Skip to content
eoPortal

Other Space Activities

SERVIR Global

Apr 30, 2018

Initiatives and Programs

SERVIR Global

SERVIR Global    Success Stories    Background    Relief Efforts   References

 

SERVIR, a joint venture between NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Washington, provides state-of-the-art, satellite-based Earth monitoring, imaging and mapping data, geospatial information, predictive models and science applications to help improve environmental decision-making among developing nations in eastern and southern Africa, the Hindu-Kush region of the Himalayas and the lower Mekong River Basin in Southeast Asia. 1)

Developed in 2004 by researchers at NASA/MSFC (Marshall Space Flight Center) in Huntsville, Alabama, and implemented through NASA partnerships with leading regional organizations around the globe, SERVIR — its name derived from a Spanish word meaning "to serve" — provides critical information and support services to help national, regional and local governments, forecasters, climatologists and other researchers track environmental changes, evaluate ecological threats and rapidly respond to and assess damage from natural disasters.

With activities in more than 30 countries and counting, the SERVIR team already has developed more than 40 custom tools, collaborated with more than 200 institutions and trained approximately 1,800 regional support staffers, developing local solutions and linking regional offices around the globe to create a thriving, interactive network. Web-based satellite imagery, decision-support tools and interactive visualization capabilities previous inaccessible across many these regions now enable stakeholders to work together to combat floods, wildfires, superstorms and other calamities, and also to address long-term environmental shifts tied to climate change, biodiversity, drought and other factors.

SERVIR was created as a collaborative effort by NASA, USAID, the World Bank in Washington and the Central American Commission on Environment and Development in Antiguo Cuscatl, El Salvador, with input from the Group on Earth Observations, an alliance of more than 80 nations and organizations collaborating to build a Global Earth Observing System of Systems to benefit society's needs.

The first regional hub, launched in 2005 in Panama City, Panama, served the Mesoamerican region and the Dominican Republic. Today, NASA, USAID and their partners operate SERVIR hubs in Kathmandu, Nepal, serving the Hindu-Kush region of the Himalayas; in Nairobi, Kenya, serving eastern and southern Africa; and in Bangkok, Thailand, serving the five countries of the Mekong River Basin in Southeast Asia.

Additional hubs are under consideration for other developing regions of the world.

SERVIR strengthens the ability of governments and other development stakeholders to incorporate Earth observations and geospatial technologies to respond to natural disasters, improved food security, safeguard human health, manage water and natural resources. Hubs in each region focus on issues and needs most critical to local populations. In the Himalayas, SERVIR uses Earth-observation information from satellites to detect forest fires, monitor land cover and land use change and assess water resources. In eastern and southern Africa, SERVIR provides valuable information to improve such activities as flood forecasting, monitoring the impact of frost on regional agriculture and assessing land cover and land use change. In the Mekong, SERVIR is focused on a host of issues vital to the region: disaster risk reduction and response; water and food security; landscape management to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and safe, sustainable development of the river basin.

Worldwide Partners

Today, SERVIR is a global network of leading regional knowledge centers, including the Regional Center for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD), the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) and other partners, all of them dedicated to environmental management through the integration of Earth observations and geospatial technologies.

The SERVIR program, jointly led by NASA and USAID, is operated by the Earth Science Division's Applied Sciences Program in NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Marshall Center is home to the SERVIR Coordination Office, and Marshall is supported on the program by four other NASA field centers: Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California; Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California; and Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

SERVIR relies on other agencies for expertise in scientific research and international development. Partnerships within the U.S. government include the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Weather Service, the U.S. Forestry Service and the U.S. Geological Survey. Additional partners include the Kenya Meteorological Department and the United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response.

Figure 1: SERVIR is a global network of regional partners dedicated to environmental management through the integration of Earth observations and geospatial technologies (image credit: NASA SERVIR)
Figure 1: SERVIR is a global network of regional partners dedicated to environmental management through the integration of Earth observations and geospatial technologies (image credit: NASA SERVIR)

 

 


 

SERVIR Global — Connecting Space to Village

SERVIR is improving awareness, increasing access to information, and supporting analysis to help people in Africa, Hindu Kush-Himalaya, Lower Mekong, and Mesoamerica manage challenges in the areas of food security, water resources, land use change, and natural disasters. With activities in more than 45 countries and counting, SERVIR has already developed over 70 custom tools, collaborated with over 250 institutions, and trained more than 3000 individuals, improving the capacity to develop local solutions. 2)

 

Global History

In 2005, SERVIR-Mesoamerica — first known as the Mesoamerican Regional Visualization & Monitoring System — was established with the Water Center for the Humid Tropics for Latin America and the Caribbean (CATHALAC) in Panama City, Panama, through the joint effort of NASA, USAID, and other partners. Due to the breadth of SERVIR’s applications at this hub, the Ministerial Declaration of the 2007 Earth Observation Summit recognized SERVIR as a model for the implementation of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). By late 2008, the SERVIR model, through the support of NASA and USAID, had been expanded to East Africa through partnership with the Kenya-based Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD). This hub is called SERVIR-Eastern and Southern Africa. SERVIR’s global expansion continued in late 2010, when SERVIR-Himalaya was established at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Kathmandu, Nepal. Global expansion extended to Asia's Lower Mekong region in 2014 with SERVIR-Mekong, implemented by the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) and consortium partners. In 2016, USAID and NASA announced the addition of SERVIR-West Africa, implemented by the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) subsidiary, the Agrometeorology, Hydrology and Meteorology (AGRHYMET) Regional Center, and its consortium partners, with support from Tetra Tech, Inc. SERVIR-Mesoamerica operated until 2011. The other four hubs are still active, and additional hubs, including a hub in South America, are planned for the future.

 

Approach

SERVIR's approach to designing geospatial information services is embodied in the SERVIR Service Planning Toolkit. The approach emphasizes user-focused services. The toolkit helps researchers engage a broad range of stakeholders to design information services that are integrated into decision processes and lead to positive development outcomes.

The toolkit includes guidance for identifying a development problem, analyzing opportunities for linking decision-making to satellite data analysis, and delivering a service - all through collaborative and results-oriented processes. The SERVIR Service Planning Toolkit is a living document that evolves as the program gains hands-on experience applying the tools. The Toolkit contains four tools linked to the lifecycle of SERVIR services:

• Consultation and Needs Assessment

• Stakeholder Mapping

• Service Design

- Service Concept Template

- Product Definition Document Template

- Data Management Definition Document Template

- Capacity Building and Training Definition Document Template

• Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

- Theory of Change Template.

 

Network

SERVIR is a global network of leading regional knowledge centers, including the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD), the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), and the Agrometeorology, Hydrology and Meteorology (AGRHYMET) Regional Center as well as other partners, dedicated to environmental management through the integration of Earth observations and geospatial technologies.

Building and relying upon a network of collaborators is fundamental to SERVIR. Beyond the sponsorship and active participation of NASA and USAID, collaboration spans a number of other US government agencies and projects, as well as partnerships with government agencies in the regions in which SERVIR operates, joint research with universities and non-governmental organizations, and capacity building with a host of specialized groups.

 

Team

SERVIR brings together a variety of people from diverse backgrounds to create a special team for addressing complex environmental issues around the globe and providing solutions to local decision makers and stakeholders. Our team includes scientists, technicians, administrators, and other key people in the hubs, the SERVIR coordination office, NASA and USAID headquarters, NASA centers in the U.S., and universities and other institutions around the world.

Figure 2: Overview of SERVIR regional knowledge centers and regions connected to these centers (image credit: SERVIR Team)
Figure 2: Overview of SERVIR regional knowledge centers and regions connected to these centers (image credit: SERVIR Team)

 

 


 

Success Stories

NASA, University of Twente Join Forces to Connect Space to Village

April 2018: Continuous streams of Earth observations and information made possible by NASA form the foundation for critical environmental planning and decisions by people all over the world. But many organizations and governments are resource challenged and lack the capacity to put these timely insights to work. 3) 4)

A new partnership between NASA and the University of Twente — a public research university located in Enschede, Netherlands — aims to bridge some of those gaps. Scientific collaboration between the agency’s SERVIR program and the University’s Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) will help more people in developing countries harness the power of Earth observations and geospatial technologies to solve problems, improve lives and prepare for the future.

