APAN 2003 Conference in Fukuoka

Natural Resource Workshop and Track Abstracts & Biodata

NRW1: Utilization of Earth Observation Satellite - Digital Asia Special Session 1 (Room C 09:00-12:00, Jan 21)

Chair: Shin-ichi Sobue <sobue.shinichi@nasda.go.jp> (NASDA, Japan)

1. Introduction of Digital Asia Network(DAN)
Shin-ichi Sobue <sobue.shinichi@nasda.go.jp> (NASDA, Japan) and Ryuzo Yokoyama <yokoyama@ait.ac.th> (ACRoRS-AIT, Thailand)

Digital Asia is a newly developed distributed data service concept to share Earth observation satellite data throughout Asia using IT and GIS technologies. Web Mapping Technology (WMT) is a state-of-the art technology that is especially useful for sharing and exchanging data on the Web. High-speed networks and database management technology to support the Digital Asia Network (DAN) will be established to implement the Digital Asia concept. Through participation in DAN, each participant will be able to receive training courses in GIS and IT to implement a demonstration system to archive and share Earth observation data. This demonstration system will support the implementation of a spatial infrastructure for sustainable development and environmental change studies. For three years starting in 2002 the concept of Digital Asia will be discussed at DAN meetings and this DAN Implementation Plan will be updated. In addition, to promote the Digital Asia Concept, special workshops for DAN will be hosted at the various remote sensing and GIS conferences. OpenGIS training courses will also be organized. For the first three years the DAN secretariat will be located at AIT/ACRORS, supported by NASDA and other partners.

2. Digital Asia, its Technical Aspects -- Interoperability in DA : Standards, Issues and Solutions
H. Fukui (Keio Univ., Japan)

Abstract

Attempts of “the Digital Earth (DE)” that enables a person to explore and interact with the vast amounts of natural, socio-economical and cultural information gathered about the Earth are inspired by an emerging body of knowledge base and spatial informatics. It is a new field of science that studies how to reconstruct geo-spatial phenomena in Cyber Space and how to apply informatic outcomes in Cyber Space to the geo-spatial Real World. The goal of this DE project is to construct a gate consisting of operational data infrastructure and application infrastructure. Specific DE activities in our interest are intended to move sub-DE project that is Digital Asia Network (DAN) in the present. Around this conceptual backbone, a number of conceptual and technical topics should be handled as follows;

What is interoperability in Geo-spatial information infrastructure and its ‘standards stacks,’
Interoperable GIS, Geo-spatial Mediator and Multi-Dimensional Visualizing?JAVA-3D,; hierarchical level of detail(LOD), etc.) Development,
Test-bed study projects of the DAN based on OGIS (Open Geodata Interoperability Specification),
Application of DAN ranging from precision farming, participatory environmental monitoring, risk communication to simulation of land value changes and environmental evaluations.

Issues related to the designing a interoperating GIS and Geo-spatial information Mediator to improve the distributed and heterogeneous data resources effectively are outlined. Many substantial challenges are also presents, for example: three-dimensional visualizing, hierarchical level of detail (LOD), managing and displaying embedded multimedia data in real time and navigation interface for interacting with multi-resolution geo-spatial data.

Biodata

He Joined Keio University in 1996, current research interests include regional planning, ecological development and global environment issues with emphasis on spatial information sciences. Also has served on Board of Directors in GIS Association, Center for Environment Information Sciences, on Guest Professor of Chinese academy of Science, and on Adviser of NSDIPA(National Spatial Data Infrastructure Promoting Association) . He is also charged many committees of GIS in central and local governments.
Before joining Keio Univ., served as the Team Leader for Spatial Analysis Team at Sumitomo Trust Banking Research Institutes of Think Tank in Tokyo.
He holds a Doctor of Science in Earth Sciences from Nagoya University.
He had many experiences on technology transfer projects of JICA and World Bank related bodies, for example; Argentina, Indonesia, Bahamas Thailand and China.
He has served on a chair professor of geo-informatics program of a graduated school of Media and Governance at Keio University from this April.

3. The summary of OGC
Kenji Hiraishi <k-hiraishi@cb.jp.nec.com> (NEC Aerospace System, Japan)

Abstract

NEC Aerospace Systems has been an associate member of Open GIS Consortium (OGC) Technical Committee (TC), since October 2000. The author will present the current status of OGC activities based on the view got through the OGC TC meetings. OGC is an international industry consortium of more than 230 companies, government agencies and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geoprocessing specifications. Open interfaces and protocols defined by OpenGIS(R) Specifications support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based services.

The presentation will mainly be focused on the Web services, including Web Mapping Service (WMS), Web Feature Service (WFS), and Web Coverage Service (WCS) . Service structure and other services like data registry, portrayal services, and application services will also be presented.

4. Forest Monitoring Prototype System Using Web Mapping Technology
Kaori Kuroiwa <kuroiwa@restec.or.jp> (RESTEC, Japan), Shin-ichi Sobue and Osamu Ochiai (NASDA, Japan)

Abstract

Earth observation data has been highly effective in environmental monitoring but it is not being used effectively enough in operational systems. Within NASDA there is a desire to promote increased use of Earth observation satellite data in operational systems used for environmental monitoring and other practical use fields. Further, through the rapid development of the Internet GIS has expanded from local applications to applications distributed over the Internet through various tools and interfaces that support distribution of image (map) and location information over the Internet. In recognition of the need to increase interoperability of geographical spatial data and Earth observation satellite data NASDA decided to develop a prototype system for forest fire monitoring in Thailand using OpenGIS Consortium (OGC) technology as a means to study new services and possibilities of data interoperability for forest monitoring applications as a joint research project between NASDA and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of JAPAN (MAFF).

The following is the list of provided data through the prototype system.

Fire risk map: the risk of each 10 days is determined by the dryness of the area using NOAA/AVHRR NDVI and channel 4
Mosaic data of Southeast Asia using JERS1-SAR
Hotspots location information which are extracted from NOAA/AVHRR data and DMSP/OLS data
Map data (coastline, city name, river, etc.)

For providing the above data the prototype system includes two OGC Web Map Servers, an OGC Web Feature Server and a web-based Viewer Client. Web Map Servers provide Fire Risk maps made by MAFF and provide JERS SAR mosaic images made by NASDA. The NASDA Web Feature Server will provide AVHRR hot spot information and DMSP/OLS hot spot information for Southeast Asia generated by MAFF.

This paper describes the overview of a forest monitoring prototype system using OGC web mapping technology.

5. Open GIS with spatial and temporal retrievals as well as assimilation functionality
Kohei Arai <arai@is.saga-u.ac.jp> (Saga U., Japan)

Abstract

Spatial retrieval and similation function are a key for GIS systems. GIS systems are now widely available tool for the retrieval and simulation. GIS system proposed here has a function of 3D + time retrieval so that assimilation is possible to use the system. Using GDAS(NCEP) data of air temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, etc. are displayed in the form of an animation of 3D representation. Also a prediction is available in terms of assimilation algorithms.

NRW2: Utilization of Earth Observation Satellite - Digital Asia Special Session 2: GOFC - Fire S.E. Asia Regional Workshop (Room C 13:30-17:00, Jan 21)

Christopher D. Elvidge <chris.elvidge@noaa.gov> (NOAA, USA)

1. Workshop Overview
Christopher D. Elvidge <chris.elvidge@noaa.gov> (NOAA, USA)

Abstract

The presentation will review the GOFC program and discuss the monitoring group recommendations from the June 2002 World Land and Forest Fire Hazards Conference held June 10-12, 2002 in KL. The current workshop objectives is to follow up on the 2002 recommendations, which included the following:

To operate a comprehensive ASEAN early warning system which comprised of prediction and detection of fire and haze using remote sensing and in situ monitoring technologies and mechanisms.
To develop Fire Danger Rating System/ Fire Hazard Map/ Fire risk map/ Fuel mapping to enhance the identification of fire prone areas to compliment the above effort.
To establish a mechanism for a free flow of user friendly, timely, high quality, accurate and affordable information between providers and end users, in order to ensure continuous improvement of the monitoring system.
To conduct accuracy and reliability assessment on product derived from remote sensing and ground monitoring to:
- define detection limits
- define and understand error sources
- improve algorithms
- provide basis for user confidence in used of products
- improve quality of inputs into predictive models
To provide training and capacity building to the users in monitoring and other related areas.
To utilize combination of satellite imagery such as NOAA, MODIS, SPOT, LANDSAT and others to improve the accuracy of the information.

2. ANDES overview and current status
Haruo Sawada <sawada.h@ffpri.affrc.go.jp>, Hideki Saito <rslsaito@ffpri.affrc.go.jp> (Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Japan), and Izumi Nagatani <nagatani@affrc.go.jp> (Computer Center for Research in MAFF)

Abstract

The ANDES (Asia-pacific Network for Disaster mitigation using Earth observation Satellite) continues the forest fire monitoring in South East Asia since 2001 as one of its automatic monitoring activities. The system uses NOAA and DMSP data in real time/near real time through the APAN.

Indonesia and Thailand are the two main countries in this forest fire detection system. Night time data of NOAA and DMSP are used for forest fire detection. Hotspots are derived from a threshold method to the thermal channel of NOAA and new lights are obtained by subtracting the stable lights from the observed DMSP image. The hot spots and new light data are combined and the result images are archived on the ANDES home page ( http://www.affrc.go.jp/ANDES/ ). The summary is sent to related organizations or personnel by e-mail. The forest fire risk maps are going to be automatically created every 10 days. It uses NOAA data in daytime and analyzes the seasonal changes of vegetation and surface temperature. The LMF (Local Maximum Fitting method) is used to obtain the parameters of the seasonal changes from NOAA.

The ground receiving stations of MODIS were set up in AIT, Thailand and MAFF, Japan. The ANDES is going to introduce the MODIS for forest fire detection and warning.

3. Plan for GOES-9 ABBA fire monitoring and data access for S.E. Asia
Elaine Prins <Elaine.prins@noaa.gov> (NOAA, USA)

Abstract

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES), operated by NOAA, provide views of atmospheric, land, and ocean processes at high temporal and moderate spatial resolutions (Menzel and Purdom, 1994). Currently the GOES-East and GOES-West platforms are located over the equator at 75°W and 135°W, respectively, providing diurnal coverage of North, Central, and South America. In the first quarter of 2003, the GOES-9 satellite will be activated over the equator at 155°E as part of an agreement with Japan to provide a backup for the aging Geostationary Meteorological Satellite-5 (GMS-5). The loan of GOES-9 to Japan will ensure continuous geostationary meteorological coverage in the western Pacific and eastern Asia should the GMS-5 fail prior to the launch and activation of the Japanese next generation geostationary satellite (Multi-functional Transport SATellite, MTSAT-1R) in 2003. It will also enable half-hourly fire detection and monitoring throughout the region, including portions of India and Asia, and excellent coverage of the Western Pacific, Southeast Asia and Australia.

