Nov/Dec 2011

EIS NEWS

Edition 114

EIS-Africa coordinates Nairobi training workshop to support UNEP/UNHABITAT in Lake Victoria

EIS-Africa and its collaborating partners undertook a workshop and training session on their Commercial Satellite Imagery Project to support UNEPs National Environmental Atlases and UN HABITATs Lake Victoria Urbanisation Initiative at the RCMRD in Nairobi on the 29th November till the 1st December. The key purpose of the workshop was to bring together key stakeholders to better understand the needs, support the development of base urban planning maps for the Lake Victoria region and build on the capacity of local planners, to be able to use GIS and remote sensing to support their work. The workshop brought together key International, regional, sub-regional, UN, national, academic and local organizations to strategize on how they as a group could collectively support the development of fundamental geospatial datasets in the Lake Victoria area and support the Mapping Africa for Africa (MAfA) initiative. This workshop and training session were unique in that the urban planners from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda were provided with high resolution commercial satellite imagery of their local geographies and their training was customized to address real issues in their local work area. The programme was structured as a plenary on Day One, with presentations from Dr. Tsefaye Korme, Deputy Director General of the RCMRD; Dr. Axumite Gebre-Egziabher, Director Global Division, UN-HABITAT; ISPRS; Sives Govender of EIS-Africa; Mr. Joseph Murphy, the Permanent Representative, U.S. Mission to UNEP and UN -HABITAT; Mr. Paul Bartel, Humanitarian Information Unit, US Dept of State; Dr Shuaib Lwasa, Makarere University; Mr. Frank Turyatunga, Africa Coordinator, UNEP/DEWA; EMUHAYA District Municipality; Prof. Jossy Materu, UN-HABITAT and eleven urban planners from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Day Two was divided into a strategic planning session amongst; EIS-Africa, US State Department, UNEP, UNHABITAT, Makarere University and the RCMRD as well as a parallel training for the Lake Victoria Urban Planners. Day Three focused on training and an evaluation of the training curricular for the purposes of structuring follow-up (in-country) training in the associated Riparian countries. Dr. Axumite Gebre-Egziabher in her opening address described that the urban planning programme in the Lake Victoria region was borne out of the need to provide spatial frameworks to guide physical interventions that are meant to promote environmental sustainability and reduce poverty. This was a cross cutting and complementary initiative to nine other programmes by the UNHABITAT that were expected to deliver long term and short term detailed urban plans. Dr. Gebre-Egziabher reflected further that more than half of humanity lives in urban areas. UN-HABITAT studies show that the future increase of the urban population will happen in the small and medium urban centres. The Lake Victoria region is home to an estimated 25 million people whose livelihoods depend on the resources of the region. She indicated that the continued existence of this population is under threat as a result of the negative environmental impacts of the secondary towns in its catchment area. Further most of these secondary towns are experiencing rapid urbanization of 3-7% per annum and are the main generators of pollution entering the Lake. This has therefore promoted UN-HABITAT, other agencies, regional bodies, and national governments of the Riparian countries of Lake Victoria to support various initiatives in the region in bid to promote environmental sustainability and reduce poverty. This workshop served as a reality check and an eye-opener to all the participants who worked at a regional/ international level as we were told firsthand of the issues on the ground. Participants agreed that a long term effort was needed and that partners like the ISPRS, US Department of State and Universities could contribute to a lasting and positive change in the region. This workshop outlined follow up activities at the local council level which included utilizing university students to assist urban planners in the development of base maps using the high resolution commercial satellite imagery accessed through the collaborative agreement between EIS-Africa and the Association of American Geographers. Source: Sives Govender, EIS-Africa Postnet Suite No: 156 Private Bag X 15 Menlo Park, 0102 Pretoria, South Africa

Phone: +27 12 349 1068 Fax: +27 12 349 2080 secretariat@eis-africa.org www.eis-africa.org

