content

Main featuresOpening Academic Year 2Graduation ceremonies 8Guest lecture: Shunji Murai 11Extracurricular activity:Run4Fun 18

AnnouncementsChanges in Ilwis distribution policy 23Award winner: Jonathan Shadreck Gwaligwali 24

Project NewsIndigeo project 25

Research NewsPromotion Jinquan Cheng 26

EducationFieldwork China 28Fieldwork the Netherlands 29

Visiting ITCLithuanian delegation 34

ObituaryAngela Muthini Syengo 35

Staff newsSjef van der SteenHonorary Fellow ICA 36

Life after ITCAlumni reception Durban 37Alumni meet Kuala Lumpur 37Letter to the Editor 38

CONFERENCE CALENDAR 39

When this edition of ITC News lands in your mailbox, it will make a heftierindent than usual. Much is happening in and around ITC, so it’s no wonderthat sometimes boundaries - and page numbering - must be extended tokeep you up to date with the latest news. Spatial and temporal dimensionsplay a key role in publishing too!

Doors opening and closing feature in many a proverb, so we’ll just leave it atthat. Suffice it to say that September was a pivotal month, with both gradua-tion ceremonies and the Opening of the Academic Year 2003-2004 writ largeon the calendar. During the official opening ceremony (pages 2-7), ProfessorMenno-Jan Kraak’s stimulating keynote address gave the newly arrived stu-dents a taste of things to come. And among the special guests welcomed onthat occasion was Professor Shunji Murai, fellow of ITC and professor emeri-tus of the University of Tokyo. Those fortunate enough to be at the Instituteon 29 September were able to attend the guest lecture given by ProfessorMurai: his subject the three-line scanner for large-scale mapping. Still, thoseengaged elsewhere that day - and this will apply to the vast majority of ourreaders - have not been forgotten. Turn to pages 11-17, and you’ll discoverthat ITC News is carrying a fully-fledged scientific paper this time around.

Opening and closing, all very well and good, but what happens in between?“A goodly amount”, to put it plainly. For one thing, you can read all aboutthe experiences of the course participants during the rapid field survey thatconcludes the introductory module of the NRM programme (page 29). Nodoubt too, Iris van Duren’s entertaining account of MSc fieldwork and re-search in a Chinese wetland (page 28) will resurrect many personal memo-ries. On the other side of the fence, the extracurricular activity Run4Funpresents challenges of a completely different nature (page 18). This articleappears a little later than originally intended - those spatial constraints onceagain - but not too late to inspire ITC’s present student contingent to digout their running shoes and start training for next year’s events. It wouldcertainly brush away a few cobwebs.

Reading habits vary. Some people read literature straight through from be-ginning to end, others are perfectly happy to pick and mix. And quantitydoes not necessarily mean quality, but in the case of ITC News 2003-3 wesincerely hope it does. The verdict is yours!

Janneke Kalf, Acting Managing Editor

1ITC News 2003-3

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: itcnews@itc.nl

colofonITC NEWS is published quarterly, by ITC, Enschede, the Netherlands

The views expressed by the contributors do not necessarily reflect those of ITC2003number 3

Again this year the

Grote Kerk in the

old market square

of Enschede was

the scene of the

opening of ITC’s

new academic year.

Those enjoying the fine afternoon on thepavement terraces dotted around the cob-bled square watched the comings and go-ings with interest - a pleasant meeting oftown and gown. Uplifting music played byMr Gijs van Schoonhoven on the churchorgan greeted visitors as they entered thebuilding and took their seats.

In his opening speech Rector MartienMolenaar welcomed the ambassadors ofGhana and Indonesia, the members of ITC’sSupervisory Board, and Professor Shunji Muraiand Professor Klaas Jan Beek, honorary fel-lows of ITC. Furthermore, he extended aspecial welcome to the new course partici-pants, who had come to ITC to learn moreabout geo-information science and earth ob-servation. Speaking on behalf of the StudentAssociation Board, Mr John Ballesteros, act-ing president, wished his newly arrived fel-low students a pleasant stay in Enschedeand every success in their studies and re-search. He also reminded them that the SABwould be at their service during their stay.

A musical interlude followed. The duo“Brandhout” (Mr Tijmen Vroegop and MrJoris van den Berg on clarinet) played twopieces, Duo for Two Clarinets, opus 6 by

Crussell and the first part of Three GrandDuets by Cavallini. While enjoying the music,the audience also had the opportunity to ap-preciate the impressive church interior, withits magnificent stained glass windows andhandsome chandeliers.

In his keynote address, Professor Menno-JanKraak, professor of geoinformatics, cartogra-phy and visualisation at ITC, took his listen-ers on a tour of worlds beyond the map -the world of imagination, the world of tech-nology, and the world in which maps canplay new roles. And he urged the studentsto ask questions, be critical and strike out onnew paths.

Winner of the Klaas Jan Beek Award thisyear was Mr Chockalingam Jeganathan fromIndia. With the presentation of this award,the opening ceremony drew to a close, to befollowed by a lively reception across thesquare in the Twentse Schouwburg(Enschede’s theatre). Although only a shortwalk away, many paused first in the square,talking in groups and taking photographs.Naturally enough, the new course partici-pants from Ghana and Indonesia were keento pose with their ambassadors - it certainlywas a very special occasion.

2 ITC News 2003-2

Opening Academic Year2003-2004

ITC News itcnews@itc.nl

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

The new course participants atthe old market square,

talking in groups and takingphotographs

Opening Speech:Rector Martien MolenaarIn his opening address Professor Molenaarposed the question: “How short is history?”We live in a world where the role of technol-ogy is taken for granted: we communicateby e-mail, search the Web for information,enjoy the easy convenience of cell phones,and have the choice of innumerable televi-sion channels. Yet we tend to forget thatsome ten years ago such services were notgenerally available.

“Geo-information provision today is com-pletely based on computer science and ICT,which in its present form has a history ofabout 60 years. The history of remote sens-ing is even younger. It is just 30 years agothat satellite remote sensing became avail-able for civil purposes. And now we are usedto receiving regular updates of the world-wide weather forecast illustrated by satelliteimages. Whenever there is a disaster, we seesatellite images of the damage on televisionwithin a few hours.”

But Professor Molenaar warned that weshould not underestimate the amount of ef-fort required to make good professional use

of this new technology. Some 30 years agothe Canadian government was the first tointroduce GIS methods for land and forestinventories but since then the developmentof geo-information has gone through severalstages: • developing software for special applica-

tions• the drive of technology• information management• organisational and management aspects• institutional and policy issues (local, na-

tional and international geospatial data in-frastructures)

• governance, spatial processes and geo-in-formation provision.

Professor Molenaar briefly guided his audi-ence through each stage, emphasising that“we should always keep in mind that thereal problem is the management of geospa-tial complexes and processes, be they man-made, man-induced, natural orcombinations of these. We think here of ur-banisation processes, the management ofnatural resources, water management, themanagement and exploitation of earth re-sources, the monitoring of global change,etc.”

Nor has ITC stood still. The academic field ofITC shows a fast and continuous develop-ment and this is reflected both in theInstitute’s organisation and in the ongoingprocesses of degree harmonisation, accredi-tation and decentralisation. Furthermore, theDutch government has introduced some far-reaching changes in various policies and reg-ulations, not all of which have been wellreceived. “Political decision makers do notalways appreciate the fact that internationalcooperation requires long-term investmentin institutional and personal relations.”Moreover, some of the new procedures havebeen plagued by teething troubles and it isto be hoped these will soon be cured.

Welcoming some 230 young professionalsfrom all over the world, and encouragingthem to take full of advantage of the oppor-tunity to learn about other cultures and toexchange ideas during their stay - “this in-formal part of your education will prove tobe at least as important for your personaldevelopment as the education through ourprogrammes” - Professor Molenaar declared

3ITC News 2003-3

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

Rector Martien Molenaar

the academic year 2003-2004 open.

Student Association BoardMr John Ballesteros, acting president of theSAB, added his personal welcome to thenew students. He said that ITC was a uniqueplace, where professionals from more than80 nationalities gathered every year andcould share or exchange cultural values, ex-pertise and opinons. He recognised that theyhad left behind friends, family and lovedones to come here and pursue their studiesand that sometimes this might prove hard tobear. But he also had words of encourage-ment: “Don’t worry, soon you will start mak-ing new friends … and the cultural shockwill pass too. And of course you will get anew kind of family, the ITC family, which youwill miss when you go back home.” Past ex-perience has shown that, although achieve-ments at ITC are not easily come by,students can rely on the capable supervisionand willing cooperation of the staff and heassured them that “if you remain focused onyour tasks and effectively manage your time,success will be bound to come”.

Keynote Address:Prof. Dr Menno-Jan Kraak“Beyond the Map”Professor Menno-Jan Kraak studied geogra-phy at Utrecht University, where he spe-cialised in cartography. Following his studieshe became an associate professor at theGeodesy Department of Delft University. In1996 he joined ITC, where he chairs theDepartment of Geo-Information Processing.Professor Kraak has gained a worldwide rep-utation through his many publications injournals and contributions to congresses. Hisbooks are used by students and profession-als the world over and have been translatedinto many languages.

In his keynote address, Professor Kraak intro-duced his audience to worlds beyond themap. Perhaps the most appealing was theworld of imagination. Maps can create animage in the mind of the reader, and theimage will depend on the text, colours andsymbols used - and maybe also on thecolours and symbols not used. “But youprobably all realise and know from past ex-perience that maps give you different views.We can look at the same reality and still getdifferent impressions.” A topographic mapwill try to describe an area as accurately aspossible; satellite imagery may be an optionbut interpretation and the information re-trieved would be different. Combining atopographic map and satellite map of thearea could provide information on theheights of the region. And draping thisheight map over a digital terrain modelwould present a different view again of the

4 ITC News 2003-3

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

Mr John Ballesteros

Prof. Dr Menno-Jan Kraak

same piece of landscape. A second world beyond the map is relatedto the technology applied. “How is it cre-ated? How did we collect our data? Wheredid we gather the remote sensing informa-tion? How did we structure the informationin our databases? How are we able to dis-play the areas of interest in the right formatand the right colour? This is the world be-yond the map you will be confronted withduring your stay at ITC.”

At this point Professor Kraak gave a brief de-scription (“a few samples that are not neces-sarily representative of the wholeprogramme”) of what awaited the new stu-dents at ITC. Those who had enrolled for theGeoinformatics programme would deal withthe technology and methodology of the ge-odata spatial handling process. They wouldlearn how to collect data, what kind of tech-nology was available, which satellite was themost suitable for what, how to organise andstore data, and how to query the databasein order to produce a map of useful shapeand design. Those following the Geo-infor-mation Management programme woulddeal with questions related to organisingand managing large volumes of data. Heregeodata infrastructure plays an importantrole and the problems involved are extremelycomplex. For instance, the problems may re-late to planning whole neighbourhoods,with information being required (and inte-grated) from all kinds of sources.

When planning a new neighbourhood, maps(possibly 3D maps) can be used to map dif-ferent alternatives, or animations can beused to trace urban development in the pastor play out future scenarios. This lies withinthe province of the Urban Planning and LandAdministration programme. On the otherhand, the flooding of river areas would behandled in the Water Resources andEnvironmental Management programmeand would involve simulations, maps andmodels. “If you want to predict flooding andsee what measures have to be taken, thenthis model is very important. It depends onthe knowledge of people in water resources,and how well the model will link to reality.”

The Natural Resource Management pro-gramme deals with managing problems of

the environment, and maps are used formaking inventories of vegetation, human in-fluence on the landscape, geology, and en-dangered species. Attempts are made tocombine these maps to ensure the survivalof such endangered species. Then of coursethe Earth Resources and EnvironmentalGeosciences programme looks at hazardsthat might occur in our world. For example,these may be volcanic eruptions or may berelated to plate tectonics.

Turning his attention to the third world be-yond the map, Professor Kraak said: “All theuses of maps in the educational programmesthat I’ve shown you till now are conventionalways of using maps to try to solve problems- and of course my colleagues can use themin more advanced ways than I can demon-strate here. But what I would like to do nowis to open your eyes and make you think al-ternatively, make you think differently, andsee how maps have a role to play here. Ifyou always follow a path that is alreadymarked out, then you will never discoveranything new. And at the end of the day,that’s what you want: to discover somethingnew. So we will see how the map can beused to support our thinking, to build hy-potheses, and to enrich our knowledge ofwhat happens over the globe.”

For example, the map is very useful as partof a geodata infrastructure. Two disasters inrecent years have prompted the Dutch gov-ernment to commission a map of theNetherlands that indicates all the risks. Thiswill ensure that people are aware of anydangers in their area. Clicking on individualsymbols will access the database, and therelevant information will be displayed. Suchinformation can then be queried or linked toother information.

Another relatively new realm that can bemapped is cyberspace. On the Internet, forinstance, “You could trace how your requestfor information goes over the globe. Whichservers do you visit? Before downloadingnew software, you could see where it reallycomes from, where it is being processed. Orhow about mapping an e-mail network tosee who is in the centre of a certain commu-nity, who gets the most requests, who getsthe most tasks.” Then there are maps in re-

5ITC News 2003-3

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

ality, using virtual reality animations to com-pare the real world we live in with a futurescenario, perhaps to obtain political backingfor planning projects.

All in all Professor Kraak’s stimulating firstlecture of the academic year left his audi-ence with plenty to think about and the firmresolution to “Be critical. And always askwhy.”

Klaas Jan Beek Award 2003As the official programme moved into itsfinal stages, it was the pleasant duty ofRector Professor Martien Molenaar to inviteProfessor Klaas Jan Beek to present thisaward to the author of the winning MSc the-sis. First, however, he said a few words aboutthe winner and the subject of his thesis.

