Satellites to Tackle African Water Problems

The first Tiger initiative resulted from the Sustainable Development Summit in Johannesburg in 2002. The programme was run from 2005 to 2009. In the Tiger I programme, data from ESA earth observations were used by local African organisations for water quality monitoring, groundwater mapping and for investigating the impact of irrigation on agriculture.

(Top image: Flooding patterns of the Okavango Delta from Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) time-series. Areas identified as open water surfaces appear as blue, and water surfaces covered by vegetation appear as green. The spatial resolution of 150 m captures precisely small-scale flooding patterns, such as channels and lagoons. The time series comprises 13 images for the year 2005. The spatial extent of the flooded area varies between 1200 and 9000 sq km. This time series, created under the TIGER project 'Remote Sensing as a data source for surface and groundwater modelling in Botswana', will be used for calibrating a hydrological model. Image source: Tiger I project, ESA)

The Tiger II programme is a follow-up to the initial project. One of its most important goals is to promote the further development of scientific skills on the African continent. All projects will be implemented by local African organizations. ESA will provide the earth observation data free of charge and will invest in knowledge transfer. Universities, institutes and water authorities will be able to learn how best to use the earth observation (EO) data.

A major component of TIGER II is devoted to supporting African scientists, technical centres and water authorities to develop the scientific skills and the technical capacity to make the best use of EO technology to understand better, assess and monitor the status of the water resources in Africa. The initiative is also devoted to supporting the African partners to gain a better understanding of how EO may help assess the potential impacts of climate change on water resources and thus to establish a sound scientific basis for developing effective adaptation and mitigation measures across the continent.

The proposals selected for TIGER II, spanning some 13 African countries, include sustainable water use, flooding patterns, water quality monitoring, sedimentation modelling, groundwater resource assessment, hydrological and environmental aspects of wetlands and climate change impacts, among many others.

These projects will benefit from free access to EO data, software tools and scientific advice from international experts, as well as dedicated training and research stages in expert laboratories, support for participation in postgraduate courses and publishing scientific results.

According to Zoltan Vekerdy, one of the ITC project managers, the use of earth observation data in Africa is still in its infancy. ‘For Africans, it is certainly not easy to determine what information they need, how to request the information and finally how to incorporate it into their own systems.'

ITC will also provide training for twenty selected project organizations in the second phase of the Tiger programme (2010-2012). In addition, it will serve as a bridge between the African organizations and research institutes worldwide. TU Delft, the University of Lisbon (UNL), the Belgian company VITO and others are involved in the implementation of these projects in Africa.

Tiger is an international initiative that contributes to carrying out the strategy of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO). It receives support from UNESCO, the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency and is endorsed by the African Ministerial Council on Water (AMCOW).