EIS AFRICA
www.eis-africa.org
A Network for the Co-operative Management N of Environmental Information in Africa

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Standards: Utopia versus the reality

South Africa hosted the 33rd ISO TC/211 in Pretoria in November this year. While it was wonderful to host this award winning committee, discussions with members of the South African geomatics community highlighted the reality of standards implementation in our country. The work of ISO/TC 211, which is responsible for the ISO geographic information series of standards, is carried out by representatives from various organisations, international professional bodies and businesses. Our own Dr. Serena Coetzee (University of Pretoria) and Antony Cooper (CSIR) are actively involved in the work of ISO/TC 211 and do South Africa proud. However, the work of the ISO/TC 211 is viewed by some members of the South African geospatial community as being utopian and oblivious to the realities on the ground. Sharing their experiences of standard implementation, GIS community members explained that some South African GIS departments are struggling to get the basics of GIS right and are unable to deal with the fancy footwork required of some ISO standards. There are stringent requirements to capture metadata for certain standards and this conflicts with the need to get the actual job at hand done. Furthermore, government departments are allocated budgets to provide deliverables and capturing metadata can get in the way of providing these deliverables. In addition, there is the issue of who pays to implement standards. Some government departments and municipalities do not budget for the implementation of standards; their workflow being focused on project completion. These bodies are also under pressure to complete projects in order to ensure that funding is provided for the next financial year. When work falls behind schedule, as can often happen, the first thing to fall by the wayside is standards. In standards-driven organisations such as Eskom, there are also issues with standards. Despite there being top-level support for standards implementation and use as well as budgets and time allocated for this as part of the work flow, these organisations still have to deal with individuals failing to follow prescribed standards. Olaf Magnus stensen, chair of ISO/TC 211, acknowledges that the work of standards operating bodies is not being taken up as much as they would like. He added that standards are state of the art technology and require a certain level of competence and capacity for effective utilisation. Other members of the committee also acknowledge that some standards are not necessarily user-friendly. Countering this, Antony Cooper suggested that more practitioners need to get involved in standards development as this will help to ensure that practical, useful standards are developed and that they are tested early in the development cycle. He also added that people need to understand the contextual framework of standards as this will help to determine which standards are useful to them. At the end of the day though, it is clear that standards are beneficial they reduce costs, improve efficiency and ensure quality data. However, where possible, standards need be more accessible and increased guidance during the implementation process is required. Source: Clare van Zwieten, EE publishing,
clare.vanzwieten@ee.co.za

Research opportunities on Sensors, Empowerment, Accountability in Tanzania (SEMA)

The research programme "Sensors, Empowerment, Accountability in Tanzania (SEMA)" is funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) under the WOTRO-Global Science for Development Programme. Three PhD candidates, one Postdoctoral Scientist and one software developer will be recruited. Here are the details of the research programme and how to apply for the PhD and Postdoctoral Scientist positions: <http://www.itc.nl/Pub/ research_programme/Research_opportunities.html>. The deadline for applications is December 31, 2011.

Dr. Ir. Rob Lemmens Department of Geoinformation Processing University of Twente Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) P.O. Box 217 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands phone: +31 (53) 4874529 fax: +31 (53) 4874335 e-mail: lemmens@itc.nl Website: http://www.itc.nl

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Microsoft cloud to power environmental big data

