Silver Taiga Helped Youth Organization Etas and National Park from Arkhangelsk Region to Master GIS Technologies
Last week, a two-day seminar Potential of Forest Resources and Management Data Obtaining Through Earth Remote Sensing trained volunteers of the youth public organization. The event was supported by the World Wildlife Fund and arranged in the NGO’s office in Arkhangelsk. Employees of the Onezhskoye Pomorye National Park also studied the GIS technology basics alongside with volunteers.
The Foundation’s experts – forestry coordinator Nikolay Shuktomov and GIS specialist Alexander Borovlyov – taught the attendees the principles of geographic information systems. They shared how to use the free geographic information system QGIS. With the help of case studies they showed the possibilities of modern cartographic web services, the SAS.Planet software, informed the participants about satellite imagery programs like Landsat and Sentinel, spoke about practical use of Earth remote sensing, data search and collection. Legal aspects of GIS and ERS application were given a special focus.
As became clear during the seminar, volunteers need GIS technologies to obtain objective data on the dynamics of forest cutting, forest fires, and reforestation activities. Young people do not intend to restrict themselves to secondary sources, where data are interpreted based on the author’s position. The representatives of the public organization were interested in the possibility to obtain the most recent data through Earth remote sensing and subsequent decoding of space images.
As for the national park staff, they are eager to grasp GIS technologies to perform their work in SPNA, in particular, to conduct winter route accounts which serve as the basis to determine hunting and fishing quotas. Therefore, the key focus was on how to develop skills to use simple GIS tools.
“GIS tools are getting more and more available for a wider audience, the technologies are entering our life, so more people are willing to grasp them. It is encouraging that those interested are not only professionals who have to use the tools at work, but also students many of which study liberal sciences”, said Silver Taiga’s forestry coordinator Nikolay Shuktomov.
Photos by N. Shuktomov
Photos by N. Shuktomov
