The Centre for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Services began as a Remote Sensing Laboratory set up in 1990 by the University of Ghana, and located in the Department of Geography and Resource Development; with the aim of teaching and conducting research. Under the Ghana Environmental Resource Management Project (GERMP), the Laboratory was commissioned by the Environmental Protection Agency, to produce Current Land use information under the Environmental Information System Development component. The status of the laboratory was then upgraded to the Remote Sensing Applications Unit. The mandates were to produce a national digital map of current land use, with accompanying bulletins for each administrative region at the scale of 1:250,000 using satellite image data. They were also tasked with developing the capacity to offer Remote Sensing and GIS services on a contractual basis. In 2000, CERSGIS was formally inaugurated as a self-sustaining non-profit organization. The principal activity of focus of CERSGIS is management of geographic information for sustainable development planning.
