Hope for southern Africa as WeMAST geoportals takes Earth Observation to another level
Whilst the southern African region is in the midst of the fight against implications of global climate change, drought, floods, deforestation, veld fires and irregular rainfall patterns, Earth Observation (EO) is a critical aspect that carries the solutions for better predictions, adaption and mitigation of global environmental changes. In this regards, Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL)’s technical initiatives on EO through it’s Wetlands Monitoring and Assessment WeMAST project is bringing hope in the region. It is a game changer!
The project which started in 2017 during its phase one has seen the establishment of e-stations and geoportals which has evolved. The development means that users of the geoportals will be able to predict, adapt and mitigate better, and it enables the development of effective policy framework that will aid to conserve the environment.
According to SASSCAL Director of Science and Technology Dr Budzanani Tacheba, since the development of the WEMAST Geoportal in the phase I to date, there has been great achievements on the enhancement of its services including updated high spatial resolutions datasets, with high quality imagery; enhanced user interface and additional ancillary datasets.
He said that the mobile application allows the registered users of the mobile app to access their collected points on the dashboard and that they can also visualise collected points on the dashboard to assist in validating the WeMAST products.
Moreover, the platform has been updated to enable the use of mapographics as a high level policy related dissemination tool.
About the WeMAST geoportal
The SASSCAL WeMAST geoportal provides a central storehouse for geospatial data related to wetlands including satellite imagery such as land use or land cover, vegetation cover, wetland status and extent, the quality of water and soil moisture among others. The platform also provides access to interactive mapping tool which features interactive mapping tools that tracks changes in wetlands over time.
Furthermore, the geoportal acts as a decision support system for policy and decision-makers, and it is also a collaborative platform where users can share data, exchange knowledge and collaborate on validation and ground-truthing of data on the portal. Capacity building is one of the key aspects in the WeMAST project and the geoportal offers educational resources to enhance understanding of wetlands management and conservation. The community is the main beneficiary of the geoportal Moreover, the geoportal also serves as a tracking tool towards conservation goals and objectives for policy decision-makers. Through the portal, users can generate factsheets, infographics and maps reporting purposes.
About SASSCAL and WeMAST
SASSCAL is a joint initiative of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Germany in response to the challenges of global change. The organisation is the implementing consortium for the WeMAST project. WeMAST is a project under the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) and Africa Support Programme between Africa Union and the European Union in the area of space science and technology. Moreover it is a key priority under the EU-Africa partnership.
GMES & Africa aims to promote development of local capacities, institutional, human and technical resources for access to and exploitation of Earth Observation (EO) based services on an operational basis for sustainable development in Africa.
WeMAST is being implemented in four basins: Cuvelai, Zambezi, Okavango, and Limpopo located in six countries in Southern Africa namely Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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