Although primarily designed for meteorological applications with an instantaneous geometric field of view (IGFOV) at nadir of 1 km in the visible and 4 km in the infrared, the GOES Imager offers the unique opportunity to capture fires as they occur. In the Western Hemisphere the GOES system has shown the capability for early detection of rapidly growing fires and diurnal high-temporal monitoring of subpixel fire characteristics. The minimum detectable fire size in clear conditions is bounded by the noise constraints of the GOES imager, but is primarily determined by factors such as the spatial resolution, satellite viewing geometry, algorithm thresholds, and subpixel fire characteristics. In clear-sky conditions, at the equator, the minimum detectable instantaneous fire size burning at an average temperature of 750 K is 0.15 ha; the size increases to 0.32 ha at 50°N. Ground truth field studies have provided verification for fires on the order of 1 ha in size, although smaller fires have been reported using GOES.

The Wildfire Automated Biomass Burning Algorithm (WF_ABBA) processing system was developed at the University of Wisconsin � Madison Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) as a collaborative effort between NOAA/NESDIS/ORA and UW-CIMSS personnel. The WF_ABBA is a modified version of the South American ABBA that has been used to monitor spatial, diurnal, and interannual trends in biomass burning throughout South America since 1995. The WF_ABBA is a dynamic multispectral thresholding contextual algorithm that uses the GOES visible (when available), 3.9 mm, and 10.7 mm infrared window bands to locate and characterize hot spot pixels. The algorithm is based on the sensitivity of the 3.9 mm band to high temperature subpixel anomalies and is derived from a technique originally developed by Matson and Dozier (1981) for NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data. The WF_ABBA incorporates statistical techniques to automatically identify hot spot pixels in the GOES imagery. Once the WF_ABBA locates a hot spot pixel, it incorporates ancillary data in the process of screening for false alarms and correcting for water vapor attenuation, surface emissivity, solar reflectivity, and semi-transparent clouds. The Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) derived Global Land Cover Characteristics data base (version 2.0) is used to assign surface emissivity and to screen for false alarms. The NCEP Aviation model total column precipitable water products are utilized to correct for water vapor attenuation. Numerical techniques are used to determine instantaneous estimates of subpixel fire size and average temperature. The WF_ABBA fire product is then output in ASCII text form, McIDAS MD file, and McIDAS AREA files.

Since September 2000, UW-Madison CIMSS has provided GOES-8/-10 half-hourly Wildfire ABBA composite fire products for the Western Hemisphere in real time via the Web at the following web site: http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/burn/wfabba.html. In addition output ASCII fire product files are provided every half hour via anonymous ftp at ftp://ftp.ssec.wisc.edu/pub/abba/rtnamerica/ and ftp://ftp.ssec.wisc.edu/pub/abba/rtsamerica for North and South America, respectively. Fire products are available on the web within 90 minutes of the observation time. We plan to reduce this time lag to less than 1 hour.

With support from PARTS, CIMSS proposes to implement a processing system similar to the current GOES-8/-10 Wildfire ABBA for application with GOES-9 for the ASEAN region. The proposed tasks are listed below:

Prior to the activation of GOES-9 over the Western Pacific, UW-Madison CIMSS will acquire 2 weeks of diurnal GOES-9 multi-spectral data from the Space Science and Engineering Center that was collected during the GOES-9 checkout period which extended from 18 December 2001 through 16 January 2002. During this time GOES-9 was stationed over the equator at ~105°W. This data set will be used to modify the GOES-8/-10 Wildfire ABBA for application with GOES-9. This process includes updating calibration modules, 3.9 micron saturation thresholds, and fire detection thresholds. Since the GOES-9 saturates at approximately 324 K, the code will need to be adjusted to avoid false alarms associated with hot surfaces and solar reflection during peak solar insolation.
Once the GOES-9 instrument is activated over the Western Pacific the WF_ABBA code will be modified for application in this region taking into consideration the ecosystems within the operational domain. Thresholds will be adjusted as necessary. The fire product will be compared with other satellite derived fire products (i.e. AVHRR, DMSP) and ground truth information, if available. The GOES-8/GOES-10 WF_ABBA processing system will be revised to allow automated GOES-9 image processing and fire product data distribution via the web/anonymous ftp in near real-time.
The GOES-9 multispectral Imager data will be acquired from the UW-Madison SSEC Data Center in GVAR format in real-time.
UW-Madison CIMSS will provide half-hourly GOES Wildfire ABBA fire products via the web and anonymous ftp in real time for the duration of the GOES-9 activation over the Western Pacific. We are estimating the time to be on the order of 15 to 18 months. CIMSS will be responsible for performing quality control checks on the fire product as well as implementing updates as necessary. CIMSS will archive 3-hourly GOES-9 imagery and all fire products for the duration of the project. During this time CIMSS will offer assistance to the Meteorological Service of Singapore in interpreting and validating the Wildfire ABBA fire product and will participate in multi-sensor fire product comparison activities.

4. The South East Asia Forest Fire Danger Rating System Project
Bryan Lee <blee@nrcan.gc.ca>, Michael Brandy, Bill de Groot, Caren Dymond, Robert Field, Orbita Roswintiarti (CFS, Canada)

Abstract

Extreme weather conditions like droughts and floods usually result in environmental disasters costing billions of dollars each year. El Nino-related droughts occur every two to seven years in Southeast Asia with varying intensity. This phenomenon causes the monsoon to be delayed, thus prolonging the dry season and increasing the impact of the drought. For example, the droughts of 1997 and 1998 resulted in heavy air pollution from wildland fires in large areas of Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand and the Philippines. These fires burnt an estimated five million hectares during 1997 in Indonesia alone. The sources of these fires were agricultural and land conversion burning. These fires generated large emissions of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone, hydrocarbons, particulate matter (smoke) and other pollutants. These emissions contributed to the local and transboundary air pollution issues of human health, transportation, climate change, acidic deposition and smog. Magnitude of the Haze Index (HI), Air Pollution Index (API), and airport visibility indicated that the worst air pollution occurred in the fire-prone regions of Sumatra and Kalimantan, with Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia being affected as a result of smoke transport from fires in Indonesia. Fires continue to be a problem, as evidenced by the haze problems during the 2002 dry-season in Central and West Kalimantan, and the Southern regions of Sumatra. Since natural phenomenon can not be readily controlled by people, prevention and early detection of fires is the best way to minimize air pollution at the source and the resulting impacts.

The purpose of the Southeast Asia FDRS is to provide early warning of critical burning periods when emissions from land and forest fires will be greatest or most damaging. Using this advance information, fire management and regulating agencies can minimize haze problems by implementing land burning restrictions and enhancing forest fire detection in anticipation of serious burning conditions. This kind of early warning system is designed to integrate with national and regional fire management programs through direct decision-aid links to prevention, detection and suppression activities. The Southeast Asia FDRS Project has been working cooperatively with regional partner agencies to develop a system that quantitatively assesses current and future fire danger on a daily basis. Standard fire danger parameters for the region are then used to develop fire management decision-aids specific to each country through workshops with local fire experts. In this way, all countries in the region communicate using the same fire danger information, and each country is able to adapt the information to their own particular fire management situation.

One result is operational mapping of weather-based fire danger indicators. To date, a regional, web-based FDRS is operating at the Canadian Forest Service research center in Edmonton, Canada. Furthermore, a national FDRS for Indonesia has been successfully implemented at the Indonesian Meteorological and Geophysical Agency in Jakarta, with continuous operation having commenced in August of 2002. Daily fire danger maps are produced by the MGA and disseminated directly to user agencies and to the public through the Internet. A national FDRS for Malaysia was successfully implemented at the Malaysian Meteorological Service in January of 2003, in a collaborative effort with the Malaysian Centre for Remote Sensing. Similar systems are currently being developed with local agencies for pilot regions in Sumatra and Kalimantan, as well as in the East Malaysian state of Sabah. Calibration of the FDRS to local conditions has been completed based on satellite fire detection and ground-based measurements of visibility. Actions based on these indicators are being developed with national and provincial/state fire managers.

A second result is to add a level of sophistication to the system by adding fuel information. Some work has been completed, which allows fire managers to interpret the fire weather for different fuel types. Fuels are mapped using satellite imagery, existing land cover data and existing soil maps. Other studies are underway, being conducted by local partners.

A third result is the coupling of fire danger rating to emissions and atmospheric transport models to manage smoke pollution. The models under development are designed to determine which receptor regions are most at risk of haze, and subsequently, which source regions are most critical in terms of fire prevention and pre-preparedness. We are currently conducting a retrospective simulation of the 1997 and 1998 haze disaster in Indonesia, to assess the ability of existing smoke dispersion and emissions models in predicting haze episodes at downstream locations. This simulation relies on historical fire danger observations and data derived from remote sensing including fire detection, fuel maps and burned area maps.

In conclusion, the SE Asia FDRS project provides an early or advance warning information system to improve fire and smoke management at multiple scales.

5. 'Sentinel Hotspots': MODIS-based Near Real Time Fire Mapping in Australia
Peter Dyce <peter.dyce@csiro.au>, Alex Held, Alan Marks (CSIRO Land & Water, Canberra - Australia)

Abstract

In the summer of 2001-02, extensive and severe bush fires swept though New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory of Australia, threatening local communities. In such severe situations the Australian Defence Force is often called upon to provide fire fighting assistance. After these fires, the Australian Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation (DIGO) combined forces with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), to implement a near real-time system, which could detect and accurately map the progression of bush fires within an hour of the satellite's overpass. It was recognised by CSIRO and DIGO that the necessary technology to implement such a system at a continental scale, could combine elements of the 'RapidFire' and 'GEOMAC' systems in the US, which use the more sensitive MODIS sensors on NASA's earth-observing satellites Terra and Aqua, and the MOD14 algorithms developed at the University of Maryland. These were then combined with a web-based mapping system customised in close consultation with Australian bushfire control agencies.

Thus 'Sentinel Hotspots'- [www.sentinel.csiro.au], is the result of collaborations between CSIRO, DIGO and Geoscience Australia - ACRES (operators of the X-Ban receiving stations in Alice Springs and Hobart), to help fire fighting authorities with sub-daily strategic logistics and planning to combat bushfires across the country. 'Sentinel Hotspots' can be accessed using a standard web browser and allows users to identify fire locations that pose a risk to people property and environment, and dynamically create the nec essary maps and information products for their own use.

6. Assessment of Burnt Forest Area in Thailand using Remote Sensing and GIS
Suwit Ongsomwang <s_ongsomwang@monre.go.th> (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Thailand)

Abstract

The role of remote sensing and GIS as a tool for assessment and monitoring of burnt forest area in Thailand is reviewed using the experience of the Forest Resources Assessment Division, Royal Forest Department. In particular, the paper focuses on the use of GIS technology for analysis forest burnt area according to administrative boundaries, forest functions and forest types.

7. Outline of a shared online fire information system for S.E. Asia
Christopher D. Elvidge <chris.elvidge@noaa.gov> (NOAA, USA)

Natural Resource Track

NR1: Asian Dust & Weather Database Sharing #1 (Room C 09:00-10:30, Jan 22)

Chair: Byong-Lyol Lee <bllee@kma.go.kr> (KMA, Korea)

1. Observations and model analysis of recent Asian dust events
Nobuo Sugimoto <nsugimot@nies.go.jp> (NIES, Japan)

Abstract

We conduct network observations with ground-based lidars to study transport of Asian dust. We operate automated polarization lidars currently in eight locations including Beijing, Nagasaki, and Tsukuba. An analysis of the lidar data of 2001 and 2002 showed that the frequency of dust events was much higher in 2002 in Japan, though the frequency was not very different in Beijing. We studied the dust source regions and transport paths of major dust events in 2001 and 2002 using the regional chemical transport model CFORS, after confirming that the observations were reproduced well with the model. The results showed that most major dust events originated in Inner Mongolia and/or Mongolia. The dust was transported rapidly with the strong westerly of the storm, and the main part was transported northeast near the coast of China. In 2002, the location of dust streams was shifted slightly to the east, and this caused heavy dust events in Korea and northern Japan. The results indicate that a slight change in climate can cause a large difference in Asian dust phenomena. We have to consider further the change of dust emission due to the change in surface conditions to understand the change in a longer time scale. Ground-based observation networks, satellite data, and chemical transport models play essential roles in dust studies and forecast.

