| NBCBN-RE E-newsletter September 2009 | ||
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Congratulations: Wetlands Research Group (GIS and Modelling Cluster) Proposal Accepted for The TIGER Initiative (II) (2009-2011) In 2002, responding to the urgent need for action in Africa stressed by the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), the European Space Agency (ESA), within the context of the Committee of Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), launched the TIGER initiative. The overall objective of the initiative is to assist African countries to overcome problems faced in the collection, analysis and use of water related geo-information by exploiting the advantages of Earth Observation (EO) technology.
As a direct response to the African request, a new implementation period of the TIGER initiative was proposed aiming at supporting African countries to enhance their capacities to better understand, monitor and manage water resources. Within this new phase a Call for Proposals 2009-2011: Assessment of Water Resources in Africa under Global Climate Variability One of research groups under the GIS and Modelling Cluster Hosted By Egypt, is the group working on: The "Hydrological and Environmental Aspects of Wetlands". The group has applied for the TIGER Initiative II (2009-2011) after the fifth regional workshop organized for the cluster in Egypt, March 2009. The group took this initiation based on the recommendation of the cluster scientific advisor Dr. Zoltan Vekerdy (ITC), Nehterlands. The proposal idea is to continue the research on wetlands management with a more professional and advanced methodology. This support from Tiger II will help the group to continue future proposed activities after the finalization of NBCBN second phase of the research. This will contribute to raise the capacity of the group members in applying different tools of remote sensing and GIS in wetlands management. Therefore, NBCBN-SEC would like to announce with pleasure to the group members the acceptance of the proposal. By end of 2009 full proposal will be developed based on the discussion with Dr. Zoltan Vekerdy the TIGER Capacity Building Facility (TCBF), coordinator for the group. |
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Cross Basins Activities: Nile-Mekong Knowledge Sharing (Video Conference Session on Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM))
The idea of organizing this cross basin Video Conference session is to link the Nile basin professionals with professionals from other basin and to gain more information and knowledge related to the IRBM and its concepts in the different basins. The participants of this session were; 15 Nile basin water professionals who are attending the annual diploma course on Hydraulic Engineering organized,Hydraulic Engineering, HRI-Egypt, , and 13 junior riparian professionals from the MRCS who attended the IRBM online course organized by UNESCO-IHE, March-June 2009, in addition to the UNESCO-IHE course coordinator Dr. Wim Douwen , who was the session facilitator from UNESCO-IHE, Eng. Amel Azab NBCBN Manager, NBCBN-SEC team, and Mr. Inthaneth Norasingh of the Mekong River Commission (ICBP team).
The session was highly appreciated by the participants and it was recommended to repeat such kind of meetings. Also it was recommended that there should be a follow up for such event, so NBCBN suggested developing a working group on its platform to be named (Cross Basins Communities) where professional from different basins could share their knowledge, documents and information. Also they could be able to access all NBCBN online documents and use all the platform facilities. |
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NBCBN-WMO Cooperation: Training Workshop on Integrated Flood Management (IFM) for the Nile Basin Countries ,23 to 27 November 2009, Nairobi, Kenya. Due to the importance of flood management as an issue to be addressed in the Nile basin, it was initiated and agreed upon early in the first phase of NBCBN network (2002-2004) and to establish under NBCBN a cluster dealing with Flood Management, Hosted by University of Nairobi, Kenya. This research cluster was established in early 2003. Since then the cluster is responsible for research work under the topic of flood management. The research groups working under this cluster includes researchers representing different Nile basin countries and different institutions within the countries. The integrated research group coordinated by Kenya includes research members from; the Flood Management cluster, GIS& Modelling cluster, River Morphology cluster, Environmental Aspects cluster and Hydropower development cluster. Integrated flood management (IFM) is the main concept addressed in the integrated research project of the FM Cluster. The aim of IFM in the Nile basin is to put in place well-functioning integrated measures for flood management. For this, the linkages between various relevant sectors become very important. Thus, the most important key is the cooperation and co-ordination across institutional boundaries, noting that the mandates of many institutions will either cover only part of the river basin or extend well beyond the basin boundary. Building on the successful earlier collaboration of NBCBN with WMO in the initiation and launch of IFM help desk, Communication between WMO and NBCBN-SEC took place early June 2009 to discuss the idea of WMO to organize a workshop on Integrated Flood Management (IFM) for the Nile basin countries and the support of NBCBN to this event. Based on these discussions a meeting was held in WMO office, Geneva on the 15th of September, 2009 including NBCBN Manager, NBCBN Project Advisor, and WMO representatives to discuss the organization and implementation issues of the workshop and how can the network contribute to the success of this workshop. More information on the workshop and its objectives will be announced soon on NBCBN website. |