Figure 3: From left: Ashutosh Limaye, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center; Nancy Searby, NASA Headquarters Earth Science Division; Freek van der Meer, University of Twente Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation; Michael Freilich, NASA Headquarters Earth Science Division; Erna Leurink, University of Twente Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation; Lawrence Friedl, NASA Headquarters Earth Science Division; Dan Irwin, NASA Marshall; Andy Parks, NASA Headquarters Office of International and Interagency Relations; Ray French, NASA Marshall (image credit: NASA)
Figure 3: From left: Ashutosh Limaye, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center; Nancy Searby, NASA Headquarters Earth Science Division; Freek van der Meer, University of Twente Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation; Michael Freilich, NASA Headquarters Earth Science Division; Erna Leurink, University of Twente Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation; Lawrence Friedl, NASA Headquarters Earth Science Division; Dan Irwin, NASA Marshall; Andy Parks, NASA Headquarters Office of International and Interagency Relations; Ray French, NASA Marshall (image credit: NASA)

Leaders from both groups met April 17-18 at NASA Headquarters in Washington, to kick off the 10-year cooperative agreement.

"NASA is passionate about connecting with world-class partners that are already creating positive change,” said Dan Irwin, SERVIR-Global program manager at NASA/MSFC in Huntsville, Alabama. "Through its renowned collaborative educational and research activities, ITC is doing just that — helping vulnerable communities build resilience and thrive in our changing planet."

SERVIR is already working with more than 45 countries to strengthen awareness of the unique benefits of Earth observations and to increase their use and impact through its network of four regional hubs in Eastern and Southern Africa, West Africa, the Hindu Kush Himalaya region, and the Lower Mekong region of Southeast Asia.

ITC is recognized worldwide for achievements in teaching, research and capacity development in the field of geo-information science and earth observation. ITC educates its students to be professionals capable of acquiring knowledge and translating this into practical applications for solving real-world problems.

"We really look forward to working together on institutional strengthening and regional capacity building with the SERVIR hubs, most of which have already had a long history of collaboration with ITC," said Dr. Freek van der Meer, vice chairman of the university's Department of Earth System Analysis. "Together we will focus on the ‘last mile’ to embed Earth observation firmly in society and to help protect communities in developing countries."

Under the agreement, ITC and SERVIR team members will work hand-in-hand with local teams to develop training, enhance service-delivery and conduct research relevant to the needs of communities in SERVIR hub regions. The partnership will also create unique and innovative opportunities for enriched and continuing education for ITC students and SERVIR scientists.

"This is a phenomenal partnership," said Irwin. "Together, we'll leverage each other's strengths and do more to help ensure that scientific knowledge is applied and creates even greater societal benefits."

Building and relying upon a growing network of partners is foundational to the SERVIR program. SERVIR, which means "to serve" in Spanish, is a joint development initiative of NASA and the USAID in Washington. SERVIR works in partnership with leading regional organizations worldwide, creating tools, products and services that empower decision makers to better address critical issues related to food security, water resources, natural disasters, land use, and weather variability.

SERVIR's four hubs include the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development in Nairobi, Kenya; the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development in Kathmandu, Nepal; the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center in Bangkok, Thailand; and the Agrometeorology, Hydrology and Meteorology Regional Center in Niamey, Niger.

 

MESA (Monitoring of the Environment for Security in Africa)

The MESA program in the IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development) region aims to enhance land degradation and natural habitats assessment and Forest Monitoring for sustainable management of environmental resources. This is achieved during the developing of operational geo-information services and by strengthening the information management capacity of regional and national institutions in order to support decision and policy making processes. MESA endeavours to facilitate access to Africa-wide environmental information derived from Earth Observation technologies, in particular SERVIR. 5)

Note: IGAD is an eight-country trade bloc in Africa. It includes governments from the Horn of Africa, Nile Valley, and the African Great Lakes. Its headquarters are in Djibouti City.

Specific results were been formulated from the above objective:

• Improved access to existing basic EO, field and ancillary data ensured for users in the IGAD region.

• Consolidation of existing operational information services established to improve policy and decision-making processes in Land Degradation Monitoring (LDM) and Natural Habitat Conservation (NHC) and development of a new Forest Monitoring (FM) service. The services produce and distribute regularly:

- land degradation index maps

- land cover change indicators on IGAD selected Natural Habitats areas

- Forest degradation, deforestation extent, vulnerability index map over the whole IGAD region.

• Political and policy development frameworks are strengthened to ensure an active and sustainable participation of IGAD member states in global environmental surveillance initiatives.

• Adequate technical capacity.

Figure 4: Overview of operational services in MESA IGAD (image credit: RCMRD)
Figure 4: Overview of operational services in MESA IGAD (image credit: RCMRD)

Countries covered by MESA IGAD: Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan, Southern Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia.

Target Users within the IGAD region:

• Policy and decision-makers of the environmental and agricultural sectors at regional and national levels

• Technical officers within environmental, agricultural, forest and mapping agencies; lecturers and researchers of local universities.

 

SERVIR-Himalaya

SERVIR-Himalaya was established in 2010 (NASA and USAID) at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Kathmandu, Nepal. ICIMOD is a regional intergovernmental learning and knowledge sharing center serving the eight regional member countries of the Hindu Kush Himalayas. Countries served are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. With the increasing influence of globalization and climate change on the stability of fragile mountain ecosystems and the livelihoods of mountain people, ICIMOD aims to assist mountain people to understand these changes, adapt to them, and make the most of new opportunities, while addressing upstream-downstream issues. SERVIR-Himalaya strengthens ICIMOD’s capabilities as an established regional resource center on geospatial information and Earth observation applications for the HKH (Hindu Kush Himalaya) region. Stakeholders range from decision-makers at the regional level addressing trans-boundary issues, to national governments, scientists, students, the general public, and development practitioners working in the region. 6)

 

Satellite-Based Visualization System for Water Resources in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region: This project progressively develops, calibrates, and validates a prototype satellite-based flood forecasting and visualization system for the Ganges, Indus, and Brahmaputra Rivers. 7)

Low-lying deltas of the Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH) region are vulnerable to a variety of water resource problems, leading to crop damage. The vulnerability is felt more acutely downstream because of the heavy population density and water-intensive agricultural economy of the low-lying deltas. It is important to build resilience against these vulnerabilities by developing accurate tools for assessing water cycle factors and predicting crop damage.

Application Purpose: The SERVIR Applied Sciences Team project aims at progressively developing, calibrating, and validating a prototype satellite-based water-resource and water-hazard mapping, early-warning, and post-disaster assessment visualization system for two river basin systems in the HKH region: the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) and the Indus. The visualization system will be developed such that it can be easily replicated for other SERVIR regions and countries with populous and water-vulnerable deltas (such as East Africa, Mekong).

Application Uses: The project team will assimilate multiple NASA datasets for mapping and characterizing the water resources of the HKH region based in part on the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) and the North American Multi-Modal Ensemble (NMME) seasonal precipitation forecast data provided by another Applied Sciences Team project (see "Leveraging CMIP5 and NASA GMAO Coupled Modeling Capacity Capacity for Climate Prediction”). These data will be used to produce an operational water availability visualization system for end users of HKH countries that allows access to hindcast, nowcast, and forecast and helps inform decisions on water management. The project will use the Hydrologic Engineering Center—River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) model to improve boundary condition forecasting for river forecasting applications in flood-prone deltas. The project will utilize and then scale up the application of radar altimetry for enhancing flood level forecasting for Indus and Ganges-Brahmaputra river basins. The river level forecasting will be used for both water supply/planning and flood management.

The project will provide: 1) a hydrological modeling system within a user friendly web-GIS interface set up for the GBM and Indus River basin systems for SERVIR-Himalaya; 2) historical and United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report projection-based simulations of hydrologic fluxes for the two basin systems; 3) a modular, satellite-based water-resource and water-hazard mapping, early-warning, and post-disaster assessment tool prototyped for Bangladesh (to be scaled up by ministries and agencies of other countries such as Pakistan, Nepal, and Bhutan); and 4) improved resilience of the Bangladesh government (as a model for other nations in the HKH region) against water resource vulnerability.

