[Geo4All] Africa Agriculture, Cartography /Remote Sensing & Optimal Production

Sat Nov 25 14:02:48 PST 2017

Probably right, Patrick.

Although I have two "existence proof" projects where students are building
relatively low-cost open source hardware for air pollution and water
pollution sensing. In the former, the students have a device that is under
$100 and collects better data than a $1000 proprietary device in a
controlled environment. In the latter, there is a device invented by some
engineering students in Bogota Colombia who are now sharing their device
build instructions and students at UMass are implementing their device and
testing it. These still are cost prohibitive -- as you are suggesting.

My only point is as we move toward the Internet of Things and lower and
lower cost sensors and things like Ardunios there is the prospect of
GeoForAll labs to begin to work on geospatially-explicit environmental
sensor collaborations in the same way we might be doing in software or
educational products. If we, as a community, want to move toward smart
cities with environmental sensors collecting data and mapping that data, we
need to find applications within our network to try and start building
collaborations.

But your suggestion on weather information is probably a very good first
step and great to see your GitHub project work, Patrick!

Charlie

On Sat, Nov 25, 2017 at 4:48 PM, Hogan, Patrick (ARC-PX) <
patrick.hogan at nasa.gov> wrote:

> Meant to include Suchith!
>
>
>
> *From:* GeoForAll [mailto:geoforall-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] *On Behalf
> Of *Hogan, Patrick (ARC-PX)
> *Sent:* Saturday, November 25, 2017 1:11 PM
> *To:* Charlie Schweik; Charlie Martial NGOUNOU
> *Cc:* GeoForAll; Dan Bwanika
> *Subject:* Re: [Geo4All] Africa Agriculture, Cartography /Remote Sensing
> & Optimal Production
>
>
>
> Dan and Charlie(s) Suchith and All,
>
>
>
> The hardware in for tracking cows, is not a cheap passive implant but a
> powered collar affair, and given the cost, seems more a proposal for the
> Gates Foundation.
>
>
>
> Meanwhile, getting weather and other agricultural support to these
> communities would seem a worthy enterprise.
>
>
>
> The thing we are weakest on is assuring each farmer has the best weather
> information, short range and medium range (www.ecmwf.int), and highly
> localized.
>
> https://github.com/NASAWorldWindResearch/AgroSphere/wiki
>
> https://github.com/NASAWorldWindResearch/WorldWeather/wiki
>
>
>
> Ideally this would guidance on respective crops given the soil type and
> expected weather pattern. The two top winners of the Europa Challenge this
> past year, both NASA Intern teams, have basic apps that are relevant to
> serving the local farmer. I am glad to mentor any student or teams that
> might wish to do more serving these priorities, the same priorities of
> www.GODAN.info.
>
>
>
> -Patrick
>
> (650) 604-5656 (o)
>
> (650) 269-2788 (c)
>
>
>
> *From:* GeoForAll [mailto:geoforall-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
> <geoforall-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>] *On Behalf Of *Charlie Schweik
> *Sent:* Saturday, November 25, 2017 12:22 PM
> *To:* Charlie Martial NGOUNOU
> *Cc:* GeoForAll; Dan Bwanika
> *Subject:* Re: [Geo4All] Africa Agriculture, Cartography /Remote Sensing
> & Optimal Production
>
>
>
> Hello everyone,
>
>
>
> So this seems like a problem area where the GeoForAll lab network could
> establish a cross-university team of students to develop a low-cost open
> source hardware/mapping application, perhaps under a coordinated
> independent study?
>
>
>
> Are there any labs interested in trying to do this? I *might (no promises
> yet!)* be able to find a student willing to try on my campus at the
> University of Massachusetts, Amherst, to try and collaborate with Daniel
> over the Internet between January-May. Anyone else?
>
>
>
> Charlie
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Nov 25, 2017 at 4:00 AM, Charlie Martial NGOUNOU <
> cmngounou at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Daniel
>
>
>
> I like what you say here.
>
> Problems you observe in Uganda are similar to what we have in Central
> Africa.
>
> We need to leverage Geo tools to cartography everything in our countries,
> because it is very difficult to locate anything here.
>
>
>
> Thank you !
>
>
>
>
> Best Regards
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> *Charlie Martial NGOUNOU, Founder*
>
> *AfroLeadership, Promoting Data Revolution in Africa*
>
> *Tel. 00237 69999 7093, Yaoundé - Cameroon*
>
> *Click about Charlie M. NGOUNOU ?
> <http://www.linkedin.com/in/charliemartialngounou/>*
>
>
>
> On Sat, Nov 25, 2017 at 8:39 AM, Dan Bwanika <bulemezi at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Dear Forum
>
> Recently, I was in the northern central part of Uganda where cattle
> keepers have farms in the region of 300 -600 acres. It took me three
> hours to locate where the cows had grazed that day.
>
> Then I thought to myself, maybe if each cattle had a GPS/GSM tag, I
> would locate the cows in a few minutes instead of walking in an
> endless bush. Even then do these people need such huge land for cattle
> keeping if they had good aerial data on vegetation, water etc.,?
>
> Uganda key socioeconomic activity is still agriculture and it will
> remain the same for some time to come. Uganda if you look closely at
> the map is endowed with huge water resources.
>
> For the above reason, this country will need huge cartographical data
> on soil profiles, vegetation, crops, water sources, animal husbandry
> etc.
>
> That is how technology is converging on Africa in a massive way.
>
> Can we work together on this – get in touch.
>
> Best
>
> Daniel Bwanika
>
> --
> _____________________________
> 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
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>
>
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>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Charlie Schweik
>
> Professor
>
> Department of Environmental Conservation &
>
> School of Public Policy
>
> University of Massachusetts, Amherst
>
>
>
> "Make positive change in your sphere of influence." -- CMS
>

-- 
Charlie Schweik

Professor
Department of Environmental Conservation &
School of Public Policy
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

"Make positive change in your sphere of influence." -- CMS
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