the contributors do not necessarily reflect those of ITC

2 ITC News 2009-4

M A I N F E A T U R E S

Fifty-nine years old:

a respectable age

for any institute

but in the life of ITC

an anniversary of

immense signifi -

cance.

If you are a faithful reader of ITC News, you will have followed some of the twistsand turns over recent years that led to themilestone change in ITC’s status that wasformalised on Thursday, 17 December 2009.During the ceremony held to mark the 59th Dies Natalis of the Institute, the Deed of Conveyance was signed byProfessor Martien Molenaar, rector of ITC,and Dr Anne Flierman, chairman of theExecutive Board of the University of Twente(UT), whereby at 0.00 hrs on 1 January2010 ITC would become the sixth faculty ofthe University.

And what better venue for such a momen-tous occasion than the Grote Kerk inEnschede’s old market square − only threemonths ago the setting of the Opening ofthe Academic Year 2009-2010. So a wel-come opportunity to revisit the splendid in-terior and enjoy the inspirational organmusic as the academic cortege filed by.

Taking the floor, Professor Alfred Stein, thedeputy rector and master of ceremony onthis occasion, extended a warm welcome toProfessor Martien Molenaar and his wife

Julia; Drs Sjaak Beerens and his wife Ella;Professor Tom Veldkamp and his wifeMarga; Professor Orhan Altan, chairman ofthe ISPRS; Mr Peter den Oudsten, mayor ofEnschede; members of the ITC SupervisoryBoard; members of the UT Executive Board:Dr Flierman, Professor Brinksma and Ir VanAst; members of the UT Supervisory Board;colleagues from the Netherlands andabroad (as far as weather had permitted);members of the Student Association Boardand the ITC PhD community; ITC staff andstudents; and family and friends. “Today weconvene for a double event. We will witnessthe signing of the Deed of Conveyance thattransforms ITC into a faculty of the UT (ac-tually this is a pro forma signing only andthe official signing will be carried out on 21December in the presence of a notary), aswell as the transfer of rectorship, withProfessor Molenaar as the retiring rectorand Professor Veldkamp as the incomingdean/rector of the new university faculty.”

It was the pleasant duty of Professor Steinto introduce several speakers to the audi-ence that afternoon. First he invitedProfessor Molenaar, rector of ITC since2001, to deliver his farewell address entitledStep down, step forward. Then, in a depar-ture from the programme, which took boththe audience and in particular ProfessorMolenaar by surprise, Mayor Peter denOudsten was invited to say a few words.This unexpected addition was followed bythe scheduled signing of the Deed ofConveyance, a task performed jointly byProfessor Molenaar, representing ITC, andDr Flierman, representing the UT. Then, withthe ink barely dry on the document, it wasthe turn of Dr Flierman to address thosepresent.

After these momentous events, it was timefor the audience to catch their breath. Thisthey were able to do during a musical inter-lude provided by the Valerius Ensemble,with Carola Ligt on flute, Robert Windak on

59th Dies NatalisJanice Collins [email protected]

Professor Alfred Stein, the deputy rector and master of ceremony

3ITC News 2009-4


violin, Caro Wiering on viola and RenéGeesing on cello. Their rendition of Fauré’sPavane and Mozart’s Flute Quartet in D KV285 closed to enthusiastic applause, illus-trating not only the sincere appreciation ofthe audience but also the restorative effectof music.

The second part of the programme openedwith the transfer of rectorship, with Profes -sor Molenaar relinquishing “the authorityand dignity related to this office” in favourof Professor Tom Veldkamp, who promisedto acquit himself of the duties of office tothe very best of his ability. There was a rus-tle of interest and expectation in the hall asthe audience settled down to listen to theacceptance speech of the new rector, nowcharged with the task of guiding ITC withinthe UT environment.

Professor Martien Molenaar, Retiring Rector ITCStep down, step forwardOver his nine years as rector of ITC, Profes -sor Molenaar had delivered many speechesand lectures and consequently much had al-ready been said. “So what I now have toadd will only be brief – a short sketch ofwhere we came from, where we are goingto, and why we are going there. In fact, alast word before I step down at the momentthat ITC takes an important step forward.”

“Sixty years ago, map-making from aerialphotography was in full development − anew technology that gave cartography newmomentum. Unmapped areas could bemapped much faster than before and it be-came easier to keep maps up to date.Photogrammetry, a new profession, wasborn. And Willem Schermerhorn under-stood its importance, especially for thosecountries that were freeing themselves fromtheir colonial ties at that time. However,aerial photography was not only importantfor topographic mapping. During the sec-ond world war, the interpretation of suchphotography proved to be an importanttool for reconnaissance. These methodswere later developed for urban planning,vegetation mapping, soil survey and earthscience applications.”

“The International Training Centre for AerialSurvey (ITC),” continued Professor Molenaar,“was founded to train professionals (map-makers from different academic disciplines)in these new techniques. From the early‘70s onwards, the traditional photo-inter-pretation disciplines were injected with newmomentum through the advent of newtechniques and new sensors for earth obser-vation. The spectral and spatial resolutionsof these new sensors improved significantlyover these decades. At the same time, thetraditional photogrammetric mappingprocesses based on aerial photography andthe use of optical-mechanical instrumentsbecame increasingly automated, and withthe advent of digital imagery this processand its end products became fully digi-tised.”

As Professor Molenaar went on to explain,we are now becoming accustomed to newmedia that allow three-dimensional repre-sentations of our living environment. “Nolonger are we only interested in what iswhere, we are also interested in what hap-pens where. This means that, instead ofmapping the state of the Earth’s surface, wenow monitor processes and endeavour tomanage them. And these processes act atdifferent levels, ranging from local to re-gional, to national, to continental and evento global scales. The processes at the differ-ent levels are mutually dependent and inter-act. Therefore, to facilitate analysis, moni-Professor Molenaar delivered his farewell address entitled Step down, step forward

4 ITC News 2009-4


toring and management, the information atthese levels should be mutually consistent –a great challenge for our disciplines. Indeed,the modern systems for earth observationhelp us to see what is going on, but youcan only really see if you understand whatyou see. So earth observation requires aprofound understanding of the context inwhich the observations have to be inter-preted, and this implies a profound under-standing of the disciplines studying the dif-ferent types of geo-processes – for example,hydrology, earth sciences, wildlife conserva-tion, agriculture or urban land use develop-ment, demographic processes or the dy-namics of the Earth’s gravity field. But thenew methods for observation provided bymodern technology force the applicationdomains to redefine the observable charac-teristics of their processes, which may leadto a new understanding. This often leads tonew theories or even paradigm shifts inthese domains. And perhaps even more im-portant, public awareness of issues such asurbanisation, climate change, sea-level rise,changes in land cover and land use hasbeen created only because these techniqueshave made them visible – a visibility thatoften leads to political action.”

The outgoing rector explained that the newobservation systems produced large datavolumes. “These have to be stored,processed and analysed. And that is wheregeo-information science plays a role. Nolonger is mapping the issue, but geo-infor-mation handling. The technology againplays an important role, but these data areanalysed to produce information about thegeo-processes. So therefore again a properunderstanding of the physics and the tech-nical and mathematical principles of dataacquisition and processing is essential forgeo-information science.” Turning to thegovernance aspects of managing geo-processes, Professor Molenaar said that adeep understanding was highly importantto ensure that relevant information was pro-vided for decision making – and provided inthe right form, at the right place, at theright time. He added that the present infor-mation flows were large, rapid, complexand expensive, and consequently gover-nance of these flows was an issue of grow-ing importance. That was why the tradi-

tional surveying and mapping disciplines de-veloped over the past 60 years had devel-oped into the much wider domain of geo-information science and earth observation.

Among the important aspects of this rela-tively young academic domain, ProfessorMolenaar listed: • the geospatial context of the observed

phenomena and processes• he physics and technology of the informa-

tion and observation systems• the governance aspects of the use and

provision of this geo-information.“The developments in these domains are sofast that organisations have to adapt con-tinuously to keep their mandates, workingprocedures, services and products up todate, as well as relevant to the changing re-quirements of their ever-changing environ-ment. This means that lifelong learning isessential for these professionals throughouttheir career – and this is also true for wholeorganisations. The original idea was that ITCshould train map-makers from developingcountries and that after some 25 years suffi-cient capacity would be available to do thejob. This idea has fundamentally changedover the past six decades. We still educatemid-career professionals but the setting islifelong learning rather than one-time train-ing, and academic education rather thanprofessional training. Most students at ITChave a university degree and they have beenworking for six or seven years. They come toITC for additional education in geo-informa-tion science and earth observation to com-plement their earlier education, and then re-turn to their organisations to introducenewly learned methods and working proce-dures. Furthermore, increasingly they arecoming for research training − to learn afundamental research approach to tacklingthe complex problems in their home coun-tries. And this means that the mission of ITCis still capacity development.”

Bringing his story full circle, ProfessorMolenaar said that Willem Schermerhornhad “hoped that universities would recog-nise the domain of ITC as an academic do-main. He also hoped that universities wouldconsider capacity development as one theirtasks and that ITC could be integrated intothe university system. Although he never

saw his dream come true, the dream contin-ued. First the universities obstructed this in-tegration; later in the 1980s and early1990s ITC and its sister institutes did notsee this as an appropriate development. Butnow, finally, the time appears to be ripe fora definite step. I have sketched how theprofessional domain of ITC has developedinto a true academic domain, with manylinks to other disciplines, and how researchhas become increasingly important. Wehave also seen our partnerships in our tar-get countries shifting from professional or-ganisations to universities and research insti-tutions. So now that the domain of ITC hasdeveloped into a full-grown academic do-main − and with the rapid internationalisa-tion of higher education worldwide − it isindeed the right time for the integration ofITC into the university system. At midnighton New Year’s Eve, ITC will join theUniversity of Twente as its sixth faculty, afaculty sui generis, indicating that capacitydevelopment has been accepted as one ofthe tasks of the University. After almost 60years, the dream of Willem Schermerhornwill finally be fulfilled.”