Cloud computing can be a powerful tool for scientists and researchers sharing massive amounts of environmental data. At the United Nations climate conference (COP 17) in Durban, South Africa this week, The European Environment Agency, geospatial software company Esri and Microsoft showed off the Eye on Earth network. The community uses Esris cloud services and Microsoft Azure to create an online site and group of services for scientists, researchers and policy makers to upload, share and analyze environmental and geospatial data. While the Eye on Earth network has been under development since 2008, the group launched three services for different types of environmental data at COP 17, including WaterWatch, which uses the EEAs water data; AirWatch, which uses the EEAs air quality data; and NoiseWatch, which combines environmental data with user-generated info from citizens. Microsoft isnt the only one working on creating these types of eco big data networks. At last years U.N. climate meeting, COP 16, Google launched its own satellite and mapping service called Google Earth Engine, which combines an open API, a computing platform, and 25 years of satellite imagery available to researchers, scientists, organizations and government agencies. Google Earth Engine offers both tools and parallel processing computing power to groups to be able to use satellite imagery to analyze environmental conditions in order to make sustainability decisions. If you cant quite picture how these networks will be used for good, in the case of Googles Earth Engine, the government of Mexico created the first comprehensive, high-resolution map of Mexicos forests that incorporated 53,000 Landsat images to produce a 6 GB mapping product. The Mexican government and NGOs can use the map to make decisions about land use, sustainable agriculture, and species protection in combination with a growing population. Cloud computing and big data analytics will be an increasingly important way to manage a limited number of resources energy, water, and food as the world population explodes. There are already 7 billion people on the planet, and there will be 9 billion by 2050. Source: gigaom.com

Localised climate data for African villages

African cities and villages will soon have access to detailed data on how climate change may affect them until the next century. The Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX), an initiative of the World Meteorological Organization and the World Climate Research Programme, aims to provide localised projections about impacts of climate change. It will feed into the next assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, due to be released in 2014. The information is expected to help countries and local communities in their efforts to adapt to changing weather patterns, and to tailor their disaster risk reduction plans. CORDEX aims to downscale the data for all regions of the world, but Africa which has so far been under-researched and has been identified as the most vulnerable by the IPCC is a priority for the initiative. The CORDEX Africa campaign will also allow African climatologists to meet other African scientists who study vulnerability, adaptation and the impact of climate change on people, to translate the model numbers into meaningful, usable information. Experts from countries that include Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe will analyse the data. "These scientists [who study the humanitarian impact of climate change] know, for example, what thresholds, if crossed more frequently, would impact detrimentally on communities, so whether the people in a certain area are more vulnerable to five days or eight days of continuous rainfall," says Chris Lennard, a scientist at the Climate Systems Analysis Group at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. His group is working with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Pretoria. "We are coming together so that the impacts scientists can ask climatologists their questions, who will then analyse the model output with these questions in mind and provide them with information they can use,". Source: SciDev Net

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Global Monitoring for Food Security

The second user board meeting of the Global Monitoring for Food Security project (GMFS, http://ww.gmfs.info) took place in Nairobi, Kenya. The meeting was hosted by the Regional Centre for Mapping Resources for Development (RCMRD, http://www.rcmrd.org) and was attended by experts from Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Malawi,Mozambique and the AMESD project, as well as European experts from ESA, VITO, Sarmap, EFTAS, EARS, ITA, ULG, Geoville and the university of Bonn. In 2011, GMFS has put a strong focus on capacity building, training more than 50 experts in the use of remote sensing for Early warning, Agricultural Statistics and mapping. Dedicated on-the-job trainings took place in Sudan, Niger, Mozambique, Ethiopia and Kenya. Also scientists from Senegal (CSE), Mozambique (INAM, UEM), Ethiopia (DRMFSS) and Niger (AGRHYMET) visited VITO for training session on Early Warning and an expert from RCMRD stayed at SARMAP for several weeks of training in SAR technology. These dedicated trainings resulted in a hand-over of methodologies and the practical implementation of GMFS services in Sudan, Senegal, RCMRD and AGRHYMET. In Sudan maps were produced assessing the 2011 growing season and field work was carried out to assess the situation on the ground. Based on an integration of high resolution SAR and optical remote sensing data, cropped areas were mapped in Malawi and Kenya, obtaining accuracies of 90% and more. AGRHYMET and CSE integrated GMFS products in their bulletins throughout the season, providing improved information on anomaly detection and yield forecasts. Satellite-based soil moisture products, potentially of use for crop monitoring, were generated and discussed for application in Mali. Other results and products include MSG based evapo-transpiration products and derived yield forecasts. After evaluation of the 2011 activities, the 2012 activities were reviewed and discussed. Further focus will be put on capacity building and dedicated training. In Malawi a large scale effort is ongoing to integrate remote sensing to generate agricultural statistics. In this frame a large scale fieldwork campaign is planned in 2012 and 2013. Similar work is being done in Sudan. In Mozambique, Senegal, Niger, Ethiopia and AGRHYMET GMFS Early Warning products will be further integrated in the regional / national crop monitoring bulletins. The various training efforts had been greatly appreciated and the User Board recommended to organize the used training material and open it up to the wider agricultural monitoring community in Africa. The Board further recommended to involve more experts in the validation and generation of the services to ensure sustainability after the projects lifetime.

