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Landscape education and research at the international institute for aerospace survey and earth sciences (ITC)
Landscape and Urban Planning, 13 (1986) 447-45 1 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam - Printed in The Netberl~ds
LANDSCAPE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH AT THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR AEROSPACE SURVEY AND EARTH SCIENCES (ITC)
IS. ZONNEVELD International Institute for Aerial Survey and Earth Sciences, 350 Boulevard 1945, P.O. Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede [The Netherlands) (Accepted for publication 25 Juiy 1986)
ABSTRACT Zonneveld, I.S., 1986. Landscape education and research at the International (ITC). Landscape Urban Plann., 13: 447-451.
Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences
iTC is an institute for survey ln the widest sense of the word, including analysis and survey of landscape, land use and landcover. We emphasize the use of remote sensing, including aerial photography, as a survey tool, and thus especially concentrate on the horizontal aspects of the landscape. The term “landscape” is used in three ways, all applicable in landscape ecology: i.e. (1) an ecosystem; (2) the horizontal pattern at the Earth’s surface; (3) the visual aspect of the Earth’s surface (scenery). Through direct involvement in education, research and consultation on landscape, considerable emphasis is given to “land evaluation”, for which special methods have been introduced and developed. The most important aspect of these methods is their applicability ln the developing world.
SCOPE OF THE INTE~ATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR AEROSPACE SURVEYS (ITC) The 35-year-old ITC is not an institute for landscape planning. It was founded essentially for education and research in survey techniques and map-making using aerial photo interpretation and later also the newer methods of remote sensing. The ITC is known by more than 6000 alumni all over the world, especially in the economically and technologically developing countries. Although situated in The Netherlands and fully supported by Dutch funds, it is intended for students from those countries where technological and economic development is less advanced than in certain countries in the 0169-2046/86/$03.50
0 1986 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.
northern hemisphere that are strongly developed, at least in these fields, if not overdeveloped. The founder was Professor Willem Sche~erhom, the first post-war Prime Minister of the Dutch government, a famous professor in photogrammetry at the University of Delft and a warm-hearted man who was concerned about the poverty in certain so-called “underdeveloped” countries. The Institute is organized like a small modem democratically-ruled Dutch university, with various democratic councils at both institute and departmental levels. There are six scientific departments, as indicated in Fig. 1. These departments, assisted by administrative and service departments elsewhere in the Institute, organize the education, research and consultation. The concerns of the founder still
Fig. 1. ITC organization
chart.
,
I-
1
449
determine the scope of the Institute. Approximately 80% of the students come from the f~ancially poorer countries and 60% of all students receive fellowships from the Dutch government. The ITC practices, teaches and refines more than just survey techniques, data collection, mapping and printing, aerial photography and remote sensing. Since its early days, the educational programs have emphasized topographic and thematic maps. In the beginning, geological and soil maps dominated, and important results were achieved in physiographic soil surveys, photogrammet~c technology, forest inventories, and geological prospecting using aerial photographs. Later, about 20 years ago, land use and vegetation surveys, and social and economic inventories, came further into focus, along with ideas about integrating not only thematic data, but especially the processes of survey, regional planning and implementation. Thus the concept of land and landscape gradually became dominant at ITC, especially through the courses in “rural and land ecology survey” and “survey integration”. Seventy percent of staff time and direct finances of the Institute are expended on education. One-quarter of time and means, however, is dedicated to research, mostly in support of education and partly (using external funds) also for further development of the applied sciences. A considerable amount of time, however, is also spent in consultation; external paid activities directly focused on practical cases. For these consultation activities, extra personnel (in lieu of teaching staff) are usually employed. It is considered most impo~ant that scientists, active in education and research, keep frequent contact with the real world of land and landscape development; the primary interest of the students they are educating. Another way to do this is with field exercises as part of the training courses, under the most realistic conditions possible, in developing countries or in countries with similar conditions.
