DATE / TIME:

2017/04/10    15:00 - 17:00

Location:

Dresden, Germany

Lecturer: Dr. Ana Andreu Mendez (UNU-FLORES) and Dr. Timothy Dube (University of Limpopo)

Coverage/Summary: Remote Sensing for Water Management in Africa’s Savannas

Ana Andreu Mendez (UNU-FLORES) and Timothy Dube (University of Limpopo) present at Nexus Seminar No. 19

Savannas are among Africa’s most productive landscapes – supporting livestock/crops and livelihoods – but experience frequent droughts, aggravated by climate change and other human-induced changes. To maintain ecosystem productivity without reaching the tipping points, while ensuring food security, we should rely on an integrated watershed management and monitoring. Uncertainties associated with management can be reduced by integrating timely and precise information of ecosystem dynamics (e.g. Earth Observation (EO) and open data sources, modelling) into decision-making processes. EO data (VIS/NIR/TIR) provided by new ESA Sentinels satellites allow us to map the water use/stress and vegetation distribution across African savannas, as well as to monitor seasonal and long-term temporal variations, to support rangeland management at different scales (farm-local to watershed-regional). TIGER Project 401, a joint initiative of UNU-FLORES and the University of Limpopo (South Africa), combines two different scientific approaches (Kc-FAO56 and two-source energy balance models), with different conceptual and operational capabilities and limitations, to monitor savanna water flux. The procedure was tested and validated over two experimental areas with different ecotones in Kruger National Park, and will allow for estimation of savanna evapotranspiration over larger areas across Africa.

Nexus Seminar Series

UNU-FLORES in collaboration with the Faculty of Environmental Sciences of TU Dresden is excited to announce the Nexus Seminar Series. The joint seminar series, which launched in 2015, features lectures by senior scholars that highlight all dimensions of research on the Nexus Approach, ranging from hands-on implementation strategies to theoretical debates. The Nexus Seminars serve not only as a platform for scientific exchange and cooperation between UNU-FLORES and TU Dresden but also a medium for the partner institutions to discuss their research with a broader audience.

Taking place once a month, each seminar is open to the public and held alternatingly at UNU-FLORES and TU Dresden.

Please find all past Nexus Seminars here.