content introduction - Universiteit Twente · 2018-08-01 · Design&PrePress: Henk Scharrenborg...

content

Main featuresArcCadastre 2ESRI User Conference 3Symposium IT Renewal 5

Staff news 4

AnnouncementsGISDECO 2004 7Short Courses 2004 8SAB 2002 ?

Visiting ITCUnidad Tecnica Juridica 11Indian Forest Survey Managers 11LARIS: visit Russian Delegation 12Millitary Inst. for Survey andGeographic Studies 12Professor Soekiman 13

Project NewsLand Reform in S-Africa 14Klang Valley, Malaysia 15Wuhan University - ITC JointMSc Course 16Special Course Trujillo, Peru 17

Research NewsKarin Sigrid Schmidt 18Mohammed Yahya Said 19Zhengdong Huang 20100th PhD Graduation 22Best Conference PaperOnisimo Mutanga 23

Life after ITCADT 2003 Innovator Award 24Alumni Association India 25ESRI Internship 26Alumni Meeting Bhutan 27

CONFERENCE CALENDAR 28

As we rush to press with this latest edition of ITC News, summer is at itsheight here in the Netherlands. Maybe that raises a wry smile on the facesof some of our readers from the warmer climes. Summer, the Netherlands… surely a contradiction in terms? But no, temperatures have soared overthe last month or so and many of us have wilted in the scorching heat.Fortunately that doesn’t apply to our contributors. They’re in fine fettle,with the result that this issue is a mixed bag, with something for everyone.

PhD studies are in the spotlight (pages 18-21), with no less than four newpublications now gracing the shelves of the ITC bookshop. Moreover, Junemarked another milestone in ITC education: our 100th research student re-ceived his doctorate (page 22) - a cause for particular celebration. Naturally,life goes on after you leave ITC with that hard-earned diploma tucked intoyour pocket, and the course it takes often makes for interesting reading. Ifyou turn to page 24 you’ll see what I mean, and also discover how aca-demic achievements can be put to practical use.

The road to graduation is built on lectures, practicals and homework, in fact- let’s make no bones about it - on serious study. But take heart, ITC stu-dents do manage to take time out for relaxation. The occasional party nevercomes amiss (page 10)

Wilt in the heat? Not a bit of it. On the contrary, our contributors seem tothrive on it. Projects, conferences, debates and powerful new software tools- whether your tastes veer towards animal, vegetable or mineral, you’re sureto find something of interest on the pages of ITC News 2003-2.

Janneke KalfActing Managing Editor

1ITC News 2003-2

I N T R O

introduction

Acting Managing Editor: Janneke Kalf

Editing: Janice CollinsDesign&PrePress: Henk Scharrenborg

(Composer DTP service)Andries Menning

Printing: PlantijnCasparie Zwolle

Correspondence to: Managing EditorITC NEWSP.O.Box 6

7500 AA EnschedePhone: +31 (0)53 487 42 11Fax: +31 (0)53 487 42 00E-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 ITC2003number 2

From 16 to 18 June

2003 a group of 15

students and staff

from ITC visited the

training centre of

the Swedish

Cadastre

(Lantmäteriet) to

learn the principles

of ArcCadastre.

The students are following ITC’s Geo-infor-mation Management programme, which fo-cuses on organisations with a mission toproduce, provide, use, exchange and sharelarge spatial data sets, and with a commit-ment to change. Most of the students arefrom national mapping and cadastral agen-cies in their own countries.

The ArcCadastre product can be of greatvalue in developing cadastral infrastructuresand, more generally, in developing geospa-tial data infrastructures important for theeconomic development in both developedand developing countries. ArcCadastre hassome very powerful tools, such as workflowmanagement and product definition, and isbased on industrial standards such as UML(Unified Modelling Language) and ArcGIS. Alink between surveying and GIS is available.

The product is highly suitable for customer-and country-specific extensions. ArcCadastreprovides support in unified production lines -from fieldwork and computation, throughdata processing and the presentation of dif-ferent maps, to the final storage of data inan object-oriented environment.

The student focus was mostly on the work-flow management tools, and the evaluationof the product has been positive. The mainconclusion was that ArcCadastre can be ofvalue to all organisations where a link be-tween workflows and the geo-database (andsurveying) is important in supporting thecore business. ITC will implementArcCadastre for educational and researchpurposes.

2 ITC News 2003-2

ITC Students Learn aboutArcCadastre

Christiaan Lemmen [email protected]

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

The GIM group during their visit to the Swedish Cadastre

Like last year a

delegation from ITC

attended the ESRI

User Conference in

San Diego,

California - held this

year from 5 to 11

July. This conference

is most probably the

biggest in the

general GIS domain.

This year’s attendance allegedly came closeto 14,000, and the ITC delegation was alsolarge, with no less than six (unprecedented!)staff members taking part.

The conference traditionally starts off withan opening address by ESRI’s president, JackDangermond, his speech always a pleasantmix of technological perspective and under-standing, commitment and esprit de corps,combined with a subtle sense of entrepre-neurship. It draws the greatest audience byfar. Thousands gathered in a vast hallequipped with eight enormous video screensthat allowed everyone to follow the pro-ceedings.

The address mentioned quite a few notabledevelopments. Some were of interest to thepublic at large, such as the US government’sinitiative to develop the geospatial one-stopportal; others were of interest perhaps onlyto ESRI software users, such as the an-nouncement of ArcGlobe, a package thatapparently provides continuous zooming onspatial data (in 2D and 3D, in raster and vec-tor) as a visualisation tool. Think of the fa-mous advertisement for Dommelsch beer!

In the afternoon, Peter Hillary, son of SirEdmund Hillary, who in 1953 became thefirst man to climb to the summit of MtEverest, demonstrated his love for theHimalayas and its people in a truly entertain-ing speech, brilliantly complemented withvideo footage, a simulated flyby of Everest’ssummit, and 50-year-old pictures of theheroic ascent.

These addresses bolstered two long techni-cal sessions that provided a view of the newArcGIS version 9 and other ArcSomethingsas companion software packages, all to belaunched (in the USA!) later this autumn.Imagine perfectly staged example-laden pre-sentations, interspersed with audience ap-plause for new software features, in a stylethat Americans are so very good at, andyou’ll understand our feelings of beingslightly out of place in this community.

Otherwise the conference was, as always, aninteresting mix of technical workshops,paper presentations and product displays,not forgetting the famous map gallery. Attimes meetings took place in up to 16 paral-lel tracks - many on ESRI software technol-

3ITC News 2003-2


ESRI User Conference 2003Rolf de By [email protected]

Lyande Eelderink [email protected]

The conference was, as always, an interesting mix of technical work-shops, paper presentations and product displays, not forgetting thefamous map gallery.

ITC information booth, which generated substantial interest at boththe Education Fair and the general Industrial Exhibition

ogy, but some on specific applications, andsocietal issues and their problems. Just draft-ing a personal schedule for the conferencewas a not-so-easy two-hour homework as-signment!

The ITC representatives (Jan Hendrikse, MarkNoort, Jeroen Verplanke, Jeroen van denWorm and yours truly) left a small but indeli-ble mark on the conference. We presented

three well-received papers, (wo)manned ITCinformation booths, which generated sub-stantial interest at both the Education Fairand the general Industrial Exhibition, and or-ganised an ITC alumni dinner for some 20alumni attending the conference.

A little extra ITC exposure was generated inthe opening address as Jack Dangermondhad picked Jeroen van den Worm’s (in col-laboration with other colleagues) DutchNational Risk Map - one of only 30 examplesselected from the large number of mappingprojects submitted - to illustrate the contem-porary use of GIS.

In addition, we used our time to discuss vari-ous issues related to the ESRI-ITCMemorandum of Understanding with ESRIstaff members and other people present.These issues included the software dona-tions to our students, the continuation ofthe ESRI International Internship Program forITC students (the next call to be published inNovember), and the participation of ITC inESRI’s virtual campus. We also had the op-portunity to meet “big Jack” himself and de-bate some significant topics.

4 ITC News 2003-2


Marcia van Doeselaar Receptionist, Facility Management (per 28 April 2003)Drs Dinand Alkema Lecturer, Department of Earth Systems Analysis (per 1 May 2003)Valentijn Venus Lecturer, Department of Natural Resources (per 1 June 2003)Dr Hans van Noord Engineering Geomorphologist, Bhutan Project (per 1 July 2003)Monika Kuffer Lecturer, Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Geo-information

Management (per 1 July 2003

Liliana Alvarez Casallas Scientific Assistant, Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Geo-information Management (per 28 June 2003)

Welcometo ITC

Staffleaving

staff news

ITC organised an ITC alumni dinner for some 20 alumni attending the conference

Many land registry

and/or cadastre

organisations

implemented their

computerised

systems some ten to

20 years ago.

These systems are now outdated, and main-tenance is complex and expensive.Increasingly these organisations are beingconfronted with rapid developments in tech-nology (the technology push: Internet, (geo)-databases, modelling standards, opensystems, GIS), as well as a growing demandfor new services (the market pull: enhanceduser requirements, e-governance, sustain-able development, electronic conveyancing,integration of public data and systems).

Customer satisfaction demands a focus onthe adoption of an open, transparent and in-novative approach to providing products andservices, as well as arrangements that guar-antee delivery times and quality specifica-tions. Organisations required to generateincome by providing services to customersalso need to devote additional attention totransparent managerial and financial struc-tures, explicit costs and fair prices.

Experience acquired by many organisationshas revealed that appropriate support frominformation and communication technology(ICT) is essential if these business objectivesare to be achieved. Land registry and cadas-tre organisations, in particular, operate infor-mation systems with a large number oftransactions – systems that must be both upto date and reliable at all times. As a result,these organisations are highly dependent ontheir ICT systems, which in turn results in aclose relationship between their strategic ob-jectives and their ICT policy (business align-ment with ICT). Consequently, theirmanagements assign high priority to achiev-ing appropriate compatibility between theirstrategy and their ICT support.

ComplicationsTwo factors complicate the replacement ofthese ageing systems: (1) the intrinsic migra-tion from the legacy of the old system to theenvironment of the new, and (2) the need toimplement the modernisation without dis-rupting normal operations (i.e. the imposi-tion of a “business as usual” requirementduring system replacement). As considerableeffort is being devoted to developing viablestrategies for modernising the ICT systems ofland registry and cadastre organisations, anexchange of expertise, experience and in-sights into the modernisation process couldbenefit all concerned.

