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Special Reports
Countries in Central America suffer
from frequent natural disasters and lack
for effective management and planning
across broad swathes of land. As such,
they require the technical tools to carry
out prevention strategies, manage
changes to land use, and utilize natural
resources sustainably.
To this end, Nicaragua, one of our
partner countries in the region, noted
Taiwan’s advanced capacity in satellite
technology and signed a technical
cooperation agreement with us in 2010,
hoping to introduce GIS in order to
improve the government’s administrative
capacity.
The implementation of the project
is based on the TaiwanICDF’s project
design and implementation model. A
special team was assembled by the
Resource Satellite Receiving Station
based at National Central University’s
National Space Organization and
the Center for Space and Remote
Sensing Research, making use of
Taiwan’s FORMOSAT-2 satellite to carry
out a multi-phase land monitoring
mi ss i on and t he reby ass i s t i ng
Nicaragua in understanding land use
at key nature reserves, and providing
recommendations on disaster response.
Applying Taiwan’s Advantages to
Realize Environmentally Sustainable
Development
During 2014, the project helped
Nicaragua to monitor 27 nature
reserves, reporting on any changes
detected and conducting on-site
surveys and revitalization work with
partner organizations. For example,
the Ministry of the Environment and
Natural Resources assembled an on-
site survey team, making use of change
point data provided by the project to
successfully stop coffee farmers from
using land illegally in Serranía Dipilto-
Jalapa, levying fines of
600,000 córdoba (about
US$24,600). This was a
key result as part of the
ministry’s work during
the year, helping to
publicize the project and
having a positive effect
on its efforts with regard
to environmental sustainability.
In 2014, three major natural disasters
occurred in Nicaragua: an earthquake
in the Lake Managua area in April, a
landslide in El Ayote in June, and a
landslide at El Concepcion Volcano in
September. After receiving equipment
designed for disaster photography, in
each of these cases the project team
provided the Nicaraguan Institute
for Territorial Studies (INETER) with
pertinent satellite imaging and disaster
assessment reports within two weeks,
helping disaster relief teams to ascertain
the severity and extent of the disasters,
and to plan the resources needed for
on-site survey work more effectively.
INETER’s disaster analysis reports will
also serve as a reference for future
disaster contingency strategies.
To respond to the recent needs of
Central American countries suffering the
effects of global warming and climate
change, the project has also helped
Nicaragua to monitor over 77,000 km
2
of key nature reserves each year, as
well as provided 14 emergency disaster
image and analysis reports, 10 GIS
training sessions, and training for more
than 250 specialized personnel. Valued
by partner countries, the agencies that
the project has partnered with have
appointed ministry-level
personnel to take part
in the management
of the project, and
d e p a r t me n t - l e v e l
personnel to serve
as commun i ca t i on
channels. The use
of Taiwan’s satellite
imaging and GIS technology as part
of this cooperation program has also
been mentioned at UN climate change
conferences and other international
conferences, successfully boosting the
publicity of results.
77,000
Environmental and ecological
areas monitored
km
2
Capability Enhancement in Using
Geographic Information Systems in
Central America—Nicaragua
Case Study
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