2. Physico-Chemical properties of yellow dust particles and their behavior in the atmosphere
Yutaka Ishizaka <ishizaka@ihas.nagoya-u.ac.jp> (Nagoya Univ., Japan)

Abstract

For a better understanding of source region, transport and behavior of yellow dust particles in the atmosphere, it is useful to combine physico-chemical properties of dust particles with satellite and other remote sensing data. Mineral composition of clay mineral in dust particles collected in Japan strongly suggested that their main sources are often the Asian desert and upper drainage basin of Yellow River. Direct observations of dust particles suggested that size distribution of dust particles changes drastically with the distance from their source region and dust particles smaller than about 10 Êm in diameter are generally transported far away. The optical properties of a dusty atmosphere containing yellow dust particles were inferred from size distribution and mineral composition of dust particles. The volume and mass of yellow dust in the atmosphere were estimated from the turbidity coefficients measured with pyrheliometers in Japan. The mass flux of yellow dust over Japan in the latitudes of 30-41°N was estimated as 3.5-4.5x106 tons in a spring season, and 4.1-5.3 x106 tons per year for the Kosa events from 1981 to 1983. Physico-chemical properties of dust particles also gave us useful information on behavior of dust particles including the interaction between dust particles and air pollutants in the atmosphere.

3. Potential Earth Observation Satellite Observation of Asian Dust
Shin-ichi Sobue <Sobue.shinichi@nasda.go.jp> (NASDA, Japan)

Abstract

Earth observation satellites have great potential for monitoring of airborne Asian dust. In December of 2002, NASDA launched the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite II (ADEOS-II) on an H-IIA launch vehicle from NASDA's Tanegashima space center. The satellite will take over ADEOS's observation mission of monitoring frequent climate change and global environmental change, as well as faciliitating investigation of the causes of these phenomena. ADEOS-II is equipped with two NASDA core sensors, the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR) and the Global Imager (GLI), along with other instruments such as SeaWinds (NASA/JPL), POLDER (CNES), DCS (CNES) and ILAS-II (MOE).

ADEOS-II is expected to acquire the data necessary for furthering understanding of the circulation of water and energy and the circulation of carbon, in order to contribute to the study of global environmental change and identification of the mechanisms of global environmental change. ADEOS-II is also expected to observe clouds and aerosols including airborne Asian dust. Thus, by using ADEOS-II and other Earth observation satellites, the accuracy of Asian dust monitoring and forecasting will be improved.

This paper presents an overview of ADEOS-II capabilities and expected results.

NR2: NR/Grid WG Joint Session (Room C 11:00-12:30, Jan 22)

Chair: Seishi Ninomiya <snino@affrc.go.jp> (NARC, Japan)

1. Developing applications that harness the Agriculture and Natural Resource grid, and linking your own data
Matthew Laurenson <matthewl@naro.affrc.go.jp> and Seishi Ninomiya <snino@affrc.go.jp> (NARC, Japan)

Abstract

Background

Weather data, digital elevation models and background maps are important inputs to decision support software for agriculture, weather risk assessments, resource management, and civil engineering. There are many sources of such data on the Internet, but no standards for data access. The Agriculture and Natural Resource grid lets software applications request such data in a consistent way from the diverse range of databases on the Internet.

Introduction to distributed computing

Distributed computing approaches link computers in different geographical locations in order to solve problems. This approach facilitates maintenance and data sharing. We briefly introduce some important concepts in distributed computing such as client server and broker architectures, remote procedure calls, and passing objects by value and then review the respective strengths of the distributed computing implementations RMI, CORBA, and SOAP.

Basic broker concepts

We discuss the general idea of broker operation, and how applications can request data and metadata from a broker, focusing on the logical elements of the process rather than the programming details. Applications can request both data and metadata (details of what data are available) from a broker. Metadata is used to inform users about what data is available from each database, and to display data correctly (for example showing the location of weather stations on a map). The format of data requests and results is independent of how particular databases are implemented (for example whether the database is relational or file-based). This makes it easy for applications to use newly-linked databases.

Java applications can communicate with brokers using a Java protocol called Remote Method Invocation (RMI). However, we have developed a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) based interface (a Web service) which allows applications written in languages like Delphi and Visual Basic to communicate directly with MetBroker. We hope to develop similar SOAP interfaces to the other brokers in the Agricultural and Natural Resource Grid.

Retrieving weather data into a program

This section shows how Java programs can retrieve data from a broker (we use MetBroker as an example). We provide two demonstration programs. The first is a 20 line “text mode” program run from the command line.

The second program provides a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for requesting weather data, and uses a set of JavaBeans that we have developed. These JavaBeans let application developers easily link GUI applications to brokers. These beans can easily be linked together, so that selections a user makes in one bean are seen and responded to by other beans.

We discuss how MetBroker can be accessed with simple browsers by using Java servlets as an intermediary.

Connecting a new database to a broker

The design of broker's makes it relatively easy to link to new databases, by separating the code specific to a particular database into a “driver”, much like a Windows printer driver. We outline the three main tasks that such a driver must perform, and introduce examples of linking to a relational database and a file-based database. We briefly discuss options for storing data in a database if one doesn't already exist.

Support resources

The interfaces and classes that make up the Agricultural and Natural Resource Grid are documented online in Web pages generated from source code comments (see http://www.agmodel.net).

Broker source code is released under the GNU Lesser General Public License, which lets those interested view and modify the source code, but which requires that any modifications be released under the same license.

The Grid is supported through discussion groups in English and Japanese.

2. CEOS GRID activity
Kaori Kuroiwa <kuroiwa@restec.or.jp> (RESTEC, Japan)

NR3: Asian Dust & Weather Database Sharing #2 (Room C 14:00-15:30, Jan 22)

Chair: Byong-Lyol Lee <bllee@kma.go.kr> (KMA, Korea)

1. One hundred year observation of Asian Dust events in Korea
Y.S. Chun (METRI, Korea) (remote presentation)

2. Mechanism and force driven dust storm in Asia
Guo Wang (CAS, China)

3. Perspectives of APAN for Next Generation GTS of WMO
Dongil LEE (SCC/KMA, Korea) (remote presentation)

4. Regional Hub for AgroMeteorology : WAMIS, AsiaFlux, RAMINS, RMTC, APCN, Asian Dust
Byong-Lyol Lee <bllee@kma.go.kr> (KMA, Korea)

NR4: Joint NR-DE Session (Room D 09:00-10:30, Jan 23)

Chair: An Jie <anjie@cernet.edu.cn>

1. Networks for Biological Resource Centers in China
Juncai Ma <ma@sun.im.ac.cn> (CAS, China)

Abstract

As one of the key international organization, OECD(Organization for Economic and Cooperation and Development) started to build Global BRC Network(Biological Resource Centers Network). China is the country with rich biodiversity and biological resources. Several networks for biological resources have already started to provide their services.

Network for CCCCM(Chinese Committee for Culture Collections of Microorganisms)
In CCCCM, there are 12 national culture collections divided into general microbiological center, agricultural center, industrial center, medical center, antibiotic center, veterinary center and forestry center. China Catalogue of Cultures (English version) includes 10,716 strains of bacteria, actinomyces, yeast, fungi and virus. The catalogue of their holdings is available in Internet.
Network for CTCCCAS(Committee on Type Culture Collection of CAS)
The CTCCCAS(Committee on Type Culture Collection, Chinese Academy of Sciences) was organized in April, 1996. There are seven Culture banks under CTCCCAS, namely, Microbial Culture Bank, Cell Bank, Gene Bank, Virus Bank, Kunming Cell Bank and Freshwater Algae Bank, the Rare, Endangered and Endemic Plant Germplasm Bank, Marine Biological Germplasm Storehouse and In Vitro Plant Germplasm Collection. Up to the present, 15,418 cultures have been collected.
Network for Museums of Biological Specimen
In Chinese Academy of Sciences, there are 24 museums of Biological Specimen. There are totally 16 million specimens in the 24 museums, which is 85% of holdings in all the biological specimen museums in China. The museums of Biological Specimens are:
1. Institute of Botany
2. Kunming Institute of Botany
3. South China Institute of Botany
4. Wuhan Institute of Botany
5. Xishuangbanna Botanical Garden
6. Jiangsu Institute of Botany
7. Guangxi Institute of Botany
8. Northwest Institute of Botany
9. Jiangxi Lushan Botanical Garden
10. Institute of Zoology
11. Kunming Institute of Zoology
12. Institute of Microbiology
13. Wuhan Institute of Virology
14. Institute of Hydrobiology
15. Institute of Oceanography
16. South China Institute of Oceanography
17. Chengdu Institute of Biology
18. Xinjiang Institute of Ecology & Geography
19. Shenyang Institute of Applied Ecology
20. Shanghai Institute of Entomology
21. Nanjing Institute of Paleontology
22. Beijing Institute of Ancient Vertebrate & Human Beings
23. Northwest High Plateau Institute of Biology
24. Northeast Institute of Agriculture & Geography

Biodata

Dr. Juncai MA is director of Information Network Center, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and his present duties include:
1. Director, Data Center for Committee of Type Culture Collection of CAS
2. Vice president, Scientific Database Organization, CAS
3. Director, Microbiological Division of Chinese Biodiversity Information Center
4. Council member, China National Committee of CODATA
5. Council member, Committee of Type Culture Collection
6. Council member, World Data Center of Microorganism
7. Council member, Networking and Inter-operability Committee, WFCC
8. Founder, China National Node of Microbial Strain Data Network
9. Founder, China Node of International Bio-Mirror Network

Relevant experiences in IT related

Dr. Juncai MA is at present overseeing the following research projects:

Microbial Resources Database of China, supported by Scientific Database Project of CAS
Microbiological Division of Chinese Biodiversity Information Center, Biodiversity Committee of CAS
Database of China Catalogue of Strains, supported China Committee for Culture Collections of Microorganisms
Network based Management System for Multimedia Database of Fungi, funded by Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
Information sharing for microorganism species, Administration Center of China's Agenda 21, Ministry of Science and Technology
Electronic version of Florarum Cryptogamarum Sinicorum, supported by NSFC
Microbial Information Network of China, supported by State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources
Information sharing for type cultures in China, supported by Committee on Type Culture Collection of CAS
Information sharing among the national culture collections in Asia, supported by Asian Network on Microbial Research(ANMR)
Application of bioinformatics on super computer environment, supported by 863
Integrated use of huge biological data on high performanced academic network environment, supported by NSFC
China Information Network for Sustainable Developments, supported by MOST(Ministry of Science and Technology)
Mirror site of DDBJ/EMBL/GENBANK
China National Node of Microbial Strain Data Network(MSDN)