Symposium at ITCA symposium was held on this subject at ITCon 8 and 9 May 2003. The objective was toprovide a platform for chief information offi-cers from land registry and/or cadastre or-ganisations from countries currently

5ITC News 2003-2


Symposium on IT RenewalStrategy for Land Registry

and CadastrePaul van der Molen [email protected]

Christiaan Lemmen [email protected]

intensively involved in modernising their ICTsystems. The focus was on European coun-tries. The symposium reserved discussiontime for exchanging experiences, identifyingkey issues and reviewing solutions – all withthe ultimate objective of learning from oneanother’s experiences. This symposium wassponsored by the International Federation ofSurveyors (FIG), Commission 7 - Cadastreand Land Management, ITC and KadasterNetherlands. Many issues relating to IT re-newal were raised and discussed:• Basic principles of IT renewal strategy: inter-

nal change of workflow, standards (and lackof standards in the cadastral domain), pub-lic-private partnership, more flexibility with aless complex system environment, “big-bang” versus “step-by-step” strategy, cen-tralised and distributed solutions(mainframes or client/server architectures,high-performance networks)

• Integration of public data and systems,Internet access, e-government concepts

• Cadastral data for free? (meaning that regis-tration fees would finance data)

• Change management: organisational impactor not, new jobs, business re-engineering

• Customer requirements: parallel access toold and new data, user advisory board

ConclusionsIt was concluded that a strategy for changemanagement and business re-engineering(there are examples where this has failed!) isstrongly related to the capacity of the organ-isation (e.g. staff in the IT department). Astrategy should be developed for a big timeframe; so think big - but work small and actquickly. This means a step-by-step approach;a big-bang approach is not recommended.Documentation, modelling standards, andalso standards for the cadastral domain areof relevant importance. Cross-border solu-tions will be of significance in the future,and this aspect should be included in IT

strategies. Some technical approaches, as aconsequence of user requirements, havelegal impacts (e.g. electronic signatures inelectronic conveyancing).

ProceedingsAll papers and PowerPoint presentations canbe downloaded from www.oicrf.org, the FIGelectronic library on land administration. Use“IT renewal Enschede” as keywords and youwill find all the contributions.

Considerable effort will be devoted to com-piling all presentations and discussions intoan appropriate publication, in order to dis-seminate further the information made avail-able during the symposium.

6 ITC News 2003-2


The GISDECO International Commit-tee is pleased to announce that the7th GISDECO seminar, examiningthe issue of Capacity Building forGIS in Developing Countries, isbeing hosted by the Faculty of theBuilt Environment, UniversitiTeknologi Malaysia (UTM), Johor,Malaysia, and will be held from 10to 12 May 2004. The focus of theevent is promoting the creation ofhuman capacity, infrastructure andpolicy environments for successfulapplications of geographical infor-mation systems (GIS). The main pur-pose of the seminar is to facilitatethe exchange of knowledge andpractical experience between GISexperts and users in order to gainbetter insight into how users canbuild the capacity required to makeefficient and effective use of GIS.

GISDECO is an international networkof GIS experts, planners and projectmanagers engaged in GIS applica-tions in developing countries. Thenetwork has been coordinated via ITCsince 2002 and focuses on the ex-change of practical experiences withGIS applications by organising semi-nars and workshops in various coun-tries. GISDECO provides a forumwhere GIS researchers and practition-ers working in developing or devel-oped countries and concerned withthe problems of GIS technologytransfer analysis application in devel-oping countries can pool ideas onproblem solving. Proposals for papers and postersdealing with the following topics are

most welcome and should be sent tothe GISDECO Secretariat by 30November 2003.

GIS Competencies and Skills in theFace of ICT Advancement• Identification of core competencies

and skills for GIS practitioners• Acquisition, maintenance and inter-

pretation of geospatial information• Integrating qualitative research with

GIS• Opportunities and competency needs

of Internet-based GIS

GIS Education and CurriculumDevelopment • Role of GIS education in increasing

spatial awareness?• GIS distance learning: expanding the

reach of educational opportunities• Teaching fundamental concepts of

GIS• Analytical GIS and knowledge-based

techniques• Interactive learning environments for

the development of spatial compe-tence (spatial literacy) and problemsolving

GIS Infrastructure and Policies• Capacity building and geospatial

data infrastructures• GIS adaptability to public sector re-

quirements • Policy issues in GIS development

(data sharing among governmentagencies, GIS project management)

• Developing legal frameworks for GISdata

We look forward to seeing you in Johor.Richard SliuzasGISDECO International CommitteeCoordinatorDept of Urban and Regional Planningand Geo-Information Management, ITC

7ITC News 2003-2

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

announcements

Announcing the 7th Conference on GIS and Developing CountriesGISDECO 2004, 10-12 MayCapacity Building for GIS in Developing Countries

Co-organised by • GISDECO International Committee• Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of

the Built Environment• Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

All correspondence should be addressed to the local organisation committee at:GISDECO Secretariat

E-mail address : [email protected] : Jabatan Perancang Bandar dan Wilayah

Fakulti Alam BinaUniversiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)81310 Skudai, Johor Bahru.

Contact numbers : Tel: +607- 553 7360 / 5591530 (Dr Ahris Yaakup)Fax: +607- 553 7360 / 5591530 (Dr Ahris Yaakup)

Further information on the 2004 conference can be obtained via the conference website(www.fab.utm.my/gisdeco2004). For general information on GISDECO or details of pastevents, please see http://www.itc.nl/gisdeco/ or e-mail Richard Sliuzas, GISDECOInternational Committee Coordinator, at [email protected].

Delegates at the GISDECO 2002 Conference

GISDECO

For mid-career professionals lookingto further their knowledge of geo-information science and earth ob-servation and its applications, ITCoffers a range of short courses.

FellowshipsPlease note that the NetherlandsMinistry of Foreign Affairs awards anumber of fellowships annually underthe Netherlands FellowshipProgramme (NFP). Please note thatthe deadline for fellowship applica-tions for some of the short courses is1 September 2003. Candidates whowish to apply for such fellowshipsshould read the instructions below.

Overview of ITC’s short courses 2004Geo-information Infrastructure andCore Data Providers• Three-month course, January to

March 2004• Tuition fee Euro 2,250• Application deadline for fellowships

1 September 2003• Application deadline 5 November

2003

Applications of Remote Sensing andGIS in Earth Resources and Environ-mental GeosciencePart II: Advanced• Three-month course, January to April

2004• Tuition fee Euro 2,250• Application deadline for fellowships

1 September 2003• Application deadline 5 November

2003

Geographical Information Systemsfor Urban Planning, Land Adminis-tration and Infrastructure Manage-ment• Seven-week course, February to

March 2004• Tuition fee Euro 1,400• Application deadline for fellowships

1 September 2003• Application deadline 16 December

2003

Aeromagnetics, Gamma-Ray-Spectrometry and Gravity: EssentialTools for Geoscience Applications• Three-month course, February to

May 2004• Tuition fee Euro 2,250• Application deadline for fellowships


2003

Remote Sensing and GIS Applica-tions for Integrated Catch-ment andWater Management (ICWM)• Three-month course, February to



2003

Geophysical Data Acquisition, Pro-cessing and Interpretation forGroundwater and EnvironmentalStudies• Three-month course, February to



2003

Groundwater Resources Monitoring,Evaluation and Modelling• Three-month course, February to



2003

Spatial Decision Support Systemsand Multicriteria Evaluation Tech-niques• Three-week course, April 2004• Tuition fee Euro 600• Application deadline for fellowships

1 November 2003

• Application deadline 29 January2004

Advanced Use of Remote Sensing in Water Resource Management,Irrigation and Drainage• Three-month course, March to June

2004 • Tuition fee Euro 2,250• Application deadline for fellowships

1 November 2003• Application deadline 28 January

2004

Spatial Information for Environmen-tal Impact Assessment (EIA) andStrategic Environmental Assessment(SEA)• One-month course, April 2004 • Tuition fee Euro 800• Application deadline for fellowships

1 November 2003• Application deadline 19 February

2004

Development of Organisations in aGeo-information InfrastructureEnvironment• Six-week course, May to June 2004• Tuition fee Euro 1,150• Application deadline for fellowships

1 November 2003• Application deadline 17 March 2004

Database Handling in EarthSciences: A Study Project throughSurvey Planning, Execution, Analysisand Reporting• Three-month course, May to August

2004• Tuition fee Euro 2,250• Application deadline for fellowships

1 November 2003• Application deadline 17 March 2004

Principles of Spatial Data Handling:Databases, GIS and Remote Sensing• Three-month course, October to

December 2004• Tuition fee Euro 2,250• Application deadline for fellowships

1 June 2004

8 ITC News 2003-2


Apply Now for ITC’s Short Courses 2004!

• Application deadline 4 Augustus2004

GIS and Remote Sensing forEnvironmental Planning andManagement• Three-month course, October to

December 2004• Tuition fee Euro 2,250• Application deadline for fellowships

1 June 2004• Application deadline 25 Augustus

2004

Netherlands Fellowship Programme(NFP)The NFP fellowship application proce-dure has been revised. Candidateswho intend to apply for such a fel-lowship should begin the applicationprocedure as soon as possible.

1. Candidates first apply to ITC for ad-mission to the short course by usingthe application form. An applicationform can be downloaded from ourwebsite www.itc.nl/education/regis-ter or please contact ITC’s EducationAffairs department. There are threefellowship application deadlines: 1 September 2003, 1 November 2003and 1 June 2004. Each entry in theshort course overview indicateswhich deadline applies.

2. Acceptable candidates will receive aletter from ITC indicating that theyhave been provisionally accepted.

3. Candidates then apply for an NFP fel-lowship through the Dutch embassyor consulate in their own country.

4. To do this, candidates must completean NFP short course application form(can be obtained from the Dutch em-bassy or consultate and/or can bedownloaded from the Nuffic website:www.nuffic.nl/nfp_npt) and submitit, together with all the required doc-

uments and information to theDutch embassy or consulate in thecandidate’s own country.

5. The embassy or consulate checkseach application. Special attentionwill be given to the following:whether the application was submit-ted before the deadline; whether theinformation accompanying the appli-cation is complete and correct;

whether the required documentation(such as passport, diplomas andEnglish language test) is legitimate;whether the employer endorses theapplication and guarantees that dur-ing the applicant’s absence his or hersalary will be paid and a job heldopen.

6. Fellowship applications that meet allthe criteria are forwarded to Nufficby the embassies and consulates.Nuffic decides how many fellowshipswill be allotted for each course.

