Seminar on remote sensing

JAKARTA (JP): The various uses of satellite remote sensing technology will be discussed in an international seminar organized by the Indonesian Society for Remote Sensing next week.

J.A. Katili, a senior remote sensing expert and deputy speaker of the House of Representatives/People's Consultative Assembly, will be the key speaker, organizers said yesterday.

The seminar, sponsored by the directorate general of technology for natural resources, will take place at Hotel Indonesia from Nov. 24 through 25.

About 500 remote sensing experts from across the country will join personnel from the European Space Agency, as well as people from Australia, Germany, France and the United States at the symposium.

They will discuss 44 papers with various topics, including the remote sensing in Geographic Information System, radar remote sensing satellite system, the mapping of shallow seabeds with airborne laser, and the application of remote sensing for shrimp ponds, rain monitoring and electricity networks.

The rapid progress in technology in Indonesia has enhanced the remote sensing industry as there is a demand in various fields for the application of the system.

Remote sensing expert Indroyono Soesilo from the Agency for Technology Application and Assessment told journalists yesterday that there were more than 300 orders to take pictures via satellite for data inventory during the past year.

Most of the orders came from forest concessionaires, who needed the images to monitor and manage forests. The technology also applied in the government's projects of regional planning.

According to regulations, a forest concession holder has to take a satellite picture of the forest for data inventory once every two years, Soesilo said. He said there are about 500 forest concessionaires, which means that the remote sensing market would remain strong.

Soesilo said that currently the pictures were not taken by Indonesian satellites, "I hope that one day we will have our own satellites."

There are 120 remote sensing centers throughout the country, 24 of them are managed by the private sector.

Indonesia first applied the remote sensing technology in 1972.(sim)