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Report of Regional Member 
Activities of Asian Association on Remote Sensing(AARS) 
Shunji Murai 
General Secretary 
Institute of Indusrial Science, Univ. of Tokyo 
1-22 Roppongi, Minatoku, Tokyo 106 Japan 
ABSTRACT 
Asian Association on Remote Sensing (AARS) has been founded in 1981 with five member 
countries in Asia at the beginning but now 18 ordinary members and 5 associate members, 
under the Statutes as attached in Appendix. 
AARS's roles are to organize Asian Conference on Remote Sensing annually in a Asian 
country in cooperation with the host country, UN/ESCAP, UNEP/GRID, NASDA and other 
sponsors, and to promote remote sensing 
publication and regional cooperation. 
in information and personnel exchange, 
AARS has been admitted as a Regional Member of ISPRS jn 1988 at Kyoto ISPRS Congress. 
INTRODUCTION 
Asian remote sensing scientists who participated in 
ERIM symposium in San Jose, Costa Rica in 1980 
had an informal meeting to promote regional 
communication and cooperation among Asian 
countries. As the result of discussion, the first Asian 
Conference on Remote Sensing (ACRS) was held in 
Bangkok, Thailand in 1980 in cooperation with 
National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) with 
159 participants. 
At the second ACRS held in Beijing in 1981, Asian 
key members decided to establish Asian Association 
on Remote Sensing (AARS) under the Statutes, 
which needed three night meetings. 
Since then, the author continue to contribute to 
AARS as the General Secretary responsible for 
organizing the ACRS and conducting other 
administrative works. 
As there was no such organization nor periodical 
symposium in Asian region before the establishment, 
AARS and ACRS have become popular among Asian 
people which results in increasing members, 
participants, presented papers and exhibits. 
1. AARS Members 
There are three categories of AARS members. 
a. Ordinary Members; 100 US$/year 
Asian countries including near Asian Region 
(Oceania or Pacific) 
b. Associate Members; 100 US$/year 
Other countries 
c. Sustaining Members; 300 US$/year 
Table 1 shows the AARS member list. 
2. AARS Officers 
The following two persons are the officers for 
1991-1993. 
a. General Secretary : Shunji Murai (Japan) 
b. Deputy General Secretary : Suvit Vibulsresth 
(Thailand) 
3. Asian Conference on Remote Sensing 
(ACRS) 
ACRS is a major event in a year which is organized 
by AARS. 
Table 2 shows the ACRS's with respect to year, 
date, venue, number of participants and actually 
presented papers including oral and poster. 
ACRS is almost the same or bigger size 
symposium as compared with ISPRS mid-term 
symposia. 
ACRS provides Asian remote sensing scientists 
with a good opportunity to meet each other, 
communicate and exchange information, present 
papers demonstrate or visit commercial exhibits and 
promote regional/international cooperation. 
45