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This piece was originally published in "The Marshall Islands Journal" on Friday, August 30 2024.
The Digital Earth Pacific training held in Majuro in early August involved a subregional group in learning how to use technology to map land and marine areas for a range of government programs and services.
The programme was led by a team from the Pacific Community (SPC) headed by former Palau ambassador to the European Union and for climate negotiations Olai Uludong.
The trainees spent a couple of days learning how to use an app and how it works to support a range of environmental, development and other needs in the islands. After that, the trainees went out for fieldwork to put the app into action as part of workshop projects.
The group put into action the knowledge learnt in the first two days’ computer lab and lessons by collecting Majuro land and marine area points in real-time while moving from Rita to Laura.
With the help of the SPC teaching team, trainees used line of sight observation to plot different types of areas including cropland (taro, farms), scrubland, bare land, settlements with buildings, rubble, rubbish, coral, rock, and water.
The areas of interest that the team visited were Uliga track and field, MAWC dumpsite, the water reservoir next to the airport, sand mining areas, Laura ballfield, and Laura beach.
The team used handheld devices to plot and collect data for the land cover and land use. The final two days involved the participants in data analysis, presentations and a short graduation ceremony.
Participants presented their final outputs, including analyses and visualised data collected from QField in QGIS, which is geographic information system software that is free and open-source. QField is a professional fieldwork app that is also open-source.
The trainees presented their projects to special guests Minister in Assistance/Environment Bremity Lakjohn and Finance Minister David Paul.
Palau participants presented on utilising QGIS to map out mangroves and forestry. Tuvalu representatives focused on monitoring mineral mining, groundwater, and coastlines.
The larger group of Marshall Islands participants highlighted waste monitoring, energy infrastructure assessment, coastline conservation, coconut rhinoceros beetle surveillance, disaster risk response, and utilizing earth observations for environmental protection.
Lakjohn congratulated and supported the participants to continue their good work. Paul highlighted the importance of technical specialists working together with policy makers to pave the way forward.