Rwanda :Rukarara Hydro Power Project completed

Rukarara Small Hydro Power Project has been fully completed at a cost of $23.5m, injecting between 2.5MW to 6MW into the national electricity grid.

In an interview with The New Times, the State Minister for Energy Eng. Colletha Ruhamya, said that the plant located in Nyamagabe District in the Southern Province, started producing electricity in December last year.

“Rukarara went on line just before Christmas. It is producing about 6 Mega Watts though it is designed to produce 9.5 MW.  But we expect it to hit the maximum as we progress into this year, when the rains intensify and the water flow increases,” she revealed.

“At this stage we are just testing the functioning of the dam, but at a later stage, it will be officially commissioned but it is already producing electricity,” said Ruhamya.
According to Eng. Leonard Kassana, a hydropower consultant at the Ministry of Infrastructure, overall major project components are at 100% completion.

The power generated from the plant is connected through a newly constructed 8 km single circuit 30 KV transmission line directly to an existing Medium Voltage line to the national network.

“Full load testing, that is testing using all three generating units concurrently, is awaiting remedial works for the Fore-bay spillway structure which is being redesigned by the contractor to be able to safely discharge spillage upon full load rejection,” Kassana told The New Times.

He added that during the testing and commissioning period, and depending available hydrological flows, generating units are running at daily peak periods injecting between 2.5 MW and 6 MW into national grid.

At its designed maximum capacity, the power plant can contribute about 11% of the total national capacity.
The plant which boasts of three turbines, was under the management of Beijing Forever Technology Development Co. Ltd till July 2009 and was later handed to AECOM (formerly RSW International) from Canada from December 2009.

According to MININFRA, other additional projects, both domestic and regional, are at various stages of implementation.

Nyabarongo Hydro Electric Project which will be producing 28MW is currently under construction and is expected to go online by February 2013. Feasibility studies for Rusizi III HEP, to produce 145 MW, shared among Rwanda, DRC and Burundi, are complete. It is expected to be complete in 2016.

Rusumo expected to produce 61 MW, shared among Burundi, Tanzania and Rwanda, will be completed in 2015. The feasibility Study has already been finalized

Source: Newtimes 

Alan Stevens and Jack Dangermond Selected as ASPRS Honorary Members

Allan Stevens

Alan R. Stevens and Jack Dangermond have been selected as the next Honorary Members of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS).  Their nominations were recently approved by the ASPRS Board of Directors. This is the highest award bestowed by ASPRS and there can be only 25 living Honorary Members of the Society at any given time.  

JAck Dangermond

Initiated in 1937, this life-time award is given for professional excellence in recognition of individuals who have rendered distinguished service to ASPRS and/or who have attained distinction in advancing the science and use of the geospatial information sciences.  Stevens and Dangermond will receive their awards at the ASPRS 2011 Annual Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin 

Stevens is the International Program Manager (Retired) for the U.S. Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) and the USGS Geospatial Information Office. He currently works as a Scientist Emeritus for the FGDC.  He also works as a part of the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) Secretariat.  Current efforts recently focused on managing the logistics and technical program aspects of the 12^th Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) meeting in Singapore, October 2010.  He also initiated and manages the GSDI Small Grants Program and monthly GSDI electronic newsletters for the four regions of the globe: Africa, Asia/Pacific, Latin America, and Europe. 

Prior to his current position he held several responsible positions within the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Mapping Division.  These include but are not limited to the International Manager for the National Mapping Division and the Deputy Director, the CEO, and the Operations Manager (three different offices) for the National Mapping Division’s Eastern Region.  Part of this responsibility included developing cooperative production, applications, and research agreements with the 26 states and territories east of the Mississippi River.  

His first assignment with the USGS was the Chief of the Mapping Division’s Information distribution offices.  Before coming to the USGS, he managed the photogrammetry and remote sensing research activities for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).  He received his Bachelor (’65), master’s (’69), and PhD (’72) degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Wisconsin.  While a graduate student at the University he coordinated all remote sensing research projects on campus and throughout the state of Wisconsin. 

