## 6 Earth Observation, Archaeological Research and Spatial Privacy

Table 2: Geospatial Products, Space Applications and Disaster/Conservation Management over Africa. Moon and other celestial bodies, shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries, irrespective of their degree of economic or scientific development and shall be the province of all mankind [7; 11]. It is indeed good international policy that all nations big and small be encouraged towards engagement in geospatial research, earth observation and remote sensing activities. An account shows that: \"The fastest growing city in China in economic terms is Shanghai. Since 1996, it has shown an increase in tropospheric nitrogen dioxide of 29%, which is not good news for anyone in China, Europe or the rest of the world.\" Part of the solution to this universal concern appears quite interestingly to have come from the unlikely effort of space scientists in Netherlands where the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KMNI) has developed an integrated information system for monitoring and forecasting tropospheric pollutants over China [141]. Space applications are of crucial value particularly to developing states in conservation and disaster management. This is because operational production, distribution and the effective use of environmental, remote sensing and earth observation data is of enormous benefit to sustainable development in the developing world. The VGT4 Africa project for instance, is but one of the developmental projects that has allowed African states to successfully access satellite technology for vegetation monitoring, food security, early warning crop estimation, livestock modelling and better management of biodiversity [142; 143]. The VGT4 Africa partners are VITO, JRC-IES and MEDIAS-France. The system has been collecting and communicating data derived from the VEGETATION instruments on board SPOT Satellites to states including countries within the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), Sudan, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Ethiopia, Senegal, Congo-Brazzaville, Mauritania, The Gambia, Tunisia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Africa is of course, home to some of the world's fastest growing cities and severe challenges to conservation and pollution concerns will emerge in the course of this century; hence the need for more up to date geospatial information. Africa will of course, have to shore up its competences through regional and cooperative arrangements in space but international scientific aid will also be crucial to development. Going it alone for any country will be expensive, wasteful and perhaps even counter-productive. Large scale separate engagement in space activities by potentially 57 independent states of Africa involving hundreds of private enterprises will perhaps be wasteful and may even present unprecedented dangers. The dangers include contributions to environmental pollution, climate change and international conflict. Scientific projections of the effects of space tourism industry alone shows that with a conservative estimate of 1000 suborbital flights per year rubber-burning engine crafts would produce soot that could disrupt the stratosphere and send temperatures soaring at the poles [144]. Joint cooperation in the acquisition and running of geospatial platforms for earth observation and remote sensing ought therefore, to be encouraged among African states. As earlier on discussed a couple of African Domestic Space Acts lend themselves readily useful for Geospatial, Remote Sensing Disaster Management. In terms of legislative and institutional readiness the Nigerian situation is relatively enviable. The NASRDA Act under Section 11 (1) created certain institutions pertinent to the development of indigenous expertise. Such competences have the potentials of sub regional and regional usefulness if investments are sustained.