the un/esa course follow-up programme - a vietnamese success · 2002-05-08 · the un/esa course...

The UN/ESA Course Follow-up Programme— A Vietnamese Success

M. FeaHead of Training and Promotion Section, Earth Observation Applications Department,ESA Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes, ESRIN, Frascati, Italy

K. BergquistInternational Relations, Directorate of Strategy and External Relations, ESA, Paris

To Quang ThinhDirector of the Remote-Sensing Centre, General Department of Land Administrationof Vietnam, Hanoi

S. CamachoChief, Space Applications Section, United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs,Vienna, Austria

G. GabellaSenior Economic Affairs Officer, United Nations Department of Economic and SocialAffairs, New York, USA

IntroductionESA has worked closely for many years withvarious specialised agencies of the UnitedNations to promote and demonstrate thepotential of space applications in helping toachieve sustainable development. Normally,this work is done through the organisation ofjoint training courses by the UN and ESA for

also for remote-sensing applications, wheresatellite data can provide the accurateinformation needed for better decision makingin carrying out national developmentprogrammes. The UN/ESA project describedhere is an example where this approach hasbeen particularly successful.

The UN/ESA Course Follow-up ProgrammeThe UN/ESA Course Follow-up Programme onthe use of remote-sensing technology insustainable development activities was formallyendorsed by the United Nations (Department ofEconomic and Social Affairs, and Office forOuter Space Affairs) and ESA on 9 April 1998.It was initially conceived to provide hands-onexperience to participants of four UN/ESAtraining courses and was designed with twoessential goals in mind: – to support selected on-going projects of

national/regional importance in the areas ofnatural-resource management, environmentalmonitoring, sustainable development, anddisaster management, by providing thenecessary technical assistance and relatedsupport/capacity building in the use of remote-sensing technology;

– to improve the effectiveness of on-goingapplications projects in the above-mentionedareas.

Further details of the historical background tothis unique UN/ESA Programme are reported inthe accompanying panel.

The one-year UN/ESA/Vietnam project described here illustrates howsuccessful a joint effort in the environmental domain can be whensupported by national authorities and people working with enthusiasmand dedication. A fundamental cornerstone was the on-going long-term co-operation between the UN and ESA, particularly in the field ofspace-technology applications. The Vietnamese experience underlinesthe fact that Earth-observation training initiatives are most effective whenparticipants are offered the opportunity to immediately put into practicewhat they have learned, through the establishment of operational toolsand methodologies and with experts on hand to advise and assist.

the un/esa course follow-up programme

participants from developing countries. Forthese ‘non-typical’ projects, ESA as a researchand development organisation in the spacefield relies on the UN’s expertise to assess theprevailing conditions and needs in thosedeveloping countries.

The objective of these joint UN/ESA projects isto demonstrate the importance of spaceapplications for developing countries and that,through using space technologies, they canleap-frog steps in their development path. Thisis particularly true for telecommunications, but

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Historical Context

In 1992, an agreement was reached between the United Nations Office for Outer SpaceAffairs and ESA/ESRIN to undertake a series of four training seminars for regional experts inremote sensing on the applications of data from the European Remote-Sensing Satellites(ERS-1 and ERS-2) to natural resources, renewable energy and the environment. Funding ofthis training programme was to be assured through co-financing using regular programmeresources from each institution involved, and additional funds made available by the ItalianGovernment to the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs through theNatural and Renewable Sources of Energy (NRSE) trust fund to support technical cooperationactivities.

Each session of the training course addressed technical professionals with some degree ofexpertise in remote-sensing applications from a single geographical region, starting in 1993with professionals from francophone African countries of the Economic Commission for Africa(ECA). The following year, it was the turn of professionals from the Economic Commission forLatin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) region to attend, followed in 1995 by professionalsfrom the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). The fourth andlast training course took place in 1997 for technical professionals from English- andPortuguese-speaking countries from the Economic Commission for Africa.

Although the basic structure of the training course has remained the same throughout theprogramme, adjustments have been made to take into account specific regionalcharacteristics, technological improvements, and lessons learnt throughout the series. Eachtraining-course session was co-financed with contributions from all three parties, with the UNSecretariat contributing resources from the NRSE trust fund to finance the participation of thegroup of trainees, the partial cost of the administration of the course, and the cost ofparticipation by its technical staff. Participant’s travel costs were covered by a contributionfrom the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs in Vienna, while facilities, teachers and trainingmaterial were provided by ESA through ESRIN.

