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International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part B6. Istanbul 2004
companies. As a result to this policy, one can compare the
number of private firms in the field of photogrammetry and
remote sensing which increased with a rate of 4 (from 8
companies in 2000 to 35 companies in 2004). In the same
period, the growth rate of all mapping and surveying
companies can be observed as 2 (from 42 companies in
2000 to 90 companies in 2004) which can demonstrate the
acceptance of photogrammetric methods and products
within users and producers community as the best solution
for map and spatial data production purposes.
= Ministerial and Municipal Mapping Departments and
Offices: Most of these offices and departments are
established within ministries and municipalities in order to
deal with their need for map and spatial data. Some of them
such as surveying office of oil ministry were equipped with
photogrammetric equipment and image processing systems
but with the recent growth in private sector companies and
service providers in this field, many of them are basically
changing their tasks to contracting out, technical
supervision, data handling and/or providing very
specialized products for specific uses. Among these offices,
a few of them can be addressed as:
a. Tehran Geographic Information System Center
(TGIS) which was founded by Tehran municipality in
1991 in order to establish a geographic information
system for the capital. The base data is 1:2000 map
series of the city which produced by private sector
with cooperation of NCC in 1996.
b. Iranian Cadastre Center was established under
supervision. of the Land Registration Office to
centralize cadastral activities nation wide. This center
is equipped with advanced analytical stereorestitution
instruments, proper software systems and trained
personnel for photogrammetric map production.
Fortunately, the management board of the center has
recently convinced to reduce their mapping activities
by using available large scale maps of the other
mapping projects and concentrate their efforts on
establishment of huge cadastral database of the
country.
c. Iranian Remote Sensing Center (IRSC) was
established in 1972 in order to coordinate remote
sensing activities in Iran, to promote remote sensing
trough training specialists, to reproduce and distribute
satellite data and related services and to guide related
researches in this field. In addition to different image
coverage of satellite data which is distributed by this
center, its ground receiving station is able to receive
different types of data from Indian IRS satellites,
NOAA and Terra MODIS sensor.
This center has recently changed to Iranian Space
Agency (ISA) and now is responsible for research,
design and implementation of space technology,
remote sensing as well as development of national and
international space technology and communication
networks. The aim of ISA is to promote peaceful use
of space technology and science and the above
atmosphere space to help the development of the
country in different aspects. According to ISA new
organization and objectives, in field of remote sensing
it is mostly concentrated on coordination among
237
different active sectors in this field, issuing policies
and promoting application oriented researches in this
field.
2.2 Policy Makers
The main body in the country in charge with issuing policies in
this field is the Supreme Council for Mapping which works
under direct supervision of deputy of the Iranian President.
Members of this council consist of peoples in high management
levels from data user community, major data producers and
research and education sectors. The main responsibility of this
council is issuing policies in this field, coordination and
planning for different sectors, performing evaluation programs
to assure the effectiveness of strategic plans and so on.
Beside the above mentioned council and NCC that actually
works as secretary of it, technical deputy of Management and
Planning Organization of Iran (MPO) is also involved with this
task. Among many other responsibilities of MPO, one can
consider planning, budgeting and supervision on national and
provincial constructional and infrastructural projects as its main
objectives. According to this, technical deputy of MPO is in
charge with preparation of technical specifications and
procedures, planning and supervision and issuing the technical
frameworks of projects contract (in terms of financial and legal
aspects) in the domain of Iran technical and executive system; a
system which includes more than 70 percent of the running
projects of the country.
In spite of not very strong influence of scientific and trade
societies which are active in the field of surveying,
photogrammetry and remote sensing in Iran, but they can not be
totally disregarded. There are at least three scientific and trade
society who try to develop rights of people work in this field in
interaction with the other policy making bodies.
2.3 Research and Education Sector
In order to describe situation of the country in terms of
education and training in the field of Geomatics, let’s have a
quick look at two different sections in the past decade. At the
beginning of this decade, only a few bachelor degree surveying
students (about 60) were studying in Tehran University and
K.N.T Technical University in Tehran and also the surveying
college of NCC was in charge with training a few technician
degree students in surveying and cartography (Most of them
were employed by NCC). Nowadays, there are more than 10
universities and institutions in the country busy for training and
educating professional personnel in this field. Talking more
accurate, every year about 450 specialists with bachelor degrees
in surveying are graduated from universities. In addition, more
than 600 technicians in this field should be considered.
All the efforts that were made during these years resulted in a
rough estimation of 5000 specialists who are active in the field
of Geomatics (non military section). It means about 8
specialists in each 100000 population which is not satisfactory
but the trend draw a better situation in the future.
In the mean time, the first master degree courses in geodesy,
photogrammetry and remote sensing have been started in Iran
during last decade. Nowadays, there are at least 3 universities
presenting these courses with about 30 graduated specialists in
these fields.
