ISPRS Technology Transfer Caravan in Assam, India
04 Mar 2010
By Armin Gruen and Shunji Murai, Co-Chairmen ISPRS Working Group VI/6 "Technology Transfer Caravan"
Since its inception in July 2004 the ISPRS Special Interest/Working Group "Technology Transfer Caravan" has co-organized and conducted many events like Seminars, Tutorials, Workshops, Summerschools in various countries predominantly in Asia and Europe. India, a place where Geomatics technologies and applications are currently booming, has been on the priority list very high. We selected the state of Assam as the destination of choice, because there is a dear need for development (Assam's economic development rate is only at 50% of India's average), we had long-standing personal contacts to colleagues from there, and last but not least the cultural and natural treasures of Assam, as a largely unexplored and under-rated tourist destination, caught our attention. After more than one year of initial planning the visiting date was set to 16-17 November 2009. Our host institution, the Assam Remote Sensing Applications Center (ARSAC) and the Assam Science and Technology Council (ASTEC) selected the capital of Assam Guwaharti as the location for the Workshop. Guwaharti, a city with a population of more than a million, did not really match our concept of going to smaller places, but it surely fit to our second goal of supporting institutions off the beating scientific conference track, having not yet seen many international technological workshops of significance.
With Armin Gruen coming straight from a model helicopter field mission over an archaeological excavation site at 3000 m altitude in Bhutan (in fact the first excavation in this beautiful Himalayan country of significance) we used the fact that a young archaeologist from Zurich (Peter Fux, currently with the Rietberg Museum, Zurich) was traveling with us, to design a technical program that also had archaeological topics at its focus. A decision that turned out to be very fitting, because archaeology, especially the documentation techniques, are at a very infant stage in Assam and any help in these fields was very welcome. So the program was prepared as following:
Workshop on New Trends and Potentials of Geospatial Technologies
Organized by
- Assam Remote Sensing Applications Center (ARSAC)
- Assam Science and Technology Council (ASTEC)
- Geoinformatics Center, Asian Institute of Technology (AIT)
- ISPRS Commission VI Working Group 6 "Technology Transfer Caravan"
- Eco-Systems India
16-17 November, 2009
Day 1 (16 Nov)
09:00 - 09:30 Registration
09:30 - 10:15 Inaugural Session - Welcome address by Dr. S.K. Choudhury, Director, ASTEC
- Speech by Prof. Shunji Murai, Ex-President ISPRS
- Speech by Sri Niraj Verma, IAS, Secretary, S&T Dept. Govt. of Assam
- Vote of Thanks
10:15 - 10:45 Tea Break
10:45 - 11:45 Geospatial Technologies and its Trends - Prof. Shunji Murai, Ex-President International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS)
11:45 - 12:15 Current Status and Future Requirements of Geospatial Technologies in Assam - Dr. P.P.Nageswara Rao, Director, North Eastern Space Application Centre, DOS, Umiam, Meghalaya
12.15 - 12.30 Status of Remote Sensing and GIS Applications in ARSAC - Sri Utpal Sarmah, Head i/c ARSAC
12:30 - 14:00 Lunch Break
14:00 - 15:30 3D Mapping with High Resolution Satellite Images - Prof. Armin Gruen, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
15:30 - 16:00 Tea Break
16:00 - 17:00 Applications of Geospatial Technologies in Disaster Management - Dr. Manzul Hazarika, AIT
Day 2 (17 Nov)
09:30 - 10:30 New Concepts for High Resolution Aerial Cameras - Dr. Achim Hellmeier, Trimple, Germany
10.30 - 10.45 Tea Break
10:45 - 11:45 Applications of Geospatial Technologies in Archaeology - Dr. Peter Fux, Rietberg Museum Zurich, Switzerland
11.45 - 12.15 Interaction session
12:15 - 12:30 Closing and Vote of Thanks
With 40-50 experts from various fields (geomatics, remote sensing, forestry, hydrology, civil engineering, spatial planning, archaeology, etc.) attending the sessions, it was not easy to fulfil everyone's needs. But from the very beginning active discussions emerged around a variety of topics. These spread from Earthquake prediction with GPS measurements (an issue that caused waves in local newspapers), new concepts for 3D mapping with space images and disaster management all the way to applications of geomatics technologies in archaeology. Being a country which is often hit by natural disasters like earthquakes and flooding, Assam has gorgeous and precious natural heritage and much un-detected and un-investigated cultural heritage.
