Processes, Products & Policy: Investigating how drought events are perceived differently across spatial scales

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josie Baulch ◽  
Justin Sheffield ◽  
Jadu Dash
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Scaling Analysis ◽  
Technological Advancement ◽  
High Resolution Data ◽  
New Era ◽  
Drought Assessment ◽  
Satellite Technology ◽  
Sub Saharan

<p>Traditionally, availability of consistent, high quality, high-resolution data for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been limited, with political barriers, poverty and slow technological advancement all contributing to this issue. Over the past 30 years, a rapid increase in the advancement of satellite technology has led to the new era of ‘big data’, which includes a number of high-resolution, global remote sensing datasets. With an overwhelming amount of data now being downloaded and processed, we need to be sure that the best products are being used, in the most appropriate way, to determine the onset and evolution of extreme hydrological events and to influence policy implementation. This study uses scaling analysis of a number of hydrological and agricultural variables to investigate how spatial resolution influences monitoring of drought events. By studying the 2016/17 drought in Kenya, and assessing the drought footprint at various resolutions, it is evident that the data and its scale largely influences the apparent drought signal. Across all the variables, coarser data showed a significantly reduced drought extent than finer data, with a number of regions appearing to not fall below the drought threshold, when in reality, that area was experiencing drought. The implications of these scale issues could be significant, as drought policies in Kenya are implemented on a county level basis. By understanding the importance of effective scaling between the decision-making scale (policy), the data used for drought assessment (products) and the impacts of drought on the ground (processes), updated drought management and mitigation techniques can be used, with potential to reduce vulnerability to future drought events.</p>

scholarly journals A Back Migration from Asia to Sub-Saharan Africa Is Supported by High-Resolution Analysis of Human Y-Chromosome Haplotypes

2002 ◽  
Vol 70 (5) ◽  
pp. 1197-1214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fulvio Cruciani ◽  
Piero Santolamazza ◽  
Peidong Shen ◽  
Vincent Macaulay ◽  
Pedro Moral ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Y Chromosome ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
High Resolution Analysis ◽  
Resolution Analysis ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Human Y Chromosome

scholarly journals Food plant diversity as broad-scale determinant of avian frugivore richness

2007 ◽  
Vol 274 (1611) ◽  
pp. 799-808 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Daniel Kissling ◽  
Carsten Rahbek ◽  
Katrin Böhning-Gaese
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Habitat Heterogeneity ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Fruit Size ◽  
Food Plant ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Avian Frugivores ◽  
Sub Saharan

The causes of variation in animal species richness at large spatial scales are intensively debated. Here, we examine whether the diversity of food plants, contemporary climate and energy, or habitat heterogeneity determine species richness patterns of avian frugivores across sub-Saharan Africa. Path models indicate that species richness of Ficus (their fruits being one of the major food resources for frugivores in the tropics) has the strongest direct effect on richness of avian frugivores, whereas the influences of variables related to water–energy and habitat heterogeneity are mainly indirect. The importance of Ficus richness for richness of avian frugivores diminishes with decreasing specialization of birds on fruit eating, but is retained when accounting for spatial autocorrelation. We suggest that a positive relationship between food plant and frugivore species richness could result from niche assembly mechanisms (e.g. coevolutionary adaptations to fruit size, fruit colour or vertical stratification of fruit presentation) or, alternatively, from stochastic speciation–extinction processes. In any case, the close relationship between species richness of Ficus and avian frugivores suggests that figs are keystone resources for animal consumers, even at continental scales.

HRSC-A data: a new high-resolution data set with multipurpose applications in physical geography

2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.-C. Otto ◽  
K. Kleinod ◽  
O. König ◽  
M. Krautblatter ◽  
M. Nyenhuis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Research Training ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Physical Geography ◽  
Vegetation Monitoring ◽  
Data Set ◽  
High Resolution Data ◽  
Resolution Data

The analysis and interpretation of remote sensing data facilitates investigation of land surface complexity on large spatial scales. We introduce here a geometrically high-resolution data set provided by the airborne High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC-A). The sensor records digital multispectral and panchromatic stereo bands from which a very high-resolution ground elevation model can be produced. After introducing the basic principles of the HRSC technique and data, applications of HRSC data within the multidisciplinary Research Training Group 437 are presented. Applications include geomorphologic mapping, geomorphometric analysis, mapping of surficial grain-size distribution, rock glacier kinematic analysis, vegetation monitoring and three-dimensional landform visualization. A final evaluation of the HRSC data based on three years of multipurpose usage concludes this presentation. A combination of image and elevation data opens up various possibilities for visualization and three-dimensional analysis of the land surface, especially in geomorphology. Additionally, the multispectral imagery of the HRSC data has potential for land cover mapping and vegetation monitoring. We consider HRSC data a valuable source of high-resolution terrain information with high applicability in physical geography and earth system science.

