Nairobi –Today, the ribbon was cut on SERVIR-Africa. The Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD), the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the WaterCenter for the Humid Tropics of Latin America and the Caribbean (CATHALAC) jointly are implementing this timely and innovative project. The SERVIR system integrates satellite resources into a web-based Earth information system, putting previously inaccessible information into action locally. SERVIR will help scientists, government leaders and local communities address concerns related to natural disasters, disease outbreaks, climate change, and biodiversity.
SERVIR, Spanish for “to serve,” has been operational in Central America, the Caribbean and southern Mexico since 2005. Now, through the support of USAID, NASA, multiple government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and research institutions, the system is expanding to Africa and will be hosted by RCMRD in Nairobi, Kenya. RCMRD, an intergovernmental organization with 15 member states in eastern and southern Africa, is a leader in geospatial mapping for the region. The first phase of SERVIR-Africa will focus on eastern African countries, and aims to eventually serve the continent.
“A satellite birds-eye view can provide an overall picture of a natural disaster and its consequences,” said Dr. Tesfaye Korme, director of remote sensing and geographic information systems at RCMRD. “The new SERVIR-Africa platform comes just in time to provide us with the satellite data to develop maps of last week’s flooding in western Kenya and eastern Uganda, and estimate the number of displaced people. We will provide this information to the authorities responsible for disaster response.”
For early warning in advance of events, SERVIR-Africa is developing tools to predict floods in high-risk areas and vector-borne diseases such as Rift Valley Fever. It will also provide visualization capability to map the location of climate change projections so people can see, for example, the potential impact climate change may have on the land resources where they live. In addition, SERVIR-Africa’s information technology team will use the Internet to serve up satellite and ground-based earth observations, map data, and geospatial analyses that target issues such as urbanization, biodiversity threats, and management of natural resources. Mobile phones and radio, too, will be explored as a means to deliver useful information to people.
The strength of the SERVIR system is in the power of its diverse international team of scientists, developers and researchers. SERVIR-Africa builds upon existing capacity at RCMRD, adding three full-time geospatial technology experts in the Centre’s Nairobi headquarters. Bridging the Americas and Africa, it has created a unique partnership between the regional centre in Panama at CATHALAC, and the one here in Nairobi (RCMRD). The two centres are working to standardize database management and evaluate common methods for predicting severe weather events, analyze threats from climate change and understand the interactions between health and ecosystems.
