Earth Observation Synergies: Tackling Land Degradation Across Africa

On 8th November 2024, a webinar brought together GMES & Africa Consortia and partners to share innovations and strategies for monitoring and combating land degradation in Africa using cutting-edge Earth Observation tools - Wrap up

(c) ESA, The Niger river captured from the International Space Station on 22 October 2023 by ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen

Land degradation is a significant environmental challenge that impacts the community’s livelihood and deeply affects ecosystems across Africa. Despite the rate and magnitude of this phenomenon, there were few accurate and updated data and tools highlighting its extent, severity, and trends at regional and continental levels.

To improve the understanding of the multi-faceted nature of the active processes behind land degradation, the webinar gathered the GMES & Africa Consortia in charge of implementing land degradation and forest monitoring services and applications, along with their partners. The event was organized by OSS in partnership with ICPAC, RCMRD, CICOS, and NASRDA, which represents Centres of Excellence in Africa.

The webinar gathered more than 70 participants from many countries and regions in Africa. The opening ceremony was marked by speeches of the Executive Secretary of the OSS, Mr. Nabil Ben Khatra, and the Coordinator of the GMES & Africa Program at the level of the African Union Commission, Mr. Bachir Mahaman Saley. The different sessions made it possible to exchange knowledge and experience on land degradation monitoring using EO data in various African ecosystems, and to showcase GMES Consortia achievements, especially by highlight the successes and innovations in monitoring LD across different region in Africa. The opportunities of leveraging cloud computing and Machine Learning technologies to develop decision support systems for agriculture, water, and natural resources managers in Africa was also highlighted. The event also made it possible to emphasize the importance of monitoring land degradation to guide Sustainable Land Management (SLM) actions in Africa.

At the end of the meeting, the 5 Centres of Excellence – OSS, ICPAC, RCMRD, CICOS, and NASRDA - also members of the G&A community, identified the challenges to be met in order to further promote the appropriation of EO in support of better restoration of degraded land and improvement of African ecosystems. The OSS shared its experience with MISLAND-Africa, an integrated land degradation monitoring system and a unique tool for monitoring land degradation on the African continent, underlining the need to work in synergy to make this continental service operational. The participants' contributions helped to identify the needs of end-users and open up new avenues for collaboration to optimise existing services.

Source: The GMESNorthAfrica Team
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