“The best thesis, placed first by almost allmembers of the Scientific Council, and thus

the one winning the award this year, waswritten by Mr Chokalingam Jeganathanfrom India and was entitled Development offuzzy logic architecture to assess the sustain-ability of the forest management. MrJeganathan joined the GFM MSc programmein September 2001 in preparation of thejoint GFM course GEONEDIS of IIRS and ITC.He is now a lecturer in geoinformatics andthe co-coordinator of the joint GFM course,which now runs mainly at the IndianInstitute of Remote Sensing in Dehradun,India.

The overall objective of his thesis was the ex-ploration of the role that fuzzy logic can playin improving the decision-making process forassessing the sustainability of forest man-agement; this is for the purpose of forestcertification. Mr Jeganathan had a very clearidea of what was to be the topic of his MScresearch and he proceeded in his research ina very independent manner. He was able todevelop a highly technical procedure and toapply it in a complex application.”

Mr Jeganathan was presented with a certifi-cate, together with a cheque for m1,000, byProfessor Beek. He also received flowers,and a generous round of applause fromthose present, in recognition of his achieve-ment.

With that the Opening of the Academic Year2003-2004 had reached its conclusion, andthe organ music signalled that the time hadcome to vacate the seats and leave for thereception across the square.

6 ITC News 2003-3

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

Mr Chokalingam Jeganathan (first row, second from left) with some of the new courseparticipants

In the foyer of the TwentseSchouwburg, Enschede’s theatre, ITCNews was hoping to waylay an un-wary student or two, and met witha certain amount of success.

Ms Sharmistha Saha comes fromBangladesh, where she works inDhaka as the assistant superintendentof survey for a government organisa-tion, the National Survey ofBangladesh. She holds a BSc in civilengineering and has enrolled for thePM degree programme inGeoinformatics. She arrived in theNetherlands some ten days ago and,although she’s met the programmedirector and had an introduction toBlackboard, since formal classes donot start until next week, she’s takenthe opportunity to explore the neigh-bourhood a little - the hotel, theshops, not too far afield. Ms Saha isgreatly attracted by the mix of cul-tures that she’s found at ITC and thechance to learn from one another.The only drawback is leaving herhome and family, especially her hus-band. That’s very difficult. Her hus-band is a computer professional andthey have written a book together oncomputers. But before you try to re-serve it at the ITC library, make sureyou understand Bengali! Anyway onething’s for sure, computers hold noterrors for her.

And her compatriot Ms RefatFatema also feels completely homeat the keyboard and monitor. “Youcould say the computer is my bestfriend,” she says jokingly. Computerin the office, computer at home, andshe enjoys chatting on the Internet.This “necessity” of modern life comestax-free in her country, which meansprices are not so high - evidentlyBangladesh is very computer-friendly.Ms Fatema, who holds a bachelor’sdegree in urban and rural planning,will be following the MSc degree pro-gramme in Urban Planning and LandAdministration. She works as a plan-ner for a private urban planning andGIS organisation and in fact it was

her employers that suggested shecome to ITC. She’s involved in a proj-ect concerning a detailed aerial planof Dhaka (part of the master plan)and GIS expertise is highly important.But Enschede has an additional at-traction as far as Ms Fatema is con-cerned: her husband is also an MScstudent at ITC. Unfortunately he’saway in Nepal at the moment, so justfor the time being it’s back to chat-ting on the Internet.

Messrs Tesfay GhebrayWoldemariam, AbrahamHailemelekort Melkamu and DestaHagos Tefera came in together on aflight from Ethiopia on 16 September.And first impressions of theNetherlands, or at least Enschede,seem to be favourable: neat, wellscheduled, good amenities … and tallpeople. They are all looking forwardto studying in a developed country,with more comprehensive facilities.Mr Abraham and Mr Desta havesomething else in common. Fourteenyears ago they shared the same cam-pus, where they both gained BSc de-grees in agriculture, the formerspecialising in plant science and thelatter in agricultural economics.

Mr Abraham works in Addis Ababaas a senior agricultural expert in theenvironmental impact assessmentservice for the EnvironmentalProtection Authority, while Mr Destais a senior socio-economist at theDepartment of Planning and ProjectPreparation of the Bureau of WaterResources Development in Mekele,Tigray. They have both enrolled for

the MSc degree programme NaturalResources Management but haveopted for different specialisations: MrAbraham for Environment & SystemsAnalysis and Management and MrDesta for Planning and Coordinationin Natural Resources Management.

And Mr Tesfay? Does he fit into thispattern? To a point, yes. He holds aBSc in forestry and has worked as aforestry researcher for the MekeleAgricultural Research Center of theTigray Agricultural Research Institutefor the last four years. He too has en-rolled for the Natural Resources pro-gramme but will take the PM path.And why this difference? Why PM?The choice was made for him; it’s amatter of departmental policy andguidelines. He’s hoping the coursewill benefit his career by opening upmore opportunities in the researchfield.

The three new course participantshave come well prepared for theirstudies. They have toned up theircomputer skills by following somebasic courses, and English as the lan-guage of instruction is no novelty. InEthiopia English is taught as a subjectin the lower school, while at highschool it is the medium used rightacross the board.

As the foyer grows busier, and theclinking of glasses (and occasionalcrash) from the reception becomesever more insistent, it seems onlyright to release the students to join inthe fray, and to wish them every suc-cess in their studies.

7ITC News 2003-3

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

Enter the

reception hall of the

ITC building on any

ordinary weekday

between 9.00 and

9.30 in the morning

and you’re likely to

be struck by the

peace and quiet

that befits academic

industry.

But to pass through the automatic doors on5 September 2003 was to be met by a seaof faces and the buzz of conversation aspeople arrived to attend the PM graduationceremony. People not only gathered in thehall but also spilled over into the courtyardand gardens, a setting that provided a splen-did photo opportunity for private and pro-fessional photographers alike. Classphotographs this time round will clearlyshow that, contrary to malicious rumour, thesun actually does shine in the Netherlands.

A word of explanation may be in order here.Given the number of PM students graduat-ing this year, it was decided to hold fourgraduation ceremonies spread over twodays. In this way, the auditorium would com-fortably accommodate all those who wished

to attend. The ceremonies for Geoinformat-ics and Natural Resources Managementwere held on Thursday, 4 September, whileit was the turn of Geo-information Manage-ment and Urban Planning & Land Adminis-tration on Friday morning, and EarthResources & Environmental Geosciences andWater Resources & Environmental Manage-ment in the afternoon.

Hopefully this account of the proceedings onFriday morning will also strike a chord withthose who attended the other ceremonies.By 9.30 am students, staff, family and guestshad taken their seats and were waiting ex-pectantly for the ceremony to begin. Theydidn’t have to wait long. Sharp raps on thefloor and ITC bedel Loes Colenbrander, car-rying her staff of office specially made in

8 ITC News 2003-3

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

Masters of Their ProfessionITC News itcnews@itc.nl

No one would quarrel with thatthumbnail sketch of Mr Issifu Segada.He came to ITC to acquire new skillsbut while acquiring, he also gave. Heserved as assistant secretary generaland communications commissioner onthe Student Association Board and hefeels that this rewarding work wouldbe “a very good experience for any-one”. The SAB looks into the problemsof fellow students and “the joy ofbeing able to help” is considerable. Sohe now has two certificates (see mainarticle) to carry home to his wife andchildren (a girl and a boy) in Ghana.

A valuer by profession with the LandValuation Board in Cape Coast, hefound that the GIM programme fullylived up to his expectations. And apositive reaction too when it came toaccommodation and the general facili-ties. Working in a purely analogue en-vironment back home, he leaves

Enschedewith the con-fidence thatat least thereis hope. Onthe one handbombardedwith dataand on the other confronted with theunavailability of data, he now knowsthere are the tools to assist and tocapture such data effectively, as wellas the people to apply them.Computers and software lie at thecore of the GIM programme, and MrSegda would advise any would-be stu-dents to check out the relevant soft-ware beforehand, if at all possible,and cover the basics. “Such exposurewould certainly help a lot.”And life in the Netherlands? Well, notso very different from life at home.There are plenty of shops selling allvarieties of food so, if it’s typical

African food you’re after, you won’tbe disappointed. But the winter is ex-cessively cold, and of course there arethe mysteries of the Dutch languageto contend with. Communication diffi-culties tend to restrict most social con-tacts to ITC circles, although somepeople in the shops and streets areonly too happy to respond. In the pastthe SAB and the dean of studentshave made arrangements for studentsto visit Dutch families, for example viathe Rotary Club in Hengelo.Unfortunately this was not possiblethis year. Still, Mr Segdaa thinks it isimportant for the students to havelinks outside the Institute, to makethem feel part of the wider commu-nity. Positive and optimistic, he looksfor the best in people and situations… it’s no wonder, he finds it.

Mr Mohammed Issifu Segda (GIM.3), Ghana

“always smiling, and gave a plenty of support to others”

Nigeria for ITC, led the cortège headed byRector Professor Martien Molenaar into theauditorium.

Once everyone was settled, Ir Jan de Ruiter,the dean of students, was soon on his feet inhis role as master-of-ceremonies, introducingthe various speakers. First to congratulatethe students on their notable achievements,both academic and social, was Drs SjaakBeerens, ITC’s director of external affairs.Academically they had acquired new techni-cal and managerial skills to deal with a rap-idly changing world. Socially they had leftthe security provided by family and friends tocome to the Netherlands and adapt to a newclimate, a new environment and new cus-toms, as well as to cope - and remarkablywell at that - with new regulations.

Conscientious cyclists obeying the highwaycode that was nonchalantly disregarded bylocal residents were instantly recognisable asITC students. In this fast-moving technologi-cal age, skills need to be upgraded from timeto time, and ITC’s director of external affairsexpressed his hope that contacts would benot only maintained but also renewed whenappropriate via refresher courses. In closing,he wished ITC’s new ambassadors (unfortu-nately denied such trappings as chauffeur-driven cars) success in their careers and ahappy reunion with their families.

Geo-information Management (GIM)And so to the GIM programme and Dr MikeMcCall, who congratulated the students onsurviving their year at ITC - “surviving” per-haps being the operative word. It had beena new programme so the students had un-dertaken the role of guinea pigs; however,they had passed with flying colours andemerged as “guinea pigs with gold stars”.The programme had been tried, tested andproven. As Dr McCall reminded his audi-ence, it’s often said that those who can, do;those who can’t, teach; and those who can’tteach, do research. If this was the case, hehad no hesitation in placing the PM studentsfairly and squarely among the doers!

Ir Kees Bronsveld, the GIM programme direc-tor, returned to the theme of innovation, ex-plaining that professionals the world overhad been consulted in redesigning the pro-gramme (both lectures and practicals) andsome had even dropped by during the mod-ules. He thanked all who had contributed,and added that for the students the end ofthe course meant the beginning of a newlife as a professional: “the proof of the pud-ding is in the eating back home.”

To Mr Sjef van der Steen went the agreeabletask of presenting the degrees personally tothe students. As each student ascended theplatform to a warm round of applause, hegave a thumbnail sketch of the new profes-sional master, highlighting both problemsand humorous events of the past year. Digitalcameras were much in evidence to capturethe moment. And rightly so, as several stu-dents - mainly ladies, although one or twogentlemen were not to be outdone - added asplash of colour by wearing traditional dress.

9ITC News 2003-3

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

When Mr Saswata Bandyopadhyayarrived in the Netherlands a yearago, you could say that weather-wise he was thrown in at the deepend. Leaving India with its 300days of sunshine, he disembarkedat Schiphol and promptly ex-changed a temperature of 40º forone of 4º- and no sign of the sunin the sky. As he himself puts it:“Not a cultural shock, a climaticshock.” He also arrived a little lateand missed the official Opening ofthe Academic Year. Paperworkwas the cause of the delay, as itseems that “legislative wheelsturn slowly” in India.

At ITC he found a cultural “melt-ing pot”, with people from allover the world, a bit strange atfirst but certainly invigorating. Itwas also a bit strange to be a backstudying in a classroom againafter eight years. In fact we’retalking here of role reversal, as Mr Bandyopadhyay is a lecturer atthe School of Planning in Ahmad-abad. He followed the UPLA pro-gramme, opting for thespecialisation in Urban Infrastruc-ture Management, which dealswith water, sanitation, traffic is-sues, and the like. In particular, hefeels his newly acquired skills inusing GIS as an urban manage-ment tool should be useful on hisreturn home.

Nothing ifnot practi-cal, MrBandyop-adhyay setabout in-vestigatingthe roadand rail infrastructure of Europe.He took advantage of the goodroads to explore the countrysidearound Enschede, cycling miles andmiles over the weekends. And thenhe discovered a second vocation asa travel agent. They started out asa group of four, visiting Germany,Belgium and Italy and tacking daysonto the weekend whenever theygot the chance. Come the end ofthe year they’d seen most ofEurope and the group had grownconsiderably in number. In fact bythe time they visited Switzerland,there were no less than 30 -“which gave the immigration au-thorities a bit of a jolt”.

Amidst all this activity, you’ll behappy to know MrBandyopadhyay did find time forhis studies, and he was awardedhis degree “with distinction”. Notonly that, when he arrived in theNetherlands he could barely cookan egg, but that has all changed.He has enjoyed acquiring culinaryskills along the way, a fact that islikely to find favour with his fi-ancée on his return home.

