two decades in somalia print, c., dheeravath, v. and...
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Somalia Water and Land Information Management
Donor Partners:
Key Partners:
Two Decades in Somalia
Print, C., Dheeravath, V. and Leonardi, U.
December 2018
Presentation Outline
1. Introduction
2. Methods
3. Phases
4. Achievements and Products
5. Lessons Learned
6. Context/Challenges
7. SWALIM Transition
Somalia Context: Familiar Challenges – New Opportunities
• FAO’s rebuilding support with stronger, durable institutions based on differentiated regional progress
Low income fragile state with weak core country
systems
• FAO’s rebuilding support with focus on environmental management (water and land). hydrological extremes (droughts, floods), water security vs stress. land degradation, deforestation and desertification (charcoal, enclosures, erosion). Climate change
Predominantly ASAL non-equilibrium
environment
• SWALIM an initial driver to address the “No Data - No Reason” gap since 2002
Poor data-information-knowledge linkages to decision support for
policy and programming
Somalia Context: FCAS (Fragile and Conflict Affected State )
Loss of raw data
Weakened State Institutions
Conflict and Fragility
challenges relating to
natural resource management
Introduction to SWALIM
• Area: Somalia (Mogadishu, Garowe, and Hargeisa)
• Themes: Water; Land; Remote Sensing, Information, Communication and Knowledge
Management, Capacity Development.
• Main Focus: development of Water and land information systems including:
o Hydro-meteorology
o Water resources
o Environment and Land resources
o Information Management
o Capacity development
• Offices: Head office in Mogadishu/Nairobi but core activities focused in the field. Field
activities overseen by 3 Liaison Offices with support from head office.
• Partnerships: Close partnership and collaboration with Somali government Ministries
and Agencies. Also UN Agencies, local NGOs/INGOs and Academic institutions.
• Capacity Development: One of the core activities of SWALIM for key Somali partners
to facilitate eventual handover of the SWALIM current system.
More information available from SWALIM Website – www.faoswalim.org
Geospatial
Information
What is SWALIM?
SWALIM now holds significant data and information - with significant spatial and temporal range – as key knowledge assets for Somalia.
There remains a continued need/demand for timely, credible information and analysis to underpin emergency response and long term recovery.
SWALIM VI builds on 3 integrated pillars:
1. Developing Somalia’s Capacity
2. Generation of Water And Land Information
3. Information Management for Knowledge Communication
The SWALIM Method
• Sky to Soil. Ground to Cloud – Remote Sensing and Ground-Truth are complementary actions.
– Add value to accuracy and thus enhance the efficacy of the science.
– Bring diverse stakeholders together for common endeavors.
– Bridge the technology (N-S) divide in service of humanitarian and development outcomes
• Alternatives for the knowledge gap (Print 2017) underpins research approaches for fragile, uncertain environments
• (Leonardi 2017) demonstrates well the method for river flooding and protection of farmers land/crop/assets
Cooperation and Partnerships - Global
• Somali Government
• UN UNICEF, Rome Based Agencies, UNEP
• Clusters WASH, FSC
• NGO Consortia (INGOs and LNGOs)
• FEWSNET/USGS, ICPAC,
• Academia in Somalia and globally (eg. Delft IHE)
• JRC, CGIAR, Researchers
• Development Banks (WB, AfDB)
Key Achievements of SWALIM
Weather and River Monitoring Network: Established weather and river monitoring
network throughout Somalia – 122 monitoring sites run by Somalia government
ministries and agencies.
Point Water Sources: Mapped over 5,000 water sources (Boreholes, Dug wells,
Springs, Earth Dams and Berkads) including water quality data. Ground water aquifer
monitored at 8 locations.
Land Resources Assessment: Completed comprehensive assessment of land
resources across Somalia (Land cover, Land Use, Soils, Land Suitability).
Information systems: Maintaining and running 8 water and land information
systems (Web-AGRIS, Geo-Network, SDDR, Live Map, FRRIMS, IIMS, WALISP,
CDI)
Liaison offices: Three regional field offices with all products and services
established at Hargeisa, Garowe and Mogadishu.
Capacity Development: Established a capacity development programme for Somali
government ministries and agencies that includes:
12 Data Centres
Training of Trainers programme for government staff
3 Regional Co-ordination Committee
On going support for ministry monitoring networks
22 Training Programmes
Italian cooperation: EUR 3M
SWALIM 18 Years Journey in Somalia
Product Highlits of the information
contained
Frequency of the
release
Way of
dissemination
Somalia rainfall forecast1 day, 3 days and 7 days
rainfall forecastEvery 3 days Website, mailing list
Flood watch bulletin
Update on possible flood
areas, actual rainfall
received, river levels and
rainfall forecast.
