Ventzeslav Dimitrov, Bulgaria
Ventzeslav Dimitrov, Research Fellow, Bulgaria Space Research Institute, 2001 Scgis Scholar
2001-c_p 2001-s_e
2001 Scgis Scholar Report
Clean Water Club, Bulgaria
First of all I would like to express my gratitude to SCGIS for awarding me an international scholarship and giving me the chance to participate in such significant events as SCGIS and ESRI conferences as well as GIS training.
I am a research fellow in the Space Research Institute, Department of Remote Sensing (RS) and GIS. My professional interests are in the field of satellite image analysis, RS, and GIS integration and applications development. Applications in ecology are of great interest to me. I have participated in projects concerning mapping of forest ecosystems, erosion risk, and monitoring of land use, as well as designing GIS databases of a national park and reserve. I have always considered that protecting the 
environment should be everyone’s responsibility, and I admire the efforts and enthusiasm of people who volunteer in conservation organizations.
My country, Bulgaria, is a relatively small territory, but it is rich in natural resources and biodiversity, and in my opinion considerable effort is being applied to conservation at different levels in the society. Aside from the well-structured governmental institutions, there are nongovernmental organizations (NGO), ecological clubs, and groups involved in conservation. Unfortunately, GIS is implemented mainly in national parks and a few other protected areas. I think there is a need to educate and train conservationists so they understand the potential and specific applications of GIS in their work. About ten NGOs have shown good work during the last year, carrying out different projects. Their main achievements are in biodiversity conservation, public awareness, bird protection, and developing management plans of protected areas. Soon they are going to have a workshop on coordinating and incorporating their activities. One of the issues to be discussed is building and maintaining a common information pool from the considerable data volumes they have acquired.
Conservation organizations and especially NGOs maintain contact with the scientific community. Scientists like me take part in many of the projects and many of us are members of these nonprofit organizations. This facilitates our knowledge and applications transfer to NGOs.
I joined the environmental Clean Water Club about two years ago. They wanted to use satellite images of one of the study areas and approached me for consultation, and that was the beginning of our collaboration. I was attracted by their ideas and enthusiasm and decided to become a part of this community of young people.
Clean Water started as a high school youth environmental club including students from the National High School of Mathematics and Science and some teachers and scientists as scientific advisors. Last year we were granted two ArcView GIS software licenses that let us start informal classes on the basics of GIS and remote sensing. Our goal was to prepare the young people studying geography, geology, biology, ecology, and computer science for the world of new technologies. Most of them will work in the field of environmental science and in conservation, and this knowledge will give them a good background and a better understanding of how beneficial GIS could be toward their efforts.
Clean Water members carry out research projects related to monitoring acid rainfall—a unique natural phenomenon in the area of Sofia, our capital. GIS software was used to integrate field measurement and other relevant data, and GIS analyses were performed. We reported the results of our work at several environmental forums: competitions for young scientists, conferences, and symposia.
Another interesting event that should be mentioned was our participation in GIS Day 2000. It showed us that young people at this school are very interested in GIS and are ready to learn this new technology.
Last year we maintained our contact and cooperation with scientific organizations. This let us increase the number of older people in the club. Now two Ph.D. students have joined us, and this not only helps a lot in the education and training of our younger members but also broadens their possibilities to participate in research projects.
We believe that how old you are and what your profession is are not as important as what your attitude is to the problems of nature conservation. So we try to help everyone who cares about nature and wants to put some effort to its preservation and protection!
