United Nations Space Body Holds Training Course On Remote Sensing Education

(Reissued as received.)

VIENNA, 5 May (UN Information Service) -- The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA), within the framework of the United Nations Programme on Space Applications, is holding a six-week International Training Course on Remote Sensing Education for Educators in Stockholm and Kiruna, Sweden.  The Training Course, which began this week and will last until 11 June 2004, is being held in cooperation with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and hosted by the University of Stockholm and Metria, a Swedish company specializing in land surveying, mapping and geographic information techniques.

The Training Course is the fourteenth in a series of successful courses held by the same organizers and will provide representatives of various academic institutions from developing countries with basic training in remote sensing technology.  It aims to familiarise participants with both the theoretical aspects and practical uses of remote sensing in order to enable them to integrate the subject into their institutions’ curricula.

United Nations-sponsored spacetechnology-related training courses and long-term fellowship programmes are intended to help countries develop national capacity to benefit fully from the growing international body of know-how derived from space research.  Participants at this Training Course will be instructed in how to use satellite data in a variety of development activities such as natural resource management, agriculture and environmental protection.  By the end of the course, participants are expected to have gained enough training and skills to begin conducting introductory courses on remote sensing in their respective institutions.

Twenty-seven participants are attending the current course from the following countries:  Argentina, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya, Malawi, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Thailand, Trinidad&Tobago, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay and Viet Nam.

Instructors from the European Space Agency, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, StockholmUniversity, UppsalaUniversity, the Swedish Royal College of Technology, the Swedish National Space Board, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, L&L Monitor AB, Metria and OOSA will lend their expertise at the Training Course.

Background

The United Nations Programme on Space Applications is implemented by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and works to improve the use of space science and technology for the economic and social development of all nations, in particular developing countries.  Under the Programme, the Office conducts training courses, workshops, seminars and other activities on applications and capacity building in subjects such as remote sensing, communications, satellite meteorology, search and rescue, basic space science, satellite navigation and space law.

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA) implements the decisions of the General Assembly and of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and its two Subcommittees, the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee and the Legal Subcommittee.  The Office is responsible for promoting international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space, and assisting developing countries in using space science technology.  Located in Vienna, Austria, OOSA maintains a Web site at http://www.oosa.unvienna.org.

For further information, contact:  UN Information Service, Vienna, tel: (+43-1) 26060 4666, fax: (+43-1) 26060 5899, e-mail: UNIS@unvienna.org

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