Namibia

Group on Earth Observations – GEO Week 2020

Statement of Dr Lisho MUNDIA, Director of Research and Innovation, Ministry of Higher Education, Technology and Innovation, Republic of Namibia 

In recent years, with more open data platforms and tools available to store and process satellite imagery, Earth Observation data have become widely accessible and usable especially for diverse environment like Namibia. Due to its ideal scanning and acquisition conditions for low cloud coverage imagery, Namibia has been slowly making use of this new development and integrate Earth Observation data into its national monitoring system of sustainable development goals (SDG).

In the absence of in-situ measurements or data collected through surveys and related data collection techniques, the Earth Observation-based results represent a high potential to supplement to our environment understanding for Namibia or to serve as primary data sources once validated through ground-truthing. Furthermore, examples are given for the limitations of the assessed Earth Observation solutions in the context of Namibia.

In support of the earth observation agenda, Namibia launched a National Space Science and Technology Policy on 4 June 2021. The policy framework aims to guide the use of space resources to contribute towards the socio-economic growth and development of Namibia. The policy will have an implementation period that will last from 2021/2022 until 2029/2030.

Thanks to the availability of analysis ready data from various online platform of Group on Earth Observations and many others, suitable information can be produced even without strong pre-processing expertise, storage, and processing capacity. The utilization of these tools provides a remarkable opportunity for Namibia and other countries to increase their monitoring capacity without major investments in time and resources in the existing data production system.