Third

AGRHYMET-GMFS

bulletin,

downloadable

from

Processed SAR Image used for mapping Agriculture in Eldoret, Kenya.

www.agrhymet.ne

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EDITORIAL
Dear Colleagues, The EIS-Africa Secretariat would like to take this opportunity to wish you all the very best for the holidays and a very happy New Year. We thank all our funding partners, collaborating agencies/centres, Board Directors, members, newsletter contributors and subscribers for your loyal support over the year. We promise that 2012 will bring better services from EIS-Africa with a new website and more training opportunities, in the pipeline. The Secretariat will be closed till the 9th of January so until then, be safe and take care. Until next year, Sives Govender Executive Director EIS-Africa

IJAGR publishes a special issue from AfricaGIS2009

IJAGR has just published the first quarter issue for 2012, with a special issue from AfricaGIS2009. To read or download pdfs of the prefaces and event report, click on the link below and follow hyperlinks: http:// www.igi-global.com/journal/international-journal-applied-geospatial-research/1138

Some other news: IJAGR is currently being evaluated, along with all of IGI's journals, by Thomas Reuters. IJAGR will re-apply to GEOBASE after our next scheduled issue (vol. 3, no. 2) is in print. IJAGR continues to collaborate with the Applied Geography Conferences, Inc. for special issues and sections. IJAGR continues to receive manuscripts and event reports from activities sponsored by the Applied Geography Specialty Group. IJAGR plans to support AfricaGIS with special issue opportunities.

And most importantly, I want to thank everyone who has helped IJAGR since its inception in 2009. As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions. Best Wishes and Happy Holidays Don Albert, Professor of Geography Editor-in-Chief, IJAGR Department of Geography and Geology Sam Houston State University Huntsville, Texas

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CLIMATE CHANGE: Progress in Durban, but not enough

