AgHive at the Department of Agriculture co-organized the French-Lebanese Summer School on Remote Sensing from May 30 to June 3, 2022 with Theia

Dissemination and capacity-building using Copernicus and Theia data value-added products

 

 

June 4, 2022

The Department of Agriculture – AgHive, chaired by Dr. Hadi Jaafar was honoured to conclude the French-Lebanese Summer School on Remote Sensing from May 30 to June 3, 2022, in collaboration with Theia, the French Land Data Center, with the support of FPACUP European Program.

The Summer School is part of the dissemination and capacity-building activities using Copernicus as well as Theia data and value-added products

The Summer School was a big success with 44 participants coming from different countries including Tunisia, Egypt, France, Italy, and Lebanon. The participants are representatives of international organizations (UNDP, UNESCWA, UNOCHA, UNHABITAT), Non-Governmental Organizations (Leb-Relief), the public sector (Lebanese Army, CNRS, Ministry of Energy & Water, Ministry of Environment, Lebanese Water Establishments, INAT), the private sector (Khatib & Alami, Dar Al-Handasah), as well as universities (American University of Beirut, University of Balamand, Lebanese University, Beirut Arab University, Notre Dame University, and University of Lyon).

The Summer School was comprised of a full-day workshop on May 30, hosting speakers to present on remote sensing applications in rapid disaster mapping, drought estimation and mapping, soil moisture, urban heat island effects, outputs of research projects in evaluating humanitarian initiatives (CEDIL), and global Evapotranspiration and water use initiatives such as AgSAT and HSEB. The following three days constituted parallel thematic sessions that addressed applications of remote sensing including: Initiation to Remote Sensing using Sentinel Imagery, Rapid Disaster Mapping, Drought Mapping, and Soil Moisture Estimation.

An assessment survey conducted following the conclusion of the Summer School revealed that 88% of participants had their expectations met, with most of the participants very confident to employ the skills and knowledge gained from the Summer School in their professional practice.

Material of the parallel tutorial sessions and presentations of day 1 are available here.

This Summer School is part of the dissemination and capacity-building activities using Copernicus as well as Theia data and value-added products. Experts from different French Institutes (INRAE, CNRS, Cesbio, IRD, and the University of Strasbourg) have provided training sessions on the use of earth observation data in remote sensing applications. The Summer School was implemented within the Framework Partnership Agreement on Copernicus User Uptake.