Annex 2: A Survey of Environmental Information Systems in Southern Africa

by

RJ Scholes

MR van der Merwe

AM van Tienhoven

Division of Water, Environment and Forest Technology

CSIR

PO Box 395, Pretoria, 0001 South Africa

Introduction

Background

The Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS) is an international collaborative effort aimed at providing policy-makers, resource managers and researchers with access to the data they need to detect, quantify, locate, understand and warn of changes in the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems to support sustainable development. GTOS is sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

GTOS, as it completed its planning phase and moved into implementation, identified southern Africa as one of a few potential locations for a pilot implementation programme. The first step is to identify the regional issues and needs, what systems already exist, and who are the key players. This report was commissioned by GTOS for this purpose. It deals with environmental information systems (EIS) in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, as well as overarching regional systems within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) organizations. The environment is taken to mean the land surface and its biota, freshwater and its biota, and the near-ground atmosphere. It includes systems highly modified by human activity, such as agriculture and urban areas.

Purpose of the Report

The purposes of this report is to describe:

1. The existing environmental data collection systems in each country, in terms of who is responsible for them, what data are collected, how the data are made available, and who uses them.

2. The current and projected environmental information needs in each country, in terms of who the users are, the types of information they need, and their preferred mode of supply.

This report will serve as input into the next phase of GTOS planning, which is for regional stakeholders to make recommendations to GTOS regarding the implementation of the system in southern Africa.

Summary of Findings

1. There are numerous environmental information systems in the southern African countries surveyed (Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe) and a high, although uneven, level of activity in EIS.

2. Despite the substantial resources going into EIS (it is probably in excess of US$100 million, regionally, including salaries), the needs of users are still not being met in many respects. The principle problems relate to the conversion of raw data into information, and making this information accessible where, when and in the form needed. Most agencies are significantly behind schedule in bringing out periodic summary products.

3. This failure in the delivery chain is at least partly due to a failure by the data collectors and holders to view the data users as ‘clients’, leading to a poor understanding of their needs. There is seldom a direct and rapid feedback from user dissatisfaction to remedial action. The resulting poor information service ultimately leads to the loss of support for the data agency and represents a threat to its continued existence.

4. In the longer term, this lack of ‘service orientation’ probably contributes to the strain which most of the agencies report in meeting ever more complex information demands on a shrinking budget.

5. There is little integration of information systems at a national level, and even less at a regional level.

6. There are significant gaps in the systems: for instance, air quality and land quality are poorly covered in all the countries surveyed.

7. Topics which are relatively well covered in most countries include water quality, biodiversity and climate (including drought impacts).

8. There are many instances of ‘best practice’, which could be regionally and globally shared.

9. There is significant duplication of effort at the regional scale in the areas of the acquisition and processing of regional-scale satellite remote sensing products, and the independent development of national information systems, for instance in the areas of hydrology, groundwater and biodiversity tracking.

The countries surveyed almost certainly constitute the bulk of the EIS activity in the SADC region, but should not be considered a complete or representative sample. The EIS in the remaining SADC countries (Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanzania, and Zambia) are generally less well developed than in the surveyed countries.

Acronyms and Abbreviations Used Widely in the Report

If an acronym cannot be found in this list, consult the country-specific acronym lists in each chapter.