Projects

The eStation is currently developed through a number of initiatives and international funded projects.


Current projects
GMES & Africa - 2:
The intervention logic of the second phase of GMES & Africa  builds on the achieved results and lessons learnt of the first one [see below], in order to reinforce the previous successes and to improve on the limiting factors encountered so far. The action aims at covering the entire supply chain for services on Water & Natural Resources (e.g. agriculture and food security, land use, wetlands monitoring, forest resources, etc.) and Marine & Coastal areas (e.g. coastal area monitoring, ship traffic and pollution monitoring, fisheries and oceanographic monitoring, etc.). 
In GMES&Africa-2 the eStation will evolve to a version 3.0, which will integrate all technological developments of the Climate Station (Docker environment, Python 3.8, Jupyter Notebooks), extend the portfolio to forecast and projection products and propose the additional toolboxes (IMPACT, C3S-F4P, CDO).
 
Duration: 2022-2025
 
Overall budget: 26.5 M€

Link GMES & Africa
 

GMES & Africa:

The Global Monitoring for Environment and Security and Africa (GMES & Africa) Support Program is the continuation of the longstanding cooperation between Africa and Europe in the area of space science & technology, which is one of the key priorities of the long-term EU-Africa Joint Strategy. The Maputo Declaration of October 2006 provided the necessity for the Africa-EU partnership to confirm the commitment to avail the European infrastructure and facilities, under the Copernicus programme to Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries. This commitment led to the launch of GMES & Africa process in Lisbon, Portugal, on 7th December 2007 during the 2nd EU-Africa Summit. The rationale of this long-term and strategic cooperation is to address the growing needs of African countries to access and use of Earth Observation (EO) data for the implementation of sustainable development policies on the continent through the integration and deployment of African requirements and needs in Copernicus Services. This will, in the long run, enable the two continents to jointly solve and address global challenges and contribute to the attainment of their overarching development goals that include the AU agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Duration: 2017 - 2021

Overall budget: 21 M€

Link: GMES & Africa

ClimSA:
The Intra-ACP Climate Services and related Applications Programme (ClimSA) is a EUR 85 M initiative of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) and the European Union. It is an important investment under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) aiming to strengthen the climate services value chain: from access to information, generation and provision of climate services to engagement and capacity of users to ensure utilization of these services.
ClimSA aims to support the climate information services value chain with technical assistance, financial assistance, and infrastructure and capacity building support to improve wide access and use of climate information and applications for decision-making processes at all levels, in the six (6) regions of the OACPS through eight Regional Climate Centers (RCCs).
JRC is supporting ClimSA program with the provision of a the Climate Station as a common interface to multiple sources of climate data and information provision and tools, including those inherent to the eStation 2.0, the interface to the C3S Climate Data Store and to common tools available through the WMO Climate Service Toolkit, as well as others. 
 
Duration: 2019-2024

Overall budget: 85 M€


Past projects

MESA:
The MESA program (Monitoring of Environment and Security in Africa) covers the period 2013-2017, and involves 48 ACP countries, with a budget of 37 M€ from the 10th European Development Fund (IntraACP budget line and five Regional Indicative Programmes). (ACP: African, Carribean and Pacific Countries, the five Regional Economic Commissions are ECOWAS for Western Africa, IGAD for Eastern Africa, IOC for the Indian Ocean, CEMAC for Central Africa and SADC for Southern Africa). It builds on the heritage of the previous AMESD program, using Earth Observation (EO) data and information products for environment and sustainable development, specifically designed for African users at continental, regional and national levels.

Infrastructure support, including upgrading and maintenance of PUMA and AMESD receiving stations is continued under MESA in all Sub-Saharan African countries. The program also consolidates and further develops information services in the thematic areas addressed by AMESD, and also expands to new thematic areas and services (such as climate services and forest management). Moreover, systematic efforts are devoted to promote cross-fertilisation among the five partner regions and to pursue the continentalisation of services, where appropriate.

The MESA steering structure is similar to that of AMESD:  the seven thematic Actions are implemented through Regional Implementation Centres (RICs) located in each of the above-mentioned regions.

JRC has contributed to the technical implementation of the MESA program in the same way it contributed to AMESD, with scientific and technological support, training sessions in Africa and Europe and Institutional support.

Duration: 2013 - 2017

Overall budget: 37 M€

 

AMESD:
The African Monitoring of the Environment for Sustainable Development (AMESD) progran was developed as a successor of the PUMA project to address a range of environmental monitoring activities based on the use of Earth Observation (EO) data for the sustainable management of natural resources in five regions of sub-Saharan Africa that cover 48 ACP countries  (ACP: African, Carribean and Pacific Countries). The purpose of the program was to increase the information management capacity of African regional and national institutions in support of decision makers. AMESD was implemented by the African Union Commission (AUC) in partnership with the European Union (EU). It involved five Regional Economic Commissions (ECOWAS for Western Africa, IGAD for Eastern Africa, IOC for the Indian Ocean, CEMAC for Central Africa and SADC for Southern Africa) and the ACP Secretariat  which availed the funding (€21 millions) from their European Development Fund budget and are also the direct beneficiaries of the activities. AMESD Operational monitoring services were established by Regional Implementation Centres to provide information in support to decision makers at national and regional levels in the following thematic areas (i) water resources management; (ii) crop and rangeland management; (iii) agricultural and environmental resource management; (iv) mitigation of land degradation (including forest exploitation) and conservation of natural habitats and; (v) marine and coastal management. Besides this key result, AMESD also improve  access to Earth Observation data by providing, maintaining and updating data receiving stations, training personnel, and establishing the use of environmental information in the decision making process.

JRC contributed to various aspects of the implementation of this programme and in particular through the development and provision of the eStation 1.0 and various training activities, both in Europe and in Africa.

Duration: October 2007 - July 2013

Partners: AUC, ACP, CEMAC, ECOWAS, IGAD, IOC, SADC and EUMETSAT

Overall budget: €21 millions