Following the second training course in 1994, representatives of some participatinggovernment institutions, participating governments and ESA indicated their interest in someform of course follow-up activities through which the pre-operational applications of space-related technology could benefit national and regional efforts addressing issues dealing withnatural resources, energy and the environment. As the principle of continued support wasendorsed by the United Nations, ESA and the Italian Government, an agreement wasreached to earmark additional NRSE funding for that purpose. Though an initial effort toidentify candidate projects took place in 1995, it was not until 1997 that the issue was re-activated with the process of preparing the fourth and last training course in the programme.

At that time, a consensus was reached on the purpose and goals of a course follow-upprogramme. It was agreed that the latter should support selected on-going or newlyformulated projects of national and/or regional importance in the areas of: (a) natural-resourcemanagement, (b) environmental monitoring and sustainable development, and (c) disasterreduction, prediction and preparedness by providing the necessary technical assistance andrelated support in remote-sensing technology and capacity building. Similarly, the follow-upprogramme should improve the effectiveness of on-going space-related activities in theabove-mentioned areas.

In order to set the course follow-up programme in motion, a joint agreement on projectselection, implementation and management was reached by the UN and ESA in 1998. Thisagreement included a framework for UN – ESA cooperation that identified goals andobjectives, problems to be addressed, expected results, target beneficiaries, and selectioncriteria for candidate projects, assigned responsibilities and coordination mechanisms. A tentative programme implementation timetable was also part of the agreement.

Figure 1. The three projectpilot/test sites in Vietnam

the needs for sustainable social and economicdevelopment of large concentrations of humansettlements, promote the better use of naturalresources, protect the coastal environmentfrom the impact of industrial and other pollutionsources, and contribute to improved disastermanagement, including disaster-impactreduction, and climatic and meteorologicalmonitoring assessments. To achieve theseobjectives, the follow-up project was designedto enhance national capabilities by providing, inaddition to selected radar image data andprocessing equipment, some technical andtraining support in processing and analysingthe radar imagery.

The target was to enable the immediateapplication of a comprehensive database toallow the production of thematic maps ofVietnam’s coastal regions covering suchaspects as land use, urbanisation and infra-structure, wetlands, mangrove growth changes,erosion and deposit patterns, monitoring andimpact of environmental pollution, and coastalsensitivity. The database would also contributeto the on-going monitoring process linked todisaster mitigation and early-warning systemsassociated with the work of the VietnameseCentral Committee for Storm and Flood

Candidate projects for the UN/ESA CourseFollow-up Programme were identified byasking participants in the four UN/ESA trainingcourses, selected institutions and specialisedgovernment organisations to submit proposalsbased on detailed guidelines prepared by theUN and ESA. This was essential to facilitate thesubsequent evaluation and ranking of all of theproject proposals. By the submission deadlineof June 1998, fifteen proposals had beenreceived: seven from Africa, four from LatinAmerica, three from Asia/Pacific and one fromEastern Europe. Qualitative criteria for theevaluation and assessment of the proposalsincluded such elements as relevance todevelopment issues, impact of the proposal onthe limited resources available, governmentand self-reliance commitment, developmentneeds assessment, project duration, human-resource development, and an early successdemonstration capability.

Following a thorough evaluation process thatalso considered links with existing on-goingrelated activities in the country or region, therelevance of remote sensing to the proposedproject, and realistic end-product expectations,three candidate projects located in threeseparate geographical regions were selectedfor support by the programme: one in Africainvolving Burkina Faso and the regionalAGRHYMET Centre in Niamey (Niger), one inLatin America (regional project involvingArgentina, Bolivia and Chile), and one in Asialocated in Vietnam.

The Asian elementThe Vietnamese project proposal was entitled‘Applications of Remote-Sensing Technologyfor Coastal Zone Management in Vietnam’ andwas submitted by the Remote Sensing Centreof the General Department of Land Administrationof Vietnam (RSC/GDLA), based in Hanoi. Thepurpose of the project was to contribute to theimprovement of coastal management throughthe strengthening of national capacity for theapplication of remote-sensing technology usingERS, SPOT and Landsat data to establishgeographic information systems for themanagement and development of Vietnamesecoastal zones.

Essentially, this project was aimed atcontributing to the establishment of a databasefor comprehensive coastal management anddevelopment through the application of remotesensing, in particular using the combination ofradar (ERS) and optical (SPOT and Landsat)data. By covering the whole Vietnamesecoastal zone with optical and radar imageryand appropriately analysing the data therein,the project was designed to address more fully


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Figure 2. TheUN/ESA/Vietnam project

team at the Remote SensingCentre of the General

Department of LandAdministration in Hanoi

Control, as well as to the work of other nationaland provincial agencies involved in developmentplanning activities.