The five lessons that have emerged as a result of this research are:

• Using satellite data from visible and active microwave platforms (altimeter), we can indeed tell with high confidence how a river behaves at any given time (width and depth) when there is no ground data. This information can be used easily in river models for applications such as flood forecasting, water management, crop management, and data assimilation;

• Using extensive historical facts, river morphology, and local knowledge of rivers, it is possible to set up a working river model where flows are distributed according to drainage area of tributary sub-basins;

• Using extensive satellite data in the visible range it is possible to improve and enhance the river model further;

• Using Satellite based elevation data can further improve the river bed slope profile and accuracy of simulations;

• Use of lateral flows from a satellite precipitation driven hydrologic model in a river model can significantly improve river simulation and flood forecasting skill for ungauged rivers.

 

Forest Fire Detection and Monitoring System: 8) This application uses real-time satellite data to detect and monitor forest fires (sending alerts to mobile devices), and understand fire patterns. - Forest fires have become an environmental concern in recent years in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region, posing a threat to human life and property and to the area’s natural environment. As one example, during a recent dry season in Nepal, wildfires destroyed almost 240,000 hectares of forests (Ref. 6).

Application Purpose: Near real-time satellite Earth-observation data help Nepalese officials detect and monitor forest fires, research fire patterns, and assess damage in burnt areas. This capability is being expanded to include Bhutan. The Forest Fire Detection and Monitoring System uses Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data to detect, locate, characterize, and monitor forest fires. This information is sent via email or mobile technology to those responsible for managing, controlling, and extinguishing forest fires. Emails also include links to PDF maps that show fire locations along with district-level fire statistics. In addition, the application maintains a geo-referenced archive, updated daily from 2000 to the present, and an interactive web-mapping tool.

Application Uses. The Forest Fire Detection and Monitoring System uses real-time data downloaded by the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development’s (ICIMOD) MODIS receiving station. The application also adds key information from SERVIR-Himalaya, including administrative unit (district), protected area identification, land cover, elevation, and slope, as well as road-network data. The MODIS and ancillary data are used to identify the affected areas, provide district-level fire count statistics, and geographic information for locating the fires. Subscribers receive email and SMS alerts on their mobile phones. Additionally, with the interactive mapping application, the user can use a time-slider tool to select and view fires that occurred over a specified period, or overlay the MODIS data with, for example, the land-cover data, to assess the damage caused by the forest fire. The Department of Forest maintains a database of SMS subscribers including officials from all 75 districts of Nepal. Users/beneficiaries fall into three categories: 1) members of forest community groups receiving alerts to better respond to fires; 2) researchers and Department of Forest officials studying forest-fire patterns for future management strategies; and 3) officials concerned with fire suppression.

 

Satellite-Based Agriculture Drought Warning System: 9) This application uses remote sensing based vegetation, surface temperature, and precipitation data for monitoring crop growth and drought potential, providing drought early warning through an online system.

Two thirds of the people in Nepal depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, and more than one third of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) comes from the agriculture sector. However, reliable crop production across the country remains a serious challenge due to significant spatial and temporal climate variability. Information on crop growth and stress and early warnings of drought are needed to plan for and mitigate the effects of drought. Using remote sensing derived data such as the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), land surface temperature (LST), and rainfall, the Satellite-based Agricultural Drought Early Warning System compares recent vegetation growth data to historical data and generates anomaly maps to indicate whether crop yields for the current year will be greater or lower than average in Nepal. Comparisons can be made both spatially and temporally and in maps and graphs at district and Village Developmental Committee (VDC) levels. Monitoring agricultural fields in this way alerts officials of potential shortages so that appropriate measures can be taken for avoiding impacts of agricultural drought.

Application Purpose: This application provides a comprehensive system that can provide timely information on crop production forecasts to relevant institutions involved in agriculture management and food security analysis and planning in Nepal. The information, provided in the form of online maps and data, will help decision-makers determine whether current farming practices are producing optimal crop yields or instead need to be modified.

Application Uses: With this application, users receive fortnightly drought warnings through a web-based information system, supporting mitigation planning. Ministries of Agriculture and related agencies at district and national levels can monitor the overall drought situation in various parts of the country and use this information for food security analysis and planning. International agencies and global initiatives can use the information for country-level planning.

 

 


 

Background on the SERVIR Program

SERVIR (a Spanish word meaning “to serve”) puts geospatial satellite images and analysis tools into the hands of local decision-makers around the world. Established in 2005, the SERVIR program today has a presence in four locations across Africa and Asia. The goals of its Mekong hub are to build regional resilience to land and water resource pressures and to moderate the effects of climate change in this part of Southeast Asia. 10)

Thinking globally, acting locally

Dan Irwin, a NASA research scientist, came up with the idea for SERVIR in 2003 during a meeting of Central American environmental ministers where representatives described the economic and climate challenges they faced. Irwin reasoned that access to a “big picture” could improve a lot of local decision-making. “NASA has an amazing constellation of satellites and it’s putting out a lot of fantastic data,” he says. “But how do you take [those data] and make them meaningful for users around the world, particularly in the developing countries, who don’t always have in situ data networks?”

Irwin also saw the potential in a USAID collaboration for such an enterprise. USAID is the lead U.S. government agency for foreign economic development, charged with addressing issues of global health, food security and environmental sustainability. NASA had plenty of technology resources to offer and USAID had the organizational and social ties to determine where those resources could best be put to use. Discussions between the agencies led to establishment of the SERVIR program in 2005.

SERVIR-Mesoamerica, the first SERVIR hub, was inaugurated in 2005 under the operating slogan “Connecting Space to Village.” It was headquartered in Panama City, Panama, where it supported community needs in Central America and the Dominican Republic through the Water Center for the Humid Tropics for Latin America and the Caribbean (CATHALAC). Irwin supplied the new hub with geospatial imagery from NASA’s collection of Earth-observing satellites.

The SERVIR model proved popular. “We were doing some innovative work in Central America on land cover and water-quality management,” Irwin says, “and word got out. We started giving presentations at the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and other venues, and the East Africa communities became interested in their own SERVIR hub.” SERVIR-Eastern and Southern Africa came into being in 2008 with headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, to support the 20 member states of the Regional Center for Mapping of Resources for Development. SERVIR-Himalaya followed in 2010, operating from Kathmandu, Nepal, in support of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan. SERVIR-Mekong was launched in 2015; based in Bangkok, Thailand, it supports Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The newest hub, SERVIR-West Africa, was inaugurated in 2016 and operates from Niamey, Niger, where it focuses primarily on the needs of Burkina Faso, Ghana, Niger and Senegal, as well as eight other countries.

Today, all science support for SERVIR is coordinated from an office at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., where Irwin is the program’s director.

Each hub receives support from USAID and NASA, although implementation and administration fall to a coordinating intergovernmental agency or NGO. The Mekong hub, for example, was put together as a consortium partnered with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), an NGO responsible for programs that build community resilience to natural disasters, climate change and disease. The consortium was completed with partners from the Spatial Informatics Group (SIG), Deltares and the Stockholm Environment Institute. Together, its members provide a complementary mix of expertise in hydrology, geographic information system (GIS) design, remote sensing, risk analysis and program management. The hub is funded by the USAID Regional Development Mission for Asia, and works out of the ADPC headquarters in Bangkok.

