AEGOS was represented at the Inter-national Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium that was held in Cape Town from July 12 to July 17 2009.

The poster was hosted in the CGS booth and the project was explained by the team manning the booth, including Luc Chevallier.  The benefit of this Symposium to Africa consists in the committed steps to enhance the engagement of African governments, institutions and individuals in the global network of Earth sciences and remote sensing specialists.  The IGARSS technical program included themes that have strong links to the development of the African continent as well as themes of international relevance.  Therefore, in addition to standard IGARSS topics, the organisers offered sessions on: Assisting African development needs; Climate change and sustainability in Africa-Applications of remote sensing; Numerical weather prediction; Half-way through the proposed initial 10-year programme, it is appropriate to review and re-plan the successes of GEOSS; Human and environmental health; Remote sensing education; and Earth observation and governance. In terms of African development, several sessions on applications addressed disaster preparedness and response, global change and adaptation, good governance, the role of remote sensing in health and disease monitoring, water and food security, forest and fire monitoring and urban planning.  1508 papers were presented by 1,237 researchers from 65 countries. Extract of the Opening address by the Minister of Science and Techno-logy, South Africa, Naledi Pandor: “Remote sensing is central to our lives today at the core of worldwide communications, global positioning systems, and data gathering on topics as vital as climate change and global warming.  With the Earth experiencing devastating natural disasters, hurricanes, droughts, floods and heat waves, remote sensing is no longer merely useful, but has become crucial in ensuring our survival.  The principle of archiving satellite imagery and using it downstream for  environmental and resources analysis and management is not unique.  In fact, it forms the basic foundation for many Earth observation systems, including the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) and the South African Earth Observation Strategy, launched in 2007.  With space science and technology identified as a specific cluster in the African Union/New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) Science and Techno-logy Consolidated Plan of Action, we hope that more African countries will commit to this and related initiatives.”