Mr Saswata Bandyopadhyay (UPLA.3), India

“the motor in the group”

Urban Planning and Land Administration(UPLA)It was then the turn of UPLA, and from MrRichard Sliuzas came congratulations tothose who had successfully completed theirPM programme and best wishes to the MScstudents returning to China to completetheir studies. They were now equipped“with additional baggage to do the job”. Heemphasised the importance of such studiesin the context of today’s dynamic world,with its growing and rapidly changing cities. Programme Director Ir Mark Brussel, whopresented the degrees, praised the way inwhich the students had bonded together asa group. In fact it would seem that UPLA re-ally gets into the bloodstream. Travelling by

train in Italy, one student, when asked wherehe was from, replied without thinking:“From UPLA.” It has also inspired a song.Unfortunately the lyrics cannot be printedhere … conflict of copyrights perhaps?

As the programme director pointed out,when some students arrived at ITC, the digi-tal world was not their world; however, ithas since become their world. They haveachieved good results, while simultaneouslyproviding input and contributing to changesin the Dutch higher education system. Onestudent, not content with submitting his in-dividual final assignment, even found timeto write a report that will be used in nextyear’s programme. So time well spent!

Joint MSc Urban Planning andManagement with the School of UrbanStudies (SUS), Wuhan UniversityA special relationship between ITC andWuhan, China, lasting 25 years is certainlysomething to celebrate. As Dr Jan Turkstraexplained, this relationship has evolved sincethe 1980s, with traditional study pro-grammes gradually giving ground to newpartnership arrangements. Today the firstparty of Chinese students following the jointMSc programme received formal statementscovering their period in Enschede, wherethey had been engaged in writing theses onsubjects such as urban poverty, environmen-tal quality and urban renewal. Although notgraduates as yet - graduation day wasscheduled for June 2004 - their accomplish-ments at the Institute merited great respect,and congratulations were most definitely inorder. Representing the Chinese students,Ms Dou Kaili expressed their sincere grati-tude for the chance to study at ITC and carryout research, a chance that would benefittheir whole professional life.

Certificate of MeritOne special presentation still remained.Speaking on behalf the Student AssociationBoard, Mr Acharya Parthasarathi presented aCertificate of Merit to Mr Mohammed IssifuSegda, and thanked him for the time andenergy he had devoted to the SAB. His namecropped up frequently in student reports -an acknowledgement of just how much hishelp and support had been appreciated.Replying, Mr Issifu Segda said he hoped that

10 ITC News 2003-3

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

Decentralisation has found an ad-vocate in Mr Sudarshan Karki. Hefeels the cost of sponsoring twostudents at ITC may well cover theexpenses of providing a lecturerfor a course in the home country,where a greater number of peo-ple could benefit. But there wouldbe a downside. In Enschede stu-dents can concentrate completelyon their studies, often working tilllate in the evening, whereasstudying back home would meanjuggling the demands of normalfamily life. On a personal basis,however, Mr Karki feels his ITCcourse will help him considerablyin the future. Not just the knowl-edge acquired but the actual cer-tificate itself. “I will be able to tryfor promotion. It gives you confi-dence in what you know, andgives others confidence in you.”

A survey officer at the SurveyDepartment in Kathmandu, Nepal,he successfully completed the PMcourse in Geoinformatics and wasawarded his degree on Thursday,4 September (so an alumnus ofslightly longer standing). Lookingback over the whole year, it’s gonequite well but there were low pe-riods when naturally enough hemissed his wife and daughter.“The first few weeks are okay -new environment, new friends,new everything; it’s a novelty. Butwhen you settle down, you startto feel homesick. What am I doinghere? But there are people from

all over theworld, andif they cando it, whycan’t I?”

He feels hehad advan-tages too. His background in com-puters was very useful, so much sohe sometimes acted as a “third su-pervisor” in practicals. Many ofthe students were seeing a com-puter for the first time and thismeant they had to work harder.Although they generally picked itup very quickly, there’s no shortcutand sometimes this put themunder stress. No problem with theclimate either for Mr Karki. InKathmandu temperatures candrop to -2ºC, whereas for studentsfrom Africa the Dutch weathercan be “a shock to the system”.Many students keep a weathereye on the monitor, and a lowtemperature displayed immedi-ately triggers an attack of theshivers.

How does he feel about ITC News?Any suggestions? He’d like to seemore contributions from the stu-dents themselves and also articlesfrom different writers covering abroader spectrum. “If you see thesame names, you know what’s ofinterest to them and can guesswhat the article is going to beabout.”

Mr Sudarshan Karki (GFM.3), Nepal

“a greater number of people could benefit”

When exactly does a student become analumnus/alumna? This was one questionraised during the proceedings. And the an-swer? On receipt of the diploma. So evenwithout the aid of a computer, we can cal-culate that ITC’s alumni network received asignificant injection of energy and profes-sionalism in the first week of September.

the new alumni, “although itching to gohome now”, would stay in touch. And thenwith his multicultural audience in mind, heexpressed his thanks in several languages,including Dutch.

With that the official ceremony came to aclose and there was a general move towardsthe restaurant annex to celebrate graduation(or independence) day in time-honouredfashion. But of course there was a sting inthe tail. The time had come to say goodbye

ABSTRACTThis paper introduces a high-resolution heli-copter-borne three-line scanner (TLS) forlarge-scale mapping. Since a high-perform-ance stabiliser for the TLS camera absorbsthe vibration of the aircraft and stabilises thecamera’s axis within a single pixel, originalimages can be acquired with very little wav-ing or blurring, posing fewer post-processingproblems. The TLS principle secures line per-spective images with very little distortion inthe flight direction and is effective for gener-ating seamless orthoimages, especially forlinear-shaped objects such as roads andrivers. The system also measures the positionand attitude data of the camera for each lineimage, using a global positioning system andan inertial measurement unit. This means

fewer ground control points are needed forimage orientation. This paper describes thesystem configuration, including the dataprocessing system, of STARIMAGER® , de-veloped by STARLABO Corporation, Tokyo,Japan. It also refers to a variety of applica-tions featuring the TLS principle.

1. Introduction A line sensor system is widely used in a satel-lite for easy multi-spectral image acquisition,while an area sensor system is coming ontothe market, positioned as an extended formof a conventional analogue aerial photo sys-tem. These two approaches have been in-tensively studied as an airborne, fully digital,spatial data acquisition system. Owing to theconstraints of semiconductor manufacturingprocesses, however, the line sensor system isalways ahead of the area sensor system be-

to new friends, and the strong emotionsthat surfaced took many people by surprise.Thank goodness for e-mail!

11ITC News 2003-3

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

Guest Lecture:

Professor Shunji Murai

On Monday,

29 September, ITC

was honoured to

host a guest lecture

by Professor Shunji

Murai, fellow of ITC

and professor eme-

ritus of the Univer-

sity of Tokyo.

Professor Shunji

Murai was elected

fellow of ITC in 1993

in recognition of his

contribution to the

work of the Institute.

Three-Line Scanner for Large-Scale Mapping Shunji Murai*, Michikazu Murakami**, Koichi Tsuno**, Kazuya Morita** and Tianen Chen**

* Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo,** STARLABO Corporation

Professor Shunji Murai

cause more pixels can be aligned in a CCDsensing device for acquiring a high-resolu-tion image. This paper explains the systemconfiguration, features and applications ofSTARIMAGER®, a state-of-the-art helicopter-borne three-line scanner (TLS) system devel-oped by STARLABO Corporation, Tokyo,Japan (see Figure 1).

2. System Overview 2.1 Principle of STARIMAGER® The stabiliser with the TLS camera is installedon the arm outside the helicopter and ab-sorbs the vibration of helicopter movement.As shown in Figure 2, four CCD line sensorpackages are placed in parallel on the focalplane of the camera lens system. Three ofthese sensors are for forward looking, nadirlooking and backward looking. Each sensorpackage has three lines, R (Red), G (Green)and B (Blue), to generate a colour image. Inaddition, between the sensors for backwardlooking and nadir looking there is anotherCCD line sensor package for near infrared

(NIR) images. Each line sensor can obtainhigh-resolution 2D images in accordancewith the flight of the helicopter, acquiringten images in total, which are 100% over-lapped with each other as shown in Figure2. The position and attitude data of the TLScamera for each line image are acquiredwith a global positioning system (GPS) andan inertial measurement unit (IMU). An an-tenna for the GPS is installed on top of thehelicopter, while a set of fibre-optic gyro-scopes is placed on the TLS camera withinthe stabiliser. In principle, such a spatial dataacquisition system does not need aerial tri-angulation with any ground control points(GCPs) at all (see Murai et al., 1994; Muraiet al., 2000; Murai, 2001). STARLABOCorporation has acquired the patent rightsfor the system in Japan, the USA, Europe,Australia and Canada (see Murai et al., 1993).

2.2 Features of STARIMAGER® andAdvantages The advantages of STARIMAGER® can be de-scribed as follows (also described in Tsuno,2002a, 2002b). 1. Photograph developing and scanning

processes are unnecessary and there is noimage/film deformation, such as damageor deterioration. Moreover, since the dy-namic range of an output image that islinearly proportional to the luminance ofthe image plane is wide, it is possible toeasily recover even an image part that is inthe shade of a building, a cloud, etc., byincreasing image intensity. This reducesfield survey after data acquisition.

2. The GCPs for orientation may be fewer, oreven unnecessary, because of the existenceof a GPS/IMU. It is therefore suitable fordata acquisition in emergencies, at sea,etc., where GCPs are difficult to obtain.

3. Since the high-performance stabiliser en-sures that the original image acquired isnot wavy or blurred, it is suitable for im-ages in emergencies and the post-process-ing load can be reduced. Furthermore, theoblique photographs realised by slantingthe stabiliser are effective in acquiring thetexture of building walls (Figure 3).

4. A helicopter allows low-altitude low-speed operations, leading to high-resolu-tion images (see Figure 4). Since the lowaltitude ensures that the influence of fieldvisibility and weather conditions is only

12 ITC News 2003-3

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

Figure 1 Three-Line Scanner - STARIMAGER®

Figure 2 STARIMAGER® and its principle

small, the photography can be carried outmore frequently than conventional aerialphotography. Moreover, it can efficientlytake pictures of linear-shaped objects byfollowing them at low speed.

5. Using the TLS principle, image scale suffersvery little distortion caused by the heightof objects in the flight direction (a line per-

spective image as compared with a con-ventional central perspective image) and issuitable for orthoimage generation. Thesystem does not require mosaic processingin the flight direction or the scrapping ofparts and it can seamlessly acquire spatialdata of linear-shaped objects such asroads, railroads and rivers. Also the systemcan obtain redundant images; the photog-raphy in three different directions (threedifferent times) means little is lost, thus re-ducing the burden of field survey after thedata acquisition. Furthermore, a corre-sponding point searching in stereo match-ing is easy because the stereo angles areconstant, and measurement precision isimproved by triplet matching, as simulatedin Shibasaki et al. (1987). It facilitatesmulti-spectral data acquisition and allowsa colour image to be obtained by integrat-ing RGB three-line sensor images, with asindex a NIR image, which shows vegeta-tion and water in the soil more distinctivelythan a colour image (see Figure 5).

2.3 System Configuration of the STARIMAGER® Photographic System The focal distance of the TLS camera lenssystem is 60 mm, the stereo angles are 21,30 and 51 degrees between forward andnadir, nadir and backward, and forward andbackward, respectively (see Figure 6 for thesystem specifications). Each line sensor con-sists of 14,400 CCD pixels with 5 µm spac-ing, and acquires 500 line images in 1second (2 msec acquisition interval); theseare recorded in a controlling and recordingdevice installed in the helicopter cabin. Onthe other hand, a GPS antenna acquires thecamera position signal at 5 Hz and the IMUon top of the TLS camera acquires the cam-era attitude signal at 500 Hz. The stabiliserhas a vibration-absorbing spring and fivegimbals, absorbs the shaking of the helicop-ter, and keeps the optical axis direction ofthe TLS camera stable within a single pixel ofthe line sensor. This prevents the shaking ofthe helicopter from causing wavy or blurredimages (see Figure 7).

2.4 Characteristics of TLS Data andMeasurement The swath width at the flight altitude of 400m is approximately 480 m, the resolution onthe ground (or ground sample distance; cor-

13ITC News 2003-3

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

Figure 3 An image sample by oblique viewing

Figure 4 High resolution TLS image

Figure 5 Color image (left) and NIR image (right) - (The NIR image distinguishes morevegetation area - upper-middle - along the river than the color image)

responding to a CCD pixel) perpendicular tothe flight is 2.5 cm. On the other hand, theresolution in the flight direction is deter-mined by the flight speed and a 2.5 cm reso-lution can be realised by flying at 60 km/hr(to proceed by 2.5 cm for the standardimage sampling period 2 msec).

A point to be measured on the ground is ac-quired first by the forward-looking sensor,and then by the nadir-looking and backward-looking sensors (as shown in Figure 8), andrecorded as a line image with each line andpixel number. And since the position and atti-tude information of the TLS camera centrefor every line image is measured simultane-ously, it is possible to get the point positioninformation of three dimensions by the for-ward intersection method. Aerial triangula-tion is applied to perform absolute orienta-tion with better accuracy by using a numberof GCPs, in consideration of the drift of theIMU signal and the restriction of the acquisi-tion frequency of the GPS data. As a result,with a sufficient number of GCPs it can get a10 to 15 cm accuracy in a planimetric direc-tion and a 15 to 20 cm accuracy in theheight direction at 500 m height, as verifiedin Chen et al. (2001) and Morita et al.(2001). This opens up the possibility of map-ping at a large scale, such as 1:500 (with 25cm RMS for both planimetric and height ac-curacy) or larger. An important issue is con-sidering how to plan a set of flight coursesand GCPs in order to meet a particular accu-racy requirement. Figure 9 shows that it isbetter to fly a target area with multiplecourses as well as additional courses crossingthe multiple courses to use fewer GCPs,where it is essential to get a reasonable num-ber of tie-points (inter-strip) and pass-points(intra-strip) in and between course strips.