Figure 5: Before (left) and after (right) satellite images show the extent of flooding in the Ayutthaya Province, Thailand, in 2011 (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, image created by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using EO-1 ALI data provided courtesy of the NASA EO-1 team and the U.S. Geological Survey)
Figure 5: Before (left) and after (right) satellite images show the extent of flooding in the Ayutthaya Province, Thailand, in 2011 (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, image created by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using EO-1 ALI data provided courtesy of the NASA EO-1 team and the U.S. Geological Survey)

 

SERVIR-Mekong: The SERVIR-Mekong hub, located in Bangkok, Thailand, supports a region that is interconnected by geography and climate. The five countries of the Lower Mekong River Basin (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam) are home to almost 240 million people spread over just 1.9 million km2 — an area slightly smaller than Mexico but with almost twice its population. The impacts of development decisions almost always cross international borders, as NGOs (Non-Government Organizations) have noted, so government and private policy planning must be done with an eye to conflicting agendas and shared environmental consequences (Ref 10). 11)

Figure 6: Mekong River basin area is about 5000km long (image credit: Wikipedia) 12)
Figure 6: Mekong River basin area is about 5000km long (image credit: Wikipedia) 12)

The Mekong River and its tributaries provide irrigation and drinking water to the region and sustain its important fish populations. According to the National Heritage Institute (NHI), a U.S. NGO, the Mekong provides more food than any other river in the world. It’s also one of the world’s most threatened water systems (Ref. 10).

NHI data show that 48 major hydropower dams are either already operating or are under construction along the Mekong River, and another 71 are being planned. While dams can bring needed energy to communities, they can also have significant costs. Dams can alter access to water, disrupt the viability of fish populations, and reduce overall food security. Commercial harvesting of forest products and the infrastructure development that accompanies economic activity also threaten water quality across the region.

Climate change is placing additional pressures on the Lower Mekong, which is uniquely vulnerable to its effects. The Mekong River Commission, an intergovernmental water management organization, predicts that rising sea levels and more frequent precipitation will inevitably lead to more extreme weather and its associated impacts, such as floods, droughts, saltwater intrusion and soil erosion.

Under these circumstances, tools that help visualize and quantify local environmental conditions would almost certainly benefit the people charged with public planning.

 

Tailored Solutions: The regional nature of each SERVIR hub allows its staff to customize products to local problems and capabilities. “We really tried to start with the end users and develop products and services around them,” Irwin says.

Eco-Dash, for example, is a computer-based tool that scores changes in biomass quality across large geographic areas. It was developed by the SERVIR-Mekong team in response to a request from Winrock International, a U.S. NGO that administers the USAID-funded Vietnam Forests and Deltas (VFD) Program. The VFD Program is an effort to help the country develop climate-change resilience through such adaptation and mitigation approaches as sustainable landscapes and reduced emissions from deforestation.

To better illuminate how impacted ecosystems are evolving, Eco-Dash crunches multispectral imagery data from two Earth Observing System satellites and runs them through a standardized assessment algorithm — the Enhanced Vegetation Index — to generate a graphical depiction of changes.

Figure 7: Eco-Dash was developed by the SERVIR-Mekong team at the request of a U.S. NGO. Eco-Dash crunches multispectral imagery data from satellites and runs them through an algorithm to generate a graphical depiction of how vegetation is changing. Green indicates an increase in vegetation, red indicates a decrease, and yellow indicates no change (image credit: SERVIR-Mekong/ADPC)
Figure 7: Eco-Dash was developed by the SERVIR-Mekong team at the request of a U.S. NGO. Eco-Dash crunches multispectral imagery data from satellites and runs them through an algorithm to generate a graphical depiction of how vegetation is changing. Green indicates an increase in vegetation, red indicates a decrease, and yellow indicates no change (image credit: SERVIR-Mekong/ADPC)

Eco-Dash “provides consistent spatial and temporal comparisons of vegetation conditions over time,” says Tran Lan Huong, a Winrock GIS specialist. Like all SERVIR products, it’s available online at no cost, and is designed for ease of use: Set a few on-screen controls to define the search conditions, hit the “update” button, and wait about 15 seconds before results are drawn on a color-coded map. “We use it twice a year to assess the impact of our interventions in the forest areas of Thanh Hóa and Nghê An provinces,” Huong says. “As these provinces are two of the largest forest areas in the country, the tool saves us both time and money.”

A further SERVIR-Mekong product, the Surface Water Mapping Tool (SWMT), was developed in response to a request from another NGO. NHI needed to make recommendations about optimal dam construction sites on the Xe Kong River, one of the Mekong’s large lower tributaries, as part of its support for the USAID Climate Resilient Mekong project. NHI asked for a tool to assess how proposed dams might impact the seasonal water cycles of the wetland environments that support fish spawning.

The SWMT processes archived imagery from Landsats-7 and -8 and draws maps depicting the extent of groundwater sources over selected time periods. Five government agencies and two NGOs in the region now use the tool for infrastructure planning.

Figure 8: SWMT (Surface Water Mapping Tool) is used to assess how proposed dams might impact the seasonal water cycles of wetlands along the Mekong (image credit: SERVIR-Mekong/ADPC)
Figure 8: SWMT (Surface Water Mapping Tool) is used to assess how proposed dams might impact the seasonal water cycles of wetlands along the Mekong (image credit: SERVIR-Mekong/ADPC)

The SERVIR-Mekong team tries to design its products for use with minimal information technology infrastructure. One solution they’ve embraced is cloud computing. “Like most of our work, the data at the core of [SWMT] are freely available to anyone,” says Ate Poortinga, an SIG hydrologist. “But SWMT requires a lot of data and a lot of processing power, so we took advantage of Google Earth Engine, which houses the entire imagery archive.”

The Google Earth Engine allows users to work with large geospatial datasets on cloud servers. Nearly everything offered by the Mekong hub is now designed for, or is being converted for use with, Google Earth Engine. Hub staff members are still trained to teach outside users how to use SERVIR toolsets, however, to help users effectively interact with their geospatial data.

 

Everyone Gets Involved: While government agencies, universities, NGOs and other organizations typically contact the hub staff directly for support, a “Request Technical Assistance” button on the landing page of the SERVIR-Mekong website offers everyone a fast and easy way to get help. “If a small NGO in the middle of Laos needed something, there’s a mechanism for engaging us even if they can’t physically travel to a SERVIR office,” says David Saah, director of the Geospatial Analysis Lab at the University of San Francisco and science and data co-lead at SERVIR-Mekong. Several tools, including Eco-Dash, began with a request via this button.

The path between request and completed product isn’t always straight. An NGO might need a tool for a remote area, but if official decisions are going to be made with it, a local government agency must still approve its use. The SERVIR-Mekong staff anticipates this by trying to involve all stakeholders throughout the entire development process.

“We invite all the representatives,” Saah says, “so we have pretty cross-cutting representation from government, academia and NGOs from each country. We bring them in for targeted workshops and we start to build a product together.” Along the way, members with expertise in areas such as policy, technology, science and employment each contribute to the final product.

This is a situation where the SERVIR-Mekong partnership with ADPC has paid off well, Saah notes; the extensive community and organizational networks built by ADPC throughout the Lower Mekong help identify stakeholders and engage them in SERVIR work. Such partnerships between hubs and regional agencies have been a key contribution to overall SERVIR program productivity.

Even with stakeholder collaboration, however, new projects can take a while to complete. “People exposed to new technologies, new tools and new opportunities can’t always articulate what they’re looking for,” says Peter Cutter, science and data co-lead at SERVIR-Mekong. “Sometimes we have to connect the dots of what we think they have in mind.” A rough concept like this will typically change the conversation and lead to something else, still provisional, but closer to the end goal. The process is repeated until stakeholders are comfortable with the product and its intended role in their domains.

 

A Different Kind of Mission Control: Just as NASA provides ongoing support to its space missions, it also provides ongoing support to its SERVIR hubs. The NASA SERVIR Coordination Office at Marshall Spaceflight Center is ready to help whenever a hub asks for assistance. Eric Anderson is the SERVIR-Mekong regional science lead. A research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and at the Marshall Spaceflight Center, Anderson works with the program through a cooperative agreement with the space agency.

Staying up to date is the first priority for the Science Coordination Office, Anderson says. “The hubs are well up to speed, but there’s always something new,” he says. “Part of my function is to participate in NASA applied science meetings, so our office is aware of the latest and greatest from any of those teams.”

During his term, Anderson says he has noticed that experiences reported back from SERVIR hubs are starting to influence NASA technical approaches. “Satellite developers are opening up more and more to hearing user community needs,” he says. “It’s nice to have information flow the other way — from on-the-ground users to scientists and engineers.”

