SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE NIGERIA SAT-II AND SAT-X LAUNCH INTO SPACE

As Nigeria establish its prescence in the Space technology world again, by lauching its Nig-Sat II and NigSat-X Satellites on August 17, 2011 at 7.15 GMT in Yasni, Russia; so much question lingers in the mind of every Nigerian on how much benefit these Satellites in outer space could bring to the man on the streets of Nigeria, perhaps to Africans at Large.

The Nigeria SAT-II has a resolution of 2.5m (panchromatic), 32m (compatible with DMC) and 5m (multispectral) at 700km; has a swath of 300km and mass of 286kg; its application areas include land resources, water resources,the environment and monitoring of disaster prone areas in Nigeria and neighbouring countries. The Nigeria SAT-X built by Nigerian Engineers from the National Space Research Development Agency (NASRDA) is an Earth Observation satellite with resolution of 22m at 700km, has a swath of 600km with a mass of 88.1kg; application areas will include mapping, agriculture, urban planning etc

Space technology as always been finding increasing application and relevance in daily life, to the point where, nowadays, space applications are an indispensible part of the modern information society. With Insecurity and Natural Disasters been prevalent in Nigeria, and the Sub Saharan Africa, one of the potentials of these Satellites is the ability to address issues of National Insecurity by protecting lives, properties and the environment, Allow for early warning systems in Disaster Preparedness; co-ordinates Emmergency Response,and stimulates industrial and economic development.

In some developing countries that are operating satellites of their own - Venezuela, Brazil, Belarus, Saudi Arabia, Greece, Algeria, Turkey, South Africa, Malaysia and a list of others, space applications include its use for urban planning and transportation, water resources and agriculture, addressing issues of air pollution and energy, disaster and natural resource management, positioning and navigation, Health issues, education and communication.

Nevertheless,in Nigeria, these space applicatons still remain vague owing to the fact that education and capacity building initiatives have not been encouraged to develop the requisite human capital to support activities of National Space Agencies in the country, which includes development of space applications products and services. However,with the launch of these two satellites, our decision makers and policy makers should be able to set up SpaceAid resources - which could be delivered by the media - web, TV, mobile, radio, prints that includes availability of space-based products - remote sensing, mapping, geo-datas, geo-links and databases, satellite imageries, pre and post-disaster imageries, and early warning systems.

CITIZEN REPORTING AND THE LAGOS TRAFFIC CROWDMAP

Lagos state, the smallest in Nigeria, has a population of 17 million out of a national estimate of 150 million. The UN estimates that at its present growth rate, Lagos state will be third largest mega city the world by year 2015 after Tokyo in Japan an Bombay in India.

Out Of the overwhelming population, Metropolitan Lagos, an area covering 37% of the land area of Lagos State is home to over 85% of the State population. The state has become the economy center of Nigeria.

Current demographic trend analysis revealed that the State population growth rate of 8% has resulted in its capturing of 36.8% of Nigeria’s urban population (World Bank, 1996) estimate at 49.8 million people of the nation’s million population. The implication is that whereas country population growth is 4/5% and global 2%, Lagos population is growing ten times faster than New York and Los Angeles with grave implication for urban sustainability and especially traffic in the state.

The Lagos Traffic Map hopes to account for the appalling situation that inhabitant and motorists go through everyday; helps to give out early warnings to air, water and road users; and helps emergency managers in coordinating and managing mishaps. The Lagos Traffic Map is a two months pilot project that is been coordinated by the ihumanitarian group in Nigeria and some SBTF members in Nigeria. The ihumanitarian group are volunteers from Nigeria that uses the internet, their laptop and mobile phones to help co-ordinate emergencies and help disseminate early warning