BY ALAZAR SHIFERAW
Ethiopia has established a Space Science and Technology Institute (ESSTI) in a bid to let the country fully exploit multidimensional advantages of space science and technologies; produce demand-based, knowledgeable, skilled and attitudinally developed professionals in the field of aerospace science that enables the country to become internationally competitive in the sector.
Besides, the country aims to develop and strengthen space science and technology infrastructures to spearhead space science and technology development and to enable the country to be full-fledged contributor for the development of aerospace science and technology.
Prominently, the country has launched a second earth observatory referred ET-SMART-RSS satellite to the space. Also, in the coming ten years, Ethiopia envisions to launch three satellites , one of them will be a communication and broadcasting satellite, while the remaining two will be satellites to be engaged in earth observation .
Significantly, in an event aiming at commemorating ESST1’s first year launching ceremony it was noted that the country has enhanced science and technology development in the country. In the anniversary, the institute has given recognitions for those who contributed for the development of space science and technology in the country.
Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute (ESSTI) Director General Abdissa Yilma said that space science and technology must not be left for a single institution alone. It needs other institutions’ active involvement. Thus, to spur space science technology, the institute has signed agreements with eight pertinent stakeholders.
ESST1 satellite has been accomplishing missions for a year without any obstacle. The institute has been engaged in engineers’ capacity building.
Formerly, there was no well-established information registration system. Besides, the country was purchasing satellite information from abroad. Thus, to lead nation’s space science and technology, the institute should focus on nation’s space science priority tasks. But, “We cannot gather the information overnight. Stakeholders like geospatial institute should partake to render the field robust.”
Dimetri Zerhun was one of the recipients of the recognition certificate .He said “The recognition certificate will boost my moral to handle different demanding tasks in the future . But giving more attention to children is very important.”
ESST1 is used for gathering information for various purposes Ethiopia needs. It has been used in building space science technology capacity and acquiring experiences in the field. Yes, Ethiopian engineers could control the satellite fully for a year, he said.
Earth Observation and Meteorological Satellite Application for Agricultural Resource and Natural Disaster in Ethiopia : A need Assessment by Berhan Gesse and Worku Zewdie , among others, indicates the role of earth observation (EO) technology in agricultural development is immense .
The integration of geospatial , EO and other sources of data with information mining technique is becoming a fundamental requirement for countries to measure , monitor local to regional sustainable agricultural development policies and programs .
A large proportion of global community has an entirely different set of EO and geospatial information uses, needs and expectations. With scientific and computational developments leading to operational implementation of activities and improvements in monitoring and forecasting of natural resources distribution and usage of national to global scale ( Tavener , 2018), satellite remote sensing as an information sources in support of the agricultural sector has been proven and was reconfirmed in September 2015 by world leaders .
Whilst adopting the 2030 agenda for sustainable development The recognized the crucial importance of transparent and accountable scaling up of appropriate public- private cooperation to exploit the contribution to be made by a wide-range of data , including remote sensing and geo spatial information , while ensuring national ownership in supporting and tracking progress.
EO can significantly contribute in providing timely and accurate information to the agriculture sector , for it is very suitable for gathering data over a large areas with high revisit frequency .(Nelis et al (2009) reported that the utilization of space borne multispectral data for crop acreage and production estimation started in the 1970’s with the launching of the large area crop inventory experiment jointly by the National Aeronautics and space administration ( NASA) .United Sates departments of agriculture ( usda) and national Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA).
Remotely sensed datasets and processing algorisms can offer operational requirements agriculturalists , ecologists and resource managers ( Meroni Et al , 2003 ; Mulinga etal 2013 , VOlo et al ,2013) among others . Some roles some of remote of remote sensing in crop monitoring include crop inventory , early identification of crop growth and monitoring and crop dynamics . It can be used also for efficient crop identification .
Global warming resulting from the greenhouse effect has threatened the sustainability of natural resources and agriculture in different parts of the world . Monitoring regional and global changes in agricultural land use is called for. Good spatial resolution imagery is required in order to keep data volumes reasonable and to allow frequent temporal coverage .
EO is widely used to collect agriculture and agronomy information in spatial and temporal scales.
The role of satellite technology for monitoring environmental disasters; in the past decades, several types of disasters have been a barrier to fulfill the demands’ of citizens to partake in the sustainable development plan for their country .
The African regional strategy evaluated policies and institutional arrangements that are focusing on disaster reduction in different member countries and was able to investigate their limitations in effectiveness and efficiency in order to tackle the divergent and varying degrees of occurrence of disasters.
Ethiopia has made several amendments in its strategy to address disaster risk identification and assessment through enacting continually updated strategies. In the recent 2013 national policy and strategy , disaster risk reduction and management were part of the development plan incorporated in each sector for better integration and assimilation of information., in addition the new strategy identified to use EO data for early warning and disaster risk management.
However, data acquisition, processing and implementation strategies for disaster risk monitoring and mitigation was not well identified.
Though the National Metrological agency (NM) is the sole institute that is working on early warning and disaster monitoring of the country the mechanism of information dissemination among the stakeholders is not well organized and supported with state of the art communication technologies .
The country’s 2013 policy and strategy has identified inefficient sharing of information related to disaster.
The Ethiopian Herald December 25/2020