Contribution to APBioNet

Founded China Node of Bio-Mirror
Bio-Mirror is a project under APAN (Asia Pacific Advanced Network). The China Node of International Bio-Mirror Network is set up in our center. We started to mirror some important international databases in 1997. International Nucleotide Sequence Database (DDBJ/EMBL/GENBANK) is one of them. A search function is available, and this database in our web site is daily updated. From 2000, we started to upgrade our system into a super computer, more and more databases are mirrored. Now not only the databases are mirrored, but also all the databases are searchable from a full text searching system at http://srs.im.ac.cn.
As a important mirror center in China for famous international organizations
Because in China when Chinese scientists download data or read WWW which is located in abroad, we have to pay the network international communication fee, so it is very important to set up some mirror sites of famous international organizations for the huge number of Chinese readers. Now we have set up following mirror sites in China:
- International Rice Research Institute(IRRI) at http://www.irri.org.cn
- Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) at http://www.cgiar.org.cn
- S-star at http://s-star.mirror.ac.cn
- Microbial Strain Data Network at http://www.im.ac.cn/msdn.shtml
- Regulatory Fish Encyclopedia at http://rfe.mirror.ac.cn/

2. Innovative Approaches to the Challenges of e-Learning in Agriculture
Zuorui Shen <ipmist@mail.cau.edu.cn> (CAU, China)

Abstract

According to our paper, "Distance Learning in Agriculture: Chinese Strategy for Rural Education", presented at the APAN Shanghai Meeting, August 26-28, 2002, a tetra-mechanism system of e-learning in agriculture were forming in China. The first mechanism is featured by the Central Agricultural Broadcast and Television School (CABT), setting up in 1980 and subordinating to the Ministry of Agriculture of China. In parallel, there are other three mechanisms of distance learning are emerging from high educational institutions (EDUC), social organizations (SORG), and private companies (PCOM). In this successive paper, we raise a proposal for cross-organizational and international cooperation to forge innovative approaches to the challenge the e-learning market in the new epoch since China joined WTO.

The cross-organizational and international cooperation in e-learning should create a new paradigm to promote the transfer of agriculture and rural society from planned economy to marketing economy. Now China's governments, from the central to locals, are turning their role from direct intervention in economic activities with a planning brain to guiding macro-economy with a brain to learn the market regulations. They are responsible for Internet infrastructure development and management to facilitate the market leverage. And technical and administrative policy will be ensured in utilizing the Internet infrastructure and management systems. Education as a service market of tremendous potential should be opened to the world step by step, according to the principles of WTO. The e-learning opportunities for agricultural professionals are growing to be a big challenge, either for Chinese or for other nations, and either for industrialized or developing countries. This deserves to be considered in international society, and it is really a subject that warrants discussion at the APAN meetings for long term.

Innovation both in scientific technology and organizational policies is motivity for the challenges of e-learning in agriculture. The first challenge would be under-profitability for the e-learning providers, because farmers or rural people for whom the e-learning aims to serve almost belong to population of low income or even in poverty. But, the e-learning should be justified as a profitable tool for farmers, just like what was showed by our "crop protection getting digital" project or many projects reported by other authors. The second challenge is under-equipped infrastructure for Internet applications in vast areas of rural communities. Hopefully, satellite communication technology can solve the so-called "ultimate mile" problem. The project of every village connecting to television network by ICT has consummated in China. And an ambitious plan to combine three networks of television, telecommunication, and Internet, is being negotiated between authorized departments of China's government. The third challenge results from complexity and diversity of agricultural knowledge, including crop varieties, farming techniques, pest and nutrition management, naturally dependent on geographical, pedological, meteorological, ecological, environmental, and seasonal factors, also socially dependent on political, cultural, and anthropological factors. So, distributed databases and knowledge management systems should be developed intensively. Perhaps ten challenges can be enumerated?

Innovation in organizational policies faces to marketing the e-learning. According to regulations issued recently by the Ministry of Education of China (MOE), universities that can run programs of distance education or e-learning must be authorized by MOE and only can run the programs without academic degrees. It is understandable, considering that the e-learning market has not matured, in other words, perfect orders have not formed yet to govern the market. Thus, it is probably advisable that the cross-organizational and international cooperation enters the field of the no-academic education, a still attractive market. Connected to Internet at www.crdenet.net.cn, CABT is a well-organized network of five levels, from central and provincial schools to regional, county and rural district schools. It has more than 3.5 million of students enrolled in agricultural disciplines at meddle level, and many of them benefit from training courses and are conferred only with certificates to show their skills useful for agricultural practice. Now it is right time to establish a cross-organizational and international cooperation between CABT, EDUC, SORG, PCOM, and APAN. In fact, CABT already is a member of the International Council of Opening and Distance Education (ICODE).

We are thinking about how APAN-demonstrated technologies and APAN-coherent organizations should contribute to this international cooperation. Innovative technologies must locate their place in the market, otherwise they cannot survive and develop. APAN should consider to find some mediating mechanism to reach marketing, although its core task forces are to promote advanced research in networking technologies and the development of high-performance broadband applications. Following Beijing-FarmKnow project, our second project, "Qingdao-Infocounty", has been funded by the IDRC ICT R&D Grant Programme and just started from the New Year of 2003. Together with the Qingdao government, we are keen to call for assistance from APAN members, as well as going to contact CABT, EDUC, SORG and PCOM for helps. For APAN, a strategy of "from points to area" would be suggested, that is, to create paradigm in pilot counties to promote sustainable agriculture and rural development by e-government, e-learning and e-commerce; and thereafter, transfer the justified paradigm to other counties on large scale.

Biodata

ZuoRui SHEN is Professor of Entomology, Plant Protection Ecology and Environment Sciences, in College of Agro-biotechnology, at the China Agricultural University (CAU), Beijing, China; concurrently; Director of the Laboratory of IPM Intelligent System Technology (IPMist); former head of expert group for CAU Campus LAN; former chairman of Department of Plant Protection, and former Director of CAU Library. BSc in biophysics at Beijing Agricultural University (BAU and renamed as CAU now), 1973. Studied in statistics and informatics at Faculte des Sciences Agronomiques de l'Etat, Gembloux, Belgium, 1982-83. MSc in mathematical ecology at BAU, 1983. Studied in modeling and simulation in IPM and entomology at Auburn University, Alabama, USA, 1986-87. Ph.D. in entomology and mathematical ecology at BAU, 1988.

Courses taught: Insect Ecology, Mathematical Ecology, Evolutionary Ecology, Plant Medicine and Ecosystem Health, Numerical Techniques for Crop Pests Forecasting, and Practical Techniques for Software Development in IPM. Research projects: IPM on vegetables and orchard crops, ICTs in IPM, image processing and computer vision for entomology, pest risk assessment for plant quarantine and crop protection, greenhouse ecosystem health, distance learning in agricultural education, and regional development of sustainable agriculture. Supervisor for 3 post-doc researchers, 26 doctoral students and 35 masters in IPM and IT applications, up to now. Author or co-author of 130 papers/book chapters and 6 books including "Electronic Information Technology in Agriculture" and "Building Literatures and Information Resources in the Networking Age". Owner of 6 certificates for computer software copyright. Invited speaker around for 31 provinces over China. Visiting scientist and conference contributor to Belgium, USA, Japan, Poland, Australia, France, Canada, Germany, UK, Russia, South Africa, India, Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand.

Member of Proposal Referee Committee, NNSF (National Natural Science Foundation of China). Member of Crop Protection Programme Advisory Board, CABI. Member of APAN (Asia-Pacific Advanced Network); Vice President of AFITA2002; Member of the Science and Technology Committee, China Ministry of Agriculture. Vice Secretary General of Chinese Ecological Society. Vice President of Chinese Society of Computer Application to Agriculture. Editorial member, journals of Ecology, Plant Protection, Entomologia Sinica, and Entomon (India). Council member of International Biometric Society. Certificate conferee of Achievement of Visiting Scientist by Auburn University in recognition of fostering Cooperation between Auburn University and BAU (1989). Prize conferee of the National Outstanding Recipients of Doctoral Degree by the State Council and the Ministry of Education (1991). Life-long Holder of Special Honorarium by the Chinese State Council (1992-). Award of the Advancement of Science and Technology for IT Applications to Vegetable Production by Beijing Municipality (2001).

3. APAN's Potential Role in Leading a Partnership eLearning Initiative to Promote Sustainable Agriculture in the Asia-Pacific)
Buenafe R. Abdon <pipot@aprtc.org> (APRTC, Thailand)

Abstract

In developing Asia, agriculture is one of the most important economic sectors as well as the principle employer. In 1999, farm-gate agricultural production (including fisheries and forestry) accounted for 27% of the GDP of South Asian developing countries, and 14% of the GDP of East Asian and Pacific developing countries (World Bank, 2001). Perhaps more significantly, a majority of the workforce in developing Asia work in agriculture. According to 1990 statistics, 63% of the South Asian and 69% of the East Asian and Pacific workforce are farmers (Maxwell and Percy, 2001).

Although certainly important, Asian agriculture is under pressure from increasing population, increasing affluence, a dwindling natural resource base, and globalisation. Asian farmers need to improve their economic performance, increase profits and production, and move towards sustainable agriculture.

Perhaps the most effective way to address these challenges is through education designed to make farmers more knowledgeable. It has been shown that knowledge-intensive management can improve profits, production, and sustainability in the agricultural sector. eLearning is proving itself as a way of delivering this knowledge to rural areas but most successful eLearning efforts now rely on reaching “knowledge intermediaries” including extension and development workers as well as private sector representatives. These agricultural professionals can help farmers access the information and skills they need for better management until such a time as rural human resource development and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure is in place.

Several organizations are involved in trying to use ICTs and eLearning for educational purposes in agriculture. Perhaps the most advanced of these efforts is the agLe@rn programme of the Asia-Pacific Regional Technology Centre. The APRTC is a non-profit corporation dedication to improving the welfare and knowledge of Asia-Pacific farmers and the promotion of sustainable agriculture. Its agLe@rn eLearning programme targets the continuing educational needs of agricultural professionals in the Asia-Pacific. Since beginning operations in early 2001, it has reached around 500 agricultural professionals working in the Asia-Pacific and even beyond. It expects to reach over 1000 more during 2003. Full information about the Centre, its courses and its partners is available on its Website at - http://www.aprtc.org.

APRTC has been active in APAN since its inception in 2001 and has contributed ideas and expertise in support of the activities of APAN and its members. It now thinks that the time has come to take concrete steps to expand its partnerships and aggressively pursue the funding required to keep its operations going. Given APAN's wide membership and universal respect, it is felt that APAN, particularly its Agriculture Working Group (AG-WG) could be a powerful force for achieving these goals and perhaps even take the lead in steering the Centreactivities. Doing so would address two problems. One is that the courses developed and under construction would be available to a wider audience. The other is that APAN would have a strong application that directly supports its mission to “develop high-performance applications”.

The APRTC has already established formal partnerships with a range of Asian academic institutions and is currently working on one China Agricultural University. It invites other interested APAN member institutions and individuals to join the group and also asks APAN to consider taking a leadership role in directing operations, promoting the Centreeducational opportunities and attracting funding required for continuing activities. There are a number of funding initiatives and a good example and a potential start could be to initiate dialogue with the administrators of the Japan Fund for Information and Communication Technology (JFICT) which is financed with the contribution from the Japanese government. This is an ADB administered, approximately $10 million Japan fund to harness the potential of information and communication technology (ICT) and bridge the growing digital divide in Asia and Pacific. This objective is central to the roles of both APAN and APRTC and a partnership led by APAN could be a powerful mechanism leading to success and sustainability. It is hoped that APAN and its members will seriously consider this proposal and work to make it a reality.

