Infoterra has contributed free TerraSAR-X data covering the project area of the first ever ESRI Summer Camp in Africa, part of Rwanda’s "ArcGIS in Secondary Schools" initiative. During this camp, pupils went to the study area to collect geographic coordinates from housings, parcels, water wells and electricity lines with GPS technology and satellite images. They interviewed local people about electricity consumption and water use; further, they analyzed their findings on computers. The camp took place at ET SOS Kinderdorf school in Kinyinya, Rwanda in late 2008.

One of three working groups within the project tackled the issue of land use mapping. Using the sponsored TerraSAR-X SpotLight acquisition as a basis, pupils identified structures like roads or the antennas from the “Deutsche Welle” radio and used the radar image as a help to define the extent of parcels that they couldn’t fully cover in-field using a GPS handheld. After the field work they customized the categories of land use and created subcategories for public buildings or areas, and distinguished them by different symbols and/or adjusting to mixed land use categories where appropriate.

Further details are available in the ArcGIS in Secondary Schools Newsletter 01/09, available for download through National University of Rwanda or ESRI Geoinformatik GmbH (in German).