7. ITC then selects the candidates whowill receive fellowships and informsall candidates directly of its decision.

9ITC News 2003-2


AlbaniaArmeniaAutonomousPalestinian TerritoriesBangladeshBeninBhutanBoliviaBosnia-HerzegovinaBrazilBurkina FasoCambodiaCape VerdeChina?ColombiaCosta RicaCubaEcuadorEgyptEl Salvador

EritreaEthiopiaGeorgiaGhanaGuatemalaGuinea-BissauHondurasIndiaIndonesiaIranIvory CoastJordanKenyaMacedoniaMaliMoldovaMongoliaMozambiqueNamibiaNepal

NicaraguaNigeria PakistanPeruPhilippinesRwandaSenegalSouth AfricaSri LankaSurinamTanzaniaThailandUgandaVietnamYemenZambiaZimbabwe1 Citizens of Hong Kong and

Macao are not eligible

More information

For more information about course content, the application processand other topics, please visit our website http://www.itc.nl/educa-tion/programme_levels/short_courses/default.asp and do not hesi-tate to contact us.

International Institute for Geo-Information Science and EarthObservation (ITC)Short Course Coordinator, Education Affairs DepartmentP.O. Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede, The NetherlandsPhone: +31 (0)53 4874 487Fax: +31 (0)53 4874 238Email: [email protected]

List of countries eligible for the NFP programme(Determined by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs):

Fellowship application formsshould not be sent directly toNuffic or to ITC, but should beforwarded to the Dutch em-bassy or consulate in the candi-date’s home country.For detailed information on NFP

fellowships please visit theNetherlands Organization forInternational Cooperation inHigher Education (Nuffic) websiteat http://www.nuffic.nl/nfp-npt.

The Student Association Board(SAB), to which all long-term courseparticipants belong, is an active andinteractive forum whose main inter-est lies in fostering the social wel-fare of ITC students during theirstay in the Netherlands. Life at ITCcan be so draining as a result of aca-demic pressure that even the moststable and mentally balanced partic-ipant often becomes weary and dis-oriented. There’s the hassle ofshopping and preparing for theweek ahead over the weekend and,worse still, the agony and pain ofbeing away from family, acquain-tances and friends. And what aboutcoping with the unpredictableweather of the Netherlands? … letalone learning a new language inadulthood. Inevitably tension arises,making the body clumsy, weak, inef-ficient and ineffective, and bringinga feeling of hopelessness.

Against this background the SAB, inconjunction with other organisationsand ITC structures, especially Nufficand the Dean’s Office, organises so-cial functions to relax both mind andbody. Top of the list over the last yearwas a series of end-of-module partiesthat the SAB organised every threeweeks in the Schermerhorn lounge.A refreshing conclusion to each mod-ule!

Assisted by ITC’s Education Affairs,subscriptions were made to four in-ternational newspapers in differentlanguages, which were made avail-able at the ITC International Hotelservice desk. Table tennis and poolgames were also on the agenda, andthe SAB organised social excursionsinside and outside the Netherlands,for example to Amsterdam, Vienna,Paris, Brussels, the Keukenhof gar-dens, Rotterdam and Burgers’ Zoo.

ITC participated in the InternationalSports Day in Delft, as well as in theBatavierenrace, the biggest relay racein the world. The events in Delft in-cluded volleyball, soccer (for bothmen and women), darts, athletics andbadminton. The Batavierenracestretches over a 200 km route fromNijmegen in the Netherlands, throughGermany, and back to Enschede andthe Netherlands. In both events ITCdemonstrated and maintained the su-premacy it had established someyears ago. Furthermore, ITC organisesits own internal sports events inwhich students compete amongthemselves, such as the ITC SportsDay - very successful last year!

Exciting and memorable was the typi-cally Dutch spring party, arousingemotions of happiness and bright-ness, especially after the dragginghours of the long cold winter, aca-demic pressure and homesickness.For sure, the event was appreciatedto the full.

At the end of the year, the SAB or-ganised the annual International

Social Evening, when scores of ITCparticipants gave cultural perform-ances reflecting their countries of ori-gin. This provided the time andopportunity for cultural exchangeamong staff, course participants andoutside spectators.

For the first time in ITC’s history, a cy-cling event was arranged for new stu-dents and certificates of proficiencywere presented to the successful par-ticipants.

Other highlights that punctuated theyear include the herring party, the in-ternational debating evening, theend-of-year party, the party welcom-ing new students, the MSc, PM andGeoinformatics diploma graduationparties, and the party marking the of-ficial opening of the Schermerhorn.

Life at ITC is not all GIS and remotesensing; there’s more to it than meetsthe eye. And the SAB plays a leadingrole in promoting an environmentconducive to learning through socialinteraction.

10 ITC News 2003-2


Student Association Board 2002

Martin Sekeleti [email protected]

One highlight that punctuated the yearwas the “herring party”

On Thursday 9th May a group of 5staff of the Guatemalan CadastralOrganization, Unidad Tecnica yJuridica (UTJ), visited ITC. The groupwere taking part in a one monthtraining programme organized bythe Netherlands Kadaster, which in-volved on-the-job training at boththe Kadaster’s Head office inApeldoorn, and at various regionaloffices.

The Forest Survey of India, based inDehra Dun, recently requested ITCto run a special programme for sev-eral of its senior staff. Funded bythe European Union, two separateactivities have taken place.

First, over the period 31 March to 17April a group of ten officers followedthe three-week elective module Ad-vanced Remote Sensing, Image Pro-cessing and GIS in Natural ResourceManagement.

Coordinated by Dr Yousif Hussin ofITC’s Department of Natural Re-sources, this module provided an in-depth review of the latest research anddevelopments in remote sensing,image processing and GIS modelling,and critically assessed their relevancewith respect to application in the natu-ral resources management field.During the module the participantswere encouraged to reflect on the

possible applicability of the new ideas,techniques and methodologies to theirown professional work and research.

In the second component, a group ofsenior managers from the ForestSurvey of India participated in athree-day knowledge exchange pro-gramme. This involved a seminar atITC and visits to other national organ-isations working in relevant techno-logical fields.

During the visit to ITC, the guests re-ceived an overview of the variouscourses in Geoinformatics and Geo-Information Management.

UTJ is presently undergoing a majormodernization project and is workingclosely with its Netherlands counter-part in this process.

11ITC News 2003-2

V I S I T I N G I T C

visiting itc

Guatemalan Cadastral Organization, Unidad Tecnica y Juridica, Visits ITC

John Horn [email protected]

Visitors from the Guatemalan CadastralOrganisation, Unidad Tecnica y Juridica fromleft to right John Horn (ITC), Raul Apopa, Jande Jong (Kadaster), Jovita Bolaños, RonaldoCruz, Carlos Suhr, Yvette Avila

Indian Forest Survey Managers Visit ITC


Visiting senior managers of the Forest Survey of India, together with ITC staff

Drs Sjaak Beerens, ITC’s director external affairs, makes a presentation to Dr AlokSaxena at the end of the visit

As part of a training course organ-ised by the Netherlands Kadasterand within the framework of theLARIS programme, ITC was pleasedto host a group of delegates fromthe Russian Federation on Friday, 13 June.

The general topic of the one-weekprogramme in the Netherlands was“The Role, Functions and Structure ofLand Administration Agencies”, aspart of the World Bank financedLARIS programme (Land ReformImplementation Support). This pro-gramme provides training for profes-sionals involved in land managementin the Russian Federation.

Spending their first days at theKadaster offices in Apeldoorn and

On 25 April, ITC was delighted to re-ceive a delegation from the MilitaryInstitute for Survey and GeographicStudies (MISGS), Riyadh, Kingdom ofSaudi Arabia, for discussions on pos-sible exchanges of technology andtraining programmes. The Institute’sdirector, Brig. Dr AbdulazizAlobieda, headed the delegation,accompanied by four of his seniorstaff officers, Col. Jamil Alharby, Col.Sami Almubarak, Col. HussainAbodiab and Lt Col. MuhammedAlhowareni.

MISGS is the training organisation ofthe Saudi Military Survey Department,which for over 25 years has had aclose relationship with ITC. A numberof Saudi officers have attended regu-

Arnhem, the group received briefingson the role and function of Kadasterin the Netherlands and on its organi-sation, (financial) management andstrategy plan. Of particular interest tothe group were aspects of theNetherlands property market and theroles of notaries, Kadaster, real estateagents and mortgage banks. Othertopics discussed included the costs oftransfer, the role of the tax authorities(Department of Succession), land tax-ation, methods of levying taxes, re-sponsible parties, land use planningat national, provincial and municipal-ity levels, and the roles - including thegeneral societal roles - of each levelof government.

During their visit to the Institute, thegroup received a short presentation

on ITC’s research and educational ac-tivities in geo-information manage-ment, as well as an overview of itsvarious overseas project activities inthese spheres. Mr Arbind Tuladhargave a presentation on the role of ITCin capacity building in land manage-ment.

lar and tailor-made training courses inboth Enschede and Riyadh.MSD/MISGS is the foremost organisa-tion in Saudi Arabia that is involved inall aspects of training in survey, map-ping and the production of a widerange of geo-information products,

as well as being the central authorityin the assurance of quality standards,norms and specifications for spatialdata.

In the course of the visit, presenta-tions were given on ITC’s regular

12 ITC News 2003-2


LARIS Programme: Visit of Russian Delegation


Director of Saudi Military Institute for Survey and Geographic Studies Visits ITC


Members of the visiting LARIS group withITC’s Lyande Eelderink, Julia Bariskina andArbind Tuladhar and Kadaster’s Jan de Jong

ITC’s director external affairs, Drs Sjaak Beerens, exchanging gifts withBrig. Dr Abdulaziz Alobieda

Brig. Dr Abdulaziz Alobieda with Mr Gerrit Huurneman, GFM programme director

courses in geoinformatics (GFM) andgeo-information management (GIM)by the respective programme direc-tors, Mr Gerrit Huurneman and DrKees Bronsveld. Brig. Dr Alobieda ex-pressed interest in ITC’s currentTMS/ESA project (training managersand supervisors at the EgyptianSurvey Authority) and a presentationwas given by the team leader, DrMostafa Radwan.

A Memorandum of Understandingbetween ITC and MISGS was drafted,with the aim of fostering closer col-laborative links between the two or-ganisations, and it is hoped that ITCwill be able to contribute to the ex-panding educational programmebeing developed by MISGS in Riyadh.

