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International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XXXIX-B8, 2012 
XXII ISPRS Congress, 25 August — 01 September 2012, Melbourne, Australia 
  
i Reception | iii gi T ; 
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| Orthorectification : 
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foG fAPAR SD | Cartographic | 
  
Figure 1 Indicative fAPAR map Processing Chain 
The processing chain developed in the frame of GMFS is de- 
picted schematically in fig. 1 and shows that there are ongoing 
remote sensing data from the MERIS FR level 2 products and 
the data from the top of atmosphere band introduced into the 
processing chain. The GIS operations, with spatial data from 
the project data base concerning orthorectification and different 
reference layers, allow the creation of the cartographic output 
of the mid September situation in a short time already in Sep- 
tember, well before the beginning of the harvest period in Oc- 
tober. 
   
  
Figure 2 ALIS O interface for 
the GMFS CuA processing. 
The creation of the annual cultivated area map uses the ALIS © 
software interface developed in the frame of the GMFS project, 
of which a screenshot is displayed in fig. 2. 
2.3 Application Sites in the Sudan and beyond 
The remote sensing community has developed a bundle of wor- 
thy tools for change detection of land cover which have grown 
beyond academic research into stable and reproducible applica- 
tion instruments. These achievements have been the precondi- 
tion for the transfer of technology into the regional application 
in African administrative environments. This transfer was one 
of the driving goals for the European Space Agency (ESA) to 
start the project series of “Global Monitoring for Food Security 
in Africa” (GMFS) ten years ago. GMFS is part of ESAs con- 
tribution to the European Union / ESA Global Monitoring for 
Environment and Security (GMES) programme. It is the main 
European GMES Service Element in support of food security 
monitoring systems with remote sensing and GIS applications 
serving the food security sector in African countries like Sene- 
gal, Mali, Niger, Sudan, Ethiopia, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Mo- 
zambique. A consortium of seven European R&D partners (see 
  
acknowledgements) jointly developed technical specifications 
and methodological improvements in remote sensing applica- 
tions to early warning, biomass forecast, agricultural mapping, 
change maps, soil moisture indicators and agro statistical sur- 
vey. All these efforts were brought together into for training 
and implementation modules, together with the local partner 
organisations in the agro environmental administrations of the 
participating countries. 
The GMFS Service Portfolio is structured into three top-level 
service types. The agricultural monitoring service type provides 
processing routines to assess total planted crop land and its 
variability from one year to another with specific emphasis on 
the traditional rain fed agriculture production in Sudan. Agri- 
culture production in Sudan is largely depending on seasonal 
variability and distribution, intensity, duration and period of 
rains. Large areas in the central Sudan are depending on tradi- 
tional rain fed agriculture with the cropping of Sorghum and 
Millet mainly for personal consumption. This causes high vul- 
nerability of a certain part of the Sudanese population. About 
60% of the Sudanese population are living in rural areas with an 
average population density of 14-17 people per km?. 
The set up of a robust monitoring scheme was initiated during 
the past decades with a number of attempts, upon which the 
FMoA could elaborate a basis on how to usefully integrate Re- 
mote Sensing technologies with ground observations. In the 
past, however, those failed due to political reasons. Recent 
elaborations from GMFS demonstrated a huge progress in 
monitoring cultivated areas. 
But, and there the general difficulties of monitoring the tradi- 
tional rain fed areas cross the limitations of Remote Sensing, 
the electromagnetic characteristics of the traditional rain fed 
crops and the timely development over the crop season is 
hardly to distinguish from natural vegetation or fallow land 
vegetation. Tests were carried out to apply new generations of 
sensors, such as very high resolution radar and optical with cer- 
tain improvements. But operationability could not be achieved 
due to the non-availability of multi time series data on the ad- 
ministrative reporting level which is the level of federal states 
in Sudan (see fig. 3). 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
— NKOR North Kordofan 
B 
Nos Finat boundaries «f Auiae See nat yet asia: ies 
Figure 3 Localization of actual Test site in Sudan 
(North Kordofan state, approx. 240,000km?) 
  
  
The recent GMFS Agricultural Mapping processes must be 
adopted and enhanced with additional routines and more in 
depth context knowledge from Sudanese experts in order to bet-