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Full Name:                                                               Olipa Simon

Profession:                                                              Senior GIS Laboratory Scientist

Date of Birth:                                                           21 September, 1974

Nationality:                                                              Tanzanian

Membership of Professional Societies:               Institutional of Surveyors of Tanzania

Key Qualifications

Ms. Olipa Simon is a Geomatician by profession specialized in Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing. She has been working with University of Dar es Salaam -Institute of Resource Assessment for 16 years now as Principal GIS Laboratory Scientist. Among her duties are Designs and supervises construction of experimental test rigs for M.Sc. and Ph.D. students and for other research and development projects in the GIS laboratory, Conducts consultancy in the area of GIS and Remote Sensing, Supervises and orients technicians and artisans in their duties and to conducts on-the-job training for Technicians and Artisans.

She has also worked with Food and Agriculture Organization for 2 years as National Consultant Forest Cover Change analysis. Among the task at FAO was to assess and establish historical forest area changes at the national level for the target years 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010, Develop methodology for Forest Area Change detection, carryout land cover change detection to determine the area changes between the range of specified years above, validate the interpretation results, produce a final data sets and maps and generate the statistical results on areas of the different land use unit at National Level as well as District Level and to Produce required thematic maps and statistics related to forest area change and the divers of deforestation

In addition to that, she has also worked with Geita Gold Mine Ltd for 2 years as GIS administrator under exploration department. As a GIS Administrator some of the tasks performed were data capturing, Map production, data processing and analysis using GIS and Remote Sensing for gold exploration

Education/Other Courses

2006.   MSc. Computer Science, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

2001.   BSc. Land Surveying (Geomatics, FIRST class honors), University of Dar es

Salaam

2007.   Certificate in Principles and Application of GIS and Remote Sensing in Natural  Resource Management, Institute of Geoinformatics and Earth Observation, ITC, Netherlands

2008.   Certificate in Free and Open Source software for Land Evaluation and Land use

Planning, Katholieke, Universitet, Belgium,

2011.   Certificate in Image and Geospatial Data Processing using OpenForisToolkit, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Rome – Italy, 2011

2017:   Spatial Data analysis and modelling for Agricultural development, with R, Arusha

– Tanzania

2016:   Vegetation Mapping and Monitoring Using Sentinel-2 data, Consortium for

Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria – South Africa

2017:   Climate Change Vulnerability and Hotspots Mapping for Wami-Ruvu and Rufiji basins in Tanzania – Morogoro Tanzania

2019    Womein in Vulnerability Assessments training workshop, Kigali - Rwanda

Academic awards/prizes

• Ministry of science and Technology – Best final year student as judged by overall performance
• National Construction Council prize – Best female student

Employment Record:

Employer 1: University of Dar es Salaam

From: 2003

To: to date

Position: Principal GIS Laboratory Scientist

Tasks:

1. Train postgraduate students on principles and applications of GIS and Remote sensing in Natural resource management and climate change
2. Conducts consultancy in the area of GIS and Remote Sensing
3. Supervises and orients technicians and artisans in their duties
4. Conducts on-the-job training for Technicians and Artisans
5. Conduct short courses  training in GIS and Remote Sensing for various applications

Employer 2: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations

From: 2011

To: 2013

Position: National Consultant Forest Area Change

Tasks:

1. Assess and establish historical forest area changes at the national level for the target years 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010.
2. Develop methodology for Forest Area Change detection
3. Carryout land cover change detection to determine the area changes between the range of specified years above
4. Validate the interpretation results, produce a final data sets and maps and generate the statistical results on areas of the different land use unit at National Level as well as District Level
5. Produce required thematic maps and statistics related to forest area change and the divers of deforestation

Employer 3: Geita Gold Mining Ltd

From: 2001

To: 2003

Position: Geographic Information Systems Administrator

Tasks:

Data capturing, Map production, data processing and analysis using GIS and Remote Sensing, desktop cartography for Gold exploration.