USAID staff in each SERVIR region also coordinate with NASA to make sure the local hub’s needs are being met, and arrange for hub members to meet each year to exchange best practices. Irwin says that consistent USAID involvement has also influenced NASA operational practices. “NASA has learned a softer side from USAID as SERVIR has evolved,” he says. “How are country consultations developed? How do you ask the right questions and ask the right people? Once you have the needs, how do you develop and implement a process and gather metrics so you know that you’re doing a good job?” These are all questions NASA is now asking, he says. “That’s been valuable to NASA as we grow SERVIR and other programs.”

Additionally, informal networking across the hubs is now thriving on its own. Although each SERVIR hub has its own regional character, common issues and common solutions eventually tend to surface. “As the network has grown,” Irwin says, “the most exciting thing about SERVIR is the hubs working with each other. They exchange scientific ideas and algorithms. They even exchange their business and operational practices.” The hubs now maintain several inter-hub working groups to make sure that everyone is aware of what’s available and what works best, augmenting the support from the Science Coordination Office.

 

Capacity Building: Passing autonomy to the hubs and to the communities they support is an implicit goal of the SERVIR program, Irwin says. “The vision is to work ourselves out of a job, or at least reduce our footprint as regions become self-sustaining.” Eventually, he says, the locals will “be the service providers and we’ll take more of a back seat role.” SERVIR-Mesoamerica, for example, ended its formal relationship with SERVIR in 2011. Years later, many of its original capabilities are still functioning through CATHALAC.

Work on new technologies continues throughout NASA and the space community. “There are new missions going on all the time that we have in our sights because they’re going to be game changers,” Cutter says. Right now, he’s specifically interested in a new NASA LIDAR satellite that will generate imagery that could improve forest models. He also notes that data sources outside of NASA, such as radar and multispectral imagery from European Space Agency Sentinel satellites, are being integrated into SERVIR tools.

Figure 9: These graphics of the Lower Mekong Basin created by SERVIR-Mekong show ecozones (above) and proposed annual average maximum daily temperature and annual precipitation changes by 2050 (above left and left). The transfer of such data to local decision-makers helps build regional resilience to land and water resource pressures, and moderate the effects of climate change in this part of Southeast Asia (image credit: USAID)
Figure 9: These graphics of the Lower Mekong Basin created by SERVIR-Mekong show ecozones (above) and proposed annual average maximum daily temperature and annual precipitation changes by 2050 (above left and left). The transfer of such data to local decision-makers helps build regional resilience to land and water resource pressures, and moderate the effects of climate change in this part of Southeast Asia (image credit: USAID)

The latest SERVIR-Mekong development project is the Regional Drought Information System. With the recent droughts still fresh in everyone’s memories, the Vietnam Academy for Water Resources (VAWR) has been charged with providing planning guidance to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to mitigate future droughts. VAWR sought out SERVIR-Mekong for a solution. “Vietnam was under severe drought conditions ... and there was a lack of information on the ground,” says Tran D. Trinh of VAWR. “We were looking for tools that could utilize remote sensing data for drought monitoring and management, and found that SERVIR-Mekong had the techniques and tools that we needed.”

SERVIR is currently active in more than 30 countries and is about to expand again; last year, NASA and the Peru office of USAID posted a grant opportunity for what will become SERVIR-Amazonia, a new hub for South America (Ref. 10).

 

 


 

Relief Efforts

• June 21, 2022: Bangladesh has a long history of deadly and costly storms. Among the most worrisome are kalbaishakhi, small but powerful storm cells that tend to affect the country in the spring. Kalbaishakhi were responsible for a 1989 tornado that is believed to be the deadliest in world history, as well as a lightning strike at a wedding party in 2021 that caused 17 deaths. Because these storms are so localized, they can be notoriously difficult to forecast, especially without access to the most advanced weather prediction technology. 13)

- “Bangladesh is a hotspot for high-impact weather events—intense rainfall, damaging wind and hail, frequent lightning strikes, and cyclones,” said Azizur Rahman, director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD). “And the science is clear: Because of climate change, these high-impact weather events will be more frequent and more intense in the future.”

SERVIR_Auto9

Figure 10: Researchers have created a new tool to boost the country’s ability to forecast kalbaishakhi and other severe weather. The U.S.-based SERVIR program and the BMD recently launched the High-Impact Weather Assessment Toolkit (HIWAT), a web-based tool (Figure 11) that integrates data from NASA’s Earth-observing satellites with BMD’s local observations in order to improve weather forecasts. The project was led by Patrick Gatlin, a research meteorologist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, with SERVIR’s Hindu-Kush Himalaya team at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). This map, derived from HIWAT data, shows a lightning forecast for May 16-19, 2022, during a storm event in Bangladesh [image credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using data from the High Impact Weather Assessment Toolkit (HIWAT) team at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and the NASA SERVIR Applied Sciences Team. Story by Jake Ramthun, SERVIR, with Mike Carlowicz]

- The reliability of weather forecasts is largely dependent on the quality of geographic coverage from weather stations. If a country has only a few weather stations, and if those stations do not have long records, meteorologists do not have as much context to guide future predictions.

- Bangladesh has a short history of weather data gathering, and until recently the country lacked public funding for satellites and the powerful computers needed to run advanced prediction models. Without such resources, BMD forecasters were looking for additional data.

- “Due to limitations in the processes as well as the facilities of BMD, we have not been able to provide lightning forecasts in a proper way,” said Abdul Mannan, a meteorologist with the BMD’s Storm Warning Centre. The map of Figure 10, derived from HIWAT data, shows a lightning forecast for May 16-19, 2022, during a storm event in Bangladesh.

- SERVIR is a joint program of NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Researchers collaborate with geospatial organizations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to support decision-making for climate adaptation and natural resource management. SERVIR also helps partners design satellite-based tools for addressing issues like air quality and disaster management.

- Because forecasts are imperative to decision-making across many sectors—particularly agriculture or disaster management—weather and climate services are critical to SERVIR’s mission. SERVIR and BMD intend for HIWAT to enable not only better forecasts, but better public safety warnings as communities prepare for a changing climate.

Figure 11: HIWAT feeds data from NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement mission and other sources into the forecasting process, giving BMD meteorologists a more thorough and detailed pool of data. Those inputs can help produce more reliable forecasts and allow scientists to predict hazards that were previously more difficult to anticipate, like lightning and hail. Around the time of the launch of HIWAT, the Bangladeshi government also announced it would provide BMD with powerful computer servers to further advance the speed and reliability of forecasts (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory)
Figure 11: HIWAT feeds data from NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement mission and other sources into the forecasting process, giving BMD meteorologists a more thorough and detailed pool of data. Those inputs can help produce more reliable forecasts and allow scientists to predict hazards that were previously more difficult to anticipate, like lightning and hail. Around the time of the launch of HIWAT, the Bangladeshi government also announced it would provide BMD with powerful computer servers to further advance the speed and reliability of forecasts (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory)

• April 23, 2019: Considered a hotspot for biodiversity, the Madre de Dios region of southeastern Peru is an exceptionally fertile landscape. Standing at the edge of the Amazon basin, Madre de Dios has a rich concentration of endemic species—plants and animals that are found nowhere else in the world. But their habitats are being threatened by human activity. 14)

- Since the 1980s, people have been clearing forests in this area for farming, cattle ranching, logging, and (recently) gold mining. To better manage this natural resource, the Monitoring of Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) by Conservación Amazónica compiles timely, easy-to-understand technical reports related to deforestation monitoring in Peru. The MAAP “hotspots” report inspired graduate research assistant Andrea Nicolau of University of Alabama in Huntsville, to map forest loss in Madre de Dios over a five-year span. Nicolau works with SERVIR, a joint initiative of NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development to provide satellite data, maps, and other tools to environmental decision-makers in developing countries.