And then one last thing. Referring to thepresent debate about the effectiveness ofdevelopment, Professor Molenaar said,“Since my student days in the 1960s, I havehad a strong belief in solidarity between thestrong and the weak, and that counts forboth people and countries. I think indeedthat after 60 years the time is ripe for recon-sidering the assumptions on which the ideaof development cooperation has beenbased. The initiative should lie much morewith the recipient countries, but then theyshould be able to set their own prioritiesand formulate and implement their ownstrategies for development. To do so, theymust have access to good education, andcapacity development is an effective instru-ment in this context.”

Now entering the home straight, ProfessorMolenaar reflected over the past nine yearsfrom a more personal perspective: “It washard work, it was exciting and I enjoyedevery minute of it. It was a privilege and areal pleasure to serve the Institute in this po-sition – and I can say that because ITC staffand students form a very special commu-nity. I thank you all for your enthusiasm,motivation, and readiness to take initiativesand make them work.”

So the time had come to step down. But itwas also time for ITC to take a step forward,and so Professor Molenaar closed by wishingProfessor Veldkamp, Ms Erna Leurink, man-aging director of the new faculty, and theITC community as a whole every success inthe future.

Mr Peter den Oudsten, Mayor of EnschedeAt the invitation of the master of ceremony,somewhat unexpectedly Mr Peter denOudsten now took the stand. “Ladies andgentlemen, it is not an annual activity of themayor of Enschede to address the audienceat the ITC Dies. It is only on rare and ex-traordinary occasions that I will ask for thefloor – and today is one such occasion. Andbecause I am going to perform a Dutch cer-emony, I hope you will forgive me for pro-ceeding in Dutch.”

The mayor said that the retirement ofProfessor Molenaar as rector of ITC put himin mind of the historic moon landing: aseemingly small step down but a giant per-sonal leap into the future. Summarising

5ITC News 2009-4


Mr Den Oudsten presented Professor Molenaarwith the medal of the Order of Orange-Nassau

For an interview with Professor Martien Molenaar entitled"Go with the Flow towards Your Targets"See www.gim-international.com/issues GIM International issue 1, vol. 24, January 2010 publishedby Geomares Publishing

Professor Molenaar’s long and illustrious ca-reer, he said that he was nationally and in-ternationally recognised as an expert in thefield of geo-information sciences and hadplayed an important role in the break-through of geographical information sys-tems in cadastre, town planning and spatialplanning, both in the Netherlands and indeveloping countries. At the helm of ITC, hehad contributed to the education, researchand international positioning of theInstitute, thereby consolidating its interna-tional reputation. He had also furthered co-operation with Dutch universities and, withan eye to developing knowledge in the cus-tomer countries, had pursued the some-times thorny path of integration with theUT.

All these efforts had not passed unnoticed,and today Mr Den Oudsten, on behalf ofHer Majesty Queen Beatrix of theNetherlands, had the privilege to presentProfessor Molenaar with the medal of theOrder of Orange-Nassau. Obviously movedby both the award and the enthusiastic ap-plause, Professor Molenaar thanked HerMajesty for honouring him with this distinc-tion, as well as those people behind thescenes who had supported his nomination.He emphasised that this honour symbolisednot only personal recognition but alsorecognition of the entire community of ITC.

Signing of Deed of ConveyanceIt was now time to proceed to the ceremo-nial signing of the Deed of Conveyance, thetext of which is as follows:

We hereby declare1 That we have completed our negotiations

on the integration of ITC in the University of Twente as the Faculty ofGeo-Information Science and EarthObservation.

2 That we both fully agree on the condi-tions under which this integration will berealised.

3 That these conditions have been formu-lated in the Acte van Overdracht vanActiviteiten, including attachments.

4 That the Minister of Education, Culture &Science and all relevant parties within ITCand the UT agree with the integration.

5 That we will sign this agreement and itsattachments on the 21 December 2009 inthe presence of a notary.

6 That the transition of staff, activities andassets has been carefully prepared.

7 That the integration will be a fact on 1 January 2010 at 00.00 hrs.

As Dr Flierman and Professor Molenaar settheir signatures to the declaration that af-ternoon, those present in the Grote Kerkwere witnesses to history in the making.

Dr Anne Flierman, Chairman of UT Executive BoardIt now fell to Dr Flierman to say a few wordson behalf of the UT Executive Board and heopened by congratulating ProfessorMolenaar and his family on the great hon-our that had just been bestowed on him –“a distinction well deserved for excellentservice to ITC over a number of years, andcertainly over the last few years in the par-

6 ITC News 2009-4


Ceremonial signing of the Deed of Conveyance

ticipative process to bring about this inte-gration. As I see it, the process began eightyears ago when the University became pen-holder for ITC, a rather strange form of rela-tionship that gave the University some au-thority and responsibility regarding ITCwhile simultaneously ensuring that theInstitute’s independence remained largelyintact”. Tracing the strengthening of the re-lationship through the Declaration of Intentin 2006 and a formal agreement in 2008,Dr Flierman said that the process had some-times been likened to the preparations for awedding – with today as the wedding day.“And now let me say why this Universityand ITC were made for each other, and par-ticularly why we from the UT perspectiveare so happy to celebrate this occasion.”

“First of all, ITC will make an importantcontribution to the critical mass of theUniversity in terms of both budget and stu-dent numbers. Together ITC and UT haveover 9,000 Bachelor/Master students and, ifwe include our PhD candidates as students,the total number of students will be onlyslightly less than 10,000. The integration ofITC into our University offers the perspectiveof further growth and, more importantly,ITC’s profile fits perfectly with that of UT – amodern university of technology where, bycombining technology and social sciences,we work with ways of applying cutting-edge technology for the benefit of societyand seek to contribute to solving the greatissues of our times, such as sustainability,climate, health and safety, and security. ITC’sexpertise is relevant not only to the develop-ing world but also to the developed world.It opens the way to expanding our joint ac-tivities, both in education, where we canlook at new, initially publically funded,Master programmes in geo-information andearth observation, and in research, for exam-ple in the fields of water management andinformation & communication technology.”

Referring to a recent meeting of the UTmanagement team, Dr Flierman said that ithad once again been emphasised that forUT, as for any modern university, interna-tionalisation was a conditio sine qua non.“A constant inflow of Master degree stu-dents and PhD candidates will be essentialfor our University, not only to compensate

for those students who on completing aBachelor degree leave for the Randstad butalso to create a truly international atmos-phere. With its excellent worldwide reputa-tion, ITC can help us to develop new links,promoting ITC as a university faculty, theuniversity as a whole, and indeed Twente.By the nature of its activities, ITC has enor-mous experience in working with interna-tional students here in Enschede, experiencethat will definitely help us to create an inter-national climate around the campus.Furthermore, it will bring an important newnetwork to the University, and we can learnsomething from ITC in that sense. Anotherinteresting element in ITC’s activities is thatit not only attracts students to Enschede, italso participates in education programmesabroad. This international experience willbenefit the whole university, especiallywhen we consider our strategic focus ontechnology and its application. ‘ColourfulCity’ has been the slogan of Enschede forquite some time, but with ITC as our sixthfaculty colour will now truly arrive at ourUniversity as well.”

Drawing to a close, Dr Flierman reaffirmedhis belief that both ITC and UT would bene-fit enormously from this integration. “In aunified new organisation, they will be ableto act more strongly and have a greater im-pact at both national and internationallevel. Combined education and research, ex-isting and new, will open up hitherto unex-plored pathways for the development anddissemination of knowledge and skills to thebenefit of many nations around the worldwhere graduates of our University in its newform will go to live and work.”

Transfer of RectorshipFor almost 60 years, the rector has been theleader of the Institute, his authority beingsymbolised by the mace. The ITC mace is asomewhat special one. It was carved inNigeria by Mr Hassan, a descendant ofOduduwa, the founder of the Yoruba racewho established Ile-Ife as the capital of theYoruba Empire. Its main characteristic is thecurl at the top, representing the logo of theInstitute. The mace was presented to ITC in2003 by Dr Jide Kufoniyi, ITC alumnus andat that time executive director of RECTAS inNigeria.

7


ITC News 2009-4

In his capacity of master of ceremony, Pro -fes sor Stein now invited Professor Molenaar,Professor Jaap Besemer (chairman of the ITCSupervisory Board), Dr Flierman and Profes -sor Veldkamp to come forward.

“At midnight on 31 December 2009, myterms as rector of ITC come to an end,” saidProfessor Molenaar, handing the mace toProfessor Besemer. “With the integration ofITC into the University of Twente, I will havecompleted my assignment.” Accepting themace as a token of Professor Molenaar’sresignation, Professor Besemer then passedit to Dr Flierman, and in so doing trans-ferred to him the authority to install thenew rector of ITC, who would likewise bethe dean of the new university faculty.

Dr Flierman then welcomed ITC as a newfaculty in the University and handed themace to Professor Veldkamp, thus installinghim as dean of the new faculty and bestow-ing on him the title of rector of ITC.

Professor Tom Veldkamp, New Dean/Rector ITCIn opening, Professor Veldkamp said, “It isan honour and a privilege to become thesixth rector of ITC and dean of the new fac-ulty, and it is with great pleasure that I ac-cept the tasks and responsibilities that gowith this position. With my background intropical soil science, I fit well within the dis-ciplinary orientation of past rectors. As such,a tradition continues; at the same time,

with the integration of ITC into UT as thesixth faculty, a tradition comes to an end.But ITC will be no ordinary faculty. It aims atcapacity building and institutional develop-ment of professional and academic organi-sations and individuals, specifically in coun-tries that are less developed in terms ofeconomy and technology. With this mainmission, ITC does not have only the tradi-tional academic focus on the advance ofpure science and research. No, its aims areto actually use the education and scientificadvancements to contribute to relevant con-crete developments to strengthen these de-veloping countries. And I think this aim fitsin very well with the overall aims of UT.”