14 ITC News 2003-3

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

Figure 6 STARIAMGER basic specifications

Figure 7 Stabilizer’s effect

Figure 8 3D position measurement Figure 9 The number of GCPs with1/500 map accuracy

in the flight direction, which are required byconventional aerial photography. Reducingthe number of GCPs significantly reducesthe costs of survey processes such as setting,measuring and tearing down GCPs, and aer-ial triangulation. Moreover, an image with abroader dynamic range, less distortion andocclusion (see Figure 10), and more redun-dancy reduces the burden of field survey.

2.6 Image GIS One issue has been the costly mapping andplotting based on aerial photos for con-structing a geographical information system(GIS). A digital map may not be necessaryright from the very beginning in order to ful-fil most field applications. A new conceptcalled “Image GIS” has been presented toresolve this issue. Figure 11 shows an exam-ple of a viewer materialising such a concept.An orthoimage serves as a backgroundimage for a 2D map obtained from anothersource, on which distances and areas can bemeasured. In addition, the Image GIS vieweris equipped with a mono-image measure-ment system, where as the centre of the or-thoimage moves, so the target image for themeasurement system moves. When youwant to measure the 3D position of a pointprecisely by pointing to it on the orthoim-age, the viewer produces its correspondingimage set (forward, nadir and backward) forthe 3D measurement. In this way, you cangrasp the real 3D situation surrounding acertain target object without going to theactual spot, and then store the 3D data in adatabase attached to the GIS viewer.

3. Applications of TLSThe features of the TLS data are stimulatinggreater demand for efficient 3D seamlesshigh-resolution information on linear-shapedman-made objects and terrain. Linear-shaped man-made objects include roads,bridges, railroads, power cables andpipelines; information is used for investiga-tion purposes before construction, for main-tenance and management afterconstruction, and as base data for a varietyof GISs. Figure 12 shows a river environ-ment, and can be used for investigating veg-etation, the gravel grain diameterdistribution of a dry riverbed, the river floorprofile, etc. (as described in Fukami et al.,2002).

15ITC News 2003-3

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

2.5 Overview of TLS Data Processing System STARLABO Corporation has been developingthe TLS data processing system withProfessor A. Gruen of ETH (Swiss FederalInstitute of Technology, Zurich) and ProfessorR. Shibasaki of the University of Tokyo. Thesystem has realised functionalities equivalentto those of existing digital photogrammetrysystems, such as aerial triangulation (seeGruen et al., 2001, 2002a; Chen et al.,2003), automated random altitude pointsextraction (see Gruen et al., 2002b), thegeneration of DEM data and an orthoimage,contour generation, and the acquisition ofpolylines and polygons.

As described above, the TLS principle caneliminate such photographic processes asdeveloping, image scanning and mosaicing

Figure 10 Image with less distortion

Figure 11 Image GIS viewer

TLS data can also be used as base grounddata for simulating floods with high preci-sion in order to judge whether water will riseabove or remain below a Japanese raisedfloor. This cannot be assessed based on con-ventional 50 m meshed terrain data (seeFigure 13). Three-dimensional city models ofhigh definition are expected to be used forcity planning, landscape simulation, auto-navigation, gaming and so on. When thehelicopter flies along a road, the wall texturefacing the road can be acquired with anadir-looking image. The wall textures per-pendicular to the road can be acquired witheither forward-looking or backward-lookingimages. Textures can be semi-automaticallymapped onto 3D polygons. The texture of

the building walls facing a trunk road canalso be efficiently acquired with oblique-viewing images. A website application usingsuch TLS images is shown in Figure 14.

Figure 15 shows an example of perfect or-thoimages (TrueOrthoTM), where the TLSdata are highly overlapped between courses.These were processed with the cooperationof ISTAR in France. A conventional orthoim-age has leaning buildings with side wallsthat occlude roads because the image isgenerated based on terrain data only; a per-fect orthoimage takes into account theheight of buildings as well. Consequently,this is useful for preventing inappropriatedigging in cases of construction, because theposition of gas or water pipes under roadscan be precisely and realistically described.Furthermore, using the characteristics thatcan acquire images of three directions with aconstant time lag, the systems can measurethe speed of a car or running water and thetraffic flow along a road, and they can alsobe used for investigating illegal parking(judging by the image deformation of a car,the distance from a road edge, etc).

4. Conclusion The day will soon come when a conventionalspatial data acquisition tool based on aerialphotographs is replaced by TLS. This paperhas presented the TLS principle and its appli-cations at an early stage. The biggest chal-lenge is to improve the accuracy of theposition and attitude measurements of the

16 ITC News 2003-3

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

Figure 12 Survey for river environment

Figure 14 An example for web contentFigure 13 Flooding simulation

TLS camera centre by the GPS/IMU so that asfew GCPs as possible are needed.Furthermore, the extraction of changes be-tween images taken at two different times,the automatic extraction of man-made ob-jects such as buildings and roads (as de-scribed in Nakagawa et al., 2001), and themeasurement of the speed of cars and riversshould be studied.

AcknowledgementThe authors would like to express their ap-preciation to Professor A. Gruen of ETH andhis laboratory staff members and to Profes-sor R. Shibasaki of the University of Tokyoand his laboratory staff members for con-structive and useful discussions and advice.

References (Chen et al., 2001) Tianen Chen, Ryosuke Shibasaki

and Kazuya Morita: “Development and calibra-tion of airborne three-line scanner (TLS) imagingsystem”, 3rd International Image SensingSeminar ISPRS, September 2001.

(Chen at al., 2003) Tianen Chen, Ryosuke Shibasakiand Shunji Murai: “Development and calibrationof the airborne three-line scanner (TLS) imagingsystem”, Photogrammetric Engineering andRemote Sensing, Vol. 69, No. 1, January 2003,pp. 71-78.

(Fukami et al., 2002) Kazuhiko Fukami, TakuyaOkada and Jun-ichi Yoshitani: “A study on an in-formation collection method for river blocks withTLS”, JSPRS Conference, J-4 2002.7, pp. 185-188.

(Gruen et al., 2001) Armin Gruen and Li Zhang: “TLSData Processing”, 3rd International ImageSensing Seminar ISPRS, September 2001.

(Gruen et al., 2002a) Armin Gruen and Li Zhang:“Sensor modelling for aerial mobile mapping

with three-line scanner (TLS) imagery”, Int. Arch.of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Vol.34, Part 2, 2002, pp. 139-146.

(Gruen et al., 2002b) Armin Gruen and Li Zhang:“Automatic DTM generation from three-linescanner (TLS) Images”, Int. Arch. ofPhotogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Vol. 34,Part 3A, 2002, pp. 131-137.

(Morita et al., 2001) Kazuya Morita, RyosukeShibasaki, Tianen Chen, Bokuro Urabe andMayumi Noguchi: “Accuracy evaluation of air-craft-borne photographic device”, JSPRSConference, Fall 2001, 2001.11.

(Murai, 2001) Shunji Murai: “Digital photogramme-try without any ground control points”,Zensokuren, Spring 2001, pp. 15-20.

(Murai et al., 1994) Shunji Murai and YoshitamaMatsu: “3D measurement with three-line scan-ner (TLS)”, Photogrammetry and RemoteSensing, Vol. 33, No. 5, 1994, pp. 21-25.

(Murai et al., 2000) Shunji Murai and YoshifumiYasuoka: “Earth industry and space industry”,Industrial Sciences, Vol. 52, No. 3, 2000.3, pp.38-42.

(Murai et. al., 1993) Shunji Murai et al., Patent02807622: “Airborne photographic apparatus”,1993.12.

(Nakagawa et al., 2001) Masafumi Nakagawa andRyosuke Sshibasaki: “Study on making 3D urbanmodel with TLS image and laser range data”,Asian Conference on Remote Sensing, November2001.

(Shibasaki et al., 1987) Ryosuke Shibasaki and ShunjiMurai: “A simulation on improvement of the ac-curacy and the stability of stereo matching usingtriplet linear array sensor data,” Photogrammetryand Remote Sensing, Vol. 26, No. 2, 1987,pp. 4-10.

(Tsuno, 2002a) Koichi Tsuno: “Practices in spatial in-formation technology: three-line scanner and itsapplications”, JSPRS 2002.

(Tsuno 2002b) Koichi Tsuno: “Three-line scanner andits applications”, Photogrammetry and RemoteSensing, Vol. 41, No. 4, 2002, pp. 37-40.

17ITC News 2003-3

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

Figure 15 perfect orthoimage

While studying (or

working) at ITC,

students have the

opportunity to be

trained in other

fields besides their

academic domain.

The most important

objective of such

activities is, of

course, to free the

mind from the

sometimes-

strenuous course

work.

In addition, participants meet staff membersand students from other courses and disci-plines in a social setting. After all, study (orwork) is not the sole objective of our life onMother Earth.

One of the activi-ties you can partici-pate in is Run4Fun.It’s all in the name:running for fun.Run4Fun is in facta follow-up to thehistoric initiative set in motion by Piet vander Hulst and Juud de Lange, which ranfrom 1984 till 1991. In those years an ITCteam of students and staff would train for,and take part in, the Batavierenrace(http://www.batavierenrace.nl/en). Since 1998 this running initiative has beenrevived and extended. Although the majorobjective is to run for fun, history shows thatthe popularity of the training strongly corre-lates with approaching running events.Therefore Run4Fun organises and partici-pates in several sports competitions annu-ally:• International Sports Day (March)• Batavierenrace (April)• ITC Sports Day (June)• Singelloop Enschede (September)

Those who take part in these events - as wellas those that show perseverance during

training - receive a special Run4Fun T-shirt tocommemorate this extracurricular activityand to prove to their family and friends thatthey indeed did practice running.

In 2003 ITC participated for the 11th time inthe Batavierenrace, a race that consists of 25stages varying in length from 3 to 12 km.According to the organisation, this event isthe biggest student relay race (party) in theworld, since close to 300 teams sign in.Many of you have participated once andonce only - as G. Coulibaly admitted sadly in1991. He would have liked to join in againthe following year. The list of fastest partici-pants shows Yovanny Martinez ahead ofboth staff and students. Running the finalstage from Boekelo to Enschede in 1990, heentered the athletics stadium at a blisteringpace. His average speed of 17.42 km/hr over

18 ITC News 2003-3

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

ITC’s Extracurricular Activity -Run4Fun

Wan Bakx - Run4Fun bakx@itc.nl

Run4Fun cross team wins running event at theInternational Sports Day 2003

Overview ITC Sports Day 2003

a stage of 8.4 km will probably never bebeaten! But other ITC students too havemade their mark. In 2000, for example,there was Jaya, who registered just a coupleof weeks before the race but finished smil-ing. And we mustn’t forget Tarek Agag, whoran his stage in dress shoes. What aboutFusun Dusgun? Although slightly hinderedby a handicap, she practised diligently andfinished the first stage in 2000. Fan Shientawas especially happy: “I was able to pass aguy bigger than me.”.

The paragraphs below are written by stu-dents who took part in the 2003Batavierenrace. Ronald Brown joined thenight team as a supporter and proudly car-ried the ITC banner. Issah Mbura ran the firststage for the morning team and surprisedboth himself and the coach. Quite relieved -that’s how he felt after the race. JoeMwandawamufu ran the final stage for thenoon team and finished in Boekelo as thirdin his group. They relate their own experi-ences but have to admit it’s impossible tocapture on paper the actual atmosphere dur-ing the race.

Ronald Brown: Night Team I had been waiting for this moment for avery long time!

Words cannot describe my true feelings asthe hours ticked away on the night of Friday,25 April 2003. I believe I’d had a continuousrush of adrenalin throughout the entire day.“I cannot afford to be late for this date,” Ikept telling myself.

I reached the ITC hotel with half an hour tospare. I wanted to arrive as early as possibleto build up my energy level. The bus arrivedpromptly at 9:30 pm, driven by our captainEdith Howard. Everyone was prepared forthe adventure.

At Nijmegen the atmosphere was electrify-ing. Voices and music filled the night. All Icould think of at that moment was thephrase “the thrill of victory and the agony ofdefeat”. At Nijmegen we met up with Wan,and of course left Kim to start the ITC con-quest. But most importantly, it was therethat I was handed the ITC banner. We didnot stay to watch the start but my mind wason Kim, running the first leg for us – my fin-gers were crossed. We hurried back to ourbus and we were quickly on our way to thenext stage.

As we went along, I became a bit worried,“Where on earth are we”? This is total dark-ness! What have I got myself into?” I didn’tdare ask if we were lost. It seemed to me wewere in the middle of nowhere. Actually weweren’t. As we approached the start of thesecond stage, we found that we were prettyclose to a major road.

Preparations were still going on. I was fasci-nated by the age of most of the members ofthe organising group. I was expecting grey-haired men and women. No way! Theseguys were pretty young. Soon the first run-ner to arrive was announced … then min-utes after, “Achtenveertig! Achtenveertig!”“48, that’s us!” The ITC banner shot up intothe air to attract the attention of the cyclist.This was followed by shouts of “ITC! ITC!”Martin, who in the meantime was already atthe changeover position, quickly got the jer-sey from Jan and was off in a flash. Danielnavigated his way through the crowd over

19ITC News 2003-3

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

Fan Shienta tells Allan Brown that hewas surprised to overtake a guy biggerthan himself (video snapshot)

Juud, the front runner, enters the UT arena (1985)

The ITC night and morning teams of the 2002 Batavierenrace

The ITC night and morning teams in the Batavierenrace 2003

to us and passed the bicycle on to Wim,who in turn disappeared quickly to catch upwith Martin. It happened so fast. Wow!

The adrenalin flowed. My heart was pump-ing. I like this job!

