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Chapter 11

AfricaLucy E.P. Scott

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Global Environment Facility (GEF) Agulhas and Somali Currents Large Marine Ecosystem (ASCLME) Project, Grahamstown, South Africa

Greg ReedAustralian Ocean Data Center Joint Facility, New South Wales, Australia

INTRODUCTION

Africa has rich and varied coastal and marine resources that provide the basis for significant eco-nomic and social activities including tourism, oil and gas extraction, fishing, and shipping (UNEP, 2008). The state of existence and availability of data about these resources varies considerably

from country to country, with economic, environ-mental, cultural and political factors all playing an influencing role. At a continental scale, a number of web sites provide access to spatial information about the coastal and marine environment, among those being the United Nations Environment Program’s Geo Data Portal (UNEP, 2009) and the European Commission’s Joint Research Center African Marine Information System (EC, 2009). Prior to 2007 no integrated, multidisciplinary por-

ABSTRACT

The African Marine Atlas, launched in 2007, is an online resource that provides maps, images, data and information that can be used by scientists, students, coastal resource managers, planners and decision makers from institutions and specialized agencies across Africa. The ODINAFRICA Project, funded by the Flanders Government and the IOC/UNESCO, initiated and supported the African Marine Atlas Project from the IOC Project Office for IODE in Oostende, Belgium. Regional partners were the African Coelacanth Ecosystem Program (ACEP) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). A team of 16 marine scientists and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) specialists from National Oceanographic Data Centers (NODCs) in Benin, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, and Tanzania participated in the design and development of the atlas. The African Marine Atlas, which is now a member of the International Coastal Atlas Network (ICAN), may be found online at http://www.africanmarineatlas.net.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61520-815-9.ch011

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tal of information relevant to marine and coastal management existed for Africa.

The Ocean Data and Information Network for Africa (ODINAFRICA) project was initiated in 2000 and brings together forty (40) marine related institutions from twenty five (25) African Member States of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO. ODINAFRICA has assisted African coastal states to establish and operate National Oceanographic Data and Infor-mation centers, to develop skills for manipulation of data and preparation of data and information products, and to develop infrastructure for their archivaling, analysis and dissemination.

The national representatives of African oceano-graphic data and information management institu-tions recognized that increased access to marine and coastal data was essential for the effective management of the marine and coastal environ-ment in the region. Considerable national-level consultation took place for representatives of the ODINAFRICA Project to identify the most important priorities for their countries to increase access to data and information (IOC, 2003). The promotion of access to spatial information was a common thread of importance around the continent and the need to develop a Pan-African marine atlas was identified as one of the objec-tives of the third phase of ODINAFRICA,which commenced in 2004.

The Atlas project was initiated in 2006 to syn-thesize geospatial data products for the African continent (emphasizing especially the marine and coastal environment). The Atlas incorporates existing geo-referenced datasets available in the public domain and also data products created from national and international marine data collections by scientists participating in the ODINAFRICA Project.

The prototype Atlas was launched in February 2007 after nine months of intensive work by a team of 16 marine scientists and GIS experts from National Oceanographic Data Centers (NODCs) in Benin, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritania, Mauritius,

Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, and Tanzania. International partners in this project were the African Coelacanth Eco-system Program (ACEP) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). International ocean data management experts from Belgium, the USA and Australia provided training and advice for data synthesis and analysis.

The Atlas provides maps, images, data and information that can be used by scientists, students, coastal resource managers, planners and decision makers from institutions and specialized agencies across Africa (Scott & Brown, 2009). The African Marine Atlas has been released in two formats. A “clearinghouse” website containing a repository of over 800 downloadable data products derived from the fields of marine geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, geopolitical and the human socio-economic dimensions (http://omap.afri-canmarineatlas.net) A demonstration MapServer site (click on “Go to the Atlas” on http://www.africanmarineatlas.net) has also been developed as a data visualization and dissemination tool where a number of data layers can be viewed.

The Atlas project was designed to identify, collect, organize and make available datasets in an atlas of environmental themes for the 25 coastal countries participating in the ODINAFRICA project. A second aim was to provide training to promote the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and derived data atlas products for the dissemination of information. The African Marine Atlas was developed to provide a solution for the identified gap in access to information, by gathering public domain data together and making it available through one portal (Scott et al., 2009).

Data Collection

In June 2006 a team of scientists from the ODIN-AFRICA project’s ocean data management group commenced the task of planning for the Atlas. An inventory of over 200 datasets was identified from a survey of the needs of the participating countries.

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The Atlas planning team prepared a list of tasks, which included:

• Identifying a geographic scope for the Atlas. It was decided to include the entire African continent (including island states) and an area of interest was defined by 40o North to 50o degrees South; and from 30o West to 80o East. This ensured that all Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of the ODINAFRICA countries were covered.

