Use cases of SERVIR land use land cover data in the eastern and southern Africa countries: research, policy and capacity building footprint

Abstract:

The SERVIR Eastern and Southern Africa project, based at the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) in Nairobi, Kenya conducted an elaborate land cover mapping and capacity building project for 9 countries (Rwanda, Lesotho, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zambia, Malawi, Namibia and Botswana) in eastern and southern Africa between 2012 and 2015. The initial objective of this task was to produce land cover maps that would support the countries report their green house gas (GHG) obligations more effectively. An additional objective allowed the countries to define a classification scheme relevant to the country, and thus undertake a capacity building program to support a small number of technical experts to learn and conduct land cover mapping using Earth observation data. Five years after maps for the last country were co-developed with RCMRD, we undertook a systematic review aimed at assessing the utility of those land cover maps beyond GHG reporting. We undertook a rigorous literature search with relevant keywords to identify peer reviewed published papers (2015-2020) which had used wholly or in part, the land use land cover maps co-developed with RCMRD. Our search excluded reports, thesis, policy reports, atlases, white papers and any other literature that is not peer reviewed. Our preliminary results indicate that over 51 peer reviewed papers have been published between 2015 and 2020, which demonstrate use of the SERVIR land use land cover maps in eastern and southern Africa. The papers were produced from most of the 9 countries, and cover a range of thematic fields, including land use change, hydrology, health, climate hazards, agricultural land use, rangelands, hay making, frost risk for agriculture and others. The variety of journals in which these papers are published include international and national level journals. These findings underscore not only the value of the maps collaboratively produced with RCMRD/SERVIR support, but also the added value of capacity building and proper dissemination of EO products to support decision making and future research.