The Scientific and Engineering Republican Unitary Enterprise "Geoinformation Systems" was funded according to Ordinance № 62 of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus dated of June 27, 1996 and its business premises were distributed according to the existing laboratories and divisions of the Institute of Technical Cybernetics (ITC of NAS of Belarus), that were dedicated to developments in the field of digital mapping and GIS technologies. Our enterprise was prescribed to Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus in 2002. Founder's rights were assigned to the State Scientific Institution known as The United Institute of Informatics Problems of The NAS of Belarus in 2007, an enterprise associated to the physics, mathematics and informatics division of The NAN of Belarus. The Unitary Enterprise "Geoinformation Systems" is an state legal entity to whom has been transferred the operative control of all the ground facilities of the Belarusian Space System for Earth Remote Sensing (BSSERS).

Nowadays, our enterprise is formed by the BSSERS Exploitation Center and five scientific and production divisions. The full-time stuff of our enterprise consists of 192 employees, from them 168 with higher education and 12 with academic degrees and titles.

Main research and development enterprise profiles: theoretical and practical issues for GIS and Earth Observation Systems (EOS) development; Earth surface aerospace data input and processing methods, and its combination with the relevant mapping base; technological processes of thematic processing, storage and data dissemination; development and implementation of geoinformational technologies and systems using EOS materials, digital maps, topographic maps and ground-based observations; development and implementation of automatic decision support systems on the basis of geoinformatic technologies and intelligent expert systems; development and implementation of computerized mapping systems for getting and updating digital terrain maps; planning and control of Belarusian satellite image acquisitions; methods, algorithms and software for solving applied tasks of Belarusian and foreign space data users. Our enterprise has being assigned the National Operator of the BSSERS and is one of its main developers from 2004.


Our enterprise has participated in different Belarusian space projects from 1996 to 1998 and in the National Space Program for peaceful research and uses of the outer space from 2008 to 2012. At the same time we have carried out the development of tactical and technical requirements, as well as the organizational and technical support of all the works for development of the first two Belarusian space vehicles known as BelKa (from 2003 to 2006) and BKA (from 2007 to 2012). Our first satellite was unsuccessfully launched in 2006 by a Dnepr conversion rocket, while the second one was successfully launched into orbit on July 22, 2012. Our enterprise is currently participating in the «High Technologies and Techniques» state program (planned from 2016 to 2020) as the leading organization for the #7 subprogram, addressed to the «research and peaceful uses of the outer space».

Our enterprise has developed information systems for processing of satellite data on applications as detection of fire spots and flooding, development and forecasting of anthropic and natural disasters; soil fertility assessment and use of forest resources; generation of digital elevation models, updating of digital and topographic maps; prediction of crop yields and weather forecasting. The results of the thematic processing performed with such information systems are used for the information support of governmental regulatory authorities. Our information systems are used by the Ministry of Disasters Management; the Republican Center of Hydrometeorology, radioactive contamination supervision and environmental monitoring; Belgosles Republican Unitary Enterprise; Belgeodesy Republican Unitary Enterprise, The National Cadastral Agency and other territorial services.

The practical realization of those works has encouraged the creation of cadastral information systems for the gas distribution networks of the cities of Gomel, Mogilev, Grodno and Brest. There have been implemented software tools for updating of GIS data bases of the state urban cadaster of Gomel district. Our international activity has promoted the cooperation with the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Venezuela and several Middle East countries.


A very important place in the activity of our enterprise is our participation in the implementation of Belarusian-Russian Common State programs. Our enterprise participated in the execution of Russian-Belarusian joint programs as «Cosmos-BR» (from 1999 to 2002), «Cosmos-SG» (from 2004 to 2007), «Cosmos-NT» (from 2008 to 2011), and currently we are carrying out a series of projects within the frames of «Monitoring-SG» program (from 2013 to 2017). A lot of the obtained scientific and technical results have been practically applied to implementation of the BSSERS. During the execution of the «Standardization-SG» program (from 2011 to 2014) there were developed 29 standards, 27 of them have been harmonized with the standards of the European Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS).

The international cooperation has reached a significant development in the last years. Within the frames of the works with RSC «Energia» (Russian Federation) we have jointly integrated the specialized software of the «E-star» Mission Control Center, which allows to successfully carry out «Egyptsat» fly testing procedures and assures a qualitative system exploitation thanks to the centralized control and the coordination of the performance of all the elements of the ground segment, the monitoring of its performance and its interaction with external space data users.

Another example of fruitful international cooperation are the works for assessment of ecological risks and prediction of environmental changes due to the erosion in the coasts of Venezuela. There have been established the main trends of the degradation processes and have been calculated the relevant average annual rates. There have been issued practical recommendations on safety measures for coast neighboring populated areas and industrial settlements. These works are furtherly performed using additional highly informative sources.

The additional extension of the BSSERS effective performance has been assured to the creation of the Russian – Belarusian space constellation formed by «Canopus-V» № 1 and the BKA satellite. The use of its information resources is assured on a parity basis by the BSSERS National Operator (UE «Geoinformation Systems») and the National Operator of the Russian Space System for Earth Observation (Russian Corporation for Rocket-Space Device Engineering and Information Systems, JSC, Scientific Center for Earth Operative Monitoring), also known as «Russian Space Systems» JSC.

Besides the BSSERS development, our enterprise has assured the uninterrupted exploitation of the BKA spacecraft during three years to suit the needs of more than 20 enterprises from 11 ministries of the Republic of Belarus.

Dear colleagues,

Please accept my warmest congratulations on the occasion of the 20^th anniversary of our enterprise, my appreciation and gratitude for these years of strong and fruitful performance, as well as my wishes of good health and further creative accomplishments for the benefit of our common goal.


S.A. Zolotoy
Enterprise Director & BSSERS Chief Designer