• Identifying relevant environmental themes as a subject taxonomy.

• Data mining: this consisted of gathering all available data from online sources and published CD-ROMs and identifying un-published datasets that could be used in the Atlas.

• Preparation of metadata: a metadata de-scription would accompany all datasets in-cluded in the Atlas. The preferred metadata format was ISO 19115; however original metadata, wherever available, would also be used.

• Formatting the data: all data would be clipped to the geographic area of interest and, wherever required, converted to use-ful products such as seasonal climatologi-cal grids and contours. All products would be converted to a format suitable for use in a GIS.

• Data assembly and quality control of the final products and uploading to a central server.

The data layers in the Atlas are divided into five environmental themes: Geosphere, Hydrosphere, Atmosphere, Biosphere and Human Environment.

• Geosphere: this theme focuses on several key issues related to geohazards (including location of plates, ridges and trenches, his-torical earthquakes, earthquake intensity zones, tsunami events), minerals (marine

minerals and core sampling sites), sedi-ment thickness, land cover and soils.

• Hydrosphere: the oceans and fresh waters are represented in the Atlas by a number of themes including physical (temperature, salinity, sea surface temperature, average currents and sea level), chemical (nitrate, phosphate, silicate and oxygen), optics (ocean colour and turbidity) and limnology.

• Atmosphere: the Atlas is restricted to the activities within the troposphere including temperature, pressure, humidity, precipita-tion and cloudiness.

• Biosphere: this theme is extensive and includes biological oceanography (phyto-plankton, chlorophyll, zooplankton), ma-rine botany (algae and kelp, mangroves, sea grass), terrestrial vegetation, fisheries (fishing areas, total captures, commercial species catch and distributions for selected countries), zoology (corals, fishes, inver-tebrates, mammals, reptile, birds) and no-table areas and species (protected areas, exotic and invasive species).

• Human Environment: this complex theme covers the area of social, economic and environmental impacts and contains data covering political boundaries (national and internal boundaries, exclusive economic zone boundaries), population densities, industrial and commercial (oil and gas, mines and quarries, oil spills), infrastruc-ture (roads, railways, ports, airfields, pow-er and pipelines, submarine cables) and tourism (tourist arrivals and departures, hotels).

In addition, the Atlas includes a comprehensive set of base layers that can be used as overlays to enhance the thematic datasets. These base map layers include a collection of coastline data files (of varying resolutions), relief data (bathymetry and topography), geo-referenced imagery and a gazetteer.

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National, regional and continental-scale da-tasets were identified and edited to the agreed geographic area of interest. Much of the work to develop the Atlas, including data mining, metadata preparation, formatting and assembly, was performed by the Atlas team at their local institutions with the data uploaded to a central repository hosted at the IOC Project Office for IODE in Oostende, Belgium.

The “clearinghouse” website provides access to formatted, downloadable datasets for all envi-ronmental themes. Figure 1 shows the interface for annual and seasonal mean ocean temperature data for the surface and standard depths. The individual tiles shown in the figure are links to downloadable zip files containing geo-referenced images and gridded ASCII data for the specified time period and depth.

A dynamic web atlas (MapServer) prototype has also been developed for the Atlas to provide access to subset of the data layers, including vector and raster data. This dynamic product is built around an interactive map, shown in Figure 2, which allows the user to visualize and query relevant datasets.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The African Marine Atlas project has demon-strated effective capacity building for marine data management and product development in Africa through the training of a core group of GIS practitioners and having them develop atlas products. The project has also been effective at increasing access to data on the African marine environment through the establishment of a spatial data service. An additional positive outcome has been the networks and teams that have been built up through this work.

Strengths of this project are the volumes of data that were sourced and processed to a pre-liminary product within twelve months, with the dedicated team of marine data managers from

several countries. The next step, starting in 2009, will entail completing a fully functional Web Map Service (WMS) as well as developing national atlas products that are seamlessly integrated with the African Marine Atlas. They will provide higher resolution data applicable and relevant at a scale that is useful for national and local applications.

The project for the development of the Atlas has brought benefits to participating national institutions and to Africa as a whole. The project has encouraged scientists to work together, learn new techniques and build teams that will continue to update the Atlas and develop functionality of the dissemination tools in future projects.

Challenges were sometimes posed by limited bandwidth and unreliable Internet access at the partner institution level. Some countries were fac-ing rolling power-cuts during the project activities. This challenge was overcome by holding regular working meetings at the IOC Project Office for IODE where excellent facilities are available. The second important challenge to note is the

Figure 1. Annual and seasonal mean ocean tem-perature data for the surface and standard depths (shown on the Y-axis in metres).