Following the selection of the project, theUN/ESA Course Follow-up Programme teamand the Vietnamese project counterpartauthorities fine-tuned and finalised the projectproposal in the form of a formal projectdocument approved by all parties and ready forimplementation in early 2000.

Implementation in VietnamIn order to ensure regular, high-quality supportto the project, ESRIN, as the cooperating ESAagent with responsibility for overall technicalexpertise and support in Earth-observation-related areas, and with the UN’s agreement,assigned the technical monitoring and thespecific training activities to support theVietnamese project authorities to a consultantwith solid experience in the region. Mr RobSchumann, now Managing Director of RS-TechConsulting Co. Ltd. based in Bangkok, Thailand,was formerly the ESA representative in Thailandat the Asian Institute of Technology. He waschosen for his skills in remote-sensing trainingand data processing and his experience withremote-sensing applications in the region.

The work formally started with the first projectworkshop, held at the Remote-Sensing Centrein Hanoi on 13–19 April 2000. During this firstworkshop, both government and userinstitutions with coastal-management-relatedresponsibilities were visited in Hanoi, namely:– the Institute for Fisheries Economics and

Planning, within the Ministry of Fisheries– the National Environment Agency, within the

Ministry of Science, Technology andEnvironment

– the Disaster Management Unit, within theMinistry of Agriculture and Rural Development

– the UNDP Office.

In addition, pilot-project sites were visited in thenorth (Hai Phong and the Ha Long coastalareas), where a visit was paid to the Hai PhongInstitute of Oceanology, and in the central partof the country (Hue Da Nang region).

The implementation of the project was dividedinto three distinct elements, namely preparations,technical training, and practical application.The first of these was a prerequisite to all thatwas to follow in the course of the project, withthe training and practical application elementsbeing conducted more in parallel.

PreparationsThree main study areas were selected incoastal zones, in the northern, central andsouthern regions of the country, respectively.For all three areas, the ‘catch-all’ applicationwas coastal-zone mapping. The end objectivewas to develop methodologies for integratingthe application of remote-sensing data into anoperational map-production chain, withemphasis on the use of synthetic-apertureradar data in particular, which could sub-sequently be extended to include the mappingall of Vietnam’s coastal zones.

In the north, the area of the Red River Deltacentred on Hai Phong and extending north-eastwards to include Ha Long bay, was chosenbecause of the widespread occurrence oferosion and deposition along the coast, thehighly varied agriculture practised in the area,and the system of dykes used for floodprotection. The area is backed by a range ofmountains to the north that extends all the waydown to the coast at the eastern edge. Southand west of Hai Phong itself is the coastal floodplain, where a great variety of agriculture ispractised in a fairly heterogeneous mix,dominated by rice, but including corn, beans,cabbages and many other vegetables, on verysmall, family-cultivated plots.

The coastal area around Da Nang ischaracterised by a very narrow coastal plainrising within a few kilometres of the coast intosteep mountains. The topography, in particularthe way in which the mountains funnel run-offonto the plain, produces spectacular flash-floods during the rainy season, the mostdamaging of which in recent years occurred inlate 1999 with significant loss of life andproperty.

The study area in the south was itself dividedinto two sub-areas. The first, with a focus onrice agriculture and coastal erosion/deposition,was centred around Soc Trang Province, in theheart of the Mekong River Delta. The secondfocused on one of Vietnam’s largest remaining


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Figure 3. One of the trainingsessions given to RemoteSensing Centre staff by theproject consultant

analysts charged with processing the data thatwas being provided to them in fairly substantialquantities.

The challenge, to which GDLA and their staffrose enthusiastically, was therefore to take newand unfamiliar data and process it with newand unfamiliar software while also using newand unfamiliar techniques/procedures. Toassist with this training and the paralleltechnical support elements, the project neededto address two different tasks:

– the introduction of digital image processingconcepts and methodologies through lecturesand practical exercises

– the introduction of the basic principles ofsynthetic-aperture radar as a means ofacquiring Earth-observation data, andextending image-processing techniques tothe analysis of this sort of data.

Owing to the tight time constraints, the first ofthese, the basic introduction to digital imageprocessing for remotely sensed data, had to becarried out using available data in advance ofthe receipt of data ordered specifically for theproject. This training lasted one week and wasdivided roughly 60:40 between lectures andpractical. It provided a basic knowledge of thesubject, ranging from ‘what is an image?’through to classification and post-classificationtechniques. This laid the necessary foundationfor the subsequent training and practical work.

The second and longer phase of training,conducted one month after the first and,significantly, after ERS data requested for theproject had started to arrive, lasted for twoweeks and followed a similar split betweenlectures and practical work.

mangrove forests, which lies to the south of HoChi Minh City (Saigon) and the agricultural areasthat lie across the main river channel from it.

Each area has different characteristics andhence problems, but this also allowedexamination of the mapping potential ofremote-sensing techniques for a wider range ofcoastal features than would have been thecase if only a single area had been selected.

With the three areas selected, attention turnedto ensuring that adequate data were availablefor each of them. RSC/GLDA had availableSPOT coverage for the whole country acquiredin 1996 and 1997, and for many of the studyareas good multi-temporal ERS datasets werealso available from the ESA archive for 1995and 1996. These periods were thereforefocussed upon, but with the intention of alsousing recent and newly acquired data for thetwelve months of the project. In the end,archive data was the most extensively used,although fresh data acquisitions were made forthe project for an area of the Mekong Deltaclose to the Cambodian border that was hit bymajor flooding in September 2000.

While well-equipped in terms of computerhardware, the GDLA software environment was oriented more towards GIS and to mapproduction than to the digital analysis of imagedata. To satisfy the image-processingrequirements, project funding allowed thepurchase of suitable software for installation onGDLA-provided hardware. Both the UN andESA made additional funds available to theproject to support data needs, as a reflection oftheir special interest in this pilot endeavour. TheRSC project authorities made a special requestfor access to images from the EnhancedThematic Mapper of the Landsat-7 spacecraft,as this data was considered crucial to thecurrent work. The agreement achieved byESA/ESRIN with the data distributor allowed 19Landsat-7 ETM datasets covering a large partof the country to be bought within the availablebudget. ESA, within the framework of itstraining programme, also made available 70ERS SAR image datasets to the project. TheseERS datasets included 48 Precision Imagesand 22 Single-Look Complex Images foradvanced remote-sensing applications.

Technical trainingPerhaps not surprisingly, with few in-houseimage-processing resources available beforethe start of this project, GDLA also needed tofocus on training staff so that they could makeeffective use of the new tools being put at theirdisposal. A significant element of the projectwas therefore ‘on-the-job’ training for the


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Figure 10. The opening ofthe final project workshop.

From left to right: theUN/DESA officer, the

ESA/ESRIN representative,the expert from RS-Tech

Consulting, the DeputyHead of RSC’s Cartographic

Updating Division, and theDirector of RSC

Both training sessions were attended byapproximately 40 persons, drawn from GDLAand other agencies, including the Ministry ofAgriculture, Disaster Management Unit,Forestry and the Hai Phong Institute ofOceanology.

The second phase of training also saw the startof the real work of the project, allowing whathad been covered in the lectures to be applieddirectly to project data in the practical sessions,with the support of the course lecturer toresolve any difficulties that arose. Multi-sceneregistrations and initial processing steps wereall carried out over the SocTrang area duringthis period, enabling GDLA staff to proceedunaided with similar processing of the datafrom the other areas when it arrived.

The project consultant made regular visits afterthe second training period, monitoring progressand providing first-hand assistance whereverneeded. However, the emphasis throughoutwas on GDLA staff doing the work and takingthe decisions themselves that determined itsdirection. The result of this approach was agrowing confidence on the part of all GDLAteam members as the project progressed, tothe extent that they were also able to helpteach each other by the project’s mid-point.

At this point, a third element to the training wasinjected into the original calendar, this timeinvolving participants from other countries inthe Mekong basin and hosted by the AsianInstitute of Technology, still with UN and ESAsupport. With 14 participants, eight of whomwere from the project team in Vietnam, the goalwas to explore more advanced processingmethodologies and at the same time spreadthis training to a wider audience. This two-weekevent introduced some aspects of inter-ferometry and the use of differences and ratios

in the analysis of extended time series of SARdata. It also allowed a number of SAR-basedcase studies to be presented, including a focusduring the second week on flooding, backedup by newly acquired ERS data over theMekong Delta floods that had occurred just amonth before the workshop.

Practical applicationData handling and processing involved a varietyof operations carried out sequentially during thecourse of the project. In particular, data wasco-registered – ERS to ERS, ERS to SPOT, andeventually all data to maps. SAR images werefiltered to reduce the speckle, and featuremeasurements were performed. Time-seriesanalysis, feature enhancement and maskingwere also carried out. Product export andintegration into the mapping chain wereeventually implemented.