scholarly journals RCP 8.5 Ghana. High-end climate change impacts on crop production

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Tramberend ◽  
Günther Fischer ◽  
Harrij van Velthuizen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Sub Saharan

<p>Climate change threatens vulnerable communities in sub-Saharan Africa who face significant challenges for adaptation. Agriculture provides the livelihood for the majority of population. High-resolution assessments of the effects of climate change on crop production are urgently needed for targeted adaptation planning. In Ghana, next to food needs, agriculture plays an important role on international cocoa markets. To this end, we develop and apply a National Agro-Ecological Zoning system (NAEZ Ghana) to analyze the impacts of high-end (RCP8.5) global warming on agricultural production potentials until the end of this century. NAEZ Ghana uses an ensemble of the CORDEX Africa Regional Climate Model, a regional soil map, to assess development trends of crop production potentials for 19 main crops. Results highlight differential impacts across the country. Especially due to the significant increase in the number of days exceeding high-temperature thresholds, rain-fed production of several food and export crops could be reduced significantly compared to the historical 30-year average (1981-2010). Plantain production, an important food crop, could achieve under climate change less than half of its current potential already in the 2050s and less than 10% by the 2080s. Suitable areas for cocoa production decrease strongly resulting in only one third of production potential compared to today. Other crops with detrimental effects of climate change include oil palm, sugarcane, coffee, and rubber. Production of maize, sorghum, and millet cope well with a future warmer climate. The NAEZ Ghana database provides valuable high-resolution information to support agricultural sector development planning and climate change adaptation strategies. The expansion of irrigation development will play a central role in some areas. This requires further research on Ghana’s linkages between food, water, and energy, taking into account climate and socio-economic changes.</p>

scholarly journals PPMaP: Reproducible and Extensible Open-Source Software for Plant Phenological Phase Duration Prediction and Mapping in Sub-Saharan Africa

Agriculture ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 515
Author(s):  
Henri E. Z. Tonnang ◽  
Ritter A. Guimapi ◽  
Anani Y. Bruce ◽  
Dan Makumbi ◽  
Bester T. Mudereri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Crop Protection ◽  
Plant Phenology ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Phase Duration ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Landscape Level

Understanding the detailed timing of crop phenology and their variability enhances grain yield and quality by providing precise scheduling of irrigation, fertilization, and crop protection mechanisms. Advances in information and communication technology (ICT) provide a unique opportunity to develop agriculture-related tools that enhance wall-to-wall upscaling of data outputs from point-location data to wide-area spatial scales. Because of the heterogeneity of the worldwide agro-ecological zones where crops are cultivated, it is unproductive to perform plant phenology research without providing means to upscale results to landscape-level while safeguarding field-scale relevance. This paper presents an advanced, reproducible, and open-source software for plant phenology prediction and mapping (PPMaP) that inputs data obtained from multi-location field experiments to derive models for any crop variety. This information can then be applied consecutively at a localized grid within a spatial framework to produce plant phenology predictions at the landscape level. This software runs on the ‘Windows’ platform and supports the development of process-oriented and temperature-driven plant phenology models by intuitively and interactively leading the user through a step-by-step progression to the production of spatial maps for any region of interest in sub-Saharan Africa. Maize (Zea mays L.) was used to demonstrate the robustness, versatility, and high computing efficiency of the resulting modeling outputs of the PPMaP. The framework was implemented in R, providing a flexible and easy-to-use GUI interface. Since this allows for appropriate scaling to the larger spatial domain, the software can effectively be used to determine the spatially explicit length of growing period (LGP) of any variety.

