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Africa: Free Geodata, AfricaMap and Ushahidi
posted by Satri
on Tuesday December 23, @09:14AM
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from the snow-prediction-over-Le-Cap dept.
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from the snow-prediction-over-Le-Cap dept.
Here's a few recent Africa-related geostories: there's APB mentions a BBC article about Ushahidi, an open source crowdsourcing crisis information software with evident geospatial components.
Then there's V1 reporting a new source of free geodata for Africa, provided by the Southern African Human-development Information Management Network for Coordinated Humanitarian Development Action (SAHIMS).
Then OE and APB that links to conflicts early warning and crisis mapping and AfricaMap [article] [the map]. Also interesting: "AfricaMap makes use of OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) compliant web services such as WMS (Web Map Service), emerging open standards such as WMS-C (cached WMS), and standards-based metadata formats, to enable AfricaMap data layers to be inserted into existing data infrastructures."
We obviously have a lot of previous Africa geonews items, see also selected related stories below.
Related Stories
Industry: Launch of the African Geo Information Researcher Network 1 comment
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The EO Portal announces the launch of the African Geo Information Researcher Network (AGIRN) portal. From the portal: "Over many years our research has shown that Africa has a fragile but vibrant geoinformation industry that is producing some of the information needed for use in decision-making. In some instances the work that is being done on the continent is of an international standard and requires recognition. Furthermore, the decision makers need to be made aware of what geoinformation is available so that it can be more effectively used in the development of policies, strategies and in the implementation of development programmes."
Industry: Map Africa and Open Source Geospatial 1 comment
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Geoff at Between the Poles gives an interesting account of his participation at Map Africa 2006 and open source software on that continent. From the blog: "He was vocifereous in arguing that open source is good for South Africa becaue open source creates an opportunity for the development of human capital in South Africa. He also reiterated what I think is generally recognized that security is not a reason to not use OSS, but he did allow that OSS needs to improve its usabality and that this is the primary barrier to its adoption. He encouraged people to be more adventurous and to use open source because it's a way to help Africa to develop its human capital. [...] There is what appears to be a widespread perception in South Africa that traditonal GIS is too expensive. Part of this is no doubt due to the fact that in the developing world, if you express the cost of software in terms of the local per capita income, the cost of software is much higher than in North America."
South African Space Portal and Data 2 comments
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In the context of the launch of the South African Space Portal NASA World Wind page, The Earth is Square links to the South African Space Portal. From the blog: "The current dataset includes the following:
* South Africa 50k Topo maps.
* Africa 250k Topo maps.
o South Africa
o Lesotho
o Malawi
o Mozambique
o Namibia
o Swaziland
o Zambia
o Zimbabwe
* Various areas with aerial imagery.
" Somewhat related, The Map Room links to a collection of 16th-20th century maps of Africa.
Application Domains: Scientists Discover Forest with Google Earth
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om_henners writes "British scientists have ventured to the mountainous north of Mozambique after discovering a previously unknown forest around the peak of Mount Mabu.
Courtesy of the Guardian: Mount Mabu was "discovered" in 2005 when [expedition leader Jonathan Timberlake]'s team were looking for a site for a conservation project. Soon afterwards, locally based conservationist Julian Bayliss visited the site and studied satellite photos which showed a forest of about 80 square kilometres.
"It's then we realised this looked [to be] potentially the biggest area of medium-altitude forest I'm aware of in southern Africa," said Timberlake, who has spent most of his working life in the region. "Nobody knew about it. The literature I'm aware of doesn't mention the word 'Mabu' anywhere; we have looked through the plant collections of Kew and elsewhere and we don't see the name come up. It might be there under another name, but we're not aware of any collection of plant or animals, or anything else taking place there."
A selection of photos of the expedition can also be found here." See also our Forestry topic.
Application Domains: Digital Soil Map for Africa Launched
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techster writes "Nature
reports:
Soil scientists are developing the first ever digital soil map of Africa, covering 42 countries south of the Sahara. The map will provide up-to-date information on the health and properties of the soil, helping farmers and policymakers to improve degraded soils and increase crop production.
The mapping project, called the African Soil Information Service, is launched today at the Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Institute in Nairobi, which is leading the initiative. The institute is part of the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, a non-profit research body funded by international organizations and private foundations.
The African initiative is the first phase of a bigger project to develop a global soil map, called GlobalSoilMap.net, which will be launched in New York next month."
See also related stories below.
Application Domains: Surveying OpenStreetMap in Africa 1 comment
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The OpenGeoData blog has an informative entry named surveying OpenStreetMap in Africa.
From the entry: "OpenStreetMap is growing rapidly across all of Africa. Mapping is spreading through local mappers, mappers on vacation, foreign nationals, and remote mapping using satellite imagery. A recent comparison judged that OSM had the most comprehensive coverage of Africa among web mapping services, especially in cities. [...] The OpenStreetMap Foundation will be distributing donated GPS units to mappers in developing countries.
Not yet formally announced, the codenamed “Mappers Without Borders” project will be providing OSM mapping assistance to humanitarian response and development projects, particularly in Africa. (As a still informal entity, we’ve recently been active in mapping the Gaza Strip.)"
See also previous stories below.
Application Domains: Free Introductory Guide To GIS And GPS 1 comment
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The FGT blog links to the new MapAction.org 'Field Guide to Humanitarian Mapping', which is actually a good 118-pages introductory guide to GIS and GPS.
From the preface: "The guide contains tutorials on the use of two alternative mapping toolkits: Google Earth (Chapter 3) and an open-source GIS software package called MapWindow (Chapter 4). There is also a section on using a GPS to collect data (Chapter 2)."
See also related stories below.
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