3.2.9 Environment
Recently, safeguarding the environment has been a
matter of concern for scientists, politicians and
the public. As a result, many projects have been
initiated to study the impact of hydro-electric
power stations, deforestation, coastal erosion,etc
on the environment. The use of remote sensing tech
-niques has been well demonstrated in these stu-
dies. Five such projects have been approved by
RSAD, Centre of Geography and Natural Resources,
Centre of Environment, and Institute of Forestry.
These projects include :
a/ Environmental impact assessment due to hydro
-electric power stations situated in Hoa binh and
Tri an.
b/ Environmental impact assessment due to defo-
restation in (i) the northern mountainous area,
(ii) the central plateau Tay nguyen and (iii) the
mangrove forest area Minh hai.
c/ Changes in coastal environment due to coas-
tal erosion by-sea and pollution by industries si-
tuated near coast of Red river delta.
4. REMOTELY SENSED DATA RECEIVING AND SUPPLY
Although Vietnam was interested in remote sensing
for natural resources management and environmental
monitoring at an early date, only receiving sta-
tions for meteorological satellites have been in
operation.
The first such ground station, APT, was build in
Ha noi in 1975 with technical cooperation between
Vietnam and USSR. Up to 1983 this APT was unique.
By the end of 1987 the autoreceiving station GMS
to operate in framework of Project VIE/83/004 sig-
ned by UNDP and the National Centre for Scientific
Research of Vietnam. The GMS station can receive
only the LR/FAX images. These images are produced
by sampling and relocating original VISSR images.
The primary spatial resolution of GMS VISSR is
5 x 5 km for the infrared channel at nadir.
Since 1988, under Project VIE/87/015 signed by
UNDP and General Department of Meteorology and Hy-
drology, another three similar stations were build
in Ha noi, Da nang, and Ho Chi Minh cities. They
began to operate by the end of this year.
Presently in Vietnam, every day several images of
cloud field and ground surface in VIS and IR re-
gions of electromagnetic spectrum from meteosate-
llites such as NOAA 10-11, METEOR-16, GMS, COSMOS-
1939 are received.
The processing and data supply of these meteosate-
llite images are carrying out directly by the re-
ceiving stations.
Because of the lack of ground receiving stations,
some kinds of earth resource satellite images/pho-
tos such as Landsat, SPOT, Soyuz, etc. are prima-
rily supplied by international cooperation through
scientific-technical projects. Satellite data in
the form of positive/negative false color or B and
W film or printed copies are chemically processed
by the RSAD photo laboratory, which was equipped
through Project VIE/83/004. The produced copies
data can be supplied to user organizations by
their proposals. Soyuz photos are available at
State Department of Geodegy and Cartography.
CCT data can be copied or recorded on floppy disks
at National Centre for Scientific Research for sup
-ply to users using Digital Image Analysis System
12
A6471 " Robotron " (Made in Germany) and Digital
Image Processing System " Pericolor 2001 " (Made
in France). The mentioned systems were equipped by
Project VIE/83/004. From beginning of 1991 another
Digital Image Processing System " DIDACTIM " (Made
in France) of Institute of Geology has been avai-
lable. A Canadian-made system, PCI's EASI-Pace,has
been supplied through the FAO.
According to national plans,B and W air photogra-
phy at scales ranging from 1/20,000 to 1/75,000 of
the country are done regularly by State Department
of Geodegy and Cartography. From 1985, air photo-
graphy from a Hasselblad multispectral camera has
been made available through RSAD by Project VIE/83
/004. The multispectral photos in VIS and IR are
available to users at RSAD.
5. TRAINING AND MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT
Training in remote sensing has been an important
activity to encourage the use of remote sensing
technology. However, due to economic, educational
and administrative problems, activity in this
field is limited. To date, under project VIE/83/
004, activities have included two official trai-
ning courses on the background of remote sensing
and remote sensing application organized by RSAD
in 1983 and 1984. In these there has been partici-
pation of remote sensing specialists from Germany,
the Netherlands and India. Later, during the pe-
riod from 1985 to 1990, some local training cour-
ses (ten days each) were organized by RSAD in co-
operation with the RSDC in the field of aerial and
satellite remote sensing application in various
natural resources themes. Although educational
courses in remote sensing àre not offered by Uni-
versities, specialized themes on the introduction
of remote sensing have been organized jointly by
scientists from RSAD, Centre of Geography and Na-
tural Resources, Institute of Agricultural Plan-
ning and State Department of Geodegy and Cartogra-
phy.
To meet long term trained manpower requirements
for remote sensing personnel, the Ha noi College
of Mining and Geology was the first to have star-
ted teaching remote sensing as a part of an alrea-
dy existing course dealing with natural resources
and allied fields. Many of other universities are
expected to include remote sensing cources in
their own curricula in the near future.
To increase the knowledge level in remote sensing
during the last decade, about 50 Scientists from
remote sensing and user organizations have been
sent abroad to trein at remote sensing Institution
/Organizations. Some have returned. with M.Tech.
Degree in remote sensing.
6. INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
To effectively use remote sensing for different
application fields in natural resources and envi-
ronment, institutions and departments such as In-
stitute of Agricultural Planning, Institute of Fo-
rest Planning, Institute of Meteorology and Hydro-
logy, State Department of Geodegy. and Cartography
etc. have established their own remote sensing
centres. There are now four such centres in opera-
tion. They have taken part in major applications
projects such as land use mapping, coastal manage-
ment, etc. In addition, they are also carrying out
projects covering several application themes of
specific importance to the institute's or depart-
ment's specialized fields.
