Deutsch Intern
Earth Observation Research Cluster

Remote Sensing and GIS training courses from 09.08. - 20.08.2010 in Cape Coast (Ghana) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso)

Having knowledge of Remote Sensing and GIS is very important for today’s scientists of many branches. In the context of climate change, dynamics of land use/land change, land cover assessment or wetlands mapping are just some aspects that are of prime importance to resource managers.

It is only by Remote Sensing, that such data can be collected over long time periods and on different scales. Another advantage of this technology is that many data is freely available and can be downloaded via the internet. Therefore, for all participants from both countries, these training sessions provided an enrichment of their own knowledge by making them familiar with this technology and some of the software used, namely ERDAS IMAGINE and ENVI. They will now be able to use this technology to improve their work or to enhance their existing data sets. Just like with Remote Sensing, the GIS knowledge they acquired enables course participants to elaborate and analyse geographical maps based on the results of their work and understand the interpretation of certain satellite images through the spectral signature of each object.

In order to reach these objectives, the Remote Sensing Unit of the University of Würzburg with the lecturers NoellieRueth, Daniel Eilertz and Tobias Landmann gave training courses at the University of Cape Coast from 9th to 13th August (Ghana) and at the Hotel Prestige in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso)from 16th to 20th August .

Objective of the workshop/training

The course addressed scientist and resource managers who use GIS and/or remote sensing in their everyday working or research agenda and/or plan to use this technology in future to effectively improve their work or to enhance their existing data sets and to familiar themselves with this technology and the different software such as Erdas Imagine, ENVI and ArcGIS.

Outline of the Course

Day 1 und Day 2:

  • A. Theoretical part
    • An Introduction to GIS Systems
  • B. Practical part (Working in Arc/GIS desktop) on the following tasks:
    • Shapefiles of Africa cities, Countries, National Parks, lakes.
    • Selecting, subsetting, Exporting, Clipping, Merging, Joining and relating vector data.
    • Collecting points using the GPS and Importing, Analyzing and Creating a map.

Day 3:

  • A. Theoretical part
    • Radiometric and atmospheric correction
  • B. Practical parts (Radiometric and atmospheric correction exercises for satellite imagery)
    • An Introduction to Remote Sensing
    • How to get Remote Sensing data and Process them
    • Atmospheric correction exercises Theoretical and Practical parts: Spectral Analysis Mapper (ENVI) to satellite image classification exercise (map basic land cover)
    • Classification

Day 4:

  • A. Theoretical part: Detection and quantification of Land Cover/Use Change (LUCC) in Africa using satellite remote sensing
    • Detection and quantification of Land Cover/use Change
    • The important and key issues of Land Cover/Use Change (LUCC) mapping
    • A LUCC mapping mechanism for the GLOWA Volta basin in West Africa and LUCCmapping in East Africa
  • B. Practical part (Remote Sensing): Working with ERDAS Imagine and deriving LUCC for Carbon reporting
    • Working with LCSS data
    • Deriving a change matrix from LC data trajectories
    • Calculating the net Carbon loss, using LUCC data on deforestation from previous session

For more detail, please see the final report Accra and Ouagadoudou_pdf.

Teaching material is available on request.