GMES and Africa: SASSCAL hosts a technical partners workshop on the WeMAST Project on 27 and 28 June 2024

The Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL) is hosting a technical partners workshop in Namibia to review the progress of activities and deliverables for its WeMAST Phase II project

Background

WeMAST is a project funded by the African and European Union Commission under the GMES and Africa Programme. The project is implemented in Southern Africa by a consortium made of 13 institutions (6 partners and 7 associates) under the leadership of SASSCAL.

The workshop  

The workshop is taking place at the Protea Fürstenhof Hotel, Windhoek. The project team, technical partners, and private sector, are assessing the advancements of the project by pillar's and re-align roles of the technical partners ensuring a common understanding of the Project objectives, activities/tasks, and deliverables as per the Implementation Action Plan for 2024. 

SASSCAL and its technical partners seek to enhance the products and services of the Geoportal. The institution, which is one of the consortia under the GMES & Africa Programme, is entrusted to design, develop, and operationalise an integrated geospatial data platform that provides wetlands information services. 

SASSCAL’s Wetlands Geoportal is set to extend existing Earth Observation capabilities in Southern Africa for wetlands monitoring and assessment. The Geoportal is an online platform that aims to provide policy and decision-makers with effective wetlands assessment and monitoring tools based on Earth Observation (EO) technology that promotes policy implementation and encourages innovative and solid wetland management practices in Southern Africa.

Other consortiums under the GMES & Africa Programme are the International Commission for the Congo-Oubangui-Sangha Basin (CICOS), Centre de Suivi Ecologique (CSE), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), IGAD Climate Prediction & Applications Centre (ICPAC), Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS), the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD), and University of Ghana (UG) funded to implement projects in response to the development of services for water, natural resources, marine and coastal areas, addressing the global needs to manage the environment and ensure civil security.

The workshop will be a strategic platform and opportunity to allow SASSCAL to showcase the new features and functionalities of the enhanced WeMAST geoportal and get feedback from the technical partners to allow the finalisation of its development and get feedback on the implementation challenges and opportunities.

Source

https://sasscal.org/press-release-sasscal-to-host-its-consortium-partners-of-the-wemast-project-under-the-gmes-africa-programme-funded-by-the-african-and-european-union-commission/

Links 

• WeMAST, http://gmes-wemast.sasscal.org/ 
• The WeMAST Geoportal v1, http://gmes-geoportal.sasscal.org 
• GMES & Africa and SASSCAL discuss a Geoportal that could be a Sustainable Solution for Wetlands Monitoring and Assessment in Southern Africa, https://sasscal.org/gmes-africa-and-sasscal-discuss-a-geoportal-that-could-be-a-sustainable-solution-for-wetlands-monitoring-and-assessment-in-southern-africa/

The WeMAST partners

• Midlands State University (MSU)
• National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC)
• University of Botswana (UB)
• University of Namibia (UNAM)
• University of Western Cape (UWC)
• University of Zambia (UNZA)

The WeMAST Associates

• WaterNET SADC
• Cuvelai Watercourse Commission (CUVECOM)
• Limpopo Watercourse Commission (LIMCOM)
• The Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM)
• Zambezi Watercourse Commission (ZAMCOM)
• Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA)
• Zimbabwe Environmental Management Agency (EMA)