Professor Veldkamp went on to say that 60 years of capacity building efforts hadcontributed to higher levels of educationand knowledge in many developing coun-tries. In fact, in the last week he had beenin Kenya, in an area where he had beenworking since 1985, and the growth in botheducation and scientific level at the Kenyaninstitutes during recent decades was clearlyevident. “For ITC to be and remain a rele-vant partner for such institutions, it has toprovide state-of-the-art courses and offerhigher-education programmes. As such, themove from independent institute to univer-sity faculty is a logical step in this evolution.”

Although this did not imply that ITC wouldconcentrate only on MSc- and PhD-levelprogrammes, Professor Veldkamp expectedthat the main body of activities would con-tinue to shift in this direction. Within thiscontext, “research is a necessary activity todevelop the scientific level and prestige ofthe new ITC faculty. High-level research pro-grammes are a requirement for a successfulPhD programme and, as such, can beviewed as our own capacity building pro-gramme.” Turning now to the contentsissue, the incoming rector said that the ITCdomain of geo-information and earth obser-vation “is one that could and should bestrengthened within academia both in theNetherlands and globally. ITC is alreadyrenowned in many developing countries butis less so outside those countries. ITC shouldwork on achieving a more global recogni-tion of its scientific niche, and collaborationwith UT will help us to achieve this goal.”

8 ITC News 2009-4


Dr Flierman handed the mace to Professor Veldkamp

Originating from Wageningen, ProfessorVeldkamp had used the past months to be-come better acquainted with ITC and, basedon his preliminary analysis, he consideredITC to have three main strengths or pillars: • it has a longstanding high-level tradition

and experience in multicultural trainingand teaching in developing countries

• it is one of the largest knowledge insti-tutes in geo-information and earth obser-vation in the world

• it has excellent integrated facilities to sup-port teachers, researchers and students intheir respective tasks.

“We as the faculty ITC should strive to rein-force these three pillars and build our futureon them. Furthermore, we should continueto improve ourselves, not because we haveto but because we want to. In my view,ITC’s mission is the only reason why the faculty has the sui generis status. It shouldnever be an argument or an excuse forlesser quality in education or research.”

Reflecting on the supportive and effectiveroles played by many at ITC and UT inreaching this point, Professor Veldkamp saidthat “ITC should not worry about institu-tional change. This happens and it will al-ways happen. But the aim is to guide theorganisation to a more professional andmore academic environment. ITC is movinginto the University as a new faculty, and wehope that the final integration in the com-ing years will be as smooth as the processover the last three years. I’m looking for-ward to our common future. In the first halfof 2010, ITC as a faculty will develop a newstrategic plan in which we will specify ourgoals and ambitions for the next years. Andthey will undoubtedly fit very well withinthe ambitions of UT.”

Approaching the end of his speech, the in-coming rector’s final words were directed atthe students. “They often originate fromdeveloping countries, investing their timeand efforts in advancing themselves andtheir nations. Their efforts also help ITC toadvance, and we could consider this as anexample of co-evolution, where ITC and thestudents try to bring out the best in eachother. But society has changed; demandsand attitudes have changed. At ITC, we al-ways have to walk a thin line between, onthe one hand, encouraging and supportingthe students as much as possible and, onthe other, strictly maintaining quality andservice provision. I hope we can maintainour high quality standards without losingthe family atmosphere so characteristic ofITC. Together we have the capacity, themeans and the will to create a bright futurefor the faculty of ITC.”

ConclusionTaking the floor for one last time, ProfessorStein thanked Professor Veldkamp for hisstimulating words on the eve of an excitingnew period in the history of ITC. It had beena busy afternoon for the master of cere-mony but, after weaving the disparate ele-ments of the varied programme seamlesslytogether, it now only remained for him toinvite all those present to attend the recep-tion in the annex of the ITC restaurant,where there would be the opportunity toshake hands with the outgoing rector andincoming dean/rector.

9ITC News 2009-4


“It is an honour and a privilege to become the sixthrector of ITC and dean of the new faculty”

Since its establish -

ment, 60 years ago,

ITC has always been

very active in Asia.

It is the continent

from which most ITC

alumni come, and

countries such as

Indonesia, Thailand

and India rank at

the top of the list in

terms of numbers of

ITC alumni.

Numerous projects

have been imple -

mented in this part

of the world as

well.

Thirty years ago, China opened its doors toITC, initiating cooperation in the field of ed-ucation, research and projects. Since then,this relationship has flourished and nowthere are many contacts at many differentlevels.

In Vietnam too, ITC played an importantrole in the GIS and remote sensing sectorafter its “renovation” policy (Doi Moi). Thisrenovation policy, announced in 1986 andcomprising a shift from a centrally plannedeconomy towards a more open marketeconomy, focused on replacing cooperative-based agricultural production with house-hold-based production. Land reform was animportant component of the Doi Moi policyand ITC has been assisting the VietnameseGeneral Department of Land Administrationin their capacity building needs. The cooper-ation with Vietnam is still growing everyyear and expanding to many different sec-tors (e.g. disaster risk management, forestry,climate change, mineral resources).

Nowadays Asia is advancing and has experi-enced a tenfold increase in the number ofuniversity students over the last 25 years −with more and more universities in the toprankings (e.g. Shanghai Ranking). The highquality of education and research has madeAsian organisations important partners ofITC.

To further stimulate and build on the net-work, ITC embarked on a strategy to set upregional representative offices in Asia. Since2000, the office in Beijing has representedITC in China and Mongolia. The office inBangkok is responsible for the activities inSoutheast Asia. These regional offices haveled to a large network of partners andclients, and an increase in the number of(PhD) students and projects and in research

and education cooperation in Asia.

In view of ITC’s strong relationship withAsia, Professor Martien Molenaar scheduleda farewell trip as rector of ITC to personallybid farewell to important partner organisa-tions, clients and alumni in Asia.

His last trip to Asia as rector of ITC startedin Thailand. In Bangkok, Professor Molenaarwas one of the key speakers during theroundtable workshop at the Asian Instituteof Technology (AIT) that celebrated AIT’s50th anniversary. Moderated by Mr Jean-Pierre Verbiest, country director ThailandResident Mission, Asian Development Bank,and chair AIT Board of Trustees, the work-shop was attended by representatives fromADB-Manila, UNESCO, UNDP, the Thai gov-ernment, embassies, companies and partnerinstitutes, as well as AIT alumni. In thecourse of delivering his contribution entitledChanging role of higher education in devel-opment cooperation, Professor Molenaar re-marked that development cooperation wasno longer a North-South activity, becausethe world had changed. No longer was it anissue of countries being rich or poor, but anissue of regions being rich or poor.Development cooperation needed to con-sider helping poor areas to participate inglobal delivery chains and networks.

Professor Molenaar said that the businessmodel was changing because the ICT archi-tecture of organisations was altering rapidly.More and more tasks were being out-sourced by governments and hence capacitybuilding had to consider the private sectoras well. “The time horizon for investmentshas changed, and some professions are nowchanging or even disappearing,” saidProfessor Molenaar. He added that learningwas no longer a one-time affair but a life-

10 ITC News 2009-4


Rector onFarewell Trip to Asia

Marjan Kreijns [email protected]

long process. Referring to joint educationprogrammes, he said that the deliverymodes for education were also changing −from an institute-oriented approach to aprogramme-oriented approach, with e-de-livery though educational networks alsothrowing up new challenges.

The celebration at AIT was followed by avisit to the office of the Commission onHigher Education (CHE) of the Thai Ministryof Education. CHE is seeking closer collabo-ration with universities and research insti-tutes abroad. Last year, a CHE delegationvisited ITC in Enschede and was impressedby its knowledge and quality in the field ofGIS and remote sensing. As a result, a con-sortium of five Thai research universities wasformed to embark on education and re-search cooperation with ITC in this field. Dr Chris Mannaerts of ITC’s Department ofWater Resources accompanied ProfessorMolenaar on the visit to discuss cooperationin his sector, and also visited ChulalongkornUniversity and Chiangmai University to fur-ther investigate possibilities for joint re-search. As a follow-up, ITC staff made visitsto the other universities in the consortium.

Dr Dhruba Shretha organised a workshop atNaresuan University in Phitsanulok on ero-sion and sustainable agriculture andProfessor Vosselman gave a guest lecture toa large audience and a master class for alimited group of PhD students atChulalongkorn University concerning thefield of laser scanning. These visits con-firmed the great interest on both sides incollaborative research activities, and it wasagreed that CHE and ITC would work outmodalities to implement the ambitious jointresearch programme in 2010.

A farewell dinner for Professor Molenaarwas organised at the residence of ITC repre-sentative Ms Marjan Kreijns. During hisspeech, the departing rector explained thechanging situation at ITC but stressed thatthe link with partners and alumni inThailand would remain the same.

The highlight of the visit to Thailand was anaudience with HRH Princess Maha ChakriSirindhorn at the Chitralada Palace. Hiddenaway in the heart of bustling Bangkok is avery unusual place, a huge open area with adairy farm, rice paddies, a forest with large

11ITC News 2009-4


Participants workshop AIT: The Next 50 Years

Visit to the office of theCommission on Higher Education:Deputy Secretary-General Dr Chantavit Sujatanond

An audience with HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn

native trees, and a group of small factories.Surrounded by high walls and guarded bysoldiers and police, Chitralada is part of themain compound of His Majesty KingBhumibol Adulyadej, who is the longestreigning monarch in the world. But inside,Chitralada is nothing like people’s usual ideaof a royal property. It looks more like an ex-perimental farm, one that you’d expect tosee in a rural area rather than in the heartof a city inhabited by at least 10 millionpeople.

The king’s daughter, HRH Princess MahaChakri Sirindhorn, is very actively involved inthe activities at Chitralada’s agricultural re-search farm, which are primarily aimed atboosting the income and knowledge of Thaifarmers and the Thai people in general. Shereceived our delegation − comprisingProfessor Molenaar, Dr Mannaerts andMarjan Kreijns, accompanied by staff fromthe Netherlands embassy − at her palace atChitralada.

