Responses to satellite remote sensing opportunities in East and Southern Africa

Since 1978 the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has funded a regional remote sensing project for East and Southern Africa. The project, hosted by the Regional Centre for Services in Surveying Mapping and Remote Sensing, has provided a programme of training courses, user services and project support. This included the equipping and establishment of a photo-laboratory complex for processing Landsat images and the provision of advice and support for agencies undertaking natural resources analysis.Response to the training programme has been very good. Courses are usually over subscribed and there is a continued demand for training. Assessments of the courses by participants are highly positive and the courses have featured consultants of international calibre. Requests for follow-up courses, and for specialist group training indicate a strong response to this training activity. User services are active, consultations with staff, use of the browse file and interpretation equipment and the purchase of data for project work all produce an average demand of 12 active enquiries per working week. The photo-laboratory is particularly active and demand for products exceeds available capacity.Project work is now being supported but limited resources restrict the range and amount of project activity. Response to the opportunities offered for projects has been favourable and this activity is ripe for expansion. The difficulty in expanding to meet the expressed demand is primarily financial. The east and southern Africa region is not economically strong and has a great need for natural resources data for development work and planning. The responses to satellite remote sensing opportunities will be limited by these financial constraints which effectively means by the level of international aid directed to this activity. For such aid to be effective it must be coordinated and firmly attached to the region. Such coordinated aid programmes would avoid fragmentation of distribution and applications work. Fragmentation could seriously disrupt the present growth in natural resources activity based on remote sensing data from satellites. The lack of financing for a regional ground receiving station is also a significant limiting factor.