Figure 12: Forest loss in the period 2013-2018 (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey and the SERVIR Science Team (Story by Andrea Nicolau, Andi Thomas, and Leah Kucera, NASA SERVIR Science Coordination Office at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. SERVIR connects space to village by helping developing countries use satellite data to address critical challenges in food security, water resources, weather and climate, land use, and natural disasters. A partnership of NASA, USAID, and leading technical organizations, SERVIR develops innovative solutions to improve livelihoods and foster self-reliance in Asia, Africa, and the Americas)
Figure 12: Forest loss in the period 2013-2018 (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey and the SERVIR Science Team (Story by Andrea Nicolau, Andi Thomas, and Leah Kucera, NASA SERVIR Science Coordination Office at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. SERVIR connects space to village by helping developing countries use satellite data to address critical challenges in food security, water resources, weather and climate, land use, and natural disasters. A partnership of NASA, USAID, and leading technical organizations, SERVIR develops innovative solutions to improve livelihoods and foster self-reliance in Asia, Africa, and the Americas)

- Nicolau analyzed nearly 3,500 km2 (1,350 square miles) of Madre de Dios land cover to determine the extent and severity of forest change between 2013 and 2018. She gathered five years of observations from Landsat 7 and 8 and then applied a technique known as spectral mixture analysis, which uses different properties of light in each pixel and other visual patterns to identify the proportions of land cover types. For example, newly-cleared areas for agriculture and cattle ranching tend to have a distinctive square pattern that can be spotted from space.

- Nicolau found that roughly 206 km2 (79 square miles) of forest were cleared in the five-year study period, with the greatest loss occurring in the last year. Although it is hard to assess the reasons for annual changes in forest loss rates, one key element might be the completion of the Interoceanic Highway through the region, which could have facilitated the access to forestlands.

Figure 13: Designations of regions and rivers of Figure 12. This image was acquired by Landsat-8 on 6 September 2018 (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey and the SERVIR Science Team. Story by Andrea Nicolau, Andi Thomas, and Leah Kucera, NASA SERVIR Science Coordination Office at the University of Alabama in Huntsville)
Figure 13: Designations of regions and rivers of Figure 12. This image was acquired by Landsat-8 on 6 September 2018 (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey and the SERVIR Science Team. Story by Andrea Nicolau, Andi Thomas, and Leah Kucera, NASA SERVIR Science Coordination Office at the University of Alabama in Huntsville)

• March 14, 2019: The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) with support from NASA have initiated activities for SERVIR-Amazonia, a five-year effort that will use NASA's unique observations of Earth to address environmental and development challenges in the Amazon Basin. 15)

- Operating as a regional hub, SERVIR-Amazonia will help people and institutions use satellite observations and geospatial tools to track environmental changes, evaluate climate threats and rapidly respond to natural disasters. By strengthening the local capacity to integrate science and technology into decision-making, USAID and NASA will support sustainability and self-reliance throughout the Amazon, home to the world's largest tropical rain forest.

- "We are thrilled with this innovative USAID-NASA partnership and the creation of a SERVIR hub in the Amazon region," said USAID/Peru Mission Director Lawrence Rubey. "It will combine the scientific and technological capacities of NASA with USAID’s on-the-ground development expertise. We hope it will give both government officials and indigenous peoples’ organizations the tools they need to tackle unchecked deforestation in the Amazon region."

- Funded by USAID with science and technology support from NASA, SERVIR-Amazonia will be implemented by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Cali, Colombia, and a network of local and international partners, including the Amazon Conservation Association, the Institute of Agricultural and Forest Management and Certification, and Spatial Informatics Group.

- "We’re really excited to expand the SERVIR network with the addition of SERVIR-Amazonia," said Dan Irwin, SERVIR Global program manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. "CIAT and its partners have extensive experience in using Earth observations for environmental decision-making. SERVIR's partnership with CIAT will ensure that more people and institutions will benefit from the scientific knowledge we gain by exploring Earth from space."

- SERVIR-Amazonia will be one of five SERVIR hubs currently operating around the world. SERVIR connects USAID’s development network with NASA’s science, technology and extensive satellite data. SERVIR's growing global network — including leading regional organizations in Africa, Asia and now Latin America — develops demand-driven services, tools and training for decision-makers in more than 45 countries.

- For example, SERVIR’s Enhanced Flood Early Warning Service is increasing flood forecast lead times in the South Asia region. This includes an operational 15-day flood forecast that integrates local data into a global model using methods co-developed by U.S. researchers, local experts and decision-makers. Longer lead times and access to accurate, appropriate information ensures better preparedness for disaster responders, who can help to save lives and property.

- SERVIR-Amazonia will bring similar tools to bear on the challenges of the region.

• February 10, 2019: SERVIR is improving access to the geospatial services it provides to inform decision making and improve resilience in critical areas like food security, water management, disaster resilience, and sustainable land and ecosystem management. The SERVIR Service Catalogue describes each service, providing easy access to associated products, tools, data, training materials, and news — connecting people to a wealth of information. 16)

- Each service in the Service Catalogue has been developed through consultation and collaboration with partners around the world to bring NASA’s satellite imagery, geospatial data, and Earth science research into decision-making processes to achieve meaningful and lasting development impact. The co-developers of each service, as well as the broader users and stakeholders, can be found in each service entry.

- The Service Catalogue also provides access to new data generated by each service, which is indexed in the SERVIR Data Catalogue. This open-source data is available to the public for free and is part of SERVIR’s efforts to increase data availability and accessibility critical to solving regional and national development problems.

- The Service Catalogue reflects the SERVIR network’s unique service approach, which connects scientists and decision-makers to collaborate on solutions, helping to bridge gaps between these communities. The SERVIR Service Approach emphasizes:

a) Identifying specific development problems together with local communities to guide researchers

b) Co-developing geospatial services with decision-makers and end-users together with international researchers and experts

c) Building capacity of partners to achieve sustainability

- This approach supports scalable, needs-based technical collaborations. The Service Catalogue provides access to the different tools and resources developed through this process, and will grow and evolve in step with SERVIR’s services.

• December 3, 2018: Drought is threatening the lives of millions of farmers in Niger. With NASA’s help, we’re pioneering a new approach—hundreds of miles above the planet. 17)

- Ridges of cracked earth crinkle underfoot. Pastoralists keep their cattle moving in search of seasonal ponds, only to see precious water pockets evaporate almost before their eyes. When the sky unleashes the annual rains, mud-brick homes seem to melt while roads pool and flow like miniature rivers. And then, just as fast, the rains recede, and Niger is parched again.

- In this landlocked desert, water is paramount.

- Almost 80 percent of Nigerians eke out a living as subsistence farmers, their lives bound to increasingly unpredictable rain and drought cycles. Planting season becomes a moving target, cattle herds die off, wells dry up, sorghum harvests wither. As these disastrous shocks become more frequent and severe, hunger is spreading.

- Even with billions of dollars of international aid spent over the last 40 years, climate challenges continue to undermine Nigerians’ progress toward food security. And with the highest birth rate in the world, demand for food is only increasing.

- Given these daunting trends, it was time for a new idea that could help address one of the primary root causes of food insecurity: a lack of a sustainable access to water.

Figure 14: Maria farms millet and sorghum to feed her seven children in rural Niger. She bought this land with money she earned from cleaning houses and selling water, but climate change is making it harder to live off it. "It's hard," she says. "The farming is hard . . . I eat all that I can find." (image credit: Sean Sheridan for Mercy Corps)
Figure 14: Maria farms millet and sorghum to feed her seven children in rural Niger. She bought this land with money she earned from cleaning houses and selling water, but climate change is making it harder to live off it. "It's hard," she says. "The farming is hard . . . I eat all that I can find." (image credit: Sean Sheridan for Mercy Corps)

- Our strategy? NASA satellites.

- The path from Niger’s fields to the cosmos began underground. Mercy Corps’ Niger team realized that decision-makers in the country lacked critical information about groundwater availability—a huge problem given how much communities relied on water for farming. This means decision makers don’t know where the underground water resources are, how much they have, or if the amount being extracted is sustainable.

- The team soon discovered that Niger’s underground aquifers were even more vulnerable than was previously understood. Without closing these knowledge gaps, we were at risk of making the problem worse by promoting irrigation without a clear understanding of how sustainable it was.

Figure 15: This NASA photo shows the immense challenge facing Niger's farmers: the brutal Sahara, stretching far to the horizon. In the future, satellite data may change the way water is managed in Niger (image courtesy of the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center (ISS002-E-6843, http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov).
Figure 15: This NASA photo shows the immense challenge facing Niger's farmers: the brutal Sahara, stretching far to the horizon. In the future, satellite data may change the way water is managed in Niger (image courtesy of the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center (ISS002-E-6843, http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov).