In 1989, the princess paid a special studyvisit to ITC in Enschede, and in 1996 she officially opened the ITC building atHengelosestraat. In a warm and open con-versation on many issues of common inter-est, she reminisced about her visits to ITCand, on receiving an invitation from Profes -sor Molenaar to visit the Netherlands, sheexpressed her interest in visiting ITC again in 2010.

We considered it a great honour that theprincess took so much time to receive ourdelegation and to renew the relationshipwith our Institute. The delegation was ex-tremely impressed by the guided touraround the Chitralada compound. Thatsame evening, our visit was broadcast onthe eight o’clock Royal News on nationalThai television.

From Thailand, the delegation travelled toVietnam. In Hanoi, the ADB-funded GITHRAproject was officially opened at the WaterResources University (WRU; see page 21).

In addition to the relationship with theWRU, Professor Molenaar signed Memo -randa of Understanding with two otherVietnamese universities to provide a frame-

work for an academic partnership in educa-tion and research. The partnerships with theHanoi University of Science (HUS) and theHanoi University of Mining and Geology(HUMG) will enhance the academic skillsand research activities in both universitiesand will assist in coordinating the exchangeof staff and academic materials and in or-ganising joint courses and research activi-ties. With the assistance of the Netherlandsand the Vietnamese government, thesepartnerships will be further developed intofull joint programmes in 2010. ProfessorMolenaar visited the Netherlands embassyin Hanoi and expressed his gratitude to theDutch ambassador in Vietnam, Mr JoopScheffers, for the continuous support forour activities in Vietnam.

The programme in Vietnam is flourishing. At the moment of writing, a new projecthas just been awarded by the Dutch govern-ment to ITC in the field of land administra-tion, to be carried out in cooperation withHUS; a refresher course with HUMG hasbeen approved; and a World Bank projecton natural disaster risk management, inpartnership with WRU, is in the final stagesof negotiation. The relationship with thesethree strong academic partners in Vietnamis most valuable and will accordingly lead tomore cooperation and externally fundedprojects.

After some very hectic days in Thailand andVietnam, full of interesting meetings, work-shops and delicious lunches and dinners,Professor Molenaar continued his farewelltrip to China − another highly valued part-ner country of ITC. His visit to China wasprepared by the ITC office in China and MrChang Zheng accompanied the rector dur-ing his visit.

Within the network in China, ITC has partic-ularly strong relationships with governmen-tal organisations, such as the Ministry ofLand and Resources, the State Bureau ofSurveying and Mapping (SBSM) and theChina Meteorological Administration. It alsohas many links with the academic society inChina, notably with the Chinese Academyof Science, Wuhan University, TsinghuaUniversity and Chang’an University.

12 ITC News 2009-4


13ITC News 2009-4


As time was limited in China, ProfessorMolenaar paid visits to SBSM and WuhanUniversity. ITC’s involvement in Chinastarted with cooperation with the NationalBureau of Surveying and Mapping (NBSM,the former SBSM). ITC assisted NBSM in es-tablishing a centre for urban planning andmanagement at the Wuhan University ofSurveying and Mapping. This centre is nowthe School of Urban Design (SUD) at WuhanUniversity. Last year, during IRSPS 2008 inBeijing, ITC and SBSM celebrated 30 yearsof successful cooperation.

In the recently opened new SBSM head-quarters, Professor Molenaar met Mr XuDeming (director-general of SBSM). ITC’srector also gave a keynote speech entitled

Dinner with WRU rector and staff

Dinner with WRU rector and staff

Students at work in VietnamVisit to the HUMG museum

Meeting with the rector of HUS

“Good governance requires good geo-information” at the conference Geo-spatialSolutions for Emergency Management,which was organised on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of theChinese Academy of Surveying andMapping (CASM, the affiliate organisationof SBSM). Professor Alfred Stein and Profes -sor John van Genderen of ITC, who areboth honorary professors at CASM, alsoparticipated in the conference.

At Wuhan University, Professor Molenaarwas welcomed by Professor Li Qingquan(vice-president), Professor Liu Yaolin (deanof the School of Resource and EnvironmentScience) and Professor Zhan Qingming (vice-dean of SUD). During some interesting dis-cussions, both sides agreed that the cooper-ation between ITC and Wuhan Universityshould also look ahead, beyond the educa-tion cooperation in the past, and both sides

will also take steps to apply for joint proj-ects. For example, there are several nationalprojects in China, such as project 973 (theNational Basic Research Programme), Project 863 (the National High-Tech R&Dpro gramme) and the National NaturalScience Fund.

During the visit, all ITC partners were in-formed about ITC’s coming integration withthe University of Twente on 1 January 2010.Professor Molenaar confirmed to the part-ners that ITC’s cooperation in Asia will bemaintained, and that the integration is likelyto bring some new opportunities because itwill lead to an even bigger platform for fu-ture cooperation.

14 ITC News 2009-4


For more information on ITC in Asia, please contact:

Chang Zheng, Marjan Kreijns,ITC representative in China, ITC representative in Thailand and Vietnam,[email protected] [email protected]

CASM conference, BeijingMeeting at Wuhan University

15ITC News 2009-4

E D U C A T I O N N E W S

Makerere University in Kampala,Uganda, hosted the refresher courseDesigning and Utilising Spatial DataInfrastructures for Effective E-Gover-nance in Eastern and SouthernAfrica from 12 to 23 October 2009.The course preceded the AfricaGIS2009 conference. Nineteen partici-pants from seven Eastern andSouthern African countries partici-pated.

The course content focused primarilyon the governance aspects of infor-mation infrastructures and SDI, andon the linkage of more technicallyoriented views (design) with moresocio-organisational and politicallyoriented views (cultivation) on SDIdevelopment. Part of this linkageformed the question of whether toapproach SDI organisation from atop-down approach or from a bot-tom-up approach. Other essential is-sues dealt with included socio-tech-nical networks, inter-organisationaldata sharing, cooperation and coor-dination, and government-citizen in-teraction.

The Ugandan SDI context becameapparent through visits to three or-ganisations in Kampala: one private

organisation, GIC, and two from thepublic sector, NEMA and UBOS. Eachorganisation was working with spa-tial data, and was directly or indi-rectly contributing to the UgandanSDI. In addition, Bernard Muhwezi ofthe Ugandan Bureau of Statistics,who is active in forming a platformfor SDI development, gave a presen-tation.

All participants had the opportunityto present and discuss their own ex-periences during this refreshercourse. Throughout the delibera-tions, it became clear that manyseeds of SDI and e-governance havealready been sown in Southern andEastern Africa − although interlinking

individual initiatives remains an im-portant need. For that reason, at theend of the course the participantsformed three open research and edu-cational platforms to continue theircommon interests in the SDI and e-governance topic within the Easternand Southern African context.

education news

Refresher Course on SDI and E-Governance in Kampala, Uganda

Yazidhi Bamutaze [email protected]

Walter de Vries [email protected]

Group picture of course participants

Participants discussing SDI

Visit to Ugandan organisations

This refresher course was conductedat the Geographic Information Sys-tems and Remote Sensing Researchand Training Centre (CGIS-NUR),Butare, Rwanda, from 5 to 16 Octo-ber 2009. CGIS-NUR serves as a na-tional and regional training and re-search outreach centre of excellencein the field of geographical infor-mation systems and remote sensing.Its aim is to promote a spatially liter-ate society by serving as a recog-nised multidisciplinary training andresearch centre in GIS and remotesensing technologies and applica-tions, and addressing issues of local,national and regional importance,such as societal and economic trans-formation and sustainable develop-ment.

From the large number of applica-tions for the refresher course (over170), 28 participants were finally se-lected. In addition to the NUFFICsponsorship, funds from the ITC Ca -pacity Building Fund could be utilised.The selected African participantscame from Chad (1), Ethiopia (5),Ghana (1), Kenya (4), Sudan (1),Tanzania (1), Uganda (3), Zambia (3),Zimbabwe (1) and Rwanda (8) −mainly from CGIS and various NURfaculties.

The course was designed for mid-ca-reer professionals who are active inthe field of land and water resourcesmanagement, governmental staffdealing with meteorology-, environ-ment- and water-related affairs, andlecturers and researchers of relevantdepartments at African academic in-stitutions.

The course objectives were to:• provide an update of recent devel-

opments supporting environmentaland water resources analysis andmanagement and meteorologicaland climatological monitoring inthe African region, and morespecifically an update of the contri-butions of GEONETCast andAMESD

• build on the existing capacity touse remote sensing and GIS in rela-tion to environmental and waterresources management issues andlinkage to in situ observations

• build capacity in meteorology-, en-vironment- and water resource-re-lated data extraction, data prepara-tion and data exchange usingGeo(-IT) tools, such as theGEONETCast toolbox developed asa plug-in under ILWIS 3.6 Open,scripting and batch routines for

multi-temporal image processing,and web mapping services for thepresentation of results

• apply images and products pro-vided through the GEONETCast en-vironmental data dissemination sys-tem, utilising the ground receivingsystem established at CGIS-NUR in2006, and develop an own applica-tion related to environmental andwater resources monitoring.

The course started with an overview ofthe various international initiatives thatare currently being implemented orproposed for the near future in Sub-Saharan Africa. Further informationwas then provided on GEONETCast,the system infrastructure (includingan on-site demonstration), and theimages and data products dissemi-

16 ITC News 2009-4


Refresher Course: Use of Low-Cost Earth Observation Data in Environmental andClimate Monitoring ApplicationsExtending the African Union–AMESD Initiative

Adrie Mukashema [email protected]

Ben Maathuis [email protected]

The participants after the opening session (under the GEONETCast receiving antenna)

Inset shows the opening by the CGIS director and the NUR vice-rector of the new lecture roomequipped with 30 computers and connected to the local area network

17ITC News 2009-4


nated, and subsequently the capabili-ties of the GEONETCast toolbox de-veloped under ILWIS 3.6 Open wereshown. These lectures were followedby various practical assignmentswhere the participants became fur-ther acquainted with the varioussources of near real-time informationprovided. On the Saturday, there wasan excursion to Nyungwe NationalPark and the Rwanda-Congo borderat the southernmost part of LakeKivu. During this excursion, a visitwas also paid to a climatologicaltower with various measurement de-vices, and the data recorded by thelogger was transferred to a laptopfor further assessment of the in situdata later on.

