{In a bid to better manage natural resources, environment management bodies and farmers are set to benefit from a new remote sensing-based monitoring system to be introduced in Rwanda.}
Speaking during a workshop at the Hotel des Milles Collines in Kigali this week, Francesco Holecz, the chief executive officer of Sarmap, a Swiss company founded in 1998 that’s bringing the solution to Rwanda, said they transform satellite data into digital information which organisations and individuals can use to better manage and assess risks associated with the earth’s natural resources.
Various stakeholders such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI), Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB), Rwanda Environmental Management Authority (REMA), Non-government organisations, research centres and small-holder farmers can use the information to know the topography of their land, monitor land displacements, estimate crop production and get correct forest audits.
Unlike the methods the bodies have been using, which include the usage of optical data from aerial photographs taken using cameras that are costly and irregular, Holecz noted that the exploitation of satellite data enables to systematically monitor changes of the land cover, movements due to land instabilities and rapidly respond to damages caused by meteorological events such as floods and droughts.
“Digital information derived from available free of charge data delivered by non-commercial satellites, in particular of Sentinel-1 and -2, provides to the various stakeholders updated, continuous, and accurate information for planning, management, and intervention purposes ,” Holecz noted.
Steve Shema, chief executive officer of Exuus, a Rwandan company working with Sarmap to bring the solution to Rwanda, noted that government bodies that are key in conserving the environment and protecting it from natural or man-made disasters were using aerial images dating back as far as 2009.
“A key aspect of the proposed monitoring service is that the satellite data we are proposing is acquired by radar systems, which are not affected by clouds or bad weather conditions. This technology today operationally used in South-East-Asia, where cloud conditions are comparable to Rwanda, has already demonstrated the benefits, in particular related to agriculture – where insurance schemes are getting introduced in case of disasters like flooding and drought – and protection of natural resources,” he explained.
Innocent Nzeyimana, chairman of the Irrigation and Mechanization Task Force at RAB commended the technology, noting that it is going to help them make timely and preventive decisions given that the monitoring system will be giving them information in a recurring basis (every 12 days).
Alexis Nizeyimana, the environmental information systems officer at REMA noted that with the satellite imaging, they will be able to collect and manage information from all parts of the country.
“Managing the environment is a challenge in itself because we have inaccessible areas. With remote sensing, we can monitor all activities taking place in all parts of the country,” he noted.
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