The Courier

Changing agriculture in Sudan. Showing new agricultural areas in bright green in the 2000s.

© JRC, Ispra

Disappearing trees, lakes, flora and fauna, expanding farmland, and fires are just some of the things that can all monitored by high definition images from satellites 850 kilometres above the Earth. In turn, this means better management of forests and avoidance of conflict, both of which lead to poverty eradication, says Dr. Alan Belward, Head of the Global Environment Monitoring Unit of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC). The JRC team is looking at “how the optimal use of satellites assists development.”

Research and statistics gathered by his team of 8-9 scientists, including an African trainee, headquartered in Ispra, Italy, is filling an information gap and helping donors and governments in planning and making decisions.

Currently focussed on Africa, there is no reason why it cannot eventually be applied to the Caribbean and Pacific, says Dr. Belward.

Satellite technology is nothing new. The first global satellite was launched in 1957 and the first observer satellite in 1972. It’s only in the last 10 years, however, that that they have been used for agricultural forecasting and as a “development tool.” Agreements the JRC has for satellite use include one with the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meterological Satellites (EUMESTAT), which collates meterological statistics and monitors climate change.

Broadly, satellite imagery can be used in four areas of development policy: protecting natural resources; humanitarian relief and development support; disaster reduction initiatives and early estimates of crop yields and crop failure warnings.

Dr. Belward shows us high resolution images of Lake Chad in 1963 to compare with a more recent image. They reveal the lake’s startling shrinkage. Land degradation and deforestation and loss of biodiversity can all be monitored in this way.

Who’s escaping tax?

And images of roads in forest areas can pinpoint logging activities, thus providing information to authorities of illegal logging and just who should be taxed. Dr. Belward stresses the need for African ownership of such statistics. These can be passed on to bodies such as the African Forest Observatory (FORAF) which has just opened new offices in Kinshasa under the Congo basin forest partnership and will further develop the monitoring of logging activities throughout the Congo basin.

Images analysed by the JRC show that since the 1970s, 50,000 square kilometres of natural vegetation in Africa has become agricultural land - an area one and a half times the size of Belgium, although this is just a fifth of the rate of loss in South Asia and a half of that occurring in the Amazon. Dr Belward says that the current rate of deforestation in Congo basin countries; - Cameroon, Gabon, Burundi, Republic of Congo is just 0.17% which can be put down to improved management of forests.

Another image of Park ‘W’ stretching across Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger, picks out the clusters of farming activity on the park’s perimeter. Infrared imagery shows where fires are burning. SMS or emailed messages can be sent straight to park rangers so they can check out the fires. The development of automatic alarm systems could have enormous potential for areas such as forest management, indicates Dr. Belward.

Threats to biodiversity can also be geospatially registered. The JRC is monitoring the disappearance of biodiversity in 741 protected areas in Africa, home to 280 species of mammals, 381 bird species and 930 amphibians. Information updated every ten days is collated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). A website has been set up to make public all results.

On top of conservation, satellites can be useful in humanitarian relief. Very high resolution imagery is able to monitor refugee camps in crisis areas such as Darfur. This helps in estimating the number of people hosted in the camp and in need of assistance. The JRC is also working with the World Bank and other institutions to develop methodology to observe and eventually prepare for risks such as earthquakes, aiming to eventually limit the amount of havoc they wreak.

Crops are also being monitored with agro-meteorological models developed in over 30 countries vulnerable to crises and food shortages. Due to its recurrent food shortages and an absence of regional monitoring, the Horn of Africa is under particular observation. Monthly reports on crop conditions, yield, prospects and likely food shortages are issued between April and October, with information passed on to EU offices and UN partners.