Biodata

BUENAFE R. ABDON

Asia Pacific Regional Technology Centre (APRTC)
28th Floor, Rasa Tower
555 Pahonyothin Road, Chatuchak
Bangkok 10900
Tel No: (66) 29371321
Email: pipot@aprtc.org

PERSONAL DATA:

Citizenship: Filipino
Birthdate: 11 June 1971
Sex: Female

EDUCATIONAL HISTORY:

1991 Bachelor of Science in Statistics
University of the Philippines at Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines
Courses taken include sampling and sampling design, statistical methods both parametric and non-parametric, and statistical computing. Electives include courses on economics, management and applied mathematics.

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY:

Present: Head of Course Development and Implementation
Asia-Pacific Regional Technology Centre, Bangkok, Thailand

As Head, responsible for managing the activities and staff of the Asia-Pacific Regional Technology Centre, a US registered non-profit educational organization based in Bangkok, Thailand. Specific responsibilities include coordinating a broad curriculum of online Web-based courses, identifying and assessing emerging information and communication technologies with potential application to online learning, managing Web and course design efforts and overseeing regionally distributed design teams and course facilitators.

2000 - Sept. 2001: Independent Consultant
Providing services related to data management and educational technology. Primary areas of specialization include technology-enhanced distance learning and its application to international development, online course administration and facilitator training. Consultancies done during this period included data management for 2 impact assessment studies (training and economic) of the Cambodia-IRRI-Australia Project in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and designing and initiating the agLearn (e-learning) programme for the Asia-Pacific Crop Protection Association.

1995 - January 15, 2000: Training Assistant, Information Systems Unit
Training Center, The International Rice Research Institute, Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines

IRRI's Training Center has a vigorous program on the application of information and communication technologies for information dissemination and human capital development in client countries. As the leader of this project, I was responsible for developing and implementing several Internet-based learning projects. This included both multimedia Web courses and videoconferencing. I have worked with and led teams of course developers on several Web-courses including “Digital Literacy for Rice Scientists”, “ Agricultural English”, “Training of Trainers”, and “Experimental Design and Data Analysis”. My role in these projects ranged from conceptualization to Web programming including the incorporation of audio and video components in HTML documents. I have also organized several international videoconferences between the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

I was the Training Center's system administrator and responsible for managing the Center's NT server and the various applications running on this machine such as Cold Fusion, FirstClass, and the Training Center's Web Page <http://198.93.230.216/training>. Part of my responsibilities as systems administrator included maintaining and trouble-shooting staff hardware and software and determining computer requirements.

Additional responsibilities included developing and conducting training courses on agricultural statistics and computer use. To date, I have implemented a wide range of such courses both at IRRI headquarters and in Thailand, P. R. China, Myanmar, Indonesia, Bangladesh, India, and Cambodia. The target audience for these has been agricultural research scientists.

1991 - 1995, Training Aide - Training Center, The International Rice Research Institute
My primary responsibilities during this period involved the design and implementation of training courses on agricultural statistics and computer use for clients at IRRI and in various collaborating institutions throughout Asia. This included the development of appropriate training materials in a variety of formats such as print manuals, handouts and overheads, and Powerpoint slide presentations. Countries where such courses were held included Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar.

I was also responsible for developing, inputting and maintaining a complete archive database of IRRI alumni from 1961 to the present. This was developed in dBase IV and contained over 8,000 records at the time I turned it over to the Office of Scholar Affairs in 1997. I was also responsible for the generation of all reports required by Management and providing information for the IRRI publication - Impact of IRRI's training program: A different perspective. In Pingali, P. and Hossain, M. (eds.) (1998) Impact of rice research.

Additional responsibilities included the provision of statistical and computer support to Training Center staff and trouble-shooting hardware and software problems in the Center.

OTHER TRAINING

Desktop publishing using the Pagemaker Program. IRRI. (5 Days) 1992.
Training on Systems Analysis and Modeling. IRRI. (5 Weeks) 6 - 17 Dec 1993, 17 Jan - 4 Feb 1994.
Pre-supervisory Training Course.IRRI. (3 Days). 19- 21 April 1995.
Effective Oral Presentation Training Course. IRRI. (5 Days). 26-30 June 1995.
Certificate in Human Resource Development. PMAP-UST. (8 Saturdays) 17 Feb - 13 April 1996.
Training on Designing Online Courses. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada. (3 weeks). 15 Sept - 7 Oct 1998
Training on Administering NT Server 4. MIS Net Education. (3 days) 9-11 Aug 1999
Training on Win NT 4.0 Core Technologies. MIS Net Education. (5 days) 16-20 Aug 1999

CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION

IT & T Congress, '97. The Net Foundation (3 Days). 19-21 February 1997
International Conference on Technology Supported Learning. Online Educa Asia in Singapore. (3 Days) 1-3 September 1997
Sixth SEAMEO INNOTECH International Conference. The Learning of the Future: Reconciling Education, Values and Technology for Social Transformation. (3 Days). 11-13 November 1997.
Annual Technical Meeting of Asian Internet Interconnection Initiatives. Prince Songkla University, Phuket, Thailand. (3 days) 6-8 March 1999
Annual Technical Meeting of Asian Internet Interconnection Initiatives. Institute of Information Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam (3 days) 7-9 October 1999
Distance Learning and the Internet. Invitation only conference sponsored by University of Southern California, Lucent Technologies Foundation and Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), USC, Los Angeles, U.S.A., March 8-10. http://www.usc.edu/isd/locations/cst/dlconference/
1st SEAMEO Education Congress: Challenges in the New Millenium. Presented the paper titled “Knowledge Sharing and Distance Learning for Sustainable Agriculture in the Asia Pacific: The Asia-Pacific Regional Technical Centre”, Bangkok, Thailand, 26-29 March 2001. http://www.seameo.org/educongress/index.html
APAN Conference 2001. Presented the paper titled “Can APAN be more User Friendly?: A Longtime User's Perspective”. University Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia, 20-22 August 2001.
The Information Technology in Regional Areas (ITiRA) Conference 2001. Presented the paper titled “Making e-Learning Work in the Asia-Pacific: Lessons Learned”, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, QLD, Australia, 5-7 September 2001. http://itira.cqu.edu.au/developing_countries_abstracts.htm
APAN Conference 2002. Laguna Beach Resort, Phuket, Thailand, 22-26 January 2002
33rd Annual Scientific Conference of the Pest Management Council of the Philippines. Presented “ Role of eLearning in Crop Protection”, Grand Men Seng Hotel, Davao City, Philippines, 8-10 May 2002
Infosoc Malaysia 2002 and GKP Regional Network Meeting. Magellan Wing, Sutera Harbour Resort and Spa, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, 4-5 June 2002
APAN Conference 2002. Presented “Internet-based eLearning to Promote Sustainable Agriculture in Asia-Pacific: An Opportunity for APAN AG-WG?”, Radisson SAS Langsheng Hotel, Shanghai, China, 26-28 August 2002

PUBLICATIONS:

Raab, R.T. and Abdon,B.R. (1999) Realizing APAN's potential to facilitate distance learning applications: A CG perspective on what needs to be done. APAN Agriculture Working Group Osaka Meeting, 18-21 February, 1999, Suita, Osaka, Japan. Asia Pacific Advanced Network (APAN). http://infofarm.affrc.go.jp/~goddila/apan/Osaka/

Raab, R.T, Abdon,B.R. and Golinowski, S. (1999) The International Rice Research Institute's current progress and future directions in the application of distance learning technologies for human capital development in national agricultural research systems. In: Proceedings of the PAN Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning: Empowerment through Knowledge and Technology,1-5 March 1999, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam. The Commonwealth of Learning,1285West Broadway, Suite 600, Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 Canada http://www.col.org/forum/casestudies.htm

Abdon, B. R. and R. Raab (1999) IRRI's experience with desktop Internet-based videoconferencing to support human capital development in NARS. Submitted to the ICT Stories project sponsored by the International Institute for Communication and Development and the Information for Development (infoDev) program of the World Bank. Available [Online]: http://www.iicd.org/search/show-entry.ap?entryid=3962

Ellis, W. Wyn, Raab, R. and Abdon, B (2001) Knowledge Sharing and Distance Learning for Sustainable Agriculture in the Asia Pacific: The Asia-Pacific Regional Technology Centre. Paper prepared for and presented at 1st SEAMEO Education Congress Challenges in the new millennium - http://www.seameo.org/educongress/index.html, 26-29 March 2001, Bangkok, Thailand. Available [Online]: http://www.aprtc.org/about_us.htm

Raab, R. T., W. Wyn Ellis and B.R. Abdon (2001) Developing Capacity in Applied Biology: The Role and Application of Modern Information, Communication and Educational Technologies. Paper prepared for and presented at The International Workshop on Biology, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2-5 July 2001. Conference jointly organized by Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations, Vietnam Union of Biology Associations and Center for Information and Technology Transfer in Biology. Available [Online]: http://www.aprtc.org/about_us.htm

Raab, R. T., B.R. Abdon and W. Wyn Ellis (2001) Can APAN be more User Friendly?: A Longtime User's Perspective. Paper prepared for and presented at APAN Conference 2001 - http://www.my.apan.net/meeting/, University Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia, 20 - 22 August 2001. Conference sponsored by Network Research Group, School of Computer Science, University Science Malaysia, University Science Malaysia, Asia Pacific Advanced Networking. Abstract Available [Online]: http://www.aprtc.org/about_us.htm

Raab, R. T., B.R. Abdon and W. Wyn Ellis (2001) Multisectoral Partnerships in e-Learning: Potential Force for Improved Human Capital Development in the Asia-Pacific. Paper prepared for and presented at Exploring the Evolution of e-learning, 2nd Annual Symposium on Online Learning - http://www.calm.unimas.my/sole2001/non_flash/main.html. Conference hosted by Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, MIMOS Berhad, Ministry of Education, Malaysia. 5-7 September 2001, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Abstract Available [Online]: http://www.aprtc.org/about_us.htm

Abdon, B. R. and R. Raab (2001) Making e-learning work in the Asia Pacific: Lessons learned. Paper prepared for and presented at The Information Technology in Regional Areas (ITiRA) Conference 2001 - http://itira.cqu.edu.au/, 5-7 September, 2001, Rockhampton, QLD, Australia. Abstract Available [Online]: http://itira.cqu.edu.au/developing_countries_abstracts.html

Woods, J, R.T. Raab and B.R.. Abdon, (2002) ICTs, e-learning, and simulations: bringing knowledge-intensive management to Asian agriculture. Paper prepared for and presented at International Federation of Information Processing 9.4 Conference, Bangalore, India, 28-31 May 2002. Conference hosted by Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. Available [Online]: http://www.aprtc.org/occasional_papers/ifippr.htm

DIGITAL COURSES AND TRAINING MATERIALS:

Digital Literacy for Rice Scientists (1999) - http://agri-wg.jp.apan.net/IRRI/digitallit/
A Web-based course designed to give agricultural scientists "The ability to access and take advantage of networked computer resources and to use and understand information as presented by computers." Also available on CD from the International Rice Research Institute, Los Banos, Philippines - http://www.training.irri.org/courseware/courseware.htm

English for Agriculture (1999) - http://agri-wg.jp.apan.net/IRRI/agenglish/
A distance-training course designed to improve agricultural scientists' abilities to understand and use the English terms and grammatical structures most commonly found in agricultural texts and research papers. This course focuses on written communication skills and utilizes email and discussion groups for submission of assignments and to facilitate interaction between and among students and instructors Best accessed on CDROM and a CD version is available from the International Rice Research Institute, Los Banos, Philippines - http://www.training.irri.org/courseware/courseware.htm

Growth Stages of the Rice Plant (1999) - http://www.training.irri.org/courseware/online/growthstages/index.htm
Rice Production was IRRI's first group training course. A key set of materials was a series of 17 self-learning slide-tape modules on various aspects of rice production. However, by the mid-1990's the slide-tape format had become obsolete. Thus, in 1999, the process of updating and converting these learning modules to a digital format was begun. Growth Stages is the first module to be converted. Although best accessed on CDROM, it is also available on-line.

