MadAtlas

MadAtlas offers a LMD curriculum based on digital cartographic information for the sustainable development of territories in Madagascar. It combines geography, geomatics and computer science, and leads to research or professionalization by involving public and private actors in town and country planning and information and communication technologies. Digital cartographic information is a powerful vector at the service of sustainable development, transversal to all fields. Madagascar lacks up-to-date and complete cartographic information, which also promotes the participation of the population in public and democratic debate. Collaborative cartographic techniques and geolocation are generating new applications in the management of risks, health, flows and mobility, and are prompting the intervention of volunteer actors, such as the OpenStreetMap community. But Madagascar lacks professionals capable of meeting all of these needs. MadAtlas brings together the complementary skills of a consortium of French institutions: Université Gustave Eiffel (geomatics and distance learning, geography and planning, urban planning and transportation), Bordeaux Montaigne University (geography, local planning and development, digital cartography), IRD (remote sensing and GIS, health, ecology, agro-ecology). This consortium strengthens or creates an original training offer for the University of Fianarantsoa, the second largest university in the country, and will benefit 875 students / year. It concerns the Geography specialization (support for the General Bachelor's degree; creation of a “professional” Bachelor degree in Geomatic and Planning; creation of a Master's degree in Geography and Sustainable Development); the School of Management and Technological Innovation (EMIT), and the National School of Informatics (ENI) with the strengthening of 3 Master's degrees. At the Doctorate level, MadAtlas opens up to different disciplines adopting the geomatics approach. It integrates PhD students and international supervisors in the Center of expertise on Earth Observation (P-COT), and in international research via webinars. It will lead a summer university in geomatics, with an international influence, open to the professional world. An expected deliverable is the launch of an online Atlas of Madagascar, in free access. An inclusive approach is adopted with the creation of a diversity and gender charter, and the creation of social and merit scholarships. Study programmes apply digital cartographic information to crucial themes for sustainable development in Madagascar: Observation and monitoring of climate change; Environmental risk and crisis management; Human health, epidemiology and food; Natural resource management and biodiversity conservation. They provide skills to cope with often neglected changes: urbanization, migration, mobility and transport, urban-rural flows. Regional planning actors (State central services, local authorities, cooperation agencies, CSOs, private companies) and NICTs, through the Information and Communication Technology Operators Group (GOTICOM) are integrated into the project. They participate in the governance advisory board. A network of professional partners will welcome student trainees, issue orders processed by the students of the international multidiciplinary Master's degree in geomatics and planning. The interface between research, training and professional actors will meet the needs for skills in Madagascar, and will stimulate innovation in the emerging field of software solutions integrating the spatial dimension.