On Monday, 28 April 2003, Prof. H.Soekiman Atmosoedaryo, alumnusand honorary fellow of ITC, paid asurprise visit to his alma mater to ac-quaint himself with the latest devel-opments. Prof. Soekiman was one ofthe first two Indonesian profession-als to study at ITC. In the period1951-1953 he followed the courseUse of Aerial Photography forMapping and Interpretation, study-ing under Prof. Dr W. Schermerhorn,ITC’s founding father.

Some years after his return toIndonesia to work for the Ministry ofForestry, Prof. Soekiman was assignedto such countries as Malaysia andRussia for a series of six-month over-seas training courses for the Foodand Agriculture Organisation (FAO) ofthe United Nations. The things hehad learnt at ITC formed an integralpart of these courses.

In 1976, Prof. Soekiman was ap-pointed Honorary Fellow of ITC inrecognition of his contribution to thecollaboration between Indonesia andITC.

Although close to 80 years of age,Prof. Soekiman is enjoying relativelygood health and is still active in cer-tain fields, for example visiting theNetherlands within the framework ofa PROSEA (Plant Resources of SouthEast Asia) conference in Wageningen.

Accompanied by his wife, Prof.Soekiman had a look round the ITCbuilding, checking his stereoscopic vi-sion, enjoying the atmosphere cre-ated by the exceptional architecturaldesign, and talking to severalIndonesian students - spanning anage difference of some 50 years.

13ITC News 2003-2


ITC staff Mr John Horn, Drs Sjaak Beerens and Dr Kees Bronsveld with the Saudi delegationBrig. Dr Abdulaziz Alobieda, Col. Jamil Alharby, Col. Sami Almubarak, Col. Hussain Abodiaband Lt Col. Muhammed Alhowareni

Honorary Fellow Professor Soekiman Makes Surprise Visit to ITC

Sjaak Beerens [email protected]

Meeting Indonesian students Checking stereoscopic abilities

In the context of ITC’s capacitybuilding efforts in the region, aseminar on land reform in SouthernAfrica was organised at ITC on 21May.

Reform of the skewed land owner-ship patterns across the region fol-lowed the implosion of apartheid inSouthern Africa in the early nineties.Well-informed land managing organi-sations were required to deal with themassive land transfers foreseen in thisland reform and, as land was theasset to be transferred, speedy andcomprehensive land information wasan essential management tool.

Under apartheid, the majority of thecitizens in South Africa and Namibiareceived an inferior education, the so-called “Bantu” education, which re-sulted in the extreme scarcity ofqualified personnel to staff the landmanaging institutions.

In 1994 the Ministry of Lands inNamibia (MLRR) entered into a proj-

ect partnership with ITC with respectto training their technical staff. In1996 the Polytechnic of Namibiajoined the partnership as a regionaltraining provider. Currently the an-nual number of students followingthe various land management coursesis about 100. Since the start of theMLRR/ITC series of training projects,over 250 persons have graduatedwith national certificates or nationaldiplomas. A critical mass of technicalexpertise has been generated, creat-ing a substantial impact on the imple-mentation of land reform.

In 1998 the Department of Lands inSouth Africa showed interest in theMLRR/ITC/Polytechnic of Namibiapartnership as a model for educatinga critical mass of its own staff. TheCentre for Environment andDevelopment (CEAD) was the willingand able provider of the customisededucation in land Information man-agement, and the accredited Master’sDegree Course in Land InformationManagement first started in 2000.

The land information managementcourses at the Polytechnic of Namibiaand the University of Natal (SouthAfrica) together form a seamless setof courses ranging from certificatelevel (undergraduate) to Master’s de-gree. And yes, South African landmanagers study at the Polytechnic ofNamibia and the first Namibian hasbeen enrolled in the South AfricanMaster’s Degree Course in LandInformation Management.

The keynote speakers at the seminarwere top decision makers and leadingeducators in land reform in SouthernAfrica: the permanent secretary ofthe Ministry of Lands (Namibia), thedeputy director-general of theDepartment of Lands (South Africa),the director of Land Reform Imple-mentation (South Africa), the deputydirector of Land Reform (Namibia),the rector of the Polytechnic ofNamibia, the director of CEAD (Uni-versity of Natal) and the rector of ITC.

14 ITC News 2003-2

P R O J E C T N E W S

project news

Land Reform in Southern Africa

Hein van Gils [email protected]

Ms. S. Choane, Deputy Director-General,Department of Land Affairs (DLA)

Mr. F. Tsheehama, Permanent Secretary,Ministry of Lands, Resettlement andRehabilitation (MLRR)

Mr. S. Kapiye, Deputy Director Directorate ofLand Reform, Ministry of Lands, Resettlementand Rehabilitation (MLRR) (left). Mr. H. Toolo,Director Land Reform Implementation, Deptof Land Affairs (DLA) (right).

The first block of seminar presenta-tions summarised current policies, tar-gets and trends in land reform inboth South Africa and Namibia.Subsequently the education providersin the second block presented the in-puts and outputs of the ongoing ca-pacity building in land management(Namibia) respectively land informa-

Following a visit to ITC in May bythe Malaysian consulting firmPerunding Bersatu (PB), the Institutehas been contracted to perform aresearch project evaluating multiplepublic transport corridors as a con-tribution to developing the KlangValley Integrated Public TransportSystem and Land Use DevelopmentPlan. This plan will be developed forBahagian Kemajuan WilayahPersekutuan dan PerancanganLembah Klang (BKWPPLK), which isthe Federal Territory Developmentand Klang Valley Planning Division.

Recent studies of the IntegratedUrban Transportation Strategies forEnvironmental Improvement in KualaLumpur (SMURT-KL) forecasted that

traffic congestion would continue torise owing to increases in privatetransport trips within Kuala Lumpurand the region by the year 2020.Current strategies would be inade-quate to handle the escalating trafficproblem and alternative ways need tobe explored to mitigate the situation.An integrated land use and publictransport strategy, such as the KlangValley Integrated Public TransportSystem and Land Use DevelopmentPlan, is expected to raise the level ofmobility via public transport.

The development of a rail-based pub-lic transport network would in futurebecome the basis of a rail spine forthe Klang Valley. This rail spine net-work would be supported by a sub-

network of feeder buses, whichwould be vital to the success of therail spine network. This fundamentalshift would ensure the provision ofgood public transport facilitiesthroughout the Klang Valley, whileconcurrently inducing a reduction inthe usage of private transport.

In this particular research project, ITCwill contribute expertise in providinga methodology and developing anevaluation framework by structuringelicited objectives, criteria and indica-tors in relation to spatial and non-spatial data available from amaximum of four different view-points. It will perform a (spatial) mul-ticriteria evaluation of alternative railroutes from a maximum of four dif-

tion management (South Africa) forland reform by the project partner-ship.

Two panels generated lively discus-sions after each block of presenta-tions, with considerable participationfrom the audience in the ITC audito-rium. A statement by an ITC PhD fel-

low from Zimbabwe led to an en-lightening debate on the “Willing-Seller-Willing-Buyer” principle of theland reform in South Africa, Namibiaand, early on, in Zimbabwe. Those at-tending the seminar could experienceat first hand the unwavering dedica-tion and passion underlying the landreform.

15ITC News 2003-2


ITC Wins Contract for Evaluating Public Transport Corridors of Klang Valley, Malaysia

Ali Sharifi [email protected]


Dr. T. Tjivikua, Rector of Polytechnic ofNamibia

Prof.Dr. R. Fincham, CEAD, University ofNatal

Dr. D. Rugege, CEAD, University of Natal

ferent viewpoints. Ultimately, a con-flict analysis of these viewpoints willbe carried out in a workshop and aconsultative process will be con-ducted with the local authority.

Within ITC, the Planning and DecisionMethods Group specialises in theorydevelopment and the application ofspatial planning and decision supportsystems and methods. ITC has beeninvolved in training several Malaysiangovernment organisations in the fieldof theory and application of spatialmulticriteria evaluation for problemanalysis, solution design and optionselection.

In March 2003 a first group of 11MSc students from the School ofUrban Studies (SUS) of Wuhan Uni-versity arrived at ITC for a six-monthperiod of MSc research and thesiswriting.

SUS has its roots in an ITC interna-tional education cooperation project,with initially postgraduate diplomacourses in GIS and remote sensingapplications for urban planning andmanagement. Over the last 15 yearsmany SUS staff have studied at ITC atPM and MSc level and this year two

staff members received their doctor-ates from Utrecht University and ITC.

Gradually SUS has been integratedinto the university structure of theformer Wuhan Technical University ofSurveying and Mapping, and since2000 it has been part of WuhanUniversity. The SUS three-year MSccourse in urban planning has manyelements in common with ITC’scourse Urban Planning and LandAdministration (UPLA).

The 35 students starting their MSc

studies in September 2001 were of-fered the opportunity to conduct partof their MSc research at ITC. Stafffrom ITC have given a distance edu-cation workshop and two modules inWuhan.

Based on English qualifications andthe quality of the research proposal,11 students were finally selected forthe joint MSc study. The thesis reportswill be defended in early September2003, and the final graduation cere-mony will take place in Wuhan inJune 2004.

An advantage of this joint course isthat it provides students within theChinese MSc structure with the op-portunity to experience a different re-search and cultural environment.

The partnership and dialogue be-tween SUS and ITC is supportedthrough the regular exchange of lec-turing staff and the possibilities forjoint research and projects.

16 ITC News 2003-2


Wuhan University – ITC Joint MSc Course in Urban Planning

Jan Turkstra [email protected]

Congratulations after the contract agreement: Mr Kamaruzaman Hussen (unit secretary, PrimeMinister’s Department), Ir Azman Omar (project director, Perunding Bersatu), Dr Luc Boerboom(ITC Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Geo-Information Management), Mr John Horn (ITC Bureau Project Services) and Ir Ab. Samad Talib (project manager, PerundingBersatu)

Chinese course participants and departmental staff shortly after the start of the ITC programme

A special two-month course was de-veloped for 15 participants fromTrujillo (third largest city of Peru,with approximately 800,000 inhabi-tants). The course was held at ITCfrom 24 March until 23 May 2003. Apreparatory phase with introductorycourses on GIS and database devel-opment was conducted at the GISlaboratory of the local partner uni-versity, Universidad Privada AntenorOrrego (UPAO). A follow-up phasewill take place in Trujillo in the sec-ond half of 2003. The Dutch govern-ment, through the NUFFIC specialfellowship programme, financed thecourse.

