The F2F course of the EO AFRICA R&D Facility will take place in Maseru, Lesotho, 21-25 October 2024, in close cooperation with The National University of Lesotho (NUL) and WaterNet.
The course is part of the International Summer School on Integrated Catchment and Water Resources Management from 14 to 28 October 2024 organized by WaterNet in collaboration with the National University of Lesotho and EO AFRICA. The theme of the summer school is: “Innovative approaches for Sustainable Integrated Catchment and Water Resources Management”. The event is open to postgraduate students (Masters or PhD), post-doctoral fellows, emerging researchers, professionals and individuals working in theme-related domain. The students will have an opportunity to attend the summer school and thereafter proceed to the 25th WaterNet/WARFSA/GWPSA Symposium in Maseru, Lesotho.
For more details on the International Summer School please check the call for applications. Please note that the registration for the first week of the International Summer School has been closed. Your application would ONLY BE VALID for the second week (21-25 October 2024) offered by EO AFRICA R&D Facility!
In this course, participants will get an introduction to cloud-based image analysis techniques for monitoring surface water dynamics with use of EO data. It will cover general concepts of radar and optical remote sensing, how those instruments interact with water surface and which information they can provide. The key datasets to be used include Copernicus Missions: Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 for water bodies monitoring and hazards. For practical exercises participants will use Jupyter Notebooks and image processing software available on the cloud computing platform.
The training will consist in a set of theoretical lectures on introduction to Earth Observation, the Coper-nicus Programme, refresher on Optical and Radar RS with focus on water monitoring. Additional read-ing material will also be provided in online platform (MOODLE) dedicated to participants of this course. Practical hands-on sessions will include exercises on Optical and SAR data processing for varie-ty of applications focused on monitoring water dynamics and hazards. Participants will have also op-portunity to develop a group project that they will be asked to present on the last day of the course.
Upon completion of this course, the participant will:
- Have gained fundamental knowledge on understanding the basic principles and using Earth Observation data with focus on surface water monitoring and management.
- Become aware of the Copernicus Programme and describe the main characteristics of satel-lites useful for water monitoring and their products.
- Learn about the advances in using optical and SAR satellite imagery for applications related to water and hazards.
- Become familiar with the Virtual Research Environment (VRE) called Innovation Lab: developed by EO AFRICA R&D Facility and facilitating cloud computing.
- Practice the use of open-source software in VREs for image processing.
- Develop a group project within Innovation Lab, under the supervision of trainers, using the knowledge gained during the course, on a topic of interest, and present it.
ABOUT THE COURSE
21 and 25 October, 2024
CAN I APPLY?
Who can participate?
We have only 5 spots left for this course! Participants will be selected based on their academic background, work experience and motivation to participate. We will strive to have a gender-balanced and country-balanced group of participants. You will receive a confirmation e-mail about selection results and further information by September 20, 2024.
Participants should reside in one of the African countries, should have an academic background related to Geoinformation/Earth Observation Science in combination with knowledge on Water Resources Management, Irrigation, Agriculture, or similar. Prior experience in Python programming and the use of cloud environments will be an asset. Young researchers in this field are encouraged to apply!
Registration:
Schedule
Each day will consist of morning and afternoon sessions with total duration of around 6 hours. The sessions will focus on the introduction to the general set-up of the EO AFRICA R&D facility, introduction to the Copernicus Program, the cloud computing environment, EO data access, EO data (optical & SAR) processing using various cloud-based tools including practical hands-on sessions. Participants will be asked to present a short case study related to surface water moni-toring or water management related topic on selected area of interest. The project will be de-veloped under supervision of trainers.
- Morning session: 08:00 – 13:00 (including coffee break).
- Lunch break: 13:00 – 14:00
- Afternoon session: 14:00 – 16:30
Certificate of Attention
All participants who will complete the course and present their group case study will receive a Certificate of Attention issued by the EO Africa R&D Facility.
Technical requirements
Participants are requested to bring their own laptop. Access to the Innovation Lab (EOAFRICA’s cloud computing facility) will be granted prior to the course.
It is strongly advised that the participants follow the first 2 On-line courses of the EO AFRICA R&D Space Academy ("Cloud Computing and Algorithms for EO Analyses" and "Principles of and advances in Earth Observation"). The courses are currently closed but participants will get access upon acceptance for this Face-to-Face course.
Cost
Attendance to the training course is free of charge.
Participants will need to arrange and pay their own travel, subsistence and accommodation. Lunch and coffee break will be provided during the workshop. The Facility can sponsor up to EUR 200 to cover out of town travel expenses. Local travel cost will not be reimbursed. Accommodation can be arranged if required. Should you want to apply for this funding, please indicate it in the application form. Payment of the 200 Euro (max) will go via bank transfer and will be arranged after completion of the workshop.