Digital Literacy for Agricultural Professionals (2001)- http://www.aprtc.org/diglit/index.asp?CID=1&ID=0&OFR=0&FNC=0
A more broadly targeted, revised and updated version of the original “Digital Literacy for Rice Scientists”.

Promoting Responsible Pesticide Use (2001) - http://www.aprtc.org/responsible_use/index.asp?CID=7&ID=0&OFR=0&FNC=0
Farmers perceive chemical crop protection products as key weapons in their efforts to safeguard agricultural production. But it is critically important that these products are used safely and that efforts are made to teach farmers about when, how and even if these products should be applied. This course is designed to give agricultural professionals a basic reference on accepted safe use practices, a greater understanding of the principles and components of safe use programs and provide them with tools and skills useful for implementing such programs. Topics range from the `How-to 's' of safe and effective use of crop protection products to fundamental issues such as the communication techniques appropriate in promoting rational safe use programs, and steps that must be taken by agricultural professionals to address constraints on safety and effectiveness of crop protection products. This course is currently under revision and will soon be available from http://www.aprtc.org.

Introduction to IPM (2002) - http://www.aprtc.org/intro_ipm/index.asp?CID=3&ID=0&OFR=1&FNC=0.
This course deals with one of the most fundamental concepts associated with sustainable agriculture - Integrated Pest Management. The course gives participants a sound background in what IPM is, how IPM was developed, and the reasons why we should use it today and also goes into the fundamental concepts underlying the approach - agroecology, economics and the agrobiological effects of chemical pesticides. The range of IPM tools are thoroughly explained and participants have the opportunity to put these together in the design of an IPM implementation plan.

Cotton IPM (2002)- http://www.aprtc.org/ipm_cotton/index.asp?CID=5&ID=0&OFR=0&FNC=0
Asia's cotton production is severely threatened by the escalating cost of pest control measures due, in part, to the development of pest resistance to chemical control measures. Farmers are responding by applying ever increasing amounts of chemical pesticides but this is having serious implications for the environment and human health and is raising production costs to unprofitable levels. Widespread adoption of IPM in cotton can greatly mitigate these problems and this course is designed to give participants the knowledge and skills they need to effectively promote cotton IPM in their geographic area.

4. A Preliminary Study on Animal and Plant Quarantine Remote Education System
Zhihong Li <lizh@mail.cau.edu.cn> (CAU, China) (remote presentation)

Abstract

With the advancement of information and Internet technology, the modern remote education has gained a world scale development and promoted the change of education theory, method and means absolutely. Online education system is the important carrier of realizing modern remote education and its research has received much attention by governments and relative departments in China. With the designing tools such as Frontpage, Flash, Photoshop and JSP+MSSQLSERVER2000, the Animal and Plant Quarantine Remote Education System (APQRES) is studied preliminarily. On the base of utilizing web-database and multimedia technology, APQRES is realizing the functions of online learning, examination and information query of quarantine basic conceptions, laws, methods and pests.

Biodata

1. NAME AND ADDRESS

Dr. Zhihong Li
Associate Professor
Dept. of Plant Protection
College of Plant Protection
China Agricultural University
100094 Beijing
P. R. China
Tel. 86-10-62893000 (Office)
Email: lizh@mail.cau.edu.cn

2. EDUCATION AND DEGREES RECEIVED

Ph.D., Department of Entomology, 1994-1997, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China. Studied in Insect Ecology and Computer Software Development for insect species identification, the tutor is Prof. Zuorui Shen.
MSc., Department of Entomology, 1991-1994, Beijing Agricultural University, Beijing, China. Studied in Insect Taxonomy & Systematics, Liposcelice (booklice), the tutor is Prof. Fasheng Li.
BSc., Department of Plant Protection, 1987-1991, Beijing Agricultural University, Beijing, China. Studied in chemical ecology of vegetable insects, the tutor is Dr. Xinpei Huang.

3. RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

1994.-now, an application study of information technology in plant protection. Several software systems have been developed:

PestDiag: an expert system of vegetable insects identification, programming by Visual Basic, 1994-1996.
BJ-CABBAGIS: an information management system of Beijing vegetable production, using GIS instruments, 1995-1996.
PQ-PickBugs: an expert system of quarantine insect pests identification, programming by Visual Basic, 1997-1998.
BJ-FarmKnow: a web system servicing to farmers in vegetable production and distribution, using SQL Server etc., 1999-2002.
VPSMES: an expert system of vegetable pests sustaining management, programming by Delphi, 2001-2002.
APQRES: an remote education system of animal and plant quarantine, using SQL Server, JSP, and FrontPage, 2001-2002.

1991-now, a taxonomic study on the genus Liposcelis from China (Psocoptera: Liposcelididae) , in which 23species had been described, including 12 new species and 8 new record species. Booklice is regarded as one kind of the important pests in grain store business recently. In accordance with the basic study of booklice species and identification, 11 species are discussed in detail at city entomology conference held in October 2001, including the taxonomic characters and key.

4. RESEARCH PAPERS (parts)

Zhihong Li, Baofeng Zhang, Hongjun Chen. 2001. Expert system technology and assistant identification of quarantine pests. Plant Quarantine, 15(4): 235-239.
Zhihong Li, Arken, Zuorui Shen. 2001. A Preliminary Study on Plant Quarantine Distance Education System (PQDES). Plant protection developing tactic of 21st century, proceedings of 8th plant protection conference, 583-587.
Zhihong Li. 2001, Species and identification of store booklices in China. Advances in urban entomology, proceedings of the 6th National Symposium on Urban Entomology, 197-201.
Zhihong Li, Fasheng Li, Baofeng Zhang, et al. 1999-2000. A taxonomic study on the genus Liposcelis from China (5 series research reports). Plant Quarantine.
Zhihong Li, Zuorui Shen, Bingjin Geng, et al. 1999. The study on multimedia expert system of plant quarantine pests identification (PQ-PickBugs). Stored product protection, proceedings of 7th International Working Conference on Stored-product Protection, 1758-1762.
Zhihong Li, Zuorui Shen, Minghua Yang, et al. 1998. Computer-aided technology for regional vegetable pest management towards agricultural sustainability. Ecology Engineering, 11:37-43.
Zhihong Li et al. 1995. Four New Species of the Genus Liposcelis from China(Psocoptera: Liposcelididae). Journal of Beijing Agricultural University, 21(2):215-222.

5. MEMBERSHIP OF PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES

Plant Protection Society of China, vice-director commissioner of youth work committee.
Entomological Society of China, member

NR5: APAN/NR - JIRCAS Workshop on Multilingual Services over Asia Pacific: Ontology and Thesaurus (Room D 11:00-12:30, Jan 23)

Chair: Osamu Koyama (JIRCAS, Japan)

1. The Agricultural Ontology Service, multilingual domain ontologies for knowledge management in agriculture
Johannes Keizer <Johannes.Keizer@fao.org> (FAO, Italy)

Abstract

FAO has a long tradition in supporting it's member countries and partners with knowledge management tools. Early in the 70th FAO facilitated the development of the multilingual thesaurus AGROVOC which was the basis for subject indexing in the AGRIS system and was adopted also for various other Information Systems.

The advent of the Internet has given much more importance to knowledge management and knowledge management tools. On one side is the extreme difficulty to extract knowledge out of the mostly unstructured information that is on the Internet. On the other side there are the enourmous possibilities given by the fact that information is now available digitally and can be processed by machines. An answer to this situation is the development of ontologies that encode knowledge in specific domains that give users the possibility to extract from the web answers to questions that are more complex than simply: 'give me all the documents where the word "bovine spongiform" is in', the only question type that can be answered by most of the today existing search engines.

Based on our experiences we decided in the mid of 2001 to go a step further and to develop AGROVOC into and Agricultural Ontology Service. Agricultural in a sense that all knowledge should be encompassed that is relevant to achieve food security. The construction of knowledge organization models and systems is resource intensive. Only a cooperative approach that assures reuse of elements and an overall consistency can lead to success.

2. Use of Ontologies for Organizing Agricultural Databases
Howard Beck <hwb@ufl.edu> (U. Florida, USA) (remote presentation)

Abstract

Serveral examples of designs for agricultural databases that incorporate ontologies will be presented. The examples include a database of agricultural extension publications, a content manager for agricultural educational materials, a database of dynamic simulations of irrigation, nutrient management, and other processes, and a database for agricultural decision support systems. The general architecture of all these applications is based on an object database that is enhanced with a description logic-based language for representing the semantics of concepts within the application domain. The formal language is also used to construct an ontology that provides a terminological basis for referring to concepts in the domain. Advantages of incorporating an ontology include better ways of representing concepts, ability to support natural language-based references to objects, graphic browsing based on data visualization of ontologies, and ontology assisted search.

Biodata

With a background in computer science, Dr. Beck's research interests involve combining database management techniques with artificial intelligence techniques to build applications in the area of agricultural information technologies.

3. Development of Ontology and Thesaurus for Agriculture in China
Li Shijing, He Chunpei <taiwd@mail.caas.net.cn> (CAAS., China)

Abstract

The paper describes the development of Agricultural Thesaurus (AT) in China, as well as the characteristics, key technology and innovation points of AT. The authors also make some comments in the application of AT and the social and economic benefit AT has rendered to the agricultural sector. The paper mentions the application of AT in machine translation software packages and the translation of multilingual thesaurus AGROVOC into Chinese language. The authors look forward to the application of agricultural ontology in future network information searching.

Keywords: Agriculture; Thesaurus; multilingual thesaurus; ontology; subject indexing; China

NR6: APAN/NR - JIRCAS Workshop on Multilingual Services over Asia Pacific: Machine Translation and Localization (Room D 14:00-15:30, Jan 23)

Chair: Royol Chitradon <royol@dust.hpcc.nectec.or.th> (NECTEC, Thailand)

1. Language and Tools for Multilingual Lexical Resource Management
Asanee Kawtrakul <ak@vivaldi.cpe.ku.ac.th> , Poonna Yospanya (Kasetsart Univ. Thailand)

Abstract

Lexicon construction for natural language processing should cover necessary information, such as lexical entries and their syntactic properties, and other kinds of information depending on the applications. Lexical resource, then, contains many different types of lexical information, from orthography and pronunciation through grammatical word class and internal morphological structure, to canonical meaning, relations, i.e., broader terms, narrower terms, related terms, synonyms, antonyms, and others specific to each application. Based on these requirement specifications, several different structures are needed for different kinds of information, for instance, hierarchical structure is needed to model lexical relations, while distinct structures have to be defined for lexical properties and other specific uses.

