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- private companies - 147;
- public instituions - 627:
a) federal - 687,
b) state -— 317,
c) municipal - 0,52;
- university - 23Z:
a) federal - 437,
b) state - 487,
c) foundation - 9%.
74% of the users were between 26 and 45 years old,
what means that these users were children or
teenagers when the first satellite ( Sputnik) was
launched in 1961. These professionals grew up in
the satellite era.
In Brazil, professionals in this range of age are
looking for new challenges and new
technologies,because they are developing their
professional lives.
5% were between 20 and 25 years old. Probably these
professionals were beginning their professional
life,
18% of the users were between 46 and 65 years old.
These users probably had a well structured
professional life or were going to retire; so, they
were not interested in new challenges.
83% (267) were men and 177 ( 54 ) were women.
Probably this relation has changed, because year
after year more and more women are getting involved
with remote sensing.
With the results of the first phase of this study,
it was decided to analyse this community in more
details. For this purpose, the data collected in
the Brazilian Remote Sensing Symposiuns (BRSS) were
analysed.
The I9 Brazilian Remote Sensing Symposium was held
in 1978, in Sao José dos Campos, where INPE's
headquarters is located. The II°BRSS was held in
1982, in Brasilia, capital of Brazil, Central-west
region. The III?BRSS was held in 1984, in Rio de
Janeiro, Southeast region. The IV?one was held in
1986, in Gramado, South region; the V one was held
in 1988 in Natal, Northeast region and the VI?^one
was held in 1990, in Manaus, Amazonia, North
region.
Usually the participants number is around 500
people. The VI? BRSS, at which there were 802
participants, was held jointly with the I Latin
American Remote sensing Symposium. Up to now this
was the most important BBSS, which was attended by
many participants from meighbouring countries. The
VI BRSS was. held /jointly with the ISPRS
International Symposium on Primary Data
Acquisition.
The majority of papers presented in the BRSS were
from environmental analysis area. This area
embodies the following application areas: land use,
watershed management, geomorphology, urban studies
and regional planing.
Besides this application area, the areas of
geology, vegetation, digital image processing and
agriculture were identified as very important ones
as well,
In the BRSS, the following applications areas were
considered for paper: presentation: geology,
141
cartography, environmental analysis, agriculture,
vegetation, meteorology, oceanography, basic
research in remote sensing, digital image
processing education, institutional, GIS, sensor
system and hydrology.
The papers presented were divided into two classes:
a) Papers from INPE ( dependent papers):
— papers written by INPE researchers;
- papers written by INPE researchers and
external researchers;
— papers written by INPE remote sensing master
students;
b) Papers not from INPE (independent papers):
— papers written by external researchers;
- papers written by INPE ex-employees;
—- papers written by INPE ex-remote sensing
master students;
Since the I^BRRSS, the majority of papers presented
were from INPE, because it is the most important
institution in remote sensing in Brazil.
Fortunately in three symposiums (In V3 NT) the
balance between INPE papers and external papers
tends to maintain an equilibrium, specially in the
V Symposium, where the difference between INPE
papers and external papers is just 47. These
results mean that at each symposium more and more
researchers from different Brazilian institutions
are getting involved with remote sensing. We hope
that this balance changes in the future and the
number of external papers will be higher than the
number of INPE papers.
What region the paper authors were from was also
analysed. 87Z of the paper authors in the BRSS were
from Southeast and South regions, and since the
first symposium these regions have been the most
representative. In spite of all INPE efforts to
enhance the remote sensing activities in all
Brazilian regions, the Southeast and South regions
are still the most representative.
These results are in accordance with the ones
obtained in the first phase, where it was concluded
that 73% of Brazilian Remote Sensing Community were
living in the Southeast and South regions.
It is interesting to point out that in the VI BRSS,
held in Manaus, in Amazonia, the symposium theme
was the Amazonian region. The index of papers
authors was: 67% from the South, 657 from the
Southeast, 1% from the Central-West, 7% from the
North, 5% from the Northeast and 3% from Brasilia.
The VI BRSS was the only one that had a specific
theme. In this symposium only papers were about
Amazonia, and from this amount just papers authors
were from Amazonian region. It is important to
notice that the large distance between Manaus and
the rest of the country, the difficult economic
situation in Brazil in 1990, and the lack of
experts in remote sening in the Amazonian region
were the reasons for the lack of participants from
all Brazilian regions.
After this second phase, the data about the
training courses were analysed. It was possible to
identify that from October 1985 to December 1991,
996 people were trained, of "which 919 were
Brazilian and 58 were from Mexico, Paraguay,
Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador.