The Globe

The Globe

In 2005, I found Google Earth in the net.  I was working for a Consultant company which doing a management consultancy for implementation of  Marine Management Program. Our area was Province North Sumatra, consist of three implementation regencies. They are Nias Regency, South Nias Regency and Central Tapanuli Regency. The job needed knowledge about the area which included in the program. Most of the location for the program implementation were in small island and coastal villages in the regencies. In the time, the information about the villages were limited and  lacks of good maps of the area either.

See also Indonesia Archipelago to see the Indonesia Islands

Luckily, I found Google Earth while browsing about satellite photos of North Sumatra. The first time I installed and then explored the Free Edition of Google Earth, it was very interesting. The software was very helpful for me to get orientation in the working area. In that time, most of the North Sumatra Province area was greenish and blurred. Even so, it was still helpful to show the borders, islands and the orientation of nearby places.

Most of the location in North Sumatra was taken in high eye altitude which showed less detail of earth surface features. But, not in a long time, some area got clearer and more details images. In my opinion, it was correlated with the disaster that happened in North area of Sumatra. End of 2004 Earthquake and Tsunami in Aceh, and 2005 Earthquake that hit Nias Island. The disaster have severely impacts to the areas.

The disaster that killed hundred of thousand people, got attentions from countries around the world to help the impacted areas. Many International Organizations and Non Governmental Organizations come to Aceh and Nias. They helped to rehabilitate and reconstruct the areas that destroyed by the disaster. Due to the implementation of rehabilitation and reconstruction programs, geographical information is needed. The fastest way to get the geographical information is by using satellite photos. The programs implementation for the rehabilitation and reconstruction aids supported the availability of more details satellite imageries in Aceh and North Sumatra Area. 

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Google Earth