1

Using Earth Observation to Support Climate Smart Agriculture

Amos Kabo-bah Head, EORIC amos.kabobah@uenr.edu.gh Tel: +233 543859721

Kamila Kabo-bah EORIC kamila.kabobah@uenr.edu.gh Tel: +233 261300730

SEACRIFOG Project Stakeholder Consultation Workshop

Outline

• Brief on UENR

• Activities in EORIC for Climate Smart Agriculture

• Conclusion

2

University of Energy and Natural Resources

The University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) was established by an Act of Parliament, Act 830, 2011 on December 31, 2011. The University is a public funded national institution which seeks to provide leadership and management of energy and natural resources and be a centre of excellence in these critical areas.

• School of Engineering;

• School of Sciences;

• School of Geosciences;

• School of Agriculture and Technology;

• School of Natural Resources; and

• School of Graduate Studies

3

UENR-School of Agric. and Technology

• Animal Production and Health

• Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness and Extension

• Horticulture and Crop Production

• Food Science and Technology

4

• Departments

EORIC

5 Dr. Amos Kabo-Bah

- Climate Informatics - High Performance Computing

EORIC

6 Dr. Amos Kabo-Bah

Direct Broadcast Earth Observation Satellite

Ground Station (EOS-DB)

Automatic Weather Station EUMETSAT Reception Station

High Performance Computing

CLIMATE FLUXES MONITORING TOWER The Centre is far advanced to acquire and set up a flux tower. This flux tower will be able to determine exchange rates of carbon dioxide between the forests and the atmosphere. The information gathered plays into the debate on the measurable effects of climate change.

Land suitability assessment of for development of rice-based systems in

Togo and Benin

What is AFIS …. It supports both ground based resources through mobile solutions and dispatch control centers with the fire dashboard and integrates with any existing GIS platforms and CMS's It dynamically links fire incidents with weather, fire danger and historical events for improved decision making It is a hosted Software Solution which provides a proactive service with out the need for specialised IT support

Wildfire Information Monitoring and Visualization framework that allows for the integration of any data source Developed in partnership with fire managers from the forestry and utilities domain over more than 10 years Fully integrates satellite based and forest camera detections in to seamless detection network.

AFIS Online Webviewer Transmission Line Fire Risk Information

• Transmission servitude buffer GIS layer in the system

• Active fire locations near the transmission line from 5 different satellites daily

• Historic fire risk (12 years) within the servitude

Asset Monitoring • Web viewer for correlating all asset

information with geolocated fire information

• Historic Fire Risk map for all fixed assets locations

Weather and Fire Danger Forecast • Web viewer showing 5 day forecast of

weather information • 5 day forecast of Fire Danger Index

Mobile apps Available on both iOS and Android, AFISMobile brings critical fire

management information to you where ever you are. Automated alerting to SMS, email or push notifications

AFIS Services

“MODIS Fires; 5.64 km NE of Reference Point ; 28.33E -25.885S At 2013-06-06 T13:45:00 +02:00”

“VIIRS Fires; 5.64 km NE of Reference Point ; 28.33E -25.885S At 2013-06-06 T13:45:00 +02:00”

02

05

Active Fire

Fully interactive map with location and

number of fire events per area.

Define Points of interest

Active Fire Incident Table

Interactive list of active fires, detection times

and link to the fire location.

Fire Danger Forecasting

Interactive layer with the daily

point/area FDI/FWI, including a 5

day forecast.

Forecasting of fire danger

Data from AFIS is fed into

regional Models to produce FDI

maps

01

04

06

Wind flow animation

Regional wind flow map

from global model

03

Weather Forecasts

Regional forecast

temperature, and wind

speed/direction

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Jan Feb March April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec

South

North

Statistics and Reports

Analytics Statistics and Reports are auto generated

for users and available in the dashboard, online viewer or direct email

Algorithms developed for LandSat 8 and Sentinal. With a 7 day revisit rapid burn scar maps are generated for priority events

AFIS Dashboard able to retrieve and display all burn scar areas on request. Priority fires can be escalated for rapid assessments

AFIS Reports generated automatically and sent out to user with stats on area and vegetation type burned

Auto loaded into AFIS online viewer and linked to users profile. Routine burn area maps generated monthly.

Integrating Low Cost Drones for Improving Agricultural Production In Ghana

15

Project Overview

• In 2003, Ghana developed a policy document on the ICT for Accelerated Development (ICT4AD) which emphasised the importance of ICT for agriculture

• Effective farm management to reduce crop losses through diseases, crop stress etc. is very difficult using traditional methods

• Traditional methods of planting is becoming obsolete and unattractive especially for the youth in Ghana

• The use of modern tools such as drones and computers provides the best means for improved decision making in agriculture

• Drones can therefore be used to enhance the overall cropping stages during farming.

• Therefore, the project seeks to pilot the application of drones for improved agricultural production in Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) zone of Ghana.

