GFOI Space Data Needs and Issues Kenya SDCG9

GFOI Space Data Needs and Issues Kenya SDCG-9 Frascati, Italy February 2016

Space-based Data Needs • What space-based data is being used forest management purposes in Kenya? - Landsat Imagery - Preference for Landsat data due to availability on time series and its moderate resolution that allows categorization of our features of interest. - Landsat is used for land cover mapping and change detection. - Spot Imagery (2. 5 m resolution) - Aerial photos for specific hotspots SDCG-9 Frascati, Italy February 2016

Space-based Data Needs How is the data Acquired and Managed: - Following the Sydney’s GFOI meeting between CCI, GFOI, NASA, SEO and Government of Australia, the Kenya Government has received from GFOI through NASA (Brian Killough’s team): - Land. Sat Imagery for 2014, 2012, 2013, 2010, 2008 covering the entire country. - A workflow is in place for the delivery of additional Landsat images from NASA for 2006 to 1990. - Few Spot Images were obtained through the MESA (Monitoring of the Environment for Security in Africa) project for the IGAD region - Aerial photos were provided by the Government of Kenya (The Department of Surveys) SDCG-9 Frascati, Italy February 2016

Scope of data use in Kenya • What is the scope of data use in Kenya? • Nation-wide, wall to wall mapping from 1990 to 2015. • 3 Landcover maps completed so far based on the Land. Sat data provided • Landcover map for 2014 • Landcover map for 2010 • Draft landcover map for 2012. • Completed landcover maps shows areas covered by forest land, annual croplands, wooded grasslands, open grasslands, vegetated wetlands, water areas and ‘other classes’ category. • What new space-based data is desired? • Sentinel 2. • High resolution imagery to support validation process ( Spot Imagery, etc) SDCG-9 Frascati, Italy February 2016

Challenges • What are the challenges and issues with acquiring and making use of space-based data where GFOI and the CEOS Space Data Coordination Group (SDCG) can help? • Most of the challenges have been addressed by GFOI through NASA (Brian Killough): • Time required to complete pre-processing of the Land. Sat scenes (now delivered as LT 1 pre-processed by Brian which has tremendously reduced the efforts to process the imagery) • Downloading of the data (1990 to 2015) due to internet limitations – also resolved by data delivery by Brian in batches. • ‘Strips’ in Landsat 7 (SLC-off problem) – any potential recommendations for gap filling? • Cloud free imagery for Kenya is a big problem – any potential recommendations? • Seasonality – not enough coverage for the entire country for the dry seasons • Data storage – due to the large volume of data, storage will become an issue for the Government. SDCG-9 Frascati, Italy February 2016