The course was designed to equipparticipants with specific skills in de-veloping and integrating databases,which could then be used to furtherdevelop the local spatial data infra-structure SIMTRU (Sistema deInformación Metropolitano deTRUjillo). The course will produce amunicipal website that will includepart of SIMTRU.

A special course conducted last yearfor staff from Trujillo resulted in the

production of an environmental atlasof Trujillo. Following a special last-minute request by the mayor ofTrujillo, a CD-Rom version of the atlaswas included in the course objectives.A first prototype was produced dur-ing the course and will be finalisedtowards the end of 2003.

The course participants came fromthe municipality (planning, informa-tion centre, cadastre and tax office),the regional offices of the Ministriesof Education, Health, Agriculture andFinance, the regional government,the public register and UPAO.

Working directly with the municipalityof Trujillo over the last three years hashighlighted the difference betweentheory and practice in the develop-ment and implementation of geo-in-formation systems. The positive butcritical attitude of the mayor and themunicipal council necessitated short-term results and benefits, but withoutlosing the long-term vision of aSIMTRU embedded into different mu-nicipal departments and other geo-data producers and users.

The challenge now for ITC is to usethe gained experience in its educationand research activities, as well as toapply these techniques in projects forother municipalities.

17ITC News 2003-2


Special Course for Trujillo, Peru

Jan Turkstra [email protected]

Señora Leyla Moran Castillo receives hercourse certificate from Dr Jan Turkstra

Ir Mark Brussel, UPLA programme director,congratulates Señor Segundo FranciscoGarcia Galarreta

Course participants and staff after the graduation ceremony

In 1996 Karin applied for her MSc degree atITC. Her final report, “Spectrometer Dataand Multidate Radar for the Detection ofChange in Structure of Grasslands”, was theresult of the relentless lobbying by Prof.Andrew Skidmore for research with hyper-spectral remote sensing at ITC.

Prof. Skidmore invited Karin to continue herstudies in the context of a PhD. A fieldworkarea was found on Schiermonnikoog, andresearch on the topic of vegetation mappingusing hyperspectral remote sensing data andancillary data in an expert system was con-ducted in a joint project with the DutchSurvey Department and funded by the BCRS.Karin was involved with hyperspectral imageprocessing, data handling, programmingduring software development, and testingtheoretical concepts. The theoretical devel-

opments were then applied to vegetationecology. She also became a reviewer for theInternational Journal of Remote Sensing andRemote Sensing of Environment, was in-volved in lecturing and tutoring, and under-took consulting work for the Dutchgovernment, applying an expert system tomap dune vegetation.

The research culminated in the thesisHyperspectral Remote Sensing of VegetationSpecies Distribution in a Saltmarsh, which isbased on several published journal articlesand others that are still under review. Karinwas awarded her doctorate - a joint doctor-ate of the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation(ITC) and Wageningen University - on 4March 2003.

18 ITC News 2003-2

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

research news

PhD Graduation: Karin Sigrid SchmidtTuesday, 4 March 2003, ITC Enschede [email protected]

Karin Sigrid Schmidt was born in Windhoek, Namibia, on 6 November 1970. At the DeutscheHöhere Privatschule in Windhoek she acquired her general knowledge and was taught themost important survival strategies. After her schooling, she went to South Africa to study forher degree in geography and mathematics at the University of Stellenbosch.

Her first job was at the National Remote Sensing Centre - part of the Directorate of Forestryunder the Ministry of Environment and Tourism of Namibia. As a research scientist she was re-sponsible for the research and consulting activities of the National Remote Sensing Centre inthe fields of GIS and remote sensing, including system administration of the local area net-work with UNIX and DOS/Windows operation systems. During this time she also followed ad-vanced courses in ArcInfo (at Geographic Information Management Systems (GIMS), Midrand,South Africa) and in system administration of UNIX-operated systems (at CAD/CAM SystemsHoldings (Pty) Ltd, Johannesburg, South Africa). The job involved a considerable amount offieldwork for vegetation mapping using remote sensing.

Copies of Hyperspectral Remote Sensingof Vegetation Species Distribution in aSaltmarsh by Dr K.S. Schmidt are available from theITC Bookshop.P.O. Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede, The NetherlandsE-mail: [email protected], Fax: +31 (0)53 487 44 00Price: m15,00 (excluding mailing costs),Dissertation number: DIS096

Graduate Karin Sigrid Schmidt

Graduate with promotorProf.dr. A.K. Skidmore (ITC)

Multiscale Perspectives of Species Richnessin East AfricaThis dissertation describes and analyses ani-mal species richness in East Africa from amultiscale perspective. Diversity patternswere studied at sub-continental, nationaland sub-national levels. The study demon-strated that species diversity patterns werescale-dependent. Diversity patterns variedwith spatial and temporal scales of observa-tion. Processes and parameters important atone scale were not as relevant at another.

At sub-continental level large herbivore as-semblages revealed maximum diversity at in-termediate ecosystem productivity. Thisfinding is consistent with other studies on

the relation between productivity andspecies richness. Furthermore, when com-paring climatic and remotely sensed esti-mates of ecosystem productivity, the firstwas observed to be a better predictor of di-versity. Geographical patterns in species rich-ness proved to be very similar amongdifferent taxonomic groupings of animalspecies. Most taxa revealed maximum diver-sity at intermediate productivity.

The coexistence of pastoralism and wildlifewas analysed at Kenyan national level. Astudy of 17 arid and semi-arid districts re-vealed that the biomass of human and live-stock populations was negatively related towildlife biomass. An increase in human pop-ulation density was associated with a signifi-cant decline in the density of wildlifepopulations. This spatio-temporal extensionof the “pastoral road to extinction” modelprovided more insights into the antagonisticrelation between people, livestock andwildlife. Also it allowed the areas of conflictneeding specific attention to be localised.

A further study in the arid zone of northernKenya revealed that wildlife distribution was

19ITC News 2003-2


Graduate Mohammed Yahya Said

Graduate with promotorProf.dr. H.H.T. Prins

(Wageningen University)

PhD Graduation: Mohammed Yahya SaidFriday, 21 February 2003, ITC Enschede [email protected]

Mohammed was born on 22 April 1960. He completed his undergraduate studies in 1984with a BSc degree in zoology and botany. In 1985 he joined the Department of ResourceSurveys and Remote Sensing (DRSRS) as a biologist. He was involved in ecological monitoringwork, in particular conducting an aerial census of large mammals over the Kenya rangelands.Later, in 1987, he joined the Data Management Section and took on additional responsibili-ties for coordinating the development of a wildlife/livestock spatial database, while remaininginvolved in aerial census work and other ecological monitoring activities.

In 1989 he joined ITC for a postgraduate diploma course lasting 11 months. Later, in 1992,he joined Wageningen Agricultural University and followed an MSc course in the applicationof GIS in natural resources management. In 1994 he was involved in the further developmentof GIS and the updating of the African Elephant Database, a joint programme carried out bythe African Elephant Specialist Group (AEfSG), the United Nations Environmental Programme(UNEP) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In 1997 he was madehead of the Data Management Section at DRSRS. In the same year he participated as a sys-tem analyst in the National Land Degradation Mapping Programme jointly conducted byUNEP, DRSRS, the Kenya Meteorological Department, Nairobi University, Kenya Soil Surveysand ILRIC. He worked for more than a year as a World Bank consultant (GIS application spe-cialist). In mid-1999 he started his PhD research at ITC, and the last three and half years werespent investigating the factors that influence the species diversity of large herbivores at vari-ous spatial scales, ranging from sub-continental to local level.

negatively associated with the pres-ence of livestock and water-points.This suggests that livestock-orientedinterventions in rangelands directlydegrade wildlife resources. Further, itwas demonstrated that the localprocesses (competition and distur-bance) have a direct link with regionalpatterns. In the northwestern, centraland coastal areas of Kenya there aresigns of local species extinction.

Finally, studies were conducted atsub-national level in the Masai Maraecosystem. Significant declines wererecorded for ten out of 13 wild ungu-late species between the late 1970sand the turn of the century. Furtheranalysis provided evidence that these

declines were related to changes inland use rather than climate. Thissuggests that the processes underly-ing the dynamics of wildlife in theMasai Mara ecosystem differ fromthose reported for the neighbouringSerengeti National Park in Tanzania.These results indicate that conserva-tion and rural development have ar-rived at a crossroads. Furtheruncontrolled rural development willlead to a continued decline in, andthe eventual extinction of, wildlife.

The challenge would be to integraterural development with sustainablewildlife conservation, with the latterdefining the boundary conditions fordevelopment. This would require thelong-term planning of land use,based on a realistic assessment of theinteraction between wildlife conser-vation and other forms of land use,carried out at spatio-temporal scalesthat transcend what appears to beachievable according to the social,economic and political agenda.

20 ITC News 2003-2


Zhengdong Huang was born on 14 October 1968 in Hubei, China. In 1986 he went to theWuhan Technical University of Surveying and Mapping (WTUSM). After two years of study inthe Department of Geodesy, he transferred to the newly established Education Centre forUrban and Rural Surveys, Planning and Management (ECURSPAM) at the same university. In1990, Zhengdong Huang was awarded a Bachelor’s degree in urban planning, and receivedthe Graduate of the Year Award from the university. In the same year, he became a staffmember of ECURSPAM. He received an MSc degree at ITC in 1993. Since then he has workedat the School of Urban Studies (SUS) at WTUSM, now the new Wuhan University. In 1999 hestarted his PhD study at ITC.

Zhengdong Huang has been working on database management systems (DBMS), geographi-cal information systems (GIS), and the application of these technologies in urban planningand management. His research interests include urban information systems, urban transportdata integration, transport planning and transport simulation.

Data Integration for Urban TransportPlanningUrban transport planning aims at balancingconflicting challenges by promoting more ef-ficient transport systems while reducing neg-ative impacts. The availability of better andmore reliable data has not only stimulatednew planning methodologies, but also cre-ated challenges for efficient data manage-ment and data integration. These taskscannot be effectively fulfilled without theapplication of advanced information tech-nologies.

