Training audience and objectives

The central theme of this edition of the school focused on wetland mapping, a crucial environmental issue for the sustainable management of ecosystems in Congo and throughout the Congo Basin.

This school benefited 27 students, mainly enrolled in Master's 2 or first-year doctoral programs at Marien Ngouabi University (UMNG). The main objective was to strengthen their skills in remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), and spatial analysis, enabling them to map, analyze, and interpret environmental data related to wetlands and associated ecosystems.

Supervision and teaching input

The courses were taught by two trainers, Clarisse Vautrin (CIRAD) and Camille Deforceville (CIRAD).

The educational program combined theoretical courses and practical work on QGIS, covering a wide range of technical skills:

• Geographic coordinate systems and map projections
• Spatial manipulation and analysis of raster and vector data
• Optical remote sensing (classification of multispectral satellite images)
• Radar remote sensing (preprocessing of radar data)

Group work and field trips

A practical field component enriched the training: students went on a field trip to collect GPS points, enabling them to link satellite data to direct observations.

To promote scientific autonomy, the last few days were devoted to supervised group projects on specific topics directly related to landscape management:

• Identification of eroded areas
• Detection of deforested areas
• Mapping of degraded areas
• Classification of forest types

Feedback from beneficiaries

"The training was very good. I started from scratch and now I am able to measure and produce certain maps using radar remote sensing.  At first, I had some difficulties, but now, with everything we have done, I am really able to produce the maps, and we even did some fieldwork, and I learned a lot from this training. The most interesting part was the images we combined with the software we used: QGIS and Snap. Snap is software that I didn't know about before, but I learned how to use it during this training with satellite images."

Frejusse Fourier MIASSOUKA MILANDOU  - PhD student OFVi - Marien Ngouabi University, Faculty of Science and Technology - Brazzaville

"I am a student [...] in geography, in a Master's 2 program, specializing in geomorphology. This training has been very beneficial for me, for my thesis research, and for the continuity of my professional project; it will bring me even more. I am a geographer, and I will definitely need these teleportation and mapping tools."

Melvyne ANDZOUANA NGAMPIO - Master's student - Marien Ngouabi University, Faculty of Arts - Brazzaville