Digital Earth Africa in the African space ecosystem
The data revolution has seen technologies emerge that are capable of handling big data. In the context of Earth observation (EO), there has been a huge increase in the volume of free, and open data, which can be processed using new computing technologies and data architectures such as data cubes. Satellite data efficiently prepared into analysis ready data, has the potential to harness the growing volumes of EO data to solve critical problems in agriculture, security, information dissemination, and other sectors, and will help Africa tap into the space economy.
The Digital Earth Africa platform (DE Africa), based on the Australian technological innovation Open Data Cube infrastructure, makes free and open satellite imagery and EO data available for the whole of Africa. DE Africa builds on the Africa Regional Data Cube (ARDC) which provided Analysis Ready Data (ARD) for Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania, and demonstrated a demand for EO data from governmental institutions, academics and other stakeholders.
DE Africa provides a routine, reliable, and operational service, using EO to deliver decision-ready products enabling policy makers, scientists, the private sector and civil society to address social, environmental, and economic changes on the continent and develop an ecosystem for innovation across sectors. DE Africa will process openly accessible and freely available data to produce decision-ready products. Working closely with the AfriGEO community, DE Africa will respond to the information needs, challenges, and priorities of the African continent. DE Africa will leverage and build on existing capacity to enable the use of EO to address key challenges across the continent. Thanks to its strategic partners, including AWS and ESRI, DE Africa aims to strengthen connections between data, applications, and users, facilitating management, access, and use of ARD. This allows different types of users to harness big Earth data at minimum cost and effort. DE Africa is an operational platform that provides data for decision making in Africa across various issues, including soil and coastal erosion, agriculture and food security, forest and desert development, water quality, and changes to human settlements.
“DE Africa will process openly accessible and freely available data to produce decision-ready products.”
DE Africa has a Technical Roadmap, which is continually reviewed to respond to the needs and priorities of Africa. DE Africa provides information on datasets, platforms and services, that will see Africa achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Africa Union Agenda 2063 and respective National Development Agendas. Presently, DE Africa provides access to Sentinel 2 data (from the Copernicus Programme) for the whole of Africa (from 2017 to date), Landsat 5, 7, 8 for the five ARDC countries, and later updated Landsat data for the other countries. The datasets in DE Africa can be viewed in the metadata explorer with online access to the platform in the DE Africa map user interface and DE Africa Sandbox Python application notebooks. DE Africa has created the Water Observation From Space (WOFS) service for the whole continent, which provides a better assessment of water availability with an opportunity to map, assess, visualise and manage water resources and understand trends over time. DE Africa is currently developing the crop mask service for the whole of Africa in support of food security and SDG 2.
DE Africa implements various strategies including a gender equity, diversity and social inclusion (GEDSI) strategy, ensuring no one is left behind in support of SDGs. In addition, DE Africa is building capacity across all sectors including government ministries, departments, agencies (MDAs), academia, and civil based societies (CSOs) through online training as well as weekly live sessions aimed at the development of use cases. This will help improve the understanding of Africa’s changing landscape, providing much needed insights, knowledge, and analysis for more informed, strategic, and inclusive decision-making across the continent; as well as increase commercial efficiency and economic growth for businesses and entrepreneurs across the continent.
Ultimately, DE Africa will help drive the continent towards the attainment of the Pan African Vision of an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa as outlined by the Africa Union Commission, The Africa we want.
Kenneth Mubea
Kenneth is the User Engagement Manager at DE Africa and he plays a key role in the transition of the Africa Regional Data Cube (ARDC) to DE Africa inclusive of both technical support and user engagement and support. In addition, he helps drive the usage of DE Africa data and services, and engage with a network of partners across Africa