The UN talks in Durban, South Africa, got adaptation and the response to climate change approximately right, which is better than being precisely wrong, a tired Naderev Sano, Philippines chief climate change negotiator, said as he emerged from two consecutive emotionally charged all-night sessions. Poor countries and NGOs, which are dealing with the fallout from more frequent and intense natural hazards like floods and cyclones, made a breakthrough in Cancun, Mexico, in 2010, when adaptation was given the same weight as efforts to mitigate climate change in the UN climate change deal. Riding on Cancuns success, expectations for adaptation were high in 2011. Some progress was made in Durban in this regard, such as setting up an advisory body on adaptation, the operationalization of the Green Climate Fund, and initiating a dialogue to address loss and damage as the impact of climate change unfolds. But the devil is in the detail, as many poor countries found out, and the negotiating tracks dealing with adaptation have been watered down. Many voiced their concerns in the open debates in Durban. Most of the thorny issues were tied to money and the inability of rich countries to commit in view of the economic crisis in their backyard. We sensed a lot of resistance on that front, and we understand, said a leading climate change negotiator from an African country. There seemed to be a lack of urgency, said Sano. But multilateral processes always involve baby steps. Lack of clarity on cuts Two decisions to cut emissions were taken in Durban: the extension of the Kyoto Protocol - the only global deal to cut emissions from 2013 onwards - and the new deal to reduce emissions after the Protocol expires in 2017. (Shortly after the talks Canada, one of the largest emitters, angered environmentalists by announcing its imminent withdrawal from the Kyoto treaty). But neither reflects the urgency needed to make deeper cuts sooner. This makes steps to support adaptation even more urgent for poor countries like us. It seems like the world realizes we are headed towards a catastrophe, but they dont seem to understand, pointed out Qazi Ahmad, one of the lead negotiators for Bangladesh. If countries do not set higher targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, the planet is looking at an increase in temperature of beyond two degrees Celsius within this century, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) warned in a report issued in the run-up to the Durban conference. The decision on how much to cut from 2013 to 2017 will only be taken in 2012, after a review. The good news is that the new global deal to cut emissions after the Kyoto Protocol ends will include major emitters like the US, China and India, but these countries will only make deeper cuts from 2020 forward. That might be too late because it will lock in high temperatures for poor countries, said Sarah Wiggins, a climate change policy expert at Tearfund, a UK-based development NGO. The Climate Action Tracker, an independent website run by scientists, said on 11 December that the current proposals to reduce emissions will push up global temperature by about 3.5 degrees Celsius by 2100. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) regards global warming of two degrees Celsius as irreversible and catastrophic, bringing water stress in arid and semi-arid countries, more floods in low-lying coastal areas, coastal erosion in small island states, and the elimination of up to 30 percent of animal and plant species. The UNEP report found that the gap between the required emissions cuts and pledges to cut them had widened in the past year. Higher temperatures mean countries will have to dig deeper in their pockets for adaptation. This is a matter of grave concern for us, said Wiggins. Estimates indicate that the highest adaptation costs will be felt in West Africa and South Asia, where residual damage (not to be covered by adaptation efforts) amounting to 3.5 percent of the regional gross domestic product (GDP) will result from a rise of two degrees Celsius. Costs of between five and six percent of GDP will result from a three-degree Celsius rise, according to Climate Action Tracker. But decisions about how much to cut by and when, have serious economic implications and involve a lot of consultation, and countries need more time, the UKs secretary for climate change and energy, Chris Huhne, explained. The countries also want to wait until the next IPCC assessment is released in 2013/14 to guide them on how much to cut. Green Climate Fund The conference accepted the report by a transitional committee recommending the Green Climate Fund, to provide money to adapt and to mitigate should be established. But where the Funds secretariat will be housed remains to be decided, said Omar Elanni, a member of the committee. (continued on next page)

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CLIMATE CHANGE: Progress in Durban continued

Developing countries want the secretariat placed within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), where they feel it will be more independent, rather than under the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the preferred choice of some developed countries. Another contentious issue also needs to be addressed. The draft governing text of the Fund, approved in Durban, allows the private sector to access money from the Fund to for any programmes they might be involved in to mitigate or adapt in developing countries. This is scary, as it means scarce public money [raised by taxpayers in developed countries] could be used to subsidize private sector entities to administer projects which may not be a priority for developing country governments, said Harjeet Singh, the international Climate Justice Coordinator at NGO ActionAid. Adaptation committee The good news is that this committee, which will function as an advisory body on adaptation to countries, has now been given meat and made operational. But the committee, which poor countries hoped would report directly to countries at the highest level in the climate change talks, will instead do so through other subsidiary bodies. This step does not enhance the status and importance of adaptation, said Farrukh Khan, Pakistans lead negotiator. Reporting directly to the highest level would have helped the committee ensure coherence of adaptation work across the various strands and mechanisms, said ActionAids Singh. On a positive note, Sandeep Chamling, an adaptation expert with WWF said 10 of the 16 committee members would be from developing countries, reflecting the importance of adaptation for poorer countries. Loss and damage Perhaps the most significant outcome of the Cancun talks for developing countries was the call to set up a programme to consider ways of addressing loss and damage associated with climate change in vulnerable countries. This has opened the way to the possibility of compensation for poor countries on account of climate change for the first time, and also the opportunity to use tools such as international insurance mechanisms to offset the risk. In Durban the programme delivered a six-page text outlining the problems of trying to assess loss and damage, especially gaps in information, and called for more research. It also called for a technical paper on the impact of slow-onset events such as droughts. Kashmala Kakakhel, of Climate and Development Knowledge, writes in a blog that the text has elevated the debate in the international discussion, as there are a lot of questions around the concept of loss and damage and no clear consensus on what it entails.

