UN hands over high satellite image to Ghana for street naming project

The UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has handed over a high resolution Multispectral Satellite Image of the Greater Accra region to Ghana.

This follows a request made by Ghana’s Vice-President John Mahama to the UN agency in order to support the country’s street naming initiative.

The satellite image was handed over to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed to that effect, according to a statement issued by the ECA.

“The high-resolution orthorectified satellite imagery was handed over by the ISTD director, Ms. Aida Opoku-Mensah, to the Ministry of Local Government & Rural Development in Accra, Ghana,” the statement said.

According to the ECA’s ICT, Science and Technology Division (ISTD), the Satellite image is expected to provide a strong base for three-dimensional feature recognition, extraction and exploitation for development of permanent or transient addresses needed for better public services delivery, in such areas as access to markets, emergency response, delivery of goods and revenue collection in urban and rural areas.

The imagery, according to the ECA is a GeoStereo Orthorectified Multispectral Satellite Image, that is GIS-ready and ideally suited for creating and/or revising cadastral mapping and updating urban features as well as other analytical applications that require a high degree of accuracy.

Mr John Dramani Mahama in early January 2012 announced that government was seeking technical assistance from the ECA for the country’s street naming and house numbering project.

Later in April 2012, Ghana rolled out a national policy document on the street naming project.

The Document was designed by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development in collaboration with the German International Cooperation, United States Agency for International Development, World Bank, the European Union among other partners.

By Ekow Quandzie