[Geo4All] Geo Data, Urbanisation, Climate Changes and Tropical Africa

Wed Dec 13 10:29:44 PST 2017

Sven

I totally agree on the importance of this field.

May be let me point you where the failure on use of geo data based
system has been slow to emerge in large part of Africa.

Geography as a professional discipline is instead and largely taught
as an education course, taught to prospective teachers. Medical
doctors, Engineers, Ecologists etc., need mapping knowledge! For the
above reasons, there has been slow penetration of geo-informatic
education in this part of the world compared to let us say Europe.

That is where the problem starts!

For instance I have argued the Ministry of Health here, to use mapping
information in the distribution of medical drugs, based on spatial
disease spread. I have argued too it would have applied on trade and
commerce, population, social and economic data instead of using mere
statistical sampling as a tool of data collection.

Working in a University environment, I discovered that students every
semester had different ailments but the university sickbay continued
buying the same drugs! Mapping these events provided a clearer picture
over a two year period.

It therefore wouldn’t be different on a national and local level with
four climatic seasons and worse still with erratic climate change this
part of the world is witnessing.

Now factor in Biodiversity information change due to erratic climatic
change, the data derived must be colossal.

Of recent, I understand the Ministry of health has started acting on
the advice. Use of geo data information will make planning in Africa
more effective than use of traditional statistical methods.

That is how important geo- informatics is changing everything known
about data analysis.