- But a new partnership promised a novel source of information: Orbiting hundreds of miles above the Earth’s surface, NASA’s satellites can detect how groundwater resources are changing.

- “It was clear early on that bringing together NASA’s Earth Sciences team with Mercy Corps’ on-the-ground experts was going to lead to new and innovative ways of addressing a significant global problem,” says NASA lead, Dr. David Green. “For NASA, this application of space-based Earth observations exemplifies the societal benefits we hope to support in making these data freely and openly available.”

- In partnership with SERVIR, a joint venture between NASA and USAID, these satellites will gather critical data that will allow users to understand the amount of water available, where it’s located, and how those resources are increasing or decreasing over time. This information is crucial to help Nigerien institutions make decisions, shape policy, and plan around the country’s water resource and economic investments.

- And for farmers, these data-driven decisions will result in more secure, sustainable access to water throughout the year and in the face of drought.

- Rather than become the direct client for NASA’s data, Mercy Corps has been working to bring various stakeholders together from across Niger’s government to understand how they can turn satellite observations into action. Going forward, Mercy Corps and SERVIR will work with these stakeholders to ensure they can take ownership of the tools they develop. We’re also helping strengthen the relationship between local communities to ensure any decisions respond to their needs and experiences.

- In a country as dry as Niger, it’s essential that everyone has sustainable access to water. Water scarcity isn’t just threatening Nigerians’ way of life; it’s threatening their very lives. It’s on us to do everything we can to solve this problem—here and in every country facing water scarcity. Even if the solution lies beyond our planet.

Figure 16: The current SERVIR Hub Network (image credit: SERVIR Global) 18)
Figure 16: The current SERVIR Hub Network (image credit: SERVIR Global) 18)
Figure 17: Research institutions collaborating with SERVIR across the United States (image credit: SERVIR Global)
Figure 17: Research institutions collaborating with SERVIR across the United States (image credit: SERVIR Global)
Figure 18: SERVIR regional knowledge centers and regions connected to these centers in 2018 (image credit: SERVIR Global)
Figure 18: SERVIR regional knowledge centers and regions connected to these centers in 2018 (image credit: SERVIR Global)

Satellites / Sensors

Application

ALOS-2 (JAXA), PALSAR-2

Vegetation structure

AltiKa (France, India)

Water and sea surface height

AMSR-E on Aqua (NASA), no longer available

Soil moisture

Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 (Europe)

Disaster response, vegetation

Terra-ASTER (NASA)

Vegetation properties, surface temperature and elevation

Digital Globe constellation (USA), 5 Commercial
Satellites in use through a unique data collection
tasking agreement

High-resolution visible imagery

EO-1 30 m multispectral (NASA), no longer available

Disaster response, vegetation change

GOES-16 (NOAA/NASA)

Atmosphere composition, cloud formation, air mass characteristics

GPM (Global Precipitation Mearurement), (NASA/JAXA)

Precipitation

GRACE (NASA/Germany), no longer available, but GRACE-FO is up

Groundwater

ICESat (GLAS) (NASA), no longer available, but ICESat-2 is up

Land topography

Jason-2 and Jason-3 (NASA/NOAA/France/Europe)

Water and sea surface height

LANDSAT-5 (no longer available), -7, and -8 (NASA/USGS)

Vegetation properties, agriculture and land cover changes

Meteosat (Europe)

Atmospheric composition, cloud formation, air mass characteristics

QuikSCAT (NASA), no longer available

Vegetation structure

RADARSAT-2 (Canada)

Vegetation, surface water

SMOS (Europe)

Soil moisture and ocean salinity

SRTM (NASA), no longer available

Land topography

Terra and Aqua-MODIS

Land surface temperature

TRMM (NASA/JAXA), no longer available

Precipitation

SMAP (NASA)

Soil moisture

VIIRS on Suomi NPP and JPSS-1 (NASA/NOAA/DoD)

Land surface temperatures, vegetation, water resources, fire, light at night

Table 1: SERVIR uses data from 27 satellites and sensors

• August 17, 2018: The July 23 failure of the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam unleashed more than 130 billion gallons (49 km3) of water on rural villages in southern Laos, in Southeast Asia, devastating thousands of houses and businesses and displacing more than 6,000 people. As authorities scrambled to gather information in the wake of the disaster, scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, activated a new tool to help them assess the damage and get help to people in need. 19)

- NASA researchers John Bolten and Perry Oddo and Stanford University researcher Aakash Ahamed recently developed a system that predicts flood damage based on satellite and ground data. The model estimates floodwater depth, adds information about land use and building infrastructure, and generates a dollar-value calculation of the damage in the target area.

- The model was designed to use data from NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), a spaceborne instrument that takes high-resolution photos using electromagnetic energy from plants and water to study Earth’s surface and atmosphere. MODIS data is available to researchers just three hours after it is collected, making it useful for near-real-time applications where speed is important.

- However, MODIS cannot collect data through cloud cover, so to contribute to the Laos relief effort, the researchers adapted the model to use radar data from Japanese satellite ALOS-2 and ESA’s (European Space Agency) Sentinel-1 (Figures 19 and 20).

- “Our partners needed to know areas of flooding and inundation rather quickly,” said Bolten, associate program manager of water resources for the NASA Applied Sciences Program. “Just a couple of days after the event, we were able to come up with the information that they needed.”

- In addition to the estimated cost of damages the researchers created maps of the flooded areas from satellite images, making them available for other agencies to use.

- The researchers provided the data to several NASA partners working on recovery in Laos and other regions in a coordinated effort through SERVIR, a joint initiative between NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the NASA Disasters Program. SERVIR has a hub in the Mekong River basin, which stretches from Tibet through Laos and to Vietnam and Cambodia. SERVIR collaborates with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, a nonprofit organization that works to build disaster and climate change resilience in Southeast Asia.

- “Local authorities and decision-makers in Laos are scrambling to get information as quickly as they can, and NASA was able to step up to the plate and deliver information in near real-time,” Bolten said. He described the model as a “value-added” product: “Rather than simply saying ‘this area is flooded,’ we’ve added value to the flood map by including the floodwater depth, population, hectares of agriculture affected, locations of building footprints and so on with our damage assessment system.”

- The model uses near real-time data from NASA and other satellites to produce these estimates quickly, which is beneficial for rapid response efforts. It also provides decision-makers access to clear, understandable data.

Figure 19: The Sentinel-1 satellite image from ESA's (European Space Agency) Copernicus program observed the area surrounding the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy dam in Laos before the dam's failure on July 17, 2018 (image credit: NASA Disasters/Marshall Space Flight Center/Alaska Satellite Facility; the image contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018) processed by ESA)
Figure 19: The Sentinel-1 satellite image from ESA's (European Space Agency) Copernicus program observed the area surrounding the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy dam in Laos before the dam's failure on July 17, 2018 (image credit: NASA Disasters/Marshall Space Flight Center/Alaska Satellite Facility; the image contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018) processed by ESA)
Figure 20: The Sentinel-1 satellite image from ESA's Copernicus program observed the area surrounding the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy dam in Laos after the dam's failure on July 23, 2018. The image was observed on 25 July (image credit: NASA Disasters/Marshall Space Flight Center/Alaska Satellite Facility; the image contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018) processed by ESA)
Figure 20: The Sentinel-1 satellite image from ESA's Copernicus program observed the area surrounding the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy dam in Laos after the dam's failure on July 23, 2018. The image was observed on 25 July (image credit: NASA Disasters/Marshall Space Flight Center/Alaska Satellite Facility; the image contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018) processed by ESA)

- “After a flood, especially in this region, there will be an extensive damage evaluation, which can take many weeks or months,” said Perry Oddo, a support scientist at Goddard and lead author on the paper detailing the model’s development. “Oftentimes, without information on how these damage assessments were conducted, the results we get can be somewhat vague. We hope that with this kind of very transparent, standardized approach we will be able to look at flood events across time and compare them.”