During the first two days of the sec-ond week, a guided set of exerciseswas followed, using images recordedby the SEVIRI instrument onboardMeteosat 9. The purpose was to un-derstand the characteristics of meas-urements covering different rangesof the electromagnetic spectrum, toaccess the archive and import singleevent or time series of data, and to

From 26 to 30 October 2009, theshort course Land Policy and LandAdministration in a Changing World:Theoretical and Practical Aspectstook place in the main building ofHanoi University of Science (HUS) .

The course was delivered by Profes -sor Paul van der Molen, who holdsthe Chair of Cadastre and LandAdministration at ITC. The coursewas part of intended broader coop-eration between HUS and ITC in thisdomain. From the HUS side, Dr TranAnh Tuan and Dr Tran Quoc Binh of

the Faculty of Geography were re-sponsible for the organisation of thecourse. Some 26 experts from vari-ous Vietnamese government and ac-ademic institutes participated.

During the opening ceremony, therector of HUS, Professor Bui Guy

apply different, or a combination of,spectral channels for applications re-lated to the environment, meteorol-ogy, water resources, disasters andclimatology. During the remainder ofthe course, participants had to de-velop their own applications usingthe various images and data productsreceived by the CGIS-NURGEONETCast ground receiving sta-tion. Over 15 different applicationswere finally presented, covering awide range of subjects concerningthe environment, water resourcesand climatology. Through developingapplications, the participants demon-strated the ability to use the data,perform the analysis, and present theresults in the forms of maps, time se-ries animations, and even as a webmapping service for informed (andtimely) decision making.

At the conclusion of the course, certificates of attendance were pre-sented by Minister S. Kamanzi fromthe Rwandan Ministry of NaturalResources, with closing remarks fromMs Bernot Ullerö of the NUFFICCapacity Building and Scholarships

Directorate, the Netherlands.Participants expressed their satisfac-tion regarding what had beenachieved during this refresher course,and a number of participants will tryto set up their own GEONETCastground receiving facilities for workpurposes in the future.

Reading the logger of the climatologicaltower installed at the Nyungwe NationalPark headquarters

Minister S. Kamanzi, Rwandan Minister ofNatural Resources, together with the courseparticipants during the closing ceremony

Short Course on Land Policy and Land Administration at Hanoi University of Science

Paul van der Molen [email protected]

Refresher courses, which are certifi-cate of attendance courses (mostlyof two-week duration) organisedfor alumni in their home countriesor regions, are meant to increasethe impact and prolong the effectof earlier training.

Refresher courses are funded mainlyby the Netherlands FellowshipProgramme (NFP). In principle, thetarget group of these courses con-sists of alumni who have completedany NFP-funded training or educationat least two years before the plannedstarting date of the relevant refreshercourse. Colleagues and supervisors ofalumni are also allowed to participatein (part of) a refresher course.

Cam, emphasised his support for thecooperation. During the closing cere-mony, the happy duty of presentingthe certificates to the students fell tothe vice-rector of HUS, ProfessorNguyen Van Noi. Former vice minis-ter, Professor Dang Hung Vo, who isnow a professor at HUS, attendedsome of the course sessions in orderto demonstrate his support. Finally,the course participants themselvesshowed their satisfaction by award-ing it an average mark of 8.6.

18 ITC News 2009-4

Refresher Courses 2010

In 2010 ITC will co-organise seven refresher courses:• Participatory Approaches to Slum Upgrading and Management (Kenya)• Modern Techniques for Environmental and Sustainable Development of

Earth Resources (Ethiopia)• GEONETCast-Toolbox for natural and water Resource Management

(Ethiopia)• Preparing for Adaptations to Climate Change in West Africa (Burkina

Faso)• Strengthening Local Land Governance; Multi-stakeholder Approaches

(Tanzania)• The Application of GIS and Remote Sensing to Geologic Mapping and

Mineral Resources Exploration (Tanzania)• Modern Geo-Engineering Technology to Advance Environmental

Management (Vietnam)

More information will be available soon atwww.itc.nl/Pub/Study/CourseFinder

For more informationabout the School of LandAdministration Studies:www.itc.nl/unu-las

Course banner

The course was conducted by Professor Paulvan der Molen

Mr Do Duc Doi, deputy director-generalDepartment of Lands, explaining the current situation in Vietnam to the course participants

Course participants


In cooperation with the governmentof Vietnam and the Department ofGeology and Mineral Resources ofVietnam, the Coordinating Commit-tee on Geoscience Programmes inEast and Southeast Asia (CCOP) or-ganised the 46th CCOP Annual Ses-sion and the 54th CCOP SteeringCommittee Meeting from 18 to 23and from 24 to 25 October 2009, re-spectively, in Vungtau City, Vietnam.

During the CCOP session, the EAGERawards for research were presented,one going to ITC PhD student MsNguyen Thi Hai Van for her researchentitled ”Multi-hazards risk assess-ment for an urbanised mountainousarea in Vietnam: implications forurban planning and design”.

Ms Van’s research had already at-tracted the notice of the governmentand academics in Vietnam and nowit is also claiming the attention of sci-entists in Asia. Her supervisors, Pro -fes sor Victor Jetten and Dr Dinand

Alkema of ITC and Professor Tran TanVan of the Vietnam Institute ofGeosciences and Mineral Resources(VIGMR), can be very proud of her.The award is an enormous incentiveto continue this interesting and muchneeded research and assist Vietnamin its climate change adaptationstrategy.

19ITC News 2009-4

R E S E A R C H N E W S

Dr Joseph L.J. de Sonneville, vice-chairman of the CCOP Advisory Group and direc-tor of international affairs at the Dutch Institute Deltares, presented the awardcertificate to Ms Van

research news

ITC PhD Student Ms Van Wins EAGER Award


PhD Student Selected for Alexander Goetz Instrument Programme 2010

Communication Department [email protected]

Last week ASD Inc. announced therecipients for the Alexander GoetzInstrument Support Programme2010. The annual programme en-courages novel, unconventionaland/or fundamental research. TheGoetz Programme is co-sponsoredby ASD Inc. and the Geoscience andRemote Sensing Society, a member

organisation of the Institute of Elec-trical and Electronic Engineers.

Four very worthy project proposalswere chosen from those submitted.One of the programme recipients isITC PhD student Sabrina Carvalho(see photo on page 20).

Sabrina and the other recipients con-stitute a great representation of thediverse cross section of disciplinesutilising reflectance spectroscopy inthe field.

20 ITC News 2009-4

R E S E A R C H N E W S

Be well informed,Sign up for the e-newsletter

www.gim-international.com/scripts/newsletter.php

advertisement

Sabrina Carvalho, PhD Student

Title: Linking invasive plants’ seasonal spectroscopyvariation to their chemistry and soil biotic resist-ance factors

Research team: Professor Andrew Skidmore, Dr Wim van derPutten, Dr Martin Schlerf, Dr Mirka Macel

Faculty of Geo-Information Science and EarthObservation (ITC) of the University of Twente;Department of Terrestrial Ecology, NetherlandsEcology Institute (NIOO-KNAW)

PhD student Sabrina Carvalho recipient for the Alexander Goetz Instrument SupportProgramme 2010

21ITC News 2009-4

P A R T N E R S H I P N E W S

On 13 November 2009, the United Nations University (UNU),represented by its rector ProfessorConrad Osterwalder, and ITC, repre-sented by its rector Professor Martien Molenaar, extended thecurrent agreement appointing ITC asan associated institution until 2014. The agreement was extended be-cause of the progress achieved be-tween UNU and ITC in successfullyimplementing the capacity buildingprogrammes in the fields of disastergeo-information management andland administration that were men-tioned in the initial agreement. ITCand UNU want to develop this rela-tionship further, for the mutual bene-fit of both organisations.

In September 2009, after a long andcomplicated tendering procedure,ITC was awarded the contract forthe GITHRA project by the Asian Development Bank. The GITHRAproject was officially opened inHanoi at the Water Resources Uni-versity in September 2009.

The project develops capacity in theuse of GIS and remote sensing formulti-hazard risk assessment of staffat the Ministry of Agriculture andRural Development (MARD), espe-cially at its disaster management cen-tre and at the Water ResourcesUniversity (WRU). After the WRU

vice-rector had opened the meeting,speeches followed by ITC’s rector andrepresentatives of the Vietnamesegovernment (MARD), the Asian

Development Bank (ADB), theKorean government and the Dutchembassy. Then the GITHRA teamleader, Dr Dinand Alkema, briefly

With the extension of this agree-ment, joint programme activities willbe developed on disaster manage-ment and land administration whichare designed to serve institutionswith tasks in disaster reduction andland administration, with emphasison sustainable development.

partnership news

ITC Extends Current Agreement with United Nations University until 2014


As an associated institution of the UNU, ITC contributes tothe UNU mission, which is “to contribute, through researchand capacity building, to efforts to resolve the pressingglobal problems that are the concern of the United Nations,its Peoples and Member States”.www.itc.nl/Pub/organisation/United_Nations_University.html

UN

Our Hope forHumankind

an Associated Institution of the

Geo-Information Technology for Hazard Risk Assessment (GITHRA) in Vietnam

Dinand Alkema [email protected]


The official GITHRA opening ceremony

22 ITC News 2009-4


introduced the project. All stakehold-ers were present during the kick-offmeeting, when the project objectiveswere fine-tuned according to theirrequirements.

