National Environmental Observatory in Lattakia

LATTAKIA, (ST) -The Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs recently launched the National Environmental Observatory Project in Lattakia. A presentation was made about the observatory project and the project that had been done in the Great Northern River.

Director of Studies Department at the ministry, eng  Mahmoud Haider, said to reporters that the Observatory, which was launched at the national level, will work to accomplish an integrated environmental map for Syria and specific maps and to every governorate and databases for all activities that occur within the framework of sustainable development.

He noted that the observatory includes a collection of digital maps for all aspects of pollution in addition to satellite images, pointing out that a team, composed of all central departments in the governorate, is now rehabilitated for this purpose.

“A range of applications related to environment maps and databases will be accomplished, whereas an integrated study about the Great Northern River has been done in the form of digital maps and databases as constituents of the environmental observatory concerning water resources in Latakia and a study will be conducted about all water sources in the governorate and completed as required,” eng. Haider clarified.

For his part, Director of Agricultural and Environmental Studies at Remote Sensing Association, Dr. Yunus Idris, explained that the importance of the study of the Great Northern River is to bring out the situation of the basin, undulations of the ground, the morphological situation and the mechanics of sewage discharge, industrial, economic and tourist installations and olive presses.

The aim of the National Environmental Observatory, which was initiated in September last year, at the central level in Damascus is to unify the environmental work and continue building  databases and develop data bank to be able to store environmental projects carried out in the ministry, publish the results among bodies concerned according to an agreed system, ensure the safety of networking between the ministry and sub-districts and other institutions concerned in addition to training and rehabilitation of a team of technicians and engineers from the departments of Environmental Affairs in the rest of the governorates.

Sh. Kh.