5 minute read
Remote Sensing for Community Development in Asia and Beyond
A conversation with KANAME IKEDA, President, Remote Sensing Technology Center of Japan, (RESTEC)
Since its inception in 1975, RESTEC has been mandated research and development in Earth Observation (EO) to help relevant knowledge dissemination, not just in Japan, but overseas as well.
It has been long associated with Japanese government efforts to develop technologies to observe the earth from space and design solutions to pressing challenges such as climate change and disaster mitigation.
RESTEC also works to further capacity building in Asia, Africa, Latin America and other developing countries, assisting in the implementation of programs for businesses and governments alike.
“In Japan, the local areas are competing with each other.
The situation might be a bit different between India and
Japan, but we are serious in making the remote sensing technology available to the community for a wide variety of needs”, says KANAME IKEDA, President, Remote Sensing Technology Centre of Japan, (RESTEC), and former Japanese Ambassador to Croatia, in an interview.
What are the upcoming remote sensing projects in Japan and what are the key areas that you are working on? Global warming is quite an urgent subject for us and we are associating our effort with that purpose as well as the SDGs, which is another subject internationally. We are keen to work with governments in Africa to help somehow enforce the activities, for the protection of wildlife.
We are working on the research and development of remote sensing and dissemination of the outcome. In this effort we need to be self-sustainable. So while engaged
Credit: ©NTT DATA Corporation, Included © Maxar Technologies,Inc.
AW3D is a brand of satellite-based 3D digital map, which is co-produced by RESTEC and NTT DATA. The dataset has been used for 3,000 projects in 130 countries for climate simulation, disaster management, 5G telecom optimization, renewable energy development, etc.
partially like a company, we have both mandates, for the business and public parts to head to government effort.
We find our stance as a public corporation, how we are serious in the capacity building, in other words, knowledge sharing with developing countries like Africa or Asia and Latin America as well. It's not for profit, it's for public welfare and also our common objectives. Please tell us about your relation with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)? Our organization is basically associated as a public corporation to help JAXA's effort in developing the technologies for observing Japan through satellite. Even now a good number of our colleagues are working directly with JAXA, at the Tsukuba Space Center. A lot of our work is devoted to their support, not only in providing staff but also in calibration and validation of the data obtained from their satellites for a variety of needs.
That's how I introduced the example of GSMaP for precipitation and also GOSAT (The Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite: "GOSAT", launched in 2009). It's an effort to scan the worldwide tropical rain forest and so on for a variety of needs. So that's how
we are still deeply associated with JAXA's efforts.
JAXA is an organization for research and development and our mandate is to work between national research institutes, the public, companies and so on.
They provide the additional effort to disseminate the results of research and development and our mandate is not only to help in their research and development, but also to further support the dissemination of the outcome of the effort to the benefit and welfare of the public. We find our missions in working between the government and private. We are also encouraged to work with the business communities, not just the private entity.
How do you support startups and private sector companies in Japan, and who are your main clients? In regard to the technologies like EO satellites or drones, our mandate is to help the business communities to get interested in it and to be active in providing various services to the communities with their needs.
Engagement related to the government is not only limited to space agencies like JAXA but also the Ministry of Environment, the Cabinet Office, who would like to best utilize the technologies and opportunities. Because society itself is changing and our mandate is to make remote sensing as an infrastructure to be used community wide, therefore not only by the Ministry of Agriculture but also by the Ministry of Transport and other industries as well.
Another aspect is that we are vulnerable to natural disasters in many ways, and Japan’s almost all infrastructures, highways, and railroads are more than 50 years old. So they need to be strengthened for necessary resilience. That's why monitoring and the control of the infrastructure is a big task, where, we have to best utilize space technologies, in this regard. So the government sector is our primary client in Japan.
Which countries do you work with and how do you help them? For instance, we have worked with Brazil, they are so keen to protect their tropical rainforest against illegal logging. And we help them to master the technology using a satellite with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensor, which has the ability to penetrate the rain clouds and can even function during night-time.
They could monitor the forests and keep a check on illegal loggers, which eventually reduced the deforestation done by illegal logging. Besides, we also worked on a similar case that took place in Peru, and Latin America. We are providing technical support in helping them in such efforts.
Can you please say something about the use cases in terms of disaster management and fishing? Our staff is heavily engaged in the operation of the so-called Sentinel Asia program to mobilize satellites and use the imageries in case of disaster at any place in Asia for instance. And then they're working to help the operation of JAXA.
We are working with other countries to help them with the analysis of satellite imagery and provide them necessary reactions using the analysis to mitigate disaster and fishing related issues.
What are your plans for collaboration with India? During my short stay in India in November, I had the chance to listen to the ideas of the company that specialize in LIDAR technology like Geokno India as well as the Minister of Forestry, where people are really concerned about how they could manage the forest here in India.
This is a good occasion for us to learn how you have managed such issues and about your plan considering Japan also faces similar situations.
We would like to deepen our understanding of the area for our collaborations to further our services to the needs of the community.
Interviewed by: Nibedita Mohanta
