As part of the final steps in the GlobWetlandII project, the future users of the software will  be trained by the team in order to ensure the lasting impact and optimal use of the system capabilities. The GlobWetlandII team is organising four training sessions- in Jordan, 22- 23 May 2012, in Algeria, 18- 21 June, Tunisia, 25-28 June and Morocco 2-5 July.

The two day sessions include presentations and training on the GlobWetlandII nomenclatures, pre-processing, land cover and water cycle mapping, indicator calculation and validation and map improvements. The training material are available on DVD and in printed form and demonstrate to the participants the whole process from finding and downloading Landsat images to creating and using relevant maps.

In Jordan in the training session, held in the premises of the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN), participants from Jordan, Lebanon and Libya were present.

As stated by the project coordinator, Ms Kathrin Weise “GW-II has entered the most important phase of the project. The first delivery of the GW-II software toolboxes to the users in Middle East at the end of May was a key moment in the lifetime of the project.” During the month of June other trainings will take place in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco.

The training sessions have proved to be useful for the participants who have increased their knowledge on the system software through the training but also for the GlobWetlandII team which received interesting feedback on how to improve the system and the training process.

It is expected that the impact of the GlobWetlandII will be maintained and magnified by national actors and will go a long way in assisting wetland management and better knowledge of their functions and status through the use of new technologies.