MESA PROGRAM

Monitoring and Evaluating NR in the drylands: the Add value of Earth

Observation, the continental perspective

Done by MESA TAT

3rd Africa Dryland Week: 8-12 August 2016Windhoek - Namibia

Objective of the presentation

1. Introducing earth observation2. Sentinel 2 – current and potential applications for Dryland3. Added value of earth observation for dry land areas in Africa4. The continental Perspective: the example of MESA 5. MESA Service usage examples: Botswana Drought Assessment

- Earth observation is the gathering

of information about planet Earth's

physical, chemical and biological

systems via remote sensing

technologies + earth surveying

techniques.

- EO is used to monitor and assess

the status of and changes in the

natural environment and built

environment

What is Earth Observation ?

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Possible uses:

1.Forecasting weather

2.Tracking biodiversity and wildlife trends

3.Measuring land-use change (such as deforestation)

4.Monitoring and responding to natural disasters, including fires, floods,

5.Managing natural resources, such as energy, freshwater and

agriculture • addressing emerging diseases and other health risks

6.Predicting, adapting to and mitigating climate change

What is Earth Observation ?

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• EO is usually done by launching remote sensing

satellites and using in situ instruments generating

comprehensive, near-real time observations

• These satellites can assist environmental

monitoring by detecting changes in the Earth's

vegetation, land degradation, deforestation, natural

habitat, bush fire, agricultural status etc.

• By monitoring vegetation changes over time, land

degradation and droughts can be monitored by

comparing the current vegetation state to its long

term average

• *

Earth Observation

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• European Space Agency (ESA) is deploying a new family of missions calledSentinels.

• The Sentinels are a fleet of satellites designed to deliver data and imagery.

• The Sentinel-2 mission offers continuity and expands the coverage with itsmultispectral imager.

• It has a spatial resolution of 10 m

• Sentinel-2A was launched on 23 June 2015 and Sentinel-2B will follow in thesecond half of 2016.

• The mission’s revisit time is just 5 days, when both satellites are operational,and currently only 10 days with Sentinel-2A alone, a

• This implies that changes in plant health and growth can be more easilymonitored.

• Data is free.

Sentinel-2 and African Drylands

(a) Water erosion with gullies

(b) The loss of woody vegetation (red

color) caused by poor management

and climatic changes induces

wind/water erosion of fertile topsoil

(bright yellow color) and leaves only

stony laterite (dark gray color).

Matched satellite images and ground photos of

degradation phenomena in the Sahel:

RapidEye composites (left) and photos (right): Mali December

2011,

(c) Outcropping of hard rocks (black

color) caused by soil degradation and

forest/tree loss.

(d) Clogging of ferruginous soils

(white color), loss of topsoil and

woody (red) and herb vegetation

(gray) caused by

overgrazing/trampling.

.

Matched satellite images and ground photos of

degradation phenomena in the Sahel:.

RapidEye composites (left) and photos (right): (c) Mali

December 2011, (d) Senegal September 2012

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MESA AUC CONTINENTAL BULLETTINGENERAL FEATURES

Continental monitoring of he African drylands using Earth Observation (EO)

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• MESA produces continental Environmental Bulletins twice a year (April andSeptember) in English and French (translated later into Portuguese)

• The monitoring is based on the analysis of environmental indicators which arederived from satellite imagery (i.e. rainfall, vegetation growth, fire conditionetc)

• Unique overview of the environmental situation at the continental level

• Evidence based monitoring uses observed information derived from EO,complemented with climate forecast information to give an outlook on theenvironmental situation

• Produced by thematic experts from the 7 MESA implementation centres,supported by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission and theTechnical Assistance

• THEMES: Protected areas, agriculture (crops and rangeland), fishing and waterresources

• The bulletin is distributed to automated e-mailing and published on MESAwebsite

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• Classification of the anomalies invegetation growth shows unusualgrowth patterns – in this case verylow growth in southern Africacompared to a long term average.

Analysis of vegetation growth over 6 months

• Statistical analysis of thevegetation indices

• Shows vegetation growth inspace and time in the 6 monthperiod

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Analysis of vegetation and rainfall

• Graph of vegetation growth and rainfall over 6 months in an area of Botswana

• This shows vegetation growth near to the long term minimum (1999-2014)

• And rainfall well below the long term average (2000-2014) Outlook for weather events,

highlighting 2 dryland areas

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Examples of dryland monitoring during an El Niño period

• Very bad vegetation growth ineastern and southern Africa

• September 2015 to March 2016

• Very good vegetation growth inwestern Africa (8)

• April to September 2015

Two Inter-ministerial

teams go on drought

assessment tour around

the country

Validating of Drought

indices with field work

Report presented to

the Ministers at

Parliament.

Vegetation-VCIRainfall- Anomaly

Fie

ld w

ork

ME

SA

RS

Data

Re

po

rt

Declare drought / No

drought

MESA Service usage examples: Botswana Drought Assessment

Credit: Drought service NFP- Esther Jansen, Met Dept, Botswana

THANK YOU

MERCI

OBRIGADO

MAHADSANID

MESA PROGRAM

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