On need basis Website, mailing list
Flood alert Flooded areas that need
immediate interventionDuring floods
Website, mailing list,
affected population
Seasonal rainfall outlook Seasons rainfall prediction Bi annually Website, mailing list
Seasonal rainfall
performanceAnalysis of the rain season Bi annually Website, mailing list
Status of river breakages
on Juba and Shabelle
rivers
Shows Open and potential
weak embarkments that
could lead to flooding
Bi annually Website, mailing listData from monitoring network and satellite used for analysis and production of early warning products
Seasonal Rainfall
Performance
Drought Analysis
Early Warning Products
• Provides access to all SWALIM
data, information, reports and
publication from one source.
• Query #WHAT + #WHERE +
#WHEN
• View onscreen or Download
• Operational at 11 locations (2
Los, 9 ministries)
Offline Tool: SWALIM SDDR (Data &
Documentary Repository)
Prdocts: Mapping of Prosopis Juliflora invasive species
LS8 - 2 March 2014
Tools: FRRIMS With FRISC-Digniin
Monitoring Juba and Shabelle River Breakages
Monitoring of Ground Water
Soil profiling
Soil erosion assessmentLand cover/use mapping
Soil sampling
Soil Survey and LULC Mapping
The average deforestation rate is 14% over the period 2011–17
Monitoring of Charcoal Production & its Dynamics
Tools: Weather & River Levels Monitoring
Weather Monitoring: 122 Monitoring sites:-
103 manual rain gauges, 8 synoptic stations,
11 Automatic Weather Stations (AWS)
• Operated in partnership with MoA
Good knowledge transfer to
ministry staff
• Challenges
Financial constraints
Limited access in some areas
Mogadishu AWS/Synoptic Station
Tools/Products: FRRIMS
2015 El Niño affected over 140,000 people – Juba / Shabelle.
Web system disseminates alerts to vulnerable communities.
Over 4,000 registered recipients of the SMS flood alerts.
Over 8,000 SMS sent out to communities in affected areas.
River Levels Monitoring: 8 Monitoring
sites:- 4 along Juba, 4 in Shabelle
Currently only river levels; discharge
measurement challenging/risky
Cross sections survey done in 2018;
to be repeated annually
Belet Weyne River Gauging Station
River Cross Sectional Survey at Bulo Burti
Products: Weather & River Levels Monitoring
Tools: Groundwater Monitoring
Telemetric stations (divers) installed in 6 locations for piloting
Network to be expanded to other parts of the country
Galkayo GW Station
Garowe GW Station
Tools: Strategic Water Sources Monitoring
Water Source Type Count
Berkad 206
Borehole 1,000
Dam 1,602
Dug Well 1,840
Other 98
Spring 343
Total Water Sources 5,089
SWALIM Information
Publications e.g. reports, newsletters, bulletins etc
Information Packs
9 Data Centres
Information Systems e.g.
SWIMS, IIMS, FRRMIS
4 SWALIM Offices
SWALIM Information Dissemination
SWALIM VI: Key Areas of Focus for FAO
Water and Land Information Generation
Maintain and expand water and land early warning and monitoring systems,
in parallel with developing new baselines for newly recovered areas,
and producing new studies that underpin development.
Operate, Maintain and Expand Water and
Land Information Field Network (ex: River
Flow Network, Water Sources Surveys,
Groundwater Level Monitoring Network,
Crop production mapping, Soil Survey,
etc
Initiate Pilot/Sentinel
monitoring Sites (for calibration
and validation of agropastoralproduction)
Information Management for Knowledge Communication
Ensure availability of relevant information to government and its institutions, as well as other key stakeholders (international dev. partners, civil
society, private sector, and academic research partners) through IRU’s with dedicated IM tools,
services, staff and procedures.
Operate, Maintain and Develop IT tools
to generate information
through Data Centers/IMCs and their Online and
Offline IM systems
Provide IMKC services, produce and disseminate WAL knowledge
SWALIM VI: Key Areas of Focus for FAO…
Developing Capacity
Strengthen capacity and ownership ofgovernment through provision ofresources, training and education, andtechnical assistance for the development ofdurable institutions and their personnel.
Rebuilding support for durable institutions and developing
potential of personnel
Information for Action
Use of SWALIM tools, methods, products and services to support emergency
program and development actions, for FAO the Somali government, program partners,
and donors.