For Machine Translation applications, multilingual lexicon is required. However, multilingual lexical resource is based on a more complex model for describing the relation between languages. There is no one-to-one mapping from one language to another, i.e. a lexical entity of one language may translate to one, many, or even none of the lexical entities of another language. Further, it is unclear how the relations between word forms and multi-word expressions or phrasal forms are defined, and how the distinctions between literal meanings among languages are captured.

Accordingly, the lexicon design, especially multilingual lexicon, must be realised in a specific, concrete, and operational implementation for lexical information acquisition, construction, evaluation, and maintenance. In actual implementation, the lexicon construction requires a piece of software containing machine-readable linguistic data, representation models, and tools for modular and efficient lexicon construction and access.

In this paper, the approach to the issues of modeling and managing multilingual lexical resource is presented. The lexical relation among different languages is dealt with by the use of surrogate as a medium for lexical entities of identical senses regardless of the language to which they belong. To deal with multiple representation structures, a unified model with resource management language and tools is proposed. The lexicon manipulation language is provided for lexicon construction, access, and maintenance. Tools are also provided to support linguistic information acquisition, visualized access, verification, and evaluation.

2. Development of Thai-Japanese Machine Translator
Virat Lerdsornrat (NECTEC, Thailand)

3. User Interface Localizer: A System for making decision support software “world-compatible”
Matthew Laurenson <matthewl@naro.affrc.go.jp> and Seishi Ninomiya <snino@affrc.go.jp> (NARC, Japan)

Abstract

Decision Support Software (DSS) for agriculture and natural resource management have typically been developed by research organizations and universities for users within their own country. Because the market for such DSS within a single country is small, the tools are usually not commercially viable, and fade from use when their supporting project concludes. Furthermore, similar tools are often developed in different countries - a wasteful duplication of effort. A tool that can be run by users in other countries is more likely to survive beyond the end of its research project. User interface localization - ensuring that text such as button labels is displayed in each user's own national language - makes such a DSS “world compatible”.

Localization differs from machine translation in that screen space is often at a premium (eg. an informative button label like “Begin a potentially time-consuming task” is likely to be replaced by “Start”). The number of phrases to be translated is fairly small, but often includes newly-created words (eg. “data broker”) or longer phrases than one would find in an electronic dictionary (eg “The broker is unable to process your request because the remote database is not responding”). Localization must deliver a single result for each phrase back to the calling program - there is no scope for user-selection of the most appropriate term as there might be with a dictionary application.

The programming language Java has built-in support for localization, but its approach is difficult to maintain and poorly suited to the kind of distributed computing applications we believe are needed in agriculture and natural resource management. These factors led us to develop a Web-based text localization system “User Interface Localizer”. This system replaces Java's localization system, and allows translators around the globe to enter phrase translations into a central database. Once entered, the translations are immediately available to applications. We demonstrate the software used by translators, and show how Java applications can use the system for localization.

The system currently has translations in six languages: English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai, and Norwegian, and further languages can be easily set up by the system administrator. We have adapted our existing suite of applets so that they use User Interface Localizer. We hope to create a SOAP-based Web service so that programming languages other than Java can access the system.

NR7: APAN/NR - JIRCAS Workshop on Multilingual Services over Asia Pacific: Panel Discussion on Development Process (Room D 16:00-18:00, Jan 23)

Chair: Seishi Ninomiya <snino@affrc.go.jp> (NARC, Japan)

1. WS Speaker
Johannes Keizer (FAO, Italy)

2. WS speaker
He Chunpei (CAAS., China)

3. WS speaker
Asanee Kawtrakul (Kasetsart Univ. Thailand)

4. WS speaker
Matthew Laurenson (NARC, Japan)

5. Panelist: WAMIS as a promising customer for Multilingual Services - special user requirements from CAgM/WMO
Byon-Lyol Lee (CAgM/WMO, KMA, Korea)

6. Panelist
F. Lansigan (UPLB, Philippenes)

7. WS speaker
Virat Lerdsornrat (NECTEC, Thailand)

8. Panelist
Tran Ngan Hoa (ICARD, Vietnam)

NR8: Earth Monitoring WG / GOFC(Room D 09:00-10:30, Jan 24)

Chair: Christopher D. Elvidge <chris.elvidge@noaa.gov> (NOAA, USA)

1. Draft plan of activities and timelines for shared online fire information system prototype for S.E. Asia
Christopher D. Elvidge <chris.elvidge@noaa.gov> (NOAA, USA)

NR9: Earth Monitoring WG (Room D 11:00-12:30, Jan 24)

Chair: Shinichi Sobue (NASDA, Japan)

1. WSSD Demonstration Review
Shin-ichi Sobue <Sobue.shinichi@nasda.go.jp> (NASDA, Japan)

Abstract

Data collected by space agencies and products derived from those data are used by a wide variety of scientists, decision makers, and other users. The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), through its Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS), facilitates easy access to global data and to value-added services that can benefit regional planners and decision-makers. WGISS supports development of data and information management and services for users and data providers in dealing with global, regional, and local issues. In particular, it addresses the capture, description, processing, access, retrieval, utilization, maintenance and exchange of space-borne Earth observation data and supporting ancillary and auxiliary data and information, enabling improved interoperability and interconnectivity of information systems and services. By providing access to these data and services via the World Wide Web even users at remote sites can benefit from their use. These systems and services are made possible by the use of international standards and can fit seamlessly into a larger information technology environment, reducing the need for specialized knowledge and equipment.

CEOS WGISS demonstrated an African forest fire monitoring capability, using these information systems and services, at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in South Africa last August. This paper describes this demonstration system.

2. ASEAN+3 archive center
Pakorn Apaphant (GISTDA, Thailand)

3. 3-Dimensional Visualization for Satellite Images
Takahiro Iwakura (SED, Japan)

Abstract

For the purpose of releasing the first light images by the AMSR-E (Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System) sensor, onboard NASA's earth observing satellite "Aqua", we have prepared web contents using VRML for accessibility. The AMSR-E first light images were mapped on the 3-dimensional model of the spheroid that we had constructed with VRML, and many users can view this model from all angles on internet. We suppose that we have established the new platform for releasing the satellite images. Presently, with this 3-dimensional visualization model, we plan to release the first light image by the AMSR and the GLI (Global Imager) sensor, onboard NASDA's earth observing satellite "ADEOS-II" which was launched on December 14th 2002.

VRML: Virtual Reality Modeling Language (http://www.web3d.org/vrml/vrml.htm)
Earth on Web3D: http://sharaku.eorc.nasda.go.jp/AMSR/3d_amsre/ (EORC/NASDA)

APAN 2003 Conference in Fukuoka

Natural Resource Workshop and Track Abstracts & Biodata

NRW1: Utilization of Earth Observation Satellite - Digital Asia Special Session 1 (Room C 09:00-12:00, Jan 21)

Chair: Shin-ichi Sobue <sobue.shinichi@nasda.go.jp> (NASDA, Japan)

1. Introduction of Digital Asia Network(DAN) Shin-ichi Sobue <sobue.shinichi@nasda.go.jp> (NASDA, Japan) and Ryuzo Yokoyama <yokoyama@ait.ac.th> (ACRoRS-AIT, Thailand)

2. Digital Asia, its Technical Aspects -- Interoperability in DA : Standards, Issues and Solutions H. Fukui (Keio Univ., Japan)

3. The summary of OGC Kenji Hiraishi <k-hiraishi@cb.jp.nec.com> (NEC Aerospace System, Japan)

4. Forest Monitoring Prototype System Using Web Mapping Technology Kaori Kuroiwa <kuroiwa@restec.or.jp> (RESTEC, Japan), Shin-ichi Sobue and Osamu Ochiai (NASDA, Japan)

5. Open GIS with spatial and temporal retrievals as well as assimilation functionality Kohei Arai <arai@is.saga-u.ac.jp> (Saga U., Japan)

NRW2: Utilization of Earth Observation Satellite - Digital Asia Special Session 2: GOFC - Fire S.E. Asia Regional Workshop (Room C 13:30-17:00, Jan 21)

Christopher D. Elvidge <chris.elvidge@noaa.gov> (NOAA, USA)

1. Workshop Overview Christopher D. Elvidge <chris.elvidge@noaa.gov> (NOAA, USA)

2. ANDES overview and current status Haruo Sawada <sawada.h@ffpri.affrc.go.jp>, Hideki Saito <rslsaito@ffpri.affrc.go.jp> (Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Japan), and Izumi Nagatani <nagatani@affrc.go.jp> (Computer Center for Research in MAFF)

3. Plan for GOES-9 ABBA fire monitoring and data access for S.E. Asia Elaine Prins <Elaine.prins@noaa.gov> (NOAA, USA)

4. The South East Asia Forest Fire Danger Rating System Project Bryan Lee <blee@nrcan.gc.ca>, Michael Brandy, Bill de Groot, Caren Dymond, Robert Field, Orbita Roswintiarti (CFS, Canada)

5. 'Sentinel Hotspots': MODIS-based Near Real Time Fire Mapping in Australia Peter Dyce <peter.dyce@csiro.au>, Alex Held, Alan Marks (CSIRO Land & Water, Canberra - Australia)

6. Assessment of Burnt Forest Area in Thailand using Remote Sensing and GIS Suwit Ongsomwang <s_ongsomwang@monre.go.th> (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Thailand)

7. Outline of a shared online fire information system for S.E. Asia Christopher D. Elvidge <chris.elvidge@noaa.gov> (NOAA, USA)

NR1: Asian Dust & Weather Database Sharing #1 (Room C 09:00-10:30, Jan 22)

Chair: Byong-Lyol Lee <bllee@kma.go.kr> (KMA, Korea)

1. Observations and model analysis of recent Asian dust events Nobuo Sugimoto <nsugimot@nies.go.jp> (NIES, Japan)

2. Physico-Chemical properties of yellow dust particles and their behavior in the atmosphere Yutaka Ishizaka <ishizaka@ihas.nagoya-u.ac.jp> (Nagoya Univ., Japan)

3. Potential Earth Observation Satellite Observation of Asian Dust Shin-ichi Sobue <Sobue.shinichi@nasda.go.jp> (NASDA, Japan)

NR2: NR/Grid WG Joint Session (Room C 11:00-12:30, Jan 22)

Chair: Seishi Ninomiya <snino@affrc.go.jp> (NARC, Japan)

1. Developing applications that harness the Agriculture and Natural Resource grid, and linking your own data Matthew Laurenson <matthewl@naro.affrc.go.jp> and Seishi Ninomiya <snino@affrc.go.jp> (NARC, Japan)

Background

Introduction to distributed computing

Basic broker concepts

Retrieving weather data into a program

Connecting a new database to a broker

Support resources

2. CEOS GRID activity Kaori Kuroiwa <kuroiwa@restec.or.jp> (RESTEC, Japan)

NR3: Asian Dust & Weather Database Sharing #2 (Room C 14:00-15:30, Jan 22)

