Update on Geospatial Activities at ICARDA

E. De Pauw and W. Gö bel

CGIAR-CSI Meeting, ILRI, Nairobi

31 March-4 April 2009

Overview

Completed projects

Sunset projects

Continuing projects/activities

New projects

Publications

Interests for collaboration with extended CSI COP

Completed project 1:

Ecogeographical/botanical survey

Area covered: Jebel Wastani and Jebel Zawia in Idleb province,

NW Syria

Outcomes: Areas identified unsuitable for rock removal

(based on biophysical and cultural criteria) Area identified for biodiversity conservation Guidelines for developing a management plan for

the proposed conservation area

Follow-up 2009: Soil survey to experiment with Bayesian mapping

methods

Completed project 2:

Climate change maps Egypt / Tajikistan

In support of the Expert Consultation on Climate Change held by WFP in Cairo, 3-4 November 2008

High-resolution (1 km) change maps based on the calibration method for downscaling of average output of 21 GCM models, scenario A1B, time frame 2080-2099

Example of simple downscaling:

Importance of upstream-downstream relationships

Nile Basin:

Sunset project 1:

CACILM

Central Asia Sustainable Land Management Research Project

Multidisciplinary Role of GIS component: assist with defining recommendation domains

for technological options tested at CACILM benchmark sites through

Characterization of benchmark sites Mapping similarity in climate, land use,

topography and soils

New soil map for Central Asia through compilation of national maps

Sunset project 2:

Agroecological Zoning Egypt

In association with the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) of Egypt

Integrating climate, land use and soil information to identify areas with similar irrigation management needs

Sunset project 3:

Turkey Land Suitability Mapping

Ongoing country-level assessment of agroecological zones and land suitability for 20 crops

Finalized agroclimatic and agroecological zoning of Turkey

Completing now land suitability component Outcome for use in other projects:

Models for score-based qualitative crop suitability assessments

Advantages: more robust, flexible, cheaper and easier to use in large-area suitability assessments with limited datasets

Disadvantage: no direct link to yield expectation

Sunset project 4:

Sudan (Resource) Poverty Mapping

Components Mapping agricultural potential regions of Sudan

Characterizing the natural resources constraints and potential and the production systems of the agricultural potential regions

Characterizing natural resource potential and poverty by state in Sudan

Household surveys in selected regions for validation

Adaptation of a methodology developed in Syria

Problems for completing the study: New census data not yet released by Sudan government

Without population density data not possible to spatialize the per-capita income from agriculture

Use of remote sensing: above-ground biomass assessment using MODIS imagery

SUDAN Above-ground biomass

Northern Darfur

Western Darfur

Southern Darfur

Continuing projects/activities

In the context of climate change research Enabling current agroclimatic analyses for future

climate

Trend analysis and drought mapping in the non-tropical drylands; mapping of interannual climatic variability Based on analysis of CRU and GPCC data sets

Update of the ICARDA Agroclimate Tool Better weather generator, better spatialization

methods -> truly site-specific recommendations and crop monitoring

Central Asia

Central Asia

New project 1:

Water harvesting in Libya

Agroecological zoning of Libya

Mapping and characterization of agricultural regions

Spatial analysis of potential for specific water harvesting techniques based on improved Syria methodology

at higher resolution (1:50,000 scale in agricultural regions of Libya)

Better data availability Libya (especially soils)

Improvements in assessment of runoff/run-on relationships and for macro-catchment systems

New project 2:

Climate change impact assessments in Central Asia

Funded by Asian Development Bank

GIS component involves mapping for selected ‘futures’(models, time frames and emission scenarios):

basic climate surfaces with medium-resolution for selected futures

drought risk (probabilities of not exceeding critical precipitation levels) for climates of the selected futures

shifts in suitability for land use systems (specific crops, rangelands), using land suitability models

projected shifts of agro-ecosystems (agroecological zones, agricultural regions, land use systems)

recommendation domains for CACILM technologies most relevant for CC

Partner: IFPRI

New project 3:

Mapping wheat growing areas

Component of ‘Durable Resistance to Rust in Wheat’: Funded by B&MGF

Objective 3 ‘Tracking Wheat Rust Pathogens’ maps of wheat growing areas GISU role: 1-km resolution mapping of

wheat growing areas in West and South Asia

2009: Syria covered

Methodology for outscaling to rest of West and South Asia

Publications 1:Country-level assessment of land suitability for water harvesting

Publications 2:Country-level assessment of land suitability for supplemental irrigation

Publications 3: Agroecological zoning and similarity mapping Karkhe River Basin, Iran - Ecogeographical and botanical survey

Publications 4: Ecogeographical and botanical survey in Idleb Province, NW Syria

GIS in ICARDA

GIS is now ‘mainstreamed’ in ICARDA

Work with all research programs in several projects

Consensus about staff time recovery (no more free lunches)

Center-wide initiatives of interest

Probabilistic methods of soil property and crop distribution mapping

Climate change impact assessments from biophysical and socioeconomic perspectives