Symposium on Remote Sensing for Resources Development and Environmental Management/ Enschede / August 1986 
© 1987Balkema, Rotterdam. ISBN 90 6191 674 7 
961 
Welcome addresses 
G.H.Ligterink 
President of the Netherlands’ Society for Photogrammetry 
Ladies and Gentlemen, 
On behalf of the Netherlands’ Society for Photogram- 
metry I bid you welcome; welcome to our guests, pai— 
ticipants of the symposium and accompanying persons. 
Our society, relatively small, compared with 
others, was founded in 1932 and has at present 220 
members, among which about 20 private and government 
institutions. 
Our annual activities are the organisation of lec 
tures given by our own members or by invited 
speakers. But also we take part in international 
activities. 
The first symposium of Commission VII in 1962 was 
also organised by our society and we are honoured 
that in 1984 in Rio de Janeiro we again were given 
the opportunity to participate in international ac- 
tivities. 
There are several reasons why we asked for these 
activities in Rio. The two most important ones are: 
- Cooperation in our countries. Universities, in 
sti tutes and companies are working on remote sensing 
and I can proudly say on a high level. The technol 
ogy grows rapidly and therefore cooperation is 
necessary. As chairman of the Netherlands’ Society 
for Photogramme try I am happy that not only the ITC, 
but also the Netherlands’ Society of Remote Sensing 
contributes to this symposium. We hope this coopera 
tion will not only be for this period of 4 years, 
but will go further than Kyoto 1988. 
- A second important reason is cooperation abroad. 
Members of our Society take part in international 
projects all over the world; f.e. ESA (European 
Space Agency) with the Laboratory of ESTEC in Noord- 
wijk, the astronomical satellite ANS, projects in 
developing countries, etc. 
It is useful to interchange ideas and techniques 
and an international symposium as this one gives a 
good opportunity for that. 
Мешу research activities have already been done. 
And I hope this symposium in particular will give a 
breakthrough in practical applications. I think 
there is a large demand, more demand I should say, 
for remote sensing data and its applications. 
I think this symposium has had a good start. You 
have heard already that more than 450 participants 
are registered. A glance through the proceedings 
gives me the impression that there are many intei— 
esting papers and may I also draw your attention to 
the commercial and scientific exhibition with a lot 
of advanced material. Much of the work has already 
been done, thanks to many hard workers, the most 
important part must be done this week by the par 
ticipants themselves. I hope there will be many in 
teresting sessions and discussions, fruitful work 
shops and postei—sessions and above all, the oppoi— 
tunity to meet your old friends and make new ones. 
Mr. President, I wish you and your commission a 
successful symposium.