Wednesday 3 October 2007

Imagery in Africa and a Bit of Bad News

Read the Oct edition of the SDI Africa newsletter this afternoon. There were some interesting articles about the use of imagery; all emanating from NASA Earth Observatory as it turns out.

These forest fires in Algeria are clearly seen on MODIS

as is flooding in Sudan

and volcanic activity in Ethiopea.

It is truly amazing what you can do with imagery but I'm sure we're only using a small part of its real potential.

It was sad to read about the closure of the Geoinformatics and Survey course at the University of Zimbabwe due to lecturer shortages. Who can blame anyone for seeking pastures new? If you read on you'll see that the government is now so short of surveyors it is considering allowing undergrads to work. This will surely reduce the incentive to finish a degree if you can be licensed to operate before completing it? But perhaps few in Zimbabwe are currently in a position to be too long-sighted...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Apropos of Zimbabwe, the idea of "consultants" who have not finished their degrees would be amusing if it were not, in the case of that country, so sad. Having only partially qualified and, therefore, probably very inexperienced surveyors licenced to control property business in Zimbabwe can only be another step on the slippery slope - or, perhaps, another foot on the accelerator of the nation's ultimate self destruction.