Intern in Remote Sensing and GIS applied to precision agriculture - Ben guérir

Located at the heart of the future Green City of Benguerir, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P), a higher education institution with international standards, is established to contribute to the development of Morocco and the African continent. Its vision is honed around research and innovation at the service of education and development. This unique nascent university, with its state-of-the-art campus and infrastructure, has woven a sound academic and research network, and its recruitment process is seeking high quality academics and professionals in order to boost its quality-oriented research environment in the metropolitan area of Marrakech.

CRSA is a transversal structure across several UM6P Programs. Research within the center is organized around several major areas that aim to ensure the challenging Food and Water security goal in Africa, with a special focus on developing methods/tools that use multi-source remotely sensed data. The research aims to improve our understanding of the integrated functioning of continental surfaces and their interaction with climate and humans, with emphasis on sustainable management of natural resources (soil, land, water, agriculture) in the context of Climate Change. One of the center’s goals is to provide a set of services and operational products to users (local, national and international) that aid in the decision support of water and food systems.

The Center for Remote Sensing Applications CRSA is seeking a highly motivated student ready to join the team to work, support and contribute to its ongoing research projects.

Functions

The interns will have to help doctoral students in their projects for the collection of data in the field and their subsequent processing in the laboratory. The research topics focus on the leverage of remote sensing and spatial soil and crop data to identify crop types, implement variable rate management systems and to close yield gap. This may include the use of numerous measuring devices (i.e., GNSS, GIS data collectors) for recording crop types and soil physical and chemical components. Missions in Tensift irrigated area are planned for the sampling of crops and soils. The intern will participate in data analysis (construction of databases and modelling). The trainee will therefore be included in many projects to maximize his learning and the acquisition of new skills. The internships will be carried out on the following research projects of Pr. LAAMRANI Ahmed and his team.

Key Responsibilities:

• Assist in collecting soil and crop data from the field using appropriate sampling methods.
• Compile spatial data sets from multiple sources, including satellite data, GPS, field data, external databases, satellite images, and environmental monitoring data.
• Manage a digital library of geographic maps in various file types & analyze spatial data for patterns and trends through spatial mapping of data.
• Prepare reports based on spatial data & develop and maintain technical process and procedure documentation and report on an on-going basis.

Experience and Qualifications:

• Last year students/ Graduates in: agronomy (Soil science, plant biotechnology), with initial experience in remote sensing and GIS or Masters in GIS/Remote sensing.
• Experience doing field work (field data collection, soil, and crop sampling).
• Good knowledge in statistical analysis
• Good knowledge using one of the popular GIS software (QGIS, ArcGIS, GDAL).
• Agronomy foundations knowledge is a plus.
• Experience with statistical and numerical software (i.e, R/matlab/SPSS ) is a plus.
• Experience in spatial-temporal data manipulation, analysis and interpretation is a plus.
• Ability to work and learn autonomously & to work well in a multi-disciplinary team environment.

Number of positions: 1 intern

Expected starting date: April 1st, 2022

Work mode: Hybrid

The internship duration: 6 months