On 11 and 12 February 2019 a Delegation from Azerbaijan and Georgia visited DFD. The occasion was a meeting connected with the GRAZE (Grassland Extent and Condition Mapping in Azerbaijan) project. This project is financed by GIZ, a service provider assisting the German government in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development. It is jointly carried out by scientists from the Land Surface Dynamics department's agroecosystems and phenology team at DFD, the Integrated Management of Biodiversity Programme of GIZ (IBiS) in Baku, and E.C.O., a nature conservation institute in Klagenfurt.
The visitor group included staff from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Azerkosmos OJSC company (Azerbaijan), from the Ministry of Nature Conservation and Agriculture, Ilia State University, and Akhmeta Municipality (Georgia), and from the IBiS programme of GIZ.
During the visit there were extensive discussions about the work to date in the GRAZE project so that feedback could be incorporated in the project results. The Azerbaijani Agricultural Ministry wants to use for sustainable grassland management the satellite-based DFD products on land cover, grassland changes, and on distinguishing differently used winter and summer grazing land. In two training sessions, selected map products that had been generated at DFD as part of the project were reproduced directly by the participants, analysed in GIS programmes, and discussed as to their applicability in other fields and subject areas. The guests were also given a wide overview of DFD research activities. A physical idea of the range of DFD activities could also be provided when the group went to see the reception antennas, the satellite data archive, and the German Space Operations Center (GSOC).