The GITHRA project aims to build ca-pacity in the application of modern(Geo-ITC) disaster mitigation toolstargeted at reducing disaster vulnera-bility in Vietnam. It will do so by de-veloping a cadre of professionalswith competence in applying thesetools in multi-hazard risk assessment.Staff of Vietnamese government or-ganisations (MARD) and faculty staffof the WRU will be given an overviewof the theoretical background, aswell as practical training and hands-on experience in spatial data gather-ing, management, analysis and pres-entation. Through the GITHRA

project, not only will these profes-sionals be better able to use hazardrisk assessment tools in their ownwork, they will also become part of aknowledge network. AlthoughGITHRA will train people by using apilot study area in Yen Bai, themethodology is such that it can beapplied to other areas and otherscales, so that the organisations canapply the methodology to their spe-cific situations.

According to Dr Hoang Minh Hien,deputy director of the DisasterManagement Centre of MARD, thereis a severe lack of staff with the re-quired Geo-IT skills at all governmentlevels (central, province, district andcommune). It is therefore foreseenthat the WRU will acquire all thetraining materials (translated intoVietnamese) in order to offer similarcourses in the future to their ownstudents and to central and provin-cial government staff, in close collab-oration with ITC.

The project consists of three phases: • the identification phase (includes

institutional analysis and trainingneeds assessment, plus staff selec-tion for the training)

• the design and preparation phase(course structure designed, coursematerials developed, and a pilotstudy conducted)

• the implementation phase (actualtraining of selected staff, work-shops and field visits).

At this moment, phase 1 has just fin-ished and we have entered phase 2.In December, a second workshopwas organised in Hanoi so that allthe organisations concerned coulddiscuss the design and timing of thetraining programme and selectcourse candidates. In the meantime,considerable work has already beendone in the case study area. The de-velopment of the case study is beingsupervised by Ms Thi Hai VanNguyen, a PhD student at ITC, withthe support of three MSc studentswho did their MSc theses within theframework of her study and con-tributed to the case study develop-ment. The Yen Bai case study willfocus on floods and landslides, sincethese are the main hazards to whichYen Bai is exposed. Ezra Pedzisai(Zimbabwe) is studying the triggermechanisms for flash floods, NirangaAlahacoon (Sri Lanka) is looking atthe propagation characteristics of thefloods in the complex urban topogra-phy, and Thi Thu Trang Nguyen(Vietnam) is using participatory map-ping and a household survey to re-construct the 2008 flood event. It isenvisaged that the actual training(phase 3) in the GITHRA project willtake place in the periodApril–November 2010, with a gapduring the typhoon season, whenthe staff of the Disaster ManagementCentre are otherwise occupied.

Ms Van in discussion with a local officer ofthe Disaster Management Centre

Interview with locals affected by the 2008 flash flood event

The three ITC MSc students in the field Preliminary results of the household survey

At the ITC alumni gathering in Kampala, Uganda, held on Tuesday,27 October, on the occasion of theAfricaGIS 2009 conference, a Memo-randum of Understanding wassigned between ITC and WaterNetconcerning collaboration on the introduction of subjects related toearth observation and geo-informa-tion into the curriculum of its Mas-ter programme in integrated waterresources management (IWRM). The MoU was signed by ITC’s rectorProfessor Martien Molenaar and Dr Wilson Rufaro Nyemba, chair ofthe Board of Trustees. Mr David Love, manager of the WaterNet secretariat, was also pres-ent at the ceremony.

What is WaterNet?WaterNet is a regional network ofuniversity departments and researchand training institutes specialising inwater. By harnessing the comple-mentary strengths of member institu-tions in the region and elsewhere,the network aims to build regional,institutional and human capacity inIWRM through training, education,research and outreach. WaterNetmember institutions have expertise in

various aspects of water resourcesmanagement and are based inSouthern and East Africa.

Focus of the CollaborationBoth WaterNet and ITC will activelysupport the design of a seventh spe-cialisation for the WaterNet Masterdegree programme in IWRM, whichwill focus on earth observation andGIS in IWRM. A joint developmentteam will be formed, tasked withpreparing the format and a detailedcurriculum for the new specialisation.WaterNet members from the devel-opment team will be invited to ITC

to discuss curriculum development.Staff from WaterNet-related universi-ties might be invited to participate inspecific modules. The team will writea detailed proposal covering the spe-cialisation objectives, the curriculum,the teaching staff involved, the roleof ITC in teaching and support, andthe financial aspects.

The development of joint researchand backstopping activities, and thesubmission of joint proposals to ob-tain funding are also considered inthe MoU.

Next StepsITC will attend the WaterNet curricu-lum development workshop inJohannesburg from 27 to 29 January2010, when the final plans for intro-ducing the earth observation speciali-sation will be discussed and the workplan for 2010 finalised. Furthermore,ITC is considering becoming a sup-porting member of WaterNet, whichwould add more value to its role inWaterNet as such.

23ITC News 2009-4


ITC Signs MoU with WaterNet

Bert Boer [email protected]

The MoU was signed by professor Martien Molenaar (ITC) and Dr. Wilson Rufaro Nyemba(chair Board of Trustees WaterNet)

24 ITC News 2009-4


Our increasingly complex society isexposed to a changing climate, envi-ronmental changes, globalisation,urbanisation and the depletion ofnatural resources. Combined withcontinued economic development,these changes will lead to adjust-ments in land use in areas exposedto hazards such as flooding, massmovements, droughts, cyclones andearthquakes. As our exposure andvulnerability to hazards increase, wemay expect more frequent andmore severe disasters, a trend thatmost disaster statistics support. To prevent and mitigate disasters,adequate, reliable and up-to-datespatial information and forecastsmust be available to disaster man-agers and decision makers.

Universities should be at the fore-front of research to provide thesedata, using state-of-the-art data col-lection tools to analyse the data andinterpret the results. They also bearthe responsibility for training the newgeneration of disaster managers anddecision makers who can use this in-formation to reduce disaster risk andincrease the sustainability of our cur-rent way of living.

Increasing disaster risk is of globalconcern, but in Asia the situation ispressing. Asia is being hit by a dis-proportionately large share of themajor disasters in the world, so it isimportant to combine the academicstrengths in the region with a view toworking together and profiting fromone another’s knowledge and experi-ences.

ITC, ADPC and AIT have been activein capacity building in developingcountries for several years now.Together they have conducted nu-

merous courses and collaborated inseveral capacity building projects.During one of these projects (CA-SITA), a network of universities andtraining institutes was established tostimulate collaboration in the devel-opment and exchange of trainingmaterials for education in disasterrisk management. After a period oflimited activity, it was decided to re-vive the network. A workshop on theestablishment and sustenance of anetwork for education and researchin disaster risk management inSoutheast Asia was organised inBangkok from 18 to 20 December2009. During this workshop, 25 par-ticipants from 13 countries evaluatedthe current state of training and re-search in disaster risk management inSoutheast Asia and discussed trainingand research needs and challenges inthe region. The aim of the workshopwas to discuss the benefits of such anetwork and how it should be organ-ised and maintained. The CASITAnetwork will bring together the re-sources and expertise of its membersin order to stimulate high-level aca-demic research and education andpromote collaboration and under-standing between the many disci-plines involved in disaster risk man-agement, such as environmentalsciences, earth sciences, social sci-ences, economics and engineering.

The overall goal of the network is tocontribute to the Hyogo Frameworkfor Action by stimulating the devel-opment and sharing of knowledgeand expertise through research andtraining in the field of spatial infor-mation for risk assessment and disas-ter risk management. We believethat high-level academic educationand research are of the utmost im-portance for new generations of re-

searchers and experts in order tomeet the future regional and globalenvironmental challenges. CASITAwill promote international collabora-tion and support its members in de-veloping curricula and research agen-das.

The objectives of the CASITA net-work are to:• create a network of connected re-

searchers and academic staff topromote international collabora-tion and the exchange of resources

• stimulate the development of inter-national multidisciplinary researchactivities and offer assistance inpreparing research proposals

• strengthen links between the CASITA members and practitioners,policy makers and the private sec-tor in order to better focus thetraining and research activities withrespect to societal needs in theSoutheast Asian region

• improve communication not onlybetween the member institutes butalso with third parties in order toincrease awareness of the impor-tance of spatial information for dis-aster management

• stimulate international education inthe field of spatial information fordisaster risk management

• strengthen the capacity of its mem-bers through collaboration and theexchange of knowledge, expertiseand materials

• increase awareness of the role thatuniversities play in training expertsin disaster management.

CASITA will achieve its objectives bysupporting and promoting educa-tional activities and joint researchand by acquiring external funding.Education activities comprise the de-velopment and execution of short

University Network for Capacity Building in Spatial Information Technology inAsia for Disaster Risk Management (CASITA)

Cees van Westen [email protected]

Dinand Alkema [email protected]

25ITC News 2009-4


courses, distance education coursesand joint education programmes,and the exchange of course materialsand staff. The network will create arepository of training materials to beshared among the network mem-bers. Furthermore, it will help itsmembers to develop a generalframework for these training coursesin order to harmonise methodologiesand terminology. To help its membersfocus their curricula, CASITA will alsoassist in identifying training needsand market demands with respect tospatial information for disaster riskmanagement. As far as research isconcerned, CASITA will bring to-gether the expertise of its membersin order to improve existing researchactivities and initiate new interna-tional research efforts. CASITA willorganise dedicated sessions at rele-vant international symposia to dis-seminate its research results, as wellas workshops to address research-re-lated issues. It will also stimulateshared PhD positions or secondmentsof PhD students to other member in-stitutes for co-guidance purposes.CASITA will act as an advocate, high-lighting the importance of spatial in-formation in disaster risk manage-ment. In this role, it will activelyapproach (international) donors torequest support for its activities, andwill also stimulate and support itsmembers in working out proposalsand submitting these to donors forfunding.

CASITA is an open network of aca-demic institutes active in the field ofspatial information for disaster man-agement. Membership is open to anyacademic research/training institutethat is active in this knowledge fieldand that is willing to actively con-tribute to the network. There is aone-time registration fee of US$500.The member institute has to appointa representative to the coordinationcommittee.