Implement IWRM for Somalia (i.e. establishment of a national hydrometric service)
Production of a soil suitability map for water harvesting
Specific Land resources studies using past FAO SWALIM data and current data
Application of data and TA for WASH Cluster technical unit
Continuation of PROSCAL Charcoal program activities
Lessons - we have learned to address uncertainty systematically
PRINT & SMOUT
3
growth. A comparison in Africa between resource rich countries, stable low-income countries (LIC) and
fragile low-income countries suggests that LIC-fragiles have the weakest service delivery pathways (figure
2). Countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Congo, DRC, CAR and South Sudan present particular
problems because either they are generally not represented on global indicator reporting or have clear
institutional and capacity deficits in their core country systems. Localised research evidence provides some
illustration of typical problems, for example WSP (2014) found in Monrovia (Liberia) that municipal utility
coverage is as low as 10,000 connections in a population of 1.2 million and informal services are highly
contaminated. In Mogadishu, Somalia there is no functional water utility at all as there has emerged an un-
centralised network of wells, small scale reticulated systems and vendors with limited water treatment
options (Print 2013). In many ASALs pastoralism is intrinsically linked to co-operation and conflict over
water supply and the challenges of nomadic development under non-equilibrium conditions are well
documented (Scoones 1996, Sullivan 2003). The case of Somalia also suggests that externally driven state
building, countering violent extremism and humanitarian policies have worked at crossed purposes
(Menkhaus 2010). Focus on core systems for delivery of services opens up the argument that institutional
legitimacy is incompletely developed in the collective action model of new institutional economics, and that
a set of normative incentives is needed to build trust and successful institutional reform (Wang 2013).
Studies of the MDG indicator highlighted the lack of a water quality indicator (Dar 2011). The indicator, a
typology of ‘improved water sources’, clearly does little to reflect temporal and spatial variations in access
to coverage, let alone reflect accurately on the contribution of WASH to environmental sustainability. While
the post MDG agenda points to improved indicators of performance, the SDG’s retain a focus of
interpretation of progress through the geographic rather than scientific lens, but which recognise WASH as
cross cutting and fragmented (UN 2013, 2016). The evidence base for WASH may thus be ‘improving’ but
it remains problematic in areas of limited rigorous evidence regarding the specific delivery models and
where the existing evidence is generally inadequate to determine whether investments are more or less cost-
effective than other interventions, given uncertainty and the variability in benefits across social and physical
settings (Cairncross 2011). Models of service delivery appear extremely variable between FCAS and are
unique to the context and problems addressed. However, while it remains difficult to capture factual
evidence of the full transformational benefits of adequate WASH, there is an emerging agenda to more
precisely enumerate the evidence for aid effectiveness in the poorest states (WSP 2014).
Figure 3. Uncertainty domains and their relation to the basis of decisions
Source: Tanneart et al - 2006
Working with Uncertainty
In a sense water is fundamental to life, so even in the most challenging conditions access to water remains
purpose driven. Under these conditions, it is natural that the priority remains a focus on implementation
rather than research. The specific method of research in any case needs to be defined. Figure 3 describes a
framework that may be used in focussing research adapted to context, on the understanding that local
attitudes and values shape the possibilities for effective research. In an FCAS like Somalia, an
epistemological (knowledge-based) research approach to uncertainty has proved possible and produced
useful knowledge for riverine water resources planning and management (Houghton-Carr 2011), starting
from a no-data condition but leading to modelling. Somalia provides a unique case where knowledge
generation in water resources and supply has been on-going since 2001 despite lack of central government
Knowledge
Quasi-
Rational
Rule
Intuition
Lessons – we have learned what makes research effective
PRINT & SMOUT
5
Concluding Remarks International aid is the western response to poverty and chronic underdevelopment and where there remain
significant deficits in coverage of water and sanitation service delivery there is a need for effective research.
Future projections indicate that SSA and FCAS will remain amongst the most challenging environments in
which to sustain improved service delivery. If so we will be able to understand within a matter of years if
and how WASH has become a wicked problem. For now sufficient valid data is likely to remain hard to
come by in many areas of SSA and FCAS and there is a need to address critical gaps in knowledge.
Uncertainty analysis based on probabilistic methods holds some promise from which to match modelling
with limited observations.
While the basic requirements for local data in support of planning and implementation by practitioners on
the ground is not disputed, the links between data and improved service delivery pathways need to be more
closely analysed. What is suggested here is a paradigmatic approach, a mind-set to match readily available
survey and assessment tools. Given that we learn naturally from trial and error it seems reasonable to think
that the way to find out about the world is to test hypotheses against observations. This is the basis of the
scientific method whereby our conclusions have to be grounded in experience. On the other hand where
disorder enters into information or method, the learning curve suggests that engineers can eschew standard
methods such as hypothesis testing and think more deeply on the nature of the problem at hand.
