Institut d’Enseignement Supérieur de Ruhengeri (INES - Ruhengeri) is set to host the 13th African Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment (AARSE) International Conference from October 24 to 28, 2022. The conference will take place at Kigali Conference and Exhibition Village (KCEV) under the theme 'Space and geospatial technologies for the Africa we want'.
It is conducted biennially across Africa, alternately with the AfricaGIS conference, and is the premier forum in Africa for research on remote sensing technologies and geospatial information science, gathering leading scholars from the remote sensing and related communities.
Students during a clinical lab exercise at Institut d’Enseignement Supérieur de Ruhengeri (INES - Ruhengeri). Courtesy
According to Bronx Community College, geospatial technology is an emerging field of study that includes Geographic Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS), and Global Positioning System (GPS).
The technology enables people to acquire data that is referenced to the earth and use it for analysis, modelling, simulations, and visualisation.
According to Jossam Potel, a lecturer at INES-Ruhengeri and Coordinator of the local organization committee for the conference, the main objective of AARSE 2022 is to bring together scholars and professionals from the African and international community to present latest achievements, discuss challenges and share experiences in Space and geospatial technologies.
He said that this will be its first time in Rwanda and in Central Africa, adding that INES -Ruhengeri is one of the universities that first introduced courses related to Land Administration and Management and Land Surveying in Rwanda, in which geospatial technology is incorporated — one of the prerequisites that made the University get pledged to host the conference.
Tackling the space sector in Rwanda, he said, it is new but has taken shape given that it is helping in socio-economic transformation of different sectors such as health, environment, land use management, adding that the establishment of Rwanda Space Agency also shows how the country sees potential in space.
Jossam Potel, Coordinator of the local organizing committee of AARSE 2022 speaks about the upcoming event. Courtesy
Talking about the need for space policy, Jossam Potel said, "If you want to take, for example, a drone on top of Kigali City, we don’t have a law that regulates that. We need a legal framework that will guide the use of such instruments. The policy also includes the security part of that."
To him, geospatial technology is one of the sectors that need to be invested in since there is a lot of potential in it.
"When we say geospatial technology in reference to remote sensing and space, these are new sectors of science that is being introduced in. Some countries are using it in agriculture and land survey by using drones and have started doing so many years ago but Rwanda hasn’t reached that level. Those are the things we want to introduce in Rwanda and open the eyes of young academicians and researchers to know that these things really happen so that they can turn their focus on that sector," he said.
His perception of the technology is good since he is aware that academicians and policy implementers have realised its importance and how significant it is to invest in space agencies.
"We live in a situation where there are a lot of climate and environmental issues. It is geospatial technology that helps us to predict what will be the future,” he said.
Potel also declared that geospatial technology was applied in fighting Covid-19 to predict congested and risky areas in countries where it has advanced, adding that they also used it to track the infected people by using GPS devices that use geospatial knowledge.
Apart from that, he noted that 11 of the SDGs concern land and environment hence can’t be achieved without space and geospatial technologies.
INES - Ruhengeri students board a campus van for a study tour on environment reseach. Courtesy
According to him, among 400-500 delegates expected to be hosted in the 13th AARSE, over 300 have so far registered via the conference's website: www.aarse2022.org.
He said they expect them to raise awareness and help people to understand why the public and private sectors need to invest in space and geospatial technology agencies.
"On the side of academicians, we expect to share experiences with participants from different corners of the world as well as to collaborate on research because space agencies are based on research by academicians."
He added: "For Rwanda, we hope to learn from others but at the same time it’s a platform for the country to showcase what it has managed to achieve within the initial period of time. It will also connect young Rwandan researchers to the international market of the geospatial family."
AARSE is a non-political scientific organisation whose primary objective is to increase the awareness of African governments and their institutions, the private sector and society at large, about the empowering and enhancing benefits of developing, applying and responsibly utilising the products and services of Earth Observation Systems and Geo-Information Technology.
INES Main Campus in Musanze District. The 13th African Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment International Conference will run from October 24 to 28, 2022 at Kigali Conference and Exhibition. Courtesy