Stevens, an ASPRS Emeritus and Fellow, has been a member since 1968.  He has served as ASPRS President (1986-87), is chair of the ASPRS Awards and Scholarships Committee and the Fellow Award Selection Committee, and was a contributing author to the ASPRS Manual of Remote Sensing, First Edition.  He is currently a Trustee of the ASPRS Foundation.  Stevens served two terms as National Director of the ASPRS Potomac Region, Past President of the Mid-South Region, and Remote Sensing Division Director.  He has received numerous ASPRS awards, including the Claude F. Birdseye Award – 1987, three Presidential Citations, two Meritorious Service Citations, and the Outstanding Service Award (‘93). 

Other awards Stevens has received include the naming of Stevens Cliff, Antarctica, 78Degrees 50’ S; 162 Degrees 40’ W, named for his contributions to the U.S. Antarctic Programs and presented at retirement (2008), the Department of the Interior Meritorious Service Award (1996) and Point of Light Award (1991), the Kodak, Information Technology Award (1985), and the Army Accommodation Medal (1967).

Jack Dangermond is the founder and president of ESRI, the world’s fourth largest privately held software company. Founded in 1969 and headquartered in Redlands, California, ESRI is widely recognized as the technical and market leader in geographic information system (GIS) software, pioneering innovative solutions for working with spatial data on the desktop, across the enterprise, in the field, and on the Web. ESRI has the largest GIS software install base in the world with more than one million users in more than 100,000 organizations representing government, NGOs, academia, and industries such as utilities, health care, transportation, telecommunications, homeland security, retail, and agriculture.  He fostered the growth of ESRI from a small research group to an organization of 2,700 employees, known internationally for GIS software development, training, and services. ESRI now has 16 subsidiaries as well as more than 72 distributors worldwide. ESRI also has 11 regional offices throughout the United States and continues to grow at a rapid rate. 

Dangermond is recognized not only as a pioneer in spatial analysis methods, but also as one of the most influential people in GIS. Over the last 30 years, Dangermond has delivered keynote addresses at numerous international conferences, published hundreds of papers on GIS, and given thousands of presentations on GIS around the world. 

He is the recipient of a number of awards, honorary degrees, lectureships, and medals including the 2000 LaGasse Medal of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Brock Gold Medal of the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, the Cullum Geographical Medal of the American Geographical Society, the EDUCAUSE Medal of EDUCAUSE, the Horwood Award of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association, the Anderson Medal of the Association of American Geographers, and the John Wesley Powell Award of the U.S. Geological Survey. He is a member of many professional organizations and has served on advisory committees for U.S. agencies including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Science and Technology Advisory Committee, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Science Foundation, and the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA). 

Dangermond graduated with a bachelor of science in environmental science from California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, California. He holds a master of science degree in urban planning from the Institute of Technology at the University of Minnesota and a master of science degree in landscape architecture from the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, where he worked in the Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Design. He holds honorary doctorates from The City University of London, University of Redlands, and Ferris State University. 

Founded in 1934, ASPRS is an international professional organization of 6,000 geospatial data professionals. ASPRS is devoted to advancing knowledge and improving understanding of the mapping sciences to promote responsible application of photogrammetry, remote sensing, geographic information systems and supporting technologies.

Source : Geocommons

Have Social Media and Mapping Linked with GIS – CAD and other Geospatial Technologies?

Greater use of social media and wider adoption of mapping across platforms and applications is leading towards a focus on the use of a map as the interface to rich, often complex and detailed location and geospatial applications. Simple applications on mobile devices, for example, can now access data and information about business systems, health demographics, utility networks, environmental modeling and marine ecosystems to name a few. As these tools merge, social media and mapping become integrated as part of GIS and CAD related work flows.

Geoinformation and geospatial applications benefit through the development of smart phone applications and other social media that generates web mapping. Acting as interfaces, these devices trigger remote servers to begin geodata processing at distant locations, returning maps coupled to various types of information. Bus stops and underground maps, new events, trail locations, biodiversity areas, marine and coastal places, utility corridors, water and many more pieces of information are delivered quickly.

