Technological Innovation for Climate Change Patterns
in the Sahel Region

The Sahel region of West Africa experiences marked variability in rainfall associated with changes in atmospheric circulation and in tropical sea surface temperature patterns in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Basins. In particular, the decreasing rainfall in the Sahel region is among the largest effects of climate change worldwide. Since the 1990s, a variety of government and non-government organisations in The Sahel have worked with community-based structures to develop early warning systems (CEWS) for data on rainfall and food security. The major constraints for the sustainability of these traditional systems was the cost collecting and disseminating the information through monthly or bi-monthly meetings at local, regional and national levels. ICT-based CEWS are being increasingly implemented to assemble, analyze, and disseminate information that can mitigate the impact of crisis periods of drought. Taking into account that, according to the UN Emergency Relief, every USD 1 spent on preventing disasters saves between USD 4 and USD 7 in humanitarian emergency after a disaster, the use of ICTs on early warning systems is crucial

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) USAID-funded activity collaborates with international (for example, NASA), regional and national partners to provide timely and rigorous early warning and vulnerability information on emerging and evolving food security issues. With this system, professionals in US and Africa monitor various information including remotely sensed and ground-based metereological and crop data, as indicators of potential threats to food security. This is fundamental taking into account that according to the Human Development Report 2007/2008, Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest density of meteorological stations in the world.

On another project between UNEP and Google, up to 120 environmental hotspots have been identified currently in the “UNEP Altas of our Changing Environment” publications. With images such as the forest fires in Sub-Saharan Africa and the decline of the Lake Chad, this application helps the environmental community to keep pace with recent changes. The TIGER Initiative is another project launched by the European Space Agency to focus on water resource management in Africa with the use of space technology. Their current projects in the Sahel include the tele-detection of humid areas, the evaluation and management of water resources, methods of groundwater development to remedy the inadequate natural recharge systems of the aquifers in the Chad Bassin in North Eastern Nigeria, and the development of integrated resource management policies in the Gash basin of the Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia which can serve as reference basin.

Radar Technologies France/USGS/UNESCO Watex, has identified an aquifer potential in Central Darfur over an area of 135 000 km². Such identification was made possible using new radar remote sensing technologies. The study has revealed vast stretches of land in central Darfur hosting enough ground water reserves to sustain 33 million people year round with 15 litres of water per day. These aquifers are renewable and easily accessible within a depth ranging from subsurface to 50 meters in unconsolidated sediments easy to drill. In an area which hosts 2.5 million people in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) champs, this is a major achievement to ensure water supply.

In another initiative, Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has sponsored the Cyber Shepherd Initiative to enable Sahelian pastoralists to access accurate information on the status of grazing lands in order to help them co-ordinate their movements. Project members are working closely with communities to identify innovative ways in which ICTs can be used to harness traditional knowledge on natural resource management. In another project, the Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems (FIVIMS) in collaboration with the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) are working on building in Niger a more integrated food insecurity and vulnerability information system at national and sub-national levels to provide timely information to the policy-makers and members of civil society.

Source: International Telecommunication Union (ITU).