Hon. Dr. Yinager Dessie Belay, Chairperson, the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) Council of Ministers and National Planning Minister, Federal Republic of Ethiopia made a familiarization visit to RCMRD on 24th March, 2016. The Minister was accompanied by the Ethiopian ambassador to Kenya and Eng.

Sultan Mohamed Alya, the Chairman of RCMRD Governing Council and Director General of Ethiopian Mapping Agency. The Minister discussed with the management of RCMRD the progress of the implementation of the Strategic Plan, and in particular, resource mobilization for infrastructural development of conference and hotel facilities at RCMRD. A presentation on RCMRD capacity development programmes and projects was also given.

The Minister was given a tour of the Centre, where he interacted with the staff and witnessed the different activities taking place. At the conclusion of his tour, Hon. Dr. Belay addressed the members of staff, where he praised the important services RCMRD was providing to its member States. He assured the staff of continued support by the Council of Ministers to enable RCMRD achieve its mission. He was given Sentinel 2 data covering the whole of Ethiopia as a sign of thanksgiving for visiting RCMRD. Sentinel 2 is a land monitoring constellation of two satellites that provide high resolution imagery. It provides a global coverage of the Earth’s land surface every 10 days with one satellite and 5 days with 2 satellites, making the data of great use in on-going studies. It provides data at 10m and 20m for land cover mapping in different channels, 13 in all. Data from the satellite is useful in land observation, land use and change detection, providing support in generating land cover classes, disaster relief support, climate change monitoring, among other applications.

Dr. Farah presenting Hon. Dr. Belay Sentinel 2 data for Ethiopia.