The papers in this special issue of SAJG are derived from the 2^nd Advances in Geomatics Research Conference held from the 7^th – 8^th of August 2013 at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. The theme of the conference was “Geomatics – The World Around You” and was premised on the need to highlight the role and importance of Geomatics to addressing pertinent development issues in the country and region at large. The conference attracted scholarship in the fields of geodesy, remote sensing applications, GIS, Web GIS and GNSS applications. From these presentations, selected high-quality papers were invited to develop and submit full papers to the SAJG for consideration in a special issue. These papers were subjected to the journal’s review process which involved a double blind peer-review and accepted papers are included in this special issue on successful address of raised concerns.

Schaab et al (2014) harness the use of Geospatial tools in modelling the potential of rain water harvesting in western Kenya. This paper was motivated by the need to explore rain water harvesting as mitigation against the increased demand on the decreasing water resources as a result of climate change characterised by unpredictable weather patterns and increased droughts.

Over the recent past years, the occurrence of landslides in Uganda has been on the increase, hence the need to explore cost effective means of addressing and mitigating against this predicament. Musinguzi and Asiimwe (2014) hence explore and evaluate the existing spatial dataset as inputs into a GIS based landslide risk assessment model for Uganda. This is with a view of developing disaster mitigation planning for early intervention measures.

Mfitumukiza et al. (2014) assess the potential of Landsat and IKONOS satellite imagery in characterising vegetation physiognomic composition using the maximum likelihood and fuzzy classifiers. This paper contributes towards improving the mapping and monitoring of rangeland vegetation.

Abeho et al (2014) evaluate EGM2008 for various regions in Uganda with a view of ascertaining its relevance for geodetic applications. This evaluation involved comparing geoid heights computed from the model with those computed at irregularly distributed GPS/Levelling stations.

Finally, I would like to thank the Editor and Board of the South African Journal of Geomatics for the opportunity and privilege of publishing in this journal. This gesture goes a long way in nurturing and spurring Geomatics scholarship not only in South Africa but Africa at large.

Anthony Gidudu

agidudu@cedat.mak.ac.ug

Chair – Local Organising Committee, AGRC2013

Department of Geomatics and Land Management

Makerere University – Kampala, UGANDA