As we hurried back to the bus, I held the ITCbanner over my shoulder for all to see. Itwas like in the days of old, when armiesmarched with their flag bearers in the lead.All eyes were on us! I was enjoying myself.

I was disappointed not to see many specta-tors along the route. I was expecting to seea lot of people along the roadside. But Icould understand. The night was pretty cold,as well as rainy. For another thing, most ofthe changeover zones were in “remoteareas”. At the start of each journey, I alwayswondered, “Where next?”

The most adventurous part of the journeyturned out to be the journey toMarmelhorst. Up till then, Daniel had beenEdith’s navigator. But now it was his turn torun, so I was the new navigator. Watchinghow they both found their way so easily, Iwas confident I could handle the job. It tookonly two minutes to find out otherwise. Iwas no help at all to Edith. Plus all the other

buses were nowhere to be seen. To add tothe confusion, the English translation wasdifferent from the Dutch. Oops! “Wi lass!” Ithought (in Jamaican). However, Edith wasmore determined than I was. Eventually wewere saved by the approach of other buses.We just followed them to the end of thejourney.

Throughout the whole event I tried to pickup the vibes of our runners. Kim’s I missedbecause she did not rejoin us. For Jan it wasthe same.

Martin’s was the first experience that caughtme. At the finish, he was breathless. It was agood run but the conditions were difficult.Wan was the veteran, but he benefited fromsome good riding from Peter, who cycledahead to minimise the impact of the wind inWan’s face. I felt sorry for Wim and Ki; therain was pelting down at that stage. I sawthe map of the route getting wet and Istarted to think the worst. But at that pointit was C-O-L-D.

I think Peter enjoyed his stage the most be-cause at the end he wanted to continue run-ning. According to him, he was just gettinginto the groove. Helen epitomised the realathlete. I thought she was the most anxiousto get going. Her preparation was intense.She did some short sprints to keep warm,while at the same time looking over hershoulder every so often for the approach ofthe runners. Ki enjoyed his performance to-tally. He was anxious throughout the journeyfrom Enschede. It had been a long timesince he’d last run and he didn’t know howhe would perform. But at the finish he wasall smiles.

At the end of the night team’s performancein Dinxperlo, the carnival atmosphere re-turned. Day was breaking; there was acamp; people were milling around. The nextset of runners was arriving; some were al-ready present. Electricity yet again crackledin the atmosphere. It was here, more than inNijmegen, that I really witnessed the impactof Run4Fun. I was only sorry that I had toleave.

We quickly searched for the morning team.

20 ITC News 2003-3

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

Ronald Brown proudly presenting the ITC banner atrelay point Oraniendeich (Germany), accompanied by Peter Kityo and Heleen Bakx

They were as anxious as we were for thestart. We exchanged greetings and experi-ences. I had a major task to perform - tohand over the ITC banner to Bert Jan. Wetook some group photos, waited for thestart of the morning leg, and then we wereoff back to Enschede.

The night was total fun!

Issah A. Mbura, Stage 10, Dinxperlo tode Heurne (6.4 km)“Issah, are you going to London or are youjoining the running team?”

It was on the stairs of the second floor that Imet Wan and he asked me the kind of ques-tion I hate most. Such questions tend to beeasier to answer, being Boolean in character,but they keep generating more questions. Ihad encountered them in ArcGIS exercises.Well, I had to think fast and I replied, “I’lljoin the running team.”

The event started on the eve of the 26thwhen, for the first time in more than adecade, I went to bed around 9 pm, only towake up suddenly at 4 am. My mind wasracing - planning how I would run, giving itshape, formulating strategies (SWOT), think-ing of all the “what ifs” - still, knowing thatone of my team-mates was our Institute’snurse put my mind at rest.

We gathered at IIH and set off for Dinxperloon time, despite the rain and some of uscoming from far away. More fun … we gotlost on the way. But quickly we managed totrace the route - remember we’re experi-enced map makers/map users! At Dinxperlothe weather was good and we met our col-leagues of the night team who had alreadysuccessfully finished. They gave us the vestand bicycle ready to start at 6.30 am.Tsolmon reminded me that I was the one tostart in our team, so I had to do a warming-up by stretching and running a few metres.At the starting line my team-mates werethere to see me off. Having looked at theother runners and seen their enthusiasm, Ifelt a bit out of place. Still, I said to myself,“Stick to your own pace!” I was really happyto reach the relay point and hand over thevest to Ethel Yuliana.

It was even more fun at the UT, where therace finished. Despite the rain our team-mates did well. Some of the runners werethere for the fun. I will never forget the onewho was carried to the finishing line by hisfellows acting as a first aid team. He was ona stretcher with a bottle of beer set up as adrip.

Joe Mwandawamufu, Stage 23, St Isidorushoeve to Boekelo (7.9 km)“What a thrill’ is all I can say.”

Before the actual day, I couldn’t help think-ing, “How on earth can 284 teams do arelay run over a distance of 180 km? And asif that isn’t enough, they decide to start therace at midnight!”

Anyway with that still on my mind we finallyleft IIH. We arrived at our starting point onlyto be welcomed by one of the participantsalmost collapsing after she’d completed herstint. And you can easily guess what wasrunning through all our minds. The otherthing I should mention is we had the best ofsupporters, Jema and Evelyn. After seeingthe lady almost collapse, I remember Jemasaying, “Hey Joe, I’m waiting to see you inthat state!” Obviously she was only jokingbut it certainly gave me something to thinkabout.

21ITC News 2003-3

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

Issah A. Mbura finishes hisstage and feels relieved

Well, the best part about the whole thing iscycling and just enjoying the views of na-ture. You also see the runners sweating itout, pushing themselves to the limit. You saya few words of encouragement, hoping theycan hear what you’re saying. After all, it’s asport and everyone needs everyone.

But while you’re still thinking about the ex-perience and efforts of other participants …wham! It suddenly hits you. It’s your turn topersevere and the turn of your friends andfellows to maybe laugh or encourage you.

“Hakuna Matata” is what you tell yourselfas you hit the road for your stage. You’veonly one thing in your mind - I have to reachthe finishing line - and you set your sights onachieving just that. As you get closer to thefinishing line, so your energy level starts todrop. You’re almost boiling inside and youfeel as if the finishing line is also moving, butat a slower rate than you. And you begin towonder.

Finally you see the 1 km mark and suddenlyyou can hear the people cheering. Then youknow you’ve made it, and like a miracle yourbody is suddenly charged with enough en-ergy for you to make that final sprint. As youpass the timer, all that’s in your mind is “Yes!Who said I couldn’t run!” And you can’t be-lieve you passed all those people that lookedlike hardened athletes, well able to copewith a simple run of 7.9 km. (Hey, I meanguys from the Military Academy and thosethat looked super-fit.)

22 ITC News 2003-3

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

The noon team of the Batavierenrace 2002 in frontof the famous Boekelo salt tower

More experiences of the Run4Fun par-ticipants, as well as photographs, canbe found on the ITC Intranet pages:

http://intranet.itc.nl/recreation/run4funUnfortunately that excludes many of

you - but keep an eye on the ITCInternet pages; Run4Fun events might

appear there as well.

An alternative training session in the week before theBatavierenrace to practice the relay

Preparation in the dunes near The Hague for the International Sportsday 2003

23ITC News 2003-3

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

BackgroundFor some time now, the developmentof ILWIS software has been reorientedand integrated into the ITC researchprogramme, with the aim of enhanc-ing ITC’s research capacity and posi-tion. Further software developmentwill depend on (the output of) ITC’sresearch, which will gradually turnILWIS into a scientific rather than acommercial product.

As a consequence, it is no longer ap-propriate to distribute ILWIS on acommercial basis. PCI Geomatics ofToronto, Canada, has handled thecommercial distribution of ILWIS soft-ware since 1999, but now PCI andITC have come to an amicablearrangement to terminate theiragreement on 31 December 2003.

Distribution Policy as from 1 January 2004As from 1 January 2004, ILWIS soft-ware will be distributed solely by ITCas shareware to all users, irrespectiveof their relation with ITC. The newfunctionalities resulting from ITC’s on-going research programme will be in-corporated in ILWIS Academic 3.2, tobe released on that date.

• Existing users of versions 3.0/3.1 orlater, both ITC and PCI customers,will be entitled to version 3.2 up-grade patches free of charge.

• New users, irrespective of their re-lation with ITC, will be entitled totry out ILWIS software for an evalu-ation period of one (1) month freeof charge, and can subsequentlyobtain a permanent licence on pay-ment of m100 (one hundredeuros).

• ILWIS Academic software will bereleased without guaranteed sup-port services.

• If questions arise, users can consultthe discussion list, FAQ and userdocumentation available on theILWIS website.

As from 1 January 2004, ILWISAcademic 3.2 can be downloadedfrom ITC’s website (http://www.itc.nl/ilwis/ downloads/default.asp) or ob-tained on CD-ROM from ITC’s book-shop. ILWIS will not be distributed byregular mail.

announcements

Changes in ilwis Distribution Policy as from 1 January 2004!

I N T E R N A T I O N A L I N S T I T U T E F O R G E O - I N F O R M A T I O N S C I E N C E A N D E A R T H O B S E R V A T I O N ( I T C ) ,

E N S C H E D E , T H E N E T H E R L A N D S

ILWIS 3.2Academic

33..22

The map City of Blantyre, Malawi,the result of Mr Jonathan ShadreckGwaligwali’s final assignment in theITC Geoinformatics Diploma course,was selected as winner in the cate-gory “Best Academic MapIndividual” of the 2003 AvenzaMAPublisher Map Competition.Jonathan works at the Ministry ofLands, Physical Planning and Surveysof Malawi, Blantyre, Malawi.

The map, a scale 1:25,000 topo-graphic sheet of Blantyre, Malawi,was produced using data from theSurvey Department of Malawi. A mapof Blantyre was last produced in 1976by the Ordnance Survey of Englandbut it had never been updated. Thewinning map was produced as a fullyrevised version of the original toposheet.

The final assignment is an importantpart of the GFM4 curriculum. One ofthe subjects that can be selected forthis final assignment is the designand production (including workflowplanning) of a map or an applicationthat serves the student’s institute ororganisation. Jonathan decided towork out a low-cost but (graphically)top-quality production line for updat-ing and producing topographicsheets.

The map was fully compiled and cre-ated using Macromedia Freehand 10software in combination with the GIS-import plug-in filter AvenzaMAPublisher. After digitising the aerialphotos in Freehand (which offers anumber of easy-to-handle drawingtools for this purpose), MAPublisher4.0 was used to export the data inArcview’s Shape file format for other

GIS-based activities. Once the datawere complete, the author created aset of graphic styles within Freehand,which were then applied to the Shapefile data. The total work process, in-cluding setting up map specifications,workflow planning, creating a stylesheet, updating, editing and produc-tion, took less than six weeks.

Recently the surveyor-general ofMalawi sent ITC a letter stating that“… he (Gwaligwali) produced one ofthe best topographic maps ...” and“... the map impressed the entire de-partment.” Mr Gwaligwali was askedto complete the map because it is insuch high demand.

24 ITC News 2003-3

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

City of Blantyre, Malawi, a 1:25,000 scale topo-sheet

Jonathan Shadreck Gwaligwali:

Winner in Avenza Systems’ 2003 MAPublisher Map Competition

Wim Feringa feringa@itc.nl

Indigeo is a SAIL-supported projectjointly implemented by theGeological Survey of India (GSI), theAssociation of ExplorationGeoscientists (AEG, India), theMaastricht School of Management(MSM) and ITC.

The project focuses on the institu-tional strengthening and human re-source development of the GSI andother geoscience institutes in Indiaand the South Asian sub-continent.Overall objectives include:• raising awareness of the state of

the art in digital geoscience map-ping, and gaining insight into theorganisational and managementimplications for effective acquisi-tion, publication and archiving ofthe national geoscience database

• creating new capability in researchand development, and implement-ing the application of sound man-agement practices in the earthscience sector oriented towards fu-ture methodologies

• assisting in drafting a human re-sources development plan, includ-ing course design, curricula andinfrastructure (equipment) for a va-riety of short courses on topics re-lated to management and digitalmethods.

To this end, training and teaching fa-cilities have been established on thecampus of the GSI Training Institutein Hyderabad. These include class-rooms, computer laboratories, a li-brary and accommodation for thefaculty. In addition the hostel facilityfor trainees has also been remod-elled, thus enabling participants tostay on the GSI campus.

Although officially started in January1998, the project actually became ef-fective after the first steering commit-tee meeting and the signing of anMoU in August 1999. Since then theproject has been smoothly imple-mented and has developed accordingto schedule. GSI staff have success-fully attended PM courses at MSMand ITC, and 26 trainees have fol-lowed the three-month Training-of-Trainers programme at ITC. In turn,these trainers have trained many GSIstaff and geoscientists from India andthe region in a variety of training pro-grammes, covering GIS, digital imageprocessing and digital map processingfor scientists and technicians. In com-bination with ITC and MSM experts,courses have been provided on GIS,an exploration project, aerial geo-physical mapping and strategicchange management. There is a

strong demand for these coursesfrom both GSI staff and staff of othergeoscience organisations in India andneighbouring countries.

The project will run until July 2004.Till then the input of ITC and MSMwill be strengthened. A course on ad-vanced and Internet GIS was con-ducted in June by Ellen-WienAugustijn and Barend Köbben. Twomore courses and an end-of-projectworkshop are foreseen. In July a jointMSM-ITC course was given, withinput from the Administrative StaffCollege of India (ASCI) and with PhilWesterhof as lecturer for the moduleExploration Project. The course wasattended by 19 staff, including the500th course participant. The multi-plier effect of the Indigeo project isimpressive and the project can beconsidered highly successful.

