The 7th Southern Africa Fire Network (SAFNet) Workshop will be held in Caprivi, Namibia on 22-26th September 2008. The workshop, Towards Effective Regional Fire Management, Policies and Operations Status aims to foster more effective and appropriate fire management policies and practices in Southern Africa through the use of remote sensing, GIS and other geo-spatial information technologies....
Short notice, but the Humanitarian Futures Programme will be hosting a seminar on Wednesday 25 June at King’s College, London. Focus is on satellite imagery and its future uses by the humanitarian community in monitoring natural hazards, climate change and health. If you’re around London, it should be interesting - [...]...
Mapping of colophospermum mopane using Landsat TM in eastern Botswana recently published in the South African Geographical Journal by Reuben J. Sebego, Wolter Arnberg, Bengt Lunden and HOORC researcher Susan Ringrose, reports results of a study of the range of mopane trees and related soils in Botswana. Methods applied in the exercise used the possibilities of integrated applications of...
The Harry Oppenheimer Okavango Research Centre (HOORC) is growing. The University of Botswana is currently advertising the following academic positions for HOORC for both Botswana citizens and international candidates:
Vacancy No. HOORC1/2008 Associate Professor/Senior Research Fellow in Wildlife Ecology and ManagementVacancy No. HOORC2/2008 Associate Professor/Senior Research Fellow in...
Jesse Robbins and Mikel Maron spoke at Where2.0 on Disaster Technology. Streaming video is a bit of a non-starter on my shonky internet connection, but both of these guys have an interesting take on the sector. They’re both technology evangelists, but minus the utopianism that makes my fists itch. A platform like Where2.0 is fantastic [...]...
So it all kicked off in Myanmar this week, except that it didn’t, because the military regime has managed to bungle the response to Cyclone Nargis. We could get into a long discussion about the whys and wherefores, and there’s some frightening talk about the “right to respond” over-riding sovereignty, but let’s stay focused on [...]...
In
Media,
ngo,
blogs,
United Nations,
Burma,
Humanitarian,
Web,
Emergency Telecommunications,
Sahana,
Cellphone,
Logistics,
Co-ordination,
sms,
cyclone,
Nargis,
GIS,
geospatial,
Remote Sensing
Nigel Woof at MapAction has just circulated a briefing paper entitled Google Earth and its potential in the humanitarian sector [pdf], which outlines most of the key issues around the use of GE (and other geospatial visualisation tools). I was particularly pleased that Nigel recognises the way in which GE is a disruptive technology, something...
So UNHCR releases a Google Earth layer to great fanfare:
Unveiling a new UNHCR layer in Google Earth before invited guests at UNHCR’s Geneva headquarters, Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees L. Craig Johnstone hailed the project as means to educate people worldwide on the plight of refugees and on the humanitarians who help them.
“Google Earth is [...]...
Chris Albon leads us to UNOSAT’s latest and frankly greatest production - a map of Somali pirate activity. Pirates are no laughing matter, but all this map lacks is a big X to show where they buried all the WFP food shipments they’ve been hijacking. I have no idea how this post provides any insight into how technology can support the humanitarian community, but hey - pirates....
The Economist article Of internet cafés and power cuts was passably interesting on the subject of technology in developing countries, although it takes the usual optimistic approach that the Economist favours. The Economist picked up on this issue was the publication of this year’s Global Economic Prospects by the World Bank, with a focus on technology adoption and a barrel full of blindingly obvious conclusions.
More interesting is the research that both of those draw on quite heavily, building a Historical Cross-Country Technology Adoption Database. You can download the database itself from that page, but the overview article Cross-Country Technology Adoption: Making the Theories Face the Facts by Diego Comin and Bart Hobijn is much more manageable. I haven’t dug into the...
Intute alerted us to the web site of Dr. Anthony R. Curtis, Space Today Online, which has several pages devoted to explaining how endangered wildlife is tracked using satellites. The site includes links to relevant sections of sites like NASA, NOAA and manufacturers of radio collars, and includes an index to some of the types of animals currently being monitoried in this...
Landcover classification product aggregated to vegetation type from Neuenschwander dissertation Remote sensing of vegetation dynamics in response to flooding and fire in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, Amy Neuenschwander's PhD dissertation for the University of Texas at Austin, assesses the spatio-temporal distribution of flooding and fire and their subsequent influences on
vegetation as...
Recent publications issued by HOORC academic staff and associates make a multidisciplinary contribution to natural resources issues relevant to Okavango Delta planning and management. Dr Lapologang Magole's paper in the conservation and human rights special issue of the IUCN's Policy Matters, The history of conservation evictions in Botswana : the struggle continues, with new hope provides an...
HOORC hydrology specialist Piotr Wolski and ecologist Mike Murray-Hudson contributed papers to the November 2006 conference, GlobWetland: Looking at Wetlands from Space, the proceedings newly arrived in HOORC's Library. Reconstruction 1989- 2005: Inundation History In The Okavango Delta From Archival Landsat Tm Imagery and Envisat Asar Global Mode Capabilities For Global Monitoring Of Wetlands...