IMEESA specialises in making military engineering expertise available for development assistance and will focus on research, training and consultancy services. The Institute believes that it can play an important role in reconstruction and development projects, not only in South Africa but also southern Africa.

The term 'military engineering' refers to the functions traditionally performed internationally by soldiers of the engineer corps of an army. It includes the professional engineering disciplines such as combat engineers, operational construction specialists and operational mapping. A person trained to be a military engineer is generally referred to as a 'Sapper' a name that dates back to ancient times. It is emphasised that the term, 'military engineering' is used to indicate the skills of the members of the Institute, and does not in any way refer to soldiering. Under no circumstances will the Institute involve itself in any military activities.

The terms mapping and GIS are not always understood by people and are confusing. The two applications are two separate identities. Digital mapping systems are used to provide the geographical base data for the GIS. In many situations, the GIS system is often used as a mapping system. Due to the systems being incorrectly utilised and the operators having no or very little mapping background or understanding the principles, concepts and utilisation of the systems, one often hears of the system not functioning as expected.

People always say that a map is just a picture and to a certain extent this is true. However, a picture is not accurate and a true representation of the area it is supposed to represent as opposed to a map.

A map will show you, by means of symbols, natural and artificial features on the surface of the earth. GIS will add attribute data saying that a road has two lanes going north, two lanes going south, has a concrete surface, built in 1998 by Good Luck Construction, etc.

Recently, a company tried to sell the digital RSA 1:500 000 data as RSA 1:250 000 data, only altering the scale, not taking into consideration that there need to be a lot of alterations done to the data to get to a RSA 1:500 000 scale. When questioned it was found that no one in the office had any mapping background or training.

Kevin Bolton says that GIS and the digital base data will be tools of the future for decision makers.

When one attends management courses one often hears of the 5 Ms, as applied in management: man, machine, money, material and management. But can these function today without the sixth M, that being MAPS?

"We say that no decision-making process can be finalised without the use of a map of sorts and therefore it is just as important as the other five Ms," he adds. "The everyday man in the street learns about maps at school, but has very little or no experience of using maps in the field. Maybe you are someone who has had the opportunity to use a map but you are most probably self-taught. How many people understand datums, spheroids etc, what they are used for, where and when? This is now especially relevant with the availability of the global positioning system (GPS) and the implications with the recent change of spheroids from Clarke 1880 MOD (RSA) to WGS 84 (Internationally) in South Africa."

The situation is such that the Chief Directorate Surveys and Mapping has launched a project to train and retrain members of the Governmental Services on how to read, interpret and utilise the information gained from a map. The project is driven by Lorraine Innes in Cape Town and is known as the MapAware Project.

By interpreting and applying this geographical information correctly one will save time, money and get better and more accurate results at the end of the day.

It is due to these facts that IMEESA and K.J. Bolton, Consultant cc have formed a partnership to offer the following courses:

* Map reading.

* Global positioning system.

* Basic principles and concepts of map making (for GIS operators without a mapping background).

* Digital mapping management (future).

All these courses can be adapted to the clients' particular requirements. Aspects that are addressed during the map reading and GPS courses include: map symbols, relief, map reading, magnetic declination, datums, coordinate systems, RSA map reference system, global positioning system (GPS) theory, GPS initialisation and GPS and map reading exercise.

For further details contact: IMEESA, telephone (012) 207 1306 or Kevin Bolton 083 596 2366.