AGRICAB

Status

Closed

Duration of the project

3 years and a half (2011-2015)

Themes

Earth Observation

Agriculture and forestry management

Total budget

121 000 €

Beneficiaries

Technicians from national institutions

Students 

Countries concerned
South Africa, Kenya, Mozambique, Niger, Senegal

Enhancing Earth Observation Capacity for Agriculture & Forest Management in Africa

AGRICAB is a project designed to strengthen the use of Earth Observation across the African continent. It builds on the data provided through the GEONETCast system, combining satellite information with other data sources and predictive models. This integration paves the way for improved planning and more informed management of agriculture and forestry.

For the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS), AGRICAB comes to reinforce the momentum of earlier initiatives, particularly the studies conducted within the NWSAS framework for water abstraction assessment.

As such, AGRICAB contributes to consolidating existing achievements while expanding monitoring tools, placing them at the service of sustainable natural resource management.

Financial partners
  • European Union - EU
Technical partners
Key Achievements

1- Mapmaking 

  • Land cover maps at the scale of 1/25.000 based on high spatial resolution satellite images of the three pilot zones (Tougourt, Médenine and Tripoli).
  • Spatio-temporal maps of vegetation cover in the NWSAS area based on temporal series of vegetation indices (Mod13Q1) from 2004 to 2014. This has allowed to map, at a small scale, the irrigated areas in the NWSAS basin, to track their evolution and to understand agricultural expansion dynamics.

2- Estimation of water withdrawals using remote sensing
This activity was conducted as a part of a dissertation for the application of a global model for water withdrawal.

3- Capacity Building

  • Organization of the first AGRICAB regional workshop on water withdrawal estimation in October 2013 bringing together 25 engineers (Open Tools and Data for Water Resources Withdrawal and Recharge Assessment).
  • Organization of the second AGRICAB regional workshop on irrigated agriculture with a particular focus on land cover mapping based on low, medium and high resolution spatial images. The workshop was attended by  20 engineers.

4- GEONETCast 

  • An EO data reception station was installed at the OSS.
  • An information note on GEONETCast data was published and a related survey was launched with the African remote sensing communities for a better adaptation of products to the needs in terms of spatial observation.
  • A first case study was conducted on vegetation anomalies in the OSS area of action based on data received from the GEONETCast station and temporal series provided by VITO, an independent organization focusing on research and technologies in the fields of clean technologies and sustainable development. http://rs.vito.be/africa: https://esites.vito.be/sites/AGRICAB
Documents