High-resolution weather simulation for sub-Saharan Africa on the World Community Grid

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camille Le Coz ◽  
Qidi Yu ◽  
Lloyd A. Treinish ◽  
Manuel Garcia Alvarez ◽  
Ashley Cryan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Wrf Model ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Large Area ◽  
World Community ◽  
The World ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Socio Economic Impact ◽  
One Year ◽  
The Impact

<p>Rainfall in Africa is difficult to estimate accurately due to the large spatial variability. Most of the monsoon rainfall is generated by convective rainstorms that can be very localized, sometimes covering less than 100 km2. The goal of the African Rainfall Project is to run the Weather and Research Forecast (WRF) model for sub-Saharan Africa at a convection-permitting resolution in order to better represent such rainfall events. The resolution will be 1km, which is finer than most studies over Africa, which typically use resolutions of 3km or more. Running WRF for such a large area at such a high resolution is computationally expensive, which is where IBM’s World Community Grid comes in. The World Community Grid (WCG) is part of the Social Corporate Responsibility of IBM that crowdsources unused computing power from volunteers devices and donates it to scientific projects.</p><p>The simulation was adapted to the WCG by dividing the simulation of one year over sub-Saharan Africa in many smaller simulations of 48h over 52 by 52 km domains. These simulations are small enough to be calculated on a single computer of a volunteer at the required resolution. In total, 35609 overlapping domains are covering the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. During the post-processing phase, the smaller simulations are merged back together to obtain one consistent simulation over the whole continent.</p><p>Our main focus is rainfall, as this is the variable with the highest socio-economic impact in Africa. However, the outputs of the simulations include other variables such as the 2m-temperature, the 10m-wind speed and direction. These variables are outputted every 15min. At the end of this project, we will have over 3 billion files for a total of 0.5 PB. The data will be reorganized so that the different variables can be stored, searched and retrieved efficiently. After the reorganization, the data will be made publicly available.</p><p>The first validation step will be to examine the impact of dividing sub-Saharan Africa into many smaller domains. This will be done by comparing the simulation from this project to one large simulation. This simulation is obtained by running WRF at a 1km resolution on a large domain (500km by 1000km) for a shorter period, using Cartesius, the Dutch national computer. The second validation step will be to compare the simulations with satellite data and with in-situ measurements from the TAHMO network (www.tahmo.org).</p>

WATZON: the Italian network of ecohydrology and critical zone observatories 

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Borga ◽  
Daniele Penna ◽  
Nasta Paolo ◽  
Comiti Francesco ◽  
Stefano Ferraris ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Critical Zone ◽  
Catchment Scale ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
High Resolution Data ◽  
Water Mixing ◽  
Study Sites ◽  
Scientific Questions

<p>The Italian initiative WATZON (WATer mixing in the critical ZONe) is a network of instrumented sites, bringing together six pre-existing long-term research observatories monitoring different compartments of the Critical Zone - the Earth's permeable near-surface layer from the tops of the trees to the bottom of the groundwater.  These observatories cover different climatic and physiographic characteristics over the country, providing information over a climate and eco-hydrologic transect connecting the Mediterranean to the Alps. With specific initial scientific questions, monitoring strategies, databases, and modeling activities, the WATZON observatories and sites is well representative of the heterogeneity of the critical zone and of the scientific communities studying it. Despite this diversity, all WATZON sites share a common eco-hydrologic monitoring and modelling program with three main objectives:</p><p>1) assessing the description of water mixing process across the critical zone by using integrated high-resolution isotopic, geophysical and hydrometeorological measurements from point to catchment scale, under different physiographic conditions and climate forcing;</p><p>2) testing water exchange mechanisms between subsurface reservoirs and vegetation, and assessing ecohydrological dynamics in different environments by coupling the high-resolution data set from different critical zone study sites of the initiative with advanced ecohydrological models at multiple spatial scales;</p><p>3) developing a process-based conceptual framework of ecohydrological processes in the critical zone to translate scientific knowledge into evidence to support policy and management decisions concerning water and land use in forested and agricultural ecosystems.</p><p>This work provides an overview of the WATZON network, its objectives, scientific questions, and data management, with a specific focus on existing initiatives for linking data and models based on WATZON data.</p><p> </p>

Selfie Syndrome: A Disease of New Era

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sai Krishna G ◽  
Komal Krishna T
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Internet Addiction ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Technological Advancement ◽  
New Era ◽  
Computer Addiction ◽  
A Chain

Over a period of time, technological advancement has given us new addiction disorders. Last two decades were known for computer addiction disorder and internet addiction disorders. Smartphone has included in our daily life that without which we cannot survive. Many of today generation Smartphone‟s are equipped with high resolution camera, which we call it as “selfie” camera. Though people were fond of taking photographs of their own and others since many decades, with selfie camera it has led to an extreme level. It is coupled with posting the selfie photographs on social networking sites. Further they are waiting for comments and opinions of friends and others. This has led to a chain of reactions leading to a complex addiction disorder which we may easily be called as “Selfie addiction disorder/Selfie syndrome”.

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