Training/education and research promotion on Remote Sensing in Thailand
Chalomphon Boonboothara,
Lakkana Srisawat
Remote Sensing Division,
National Research Council
Bangkok 10900, Thailand
Abstract
Having realized the important role of remote sensing as an effective tool for national planning and development, the Thailand Remote Sensing Center (TRSC) under the auspices of the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) has encouraged Thai officials from various government agencies to be trained in this field with an aim to increase the awareness and expertise within the country. Training courses have been provided at NRCT on a regular basis. In addition, opportunities for Thai officials to be trained abroad have been widely open through supports from various foreign institutions under the coordination of NRCT. However, the more striking effort has been to popularize and promote research work on remote sensing by providing research grants to both government and private sectors. The year 1978 worked the beginning of such promotion with an allocation of 500,000 Baht to fund projects. This annual research fund has been doubled once in 1980 and again in 1990 to 2 million Baht with an exclusion of the value of satellite data which are provided free of charge for research purposes.
So far a total of 108 projects, including agriculture, forestry, land-use, computer science, geography, hydrology and oceanology, earth science and multi-discipl9inary have been supported. However, the most outstanding projects were that submitted by H.R.H. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn under the titles, Land Use/Land cover Map Accuracy of Landsat Thematic Mapper Data using the Dimaps Image Processing System for Narathiwat Province , and Environmental and Agricultural Development Studies by Remote Sensing Techniques in Phatthana Nikhom District , I. op Buri Province, for 1988 and 1989 respectively.
Although most of the funded projects are only on research scale or experimental stage, Thailand, in the near future, is expecting to provide research funds for a multidisciplinary approach that would lead to an operational scale.
Introduction
Technology transfer has been one of the activities being promoted by Thailand Remote Sensing Center (TRSC). This is done in terms of education, training and research support in area of remote sensing and its application. Since 1973, TRSC/NRCT has started to transfer this advanced technology by organizing the First Basic Training Course in Remote Sensing. By that time, there were 69 participants from 19 organizations attended the course. From then on, various kinds of training have been continuously held, namely, the basic courses in visual interpretation and hands on training on digital image processing, etc. With the availability of computerized image analysis systems at RRSC/NRCT in 1984, several workshops have been organized. Through the technology transfer done by TRSC/NRCT expertise in this field has increased rapidly. In addition, financial support for research purposes has also been provided in order to familiarize Thai scientists with remotely sensed data.
The purpose of this paper is to encourage a better understanding of the important roles of both NRCT and the Thai academic institutes on increasing the man-power in the field of remote sensing in order to be able to apply remote sensing technology for natural resources management effectively.
Education and training in Thailand
The participation in the United States NASA LANDSAT Investigation Program with the launch of ERTS-1 (LANDSAT-1) of Thailand has marked the era of using data from space. In the very beginning of that period, NASA supported LANDSAT1-2 data for Thailand through the EROS Data Center. The education and training in Thailand started when the 6 Thai officers were funded by FAO and UNDP to be trained at Laboratory for Application of Remote Sensing of Purdue University, U.S.A. After returning, these officers started to transfer and promote this technology.
Since, in the beginning period, Thailand had lacked man-power in this field, TRSC/NRCT therefore began to organize a basic training course on remote sensing for personnel not only from government sector but also from private sectors. The content of the training course was centered around the application of remote sensing data for economic development as well as stimulating and promoting this technology. Since then, the organization of training has become one of the major activities of TRSC/NRCT.
Along with this idea, in 1973, the First Basic Training Courses in Remote Sensing was organized at the Royal Forest Department with the support of USAID in sending 6 experts in remote sensing field to train the 69 Thai participants of 19 organizations. Later on, the trainings of this type were organized for 9 times at TRSC from 1976-1984 with details as appeared in Table 1.
Table 1: Details of Basic Training Course in Remote Sensing
|
Courses title | Course Details | Duration | Total Participants/
Organizations |
Basic Training Course in
Remote Sensing |
Basic principal of Remote Sensing;
theoretical and practical aspects
of visual interpretation of various types
of remotely sensed data for areas of
agriculture,
forest, land-use, geology,
hydrology, oceanography,
and environment | 15 - 20
day | 1st : 69/19
2nd : 53/20
3rd : 55/18
4th : 49/22
5th : 37/20
6th : 44/30
7th : 30/28
8th : 50/30
9th : 34/25
|
