Remote Sensing Education at Bulgarian Universities and High Schools – State of the Art, Perspectives and Significance

In the second half of the last century, remote sensing methods became increasingly influent in the civil sector of the economy. Their various applications such as monitoring and analysis of the atmosphere, terrestrial and aquatic features of the environment, made them widely applicable in numerous scientific and economic fields. The purpose of present work is to describe the past, current status, future perspectives and significance of remote sensing education at Bulgarian universities and high schools. The methods used are review of the available literature, questionnaires with students and academic staff and internet survey. The beginning of the remote sensing education for civil purposes in Bulgaria started in the early 1940’s with the establishment of the High School of Technics in Sofia. From the 1970’s remote sensing methods were developed, studied and applied in the institutes of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Some of the pioneers in the development of specialized applications and education in remote sensing of Ph.D. students in Bulgaria are Space Research Institute, National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology, Institute of Geography, Central Laboratory of Geodesy and Institute of Oceanology. Nowadays, remote sensing courses are included in the curriculum of several universities such as Sofia University, The University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy, University of Mining and Geology, Technical University of Sofia, University of Forestry, New Bulgarian University. At high-school education remote sensing introductory courses have been taught since the middle of 1990’s at the National High School of Mathematics and Science. At present, the principles and methods of remote sensing have their applications in geodesy, civil engineering, geology, geography, landscape science, ecology, geomorphology, archaeology and preserving the natural and cultural heritage. The perspectives for remote sensing education in Bulgaria are connected with better understanding of the essence and effectiveness of remote sensing at solving or mitigating of the global issues of 21 century.