Importance of GNSS to Nigeria

IMPORTANCE OF GNSS TO NIGERIA

GNSS means Global Navigational Satellite System, it is a system of collection of satellites and earth stations that communicate in such a way as to provide basically location data. The system can in some cases provide other informations like accurate time, meteorological data, amongst others. The various types of Global Navigational Satellite systems include the GPS (Global Positioning System, developed by USA), GLONASS (Global Navigational Satellite system, developed by Russia), Galileo (developed by UK), Beidou (developed by China) and other regional satellite navigational systems such as the Navigation with the Indian Constellation (NAVIC), Beidou-1, and Quazi-Zenith satellite system (QZSS). Nigeria has about three satellites in space, but has only one communication satellite but we still rely strongly on foreign technology for our navigation system. The most popular and widely accepted navigational system in Nigeria is the GPS. 

The applications of these navigation systems are vast. Thus, we  shall be  looking at some of the applications within the Nigerian context. 

Navigation;

The use of the GPS receivers is common in Nigeria these days especially with the use of the GPRS enabled GPS versions in mobile phones that allow us to use are mobile phones as mini-maps, route navigation aids and finding places. The GPS receivers are also used for outdoor camp exercises for navigation, funny enough some receivers can tell if there would be plenty fishes, so some fishermen can get that to enhance there trade. we could also build in receivers into our cars to avoid theft and trace them when they are stolen. Also, we could use these trackers on our kids, or animals to track them and ensure that they are safe. The GPS is used for aircraft navigation and navigation on water as well, whether on the high sea or in-land water ways. The research on the use of Global navigation is increasing everyday, so as a young engineer you could pick a project in any.

 Survey and Mapping;

We also use GPS for surveying and mapping in Nigeria. A simple way to generate a map of an area is to take the GPS coordinates of the total area of where you intend to get the map, then download the google map software, put in these coordinates, it will pin point the particular area then you could zoom in and cut the area out using the snipping tool. Professional map designers use more detailed means anyway to provide detailed maps. Another area where each state in Nigeria can adopt into their laws to fight land grabbers and make land acquisition easy, is to use the Geographic Information System (GIS) for land administration. It is in use in some states anyway, such as Abuja (AGIS), Nassarawa, Kaduna and Lagos states. A possible implication is that, the states encourages all land Lords to register the coordinates of the total area of their land with the government in a particular database management station, and a virtual copy is made available to all over the wide area network (internet for instance). Then, once anyone purchases land anywhere you can check if its been bought online before you even make payment, and after you buy you just would go and register with the government, easy! Then the laws should be amended to accommodate it. 

Precision Agriculture

GPS receivers could be built into farm machines to control them precisely and remotely to apply fertilizer, plow, harvest, weed, make ridges amongst many other tasks. Also, the satellites can tell if  a particular soil lacks moisture, fertilizer, or even if the plant in some area lacks fertilizer as well. So these could help the farmer know exactly where and when to apply fertilizer or irrigate more. It finds its application as well in animal farming where GPS trackers are mounted on free range animals (especially cows) to track there movement or direct there path and study their movement habits.

Other uses include;

• Military Navigation
• Military precision guided weapons and target acquisition

There are so many other applications, i might not have included. I indeed encourage young Nigerian engineers to carry out further research on these areas and see how we could further use it to solve our daily life problems. I hope these post was helpful?