The CASITA steering committee con-sists of the following organisations:• the Asian Disaster Preparedness

Center (ADPC) in Bangkok,Thailand

• the Asian Institute of Technology(AIT) in Bangkok, Thailand

• the United NationsUniversity–Institute forSustainability and Peace (UNU-ISP)in Tokyo, Japan

• the International Institute of Geo-Information Science and EarthObservation (ITC) in Enschede, theNetherlands, and in particular theUnited Nations University–ITCSchool for Disaster Geo-InformationManagement (UNU-ITC DGIM)

• the International Centre forIntegrated Mountain Development(ICIMOD).

Each member is represented in thecoordination committee. All commu-nication to its members is directedthrough the coordination committee.At present CASITA has membersfrom Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan,Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand,Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Taiwanand Japan. The current chairman ofthe coordination committee is Dr J. Gunatilake from the Universityof Peradenya, Post-Graduate Instituteof Science, Sri Lanka. CASITA is alsoopen to advisory members (NGOs,private parties, international organi-sations) who can advise, guide orsupport the implementation of net-work activities. The CASITA secre-tariat is located at ADPC in Bangkok,Thailand.

Information on the CASITA network and its activitiescan be found at:www.adpc.net/casita/University_Network.htmlhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/casita_group/members

25 Participants from 13 countries evaluated the current state of training and research in disas-ter risk management in Southeast Asia

26 ITC News 2009-4

A N N O U N C E M E N T S

Last year, a team of four ITC stu-dents − Emmanuel Kofi Gavu,Samuel Boamah Danquah andJames Njiraini Gachanja of UrbanPlanning and Management andMargaret Wambui Kamau ofNatural Resources Management −participated in an urban challengeorganised by Cordaid, an interna-tional development NGO in theNetherlands. They were ranked sec-ond out of eight teams. The teams were challenged to comeup with innovative practical ideasfor managing solid waste in Philippi,South Africa.

The participants were tasked withdesigning a project proposal thatwould promote the sustainable man-agement of solid waste. The aim wasto reduce waste to landfill and de-crease local pollution of the urbanenvironment, while at the same timecreating employment opportunitiesand stimulating local economic de-velopment to further support thecommunity of this informal urbansettlement. The teams were requiredto choose one of the followingthemes: improved transportation sys-

tem, organic recycling, value-addingstage 1, value-adding stage 2 orawareness campaign.

Competition DetailsParticipants were put into teams thatworked online via the Cordaid UrbanChallenge website. The teams con-sisted of Bachelor and Master stu-dents from institutes of higher learn-ing in the Netherlands and SouthAfrica. During their research, theteams had the opportunity to corre-spond with their local project coordi-nator in South Africa concerningtheir themes. The winning team wassent to Philippi to work on imple-menting its project proposal with theassistance of the Cordaid UrbanMatters project coordinator.

The ITC team chose the theme of or-ganic recycling for the following rea-sons:• Over 50% of solid waste gener-

ated by households in Philippi iscomposed of organic components,so the main project input wasreadily available.

• Organic recycling addresses thewhole cycle, from waste genera-

tion to composting to the effectiveuse of waste in urban agriculturalproduction. It leads to a reductionin the amount of waste thatreaches landfill sites and con-tributes to increased food produc-tion and income generation.

announcements

ITC Students Take Second Place in Cordaid Urban Challenge


Team 1 ITC UN University

Jury: “Most professional proposal of a clearlyexperienced team”

Team explaining their idea Second Place in Cordaid Urban Challenge

27ITC News 2009-4

A N N O U N C E M E N T S

• The project proposal applied a log-ical framework approach to linkinginputs, activities and outputs inorder to achieve its purpose andultimate goal. To ensure projectsustainability, the team proposed aparticipatory approach that in-volved and coordinated all keystakeholders.

• For efficiency purposes, it was pro-posed to integrate the “ThinkTwice” public awareness pro-gramme and the urban agricultureinitiatives already in existence inPhilippi.

The team presented the jury with aposter summarising the proposedproject.

Jury FeedbackAt the end of the assessment, thejury considered the proposal writtenby the ITC team to be the most pro-fessional proposal. It felt that thiswas clearly an experienced team andwished that the proposal could beimplemented together with that ofthe winning team. If it becomes nec-essary to adopt some parts of the ITCteam’s proposal, the participants willbe contacted for their approval. Thisconfirms the professionalism exhib-ited by the ITC students in using re-mote sensing and GIS techniques intheir proposal.

Contacts:Samuel Boamah Danquah: [email protected] Kofi Gavu: [email protected] James Njiraini Gachanja: [email protected]

NO MATTER THE LOCATION...

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Concept presented to jury: Waste Management Cycle

28 ITC News 2009-4

L I F E A F T E R I T C

The AfricaGIS conference was heldfrom 26 to 30 October 2009 inKampala, Uganda, and attracted atotal of 481 delegates from fivecontinents and 40 exhibitors fromAfrica, Europe, America, the MiddleEast and Asia. The conference fea-tured a total of 126 papers and 48 poster presentations demon-strating the value addition of geo-information to Africa’s sustainabledevelopment.

On Tuesday evening, 27 October 2009,an alumni reception was held atCassia Lodge in Kampala. ITC alum-nus Yazidhi Bamutaze, who was re-sponsible for the excellent planningand logistics, arranged not only thevenue but also the transportationfrom the conference. The evening was well attended. Atleast 80 alumni made the trip toCassia Lodge, a beautiful spot over-looking the city of Kampala and LakeVictoria, and drinks and dinner wereserved outside on the lawn. ProfessorMolenaar welcomed everyone andwas glad to see so many alumni at-tending the reception, even some

tion (EO) and GIS are integral parts ofIWRM-related studies, research andplans; hence the objective of the co-operation is to strengthen the EO-and GIS-related curriculum in theWaterNet educational system. ITCand WaterNet will work together todevelop EO- and GIS-related curric-ula, case studies, MSc and PhD re-search, and joint projects.

who were not involved in theAfricaGIS conference.

On the same occasion, a Memoran -dum of Understanding between ITCand WaterNet was signed by Profes -sor Molenaar (ITC) and Mr WilsonRufaro Nyemba (chair Board ofTrustees WaterNet), with Mr DavidLove, manager of the WaterNet sec-retariat, also present. Earth observa-

life after itc

ITC Alumni Reception during AfricaGIS in Kampala, Uganda

Saskia Tempelman [email protected]

Rolf Becker (ITC alumnus 1962) also joinedthe gathering

Alumnus and ITC staff member Bert Boerenjoying a drink during the reception

An alumni reception was held at Cassia Lodge, Kampala, Uganda

During the course of the 24th Inter-national Cartographic Conference(ICC) held from 15 to 21 November2009, which attracted over 1,000delegates, ITC was delighted to hosta lunch gathering for a number ofITC alumni who were attending.

An important biennial event (seehttp://cartography.tuwien.ac.at/ica/),the ICC was hosted on this occasionby the Chilean Military GeographicInstitute at the Escuela Militar inSantiago. Colonel Juan Vidal GarciaHuidobro, director of IGM and an ITCalumnus, acted as president of thelocal conference organising committee.

The ITC delegation to the conferencewas headed by Professor MartienMolenaar, who delivered a keynoteaddress on the subject of educationand capacity building. In his capacityas one the vice-presidents of theInternational Cartographic Association(ICA), Professor Menno-Jan Kraak(chairman of ITC’s Department ofGeo-information Processing) waspart of the conference organisingcommittee and also presented sev-eral technical papers.

Other ITC staff attending the eventincluded Dr Corné van Elzakker,

Dr Connie Blok, Mr Loannis Delikostidis(PhD student) and Mr John Horn. TheITC staff presented or co-authoredseveral technical papers, chairedtechnical conference sessions, andparticipated in the exhibition. MrDelikostidis attended meetings ofyoung (PhD) researchers.

One of the highlights of any ICA conference is the vast internationalexhibition of maps. This year’s eventwas no exception, with some 200 maps on display. Dr van Elzakkerheaded the team of judges thatawarded prizes for the best maps invarious categories. In addition, Dr van Elzakker, who is chairman ofthe ICA commission on use and userissues, organised a number of com-mission meetings and participated inother commissions. Although the ICAcommission on geo-visualisation didnot meet in Santiago, Professor Kraakand Dr Blok have been active in thiscommission for several years, and arekeen to stimulate research on thistheme in the future.

The ITC exhibition stand at the con-ference proved a popular meetingspot for alumni, and in general at-tracted a good deal of interest frompotential ITC candidates.

The Netherlands embassy in Santiagoprovided much assistance to our mis-sion, and we were delighted thatthey were able to attend several ofthe technical and social activities atthe conference.

Thanks to the kind organisation andassistance of Colonel Rodolfo Stuvenof IGM (also an ITC alumnus), around30 ITC alumni and guests gatheredfor a reunion in the Officers Club atthe Military School during thelunchtime break on Wednesday, 18 November. In his final alumnimeeting as ITC rector, ProfessorMolenaar addressed the gatheringand explained the details of the up-coming merger with the University ofTwente. He underlined the fact thatthe ongoing contact with alumniwould remain as important as ever.

Consistent with the high degree ofinterest from Chilean scholars and researchers, ITC is actively pursuing a number of possible academic rela-tionships in Chile, as well as investi-gating new sources of study and re-search funding.

The next ICA international confer-ence will be held in Paris in 2011.

29ITC News 2009-4


International Cartographic Conference and Alumni Meet in Chile

John Horn [email protected]

Lunchtime on Wednesday, 18 November: around 30 ITC alumni and guests at a reunion in the Officers Club at the Military School

30 ITC News 2009-4


Dr Joseph Olusola Akinyede, born(1952) and living in Nigeria, is a veryspecial man: he is ITC’s first PhD stu-dent ever. “ITC is one of the best ed-ucation institutions in the world,”he immediately replies to my ques-tion concerning his considerationson continuing education at ITC. “Itwas a great privilege. ITC is unique.”

