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AARS History

 

The Seventeenth Asian Conference on Remote Sensing
Colombo, Sri Lanka. 4 - 8 November, 1996

 
Honourable D.M. Jayarathne, Minister of Agriculture, Lands and Forestry of Sri Lanka, making his opening address.
  

Introduction

The Seventeenth Asian Conference on Remote Sensing was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 4 to 8 November 1996. Its opening ceremony was held with the participation of Honourable Minister for Agriculture, Lands and Forestry. ACRS was organized by the Asian Association on Remote Sensing and the Centre for Remote Sensing in the Survey Department, Ministry of Lands, and supported by the European Commission (Italy), ITC (The Netherlands), Japan Association of Remote Sensing (Japan), Nihon Koel (Japan), PCI Enterprises (Canada), Remote Sensing Technology (Japan), Remote Sensing Technology Center (Japan),SPOT IMAGE (France), and Teikoku Engineering Consultants (Japan).

Objectives

The prime objectives of this conference were:

  1. To discuss Asian problems in remote sensing

  2. To exchange academic application and technical information

  3. To promote regional co-operation amongst the member countries, and

  4. To promote operational applications of remote sensing and space technology.
 
Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Mr. Lawrence Fritz and Professor Shunji Murai at the 17th ACRS.
  

Opening Session

Honourable D.M. Jayarathne, Minister of Agriculture, Lands and Forestry of Sri Lanka, inaugurated the 17th ACRS. Mr. D.M. Ariyaratne, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Lands and Forestry, was one of the principal speakers at the inaugural session. The opening session was attended by a large gathering of over 350 experts including university lecturers, senior administrators, planners, policy makers, scientists and politicians in the country as well as all the participants of the ACRS. Among other speakers at the session were Professor Shunji Murai, General Secretary of AARS and Mr. M.P. Salgado, Surveyor General and the Executive Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Conference.

Full page newspaper supplements were brought out by two leading newspapers of Sri Lanka namely "The Daily News" and "Dinamina" to commemorate this occasion. A message from the President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka was issued on the occasion (See Box).

Message from the President of Sri Lanka
Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga
It gives me great pleasure to send this message of felicitations on the occasion of the 17th Asian Conference on Remote Sensing, which is hosted by the Survey Department of Sri Lanka.

I learn that the objective of this seminar is for the Remote Sensing Scientists of Asia as well as those of the Western countries to discuss the Asian problems relating to resource identification which will contribute to national development.

My government wishes to give every encouragement to the initiative of the regional effort for the sustainable development of natural resources, with the emphasis on the protection of the environment. These are issues that will be discussed in great details at the seminar, which will be of great significance to the countries of the Asian Region.

I am happy that this year's Asian Conference on Remote Sensing is held in Sri Lanka and I take this opportunity to welcome the foreign delegates and wish them all success in their deliberations.

Delegates:

A total number of 236 delegates (135 local participants and 101 overseas participants) from 24 Asian and non-Asian countries/regions and organisations participated in the 17th ACRS. The Asian countries/regions present were Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brunei, China, China Taipei, India, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka.

Non-Asian countries Canada, France, The Netherlands, Switzerland, UK, USA and the United Nations/ESCAP representa-tives participated as invitees.

Scientific Deliberations

A total number of 69 papers out of 95 scheduled papers were presented in this conference. In addition, the Keynote speech on High Resolution Earth Observation Satellite by the President of ISPRS and 2 special sessions including 8 papers were organized on the last day.

The technical session included Agriculture and Soil, Water Resources and Hydrology, Disaster Monitoring, Education and Communication, Forestry and Vegetation, Mapping, Oceanography and Meteorology, Landuse and Global Environment. There were also papers on image processing and GIS.

Five poster papers out of the 6 scheduled papers were presented under poster session. The proceeding of the conference highlighted the application of the remote sensing and GIS to land degradation and regional development in Sri Lanka.

Asian Association on Remote Sensing (AARS)

Two Sessions of the General Conferences of AARS were held during the 17th ACRS and the following decisions were taken:

  1. New membership - Azerbaijan was admitted as an Ordinary Member.
  2. Election of Host for the 18th ACRS.
  3. Consideration of Host for the 19th ACRS.
  4. Publication of memorial book on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Asian Conference on Remote Sensing will be published in 1999. An Editorial Committee was constituted with Prof. Shunji Murai as Chairman, and Prof. Bruce Forster, Mr. Manu Omakupt and Dr. M.U. Chaudhury as Members.

Other Activities

Two workshops were conducted parallel to this conference:

  1. Workshop on Earth Science Information Network by ESTO/ABLY, Japan
  2. Working Group on 1 km Land Cover Database in Asia

A Seminar on Geoinformation Systems for Coastal Zone Development Planning was also organised by UN ESCAP during the ACRS as a parallel activity. Fifteen experts from Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakstan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan attended the seminar.

Commercial exhibits from 8 exhibitors with 12 booths in total, demonstrated the commercial products and 6 companies presented their activities at the session on technical information.

Recommendations

Greater availability of satellite data with respect to cost, time and ordering procedure should be fostered.

Greater opportunities for education and training including on-job training and computer assisted teaching should be developed.

More efficient network for data exchange, data sharing and technical communication should be developed.

Greater regional cooperation on multi-lateral projects should be promoted.

Greater involvement of private sectors in development and use of remote sensing and GIS with a view to the establishment of indigenous enterprises should be promoted.

 

Contributors
Mr. L. R. A. Silva,
Surveyor General of Sri Lanka.

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