National Adaptation Plan In Cancun, the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) seen as most vulnerable to climate change were asked to develop their own medium- and long-term National Action Plan to adapt to climate change. But there was no money in the LDC Fund, set up under the UNFCCC, to do that. There is a provision in the Green Climate Fund to finance the NAPs, but no funds as yet. Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) This mechanism provides incentives to developing countries to conserve and plant more forests. Deforestation contributes between 12 percent and 20 percent of the worlds annual greenhouse gas emissions - about the same as the transport sector, according to the IPCC. Progress on talks on the mechanism have been stalled by the weak reference to safeguards such as protecting the rights of the indigenous forest communities, and lack of clarity on financing the mechanism. Various options, including the sale of carbon credits, have been proposed, but these issues still remain in the final text issued in Durban. Under the finance options, developing countries and communities can trade the carbon credits earned by conserving forests and sell them to industries spewing greenhouse gases in the developed world to offset these emissions. Many environmental groups find this unacceptable. Kevin Conrad, Papua New Guineas ambassador to the talks and the man credited with developing REDD, said he was against carbon credits being sold to offset emissions. Kate Dooley, of FERN, a European NGO, pointed out there were no carbon markets for forests and carbon markets generally had slumped. Conrad underlined the need for strong safeguards and efforts to ensure that emission reductions achieved through forest conservation are measured, reported and verified in a credible manner to revive the value of carbon. Source: IRIN News

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Congo-Kinshasa: Keeping Track of Mineral Resources

