High-Tech ‘Eyes In The Sky’ Get Rural Focus

Country Australia is benefitting from a boom in new technologies like satellite imagery, the President of the NSW Institution of Surveyors, Grahame Wallis, said today.

Mr Wallis was commenting on the release of a new Native Vegetation Report by the NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water, a yearly snapshot that now relies heavily on satellite technology and remote sensing.

‘Satellite imagery and high resolution digital aerial photography are absolutely crucial for obtaining a very precise picture of what's happening on the ground in rural and remote areas,' Mr Wallis said.

‘This latest report will be a key to the better management of our forests and our native vegetation, and this has direct impacts on fire risks, land degradation, erosion, and river salinity.

‘Eye-in-the-sky technologies are proving particularly effective at spotting potential illegal clearing and are important tools in land clearing investigations.

‘Surveying has been transformed by technology and the demand for people who have the geospatial skills to understand this technology and to develop it further is now so huge that we're facing a real shortfall of professionals in the field, especially from country areas,' Mr Wallis warned.

Professor Chris Rizos, head of the School of Surveying and Spatial Information Systems at the University of New South Wales, echoed his comments.

‘The potential benefits from the increasing use of more precise and sophisticated technologies are there for the taking, but without the people to drive them, we face the very real possibility of missing some of our greatest opportunities to protect and improve the world around us. Universities have been developing new degrees to introduce students to the broad range of geospatial information concepts and skills.

‘Our new Geoinformation Systems (GIS) degree, for example, is a complement to our long-running Surveying degree,' he said. ‘It covers topics such as remote sensing, airborne and satellite digital imaging, geographic information systems (GIS), GPS, and web services, as well as introducing students to the wide variety of spatial applications. This will allow graduates to apply their abilities to their area of choice in the huge and growing number of industries, government department and scientific organisations which depend on spatial information.'

‘Rural communities especially have a lot to gain from this new technology and attracting country students to our university courses is a major priority.'

The NSW Annual Report on Native Vegetation 2009 can be seen in full at: http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/vegetation/2010758NSWAnnRepNatVegFinal.pdf

The Institution of Surveyors NSW Inc (ISNSW) represents land surveying and engineering and mining surveying professional members of the Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute in New South Wales. ISNSW accredits university courses in surveying in New South Wales. http://www.surveyors.org.au

The UNSW School of Surveying and Spatial Information Systems is a leader in spatial information research and offers undergraduate degree courses in Surveying and in Geoinformation Systems, as well as postgraduate coursework and research degrees. http://www.ssis.unsw.edu.au/

GPS Satellite