The linkage between high-end Cloud operating geographic information systems (GIS) and social media devices and technologies is often hidden – the stuff just works. Most GIS – CAD people see smart phone technology as an integral part of the complete system – extendeding the applications. These devices can collect information in the field, manage it, trigger processing (back on the server) and then display new results in the field or desired location,.

Delivery of geoinformation in the field has always been the goal. It is the purpose of a map or any other product generated from location data. Competition is high in this field, and that is positive because it drives innovation and reduces costs. There are many brands available for hardware (smartphone devices) and software (Android, RIM, Apple, Symbian, Windows and Linux). Hundreds of thousands of people are developing applications for these devices and using these platforms.

Some developers rely upon well known and established government agencies, like Ordnance Survey UK, whose users are now exploring and using their OS OpenData.  Others have written about  ’Open Data: The Role of Government in Fostering Smartphone Applications‘ but the UK government, for example, froze iPhone application development earlier this year as it learned about some of the applications being developed. Having said that, enormous possibilities and potential remains for linking social media and mapping to GIS – CAD applications.

Applications like EirGrid in Ireland have put energy at the heart of the population. GRID25 ties people directly into the infrastructure and provides information about energy, environment and infrastructure. BBC Look East uses a map (MapTube) to look at anti-social behavior in the east of London. On a more dynamic level, SurveyMapper allows users to ask and get thousands of of geolocated answers on a specific question.

On the architecture side, there are many applications that include such things as mathematical and engineering calculations, material selection and visualisation tools for on site development andcommunication. On the GIS side Esri has moved toward the iPhone, iPod and iPad platform.  There are EarthScape for iPhone applications, Geograph, Cloudmade, Bing Maps and Geology CA.Organisations like WeoGeo provide a way to store and manage all of these applications.

While at the Association for Geographic Information (AGI UK) conference in the UK this past week, I was struck by the fact that both neogeography and professional communities were essentially commenting on a common theme – the ‘need to do more with less.’ It seemed obvious that moving high-end applications that embed and integrate higher levels of intelligence and usability to wider numbers of users is the goal – period. In a time of tightening budgets, few people seem interested in driving technical points home, while most are trying to figure out how to partner, add value to others efforts and how to generate new opportunities that solve problems.

I think we are opening a new window to opportunities now, one where less debating ‘us versus them’ is over, and more ‘how can we do this’ is rapidly filling the spaces. Indeed, there is now a backlash against the former.

At this time we are witnessing the German government asking geospatial companies to step up to the plate to develop policies for the use of geospatial data. In my view this poses a unique challenge to the German Open Source community, because they have traditionally held a distant view to more traditional suppliers and users of geospatial products and services.  This is a stance that developing trends across Europe at the moment, are at odds with, as I explained above. Governments and business are under pressure economically, they want solutions and more for less.

The geoinformation community in Europe is being asked to solve their problem, and they should. In the UK case you see these communities developing integrated tools and services for government and e-government use. We are at the erly stages of forming new models for such partnerships. These combine the best in high quality geodata with social media and mapping tools.

INSPIRE has not articulated an integrated position to aid this effort, and is more oriented to implementing strategies and waiting. The German government is asking at the present time for a solution, which although forced by privacy interests, will mean that architecture, CAD, GIS and most other applications will be impacted – particularly if legislated.

Geospatial tools and technologies are uniquely capable to deliver on issues related to the current economic situation in the areas of monitoring environments, developing infrastructure, pursuing transportation and urban planning goals and delivering on connections that tie ESA funding, common agricultural policy funding, GALILEO funding, Biodiversity Goals and several European Directives surrounding urban and transport issues into frameworks involving solutions.

These are enormous opportunities for the geocommunity. There is a heightened need for demonstrating social media and mapping within the context of high quality mapping, infrastructure and measurement applications involving CAD and GIS at the moment.

Think clean water, clean air, efficient transport, high quality health and low energy.

Source :Vector media