Network of Universities commit to utilize space-based technologies
The University Partners’ Expert Group Meeting and Scientific Exchange was held in Bangkok, Thailand on July 6-7, 2015.
At the meeting, faculty and staff of five universities from Lower Mekong countries received an introduction to the SERVIR-Mekong program and its vision of capacity building. Meeting participants presented their degree programs and courses related to remotely sensed data, geospatial analysis and geographic information systems (GIS) in the five universities. They discussed how to assess the extent to which they address the skills gap and enable the region to leverage space-based technologies to tackle development challenges.
The discussions led to a commitment from the five universities to work towards achieving a number of initiatives. Faculty and staff will attend short courses to strengthen capacity on remotely sensed data, geospatial analysis and GIS. University participants will also conduct joint research on land use and land cover planning, water management and disaster risk management. In addition, they will have the opportunity to participate in regional training courses of the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC).
SERVIR-Mekong launched the partner network of universities to implement the project’s capacity building and training initiatives. The five universities in the network are:
- Royal University of Phnom Penh (Cambodia)
- National University of Laos (Lao PDR)
- Mandalay Technological University (Myanmar)
- Naresuan University (Thailand)
- Vietnam National University-University of Science (Vietnam)