Joseph got the opportunity to con-duct research at ITC through a four-year scholarship granted by theEuropean Economic Community(EEC) in 1986. A year earlier, an EECscholarship had enabled him to fol-low a postgraduate course in appliedgeological survey − also at ITC. InFebruary 1990, Joseph received aPhD degree for his thesis HighwayCost Modelling and Route SelectionUsing a Geotechnical InformationSystem from Delft University ofTechnology, the Netherlands. ”My PhD research equipped me withthe skills to independently under-stand a problem and quickly defineways of solution,” says Joseph. “Letme give you a recent example. TheFulani people move their cattle fromthe north of Nigeria to the south inthe dry season, and in the reverse di-rection when the rainy seasoncomes. Their movements cause fric-tion with the settled farmers. Who iscausing the problem: the nomads orthe farmers? To answer that ques-tion, I recommended mapping theFulani track routes from satellite im-ages captured over the last 20 years.Using GIS technology, changes overtime can be identified and also theareas of infringement. The study hasbeen approved and is ongoing.”

Great Value of ImagesHaving been awarded an MSc in ge-ology with a specialisation in geo-chemical exploration by AhmaduBello University, Nigeria, in 1981,

Joseph set about building a career asa research officer at the NigerianBuilding and Road Research Institutein the first 10 years of his profes-sional life. Here he discovered thepossibilities of aerial photographswhen it came to road construction.“I became convinced of the greatvalue of extracting geo-informationfrom images to support the develop-ment of backward regions in mycountry,” says Joseph, “and in theprocess discovered that I was keen toknow more about the technology.”After having returned to Nigeria as adoctor in technical sciences, hemoved from road construction toagricultural land development. Tenyears later, in August 2001, he againmade a switch, this time from land tospace, by becoming director of spaceapplications at the National SpaceResearch and Development Agency(NASRDA). Educated and trained tounderstand and interpret the Earthbeneath his feet, from now on mostof Joseph’s career was devoted tospace technology.

Data PolicyIn many countries, a great deal of ge-odata is scattered across a diversityof institutions. This scatter representsa stumbling-block to greater use andbetter exploitation of geodata. Also,the government of Nigeria recognisesthe importance of sharing geodata,of easy access and of avoiding dupli-cation. As a result, the establishmentof a national spatial data infrastruc-ture was placed high on the agenda.Joseph was heavily involved in pro-ducing the national geo-informationpolicy for Nigeria. “It was our think-ing that NASDRA should be therepository of all (high-resolution andother) satellite data acquired overNigerian territory. Then, if any agencyor institution applied to NASDRA tobuy satellite images, we would know

where they were archived andwhether they were usable by the ap-plicant. That would avoid duplica-tion, as well as guarantee a standardlevel of quality. That was the inten-tion we had in mind. Our recommen-dations resulted in government pol-icy, whereby everyone who wants touse satellite imagery must gothrough NASDRA. However, it is onething having a government policy, itis another thing getting that policyimplemented. The issue of having apolicy on the ground that nevercomes into effect is typical of manydeveloping countries. Why peoplestill prefer to skirt around NASRDAcannot be explained and is hard tounderstand. It is a waste of money, agreat waste. It is only good for theimage production companies, butvery bad for the country.”

African Regional CentreIt seems that Joseph’s career takes asharp turn every 10 years. First hewas involved in roads, next in landdevelopment, and then he movedfrom land to space. April this year, heleft NASRDA to make the transfer

Dr Joseph Olusola Akinyede

A Fulfilled Career: ITC’s First PhD Student Ever

Mathias Lemmens [email protected]

from space to education by becom-ing director of the African RegionalCentre for Space Science andTechnology Education in EnglishLanguage. In Africa, there are twosuch centres affiliated to the UNOffice for Outer Space Affairs: onefor the English-speaking countries,established in Nigeria; and one forthe French-speaking countries, estab-lished in Morocco. Other centres arefound in Brazil, Mexico and India.“The Centre, inaugurated inNovember 1998, maintains an excel-lent working relationship with NAS-DRA, which is the supervising agencyon behalf of the Nigerian govern-ment.” The Centre is sited on thecampus of Obafemi AwolowoUniversity, Ile-Ife, Osun State, thesame campus where the RegionalCentre for Training in AerospaceSurvey (RECTAS) is sited. “This is notwithout reason: facilities and knowl-edge can be easily shared in thisway.” The Centre runs nine-monthpostgraduate diploma courses, the

Dr Alok Porwal is one of the recipi-ents of the Mathematical Geo-sciences Editor’s Best ReviewerAward 2008-2009 (see MathematicalGeosciences, vol. 42, no. 1, January2010). Dr Porwal and two othermathematical geoscientists weregiven the award for their exception-ally diligent and thorough reviews,as well as their commitment to see-ing the full completion of new andrevised versions of manuscripts sub-mitted to MathematicalGeosciences. This journal is one ofthree journals of the InternationalAssociation of Mathematical Geo-sciences (IAMG), the other twobeing Computers & Geosciences andNatural Resources Research.

Dr Porwal obtained his PhD in model-based mineral potential mappingfrom ITC and Utrecht University, theNetherlands, in February 2006. HisPhD research, which was co-super-vised and co-promoted by ProfessorMartin Hale and Dr John Carranza,falls within the earth systems scienceresearch theme being investigated byscientific staff at ITC’s Department ofEarth Systems Analysis.

Dr Porwal is now a senior researchfellow at the Centre for ExplorationTargeting and the Western AustralianSchool of Mines, Curtin University ofTechnology, Perth, Western Australia.He has over 20 years’ research and

best attended being the RemoteSensing & GIS course. Students comefrom a wide range of English-speak-ing countries in Africa. The UN pro-vides the curriculum for implement-ing these capacity building projects.“I attended the 4th Meeting of theInternational Committee on GlobalNavigation Satellite Systems (GNSS)in St Petersburg from 14 to 18September 2009, and there the addi-tion of a GNSS course at the Centrewithin a year or two was discussed.ITC may very likely be one of the ca-pacity building institutions that helpsthe UN to develop the GNSS curricu-lum.” One of the first things Josephdid when he moved to the Centrewas to set up a committee taskedwith reviewing the Centre’s achieve-ments during its 10-year existenceand making an inventory of the chal-lenges. “I want to use this as a start-ing point for making the Centreready for the coming 10 years.”

Fulfilled CareerWould it still be beneficial − in termsof aiding to shape their career − forAfrican students to leave their homecountry and obtain an academic edu-cation at ITC as Joseph once did?According to Joseph, it is in the inter-est of developing countries to haveeducation institutions sited on theirown ground so that decentralisededucation can be offered. However,“local education should be given inclose cooperation with ITC, as thefocal point of expertise, in order tobenefit from advice on developingthe curriculum and to train the train-ers.” When looking over his shoulderat a career spanning 30 years, whatfeelings pop up? “I have had a ful-filled career,” says Joseph, “fulfilledin the sense that I have made a posi-tive contribution to progress in spacetechnology for my country and Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole − morethan a Nigerian, I feel African.”

31ITC News 2009-4


Dr Alok Porwal

ITC Alumnus Dr Alok Porwal Receives Best Reviewer Award

John Carranza [email protected]

32 ITC News 2009-4


Dear Editor,

First of all I would like to wish ITC a happy Christmas, with the compliments ofthe season to all its professors.

With my letter of August 2009 (copies to my professor Frederick Ackermannand Mr Elvino Dias Duarte), I enclosed my article “Fifty years of serendipity inSri Lanka: a tribute to ITC” so that it would reach ITC before its 60th anniver-sary celebrations. Now I am also attaching the article “Fifty years of serendipityin Sri Lanka”, which appeared on the Saturday magazine page of the SriLankan daily newspaper The Island on 26 September 2009 as a full-page arti-cle, with a map of Ptolemy’s Taprobane.This is virtually the same article I sent you. This article was greatly appreciatedby the National Academy of Sciences, archaeologists, historians and the gen-eral public of Sri Lanka because of the authentic evidence of our ancient her-itage from aerial photographs and field verifications.

I am further including a photograph ofITC alumni of 1960 who participated inthe ITC study of the principal precisephotogrammetric instrument manufac-turers in Germany and Switzerland,namely Zeiss, Wild and Kern. Included inthis group photograph are some staffmembers of ITC and the Zeiss factory. Ihope this photograph can be publishedin a future ITC newsletter as it is of his-torical value and shows ITC participantswho for the most part are no longerwith us.

Yours sincerely,

A. Denis N. FernandoITC Alumnus 1960

First row: Official Zeiss, Chong of Malaysia, Wong of Surinam, Fernando (myself) of Sri Lanka,Skinersi of Cuba; second row: Prof. Corton, Smith of USA, Spitzer of Australia, Levy of France;as well as Loken of Norway, Datta of India, Dr Hempenius, and others that I cannot identify byname from Bolivia, Iran, Lebanon, Nigeria etc.

Letter to the Editor

For the article “Fifty years of serendipity in Sri Lanka” see:(www.island.lk/2009/09/26/satmag8.html)

professional experience in applica-tions of GIS technology to real-worldexploration targeting. His recentwork includes continent-wideprospectivity mapping of Australiafor all styles of uranium deposits foran exploration company. He is cur-rently working on applications of ma-chine learning algorithms such asneural networks, support vector ma-

chines and genetic algorithms for ge-ological remote sensing and mineralprospectivity mapping. A life memberof the IAMG, he has had a long asso-ciation with MathematicalGeosciences as a reviewer and con-tributor of papers.

Congratulations Alok!

2009-4

FACULTY OF GEO-INFORMATION SCIENCE AND EARTH OBSERVATION

ITC News

• 59th Dies Natalis

• Rector on farewell trip Asia

• ITC extends agreement UNU

• ITC’s first PhD student ever

F A C U LT Y O F G E O - I N F O R M AT I O N S C I E N C E A N D E A R T H O B S E R VAT I O N

Documents

ITC News 2009-Q4