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GeoVille and GRAS will run ESA project on Water Resources in Africa

A consortium led by GeoVille and GRAS has been selected to carry out an ESA project in the frame of the TIGER initiative. The objective of TIGER-NET is the contribution to facilitating the African participation in the rapidly evolving global ‘Earth Observing’ system. The project will provide a Water Observation and Information System for water authorities, technical centres and other stakeholders which will be developed in close collaboration with the African users.

ESA realised that the rapidly evolving global earth observing system may provide a significant contribution to the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in Africa and consequently launched in 2001 the TIGER initiative. The TIGER initiative supports water authorities, technical centres and other stakeholders in the African water sector to enhance their capacity to collect and use water relevant geo-information to better monitor and assess water resources by exploiting earth observation products and services.

To respond to the urgent information needs for IWRM in Africa, ESA has launched TIGER-NET as a major initiative to develop and demonstrate a user-driven water observation and information system based on earth observation technology, fulfilling operational requirements and providing a solid base for extension and roll-out to other basins in Africa.

The project was officially kicked off at the World Water Forum in Marseilles in March 2012 on a side event chaired by the African Ministerial Conference on Water (AMCOW) and will be running for three years starting 1 April 2012.

TIGER-NET will focus on a number of selected countries and regions with particular attention to major trans-boundary basins in Africa. The initial list of key users includes the Nile Basin Initiative, Lake Chad Basin Commission, Volta Basin Authority, Department of Water Affairs South Africa and the Namibian Ministry of Water. The high level objectives of the project are to enhance the capacity of African water authorities by developing a water observation and information system for monitoring, assessing and inventorying water resources in a cost-effective manner by exploiting the wealth of information that can be extracted from earth observation data.

Example for soil moisture at 1 km – the graphic represents monthly mean of ASAR GM 1 km product from March, 2008

A water observation and information system based on open source software exploiting satellite data will be installed in each of the selected water authorities to monitor and assess water resources and in their river basins. The system will consist of a database module for data storage, EO and GIS modules for processing and analysis of satellite images, a module for hydrological modelling as well as decision support tools for overall management of water resources. Successful and sustainable development of earth observation applications requires dedicated capacity building and training of African scientists and water authorities. Accordingly, capacity building will be an important part of the project.

Partners

As project partners, GeoVille and GRAS will be leading the consortium with support from the following organizations: Institute of Photogrammetry & Remote Sensing, Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna, Austria), Dept. of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark (DTU ENV, Denmark) and Department of International Health, University of Copenhagen (ISIM, Denmark).

Further information can be found on ESA’s news. A dedicated project website and portal will be launched later.


Tel: +352 26 71 41 35
Fax: +352 26 71 41 35
Email:info@geoville.com
Web: www.geoville.com
GeoVille Group is a private sector enterprise located in Austria and Luxembourg. GeoVille Group specialises in products and services related to Earth Observation (EO) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications.
GeoVille is Europe’s leading company in using satellite data for land monitoring and spatial planning applications.
Our services provide the bridge from user needs to technical implementation – merging geospatial explicit data with statistics – to the analysis of what on-going processes and trends mean for real world applications.

Tel: +45 35 32 41 75
Email:gras@grasdk.com
Web: www.grasdk.com
GRAS is an independent company specialized in earth observation, satellite image processing and Geographic Information Systems. GRAS is part of DHIGROUP, an international consulting and research organization specialized in water, environment and health.
Since 2000, more than 150 projects in more than 50 countries worldwide have been completed. GRAS has a strong background in remote sensing for hydrology, water quality, environmental assessment, and land cover mapping.