Abstract

Reliable Services and Projects Supporting Remote Sensing in Africa

Nikolaus Faller
Chief Operating Officer
Infoterra GmbH Germany

As pointed out in the workshop description, there is a strong need for building remote sensing capabilities in Africa – a large continent facing a number of versatile challenges ranging from the fight against poverty and the establishment of sustainable agricultural practices to securing and efficiently managing water resources or natural resource exploitation and monitoring.

While many developing countries in Africa are currently working rapidly towards establishing individual and/or joint remote sensing capabilities and increasing the use of such applications, Infoterra – through a strong involvement in numerous international projects, (e.g. in the humanitarian aid sector, food and water resource monitoring, or risk management) in close cooperation with users across the continent – successfully helps to pursue these goals.

Further, Infoterra’s established services portfolio can already support these efforts significantly today. The group provides substantial activities relevant for countries across Africa, including airborne surveying and mapping, space borne remote sensing applications, regular monitoring, or consulting services. All of these are encompassed by comprehensive Spatial Data Infrastructures, allowing the use of available data resources for several different applications, interpretation for varying information needs, an efficient sharing and transfer of knowledge, and a cost-efficient use.

Working with government and non-government organizations as well as private companies across the continent (whether within projects, international contracts or local cooperations), Infoterra aims to continuously increase the availability of remote sensing based information and applications across Africa, and to improve the understanding of the potentials these techniques have to offer.