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availability of data; the team was careful to use data that were in the public domain and to fully cite their use. Some data providers, however, were reluctant to share data or provide permis-sion for their redistribution, in which case links to data sources (rather than actual data sets) have been made.

The Atlas, when moved from prototype to operational phase, will ultimately be of direct use to national institutions and many diverse user groups. The application of the data sets is depen-dent on the required end use, and at the moment, the relatively low resolution of most data in the atlas makes them most useful for regional and continental-scale applications.

The existing inventory of data sets in the atlas indicates gaps either in the knowledge base or in the availability of data in the public domain, and where efforts at repatriation or processing should be directed.

Future development of atlas products will aim at adding higher resolution data at national or local scales, thereby providing useful data for different applications and reaching a wider user group.

The future for the African Marine Atlas is bright; ODINAFRICA Project funding has been

extended for a fourth phase of four years and partnerships with major African data providers and users, including the Large Marine Ecosystem Projects and the Nairobi Convention Clearing-house Mechanism, have been greatly strengthened. Joint activities for the development of national data sets will add higher resolution content to the current holdings over the next two to three years and the IOC Project Office for IODE will continue to host the Pan African atlas web sites for the foreseeable future.

The African Marine Atlas, through the IODE program, is a participating member of the Inter-national Coastal Atlas Network (ICAN). Through this association the Atlas will be an important part-ner in broadening ICAN’s reach and relevance on a truly international scale (Dwyer &Wright, 2008). The ICAN Technical Task Force, which is focussed on ways to globally integrate locally-maintained coastal atlases, has assisted with capacity develop-ment and sharing of best practices in implement-ing the web atlas. The African Marine Atlas will participate in the ICAN interoperability prototype as an additional node and the Atlas development team will continue to adopt the recommendations and best practices of ICAN.

Figure 2. The demonstration MapServer application for the African Marine Atlas at http://www.afri-canmarineatlas.net

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to thank the IOC Project Office for IODE, the African Coelacanth Eco-system Program (ACEP), the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and all the editors of the African Marine Atlas: Selorm Ababio, A.K. Armah, Anis Diallo, Emmanuel Dovlo, Clousa Maueua, Desiderius Masalu, Harrison On’ganda, Zacharie Sohou and Mwangi Theuri, as well as Peter Pissierssens, Mika Odido and Murray Brown for their ongoing project support.

REFERENCES

Dwyer, N., & Wright, D. J. (2008). Report of International Coastal Atlas Network Workshop 3 on Federated Coastal Atlases: Building on the Interoperable Approach, European Environment Agency, Copenhagen, Denmark. Retrieved 29 July 2009, from the ICAN website: http://ican.science.oregonstate.edu/ican3_final_rpt

European Commission. (2009). European Com-mission Joint Research Center African Marine Information System (AMIS). Retrieved 22 July 2009, from the AMIS website http://amis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/index.php

Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. (2003). ODINAFRICA III: An Integrated Ocean Observation and Service Network for Africa. Project Proposal. Intergovernmental Oceano-graphic Commission (of UNESCO), Paris, France. Retrieved 29 July 2009, from the ODINAFRICA web site: http://www.odinafrica.org/

Scott, L., & Brown, M. (2009). African Marine Atlas. In Odido, M & Mazzilli, S. (Eds.), African Oceans and Coasts. Nairobi, Kenya: United Na-tions Educational, Scientific and Cultural Orga-nization (UNESCO).

Scott, L.E.P, Ababio, S., Armah, A.K., Brown, M., Diallo, A., Dovlo, E.K., et al. (2009). The African Marine Atlas.

UNEP. (2008). Africa: Atlas of Our Changing Environment. Nairobi, Kenya. Division of Early Warning and Assessment (DEWA). United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

United Nations Environment Program. (2009). United Nations Environment Program GEO Data Portal. Retrieved 22 July 2009, from the UNEP web site: http://geodata.grid.unep.ch

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

Coastal Web Atlas: A collection of digital maps and datasets with supplementary tables, illustrations and information that systematically illustrate the coast, oftentimes with cartographic and decision support tools, all of which are ac-cessible via the Internet.

ACEP: African Coelacanth Ecosystem Pro-gram.

Clearinghouse: An indexed repository of data or information available for download.

IOC/UNESCO: Intergovernmental Oceano-graphic Commission of the United Nations Edu-cational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Metadata: Metadata in the geographical do-main is structured information on a dataset, which helps the data owner to document and catalogue the data, whilst helping a data user to understand the content and fitness for use of a dataset.

NODC: National Oceanographic Data Center.ODINAFRICA: The Ocean Data and Infor-

mation Network for Africa.UNEP: United Nations Environment Program.

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APPENDIX

Figure 4. Example of Discovery Metadata Record for the CMA.