1. Review of RRSF Implementation ICT and Geo-information
Workshop
Review of RRSF Implementation
ICT and Geo-information

2. Outline What is Geo-information? Where Questions
Agriculture Planning Example
Why is Geo-information?
Problem with paper based maps
ICT Enabling
GIS for Visual Presentation
GIS for Richer Content
Pin Maps
GIS for Data Combination
Conclusion

3. What is Geo-information?
Information that anchors decisions to “space” or location
Whatever we do, whatever happens, happens somewhere
After asking the usual questions:
Why (should we do x)?
When (should we do it)?
How (should we do it)?
What (do we have/need)? Qualitative and quantitative.
We also need to ask the location question:
Where …?

4. Where Questions Where are the input factors?
Where are the population that will benefit?
Where are the markets for the products?
Where are the infrastructure elements, utilities, etc?
Estimated that 80% of all human decisions involve a “where?” question

5. Agriculture Planning Example
Time series statistics of crop yield
Demography and location of producers and consumers
Maybe, small scale farmers needing assistance
Targeting of assistance by location
Climatic data
Early warning forecasts for localized drought for advance redistribution and possible
planning

6. Other Attributes
Attribute data on cities, towns, villages and other human settlements:
Population and socio-economic indicators: health, education, institutions, etc.
Commercial and industrial activities: agriculture, tourism, mining, forestry, environmental information

7. Crops – Where … ? Not all areas are suitable for cultivation
And not all the suitable areas are cultivated
And those cultivated may not be used for the best crop for the areas
Imperative to plan and target which crop to grow where and when
Need to identify and map edaphic conditions
Which area (where) is most suitable for sorghum, rice, etc
Which specific fertilizer to use and what
pest control method
Need to identify and map climatic conditions, especially rainfall
Forecast of exact start of cropping, management and harvesting cycle
When to apply fertilizer and pest management
Coordination of extension services is imperative

8. Livestock – Where …? Some areas are better for livestock than crops
Map of land cover to identify suitability for grazing
Climatic data to forecast rainfall/water availability
Map of aquifers for borehole and watering hole development
Map of specific wildlife habitat for prevention of diseases
Map of other climatic and environmental factors for disease conditions

9. Why Geo-information?
Without location information (geoinformation or spatial data) we cannot answer the where questions
Need to know ‘where’ things are (happening), ‘where’ to take action, ‘where’ to get inputs, ‘where’ etc
Traditionally presented as thematic maps
Base maps
Demographics
Vegetation
Soil maps
Land use/land cover, etc

10. Problem with paper based maps
Predefined map themes
Area of interest could be at the edge of map sheet
Incomplete visualization
Prone to clutter with more information
Difficult to combine with other statistical data
Difficult to keep up to date

11. ICT Enabling Recall that maps are inventories in analog form
Move to digital environment and include locational attributes in databases
With regular database query functions
Allows for incorporation of geographic positions in decision analyses
Also provide for visual analysis and geographic distribution of indicators
Allow for a variety of information products
Including maps in normal cartographic standards
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

12. GIS for Visual Presentation
Events and phenomena that are location-based and better presented as maps
Compare:

13. GIS for Richer Content
Now compare last map of % of forest cover with actual vegetation cover
Richer content for more detailed analyses
GIS provides better data modeling
for environmental phenomena

14. Pin Maps
“Pins” are placed at the point locations and attributes from the database are displayed on clicking the pin symbol
Pins may be symbolized by attribute to present at-a-glance information

15. Symbolized Earthquake data

16. GIS for Data Combination
In decision analysis, there is usually need to combine and integrate data for visualization and policy analysis
Common criterion for selection of data for such combination is location
The GIS can select and combine data on the basis of the location
And perform computations to analyze scenarios

17. Food Security Modeling using Landcover
Total Potential Food Supply
Africa Geospatial I&W: Regions at Risk
Population (Food-Water) Risk Surface
Water Vulnerability
(food + water vulnerability) x (capacity)
GeoCover LC Integrated into each model
Capacity
Very High (Stress)
Very Low (Stress)

18. What We Need
Build capacity of NSOs to use GIS and geospatial tools – ECA can assist
Also need to work with geo-information community

19. Thank You