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Case Studies to be Presented at WITFOR 2005
The three case studies presented are examples of how Enviromatics has been applied and what its benefits can be. The first case study is a typical decision support system for the management of a water body. The second and third case studies showcase the use of multiple monitoring data sources, data fusion and modelling.
1: Lake Malawi Decision Support System
The Lake Malawi Decision Support System provides background information regarding the Lake Malawi/Nyasa/Niassa catchment from previous studies, modelling results from the AGNPS model for the Linthipe subbasin, and modelling results from a hydrodynamic model of Lake Malawi / Nyasa / Niassa. The system presents key issues for the management of the Lake and examines the potential impact of various scenarios related to these issues. The goal for the development of the model is to provide a tool to predict the behavior of physical processes in the lake on a seasonal basis. In addition, the model should assist in making wise land and water management decisions based on changes in Lake water quality likely to arise as a result of proposed development and the conservation/protection options presented to them. Particular objectives of the system are to give answers to the following questions:
- How nutrients entering at various points in the Lake affect
phytoplankton growth and development, the destratification of thermoclines, and how the rate of eutrophication is likely to change over time;
- How seasonal inflow of sediments from various rivers draining
into Lake Malawi/Nyasa/Niassa move within the lake;
- How lake long-shore, deep and surface offshore current patterns
might effect movement and dispersal of pollutants or threatening weeds.
Case study 2: Information System for Marine Aquatic Resource Quality
Marine environmental monitoring is undergoing rapid and sustained growth. A wide range of users and administrators of marine resources require concise and ergonomic information for decision support, in order to maintain and enhance environmental quality in face of growing pressure on resources. In particular, tourism in coastal areas is demanding ever increasing environmental quality and requires daily and seasonal information on coastal environment quality and stress. These trends create a rapidly growing demand for solutions, comprising: the ability to process high volumes of raw data; to extract highest quality information; and to present it in a form which maximises usability and understanding.
The i-MARQ system (Information System for Marine Aquatic Resource Quality) addresses this need, helping companies and authorities to anticipate problems and minimise the impact of their activities, whilst also helping coastal tourism to develop sustainably with enhanced public confidence in the environmental integrity of recreational waters. The i-MARQ project is developing enhanced decision support paradigms which can optimally exploit diverse data resources, and present probabilistic results in the geographic formats required by diverse decision-makers. Application of data fusion techniques permits forecasting of parameter best estimates and uncertainties, based on the underlying data statistics.
Case study 3: Wide Area Monitoring Information System
Fire has always been an important a part of the African continent and its inhabitants. Most of the world's burned biomass matter is from the savannas, and because two-thirds of the Earth's savannas are located in Africa, it got the name "continent of fire". In the region of 90 % of all fires in Africa are human induced, set during the dry seasons and used as a tool in agriculture, hunting, the preparation of food and numerous other activities. One of the best ways to accurately determine the exact location and extent of fires is to have a global perspective from space. Since no satellites, until now, have ever been dedicated to fire monitoring and measuring, most observations of fires from space have been obtained from existing satellites developed for other purposes. Fire measurements mostly came from the polar orbiting Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) series of satellites. The Advanced Fire Information System (AFIS) has been developed as a service module of the Wide Area Monitoring Information System (WAMIS), which aims to deliver fire information products to researchers, Fire Protection Agencies and Disaster managers all over Southern Africa in support of effective decision-making in the monitoring of natural and manmade fires. AFIS is the first near real time operational satellite fire monitoring system in Southern Africa. The system is based on the MODIS Rapid Response and Web Fire Mapper systems that have been developed at the University of Maryland and NASA over the last few years. Funding for the development, installation and operational running of the system has been made possible through ESKOM, South African National Department of Agriculture and the CSIR SAC.
4) Capacity Building for Accelerated Development in combination with a capacity building activity
The expected outcome of this project is to harness world-wide capabilities in Enviromatics teaching to develop a course for developing countries. This course will have to adapt to the needs in developing countries. The 2006 activity presented here shall only be the entry point into a long-term sustainable collaboration in training of ICT for the Environment.
5) Global Sharing of Information Infrastructures
Purpose: To share developments in global information infrastructures research
Description: The project intends to share developments for a European environmental information management capacity (FP6 project ORCHESTRA) with an African region. ORCHESTRA has a strong relationship with INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe) and GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security), as it aims to contribute to the specification of a large scale information management capacity. ORCHESTRA is a 3-year project with a budget over 14 MEUR. It was started in September 2004. The first specifications of the architecture will be available during the year 2005.
The expected outcome of this project is threefold. First, European framework research shall be transported to Africa and the project shall act as a model of how information infrastructures can be shared with developing countries, thus making maximum use of the resources spent in EU FP6. Secondly, the results of the ORCHESTRA project shall be validated in Africa, thus giving additional feedback to the developers of infrastructures by having an additional pilot area. Finally, as ICT for the Environment can not even stop on a level of continents, this exercise will help to support the movement towards truly global environmental information management and service infrastructures.
This project will require considerable resources. The nucleus of personnel is available through the extensive expertise in CSIR and in the ORCHESTRA project. Financial resources will be considerable yet scalable depending on the way the project is conducted. The commission would expect funding sources similar to European Framework research or World Bank projects. 
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