Assessment of Insights from Ethiopian Geospatial Experts into Utilizing Continuously Operating Reference Stations: Implications for Geodetic Infrastructure Development

The demand and establishment of continuously operating reference stations (CORSs) are growing fast around the world including in African countries due to having several benefits, such as the provision of accurate, homogeneous positional coordinates and the reduction of duplication and unnecessary transformation. Ethiopia prepared a 10-year geodetic infrastructure development implementation plan for modernizing geodetic services via the CORS network. To fully utilize the proposed CORS network, there is a need to investigate the overall status and limitations of the geospatial experts. The objective of this study was to gauge the awareness level and readiness of the experts to use the existing and proposed CORS in Ethiopia. A mixed research method was applied. About 244 respondents from 68 geospatial industries throughout the country filled out the survey questionnaires, and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. The findings of the study revealed that only 16.4% of the respondents had a better understanding of the concept of CORS and were able to operate CORS data, while 83.6% of respondents lacked the knowledge required to effectively use CORS technology for their geospatial applications. Extensive training must be given for both academics and nonacademics geospatial professionals because 98.4% of the participants currently express a desire for basic short-term CORS training that teaches them the best use of CORS technology.

The study attempted to investigate the overall status and limitations of the geospatial professions in Ethiopia concerning CORS technology. This study is crucial for the different global navigation satellite system (GNSS)/CORS or geospatial stakeholders such as the International GNSS Service (IGS), Space and Earth Geodetic Analysis Laboratory (SEGAL), the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM), and the UN-GGIM Subcommittee on Geodesy, Africa Geodetic Reference Frame (AFREF) project to evaluate the progress of implementation of a global geodetic reference frame (GGRF) over the globe and a unified geodetic reference frame in Africa. The findings of the study revealed that a significant portion of the geospatial professions never used CORS due to a lack of understanding of CORS, being unable to operate it, and their organization’s lack of GNSS equipment. Establishing GNSS/CORS infrastructure by itself is nothing unless work has been done on providing technical skills in data handling and dissemination and precise analysis using scientific GNSS processing software in conjunction with the technology expansion. As a result, the aforementioned and other concerned nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) should work on the capacity development of the academics and nonacademics geospatial professionals whose countries show a knowledge limitation in such technology.