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Figure 8-9. Map of internet connectivity and Ebolatreatment centres, LiberiaSource: NetHope, www.nethope.orgNGOs and research institutes working in Africa haveincreasingly been using geospatial information to enhancetheir programmes. A case in point is Nethope’s mapping ofEbola treatment centres and internet connectivity todetermine the location of future installation of emergencyequipment providing internet access, which was crucial toreport Ebola related data (Figure 8-9). The InternationalResearch Institute for Climate and Society (ColumbiaUniversity) has also used satellite imagery to produce mapsof the presence of desert aerosols (dust) in the air coveringseveral countries in the northern part of Africa. Sincebreathing those aerosols makes one more vulnerable tomeningitis, these maps are being used as predictiveindicators to epidemics of this disease. 857Box 8-9. Using Earth Engine to assess socio-physicalvulnerability to disasters in SenegalA tool predicting socio-physical flood vulnerability inSenegal at high, sub-national resolution in near-time and infuture scenarios has been developed. It relies on publiclyavailable satellite imagery in Earth Engine862 anddemographics data to refine a surface of risk inside anyarea of interest (e.g. country, watershed or stormprediction zone). The satellite imagery is used to determinethe physical vulnerability while the demographic data isused to determine the social vulnerability. The tools finalproduct is an online map of the results (see Figure 8-10).Given that the data for this model are publicly available andthat the Earth Engine platform is cloud based (i.e. no localhigh computational power is needed), this type of tool canbe easily applied in under resourced countries as a quickand cheap hotspot, diagnostic tool.Figure 8-10. Combined socio-physical vulnerability toflooding in Senegal.8.3.3. Integrating climate informationAlmost all African countries have national meteorologicalservices (NMS) providing climate services, but theircapacity to produce climate data is variable and mostlylimited. A number of institutions as well as importantpublic-private partnerships (PPP) are exploring innovativeapproaches for climate services.One of the most recent innovative approaches in climatedata generation is a PPP involving ACPC, IRI of ColumbiaUniversity and hydro-meteorological instrument providers.This initiative “rescues” existing historical data throughdigitization of historical data and calibrates it with satellitedata to generate nationwide gridded data by converting thepoint data to spatial coverage. This covers key parameterslike rainfall and temperature (Box 8-10). Online map-roomsshowing the climate data are already established forEthiopia, 858 Madagascar, 859 Rwanda 860 and Tanzania. 861Source: Schwarz B., Tellman B., and Adams C. (2015). Unlocking theBig Data for Resilience with Google Earth Engine: Spotlight on FloodVulnerability Predictions for Senegal.161