REMOTE SENSING PILOT PROJECT

This final evaluation covers the period 1/78-8/79 and consists of a Mission review of an attached special evaluation (PD-AAI-303-B1). The project, which was conducted by Resource Development Associates as the second, pilot-project, stage of a three-phase program, emphasized training personnel in data collection and analysis, conducting a forestry inventory, and monitoring the growth of the San Jose metropolitan area. USAID/CR agrees with the following findings of the evaluation team, some of which relate to the project"s third phase: (1) Although color-infrared, aerial photography is technically best for supporting natural vegetation inventories, ease of film processing and reproduction makes panchromatic or perhaps untested black and white infrared photography generally more useful. (2) Due to its inaccuracy and lack of discrimination, use of digital analysis of LANDSAT multispectral scanner data (MSS) is not recommended. (3) Map products were generally of good technical quality, although several maps are of doubtful utility due to data limitations. (4) The value of RS data in Costa Rica seems to far exceed the cost of data collection and analysis -- present prices charged to data users by the National Geographical Institute make the data highly cost-effective. (5) Little was done in the project to identify the many current and potential Costa Rican users of RS data. (6) Since decisions on data collection and analysis did not seem to be limited by cost, it is unfortunate that neither black and white IR photography nor good-quality LANDSAT imagery were obtained. (7) Much (not all) of the data collected and/or mapped appears useful for GOCR agencies, but few of these agencies inspected the actual products. (8) GOCR is developing programs that require increasing the resource information available to user agencies. The Inter-American Development Bank has agreed to support the use of RS in Costa Rica.