LAND AND LANDSCAPE The concept of “land” as used in our courses is synonymous with “landscape” in its holistic meaning. Landscape is the object of landscape ecology or science. In a strict sense, landscape ecology is the study of the relationships in the landscape, while landscape science also includes landscape mo~holo~, landscape classi~cation, landscape chorology (spatial aspects and mapping) and landscape chronology (temporal aspects). Relationships in the landscape can be studied only if morphology, chorology and chronology are known, and classification is often required. So in practice, landscape ecologists not only study the relationships between the vertical and horizontal components of the landscape, but also map the spatial aspects, monitor the changes, study past development and divide and subdivide land units, which are the classified mapping units that serve as a basis for land evaluation. The study of relationships is essential because this must be the basis for land evaluation. THE COURSES AND THE EDUCATION SYSTEM We are convinced that land-use planning should be based on the concept of the landscape as a whole. We also believe that land inventory, land evaluation, and creation and execution of a land-use plan should be an integrated action, resembling a spiral rather than just a linear sequence. However, this does not mean that everything can be done by one person trained in all the skills necessary for inventory, planning and execution, Even land inventory, as such, is not a job for one person, but rather for an integrated team of specialists from a variety of disciplines. Development planning, including determination of the users’ requirements, is another specialization requiring cooperation among several disciplines in the execution of any project. Although project manage-
450
ment of the survey teams and administration of the survey can be learned as a skill complementary to one of the participating disciplines, it can also be considered as a discipline on its own. The curriculum at ITC has not been entirely transformed to reflect our new judgment of the importance of an integrated approach. Thus, separate geology, geomorphology, soil survey and forest survey courses still exist. Land use, vegetation and human geographic aspects in the rural area, introduced in a later stage in the courses, are already treated in a more integrated way in one set of courses; the rural and land ecology survey courses with land evaluation as an important component. Within these courses, however, a choice appears to be necessary for students who want to concentrate on the techniques and skills of land-use surveys (agronomists, geographers), vegetation survey (botanists, rangeland ecologists, etc.) or rural social infrastructure (demographers, social geographers, etc.). The concerted organization of these rural and land-ecology survey courses, however, guarantees an integrated approach, even holistic where possible and wanted, to the concept of land (Fig. 2). Here again, it is the land ecolBASIC MODULE
+
SPECIALIZATION MODULE
+
ogy group that has primary responsibility, with the assistance of soils, geomorphology and hydrology specialists and all other ITC departments. Other courses dealing with integrated aspects of surveys for development are given by the “survey integration” group. These courses concentrate on determining what information is needed at each survey stage for multidisciplinary projects. The courses deal with regional rather than national planning in order to indicate the links between datagathering, planning, decision-making and implementation. Courses on economic and social inventory are an important facet of these courses, and are not offered anywhere else within ITC. The integration of problemidentification, decision-making, data-gathering and planning functions is the main task, rather than land resource survey techniques as such. Aspiring ITC students must make their choice, depending on their preference and basic training. All courses include lectures, practical exercises and major fieldwork. The fieldwork usually takes the form of a project. Occasionally, students cooperate in realistic consultation or research projects. These are usually sited in FIELDWORK MODULE
Preparabon for held survey wzluding interpretatvm of aWlal photqraphs and other remote sensing nages
Jc
_t
MSc PROGRAMME
Subject and fieldwork are by mutual agreement; both course and research components a,8 usually indiwdual programme% ,,eldwork of one or two months I* carried ou, approximately half way through me programme.
FIeldwork
PhD PROtRAMME
t Procewng Remote
I
^
1
01 data
sensing t Prepariltio” and maps
Fig. 2. Rural and land ecology
survey
courses.
Of report
Subjectand studyarea by
mutual agreement pre,erably fitting into the ITC research prw gramme. Course work. if any. is i”,envove” with r-arc”.
451
areas not too highly technically developed; for example parts of Spain, southern Italy, Sri Lanka, Thailand or Tunisia. Within each group of courses, we distinguish between short and long postgraduate courses and an advanced course leading to an M.Sc. degree; a Ph.D. program has also been recently introduced. The standard postgraduate course, the primary land ecology course, is based on a 45-h week over a period of 10 months. A short course includes just the first 3 months of this program. The duration and organization of the vari-
ous courses differ because of historical factors and also because of the special requirements of the discipline. For those courses dealing with inventory or planning of land resources and development, some combined specialization options have been introduced, such as watershed management, advanced remote sensing, advanced land evaluation, and use of digital land information systems. Further information about all these courses is published in the ITC general information booklet and separate course information papers. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Professor Zonneveld then illustrated the applied work of the I. T.C. in several case-study examples. ]
LANDSCAPE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH AT THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR AEROSPACE SURVEY AND EARTH SCIENCES (ITC)
IS. ZONNEVELD International Institute for Aerial Survey and Earth Sciences, 350 Boulevard 1945, P.O. Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede [The Netherlands) (Accepted for publication 25 Juiy 1986)
ABSTRACT Zonneveld, I.S., 1986. Landscape education and research at the International (ITC). Landscape Urban Plann., 13: 447-451.
Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences
iTC is an institute for survey ln the widest sense of the word, including analysis and survey of landscape, land use and landcover. We emphasize the use of remote sensing, including aerial photography, as a survey tool, and thus especially concentrate on the horizontal aspects of the landscape. The term “landscape” is used in three ways, all applicable in landscape ecology: i.e. (1) an ecosystem; (2) the horizontal pattern at the Earth’s surface; (3) the visual aspect of the Earth’s surface (scenery). Through direct involvement in education, research and consultation on landscape, considerable emphasis is given to “land evaluation”, for which special methods have been introduced and developed. The most important aspect of these methods is their applicability ln the developing world.
SCOPE OF THE INTE~ATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR AEROSPACE SURVEYS (ITC) The 35-year-old ITC is not an institute for landscape planning. It was founded essentially for education and research in survey techniques and map-making using aerial photo interpretation and later also the newer methods of remote sensing. The ITC is known by more than 6000 alumni all over the world, especially in the economically and technologically developing countries. Although situated in The Netherlands and fully supported by Dutch funds, it is intended for students from those countries where technological and economic development is less advanced than in certain countries in the 0169-2046/86/$03.50
0 1986 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.
northern hemisphere that are strongly developed, at least in these fields, if not overdeveloped. The founder was Professor Willem Sche~erhom, the first post-war Prime Minister of the Dutch government, a famous professor in photogrammetry at the University of Delft and a warm-hearted man who was concerned about the poverty in certain so-called “underdeveloped” countries. The Institute is organized like a small modem democratically-ruled Dutch university, with various democratic councils at both institute and departmental levels. There are six scientific departments, as indicated in Fig. 1. These departments, assisted by administrative and service departments elsewhere in the Institute, organize the education, research and consultation. The concerns of the founder still
Fig. 1. ITC organization
chart.
,
I-
1
449
determine the scope of the Institute. Approximately 80% of the students come from the f~ancially poorer countries and 60% of all students receive fellowships from the Dutch government. The ITC practices, teaches and refines more than just survey techniques, data collection, mapping and printing, aerial photography and remote sensing. Since its early days, the educational programs have emphasized topographic and thematic maps. In the beginning, geological and soil maps dominated, and important results were achieved in physiographic soil surveys, photogrammet~c technology, forest inventories, and geological prospecting using aerial photographs. Later, about 20 years ago, land use and vegetation surveys, and social and economic inventories, came further into focus, along with ideas about integrating not only thematic data, but especially the processes of survey, regional planning and implementation. Thus the concept of land and landscape gradually became dominant at ITC, especially through the courses in “rural and land ecology survey” and “survey integration”. Seventy percent of staff time and direct finances of the Institute are expended on education. One-quarter of time and means, however, is dedicated to research, mostly in support of education and partly (using external funds) also for further development of the applied sciences. A considerable amount of time, however, is also spent in consultation; external paid activities directly focused on practical cases. For these consultation activities, extra personnel (in lieu of teaching staff) are usually employed. It is considered most impo~ant that scientists, active in education and research, keep frequent contact with the real world of land and landscape development; the primary interest of the students they are educating. Another way to do this is with field exercises as part of the training courses, under the most realistic conditions possible, in developing countries or in countries with similar conditions.