25ITC News 2003-3

P R O J E C T N E W S

project news

Milestone in Indigeo Project: Over 500 Geoscientists Trained

Phil Westerhof westerhof@itc.nl

Course participants, staff of the GSI Training Institute, and guest faculty from ITC, MSM andASCI (with the completion of this course the number of trainees reached 502)

Modelling Spatial and Temporal UrbanGrowthIn an effort to better understand the com-plexity inherent in the urban growth process,the aim of this research was to develop atheoretical framework and methodologythat focused on:1. analysing the complexity of the urban

growth system and evaluating the currentmethods available for modelling this com-plexity

2. monitoring the urban growth of a fast-growing city (Wuhan) in a rapidly develop-ing country (P.R. China), based onremotely sensed imagery, and evaluatingits structural and functional changes bymodelling

3. developing and demonstrating a quantita-tive method for the comparative measure-ment of long-term temporal urbangrowth

4. developing and demonstrating an inter-pretable method for urban growth pat-tern modelling

5. developing and demonstrating a spatiallyand temporally explicit method for under-standing the urban growth process.

First, urban growth is defined as a system re-

sulting from the complex dynamic interac-tions between the developable, developedand planned systems. Its complexity can bedistinguished by projecting onto the spatial,temporal and decision-making dimensions.The specific complexity is linked with themajor current methods of modern urbanmodelling, such as cellular automata, frac-tals, neural networks, multi-agent and spa-tial statistics. This confrontation makes itpossible to indicate the possibilities of vari-ous modelling methods to understand urbangrowth complexity. Based on the theoreticaland operational considerations, this studyconcentrates on the complexity in structuraland functional change, temporal compara-bility, spatial patterns and spatial-temporalprocesses.

Second, with remotely sensed imagery (Spotand aerial photographs) and secondarysources, this research presents a methodol-ogy for monitoring and evaluating structuraland functional changes in the last fivedecades. This methodology primarily com-prises morphology analysis, urban land usestructure change and spatial pattern analy-sis, using fractal and landscape metrics ap-proaches. The findings show that the

26 ITC News 2003-3

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

research news

PhD Graduation: Jianquan ChengWednesday, 7 May 2003, Utrecht University research@itc.nl

Jianquan Cheng was born on 5 October 1966 in Shucheng, Anhui, P.R. China. He completedhis secondary education at the No.1 High School of Luan in 1984. He received his BSc degreein mathematics from the University of Shandong in 1988. He joined Wuhan TechnicalUniversity of Surveying and Mapping (WTUSM) in 1988. In his early years at WTUSM, he tookpart in various projects involving remote sensing and geographical information systems forurban applications. He embarked on the MSc degree course GIS for Urban Application inSeptember 1993, and earned his MSc degree with a thesis entitled “GIS for urban redevelop-ment in transformation, a case study of Wuhan City, P.R. China”. Since returning to WTUSM,he has been involved in lecturing and GIS applications in the context of urban systems engi-neering, and relevant projects regarding GIS construction.

With the financial aid of the DSO project between China and the Netherlands, he started hisdoctoral research in April 1999. This research has resulted in some ten scientific papers in in-ternational peer-reviewed journals (submitted or already published) and in the proceedings ofinternational conferences/symposia in which he participated.

integration of multiple spatial indica-tors can improve the capacity for in-terpretation, such as evaluation. Thiscase study reveals temporal variationsin the spatial urban growth process.

Third, this research presents an inno-vative method for the temporal meas-urement of long-term urban growthfor the purpose of comparing urbansprawl. By using the concept of rela-tive space, the temporal complexitycan be transformed into spatial com-plexity, indicated by the complex spa-tial interactions between urbansprawl and urban social and eco-nomic systems. The method com-prises temporal mapping, datadisaggregation, integration on spatialgravity, and global evaluation. Thefindings reveal that the macro pat-terns of urban sprawl can be inter-preted and compared from microurban activities, as activities are di-rectly linked with actors and their be-haviour. This research also shows thatpattern, process and behaviour mustbe integrated into a whole towardsunderstanding the complexity inurban growth.

Fourth, this research presents a pre-liminary multiscale perspective for un-derstanding spatial patterns based onspatial hierarchical theory. The spatialhierarchies comprise planning, analy-sis and data, which are interrelated.Multiscale in analysis hierarchy refers

to the probability of change (macro),the density of change (meso) and theintensity of change (micro). Multiscaleanalysis seeks to distinguish spatialdeterminants on each of the threescales, which are able to providedeeper insights into urban growthpatterns shaped by spontaneous andself-organised spatial processes. Theframework is implemented by usingexploratory data analysis and spatiallogistic regression. This combinationis proven to have a strong capacityfor interpretation. The scale-depend-ent and scale-independent determi-nants are found significantly on twoscales.

Fifth, this research presents an inno-vative method for understanding spa-tial processes and their temporaldynamics on two interrelated scales(municipality and project), using amulti-stage framework and dynamicweighting concept. The multi-stageframework aims to model local spa-tial processes and global temporal dy-namics by incorporating explicitdecision-making processes. It is di-vided into four stages: project plan-ning, site selection, local growth andtemporal control. These four stepsrepresent the interactions betweenthe top-down and bottom-up deci-sion making involved in land develop-ment for large-scale projects.Project-based cellular automata mod-elling is developed for interpreting

the spatial and temporal logic be-tween various projects forming thewhole urban growth. As a non-linearfunction of temporal land develop-ment, dynamic weighting is able tolink spatial processes and temporalpatterns at the project level. The find-ings from this research suggest thatthis method can facilitate and im-prove the temporal and transparentinterpretation and visualisation of thedynamic process of urban growthglobally and locally.

Finally, this research has found thatcomplexity theories such as hierarchytheory and self-organising theory arevery helpful in conceptually andmethodologically understanding thespecific complexity of a complex sys-tem. Spatial and temporal modellingbased on complexity methods such ascellular automata can improve the an-alytical functions of GIS with the aidof remotely sensed imagery.

27ITC News 2003-3

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

Copies of Modelling Spatialand Temporal Urban Growth by Dr Jianquan Cheng are avail-able at the ITC Bookshop.Price: m15.00 Dissertation number: DIS099

Urban growth (1993-2000) and land use (1993) in WuhanUrban growth (1955-1965) and land use (1955) in Wuhan

This short report was writtenshortly after my return to the officewhile the students were still in thefield.

After weeks of preparation it was apleasure to assist two Chinese stu-dents (from the ENRICH project) instarting their MSc fieldwork in theirhome country. Accompanied by XuWeihua and Xin Shen, I left forBeijing on 9 September. We werepicked up from the airport byWeihua’s wife and two drivers fromthe Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences Beijing(RCEES), the home base of the stu-dents before they came to ITC.Directly after dropping my luggageoff at the guesthouse and a quicklunch, I was introduced to ProfessorOuyang Zhiyun from RCEES. Therewas no opportunity to enjoy my jet-lag because, according to Professor’sOuyang’s tight schedule, when itcame to giving my lecture on wetlandresearch there was no time like thepresent!

Hunting for good advice, useful con-tacts in the fieldwork area, and addi-tional data, we spent the next fewdays in Beijing visiting several organi-sations and institutes involved in wet-land research and conservation. We

announced our plans and generatednew ideas, meeting many helpfulpeople at the State Laboratory ofEnvironmental Chemistry, theFreshwater Programme at the head-quarters of WWF China, and theRamsar Implementation Office of theDivision of Wetlands Conservation ofthe Department of Wildlife and PlantConservation. A particular pleasurewas our visit to Professor Chen Kelinand Ms Zhang Xiaohong fromWetlands International China. Theirdrive and enthusiasm also offer po-tential for future cooperation.

On Saturday, the train delivered us toBaoding, 200 km south of Beijing,where we were warmly welcomed atHebei University by Dr Liu Cunqi andcolleagues. Plans and mutual interestswere discussed over lunch, afterwhich Liu Cunqi took us to our field-work destination, Lake Baiyang Dian.This wetland has undergone dramaticchanges during the last decade.Owing to activities upstream and lessrainfall over the past years, water lev-els have dropped several metres. Theimpact is clearly visible: a large shift inservices provided by the wetland tothe local people, and consequentlyenormous land cover and land usechanges, as well as socio-economicchanges.

Hopefully the MSc research of thestudents will contribute to futuremanagement plans for the lake andsurrounding area. Xin Shen is focus-ing on an analysis of how wetlandservices such as fishery, reed harvest-ing, tourism, transport and fruit pro-duction (Lotus and others) havechanged, while also investigating(possibly using remote sensing) whatindicators could be useful in monitor-ing the wetland. This might offer pol-icy makers interesting additionalviews. Xu Weihua will concentrate onthe spatial ecological analysis of howthe changes in hydrology have influ-enced the reed vegetation. Reed veg-etation is economically important inthe area, but it is also the habitat ofmany bird species.

The visit to the management office ofLake Baiyang Dian and the reconnais-sance survey by boat helped us toadapt and finalise the data collectionplans. Housed at Hebei University, wecould optimally prepare the field-work, as well as hugely enjoy our-selves by playing table tennis andcompetitively eating peanuts withchopsticks.

The first real sampling days in thefield were filled by collecting data forthe land cover and land use maps

28 ITC News 2003-3

E D U C A T I O N

Fieldwork Adventures and MSc Research in a Chinese Wetland

Iris van Duren vanduren@itc.nl

education

Information sign on Lake Baiyang Dian Fishing in shallow water Students planning tomorrow’s activities

that will be part of the output ofthese studies. It was top entertain-ment to see the students trying outthe fishing trousers and avoiding awet suit. A great result if the first20 cm of wetland bottom are muddyclay and boot size is much larger thanthe student’s feet!

We had arranged accommodationwith local people instead of staying ina hotel. A very hospitable elderly cou-ple took care that we slept well, werefed three times a day, and arrivedwhere we wanted to go. Our landlordwas the best guide imaginable. Andthe fact that I don’t speak Chineseand he didn’t speak one word ofEnglish appeared no problem at allafter a stiff drink at the dinner table.

In September 2003, a new group ofcourse participants arrived at ITC,some 60 of whom came to followthe Natural Resource Managementprogramme. This programme beginswith a multidisciplinary module re-flecting upon the participants’ pro-fessional knowledge andexperiences. This interactive trainingformula has been successfully ap-plied at ITC for ten years now. Theintroductory module concludes with

a rapid field survey in the neigh-bourhood of Enschede.

On 9 October 2003, the rapid fieldsurvey was conducted in southeastTwente, in the province of Overijssel.The objective of the survey was togain insight into the conflicting landuse issues and stakeholders in naturalresource management in theNetherlands, while at the same timemaking optimal use of available spa-

tial and non-spatial informationsources.

Three different groups visited thethree nature conservation areasAamsveen, Buurserzand andHaaksbergerveen, as well as threefarmers in the area. Each groupplanned and prepared their survey, in-cluding interviews with a farmer anda representative of the organisationmanaging the conservation area. The

Together with the students, I travelledback to Beijing on 21 September.After a week and a half of intensivediscussions and optimising their sam-pling designs, they should be able tomanage the rest on their own. I hadarranged a follow-up meeting withWetlands International China and alast visit to Liu Xuehua, with whom Ihad become good friends during thetime she spent at ITC for her PhD

studies. It was nice to find out shewas doing fine and was happy withthe opportunities available atTsinghua University. One last lunchand a sightseeing tour of the univer-sity campus and it was time to saygoodbye and fly back to the office.And I agree, China is a vast and fast-developing country with many oppor-tunities.

29ITC News 2003-3

E D U C A T I O N

Reed transport in the Lake Baiyang area

Xin Shen back at the boat and out of themud

Xu Weihua testing if he could keep a dry suitwhile sampling

Aamsveen, Buurserzand and Haaksbergerveen:A Rapid Field Survey by the Participants of the Natural Resource Management Programme 2003

Participants NRM 2003 Programme mccall@itc.nl; groenendijk@itc.nl; dopheide@itc.nl

three groups communicated their sur-vey findings in a plenary presentation,a poster session, and the followingthree articles.

NRM Students Visit theAamsveen Area in Overijssel The public call for measures to restorethe balance between agriculture andthe environment has become moreand more persistent over time in theNetherlands. Emphasis is laid on therelationship between agriculture andthe conservation of nature and land-scapes.

The target area for the survey bygroup A was Aamsveen, locatedsoutheast of the municipality ofEnschede. The aim was to observethe interaction in land use among ac-tors involved in urban development,nature conservation and agriculturaldevelopment. The exercise started theday before, with identifying areas ofconflict between the actors and usingdifferent maps and images (touristmap, topographic map and Spot im-ages) to plan the reconnaissance sur-vey. Two sites were visited: a dairyfarm located about 300 m north ofthe N35 highway (linking theNetherlands and Germany) in the

Grevengoor area, and a nature re-serve area.

By interviewing Mr ten Thij and hisson, the owners of the dairy farm, itwas possible to see the magnitude ofthe changes they have had to gothrough as part of the LandConsolidation Programme. Mr tenThij mentioned they had been verylucky that the whole procedure hadgone quite smoothly for them. It hadstarted in 1991 when the Ministry ofAgriculture, the Province of Overijsseland the Land DevelopmentCommission implemented the deci-sion on land consolidation.

By 1996 Mr ten Thij had establishedhimself at the present farm location,with a total land area of 25 ha (asagainst the 18 ha he’d had earlier).He stressed that an advantage of theprocess had been reducing the timeand effort spent on transporting ma-chinery and products from the scat-tered farmlands he had owned in thepast. He seemed very pleased withthe results of the plan, although he’dhad to invest in new construction. Mrten Thij mentioned that, despite prox-imity to the N35 highway, farm pro-duction had not been affected.

