GMES First National Stakeholders Meeting

The Centre for Space Science and Technology Education (CSSTE) is leading a Multi-Scale Flood Monitoring and Assessment Services for West Africa (MiFMASS) project using Earth observation satellite data. MiFMASS is one of the actions under the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security and Africa (GMES & Africa) initiative. CSSTE is the lead institution of the consortium made up of seven partner institutions from five West African countries, namely Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Benin and Nigeria. In Nigeria, the study area is the Ogun-Osun River Basin.  

To kick-start the Stakeholders’ engagement, CSSTE hosted the first National Stakeholder’s meeting of MiFMASS which took place on 29th August, 2018, at the CSSTE Office, OAU, Ile- Ife where relevant stakeholders participated in the meeting with some participants making presentations. 

MEETING
OBJECTIVES

  • To get stakeholders’ buy-in of the project

  • Explore possible areas of domestication of the project.

0
Participants
0
Organizations

> Brief on GMES &
Africa Support
Programme

> Presentations by the
project team

> Presentations by
stakeholders

EVENT GALLERY

After the Welcome Address by the Convener of the meeting, Dr. G. I. Agbaje, the meeting was openedby the Vice Chancellor. The Vice Chancellor thanked CSSTE for involving the University in the project. He said he is impressed with the focus on flooding as it is becoming a recurrent event in Nigeria. He advised that equipment procured for the project is put to good use and also called for collaboration between CSSTE and the OAU Institute for Ecology.

In his first remarks, a member of the project team, Prof. Owolabi Ajayi informed the participants that the Nigerian Hydrological Agency predicted that 35 states, out of the 36 States in Nigeria, would be affected by floods. Ironically, the only State that was exempted – Katsina State – was the first to be affected by flooding. He said that flooding is not a natural disaster like earthquakes; flooding can be predicted, and necessary preventive measures taken. 

Prof. J. O. Akinyede expressed his good wishes concerning the success of the project. He informed the participants that the Ministry of Environment had called for proposals to tackle flood problems in Nigeria, but that the proposals are yet to receive attention.

Dr. Agbaje then made a presentation on the GMES & Africa Support Prorgamme. He first educated the audience about CSSTE, enumerating the activities of the Centre, particularly the postgraduate education, outreach, and research programmes. He gave a background of GMES, tracing it to 2006, when the African Union (AU) requested the European Union (EU) to replicate GMES in Africa. The programme was properly launched in 2007. The first phase of the programme will focus on three priority areas, namely: natural resources; water resources; and marine & coastal areas. There are 2 services and 23 applications in this phase. MiFMASS falls under the Surface Water Monitoring theme. 

Dr. Agbaje linked MiFMASS to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, Paris Agreement on Climate Change, African Union’s Agenda 2063, as well as the ECOWAS Policy for Disaster Risk Reduction. The project is ‘multi-scale’ in the sense that it will consider national and regional. In each of the countries under this study, a river basin is chosen.

The selected areas are Oueme basin in Benin; Volta Basin in Burkina Faso; Bandama Basin in Cote d’Ivoire; Black Volta in Ghana; and the Ogun/Osun River Basin in Nigeria.

MiFMASS

Multi-Scale Flood Monitoring and Assessment Service Project

OBJECTIVES

DELIVERABLES

(i) Establish and updatable flood event database; (ii) Provide Disaster Management Organisations (DMOs) timely information before, during and after flood events; and (iii) Strengthen the capacities of DMOs and other target groups in the use of Earth Observation data for flood monitoring, assessment and management.

(i) Flood event database of the study areas; 
(ii) Flood Forecasting and Assessment system; 
(iii) Image acquisition, processing and analysis   system for mapping flood extent during, or   immediately after a flood; and                            (iv) Damage assessment module that will assist      DMOs evaluate the degree of damage after         flood    events. 

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