Chair: Byong-Lyol Lee <bllee@kma.go.kr> (KMA, Korea)

1. One hundred year observation of Asian Dust events in Korea Y.S. Chun (METRI, Korea) (remote presentation)

2. Mechanism and force driven dust storm in Asia Guo Wang (CAS, China)

3. Perspectives of APAN for Next Generation GTS of WMO Dongil LEE (SCC/KMA, Korea) (remote presentation)

4. Regional Hub for AgroMeteorology : WAMIS, AsiaFlux, RAMINS, RMTC, APCN, Asian Dust Byong-Lyol Lee <bllee@kma.go.kr> (KMA, Korea)

NR4: Joint NR-DE Session (Room D 09:00-10:30, Jan 23)

Chair: An Jie <anjie@cernet.edu.cn>

1. Networks for Biological Resource Centers in China Juncai Ma <ma@sun.im.ac.cn> (CAS, China)

2. Innovative Approaches to the Challenges of e-Learning in Agriculture Zuorui Shen <ipmist@mail.cau.edu.cn> (CAU, China)

3. APAN's Potential Role in Leading a Partnership eLearning Initiative to Promote Sustainable Agriculture in the Asia-Pacific) Buenafe R. Abdon <pipot@aprtc.org> (APRTC, Thailand)

4. A Preliminary Study on Animal and Plant Quarantine Remote Education System Zhihong Li <lizh@mail.cau.edu.cn> (CAU, China) (remote presentation)

NR5: APAN/NR - JIRCAS Workshop on Multilingual Services over Asia Pacific: Ontology and Thesaurus (Room D 11:00-12:30, Jan 23)

Chair: Osamu Koyama (JIRCAS, Japan)

1. The Agricultural Ontology Service, multilingual domain ontologies for knowledge management in agriculture Johannes Keizer <Johannes.Keizer@fao.org> (FAO, Italy)

2. Use of Ontologies for Organizing Agricultural Databases Howard Beck <hwb@ufl.edu> (U. Florida, USA) (remote presentation)

3. Development of Ontology and Thesaurus for Agriculture in China Li Shijing, He Chunpei <taiwd@mail.caas.net.cn> (CAAS., China)

NR6: APAN/NR - JIRCAS Workshop on Multilingual Services over Asia Pacific: Machine Translation and Localization (Room D 14:00-15:30, Jan 23)

Chair: Royol Chitradon <royol@dust.hpcc.nectec.or.th> (NECTEC, Thailand)

1. Language and Tools for Multilingual Lexical Resource Management Asanee Kawtrakul <ak@vivaldi.cpe.ku.ac.th> , Poonna Yospanya (Kasetsart Univ. Thailand)

2. Development of Thai-Japanese Machine Translator Virat Lerdsornrat (NECTEC, Thailand)

3. User Interface Localizer: A System for making decision support software “world-compatible” Matthew Laurenson <matthewl@naro.affrc.go.jp> and Seishi Ninomiya <snino@affrc.go.jp> (NARC, Japan)

NR7: APAN/NR - JIRCAS Workshop on Multilingual Services over Asia Pacific: Panel Discussion on Development Process (Room D 16:00-18:00, Jan 23)

Chair: Seishi Ninomiya <snino@affrc.go.jp> (NARC, Japan)

1. WS Speaker Johannes Keizer (FAO, Italy)

2. WS speaker He Chunpei (CAAS., China)

3. WS speaker Asanee Kawtrakul (Kasetsart Univ. Thailand)

4. WS speaker Matthew Laurenson (NARC, Japan)

5. Panelist: WAMIS as a promising customer for Multilingual Services - special user requirements from CAgM/WMO Byon-Lyol Lee (CAgM/WMO, KMA, Korea)

6. Panelist F. Lansigan (UPLB, Philippenes)

7. WS speaker Virat Lerdsornrat (NECTEC, Thailand)

8. Panelist Tran Ngan Hoa (ICARD, Vietnam)

NR8: Earth Monitoring WG / GOFC(Room D 09:00-10:30, Jan 24)

Chair: Christopher D. Elvidge <chris.elvidge@noaa.gov> (NOAA, USA)

1. Draft plan of activities and timelines for shared online fire information system prototype for S.E. Asia Christopher D. Elvidge <chris.elvidge@noaa.gov> (NOAA, USA)

NR9: Earth Monitoring WG (Room D 11:00-12:30, Jan 24)

Chair: Shinichi Sobue (NASDA, Japan)

1. WSSD Demonstration Review Shin-ichi Sobue <Sobue.shinichi@nasda.go.jp> (NASDA, Japan)

2. ASEAN+3 archive center Pakorn Apaphant (GISTDA, Thailand)

3. 3-Dimensional Visualization for Satellite Images Takahiro Iwakura (SED, Japan)

1. Introduction of Digital Asia Network(DAN)
Shin-ichi Sobue <sobue.shinichi@nasda.go.jp> (NASDA, Japan) and Ryuzo Yokoyama <yokoyama@ait.ac.th> (ACRoRS-AIT, Thailand)

2. Digital Asia, its Technical Aspects -- Interoperability in DA : Standards, Issues and Solutions
H. Fukui (Keio Univ., Japan)

3. The summary of OGC
Kenji Hiraishi <k-hiraishi@cb.jp.nec.com> (NEC Aerospace System, Japan)

4. Forest Monitoring Prototype System Using Web Mapping Technology
Kaori Kuroiwa <kuroiwa@restec.or.jp> (RESTEC, Japan), Shin-ichi Sobue and Osamu Ochiai (NASDA, Japan)

5. Open GIS with spatial and temporal retrievals as well as assimilation functionality
Kohei Arai <arai@is.saga-u.ac.jp> (Saga U., Japan)

1. Workshop Overview
Christopher D. Elvidge <chris.elvidge@noaa.gov> (NOAA, USA)

2. ANDES overview and current status
Haruo Sawada <sawada.h@ffpri.affrc.go.jp>, Hideki Saito <rslsaito@ffpri.affrc.go.jp> (Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Japan), and Izumi Nagatani <nagatani@affrc.go.jp> (Computer Center for Research in MAFF)

3. Plan for GOES-9 ABBA fire monitoring and data access for S.E. Asia
Elaine Prins <Elaine.prins@noaa.gov> (NOAA, USA)

4. The South East Asia Forest Fire Danger Rating System Project
Bryan Lee <blee@nrcan.gc.ca>, Michael Brandy, Bill de Groot, Caren Dymond, Robert Field, Orbita Roswintiarti (CFS, Canada)

5. 'Sentinel Hotspots': MODIS-based Near Real Time Fire Mapping in Australia
Peter Dyce <peter.dyce@csiro.au>, Alex Held, Alan Marks (CSIRO Land & Water, Canberra - Australia)

6. Assessment of Burnt Forest Area in Thailand using Remote Sensing and GIS
Suwit Ongsomwang <s_ongsomwang@monre.go.th> (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Thailand)

7. Outline of a shared online fire information system for S.E. Asia
Christopher D. Elvidge <chris.elvidge@noaa.gov> (NOAA, USA)

1. Observations and model analysis of recent Asian dust events
Nobuo Sugimoto <nsugimot@nies.go.jp> (NIES, Japan)

2. Physico-Chemical properties of yellow dust particles and their behavior in the atmosphere
Yutaka Ishizaka <ishizaka@ihas.nagoya-u.ac.jp> (Nagoya Univ., Japan)

3. Potential Earth Observation Satellite Observation of Asian Dust
Shin-ichi Sobue <Sobue.shinichi@nasda.go.jp> (NASDA, Japan)

1. Developing applications that harness the Agriculture and Natural Resource grid, and linking your own data
Matthew Laurenson <matthewl@naro.affrc.go.jp> and Seishi Ninomiya <snino@affrc.go.jp> (NARC, Japan)

2. CEOS GRID activity
Kaori Kuroiwa <kuroiwa@restec.or.jp> (RESTEC, Japan)

1. One hundred year observation of Asian Dust events in Korea
Y.S. Chun (METRI, Korea) (remote presentation)

2. Mechanism and force driven dust storm in Asia
Guo Wang (CAS, China)

3. Perspectives of APAN for Next Generation GTS of WMO
Dongil LEE (SCC/KMA, Korea) (remote presentation)

4. Regional Hub for AgroMeteorology : WAMIS, AsiaFlux, RAMINS, RMTC, APCN, Asian Dust
Byong-Lyol Lee <bllee@kma.go.kr> (KMA, Korea)

1. Networks for Biological Resource Centers in China
Juncai Ma <ma@sun.im.ac.cn> (CAS, China)

2. Innovative Approaches to the Challenges of e-Learning in Agriculture
Zuorui Shen <ipmist@mail.cau.edu.cn> (CAU, China)

3. APAN's Potential Role in Leading a Partnership eLearning Initiative to Promote Sustainable Agriculture in the Asia-Pacific)
Buenafe R. Abdon <pipot@aprtc.org> (APRTC, Thailand)

4. A Preliminary Study on Animal and Plant Quarantine Remote Education System
Zhihong Li <lizh@mail.cau.edu.cn> (CAU, China) (remote presentation)

1. The Agricultural Ontology Service, multilingual domain ontologies for knowledge management in agriculture
Johannes Keizer <Johannes.Keizer@fao.org> (FAO, Italy)

2. Use of Ontologies for Organizing Agricultural Databases
Howard Beck <hwb@ufl.edu> (U. Florida, USA) (remote presentation)

3. Development of Ontology and Thesaurus for Agriculture in China
Li Shijing, He Chunpei <taiwd@mail.caas.net.cn> (CAAS., China)

1. Language and Tools for Multilingual Lexical Resource Management
Asanee Kawtrakul <ak@vivaldi.cpe.ku.ac.th> , Poonna Yospanya (Kasetsart Univ. Thailand)

2. Development of Thai-Japanese Machine Translator
Virat Lerdsornrat (NECTEC, Thailand)

3. User Interface Localizer: A System for making decision support software “world-compatible”
Matthew Laurenson <matthewl@naro.affrc.go.jp> and Seishi Ninomiya <snino@affrc.go.jp> (NARC, Japan)

1. WS Speaker
Johannes Keizer (FAO, Italy)

2. WS speaker
He Chunpei (CAAS., China)

3. WS speaker
Asanee Kawtrakul (Kasetsart Univ. Thailand)

4. WS speaker
Matthew Laurenson (NARC, Japan)

5. Panelist: WAMIS as a promising customer for Multilingual Services - special user requirements from CAgM/WMO
Byon-Lyol Lee (CAgM/WMO, KMA, Korea)

6. Panelist
F. Lansigan (UPLB, Philippenes)

7. WS speaker
Virat Lerdsornrat (NECTEC, Thailand)

8. Panelist
Tran Ngan Hoa (ICARD, Vietnam)

1. Draft plan of activities and timelines for shared online fire information system prototype for S.E. Asia
Christopher D. Elvidge <chris.elvidge@noaa.gov> (NOAA, USA)

1. WSSD Demonstration Review
Shin-ichi Sobue <Sobue.shinichi@nasda.go.jp> (NASDA, Japan)

2. ASEAN+3 archive center
Pakorn Apaphant (GISTDA, Thailand)

3. 3-Dimensional Visualization for Satellite Images
Takahiro Iwakura (SED, Japan)