Browsing by Author "Sumari, N. S."

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Analysis of geospatial data of Morogoro Urban: lessons for educationists and researchers
(ResearchGate, 2019-05) Kira, E. S.; Sumari, N. S.
There has been a growing need of scientists to utilize geospatial data in a variety of fields of study due to the advancement of ICT as a tool for both gathering and analyzing geospatial data. As Geographic Information System (GIS) gains momentum, the use of geospatial data becomes prominent in education especially in subjects that deal with place and space processes such as geography. Unfortunately in developing countries propagation of GIS in education is of low pace partly because of less utilization of ICT and ICT based technologies in teaching and learning. In order to address the problem of underutilization of geospatial data in education teachers‘ knowledge, skills and motivation for using GIS data needs to be reinforced. This paper shows why the use of geospatial data in geography is necessary. It shows how teachers and students in schools can be both supported and motivated to use geospatial data with reference to analysis of information based on satellite images of Morogoro urban district. The paper shows the way these geospatial data can be used to address various questions raised for each topic in geography at advanced level secondary school. The discussion part shades light on the path that needs to be followed by policy makers to mobilize efforts of educationists and other experts in geography, mathematics, statistics and ICT based disciplines. The efforts should focus on gathering and analyzing more of GIS data and also simplify their accessibility by classroom teachers so that they can improve their classroom practice and outdoor learning avenues. The foreseen challenges and the role of individual stakeholders to advance the uses of GIS data in education are also highlighted.
Challenges and opportunities for the advancement of GIS education in Tanzania
(2018) Sumari, N. S.; Shao, Z.; Kira, E.
Rapid developments in science and technology have driven utilization of Geographical Information Science (GIS) in various fields of Planning, Management, and exploitation of environmental resources and provision of social services. As information technology gains momentum, GIS uses information science infrastructure to address the problems of geography, cartography, geosciences locations and related branches of science and engineering; that is shortly referred to as Geo-informatics. Increased application of GIS calls for more demand of advanced Geoinformatics education worldwide. This study has established major challenges for the advancement of Geoinformatics education in Tanzania and any possible opportunities which can be utilized for the improvement of the same. Prominent challenges identified could be associated with lack of reliable power, internet connection, computer system and accessories and appropriate software. Other challenges were related to the nature of the school curriculum and insufficient knowledge and skills of the human resources. Opportunities identified involve available government plans for increasing power supply, increasing mobile phones networks, Tanzania ICT and education and training policy with a major aim of improving ICT education and the competency based school curriculum under implementation. But the government should further support directly or indirectly all efforts by various groups that participate in advancing Geo-informatics education in the country.
Urban expansion: a geo-spatial approach for temporal monitoring of loss of agricultural land
(International Archives for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 2017-09-14) Sumari, N. S.; Shao, Z; Huang, M; Sanga, C. A.; Van Genderen, J. L.
This paper presents some preliminary results from research on monitoring the urban growth of Shenzhen in China. Agriculture is still the pillar of national economies in many countries including China. Thus, agriculture contributes to population growth. Population growth follows either exponential or logistic growth models. These models can be examined using a time-series of geospatial data, mainly historical earth observation imagery from satellites such as LANDSAT. Such multitemporal data may provide insights into settlement analysis as well as on population dynamics and hence, quantify the loss of agricultural land. In this study, LANDSAT data of ten dates, at approximately five yearly intervals from 1977 to 2017 were used. The remote sensing techniques used for analysis of data for 40 years were image selection, then followed by geometric and radiometric corrections and mosaicking. Also, classification, remote sensing image fusion, and change detection methods were used. This research extracted the information on the amount, direction, and speed of urbanization, and hence, the number of hectares of agricultural land lost due to urban expansion. Several specific elements were used in the descriptive model of landscape changes and population dynamics of the city of Shenzhen in China. These elements are: i) quantify the urban changes, from a small town (37.000 people in the early 1970’s) to the megalopolis of around 20 million habitants today. ii) Examining the rate of urban extension on the loss of agricultural landscape and population growth. iii) The loss of food production was analysed against the economic growth in the region. iv) The aspects of loss of agricultural land, area of built-up urban land, and increase in population are studied quantitatively, by the temporal analysis of earth observation geospatial data. The experimental results from this study show that the proposed method is effective in determining loss of agricultural land in any city due to urbanization. It can be used by town planner and other stakeholders such as land surveyors and agriculture experts to mitigate the mushrooming of unplanned settlements in many town / villages and loss of land for agriculture which might cause problems in food security.