LAND AND LANDSCAPE The concept of “land” as used in our courses is synonymous with “landscape” in its holistic meaning. Landscape is the object of landscape ecology or science. In a strict sense, landscape ecology is the study of the relationships in the landscape, while landscape science also includes landscape mo~holo~, landscape classi~cation, landscape chorology (spatial aspects and mapping) and landscape chronology (temporal aspects). Relationships in the landscape can be studied only if morphology, chorology and chronology are known, and classification is often required. So in practice, landscape ecologists not only study the relationships between the vertical and horizontal components of the landscape, but also map the spatial aspects, monitor the changes, study past development and divide and subdivide land units, which are the classified mapping units that serve as a basis for land evaluation. The study of relationships is essential because this must be the basis for land evaluation. THE COURSES AND THE EDUCATION SYSTEM We are convinced that land-use planning should be based on the concept of the landscape as a whole. We also believe that land inventory, land evaluation, and creation and execution of a land-use plan should be an integrated action, resembling a spiral rather than just a linear sequence. However, this does not mean that everything can be done by one person trained in all the skills necessary for inventory, planning and execution, Even land inventory, as such, is not a job for one person, but rather for an integrated team of specialists from a variety of disciplines. Development planning, including determination of the users’ requirements, is another specialization requiring cooperation among several disciplines in the execution of any project. Although project manage-
450
ment of the survey teams and administration of the survey can be learned as a skill complementary to one of the participating disciplines, it can also be considered as a discipline on its own. The curriculum at ITC has not been entirely transformed to reflect our new judgment of the importance of an integrated approach. Thus, separate geology, geomorphology, soil survey and forest survey courses still exist. Land use, vegetation and human geographic aspects in the rural area, introduced in a later stage in the courses, are already treated in a more integrated way in one set of courses; the rural and land ecology survey courses with land evaluation as an important component. Within these courses, however, a choice appears to be necessary for students who want to concentrate on the techniques and skills of land-use surveys (agronomists, geographers), vegetation survey (botanists, rangeland ecologists, etc.) or rural social infrastructure (demographers, social geographers, etc.). The concerted organization of these rural and land-ecology survey courses, however, guarantees an integrated approach, even holistic where possible and wanted, to the concept of land (Fig. 2). Here again, it is the land ecolBASIC MODULE
+
SPECIALIZATION MODULE
+
ogy group that has primary responsibility, with the assistance of soils, geomorphology and hydrology specialists and all other ITC departments. Other courses dealing with integrated aspects of surveys for development are given by the “survey integration” group. These courses concentrate on determining what information is needed at each survey stage for multidisciplinary projects. The courses deal with regional rather than national planning in order to indicate the links between datagathering, planning, decision-making and implementation. Courses on economic and social inventory are an important facet of these courses, and are not offered anywhere else within ITC. The integration of problemidentification, decision-making, data-gathering and planning functions is the main task, rather than land resource survey techniques as such. Aspiring ITC students must make their choice, depending on their preference and basic training. All courses include lectures, practical exercises and major fieldwork. The fieldwork usually takes the form of a project. Occasionally, students cooperate in realistic consultation or research projects. These are usually sited in FIELDWORK MODULE
Preparabon for held survey wzluding interpretatvm of aWlal photqraphs and other remote sensing nages
Jc
_t
MSc PROGRAMME
Subject and fieldwork are by mutual agreement; both course and research components a,8 usually indiwdual programme% ,,eldwork of one or two months I* carried ou, approximately half way through me programme.
FIeldwork
PhD PROtRAMME
t Procewng Remote
I
^
1
01 data
sensing t Prepariltio” and maps
Fig. 2. Rural and land ecology
survey
courses.
Of report
Subjectand studyarea by
mutual agreement pre,erably fitting into the ITC research prw gramme. Course work. if any. is i”,envove” with r-arc”.
451
areas not too highly technically developed; for example parts of Spain, southern Italy, Sri Lanka, Thailand or Tunisia. Within each group of courses, we distinguish between short and long postgraduate courses and an advanced course leading to an M.Sc. degree; a Ph.D. program has also been recently introduced. The standard postgraduate course, the primary land ecology course, is based on a 45-h week over a period of 10 months. A short course includes just the first 3 months of this program. The duration and organization of the vari-
ous courses differ because of historical factors and also because of the special requirements of the discipline. For those courses dealing with inventory or planning of land resources and development, some combined specialization options have been introduced, such as watershed management, advanced remote sensing, advanced land evaluation, and use of digital land information systems. Further information about all these courses is published in the ITC general information booklet and separate course information papers. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Professor Zonneveld then illustrated the applied work of the I. T.C. in several case-study examples. ]