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January 26, 2006

Student Acknowledged for Contributions to Environmental Atlas

SIOUX FALLS - Ragna Godtland has earned permanent recognition for her role in making the world a better place.

A senior from Chamberlain, S.D., Godtland’s name is listed in the acknowledgements section of the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) recently published work, “One Planet Many People: Atlas of Our Changing Environment.”

The publication compares and contrasts spectacular satellite images of the past few decades with contemporary images. For example, the population growth around Lake Victoria, East Africa, is the highest in Africa as a result of the natural resources found there. The phenomenon is shown in a series of images from the 1960s to the present with the population rise charted as a rapid spreading area of red zones.

Godtland’s role in the project began her sophomore year when she was a visiting intern with UNEP at the EROS Data Center near Sioux Falls.

“I did Internet and library research,” she said. “I worked at EROS eight hours a week during my sophomore year. The purpose was to note what is changing in the environment in different places, and what are governments doing to encourage conservation. It was fun to learn about different environmental issues around the world.”

She was acknowledged in the book for her contributions.

Some of the projects Godtland researched include the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea, the Ataturk Dam in Turkey, the Salto Caxias Hydropower Project in Brazil, and Lake Chad. Once one of the African Continent’s largest bodies of fresh water, Lake Chad has dramatically decreased in size due to climate changes and human demand for water. It is calculated the lake is now 1/20th the size it was 25 years ago.

One example of how space technology and its application has proven important is that of the Casey Trees Endowment Fund in the District of Columbia. It was set up in 2001 following a generous donation by philanthropist Betty Brown Casey. She was moved to action after seeing satellite images, published in 1999, showing the dramatic loss of trees in the District since the 1970s.

Ola Ullsten, former prime minister of Sweden, and co-chair of the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development, said, “The book demonstrates how our growing number of people and their consumption patterns are shrinking our natural resource base. The challenge is how to satisfy human needs without comprising the health of ecosystems. One Planet Many People is an additional wake-up call to this need.”

Godtland is majoring in biology and will graduate in the spring. Her future plans include optometry school.

Since 1997, Augustana has held the logistical services contract for the EROS Data Center. This contract provides for the management of a variety of international scientific visitors to the center for study and research as well as for the coordination of scientific meetings both in the United States and abroad.