International Co-operation and Knowledge Exchange

The XIth biannual Latin American Remote Sensing Symposium (SELPER) was held at the Diego Portales Convention Center, Santiago, Chile, 22–26 November 2004. About 150 professionals from nearly all continents attended the symposium.

The Sociedad Especialistas Latinoamericana en Percepción Remota (SELPER) Symposium is one of the most important scientific meetings in this region in the field of remote sensing and GIS. The symposium was organised by SELPER/Chile and sponsored by ESA, CONAE, INPE, GLCN, CNES, UNOOSA, FIDAE, SAF and CSA.

Symposium Programme
Eighty papers were presented during two plenary sessions, eleven technical sessions and one poster session. The topics of the plenary sessions were ‘Spaces Agencies’ and ‘International Co-operation’. The main topics of the technical and poster sessions were:

• Environment and Natural Resources
  
• GIS and Land Use Planning
  
• Epidemiological Monitoring and Management
  
• Digital Terrain Models
  
• Hydrography and Oceanography
  
• Natural Resources, Agriculture and Forestry
  
• Remote Sensing Methodologies
  
• Geology
  
• Evaluation and Risk Management
  
• Education and Dissemination in Remote Sensing.

Courses and Workshops
Five courses and workshops were organised and held prior to and during the symposium:

• one-week international course on RADAR interferometry focusing on providing specific knowledge on SAR images with emphasis on image processing and use of interferometry techniques for DEM-generation
  
• two-day course on Space Technology Applied to Epidemiological Diseases addressing medical professionals
  
• one-day introduction course to China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS) sensors, products and applications in forestry and cartography
  
• one-day workshop on Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy Applied to Geology and Mineral Exploration providing a fundamental understanding of the principles and application of spectral remote sensing addressing exploration geologists
  
• one-day workshop on Global Land Cover Network addressing main topics for data standardisation, Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) concepts, GLCN tools, practical applications, users needs and data dissemination.

Exposition
The National Institute for Space Research (INPE) from Brazil, the National Commission for Space Activities (CONAE) from Argentina, the Chilean Space Agency (CSA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chilean Air Force (FACh) took part in the technical exposition. INPE presented CBERS images of South American capitals and unique landscapes in regions such as Titicaca Lake, the Andes mountain range and Uyuni Salar. INPE also distributed CD-ROMS with SPRING software and the proceedings of the 4th Conference on Remote Sensing Education in MERCOSUL. SPRING is an image-processing and GIS software package developed by INPE, available in Portuguese and Spanish. CONAE presented examples of SAC-C satellite images and application projects developed in Argentina using these data, such as emergency and epidemiological management.

Miscellaneous
In addition to seminars, workshops and training courses, the SELPER Council Meeting took place. The celebration dinner was held in the Manquehue Hotel, where all participants enjoyed exquisite food and fine Chilean wines and danced
to the typical Latin American rhythms. During the dinner, the SELPER president honoured the SELPER Committee members, some SELPER National presidents, and professionals and institutions that helped and collaborated with the Society in the last two years. The symposium proceedings are available at www.selper.org.