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Overview on NBCBN Research Activities River Structure Research Cluster Sedimentation in reservoirs has been an insurmountable problem in many countries. In countries like Ethiopia where scanty amount of resources are spent on constructing reservoirs, sedimentation should be tackled scientifically. Koga reservoir provides water for irrigation for small-holders. It constitutes the livelihood of peasants farming on a command area the size of which is 7000 ha. Hence, it is essential to preserve the active storage capacity of the reservoir in order to enhance the productivity of the farmers and improve their livelihood. The general research Objective is to develop a catchment or Watershed Modeling of Koga in order to estimate the sediment, and developing a Koga reservoir sedimentation model. The expected developed model output will support the decision making process of the operators of the dam, reservoir and irrigation scheme. The impact of siltation on the irrigation scheme could be foreseen by operating the model under various scenarios. Moreover, the knowledge accrued from this simulation could be transferred to the upcoming similar schemes since the country is actively engaged in building small dams for irrigation. Outputs will be disseminated in a form of a published paper and through presentation at annual conferences and workshops to be held locally. Three Universities are linked through this research, namely, Addis Ababa University, Jimma University and Arbaminch University. The group is coordinated by Dr. Yonas Michael, and the scientific advisor is Prof. Petru Boeriu, UNESCO-IHE, The Netherlands, and the group composition is as follows:
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Mr. Michael Kizza joined NBCBN since the launch of the Environmental Aspects research Cluster in 2003. He is one of the most active researchers in NBCBN clusters. Since NBCBN second phase that started in 2006, he acts as Uganda Node Manager. He is responsible of management and coordination of all project activities in Uganda; running of NBCBN node activities, liaising with all stakeholders, coordinating research activities, organising workshops, Mr. Kizza is also an active research member in the Local action research group: working on: Supporting Collaborative Development and Use of Water Engineering Research Knowledge in Uganda Mr. Michel has a wide experience in several fields such as : Water resources engineering and management, Design of water/wastewater treatment/ transmission systems , Hydrological/Mathematical modeling and flood management NBCBN-SEC wishes to Mr. Michel and all Uganda node researchers all the best in accomplishing their research activities, For More Information on NBCBN Members please visit: |
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Since 2005, under the guidance of the African Ministerial Council on Water (AMCOW), with contributions from CEOS (e.g., ESA, the Canadian Space Agency), UNESCO and the African Development Bank and in collaboration with the Economic Commission for Africa (UN-ECA) and several other African and international organizations (e.g. CSIR, CRTM, Ramsar-Africa, South African Department of Water Affairs) TIGER has supported African partners with access to space-borne data and products, by offering specific training on EO applications for water management, by funding North-South collaborative projects aimed at developing tailored EO-based water information systems, and by favoring take-off, operationalisation and technology transfer of those demonstrated systems to African water authorities.
NBCBN is always seeking to cooperate with the different initiatives and organization working in the water sector not only on the regional level but also worldwide. Within this scope a video conference session was organized connecting three places, UNESCO-IHE (The Netherlands), Hydraulics Research Institute (Egypt), Mekong River Commission secretariat (MRCS, Vientiane Lao PDR) . 
During this session the experiences of the MRC development was shared with the Nile Basin participants introducing the concepts, objectives, and the framework of MRC. On the other hand the experience of NBCBN in the field of networking and IRBM in the Nile basin were presented illustrating the steps that were taken in the basin to implement the concepts of the IRBM including some examples, obstacles, and future needs.
Name: Mr. Michael Kizza