Best Wishes

Dan

On 12/13/17, s.schade at ec.europa.eu <s.schade at ec.europa.eu> wrote:
> Dear Daniel, all,
>
> This is a big and important topic, indeed. Before looking into the possibly
> required new data gathering and knowledge sharing efforts it might be worth
> to examine how much related activities already exist with which data could
> be mobilized and integrated. From colleagues I heard at least about GBIF's
> Biodiversity Information for Development (BID) and the JRS African
> Biodiversity Challenge. These initiatives - and the like - may provide
> solutions for new data gatherings, and most likely for the data management
> and long-term access for newly gathered inputs, too. Given that e.g. GBIF is
> currently more of an option for continued data access, i.e. less suitable
> for near-real time information, some sort of combined system architecture
> might be thinkable. The organized analysis of the existing landscape, and
> the development of a governance approach for local data collections and
> their processing chains is a huge task, but certainly worth considering.
>
> At the recent UN Environment Assembly, it was announced that an African
> Citizen Science Association is in the making. Maybe you already know about
> some details - I am still looking forward to learn about this. Anyway, I
> could very well imagine that this new association could provide a very
> valuable umbrella in order to address some of these issues and to partner
> with the required organizations in order to improve the current situation on
> large geographic coverage.
>
> Best, Sven
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: GeoForAll [geoforall-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] on behalf of Ronald
> Fortunato [ron at trilliumlearning.com]
> Sent: 13 December 2017 14:40
> To: Patrick Hogan
> Cc: BISA-IPEG; ACUMEN; GeoForAll; Urban Geography Discussion and
> Announcement Forum; Dan Bwanika
> Subject: Re: [Geo4All] Geo Data, Urbanisation, Climate Changes and Tropical
> Africa
>
> Daniel,
>
> We might be able to modify the The UN application we’re building is for
> onsite data acquisition - the field person identifies various stages of
> presence, life cycle, level of infestation, etc. The data set is then sent
> to the UN where they determine the level and schedule for treatment. And as
> Patrick requested, are pests tracked now, and how? We could possibly create
> a new app which performs similar functions for your livestock farmers, given
> the functional specifications you need. The current development acquires
> data which is designed for preventative action.
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> Ron
>
> Ron Fortunato
> President, Trillium Learning
> Mobile: (862) 222-2233
> Office (973) 907-2332
> Trillium Learning - Real-world Process-Based Learning
> A World Bridge® www.aworldbridge.com<http://www.aworldbridge.com>
>
>
> On Dec 13, 2017, at 8:28 AM, Hogan, Patrick (ARC-PX)
> <patrick.hogan at nasa.gov<mailto:patrick.hogan at nasa.gov>> wrote:
>
> Daniel,
> How is this pest (tick) being tracked now? And what is being done with that
> information?
> -Patrick
>
> On Dec 12, 2017, at 10:53 PM, Dan Bwanika
> <bulemezi at gmail.com<mailto:bulemezi at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Pat
>
> Africa was slow, very slow in the past to handle such tragedies.  Now
> there is the urgency. Once again Africa has to be grateful for grate
> innovator and innovationns that makes it possible to highlight these
> and other similar issues in such public forums for action.
>
> One more important issue here is that Africa's forests are not only
> beautiful but enormous resources for rare medicinal drugs and other
> compounds that can save humanity from cancers, Alzheimer and such
> diseases. For evolutionists , the research possibilities are enormous.
>
> It will be huge hard work to catalogue all this data but for those
> with passion it is all rewarding and a destination to a Noble Prize
> worthy pursuing.
>
> Hopefully; researchers, inventors and innovators, students and their
> professors, tree lovers, environmental enthusiasts and professors will
> find room to do more for the betterment of humanity.
>
> Uganda welcomes all. (Ron cattle keepers in Uganda are in battle with
> ticks can you help?!)
>
> Best Wishes
>
> Daniel Bwanika
>
>
> On 12/12/17, Hogan, Patrick (ARC-PX)
> <patrick.hogan at nasa.gov<mailto:patrick.hogan at nasa.gov>> wrote:
> Daniel and the Africa Contingent,
>
> Our heart goes out to so much of humanity having to deal with a diminishing
> world due to over consumption by others.
>
> In light of this sadness, if I may, still some good news!
> First of all, the GeoForAll Lab
> www.AWorldBridge.com<http://www.aworldbridge.com/> is successfully
> delivering a UN/FAO product specifically to serve the urgent needs of North
> Africa, in addressing the recent infestation of the Fall Armyworm (moth/
> caterpillar), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_armyworm. Ron Fortunato is
> getting kudos from FAO for the monitoring system his New York Fei Tian
> University students built for FAO. I will let Ron share the details if
> anyone is interested.
>
> This is in addition to the Locust Intervention tracking system AWorldBridge
> is also building for FAO for North Africa. And of course there is also the
> OpenCitySmart work his GeoForAll labs are continuing to work on.
>
> The other good news is that there has just been a new release of ESA-NASA
> WebWorldWind! v0.9.0 (we are conservative!).
> The European Space Agency (ESA) has standardized on this platform and is
> working with NASA to accelerate its development.
> https://github.com/NASAWorldWind/WebWorldWind/releases/tag/v0.9.0
>
> Forum post:
> https://forum.worldwindcentral.com/forum/web-world-wind/web-world-wind-help/158071-web-worldwind-v0-9-0-now-available
>
> WebWorldWind is already the backbone for the ESA Sentinel apps (pretty cool
> stuff):
> Sentinel App for iOS:
> https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/esa-sentinel/id1036738151
> Sentinel App for Android:
> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=esa.sentinel
>
> Given the UN OpenGIS group has recently selected WebWorldWind for their web
> apps, this new version will give them a powerful start.
> https://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/
>
> -Patrick.Hogan at nasa.gov<mailto:Patrick.Hogan at nasa.gov>
> (650) 269-2788 (c)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: GeoForAll [mailto:geoforall-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Dan
> Bwanika
> Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2017 6:44 AM
> To: GeoForAll
> Cc: BISA-IPEG; ACUMEN; Urban Geography Discussion and Announcement Forum
> Subject: [Geo4All] Geo Data, Urbanisation, Climate Changes and Tropical
> Africa
>
> Forum
>
> Africa in its efforts to develop, what were once Dense Tropical forests are
> now turning into human settlements. This is where geo data science comes in
> handy.
>
> Most African countries do not have animal, insect and plant genetic data
> banks or museums.
>
> It’s a double tragedy now that climate change too is impacting this region
> negatively. The dense Tropical forests have helped Africans to survive in
> many different ways with medicinal plants and different types of forests
> foods that unfortunately are undocumented.
>
> This knowledge is crucial for sustainable development and can be lost if
> Geo
> Data Science does not establish its footprint here. Typical forest people
> with base knowledge is also rapidly disappearing.
>
> Best Wishes
> Daniel Bwanika.
> _____________________________
> Bwanika Nakyesawa Luwero
>
> Daniel Bwanika
> Box 12413 Kampala
> Uganda
>
> t: +256-752-972-960
> f: facebook.com/uidc.uganda<http://facebook.com/uidc.uganda>
> www.uidc-ea.org<http://www.uidc-ea.org/>
> e: uidcug at gmail.com<mailto:uidcug at gmail.com>
> t: @uidc_ug
>
>
>
> --
> _____________________________
> Bwanika Nakyesawa Luwero
>
> Daniel Bwanika
> Box 12413 Kampala
> Uganda
>
> t: +256-752-972-960
> f: facebook.com/uidc.uganda<http://facebook.com/uidc.uganda>
> www.uidc-ea.org<http://www.uidc-ea.org/>
> e: uidcug at gmail.com<mailto:uidcug at gmail.com>
> t: @uidc_ug
> <greenroads0.jpg>
>
>

-- 
_____________________________
Bwanika Nakyesawa Luwero

Daniel Bwanika
Box 12413 Kampala
Uganda

t: +256-752-972-960
f: facebook.com/uidc.uganda
www.uidc-ea.org
e: uidcug at gmail.com
t: @uidc_ug