Highlights of the 2nd International Conference “Earth from Space – the Most Effective Solutions”
On November 30 – December 2, 2005 the 2nd International Conference “Earth from Space – the Most Effective Solutions” was held near Moscow in the “Vatutinki” health resort of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation (30 km from Moscow). The conference was dedicated to different thematic applications of Earth observation from space.
The conference is convened once in two years by R&D Center ScanEx and NGO Transparent World. Sovzond Company – the official distributor of high resolution images, joined the partnership in 2005. The conference was attended by leading specialists in land cadastre and cartography, use of natural resources and environmental safety, hydrological and meteorological monitoring, ice reconnaissance and many others.
In total, about 250 people joined the conference, representing 111 organizations from 12 countries.
The Russian Federation was represented by more than 200 participants from 95 organizations, located in 32 Subjects of the Federation from all the federal districts.
According to their activities 95 Russian organizations can be divided as follows: 24 educational organizations; 4 nature protection agencies, 24 commercial companies, 43 state enterprises and R&D institutions.
(see summary)
Unlike first conference, focusing on the introduction of specialists from different branches of this big information industry, the second conference was marked with additional interest of the related spheres (GIS, navigation, large data volumes transmission technology, etc.) with the purpose of process and decision integration, as well as with quite
up-to-date, sometimes disputable versions of latest internet applications development trends using remote sensing. International cooperation in sphere of public scientific and educational programs development showed a positive and effective increase.
Within the frames of three conference days,
60 reports were made during the 6 plenary sessions and 10 poster presentations.)
The following reports should be separately noted: the problem report of Lars Laestadius (World Resources Institute, Washington, USA), dedicated to the problems and consequences for the remote sensing as a result of increased transparency of the processes, connected with the production activities on the planet; unexpected interpretation of the prominent information resource Google Earth made by Alexei Grigoriev (International Social Ecological Union, Moscow); legal comments of the “Legitimate Business” Center, pertaining to the necessity for the officials to pass a remote sensing law as soon as possible.
Work of the plenary session of the 2 nd International Conference “Earth from Space – the Most Effective Solutions”. |
A. Grigoriev report fragment (International Social Ecological Union, Moscow), illustrating quarrying and tailing ponds, violating ecological rules (with the help of Google Earth resources). |
Traditionally, great interest was stirred up by the reports of the world leading remote sensing programs representatives:
Spot Image; ImageSat International; Digital Globe, as well as the fledgling domestic program Monitor-E.
Examples of a complex systematic approach to the use of the space imagery data was demonstrated by the main hydro meteorological centers (State Oceanographic Institute, St-Petersburg and Murmansk Departments of Hydrometeorology, Arctic and Antarctic R&D Institute), natural resources and emergency situations agencies (Kazgeokosmos company, Eastern Siberian R&D Institute of geology and mineral resources, Space Research Institute of Kazakhstan); cadastre, forestry, agricultural and cartographic services (University of South Dakota, Institute of Forest Science of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Federal Cadastre Center “Zemlya”, Uralgeoinform, LATUV, Spain), regional and special centers (Krasnoyarsk R&D Institute of geology and mineral resources, Center of Infrastructure Projects, INFOMAR compamy).
A lot of reports, workshops and discussions were dedicated to the methods and technologies of reception, processing and interpretation of remote sensing data. Earth observation from space technique can be subdivided into three groups: low, middle and high resolution imaging. Each area has specific features and applications. Global real-time quantitative restoration of atmospheric and surface parameters can be referred to low resolution imagery tasks (reports of the Wisconsin-Madison University representatives, Monitoring & Forecasting Center of the Ministry of the Emergencies, Space Research Institute of Kazakhstan ). Natural resources and ecological monitoring, discriminating damaged and intact landscapes, vegetation classes, etc., are typical for the middle resolution imagery tasks ( Remote Sensing Application Center , Bulgaria ; Moscow State University ; Ben-Gurion University , Israel ). High resolution imagery tasks cover large scale cartography and land cadastre, requiring to accurately outline the boundaries of the facilities, both anthropogenic (houses, slots, quarters, keep-out zones, etc.) and natural (water protection, forest cutting areas) (R&D Center ScanEx, Racurs, Terra Space companies). Heated discussion aroused around the issue of advantages and drawbacks of the automated and expert processing algorithms, combining the possibilities of automation with expert verification of the data analysis results (workshops of the RSI and ScanEx companies).
signing the agreement with Spot Image (France) during the 2nd International Conference «Earth from Space – the Most Effective Solutions”. |
During the conference, ScanEx and Spot Image companies signed an agreement on the direct real-time data acquisition from SPOT-2 and SPOT-4 satellites to the UniScan TM station in Russia and CIS countries, as well as a letter of intentions between the ImageSat International company and ScanEx on the acquisition of data from the future EROS-B extra-high resolution satellite, which is scheduled to be put into orbit from the Russian launch pad in early 2006. The documents signed enable to make it much easier for the Russian users to get access to the satellite images and decrease their costs for the end-users. |
An exhibition was arranged during the conference (ImageSat International, Digital Globe, Sovzond, ScanEx, Transparent World, and ENVI posters were presented). Besides, master classes for working with real-time and archived remote sensing data were held, as well as direct real-time data acquisition techniques were demonstrated. A WIFI-zone was arranged within the territory of conference room and the exhibition for convenience.
Conference hall lounge exhibition of Russian and foreign companies – suppliers of Earth remote sensing images. |
Master-classes of R&D Center ScanEx on processing and analysis of images, acquired in real-time from SPOT-4, RADARSAT-1, IRS-P6, EROS-A satellites by the all-purpose mobile UniScanTM station. |
Workshop on software of R&D Center ScanEx. |
Real-time remote sensing data acquisition by the mini-lab of the mobile UniScanTM station. |
Mobile UniScanTM station (mini-lab - in front, UniSCanTM and Alice-SKTM (small configuration) antenna systems – in the background). |
The Azov Sea and adjacent territory image fragment, acquired by UniScanTM mobile station from SPOT-4 satellite during the conference on November 30, 2005. Copyright CNES, Spot Image, 2005 |
A warm reception was given for the evening arrangements: the concert of the opera singers during the ice breaking part on the first day and the dancing lessons during the banquet.
Participants expressed their wishes during the close-out discussions to consider this meeting as a plenary in sphere of remote sensing from space and to arrange for regional work groups on special issues in even years between the conferences within the frames of the general concept of the conference “Earth from Space - the Most Effective Solutions”.
Organizing and program committees would like to thank all the participants, sponsors and information partners for their inputs and dedication and would like to invite to further discussions of the conference improvements.
All photos by:
Dmitrij Sapronov.