16

SADA Zone

17

Project Objective

First Year • To recruit 3 PhD and 3 Master students to work jointly in the applications

of drones for following areas: • Soil Analysis • Crop Monitoring and Health • Planting

• To review the existing sensors, technologies and software that can support the application of Soil Analysis, Crop Monitoring and Health

• To assess the existing technologies that are available for the planting purposes

• To develop tailored-made applications for the application of drones for pilot farm cases in the three core areas (To be done by selected students jointly with selected farmers)

Second and Third Years • To develop tailor-made cost effective drones (sensors and technology)

that best suited for Ghanaian farm-based situations • To establish a Centre of Excellence for the training of professionals in the

use of drones for precision agriculture

18

Relevance with the National Agenda

• Ghana has a policy for ICT4AD, and is closely following the ICT for Accelerated Agriculture (ICT4AG).

• Drones are used widely in Ghana for various issues, and recently the Government has earmarked the use of drones for fighting illegal mining and illegal logging.

• There are also promised efforts to consider the use of drones for boosting the agricultural sector especially for commercial agricultural farms such as Cocoa and Cashew.

19

Licensing of Drones

• The Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, the body in charge of running the country’s aviation industry under the Ghana Civil Aviation Safety Regulations, 2011, Legislative Instrument (LI) 2000 is to regulate and register all drones to be used in Ghana.

• The Earth Observation Research and Innovation Centre (EORIC) has already requested for licenses in the use of drones for various experimental studies.

20

Benefits of the Project

21

Planting

• Drone-planting systems can achieve an uptake rate of 75% and decrease planting costs by 85 %.

Soil Analysis

• 3-D maps for early soil analysis, useful in planning seed planting patterns.

• After planting, drone-driven soil analysis provides data for irrigation and nitrogen-level management

Crop Monitoring and Health

• Crop spraying

• Crop health assessment

• Crop monitoring

Expected Outputs

• The capacity of 3 MSc and 3PhD students in the use of drone technology for precision agriculture would be built.

• Tailored-made cost effective drones for use for planting, soil and crop monitoring for the SADA zone.

• Farmers in the SADA zone capacity enhanced in the use of drones for farm management.

• A Centre of Excellence established for the education of the use of technologies for enhancing food production and food security for Ghana.

• Several relevant publications in SCI journals on the use of drone technology for precision agriculture.

• Workshop and Seminars proceedings of community based education forums of farmers

• An established conference series established as a bi-annual event for the use of low-cost technologies for precision agriculture for Ghana and Africa

22

Project Implementation Organisation

23

Lead PI

Co-PI

Target Group

Experts & Technology

Experts/Students

Farmers

Mapping Small Scale Mining vrs Land Use using EO data

24

25

INTRODUCTION Ghana is really blessed with a lot of natural

resources. Almost every part of the country has

a mineral deposited in its region, but the proper

management of this has led to it depletion and

some even getting extinct.

Spatially and timely referenced information on

the extent of “ASM” in our country is needed

to understand and limit the negative impact

associated with it.

So far, there has not been adequate research

conducted to determined the extent of this

“ASM” activities on our natural resources. This

has been a major problem because, most of

these researches are based on local evidence

such as interviews from farmers etc.

26

INTRODUCTION

The negative environmental and

socioeconomic impacts of “ASM”

are expressions of informality.

A timely and comprehensive map on

“ASM” is very important to measure

the extent of the problem, and also to

design ground measurement

campaigns to evaluate the magnitude

and extent of the pollution.

Monitoring the evolution of “ASM”

is also valuable for the inter-

ministerial task force against illegal

mining to better target their

intervention (Former President

Dramani Mahama).

The majority of miners in Ghana

operate informally, due to part to

barriers associated with obtaining

land and a licence.

This informality has given rise to a

host of environmental and social

problems in Ghana, such as the

pollution and destruction of water

bodies, degradation of arable

farmland, as well as the negative

health impacts of working in

hazardous conditions; this has been

the focus in the Ghanaian media,

which tends to depict the entire

“ASM” sector in a negative and

damaging light.

27

= +

Map the extents of ASM

+

Landsat 1986, 2000, 2001

Sentinel 2017

Classification -QGIS Map Production -ArcGIS

28

METHODS

Results

29

30

Using EO to support BioRemote Fuel Project

31

.

. .

Limited access to energy Soil degradation: high run-off rate, low income

32

Objectives

improve oil productivity of

Jatropha Curcas’ grains

reduce dependency on

fossil fuel

cut down carbon

emission

promote healthy

environment

jobs opportunity

for young and women

33

Activities & Innovation

• Direct insight in crop water

status (optimization of

production)

• Areas of low crop water use

can be identified

• Avoid water competition

with other crops

Reduce run-off

Evapotranspiration map

• Improve oil extraction with

appropriate solvent

34

FormoSat-7 / COSMIC-2 (Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate)

Baseline Ground Station Architecture

The program has agreed to establish

a ground station in UENR-Ghana to

improve data latency. Installation is

scheduled to be completed by July,

2017.

Applications for Daily Weather Forecast for Farmers