The second site visited was the naturereserve area of Aamsveen (176 ha),near the Netherlands-Germany bor-der. The reserve is under the controlof the provincial Landschap Overijssel,a non-governmental organisation in-volved in nature conservation.

The aim of setting up the nature re-serve, according to Mr Henk van Lier,a retired economist and voluntaryworker who acted as guide for thegroup, is to convert former farmlandsand promote the growing of nativeflora and fauna populations. Thefauna found in the area include in-sects (25 species of butterflies), am-phibians, reptiles, birds and mammals(squirrels and deer).

The reserve also aims to conserve thepeat areas extensively mined in thepast for fuel - to preserve them for

30 ITC News 2003-3

E D U C A T I O N

Identifying areas of potential conflicting landuses in the area south-southeast of Enschedeusing maps from the Provincial Plan on Space, Water and Nature.

Participants interviewing farmer Mr. ten Thy and his son.

the future and allow them to serve asan ecological corridor for the wildlifepopulations shared with Germany.

Mr van Lier stated that Aamsveenwas being supported by several fund-ing sources: the government, privatecompanies, membership fees, some“nature friends”, and rents paid byfarmers for houses and for land usedas temporary grazing areas undercontrolled conditions. Renting land tofarmers has facilitated their involve-ment in conservation activities.

The trip provided the students with ageneral understanding of land useand land use planning in the Nether-lands, and gave them the opportunityto enjoy some of the local country-side.

Nature vs Farms: Point of ConfluenceIntroductionThe primary land use in the Nether-lands is farmland, which comprisesabout 70% of the total area. No won-der the Netherlands ranks 3rd afterthe USA and France in terms of valueof agricultural exports. But nowadays,farming in the Netherlands is widelycriticised for its environmental conse-quences and its possible conflicts withnature conservation. To address thegrowing public call in the 1970s forrestoring an ecological balance, thegovernment formed a national eco-logical network (EHS in Dutch). EHS isa planned network of nature reservesand nature conservation developmentareas, and its aim is to achieve a sus-tainable natural environment throughthe maintenance, rehabilitation and

development of natural and semi-nat-ural systems.

Field ActivitiesGroup B of the NRM students under-took a rapid field investigation inBuurserzand, with the primary objec-tive of developing an in-depth under-standing of the land use types in theNetherlands and the relationship andconflicts between farmland and na-ture areas. Visits were paid to a farmand a nature area establishment inthe Buurserzand area. Mr and MrsScholten were interviewed to hearthe farmers’ point of view, while MrJaap in’t Veld of Natuurmonumentenexplained the importance of activitiesundertaken in the nature conserva-tion area.

Description of the AreaThis area is a combination of agricul-tural, nature conservation and recre-ation areas. The agricultural land isused mainly for dairy cattle farming,and consists of grassland and culti-vated land for growing forage maize.While the main objective of the na-ture areas at Aamsveen, Witteveen,Buurserzand and Haaksbergerveen isto conserve natural lands, recreationis also an important land use activity.

Discussion and ResultIn compliance with the 1975 Dutchgovernment policy on sustainablenatural environment, approximately700,000 ha of land were scheduled

31ITC News 2003-3

E D U C A T I O N

Walking through a thick layer of bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) in the Aamsveen Nature Reserve

Agricultural land used for cattle farming bordering the BuurserzandNature Reserve

A landscape of nature reserve at Buurserzand

for conversion to nature reserves aspart of the EHS1. Most of the landdemarcated for conversion was agri-cultural land. Execution of the EHShas been facing difficulties, mainly interms of acquiring land in order toextend the reserves into farmlands.

Farming is not just an occupation tothe Dutch people. It encompassestheir way of life, their traditions andculture, their identity, their rights andtheir inheritance, giving a sense ofcontinuity with past centuries. Thefarmers are therefore reluctant tohand over their land for nature areas.Moreover, they are confused by agovernment policy in which priorityhas shifted from agriculture to envi-ronmental conservation. The publiccall in the 1970s for the balance tobe restored between intensive agri-culture and the environment must beconsidered in terms of the sustain-ability of, and benefits to, agriculture.More specifically, the reasons foundin government policy for developingnature areas are that intensive farm-ing has been converting the wholecountry into an agricultural field,pushing the natural environment to-

wards complete extinction.Furthermore, signs of pollution andthe over-exploitation of resourceshave also become evident.

Against this backdrop, the conserva-tionists and farmers need to find theconfluence point of a win-win situa-tion to the benefit of both, andachieve sustainability in resource utili-sation. Therefore, a national consen-sus regarding this conflict hasbecome a necessity in order to set pri-orities. The suggestion of Mr Jaap in’tVeld, forester withNatuurmonumenten at Buurserzand,could be a useful solution: “if exten-sion of the nature area becomes com-plicated, then biological farming, atleast on those farms adjacent to thenature area and/or located within theEHS, should be promoted”. Thiscould be a way out of the currentdeadlock, but of course has to be dis-cussed at length.

NRM in Twente: Asking for Sustainability!Group C of the NRM students investi-gated the Haaksbergerveen area.Visits were paid to Mr Vedders, adairy farmer from Haaksbergen, and,under the guidance of Mr Roy Dearof the State Forestry Service, to theHaaksbergerveen Nature Reserve. Onthe way, the group observed someimportant features pertaining to nat-ural resource management in thearea.

In this article, the group intends to in-clude what they learnt from thefarmer. The farmer owns 35 ha and amechanised dairy farm with 65 headof cattle. Although the farm is pro-ducing on average 1,600 kg of milkper day, his official quota is only530,000 kg per annum. The milk issold through a farmers’ cooperative.According to the farmer, at least 2 haare essential for each cow, and allcows have computer identificationtags for regulating their feeding. It isnotable that each cow is fed accord-ing to the amount of milk it pro-duces, i.e., the more milk the cowproduces, the more feed it is given.As the farmer pointed out, the priceof milk has been falling while the costof production has been increasing. Asa result, the farmer has been getting12% less income for milk over thelast two years. To safeguard soil frompollution, the farmer has a bookkeep-ing mechanism to regulate theamount of minerals being used andretained in the soil. Any excess chem-icals and fertilisers used at the farmattract fines.

On the other hand, the aim of thenature reserve, which was establishedin 1969 and covers an area of about600 ha, is to restore peat lands. TheState Forestry Service manages the re-serve in order to preserve its recre-ational, historical and ecological

32 ITC News 2003-3

E D U C A T I O N

Mr. Jaap in ‘t Veld from Natuurmonumenten explaining the management of the Buurserzandto staff and participants

1 NRM Module 1. Participants’ Manual –Block 8. Natural Resource Management inTwente, Background document, ITC, 2003

value, because it harbours a widerange of flora and fauna, includingdeer, snakes, lizards, frogs and manymigratory birds. The funds for man-aging the reserve come from theDutch government, the EuropeanUnion and other sources. The govern-ment, farmers, recreational groups,hunters, NGOs and researchers wereidentified as stakeholders in the re-serve.

The reserve was a forest of birch andpeat lands. In the 1930s, the farmersused to harvest the land for peat,leading to land degradation. As a re-sult, during the late 1960s, the re-serve authority started to constructdykes and compartments to retainwater for peat restoration. Experienceof the whole restoration process wasgained from Ireland and Estonia. Inaddition, the authority established abuffer zone around the peat land toserve as a transition from the reserveto other land uses.

The major challenges for the reserveare to control the growth of woodyvegetation and eutrophication. In ad-dition, the drainage of groundwaterby the farmers has a direct impact onthe level of the water table of thepeat land in the reserve. However,some of these threats are being over-

come by creating a buffer zonearound the core zone. Similarly, a cor-ridor of about 600 m has been pro-posed, with a view to maintainingecological continuity and the interac-tion between this reserve and theBuurserzand reserve.

From the above, it appears that thereare conflicts of interest between thefarmers, on the one hand, and thenature reserve authority and the gov-ernment, on the other. One particularconflict concerns the government’splan to expand the nature reservesinto farming areas. Other conflicts re-

late to excessive government regula-tions and water management in gen-eral. The farmers were, however,happy with the land consolidationprocess. The process has broughtfarm plots together and improved theefficiency of farm management.Although the farmers are prepared tomaintain the natural land as pro-posed by the government, they arestill not willing to leave the land vol-untarily and seek compensation forsettling elsewhere.

33ITC News 2003-3

E D U C A T I O N

The farm of Mr. Vedders bordering the Haaksbergerveen. Mr. Roy Dear of the State Forest Service

Peat restoration site at the Haaksbergerveen

34 ITC News 2003-3

V I S I T I N G I T C

Within the framework of theLeonardo da Vinci agreement be-tween Vilnius University in Lithuaniaand ITC, the Department of Geo-Information Processing (GIP) hostedfive Lithuanian visitors from 22 to28 September 2003. The goal of thevisit was to improve and update theteaching/curricula in cartographyprovided by higher educational in-stitutes in Lithuania, in order toraise the study level. Cartographersgraduating in Lithuania should beable to work effectively in state andprivate enterprises.

The visitors came from various insti-tutes: Jelena Vaitkeviciene is a lecturerin cartography at Vilnius University,Birute Vilunaite and Raimondas Juknaare GIS engineers from the nationaltopographic company GIS-centras,Asta Kairiene is a cartographer at theInstitute of Aerial Geodesy, andAudrone Jakniunaite is a databaseadministrator at HNIT-BalticGeoinfoservice.

The main elements of the programmewere as follows: ITC, GIP, and theGFM educational programme; mod-ern developments in cartography;mobile GIS, including field data col-lection with ArcPad; and the role andactivities of the InternationalCartographic Association (Lithuaniabecame a member this year). The GIPstaff involved were Menno-Jan Kraak,

Connie Blok, Corné van Elzakker,Richard Knippers and Barend Köbben.In addition, Saskia Tempelman andRens Brinkman introduced our gueststo ITC and its building and toBlackboard. Last on the programmewas a visit to Wolters Noordhoff AtlasProductions (the main Dutch educa-tional publisher) in Groningen, where

Tjeerd Tichelaar discussed issues oftoponymy and guided the visitorsaround the atlas bureau. Home again, the visitors have re-ported they have great memories tolook back on, particularly of Enschedeand ITC’s “great kingdom ofGeoinformatics”.

The Lithuanian guests, together with ITC’s Connie Blok and Menno-Jan Kraak

visiting itc

Lithuanian Delegation Visits ITC

Connie Blok blok@itc.nl

Mobile GIS, including field data collection with ArcPad, featured on the programme

Angela was born in Mombasa,Kenya, on 23 November 1977. She spent most of her early years in Mombasa, where she attendedMombasa Primary School (1984-1991) and then the Star of the SeaSecondary School. Here she excellednot only in her academic studies butalso in swimming and dancing, andshe represented her school in na-tional school competitions.

On completion of her secondary edu-cation she moved to Nairobi, whereshe stayed with her brother Daviesand her aunts while she pursued aprofessional hairdressing course atthe Peacock School of Hairdressing.She was to use this skill later at MoiUniversity to supplement her al-lowances.

She graduated with a BA honours de-gree in geography in the year 2001.While at Moi University, Angela was amember of the Geography Students

Association and AIESEC, where shemade immense contributions and ac-quired many friends. She also volun-teered her services and time to theRemote Sensing and Survey Centre inSouth “C”, Nairobi, and it wasthrough some of the contacts shemade there and seminars organisedon geo-information that she was ableto secure the scholarship to study atITC. She was at Enschede fromSeptember 2002 to the time of hersad demise.

Angela died on 11 August in themidst of people who loved her. Tothose who knew her, Angela was aloving and adventurous person andwe will greatly miss her presenceamong us. She leaves behind a three-year-old son, Mark Kipyego Syengo.

35ITC News 2003-3

O B I T U A R Y

Obituary: Angela Muthini Syengo (1977-2003)

Jan de Ruiter deruiter@itc.nl

It seems that winter is just around thecorner and, as you can see, ITC’s newstudents relished the first flurry ofsnow. But what happened next? Didthe snowballs find their target or didthe photographer beat a hasty re-treat?

The 21st International CartographicConference and 12th GeneralAssembly of the InternationalCartographic Association (ICA) wereheld in Durban, South Africa, from10 to 16 August 2003. To his greatsurprise, our colleague Sjef van derSteen was awarded an ICA HonoraryFellowship on this occasion.

Sjef van der Steen has chaired theICA Commission on Map ProductionTechnology since 1995. He has beena staunch supporter of one of ICA’smost important objectives: the ex-change and dissemination of carto-graphic knowledge. As part of theinternational network of people inter-ested in aspects of map productiontechnology, he has made several pre-sentations of his work with map pro-duction flow diagrams. As chairmanof the commission, he has organisednumerous seminars and workshops -some in cooperation with other ICAcommissions - in venues such asCuba, Indonesia, Chile and Turkey.Under his leadership, the knowledgegenerated by his commission hasbeen disseminated not only in lec-tures and exercises at the seminarsand workshops but also in proceed-ings and other outlets. He has led the

commission through rapid technolog-ical changes in our discipline, pro-vided a good new direction ingeo-information production manage-ment, and demonstrated excellentnetworking and team skills.

The fellowship was awarded to Sjefvan der Steen in recognition of hisspecial contributions to ICA: his lead-ership on the Commission on MapProduction Technology, and his role inteaching and communicating in thefield of cartography. Sjef is the firstDutchman and the first ITC staffmember to receive this prestigiousaward.

