Université Catholique de Louvain’s Earth and Life Institute (UCL-ELI) organized a one-month training program (stage) for Oliver Narreto of Central Mindanao University (CMU) from 23 Oct to 23 Nov 2016 with support from the LUCID project.
Under the supervision of Dr. Pierre deFourny, Oliver learned about GIS software applications and remote sensing data gathering through attending lectures and seminars. He also learned about UAV-drone technology through observing experts conducting test flights. Finally, he got to join the technical discussions between the geomatics focal persons for LUCID, Dr. Fourny and Dr. Andres Ignacio. The discussions resulted in consensus on initial strategies for gathering and processing spatial data that will aid research on economic and social impacts of land use change in the three project sites – Bukidnon, Isabela and Iloilo. The main objective of the Geomatics Team is to quantify and locate changes in land use over time, which will help social researchers strategically select sites for further field investigation. In view of this objective, the Geomatics Team discussed: gathering time series data from 2000-2016 on land cover in the 3 sites using the Sentinel 2 satellite for agriculture monitoring; development and testing of methods for identifying various crop types; and designing a field validation strategy.
Oliver’s recount of his experience in Belgium can be found here.