The major focus of this study is to improvemethodologies for representing and inte-grating multi-source and multi-format urbantransport data. This research approaches theissue of data integration based on the classi-fication of urban transport data from both afunctional and a representational perspec-tive. The functional perspective considers thecharacteristics of the urban transport systemand planning requirements, and categorisesdata into supply, demand, performance andimpact. The representational perspectiveconsiders transport data in terms of their

Copies of Multiscale Perspectives of Species Richness in East Africa byDr Mohammed Yahya Said are available from the ITC Bookshop.P.O. Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede, The NetherlandsE-mail: [email protected], Fax: +31 (0)53 487 44 00Price: m15,00 (excluding mailing costs), Dissertation number: DIS095

PhD Graduation: Zhengdong HuangFriday, 28 March 2003, Utrecht University [email protected]

Graduate ZhengdongHuang with promotorsProf.dr. F.I. Masser (ITC) andProf.dr. H.F.L. Ottens(Utrecht University)

spatial and non-spatial characteristicsthat are important for data represen-tation. These two perspectives corre-spond to institutional andmethodological data integration re-spectively, and are the foundation oftransport data integration. This re-search is based on the city of Wuhanin China.

The methodological issues of trans-port data integration are based onthe representational perspective. Aframework for data integration hasbeen put forward, in which spatialdata are classified as point, linear andareal types, and the non-spatial dataare sorted out as values and temporalattributes. This research has probedthe integration of point, linear andareal transport data, respectively,within a GIS environment.

The locations of socio-economic ac-tivities are point-type data that needto be spatially referenced. A locationreferencing process requires a refer-encing base, source address units andreferencing methods. The referencingbase consists of such spatial featuresas streets, street addresses, points ofinterest and publicly known zones.These referencing bases have differ-ent levels of spatial preciseness andhave to be kept in a hierarchy. Sourceaddresses in Chinese cities are usuallywritten as one sentence; this has tobe divided into address units for au-tomatic geo-coding. As they are diffi-cult to separate from the sentences,the address units have to be clearlyidentified in survey forms. Dependingon the types of address units, the ref-erencing process makes use of eithersemantic name matching or addressmatching to link source addresses tofeatures in the referencing base. Thename-based and road-based refer-encing schemes constitute a compre-hensive location referencingframework that is applicable toChinese cities.

The relationship between two sets oflinear features can be identified withspatial overlay in the case of inde-pendent representation, or with inter-nal linkage in a dependentrepresentation. The bus line is onesuch feature that runs on the streetnetwork and can be dependently ref-erenced by streets. In the heavily bus-oriented city of Wuhan, bus linesconstitute a large public transit net-work that is important to transportplanning and management. This re-search has extended conventional busline representation to a more detailedlevel. Each bus line has been differen-tiated as two directional routes thatare defined separately with referenceto the street network. Accordingly, in-dividual route stops are also repre-sented in the database. These stopsites are spatial features with geome-try that are linked to street segmentsand bus routes by linear location ref-erencing methods. A data model link-ing the base street network, bus linesand routes, line and route stops, andother bus operations data has beenconstructed. The benefits of the de-tailed model have been demonstratedin several transport applications.

Zonal data transitions include threetypes of operations, i.e. aggregation,areal interpolation and disaggrega-tion. This study focuses on disaggre-gating data from larger zones tosmaller zones. In the context ofWuhan, zonal data disaggregation in-

volves the allocation of statistical datafrom statistical units to smallerparcels. Given the availability of landuse data, a weighted approach re-flecting spatial variations has beenapplied in the disaggregation process.Two technical processes for disaggre-gation have been examined.Weighted area-weighting (WAW) isan adaptation of the classic area-weighting method, and Monte Carlosimulation (MC) is a stochasticprocess based on a raster data model.The MC outcome is more convenientfor subsequent re-aggregation, and isalso directly available for micro-simu-lation. An important contributionarising from this zonal integrationstudy is that two standardised disag-gregation tools have been developedwithin a GIS environment.

The research has also explored the in-stitutional aspect of data integration.The findings of this study show thatthere is generally a good institutionaltransport structure in the city ofWuhan and that there is also a grow-ing awareness of using informationtechnology. Professional cooperationexists among transport organisations,but not as yet at a level for data shar-ing. An integrated data supportframework requires data sharing. Insuch a framework, it should be possi-ble to know where to get data forspecific transport studies, or whichkind of research an institution sup-ports.

21ITC News 2003-2


Copies of Data Integration for Urban Transport Planning by DrZhengdong Huang are available from the ITC Bookshop.P.O. Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede, The NetherlandsE-mail: [email protected], Fax: +31 (0)53 487 44 00Price: m15,00 (excluding mailing costs), Dissertation number: DIS098

On 4 June 2003 José Campos dosSantos from Brazil became the100th research student of ITC to beawarded a PhD. On 6 February 1990,Dr Joseph Akinyede from Nigeriawas the first. Looking back over thepast 13 years, ITC’s acting researchcoordinator Prof. Martin Hale givesthe long and short of changes in theInstitute’s PhD studies and empha-sises the importance of a more proj-ect-oriented approach for a moreeffective contribution to the world’senvironmental problems.

Martin Hale: “When we first startedPhD research in an organised andstructured programme, the opportu-nities were largely driven by the ex-pertise of individual senior staffmembers. Either they had identifiedproblems elsewhere in the world, orthe input came from individual stu-dents. Increasingly we are organisingour research programme under clearthemes or spearheads. The researchprogramme has been developed to fitITC’s knowledge field. It is problem-and output-oriented, inter- and multi-disciplinary in character, and is em-bedded in the national and Europeanscientific network. Our PhD studentsexecute work packages that are com-ponents of research projects we arecarrying out within the programmespearheads. In that sense we are be-coming more focused, having a largenumber of PhD students contributingto the solution of related problemsrather than dealing with a variety ofmore isolated problems.”

One of the spearheads in the ITC re-search programme is geo-informationscience and earth observation for abetter understanding of globalchange. The research of the 100thPhD student, as well as the career ofthe first PhD graduate, has ground incommon with this major issue.

The 100th PhD graduate, José Santosdos Campos, swam and canoed inthe Amazon river in his youth andgrew up in an area of enormous bio-diversity. He has witnessed an im-mense change in the ecosystem. Thatis why, in spite of an ICT background,he chose ITC for his PhD study. Histhesis comprises his investigation intothe development and implementationof a new database architecture thatcan meet the specific demands ofbiosciences*.

Two years of biological survey in theAmazon and the contacts with vari-ous organisations and institutions forthe study and conservation of thearea are at the heart of his research.His initial ignorance in the field ofbiosciences needed some rectification- not least in order to set at ease theminds of the biologists in the area,who do not believe that computerscan contribute to solving the problemof environmental change. Onlythrough simulations and models cancomputers and bioscientific data yield

information useful for conservationand protective measures. The devel-opment of this particular informationsystem is also important becausethere are institutions in the Amazonarea that possess data collected overthe past 100 years. These data are ofgreat value and need to be consoli-dated and shared.

Also the shortage of money for scien-tific purposes in the area has put

22 ITC News 2003-2


100th PhD Graduation at ITC: a milestone

ITC News [email protected]

From left to right: graduate with Dr.Ir. R.A. de By (promotor ITC), Prof.dr. W.H.M. Zijm(Chairman) and Prof.dr. P.M.G. Apers (promotor Twente University)

The 100th Phd graduate José Campos dosSantos

* A biodiversity information system in anopen data/metadatabase architecture

enormous pressure on scientists to domore with less money. In future thesystem, with only limited means,should be able to present a goodoverview of the environmental situa-tion in the Amazon. The data will bemade available to all parties con-cerned with environmental change.

According to Martin Hale, geo-infor-mation science is a rapidly developingarea at the moment. One reason forthis is the fact that more satellite-borne sensors are being put intoorbit. This will result in an increasing

amount of data for ITC to work on. Although the subject of Dr JosephAkinyede’s PhD thesis does not di-rectly touch on satellite sensors andgeodata, his present job certainlydoes. His thesis was about highwaycost modelling and route selectionusing a geotechnical information sys-tem. Although his studies at ITCgreatly enhanced his performanceand professional career as a roadplanner, unfortunately little practicaluse was made of his knowledge,owing to the lack of funds and com-puter facilities. But Dr Akinyede isnow director of NASRDA (NationalSpace Research and DevelopmentAgency) in Nigeria. NASRDA was es-tablished by the Nigerian governmentto implement the National SpacePolicy and Programme. NASRDA car-ries out research and development inspace science and technology for thesustainable socio-economic develop-ment of Nigeria. This includes thebuilding and launching satellites (e.g.NigeriaSat-1, which will be launched

in July 2003) and space applicationsupport for sustainable developmentprogrammes.

In his current job the experience hegained at ITC is of great value: “I ac-quired a basic expertise in the use ofremote sensing and GIS for solvingsocio-economic problems, and a ca-pacity for conducting independent re-search - as well as a capacity for hardwork. It was special being the firstPhD student in such a highly rep-utable institution of internationalstanding. It was also a successful ex-periment for both myself and ITC. ForITC it marked the fulfilment of anambition, and it served as a solidfoundation for others to build upon.”

23ITC News 2003-2


Dr. Joseph Akiniyede the first research student of ITC

Onisimo Mutanga, a PhD studentunder the supervision of Prof.Andrew K. Skidmore (NRS depart-ment), won the best conferencepaper presentation award at the 3rdEARSeL (European Association ofRemote Sensing Laboratories) work-shop held in Oberpfaffenhofen,Germany, from 13 to 16 May 2003.

The paper, entitled “Continuum–re-moved absorption features estimatetropical savanna grass quality in situ”,describes a novel technique for esti-

mating the foliar concentration ofmacronutrients (N, P, K, Ca, Mg) inthe grasslands of the Kruger NationalPark, South Africa. The results arebased on field spectral measurementsmade using a GER 3700 spectrome-

ter. The study is critical for a betterunderstanding of wildlife feeding pat-terns. The technique is now beingtested for mapping macronutrients inthe park, using HYMAP hyperspectralimagery.

Best Conference Paper Presentation Award

Onisimo Mutanga [email protected]

Onnie collecting samples for chemical analysisLunchtime in the field – Onnie and Jelle

Ale Raza is a software engineer atthe Environmental Systems ResearchInstitute (ESRI), Redlands, USA, theworld’s leading GIS organisation.After completing his MSc studies(with distinction) in GIS for urbanapplications at ITC in 1997, Dr Razawent on to receive his PhD from ITCand the University of Twente, theNetherlands, in early 2001. The mainfocus of his study was object-ori-ented spatio-temporal data model-ling and urban applications.Currently his research interests in-clude the modelling and applicationof spatio-temporal and versiondatabases, and scaling and perform-ance issues of large spatial data-bases. Dr Raza has published severalhighly-regarded GIS papers in pro-fessional journals and internationalconference proceedings, and in2000 he received URISA’s (Urban andRegional Information SystemsAssociation) Horwood Award,Honourable Mention.