Probabilistic reasoning invariably requires the use of unsupported assumptions. This is warranted where
judgements and/or decision support is required for programming where either data and information is
limited, or the links between data, information and effective decisions are constrained by a capacity gap. In
theory assumptions may be guided by understanding the kind of decisions that will likely be attached to the
domain of uncertainties that are being explored - either objective or subjective - and also to the degree of
uncertainty attached to data and information available for probabilistic modelling. Table 1 describes the
nexus of paradigms available to the researcher exploring explicit and implicit knowledge generation through
‘hard’ or ‘soft’ research options, and our template is offered for further deliberation by the research student
facing the challenges of the need to know. In the final analysis, both research and practice may benefit from
learning to embrace uncertainty, recognizing that it remains our duty to deal with messy, real world
problems in guiding the delivery and development of WASH services in LICs and/or FCAS.
Table 1. Knowledge Generation (1,2) and Research Alternatives (3,4) (Print, C. 2014)
1. Explicit 2. Implicit 3. Hard 4. Soft
Know What Know How Evidence Assumption
Theory Practice Practise Theory
Epistemic Experience Objective Subjective
Propositional Heuristic Certainty Uncertainty
Inductive Deductive Statistics Probability
Complexity - Stability Science - Belief
Acknowledgements
The author/s would like to thank any and all colleagues for their comments on this paper.
References
Beddington, J. (2010) Food, energy, water and climate: A perfect storm of global events? Government
Office for Science, UK Gov. London
Cairncross et al. (2011) DfID Evidence Paper: Water Sanitation and Hygiene. DfID, London, UK.
Conklin, J. (2001). Wicked Problems and Social Complexity. CogNexus Institute. [Online]. Available
from the World Wide Web: http://cognexus.org/wpf/wickedproblems.pdf.
Dar, O. & Khan, M. (2011) Millennium development goals and the water targets: details, definitions and
debate. Tropical medicine and International Health. Vol. 16, No.5, pp. 540-544.
2016 El Nino Alert
analysis of river embankment economics
Same critical river level
43% reduction
9100 ha less agricultural land flooded
Before 21 300 ha flooded (May 2015) After (Jan. 2016)12 200 ha flooded
USD 6.7 million
in crops saved
(Based on: USD 293/tonne of maize grain ;
2.5 tonne/ha yield)
Key Challenges still remain in 2018
Technical skills: necessary qualifications and skills to manage and operate the Water and Land
Information Systems developed by SWALIM -> Elaborate skills development programme required.
Broad technical coverage: SWALIM systems cover many technical areas - Meteorology,
Hydrology, Geology, Soil Science, Agronomy, NRM, GIS, Remote Sensing, Statistics, Information
management, etc. -> Long term and elaborate skill development programme required.
Financial resources: SWALIM partner ministries and agencies needed higher financial resources
for data collection, monitoring equipment, analysis equipment and facilities, etc. -> Government
budget allocation and funding proposals to improve current capacity.
Legislation capacity: Strengthen with water and land resources management policies, legislation,
coordination and implementation capacity -> Investment needed for institutional, policy and
legislation development.
High staff turnover: Government staff turnover is very high. -> Develop a good staff / employment
scheme to retain staff.
Security: Field access in SC Somalia / some other areas is constrained by security conditions. ->
Device ways to cope with limited field access.
Somalia Context: Familiar Challenges – New Opportunities
• Centre of gravity shifts from Nairobi to Somalia
• Expanded partnerships and knowledge networks
• Research (eg. future drought? biomass energy?)
• Pilot gauging sites for calibration and validation (rain, crop, range)
• Pilot rangeland condition monitoring sites and analysis
• Reports series with emphasis on Somali authors contribution
• Specialized integrated studies (eg. Faillace, Watson)
Cooperation and Partnerships – with FSNAU
• Agro-climatology for Food Security– Baselines and Monitoring– Improving accuracy of estimates – agriculture and livestock– Crop area production estimation (rainfed, irrigated) – Impact on Food Security
• Co-ordinated effort in capacity development– Capacity building of government institutions and staff– Data and Information Management Centers– Joint Analytical Unit – Future vision
• Operations, field support and common services (eg GIS/RS)
Current Focus
• Co-ordinated effort in capacity development and transfer of information assets to som.gov
– Capacity building of government institutions and staff
– Data and Information Management Centers
– Joint Analytical Unit – Future vision
• Hydroinformatics for Transboundary Water Resources Management
• Soils mapping for soil and water conservation
• Data for National Planning
SWALIM
Data Warehouse
GeoNode
Maps
Website
SDDRWay
Fo
rwar
d-H
and
ove
r
Min
istr
y o
f P
lan
nin
g &
IMC
Next Steps-Way forward
Questions or comments?
For further information please contact:
Thank you very much