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, two projects are under way to map mineral deposits in South Kivu province to facilitate traceability, amid increasing concerns in the international community that profits from the minerals trade are being illegally used to fund armed groups in the east. The chaotic management that has plagued the mining sector since the 1980s is, however, proving a sticking point in the process. The survival of thousands of artisanal miners is one of the humanitarian issues at stake in this project. A guide to reforming the mining sector in the east, produced by researchers at NGO Ipis, explains that "despite calls for a map to be drawn up from the UN expert group in its December 2008 report, there is currently no reliable map available. The volatile security situation on the ground would mean that the map would have to be regularly updated." Data is urgently needed. Although it is not yet clear how it will be enforced, the Dodd-Franck Act, passed by the US Congress in July 2010, contains a provision allowing only minerals that have been certified "DRC conflict free" to enter the US. The European Union is considering similar legislation. According to Sara Geenen, a PhD student at the University of Antwerp, who specializes in the South Kivu artisanal mining sector, traders are "willing to back a certification and traceability system, provided they reap some sort of benefit from it, such as a tax reduction". The International Conference for the Great Lakes Region, the UN Group of Experts, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development are unanimous in calling for the mapping and categorization process to move as quickly as possible to avoid an embargo, which could inflame an already volatile region. Two complementary projects The Kinshasa Group, comprising the UN Stabilization Mission (MONUSCO) and the German Federal Institute for GeoScience and Natural Resources (BGR), is behind one of the initiatives. Michel Liete, head of the South Kivu province mining division, explains that "the aim of this project is to categorize the mining sites surrounding the 16 future mineral trading centres, which will coordinate artisanal mining within a 25km radius. These mining sites will be certified based on human rights criteria covering the presence of armed groups, illegal taxes, women's rights, and the presence of children under the age of 15." Only one trading centre in Mugogo (in Walungo) has so far been built, and the surrounding sites have been classed as "clean" or "dirty", according to their compliance with the specifications. These classifications, which are due to be communicated by Kinshasa, are still confidential. A separate initiative, led by Ipis and financed by the Belgian Foreign Affairs Ministry, the US government and the World Bank, via PROMINES, will continue for 18 months and cover all of South Kivu. Specifically, it will aim to map artisanal mining sites, transportation routes, and mineral trading points, reflecting the security and human rights situation on the ground, using the Geographic Information System (GIS) programme. The aim is to gradually hand over control to the Mining Cadastre (registry) as it builds up human and technical resources. In the eye of the storm Artisanal miners can only work in seven mining zones in South Kivu (two in Kalehe, two in Mwenga and three in Shabunda). According to Gabriel Kamundula, a researcher at the Applied Development Economics Laboratory at the Catholic University of Bukavu, "the number of artisanal miners exceeds the capacities of these seven sites". In March 2011, without taking into account "independent" miners, the regional mining department registered 52,000 in mineral cooperatives. Kamundula explains that, "in order to alleviate social pressure on the government, the region is trying to collaborate with companies present on the ground, such as the Canadian multinational BANRO, by asking them to tolerate the presence of artisanal miners on their sites for an agreed timeframe, with guarantees in place to ensure the practice does not continue beyond this fixed period". However, Janvier Kilosho, a researcher at the South Kivu mining sector management centre of expertise (CEGEMI), thinks that the Congolese government did not want to support and formalize artisanal mining activity, deeming industrial operations "more favourable and more transparent". The social stakes of the mapping project are high. In cases where the Mining Cadastre decides to disqualify artisanal sites that do not meet the criteria, the miners will be pushed out into the cold. Their only hope is a dormant licence. Cleaning up Past oversights are also coming back to haunt the mapping projects. According to Kamundula, "Many problems have arisen from concessions being granted by Kinshasa not corresponding to the situation on the ground; it isn't uncommon for a single concession to have been allocated twice. Moreover, some GPS coordinates correspond to locations in Lake Kivu." The Mining Cadastre is not yet operational, and despite assurances from Martin Kabwelulu, the Mining Minister, that "blood minerals no longer exist in the Democratic Republic of Congo; the business climate is favourable and foreign investors no longer have anything to fear", Kinshasa is reluctant to disclose the results of its site qualifications, which will either displease the artisanal miners in the east, or the industrial sector and international community. Faced with such a predicament, the government is having to adopt a long-term vision to clean up a situation that is far from being resolved. Mapping the mining sites is the first step to increasing transparency in the sector and ensuring revenue from the mineral deposits does not go towards financing armed groups. Source: AllAfrica.com

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Website: The Open Data for Resilience Initiative (OpenDRI)

The Open Data for Resilience Initiative (OpenDRI) aims to reduce the impact of disasters by empowering decisions-makers with better information and the tools to support their decisions. OpenDRI implements the first policy recommendation of the joint World Bank / UN flagship report, Natural Hazards, UnNatural Disasters, the Economics of Effective Prevention, which establishes the importance of data sharing to reduce vulnerability to disasters. OpenDRI also builds upon the World Banks broader Open Data Initiative. OpenDRI is currently implementing these ideas in 25 countries around the world to improve disaster and climate change resilience.

http://www.gfdrr.org/gfdrr/opendri

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Africa: Satellite Technology Yields New Forest Loss Estimates