36 ITC News 2003-3

S T A F F N E W S

Sjef van der Steen Honorary Fellow ICA

Corné van Elzakker elzakker@itc.nl

Sjef van der Steen (second on the right)and Dr Harold Moellering (USA)showing the Honorary Fellowshipsjust received from ICA President DrBengt Rystedt (right) and Secretary-General Professor F.J. Ormeling (left)

ICA President Dr Bengt Rystedt explainingwhy Sjef van der Steen so well deserves the fellowship

Kim Veldhuis Administrative Employee, Financial and Economic Affairs (per 25 August 2003)Ellen Groenewoud Secretary, Bureau Project Services (per 1 September 2003)Jeroen Jansen Personnel Advisor, Personnel and Organisation (per 1 September 2003)Dr Robert Strobl Assistant Professor, Department of Water Resources (per 1 September 2003)

Walid Belal Lecturer, Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Geo-Information Management (per 1 August 2003)

Kenneth Hiwat Administrative Employee, Financial and Economic Affairs (per 1 August 2003)Drs Nicoline Emmer Project Assistant, Department of Geo-Information Processing (per 17 August 2003)Ria Hummel Secretary, General (per 17 August 2003)

Welcometo ITC

Staffleaving

staff news

From 13 to 15 October 2003 ITC par-ticipated in the Map Asia 2003Conference and Exhibition held atthe Putra World Trade Centre inKuala Lumpur, Malaysia. ITC’sLyande Eelderink and Janneke Kalf(wo)manned the ITC booth; further-more, ITC was represented by KarlHarmsen, Yussif Hussin and MostafaRadwan.

Map Asia 2003 Founded in the year 2002, Map Asia2003 was the 2nd Annual AsianConference and Exhibition in the field

of GIS, GPS, aerial photography andremote sensing and was jointly or-ganised by the Malaysian Centre forRemote Sensing (MACRES), theCentre for Spatial DatabaseManagement and Solutions, GISDevelopment and the Asian Instituteof Technology (AIT).

Map Asia is evolving as a platformwhere all stakeholders such as re-searchers, users, technology develop-ers and policy makers can discuss,deliberate and share knowledge andexperiences for the benefit of the

During the International Congress ofthe International CartographicAssociation, an ITC alumni receptionwas organised on 13 August 2003 atthe Congress Centre in Durban,South Africa. It was organised by theparticipating ITC staff members andwas attended by some 40 people.Amazingly a few alumni had been“over the horizon” for more than 20years. Professor Menno-Jan Kraak de-scribed both current developments atITC and plans for the future, whileSjef van der Steen highlighted the im-portance of the alumni interactionsystem, including the services ITC of-fers its alumni.

Since the ICA congress was organisedin Africa, ITC African alumni werewell represented. Among the dele-gates were ITC alumni Dr. Joseph

Akinyede, Director Department ofSpace Application at NASRDA,Nigeria and Dr. Liu Yaolin, School ofLand Resource and EnvironmentalScience, Wuhan University, China.Informal discussions on topics such as

social experiences and developments,as well as private talks, made the re-ception a great success. Moreover,the event gave alumni the opportu-nity to exchange addresses.

37ITC News 2003-3

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

life after itc

Alumni Meet during Map Asia 2003, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Janneke Kalf kalf@itc.nl

The ITC booth: (from left to right) Y Bhg Dat’ NikNasruddin Mahmood (Director MACRES), the Hon.Dato’ Haji Zainal Dahalan (Deputy Minister of Science,Technology and the Environment, Malaysia), Karl Harmsen(Director CSSTEAP) and Janneke Kalf (Acting HeadCommunication ITC)

Alumni Reception Durban, South Africa

Sjef van der Steen steen@itc.nl

38 ITC News 2003-3

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

Asian Geoinformatics community. Theobjectives of Map Asia are fourfold:regional cooperation, public–privatepartnership, showcasing technologyand applications, and bridging conti-nents.

ITC Alumni MeetOn Tuesday evening, 14 October, 12alumni from Malaysia, Pakistan,Singapore, the Netherlands, India andIndonesia attended the buffet dinner.It was a lively get-together, where an-ecdotes about the study period spentat ITC were exchanged with the ITCrepresentatives.

Mr Falak Nawaz (alumnus EREG.3200-2001) from Pakistan was alsopresent. He expressed the desire toestablish an official ITC alumni associ-ation in his home country and wasvery enthusiastic and positive aboutthe success of such a venture inPakistan. Only time will tell.By strengthening ties with our alumniand founding alumni associations indifferent countries, we hope to beable to plan alumni gatherings in co-operation with these local associa-tions. It is difficult to carefully planactivities “from a distance”. The factthat only a handful of the 169

Malaysian alumni attended this gath-ering proves the need for a local or-ganiser and advance planning. Thefree e-mail accounts for ITC alumni(http://www.itc.nl/alumni/alumni_mailbox/default.asp) will certainly con-tribute to better and quicker commu-nication between alumni and ITC. Soif you have not yet signed in, do itnow!

letter to the editor

@Dear Ms. Janneke KalfI hope you will be OK. I am also fine here. We spent very nice time there in Kuala Lumpur espe-cially meeting with ITC teachers and staff was very pleasant event. Thank you very much for din-

ner and get together party also. I returned back to my home on 18th but during my absence, myfather had been died due to heart attack. This was sad news for me as I am the only son of myparents & during my absence, my family especially my wife face all problems related with funeralceremony. Anyhow, now I am trying to recover from the incidence, as there is no way to out.This year, I shall send four five of my students to ITC for MS or PM programme. All of these stu-dents are preparing their documents nowadays & I am hopeful that they will increase the dignityof ITC as they are very serious and studious students. This is good news for us that this year, TheNetherlands govt has uplift ban on Pakistani students. We were suffering for the last 3 years asafter 2001, none of our Pakistani students join ITC. Our second batch of One-year post-graduate GIS/RS diploma course has been started. Last yearwe enrolled 12 students in diploma but now 28 students have applied in which we selected only20. Now due to diploma, I can’t go out also my boss don’t like to relieve me as during my ab-sence, no one can teach GIS and related subjects. Due to this reason, my PhD is also suffering,but I am trying to manage time and satisfied that besides that I am engage in diploma and teach-ing, I have better progress than any other teachers.Last Sunday, there were interviews about a post in GIS expert. I was also a member of the selec-tion board. During the interview, I was feeling proud as out of 18 applicants, 14 were my stu-dents and every body were saying that we can use ILWIS with full confidence, although they canuse other software also. This feels me great satisfaction as now at least I have played my role tointroduce ITC and ILWIS not only in my province but also in whole Pakistan.Rest is OK with me. I am collecting fresh addresses of ITC fellows & until now, I have collected 43addresses & waiting for some news contacts as soon as I collect it, I shall share it with you so thatyou should also upgrade your contacts.

FALAK NAWAZ, PAKISTANEmail: nawaz03528@alumni.itc.nl

@2nd FIG Regional Conference

02-Dec-03 - 05-Dec-03Morocco, Marrakech

http://www.ddl.org/figtree/morocco/index.html.tikdirine@acfcc.gov.ma

International Workshop onRadiometric and GeometricCalibration

02-Dec-03 - 05-Dec-03United States, Stennis Space Center

http://www.edudevweb.com/isprs/smorain@edac.unm.edu

ISPRS Workshop on Spatial Analysisand Decision Making

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

http://kartoweb.itc.nl/sadm2003/isprs@hkbu.edu.hk

39ITC News 2003-3

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

Dear Editor,

Nigerian alumni (Photogrammetry P8, 1972) of Rivers State weep forProfessor Visser

All the Nigerian ITC alumni in and around Port Harcourt in Rivers State whoknew the late Professor Jan Visser wept when they heard the news of his exitfrom this life. It was a great shock to me when I first heard of it via a report onthe visit of ITC’s director of external affairs to South Korea.

I usually read my copies of ITC News from cover to cover and I wondered why Idid not see the news of Professor Visser’s death. I was also able to see theInternet page that presented a very brief obituary.

I have a feeling of great loss because I will not be able to see him again in thislife to express my heartfelt gratitude for his kindness to me during my trainingat ITC. I remember I sent him a greetings card and a personal letter to which hereplied during his retirement from ITC. “May his gentle soul rest in perfectpeace”.

I have visited Canada, the USA and Britain since my stay in Holland, but my af-fections are ever with Enschede in Holland because of the Dutch people, thelate Professor Jan Visser and his friend Mr Johan ten Boss, through whom I metProfessor Visser face to face. In me and with me, these two friends ever live.“The Dutch are good and always right.” My aspiration is that, if God wills, Ishall visit these two families in the near future.

I sincerely thank the ITC management for all the trouble it has taken to reachout to interested ITC alumni all over the world and keep them informed of day-to-day happenings in the sciences and life at ITC and in Holland for over 50years now.

We, the ITC alumni of Rivers State, are looking for ways to optimise your effortsin making strides in development everyday, everywhere and at all possible levels.

I am looking forward to your reply with great hope. Thank you very much.

Yours faithfully,Chief Gogo Tennyson John Horsfalltenmodels@yahoo.comPhone: +234-8023394753

Dear Madam,

I would like to take this opportunityof thanking you for sending me theITC News publication, which I receiveperiodically.

I came to the Netherlands for the firsttime in 1999 and received a PM de-gree in engineering geology, and laterin March 2002 I received an MSc de-gree.

Being here, far away from ITC, it is really very nice to read somethingabout ITC life and to see in the pic-tures some of the staff members Imet there. Unfortunately, I don’t havean Internet connection so am unableto visit the ITC website. That’s whyITC News is very important to me.

Thank you again!

Eddy HernandezEmpresa Nacional de Investigaciones AplicadasMICONSHavana, Cubaenialabh@ceniai.inf.cu(for subject, please write

“Message for Eddy Hernandez”)

CONFERENCE CALENDAR

letter to the editor

CALENDAR CALENDAR CALENDAR CALENDAR CALENDAR CALENDAR CALENDAR CALENDAR CALENDAR CALENDAR CALENDAR

ISRS Annual Convention/Symposium

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

http://www.cessind.org/isrs.htmmsd@eth.net

International Conference on WebInformation Systems Engineering

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

http://www.dis.uniroma1.it/~wise03/dinamico/index.htmwise03@dis.uniroma1.it

Workshop Space Technology andDisaster Management

13-Dec-03 - 17-Dec-03Saudi Arabia, Riyadh

http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/SAP/stdm/raechelle.newman@unvienna.org

Mobile and Internet technologies

26-Jan-04 - 28-Jan-04Czech Republic, Ostrava

http://gis.vsb.cz/gisengl/conferences/gis_ova/gis_ova_2004/gis_ostrava_2004.htmjan.ruzicka@vsb.cz

Map India 2004

28-Jan-04 - 30-Jan-04India, New Delhi

http://www.mapindia.orginfo@mapindia.orgITC attendance: John Horn, MartienMolenaar, ITC Booth

7th Conference Global Spatial DataInfrastructure

02-Feb-04 - 06-Feb-04India, Bangalore

http://www.gsdi.org/GSDI7/Gsdi7FirstannouncementFinal.pdfastevens@gsdi.orgITC attendance: Martien Molenaar

ESA-EUSC 2004 Conference

17-Mar-04 - 19-Mar-04Spain, Madrid

http://earth.esa.int/rtd/Events/ESA-EUSC_2004/index.html

Mobile Mapping Technology 2003(postponed from Aug 2003)

29-Mar-04 - 31-Mar-04China, Kunming

http://www.geoict.net/MMT2003/index.htmtao@yorku.ca

EurEnGeo 2004

04-May-04 - 06-May-04Belgium, Liege

http://www.ulg.ac.be/eurengeoinfo@eurengeo2004.orgITC attendance: Robert Hack

GISDECO 2004

10-May-04 - 12-May-04Malaysia, Johor

http://www.fab.utm.my/gisdeco2004b-haris@utm.myITC attendance: Richard Sliuzas

Workshop on Basic Space Science

24-May-04 - 28-May-04China, Beijing

http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/SAP/act2003/china/index.htmloosa@unvienna.org

Workshop of the EARSeL SpecialInterest Group

28-May-04 - 29-May-04Croatia, Dubrovnik

http://www.zfl.uni-bonn.de/earsel/earsel.htmlearsel@uni-bonn.de

Geoinformatics 2004

07-Jun-04 - 09-Jun-04Sweden, Gävle

http://www.hig.se/geoinformatics/geoinformatics@hig.se

EARMA Annual Conference

24-Jun-04 - 26-Jun-04Romania, Bucharest

XXth ISPRS Congress

12-Jul-04 - 23-Jul-04Turkey, Istanbul

http://www.isprs2004-istanbul.comoaltan@srv.ins.itu.edu.trITC attendance: Staff t.b.d., studentst.b.d., ITC Booth

35th COSPAR Scientific Assembly

18-Jul-04 - 25-Jul-04France, Paris

http://www.cospar2004.org/cospar2004@colloquium.fr

ITALIA 2004, International GeologicalCongress # 32

20-Aug-04 - 28-Aug-04Italy, Florence

http://www.32igc.org

SDH 2004

23-Aug-04 - 25-Aug-04United Kingdom, Leicester

http://www.geog.le.ac.uk/sdh2004/

IGARSS 2004

20-Sep-04 - 24-Sep-04United States, Anchorage

http://ewh.ieee.org/soc/grss/igarss.html

FIG Regional Conference for Asia andthe Pacific

03-Oct-04 - 07-Oct-04Indonesia, Jakarta

http://www.ddl.org/figtree/events/events2004.htmfig@fig.net

5th AARSE Conference

18-Oct-04 - 21-Oct-04Kenya, Nairobi

ottichilo@rcmrd.org

5th International Symposium onMining Science and Technology

20-Oct-04 - 22-Oct-04China, Xuzhou

http://ismst.cumt.edu.cn/english.htmismst@cumt.edu.cn

40 ITC News 2003-3

C A L E N D A R