Satellite Imagery: Reducing costs and improving forest data and information quality

FSC recently participated in a project sponsored by the European Space Agency (ESA), in which the very latest satellite sensors and software was used to design and test mapping, monitoring and measurement services for forest resources. Within the program of the FSC General Assembly 2008, interested parties are invited to participate in a workshop developed from the ESA project. The workshop program will provide unique insight into the latest in remote sensing satellite imaging technologies and how these can be integrated into forest based geographical information systems.

Presenters will include Francesco Holecz of Sarmap, Justin Butler of Ambiental and Charles Crosthwaite Eyre of Eyre Consulting and Alistair Monument from FSC China. The workshop will include presentation of the results of field trials with contributions from trial partners in South Africa (Nico Monig - York Timber), Congo (Lucas van de Walt - CIB) and Brazil (Orsa do Brazil).

Participation in this workshop is aimed to bring people right up to date on how remote sensing can:

Increase speed of availability of maps and monitoring data and reduce dependency on lengthy and costly field surveys

Provide a standardised consistent global service

Generate increasingly reliable and comprehensive year round concession wide information

Minimise data collection bias and error

Produce forest management, certification and verification tools and information, fully integrating products and services within Geographic Information Systems (e.g. ArcGIS etc)

Reduce data collection and analysis costs

The workshop will be held on Monday, November 3 from 9:00 - 11:00 at the Cape Town International Convention Center (CTICC). All registered GA participants are welcome to attend and may confirm their registration for this workshop and all side meetings. Please note you must be registered for the full General Assembly program to participate in side meetings. You may register for the General Assembly program online at http://www.fsc.org/general-assembly-2008.html.