A new, satellite-based survey released by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) provides a more accurate picture of changes in the world's forests, showing forest land use declined between 1990 and 2005. The findings of a global remote sensing survey show the world's total forest area in 2005 was 3.69 billion hectares, or 30 percent of the global land area. The new findings suggest that the rate of world deforestation, averaged 14.5 million hectares per year between 1990 and 2005, which is consistent with previous estimates. Deforestation largely occurred in the tropics, likely attributable to the conversion of tropical forests to agricultural land. On the other hand, the survey shows that worldwide, the net loss in forest area between 1990 and 2005 was not as great as previously believed, since gains in forest areas are larger than previously estimated. Net loss -- in which losses of forest cover are partially offset by afforestation or natural expansion -- totalled 72.9 million hectares, or 32 percent less than the previous figure of 107.4 million hectares, according to the survey. In other words, the planet lost an average of 4.9 million hectares of forest per year, or nearly 10 hectares of forest per minute over the 15-year period. The new data also show that the net loss of forests increased from 4.1 million hectares per year between 1990 and 2000 to 6.4 million hectares between 2000 and 2005. The figures are based on the most comprehensive use yet of high-resolution satellite data to provide a sample of forests worldwide. They differ from previous FAO findings in the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010 (FRA 2010), which were based on a compilation of country reports that used a wide variety of sources. "Deforestation is depriving millions of people of forest goods and services that are crucial to rural livelihoods, economic well-being and environmental health," said Eduardo Rojas-Briales, FAO Assistant Director-General for Forestry. "The new, satellite-based figures give us a more consistent, global picture, over time, of the world's forests. Together with the broad range of information supplied by the country reports, they offer decisionmakers at every level more accurate information, and underscore the need for countries and organizations to urgently address and halt the loss of valuable forest ecosystems," Rojas-Briales added. The remote sensing survey was based on a single source of data for all three points in time -- 1990, 2000 and 2005 -- and used the same input data and methodology for all countries. "In terms of change in forest area, the new results update our knowledge for Africa, where previous data for some countries was old or of low quality. Here the remote sensing survey shows a much smaller rate of forest loss than previously estimated based on national reports," Adam Gerrand, an FAO Forestry Officer, said. Regional losses and gains There were notable regional differences in forest losses and gains. Between 1990 and 2005 the loss of forests was highest in the tropics, where just under half of the world's forests are located. Net losses in this region averaged 6.9 million ha/yr between 1990 and 2005. The highest rate of conversion of forest land use to other, unspecified, land uses for both periods was in South America, followed by Africa. Asia was the only region to show net gains in forest land-use area in both periods. Deforestation occurred in all regions, including Asia, but the extensive planting that has been reported by several countries in Asia (mainly China) exceeded the forest areas that were lost. Slight net increases in forest area were registered in subtropical, temperate and boreal zones over the full 15 year period. Further remote sensing studies are expected to reveal changes occurring since 2005, including any progress which may have been made in the protection of existing forests and the establishment of new forests since 2005. Global view The new results provide important input into national and international reporting processes which require information on forest area and land-use change statistics. This includes the Convention for Biodiversity and the emerging initiative for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD+), under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), currently being discussed at the 17th Conference of the Parties being held in Durban, South Africa (28 November-9 December 2011). To develop the survey, FAO worked over four years with technical partners in the European Commission Joint Research Centre and more than 200 researchers from 102 countries to analyze satellite imagery from the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Funding for the study was provided by the European Commission, the Heinz Center, the governments of Australia, Finland and France and FAO. Source: FAO press release

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EUROGEOSS, "EuroGEOSS, advancing the vision of GEOSS" , Madrid January 25-27 2012 , www.eurogeoss2012.eu Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, New York, 24-28 February, http:// www.aag.org/cs/annualmeeting/call_for_papers Global Geospatial Conference 2012 - This event combines the GSDI 13 World Conference, the 14th GEOIDE Annual Scientific Conference, the 7th 3D GeoInfo Conference and the Canadian Geomatics Conference 2012. The conference theme is "Spatially Enabling Government, Industry, and Citizens" and it provides numerous opportunities for oral presentations as well as several refereed and non-refereed publication outlets. The conference web site is at http://www.gsdi.org/gsdi13

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