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Earth Observation


ESSA will address the data and information gap in pastoral rangeland mobility by using and developing remote sensing techniques for spatio-temporal detection of vegetation and livestock numbers in arid and semi-arid landscapes in Kenya and Ethiopia with the ability to scale to other countries in East Africa. This will contribute to better and more precise livestock census data with remote sensing and wildlife cameras, which can be used in the greenhouse gas emission (GHG) inventories for livestock that is currently the largest contributor to current agricultural GHG emissions in Africa. Remotely sensed data, such as airborne laser scanner data and satellite imagery will also contribute to assessment of land cover change to aboveground biomass and carbon stocks (Pellikka et al., 2018), and quantification and understanding of the environmental footprint of pastoralism, e.g. impact on soil carbon sequestration and overall soil health, which is critical information to climate change mitigation/adaptation, and to understanding the overall system nutrient cycling and its consequences for productivity/nutrition provisions to society of the rangelands of Africa. Remote sensing data can also be used for mapping greenness and vegetation indices and phenology in arid areas (Liu et al., 2016). In short, remote sensing provides estimations of feed for livestock both in small-scale and large-scale throughout the year. We will:

 

  1. Develop livestock counting methods based on remote sensing data in order to answer to what extent livestock numbers and mobility contribute to the greenhouse gas emissions in arid and semiarid landscapes. We aim also to scale up to other countries in East Africa.

  2. Monitor rangeland biomass, carbon stocks and land cover dynamics with satellite optical data and airborne laser scanner data to find how state of biomass, carbon and land cover affect the quality of rangeland ecosystem.

  3. Monitor how invasive species are distributed in sites with hyperspectral remote sensing data and more in general in Kenya and Ethiopia and their impact to rangeland ecosystem.

  4. Monitor water surfaces and soil moisture with satellite optical and microwave data in study sites.