This year was marked by anothermilestone. In the ninth annualApplication Development Trends(ADT) Innovator Awards, Dr Raza’swork adopted by Jefferson County,Colorado, USA, won the categoryComponent-Based Development withthe project “Objects keep track ofcounty addresses”. This project isbased on Dr Raza’s PhD research onspatio-temporal databases.

ADT’s editors and a team of expertsfrom the Boston consulting firmKeane Inc. spent several hours evalu-ating more than 50 projects in orderto determine this year’s winners. Thejudges looked at the willingness of

development managers to take sub-stantial risks in building systems thatprovide a competitive advantage.

Objects in a GIS are dynamic. In a tra-ditional (atemporal) GIS, however,these objects are treated as static andare deleted whenever there is a trans-action in the system. In spatio-tempo-ral databases or temporal GIS, oldobjects are not deleted but are keptin the system with a valid time stamp,along with their usual topology.Parcels are dynamic objects. In allparts of the world, a parcel object is afundamental unit in many urbanplanning applications (operational orstrategic). Everything from cityboundaries and parks to transporta-tion networks can be built up froman assemblage of parcels. From theperspective of geoinformatics andurban planning, an issue challengingmany computer scientists and plan-ners has been the managing, query-ing and display of spatio-temporaldata. Difficulties are due to the inher-ent complexity of spatio-temporaldata. Dr Raza was able to dilute thecomplexity by designing a modelbased on object-oriented conceptsand the mathematical theory of cellcomplexes. In this model, called thecell-tuple-based spatio-temporal datamodel, the topology is stored explic-itly.

In early 2001, Jefferson Countyneeded to change the way it trackedits land parcels and addresses, with-out disrupting operations or losing orcorrupting data. Commercial off-the-shelf software could not provide thenecessary functionality or extendibil-ity. The county realised it needed to

upgrade its County AddressManagement System (CAMS) andcreate a unified spatial and tabularsystem to keep track of the addressesin the county. The county decided torestructure CAMS in a component-based Java architecture running in aLinux environment. The goal was tocreate a system that could unify thespatial data from the county’s ESRIArcInfo GIS software and the tabulardata from its DB2 database, in orderto keep track of the county’s 220,000parcels and 350,000 addresses. Theydecided on an object-based ap-proach.

The county wanted to build a parcelobject component that would main-tain both spatial and tabular datawhile tracking spatial changes overtime. This part of the project - histori-cal versioning - was the biggest chal-lenge (David Gallaher, Director IT,Jefferson County, Colorado). “No onehad ever built a commercial, trulyspatial object that could manage

24 ITC News 2003-2

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

ITC Alumnus and ADT 2003 Innovator Awards

Ale Raza [email protected]

life after itc

Dr. Ale Raza

time,” he said. “When we firstlooked at it, we didn’t think it waspossible.” Not one of the nine devel-opers working on the project had hadany experience with object-orienteddesign. The problem, according toGallaher, was that taking “snap-shots” of the entire data set at anygiven time (a common solution totracking spatial changes temporally)would not satisfy the county’s re-quirements. Instead, the developershad to track spatial change over timeon a per-parcel level.

Jefferson County decided to adapt DrRaza’s research on object-orientedmodelling for the parcel object. Thiswould allow the county to create theparcel object it wanted. The countyused Versant ODBMS for the object-oriented database. This product al-lowed the county developers to useparent-child relationships to managewhat happened to a parcel, zoning orany boundary. It also allowed them todetermine spatial change over time,not by a snapshot of a layer but by adiscrete feature. Based on the workof Dr Raza, the county came up witha unique GIS, which it callsTemporal/Spatial Information Systems(T/SIS). This new version enables anaddress to be treated as an attributeof a parcel, and introduces the abilityto include time in the GIS.

In line with its ongoing support its‘Alumni Interaction System”, theInstitute initiates the establishmentof ITC Alumni Associations, the maingoal being to maintain contact withas many of its alumni as possible. Itis with pleasure that we announcethe launch of a new ITC AlumniAssociation in India

With over 200 graduates from ITC inthe last 15 years alone, and a thrivingeducational partnership with the sev-eral prominent educational and re-search centres, the sub-continent wasa logical choice for this initiative.

ITC is delighted to announce that Dr.Mahavir, Professor of Planning and

Head, Centre for Remote Sensing,School of Planning and Architecture,New Delhi, has consented to act aslocal coordinator of the association.Prof. Mahivir studied at ITC for hisPhD on “Modelling settlement pat-terns for metropolitan regions: inputsfrom remote sensing”, graduating in1996. Earlier, in 1989, he completed

The county can now link a variety ofinformation to the parcel address,and then augment that data with his-torical data. This means that residentscan look at the history of any parcelbefore buying it. The county canmake spatial objects persistent asready-to-use actual objects and avoidthe overhead in dealing with object-to-relational methods. But this sim-plicity comes at a price - topology isnot explicitly stored in the databaseand must be re-created on the fly.

The parcel object component servesas the engine for the county’s newparcel/address management systemcalled Encoded Neighborhood DataObject Repository (Endor). To supportthe integration of Endor with thecounty’s other applications, the IT de-partment built a J2EE-based hub-and-spoke architecture, using BEAWebLogic Integration as the hub. TheIT staff selected the Linux platform forthe application server and for futureapplication development. In-housesoftware is now built primarily withJava code, using BEA’s WebLogicServer and Integrator components

“If every parcel were tied to one com-mon set of data, we’d never have to

re-precinct again,” said Gallaher.“We’d never have to deal with a newprecinct or zoning map if all thecounty’s tabular and spatial data weretied to one package.”

The parcel-object-based systemmakes more information available on-line to county workers and residents.This should reduce the amount oftime county employees spend creat-ing data sets and answering individ-ual questions. It should also help thecounty to serve its increasing popula-tion with its current resources.Furthermore, it is a core piece of in-frastructure that will be used to buildadditional applications in the future.

By developing the application in Java,utilising J2EE design strategies andpersisting the data in an OODB(Versant), the team eliminated theneed for an EJB construct. This simpli-fied the model, although the use ofemergent technologies increased therisk. The result was an inventive use ofspatial relationships via objects usingan OODB, and a uniquely extensiblesystem that is likely to be copied byother counties (Neville Goedhals,Manager, Enterprise ArchitectureGlobal Services, Keane Inc.).

25ITC News 2003-2


For more details please visit:http://www.adtmag.com/article.asp?id=7448http://www.adtmag.com/article.asp?id=7457

ITC to Initiate Alumni Association in India


First of all, I would like to take theopportunity to show my great appre-ciation to ITC. After I finished mystudy in geoinformatics at ITC, I wasnominated as an ESRI intern at myMSc. graduation ceremony in 2002.This internship, which will last sixmonths, started on 8 February 2003.

After 35 years of development, ESRIis now the largest GIS software pro-duction company in the world, andundoubtedly influences GIS trendsand techniques in many ways.Besides its main task of GIS softwareproduction, ESRI has been involved inmany scientific research and educa-tion activities in the field. Reflectingtheir close relationship, ESRI and theUniversity of Redlands jointly organisea GIS seminar at ESRI everyWednesday afternoon. Many visitingprofessors are invited to share theirknowledge, information and experi-ence - moreover, ESRI managers takethe opportunity to introduce their

staff to new ArcGIS products and fu-ture prospects. It has been such awonderful chance for me to learnand to share. I’ve been enjoying theseseminars a great deal and haven’twanted to miss even one.

Throughout the year the ESRILearning Center offers various typesof excellent training courses relatedto its different products. As an intern

from ITC, I have the privilege of beingable to take any courses. After study-ing GIS theory at ITC, it is a great op-portunity for me to learn the practicalside, with plenty of hands-on knowl-edge from course instructors. Thecourses I’m taking (such as ArcGISDesktop, ArcGIS Extension,Customising ArcGIS with ArcObjects,ArcSDE, ArcIMS and GISManagement) cover many ESRI prod-ucts.

Apart from attending courses, I alsowork in the internationalisationgroup. The main task of this group isto test ESRI software in different lan-guage environments. At my request,they arranged for me to test varioussoftware packages after I had com-pleted the relevant courses. It is defi-nitely the ideal way to learn andunderstand. Based on my knowledgeof, and interest in, programming withArcObjects, I was asked to develop ademo to show how ArcGIS works in

the Postgraduate Diploma course onUrban Survey and Human SettlementAnalysis.

As local coordinator, his terms of ref-erence will include, the establishmentof the association, and on-going co-ordination of its activities. He willmaintains contact with a wide circleof ITC alumni throughout the countryand actively encourages them to par-ticipate in the association.

It is intended to organize periodicmeetings of association, and hope-fully accompany these with talks byvisiting ITC staff.

Though regular liaison with ITC Prof.Mahavir will endeavour to act as afocal point for information relating toITC programmes and new initiatives.

26 ITC News 2003-2


Prof. Dr. Mahavir who has kindly agreed toact as coordinator of the ITC Indian AlumniAssociation

If you wish to participate in the association, please provide your latest contact information to Prof. Mahavir.

For more general informationabout the association pleasecontact either:

Prof. Dr. MahavirSchool of Planning andArchitecture 4-B, I. P. Estate, New Delhi110002 INDIAE-mail:[email protected] HornBureau Project ServicesITC EnschedeE-mail: [email protected]

My ESRI Internship - A Precious Experience

Yongjun Zhao [email protected]

From left to right: Rolf de By, Yongjun Zhao,Lyande Eelderink, Mark Noort

the Chinese environment. This demowas presented at the ESRI 2003 UserConference.

Besides studying and working at ESRI,I was honoured to be the only one offour interns to have the chance to at-tend the ESRI User Conference in SanDiego. It was the first time in my lifethat I participated in such a large-scale conference of high professionallevel. I managed to attend many dif-ferent technical workshops andgained a deeper insight into bothESRI and ArcGIS. I came to realise

Since February 2003 ITC has been en-gaged in an institutional cooperationprogramme with the Department ofGeology and Mines (DGM) of theRoyal Government of Bhutan. Thecore of this programme is capacitybuilding and institutional strengthen-ing to cope with any slope instabilityproblems that arise in developing theinfrastructure of this small Himalayancountry between India and China(Tibet). For more details of this pro-gramme, see ITC News 2002-4.