- The researchers’ next step is to use economic evaluation tools to determine how beneficial the system is from a financial perspective. For example, first responders who have access to these early damage estimates might direct crews and resources more efficiently than those who do not.

- “In a decision-making context, if a disaster strikes and you have resources to allocate and emergency response crews to manage, how does that change if you have access to these observations instead of operating blind?” Oddo said. “Hopefully, the inclusion of NASA Earth observations will lead to a reduction in expenses, shorter time to rescue, and increase in the number of people whose needs are cared for.”

• In 2016, USAID and NASA announced SERVIR’s expansion with SERVIR-West Africa, implemented by the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) subsidiary, the Agriculture, Hydrology and Meteorology (AGRHYMET) Regional Center, and its consortium partners, with support from Tetra Tech, Inc. Created in 1974, AGRHYMET is a specialized agency of the Permanent Inter-State Committee against Drought in the Sahel (CILSS) serving thirteen member countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo. This hub will promote the use of publicly available satellite imagery and related geospatial decision-support tools/products to help key stakeholders and decision makers, especially in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Niger, and Senegal, make more informed decisions in four areas: agriculture and food security; water resources and hydroclimatic disasters; weather and climate; and land cover and land use change and ecosystems. 20) 21)

- Agriculture is the main occupation in rural areas of West Africa, where the majority of the population lives. Climate change poses serious threats to the agricultural and food systems of the region. Prolonged droughts, more frequent weather extremes, crop failure, and infestations by crop pests continue to challenge the West African region. Based on consultations and needs assessments, SERVIR WA has focused on developing a regional service for timely identification of areas at risk of desert locust swarming in the western region (P-Locust) to improved resilience of human populations potentially affected. Additionally, this will serve to minimize the socio-economic and physical (e.g.: reduced use of pesticides) environmental impacts linked to locust control while reducing the workload of control teams. 22)

- Landscape management is associated with major challenges and opportunities throughout West Africa. It is also critical in this region where the vast majority of the rapidly growing population heavily depends on ecosystem products and services. SERVIR WA is focusing on monitoring (i) land degradation in Ghana caused by charcoal production and artisanal Mining and (ii) Land Use / Land Cover (LU/LC) to support local development planning in Burkina Faso. 23)

- Water availability is a major constraint to sustainable livelihoods in West Africa. Geospatial technologies and forecasts can be used to improve the management of water resources and as an outcome, livelihood resilience. SERVIR WA is focusing on monitoring (i) ephemeral water bodies in Ferlo, Senegal to provide information to beneficiaries on ponds including water and surrounding forage availability and forecasting for decision making for better management of water resources and rangelands, (ii) groundwater resources in Niger to improved water access irrigated agriculture and (iii) improvement of flash flood risk management in West Africa and the Sahel. 24)

- Weather and climate data records in West Africa, and much of Africa, are incomplete and data collected are not always managed, shared, and analyzed to produce information and knowledge to effectively inform disaster preparedness, food security, water, energy, and land use planning. Successful risk management in these sectors requires climate and weather information to be provided at the right time and in useful formats. SERVIR WA is focusing on a service for improvement and dissemination of short/medium-term and seasonal forecasts in order to reduce the vulnerability of the communities to climate risks. 25)

 


References

1) ”SERVIR Overview,” NASA,4 Aug. 2017 (update), URL: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/servir/overview.html

2) ”SERVIR Connecting Space to Village,” SERVIR Global, URL: https://www.servirglobal.net/about-Servir

3) ”NASA, University of Twente join forces to connect space to village,” University of Twente, 20 April 2018, URL: https://www.utwente.nl/en/news/!/2018/4/434009/nasa-university-of-twente-join-forces-to-connect-space-to-village

4) ”NASA, University of Twente Join Forces to Connect Space to Village,” NASA, 18 April 2018, URL: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/servir/nasa-university-of-twente-join-forces-to-connect-space-to-village.html

5) ”Monitoring of the Environment for Security in Africa,” RCMRD, 2018, URL:  https://web.archive.org/web/20181025122003/http://www.rcmrd.org:80/mesa-2

6) ”SERVIR Himalaya,” 2018, URL: https://www.servirglobal.net/Regions/Himalaya

7) ”Satellite-Based Visualization System for Water Resources in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region,” ICIMOD, URL: http://catalogue.servirglobal.net/Product?product_id=32

8) http://catalogue.servirglobal.net/Product?product_id=11

9) http://catalogue.servirglobal.net/Product?product_id=96

10) Steve Murray, ”From space to village: NASA's SERVIR program brings a big picture to local communities,” Earth Magazine, 2 January 2018, URL: https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/space-village-nasas-servir-program-brings-big-picture-local-communities

11) Perry C. Oddo, Aakash Ahamed, John D. Bolten, ”Socioeconomic Impact Evaluation for Near Real-Time Flood Detection in the Lower Mekong River Basin,” Hydrology 2018, Volume 5, No.2, published on 10 April 2018, https://doi.org/10.3390/hydrology5020023, URL: https://res.mdpi.com/hydrology/hydrology-05-00023/article_deploy/hydrology-05-00023.pdf?filename=&attachment=1

12) ”SERVIR Mekong Project,” URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SERVIR_Mekong_Project

13) ”NASA Data Supercharges Forecasting in Bangladesh,” NASA Earth Observatory, Image of the Day for 21 June 2022, URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/149954/nasa-data-supercharges-forecasting-in-bangladesh

14) ”Tracking Peruvian Forest Loss from Space,” NASA Earth Observatory, 23 April 2019, URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/144841/tracking-peruvian-forest-loss-from-space?src=eoa-iotd

15) ”USAID and NASA Harness Science, Technology for Amazon Sustainability,” NASA, 14 March 2019, URL: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/home/usaid-and-nasa-harness-science-technology-for-amazon-sustainability.html

16) ”SERVIR Launches Service Catalogue of User-Tailored Geospatial Services,” SERVIR Global, 10 February 2019, URL: https://www.servirglobal.net/Global/Articles/Article/2688/servir-launches-service-catalogue-of-user-tailored-geospatial-services

17) Théodore Kabore and Eliot Levine, ”Why space is the next frontier in the fight for Niger's water,” SERVIR Global, 3 December 2018, URL: https://www.servirglobal.net/Global/Articles/Article/2685/why-space-is-the-next-frontier-in-the-fight-for-nigers-water

18) ”SERVIR Global Retrospective 2014-2018,” SERVIR Global Annuals Reports, 2018, URL: https://www.servirglobal.net/Portals/0/brochures/SERVIR-Global-Retrospective-2014-2018.pdf

19) Jessica Merzdorf, ”Scientists Deploy Damage Assessment Tool in Laos Relief Efforts,” NASA, 17 August 2018, URL: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/scientists-deploy-damage-assessment-tool-in-laos-relief-efforts

20) ”SERVIR West Africa,” SERVIR Global, July 2016, URL: https://www.servirglobal.net/Regions/West-Africa

21) ”USAID and NASA Using Technology for Development in West Africa,” USAID Press Release, July 14, 2016, URL: https://www.servirglobal.net/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=aui9SdH53MM%3d&portalid=0

22) ”Agriculture & Food Security,” USAID, NASA, 2019, URL: http://servir.cilss.int/en/themes-3/agriculture-and-food-security/

23) ”Land Cover Land Use Change & Ecosystems,” USAID, NASA, 2019, URL: http://servir.cilss.int/en/themes-3/land-use-and-ecosystems/

24) ”Water & Water Related Disasters, USAID, NASA, 2019, ” URL: http://servir.cilss.int/en/themes-3/water-resources-and-natural-disasters/

25) ”Weather & Climate,” USAID, NASA, 2019, URL: http://servir.cilss.int/en/themes-3/weather-and-climate/
 


The information compiled and edited in this article was provided by Herbert J. Kramer from his documentation of: ”Observation of the Earth and Its Environment: Survey of Missions and Sensors” (Springer Verlag) as well as many other sources after the publication of the 4th edition in 2002. - Comments and corrections to this article are always welcome for further updates (eoportal@symbios.space).

 

SERVIR Global    Success Stories    Background    Relief Efforts   References    Back to top