Environment Systems is part of a consortium of UK organisations that are building a Drought and Flood Mitigation Service (DFMS) within Uganda to provide practical information to local and national government and industry that will improve knowledge and help mitigate against the effects of droughts and floods.

The DFMS project will provide timely and improved meteorological, hydrological, and Earth Observation (EO) satellite information in the form of current observations, forecasts and historical archives. A cloud-based platform hosts hydrological and meteorological models and other algorithms which transform the EO satellite and in-situ data inputs into valuable information. The resulting data products, including land cover information, vegetation indices, soil moisture and weather forecasts, are provided as an online service removing the need for capital investments by the users.

Karamoja region Uganda
Environment Systems conducting fieldwork in Karamoja, Uganda.

By providing improved data/information (observations, forecasts and histories), stakeholders are better able to use that information to adjust activities that are influenced by drought and flood (e.g. cultivating crop for subsistence agriculture), reducing the losses they would otherwise suffer. The DFMS will improve decision making on resource use, input distribution, and timing of interventions in the face of increasing climatic threats.

Kakira Sugar Jinja
Sentinel-2 image over the Kakira Sugar estate in Jinja, Uganda

Led by the RHEA Group, the DFMS project involves close collaboration with the Government of Uganda (Ministry of Water and Environment), local NGOs (AgriTechTalk, Mercy Corps) and commercial interests (Kakira Sugar Company). There is a strong technical team including AA International, UK Met Office, HR Wallingford, Databasix and Pixalytics. Environment Systems’ expertise in Earth observation, and data services will be utilised in the work packages concerned with platform implementation.

Department of Water Resources
Engagement with the Department of Water Resources Management, Entebbe, Uganda

The DFMS project is funded under the UK Space Agency’s International Partnerships Programme, a £150M multi-year programme which will exploit space-based knowledge, expertise and capability to provide a sustainable, economic or societal benefit to developing economies in the Majority World.

Updated June 2018