Through the European Union funded African Union managed Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) and Africa program a EUMETSAT e-Station was recently installed on the premises of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa. The CSIR is the leading partners in the Southern African consortiums that is funded through the GMES and Africa grant project names the Marine and Coastal Information Management System (MarCOSIO) and is focused on the marine and coastal area theme.
The eStation is an operational distributable open-source data processing tool that aims to build and strengthen capacities in Africa to receive, process, analyze and exploit Earth Observation (EO) data for environmental management. The eStation collects data from various sources that include, amongst others, the EUMETSAT and Copernicus services. The installation of the eStation will enable regional partners and various research, academic, and industry organizations to have access to EO data through the eStation and the MarCOSIO portal (www.marcosio.org) to support the implementation of sustainable development policies at continental, regional and national level.
The European Union funded Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) and Africa Program aims to promote more sustainable management of natural resources by improving decision-making use of earth observation (EO) data.
The Africa Marine and Coastal Operations for Southern Africa and Indian Ocean (MarCOSIO) consortium lead Mr Sives Govender was among the 54 participants who attended the Blue Economy Science-Policy Interface workshop at Pride Inn Paradise Resort in Mombasa, Kenya.
The three include Dr Bolelang Sibolla from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) who leads the technical team in developing the Safety at Sea service, Dr Yohana Wilson Shaghude from the Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS) serving as a research coordinator under the project, and Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute’s (KMFRI) Dr Immanuel Mbaru who is the thematic expert under MarCOSIO.
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) registered a strong presence in the just concluded Global Monitoring for Environment and Security and Africa (GMES & Africa) Southern African Regional Workshop held in Luanda Angola.
As the 2023 bleaching season comes to an end, the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region can breathe a sigh of relief. Over the past three years, the WIO has experienced lower occurrences of coral bleaching, thanks to cooler seasons that have contributed to a positive trend in coral reef health.
Coral bleaching alerts are out!! According to research findings by CORDIO East Africa (www.cordioea.net), a MarCOSIO partner under the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security http://gmes.africa-union.org/ and Africa Marine and Coastal Operations for Southern Africa https://marcosio.org/ project, the overall coral bleaching risk in Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region in 2023 is quite low.
The GMES and Africa Marine and Coastal Operations (MarCOSIO) project (https://marcosio.org/) is the result of collaborative partnerships (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), ABALOBI, Benguela Current Convention, Coastal Oceans Research and Development Indian Ocean – East Africa, Institut Halieutique et des Sciences Marines, University of Dar es Salaam – Institute for Marine Science, Kenya Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Mauritius Oceanography Institute, National Sea Rescue Institute, National Sea Rescue Institute, Tanzania Fisheries and Research Institute, University of Eduardo Mondlane, West Indian Ocean Marine Science Association). MarCOSIO is funded through the African Union’s GMES and Africa programme and forms part of its Marine and Coastal Operations thematic area.