ITC team leader in Thimphu Dr NiekRengers (associate professor of engi-neering geology and from 1992 to2000 ITC’s vice-rector) invited theBhutanese alumni for a meeting inthe Yeedzin Guesthouse in the capitalon 25 April. A total of 38 Bhutanesehave followed courses at ITC sincethe late 1980s and of these 23 partic-ipated in the meeting.

Just over half the alumni are em-ployed by the Survey of Bhutan.Other employer organisations are theMinistry of Agriculture (Departmentof Forestry Services, as well as thePolicy and Planning Division), theRenewable Natural Resources

Research Centre, the UrbanDevelopment and Housing Division ofthe Ministry of Communications, theDepartment of Geology and Mines,and the Thimphu City Corporation.

Mr Sangay Gyaltsen (ITC MSc with aspecialisation in engineering geology)gave a presentation on the DGM-ITCInstitutional Cooperation Programme.This was followed by a presentationby Niek Rengers on recent develop-ments at ITC (a new name for ITC,what does this mean? the new set-up

of the educational programmes; re-search spearheads; the new AlumniInteraction System (ITC-AIS, e-mail:[email protected]).

After these presentations there was alively get-together, with a buffet din-ner and the opportunity to exchangeanecdotes about the study periodspent at ITC. Some expressed thewish to establish an official ITCalumni association in the country.What will be the outcome? Only timewill tell.

even more just how lucky I am to behere for six months, working to-gether with these experts. And Igreatly enjoyed the beautiful city ofSan Diego.

Being an intern at ESRI, I always thinkof myself as an ambassador for ITC atRedlands. Luckily I have an ITC tag onmy ESRI badge, so I take every oppor-tunity to introduce people to ITCwhenever they’re interested, and I amvery proud to present myself as anITC graduate.

Please allow me to thank ITC and theITC selection committee for ESRI in-ternational internships. Special thanksgo to Dr Rolf de By, Ms LyandeEelderink and Ms Marijke Smit, whohave all supported me in my intern-ship in many ways.

I will complete my internship nextmonth and then go back to China.With all the knowledge and experi-ence I have gained at ITC and ESRI, Iam looking forward to working witheven greater professionalism.

27ITC News 2003-2


ITC Alumni Meeting in Thimphu, Bhutan, 25 April 2003

Niek Rengers [email protected]

ITC Bhutanese alumni of the last 25 years with Dr Niek Rengers (front row, far right), Mr Dorji Wangda, director of the Department of Geology and Mines (second row, far left), andMs Yangchen Doma, secretary Dutch consulate in Bhutan (seated next to Niek Rengers)

Space Applications for SustainableDevelopment

08-Sep-03 - 11-Sep-03Austria, Graz

http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/SAP/act2003/austria/[email protected]

SPIE’s Remote Sensing Europe

08-Sep-03 - 12-Sep-03Spain, Barcelona

http://[email protected]

World Summit for Satellite Financing

09-Sep-03 - 10-Sep-03France, Paris


International Conference onMathematical Modelling ofEcosystems

09-Sep-03 - 12-Sep-03Kazakhstan, Almaty

http://www.space-science.narod.ru/[email protected]; [email protected]

ION GPS/GNSS 2003

09-Sep-03 - 12-Sep-03United States, Portland

http://www.ion.org

Scales and Dynamics in Observing theEnvironment

10-Sep-03 - 12-Sep-03United Kingdom, Nottingham

http://www.geog.nottingham.ac.uk/~rsp-soc03/[email protected]

15th Annual EAIE Conference

10-Sep-03 - 13-Sep-03Austria, Vienna

http://www.eaie.nl/conf2003/

International Congress of theGeographers of the Islamic World

17-Sep-03 - 18-Sep-03Iran, Tehran

http://www.igctmu.org/[email protected]

Intergeo 2003

17-Sep-03 - 19-Sep-03Germany, Hamburg


Photogrammetric Image Analysis

17-Sep-03 - 19-Sep-03Germany, Munich

[email protected]

Annual Meeting and Symposium onAdvanced Technology

19-Sep-03 - 23-Sep-03Poland, Krakow


Digital Earth - Information Resourcesfor Global Sustainability

21-Sep-03 - 25-Sep-03Czech Republic, Brno

http://www.geogr.muni.cz/[email protected]

Theory, Technology and Realities ofInertial/GPS Sensor Orientation

22-Sep-03 - 23-Sep-03Spain, Barcelona


Optical 3D Measurement TechniquesConference

22-Sep-03 - 25-Sep-03Switzerland, Zurich

http://www.photogrammetry.ethz.ch/opti-cal3d/[email protected] attendance: Klaus Tempfli

X Latinoamerican Congress on MarineSciences

22-Sep-03 - 26-Sep-03Costa Rica, San José

http://www.una.ac.cr/Xcolacmar/[email protected]

Symposium “25 Years of Assessmentof Erosion”

22-Sep-03 - 26-Sep-03Belgium, Ghent

http://soilman.ugent.be/symposium_ero-sion/[email protected] attendance: Abbas Farshad

EnviroInfo Cottbus 2003

24-Sep-03 - 26-Sep-03Germany, Cottbus

http://www.tu-cottbus.de/[email protected]

XXI Brazilian Cartographic Congress(cbc)

29-Sep-03 - 03-Oct-03Brazil, Belo Horizonte


CIPA 2003 Symposium

30-Sep-03 - 04-Oct-03Turkey, Antalya

http://www.cipa2003-antalya.org/

ISPRS Workshop: Spatial and TemporalData Modelling

02-Oct-03 - 03-Oct-03Canada, Quebec

http://sirs.scg.ulaval.ca/isprs_wg4-1/work-shop.asp

High Resolution Mapping from Space2003

06-Oct-03 - 08-Oct-03Germany, Hannover

http://www.ipi.uni-hannover.de/[email protected]

3DIM2003

06-Oct-03 - 10-Oct-03Canada, Banff, Alberta

http://www.3dimconference.org/[email protected]

3-D Reconstruction from AirborneLaserscanner and InSAR Data

08-Oct-03 - 10-Oct-03Germany, Dresden

http://www.tu-dresden.de/fghgipf/photo/ALS_DD2003/[email protected]

URISA’s Annual Conference andExposition

11-Oct-03 - 15-Oct-03United States, Atlanta, Georgia

http://www.urisa.org/[email protected]

28 ITC News 2003-2

C A L E N D A R

CONFERENCE CALENDAR

29ITC News 2003-2

C A L E N D A R

Map Asia 2003

13-Oct-03 - 15-Oct-03Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur

http://www.mapasia.org/2003/[email protected]

3rd International Symposium onGeophysics

14-Oct-03 - 16-Oct-03Egypt, Tanta

http://www.tanta.edu.eg/EN/[email protected]

Geo-Information for Practice

15-Oct-03 - 18-Oct-03Croatia, Zagreb

http://www.comm6wg3-isprs-meet-ing2003.com.hr/[email protected]

CoastGIS 2003

16-Oct-03 - 18-Oct-03Italy, Genova

http://www.gisig.it/coastgis/http://www.gisig.it/coastgis/[email protected]

Geomatics for Industry - Micro toMacro

16-Oct-03 - 18-Oct-03Canada, Calgary

http://www.cig-acsg.ca/[email protected]

From OEEPE to EuroSDR, 50 Years ofEuropean Spatial Data Research andBeyond

16-Oct-03Germany, [email protected]

International Workshop on NextGeneration Geospatial Information

19-Oct-03 - 21-Oct-03United States, Cambridge (Boston)

http://dipa.spatial.maine.edu/NG2I03/[email protected]

ISPRS Workshop Monitoring andModelling of Global EnvironmentalChange

21-Oct-03 - 22-Oct-03Japan, Kyoto

http://jsprs.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/jsprs/isprs/[email protected]

IAIN World Congress

21-Oct-03 - 24-Oct-03Germany, Berlin

http://www.dgon.de/iain2003.htm

Congress on Globalisation, localisa-tion and tropical forest managementin the 21st century

22-Oct-03 - 23-Oct-03Netherlands, Amsterdam

http://www.tropenbos.org/news/[email protected]

Geodesia Congress

22-Oct-03 - 24-Oct-03The Netherlands, Utrecht

http://www.geodesia.nl/nl/geodesia.html

ASPRS/MAPPS Fall Conference

28-Oct-03 - 30-Oct-03United States, Charleston, SouthCarolina

http://www.asprs.org/terrain_data2003/[email protected]

ACRS 2003 ISRS

03-Nov-03 - 07-Nov-03Korea, Busan


7th South East Asian Survey Congress2003

03-Nov-03 - 07-Nov-03China, Hong Kong


GEOPRO2003

04-Nov-03 - 05-Nov-03Mexico, Mexico City

http://geopro.cic.ipn.mx/[email protected]

Annual Conference Global DisasterInformation Network 2003

04-Nov-03 - 07-Nov-03United States, Washington DC

http://www.eis-africa.org/[email protected]

AFRICA GIS ‘03

04-Nov-03 - 08-Nov-03Senegal, Dakar


Sustainable Development andManagement of the Subsurface

05-Nov-03 - 07-Nov-03The Netherlands, Utrecht

http://ssm.nitg.tno.nl/[email protected] attendance: Marco Huisman, RobertHack

30th International Symposium onRemote Sensing of Environment

10-Nov-03 - 14-Nov-03United States, Hawaii, Honolulu

http://isrse.pdc.org/[email protected] attendance: Andrew K. Skidmore, BertToxopeus

International Symposium onGPS/GNSS

15-Nov-03 - 18-Nov-03Japan, Tokyo


Informatics and Geosciences:GEOINFO’ 2003

24-Nov-03 - 27-Nov-03Cuba, Havana

http://www.iga.cu/geoinfo/[email protected]

ISPRS Workshop on Spatial Analysisand Decision Making

03-Dec-03 - 05-Dec-03China, Hong Kong

http://kartoweb.itc.nl/sadm2003/[email protected]

ISRS Annual Convention/Symposium

09-Dec-03 - 12-Dec-03India, Thiruvananthapuram

http://www.cessind.org/[email protected]

International Conference on WebInformation Systems Engineering

10-Dec-03 - 12-Dec-03Italy, Rome

http://www.dis.uniroma1.it/~wise03/di-namico/[email protected]

content introduction - Universiteit Twente · 2018-08-01 · Design&PrePress: Henk Scharrenborg...

Documents

Transcript of content introduction - Universiteit Twente · 2018-08-01 · Design&PrePress: Henk Scharrenborg...