Courses offered by AUC or its partners at the continental level

Marine and Coastal Resource Monitoring Using Earth Observation

Course Overview

The Marine and Coastal Resource Monitoring through Earth Observation training course is designed to provide participants with an introduction to using Earth Observation techniques for monitoring and managing marine and coastal resources. Participants will gain theoretical and practical knowledge of remote sensing principles, data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation techniques specific to marine and coastal environments. The course emphasizes the integration of Earth Observation data with other datasets and the utilization of geospatial tools for effective resource management.

Course Objectives:

  1. Understand the importance of marine and coastal resources and their role in ecosystem health and human well-being.
  2. Gain proficiency in remote sensing fundamentals and the various sensors and platforms used for marine and coastal monitoring.
  3. Acquire hands-on experience in acquiring, pre-processing, and analyzing Earth Observation data specific to marine and coastal applications.
  4. Understand the assessment of fisheries, marine biodiversity, and the integration of Earth observation with coastal management strategies.

Training Curriculum:

Day 1:

Session 1: Introduction to Marine and Coastal Resources Monitoring

  1. Overview of marine and coastal resources and their importance
  2. Role of Earth observation in monitoring and managing marine and coastal environments

Session 2: Introduction to Remote Sensing Fundamentals

  1. Basics of electromagnetic radiation and its interaction with the Earth's surface and atmosphere
  2. Sensor types and platforms used in Earth observation for marine and coastal application
Session 3: Data Acquisition
  1. Satellite data sources and data availability for marine and coastal monitoring

Day 2| 6th June ‘23:

Session 4: Oceanographic Parameters Coastal Dynamics and Vegetation monitoring using EO Data

  1. Monitoring oceanographic parameters such as sea surface temperature, chlorophyll-a concentration, and turbidity, etc
  2. Monitoring shoreline and coastal vegetation

Session 5: Detecting vessels and oil spills 

  1. Ship detection
  2. Oil spill detection

 Session 6: Vessel detection

  1. Techniques for detecting fishing vessels using remote sensing data
  2. Generating vessel traffic reports

Day 3

Session 6: Continued

Session 7: Evaluation

Note: The course will include a combination of lectures, practical exercises, and interactive discussions to provide participants with a hands-on learning experience. Participants are encouraged to bring their laptops with appropriate software tools installed for data analysis exercises.

By the end of the course, participants will have developed an understanding of Earth observation techniques for monitoring marine and coastal resources.

They will be equipped with the necessary skills to apply remote sensing data, interpret findings, and contribute to effective resource management in marine and coastal environments.

Participants are to have laptops for the training workshop

Software and programming language

Participants are requested to download and install the following RS/GIS and programming packages

·       ESA SNAP

o   https://step.esa.int/main/download/snap-download/

Sentinel Toolboxes

·       Python (Anaconda)

o   https://www.anaconda.com/download

Other relevant Python packages

·       QGIS

o   https://www.qgis.org/en/site/forusers/download.html


Marine Meteorology and Applications

Service Development and Delivery

OVERVIEW 
Service delivery is a component of business that defines the interaction between providers and clients where the provider offers a service, whether that be information or a task, and the client either finds value or loses value as a result. The end goal of EO is to provide evidence-based statistics to allow users make informed decisions on different aspects. What we define as service in GMES & Africa is a continuously running intervention of EO in providing evidence-based information to specific users. 

We have observed over time that what was referred to as ‘service’ by many institutions, was actually product. Most institutions would stop at providing products in same format regardless of users. It had also been observed that institutions dealing with EO didn't fully understand their clients, simply because there was no detailed profiling of users of those products. 

This deficiency makes it difficult to customize products and package them into services. The GMES & Africa Service Delivery Training is informed by these deficiencies of tools, techniques and mechanisms of reaching end users. It is conducted with an aim to bring participants to the understanding of the appropriate best practices for converting technical contents and packaging the information into service packs for delivery and utilization. This course aims at bridging the gap between different understandings related to the subject. 

FOCUS 
This training focus is on: 
-Understanding and packaging the service-Product classification; 
-Service delivery methods specifically on how to bridge simplified products with specified users; 
-Communication and information dissemination methods, including marketing the service and gathering feedback from users. 

OBJECTIVES 
Objectives of the training are to ensure participants: 
-Understand packaging a service; 
-Understand Service delivery methods 
-Understand Service Communication and information dissemination methods 

EXPECTED OUTCOMES 
By the end of the training, participants expected to: 
-Have clear understanding of the appropriate service packs to produce per product and per each category of end users. 
-Have clear understanding on the means to deliver services by bridging the end users with the services 
-Have ideal communication and information dissemination methods to maintain seamless contacts with the end users, and the feedback channels.