During the later stages of the analysis work inVietnam, emphasis was given to the visualfeatures required for mapping purposes. Thiswas a conscious decision on the part of theteam and, while it would have been possible togo further with the digital processing, it was feltthat results thus obtained contained too muchdetail and would have been less readilyintegrated with the later stages of the map-production process operating within GDLA.This was crucial to the acceptance of this newinput into the mapping process for Vietnam, tothe successful conclusion of the project, and tothe likelihood of it being picked up and used ina fully operational way in the future.

At the time of the final report in May 2001,sample map sheets for each of the threeprimary study areas had been produced,although not all topographic layers had beencompleted, each map sheet requiring over 20separate layers.

Findings, difficulties and achievementsIn general, the use of SAR data within themapping process was found to enhance theability to map coastline changes and was, notsurprisingly, particularly useful in highlightingthe structural differences between objects.Sadly, there was no opportunity to back up thedata analysis with real-time ground truth and allanalysis was done using already archived data,as opposed to new acquisitions. Cross-checking of results relied upon first-handknowledge of the areas in question and uponavailable land-cover maps. The resultsachieved were nevertheless felt by GDLA to beextremely encouraging. The close integration oftraining into the general framework of theproject was found to have been highlybeneficial both to the project itself and, on a


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Figure 11. The final projectworkshop: presentation ofproject results by RSC staffto UN and ESA repres-entatives in Hanoi

of its achievements, in that:

(a) A focal point of expertise both nationallyand within the region has been established,which will allow the RSC staff to train otherapplications experts and promulgate theirexperience.

(b) Greater international co-operation has beenachieved in the region, with the starting ofspecific application projects for sustainabledevelopment, related particularly toenvironmental and hazard monitoring andresource and risk management.

(c) The links between Vietnam and Europehave been strengthened.

(d) The way to the exploitation of ESA’s Envisatsatellite products and services has beenpaved.

The results achieved by the project confirm thefact that the real value of satellite data residesin the unique information that it carries andwhich is best exploited when space data isintegrated with information from moreconventional sources. The project has alsobeen a very successful demonstration of one ofthe ways in which the UN and ESA canimplement the UNISPACE III recommendations.

AcknowledgementsThe support provided to the project by the UN,ESA and GDLA authorities and the teamsinvolved is gratefully acknowledged. Specialthanks go to Rob Schumann, ManagingDirector of RS-Tech Consulting Co. Ltd., whoserved as remote-sensing expert consultant tothis project and whose experience anddedication were key to the successfulcompletion of this ambitious endeavour. r

personal ‘development of skills’ level, to theindividuals involved in it.

Chief among the difficulties encountered wasthe almost impossibly short time frame in whichto design, implement and finish such anambitious undertaking. That finished mapsheets were indeed produced stands as aremarkable achievement, given the point fromwhich work had commenced just 12 monthsearlier. Other difficulties, which were perhaps tobe expected, included the initial delays ingetting the data through to GDLA at thebeginning of the project, with the practical workon real project data not really getting underwayuntil two months into the year available. It allthen pretty much arrived together, presentingthe enviable problem of being faced with toomuch data all at the same time, although thistoo got turned to advantage in terms ofdeveloping data management and organisingthe analysis approach that was adopted.

ConclusionsThis Asian element of the UN/ESA CourseFollow-up Programme was successfullycompleted in one year and the results arecertainly of a very high quality. The skill,dedication and professionalism of the RSC staffwill ensure that the GDLA Remote SensingCentre will be able to provide other institutionsin Vietnam and further afield with products andservices of the highest quality.

It is important for deriving maximum benefitfrom the project that the final outcome isproperly communicated, documented andpromoted via national/international meetingsand conferences and the media. With thepermission of GDLA and the RSC authorities,the detailed results will be disseminated via theUN and ESA web sites and publications.

One conclusion drawn is that tying the projectand training events closely together andrunning them in parallel was of great benefit. Itmeant, for instance, that the resources investedin the training of the Vietnamese staff were veryeffectively utilised because the subjectscovered in theory and in idealised training labexercises could immediately be tried out usingreal data, with which the participants came tobe intimately familiar during the year. Futuretraining programmes should certainly take thisinto account. Potential future participantsshould also be given every possible assistancein writing and submitting their project proposalsin a form that gives them a reasonableexpectation of getting accepted.

The UN’s and ESA’s expectations in embarkingon this project have certainly been met in terms

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