Therefore these topics hit the very nerves of the people involved. The presence of high-level personal from ministries and research institutions secured the transfer of the main points raised and considered as crucial for further actions to the political and administrative decision domain.
Our hosts took turns to make our stay as pleasant and informative as possible. This started with an extensive welcoming procedure at the airport Guwahati, including the handover of ceremonial shawls, handmade by local craftpersons, and continued with many joint tea brakes and a romantic evening party on a cruising ship on the Brahmaputra river ("son of Brahma").
On invitation of the Director of the Assam Archaeology Administration, the day before the Workshop had us visiting an almost untouched archaeological site (Madan Kamdev, 40km outside Guwaharti). Located on top of a small hill, overlooking rice paddies and small farm-villages, this once must have been a large religious Hindu center with many temples and other so far unidentified structures. Destroyed by earthquakes long time ago, this must be the dream of any archaeologist - to be the first to unravel the remains of an ancient culture. It definitely is the dream of our guide and colleague Dr. Dutta, Director of the Directorate of Archaeology, Assam, and as such the only archaeologist in the state with a quasi formal education.
As it turned out later, archaeology and the use of geomatics techniques became a major topic for discussions at the workshop. Archaeology is a fairly fresh science in Assam and the need for further external support is fairly obvious, especially when it comes to the use of high technologies.
We also spent some time on the road, visiting cultural heritage sites, a spectacular national park and a huge tea garden. Traveling in India on the road is a nightmare for everyone who is used to European or Japanese car travel. We went through a number of truly life-threatening situations, but our excellent young driver always made sure that the ISPRS Caravan can continue its work beyond Assam. The first major stopover was made at Kaziranga National Park, a remarkable UNESCO World Heritage site. At this relatively small area, stretching only 378sqkm along the shores of the Brahmaputra river, a large amount of otherwise rare wildlife is roaming. More than 2000 rhinos compete with almost the same number of elephants, several hundreds of water buffalos and the highest population density of tigers in the world, together with a large number of lesser mammals and birds.
There is no way you will miss your Rhino encounters. And we had several from the save back of elephants, but also from a 4-weel-drive car, which frightened one of us so much that he expressed a very strong desire to drive immediately back to the safety of the lodge.
The next day saw us visiting historical sites at Sivasagar, capital of the Ahom rulers for 6 centuries, before the British took control in 1826. Here the Islamic architecture of the Mogul emperors is dominating and you can feel a glimpse of the gorgeous lifestyle and appreciate the festivities that were enjoyed by people of earlier periods.
Dusk fell over the beautiful, generous and deeply colonial villa of British style and origin, nestled amidst the huge estate of an Assam 400sqkm tea garden, when we checked into our rooms, never seen as splendid and big. Enjoying a cup of McAllan on the veranda, after a wonderful meal in an elegant 19th century dining room, among the bright oriental sky dotted with stars - this was as good as travels with the ISPRS Caravan can get.
The next day saw us visiting a tea factory, where the famous Assam tea is processed in a way it must have been done already 100 years ago. Here we ran into the remarkable sign posted for all workers: "Work is worship - let us work hard". But whatever we saw there, we are still enjoying back home the tasteful Assam tea that we were given at our departure.
Before the bustling city of Guwahati had us back we paid a visit to the brand-new Tezpur University, built into the nowhere close to the flooding planes of the Brahmaputra, and seemingly cut off from all important facilities of social and professional life.
After leaving Guwahati, as always, our group split in diverse directions, everyone heading home for his regular occupation. What all of us will remember and cherish most, beside all nice memories of our workshop and travels in Assam, is the warmth and friendliness of all the people we met, of our hosts and colleagues. We are specifically grateful to our friend and colleague Manzul Hazarika from AIT Bangkok, who organized our trip to and stay in Assam. He did a tremendous job and was always on-line with his mobile phone. We promise - Assam will see us again!
ISPRS Caravan at the Kaziranga Lodge Bonhabi, Assam, India, November 2009. From left: Peter Fux (Archaeologist, Rietberg Museum Zuerich), Achim Hellmeier (Trimble Germany GmbH), Armin Gruen (Prof. em. ETH Zuerich), Manzul Hazarika (AIT Bangkok), Shunji Murai (Prof. em. University of Tokyo)
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