CIFA TECHNICAL PAPER 33/1

CIFA TECHNICAL PAPER
33/1

African Water Resource Database

GIS-based tools for Inland
aquatic resource management

1. Concepts and application case studies

by

Jeff Jenness
Consultant
Joe Dooley
Consultant
José Aguilar-Manjarrez
Fishery Resources Officer
Claudia Riva
Consultant

Aquaculture Management and Conservation Service
Fao Fisheries and Aquaculture Department


FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Rome, 2007

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ISBN 978-92-5-105631-8
ISSN 0379-5616

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Jenness, J.; Dooley, J.; Aguilar-Manjarrez, J.; Riva, C.
African Water Resource Database. GIS-based tools for inland aquatic resource management.
1. Concepts and application case studies

CIFA Technical Paper. No. 33, Part 1. Rome, FAO. 2007. 167p.

ABSTRACT

This report represents a follow-up activity based on the recommendations by the Committee for Inland Fisheries of Africa (CIFA). The report is an update of an earlier project led by the Aquatic Resource Management for Local Community Development Programme (ALCOM) entitled the “Southern African Development Community Water Resource Database” (SADC-WRD). The body of work presented in this publication represents both an expansion to the earlier data and an enhancement of the original SADC-WRD analytic interface. Extended to cover the entire African continent, the new set of data and tools has been entitled the “African Water Resource Database” (AWRD). The overall aim of the AWRD is to facilitate responsible inland aquatic resource management. It thus provides a valuable instrument to promote food security.
The AWRD data archive includes 28 thematic data layers drawn from over 25 data sources, resulting in 156 unique datasets. The core data layers include: various depictions of surface waterbodies; multiple watershed models; aquatic species; rivers; political boundaries; population density; soils; satellite imagery; and many other physiographic and climatological data types. The AWRD archival data have been specifically formatted to allow their direct utilization within any geographic information system (GIS) software package conforming to Open-GIS standards. To display and analyse the AWRD archive, the AWRD also contains a large assortment of new custom applications and tools programmed to run under version 3 of the ArcView GIS software environment (ArcView 3.x). There are six analytical modules within the AWRD interface: 1) the Data and Metadata Module; 2) the Surface Waterbodies Module; 3) the Watershed Module; 4); the Aquatic Species Module; 5) the Statistical Analysis Module; and lastly, 6) the Additional Tools and Customization Module. Many of these tools come with simple and advanced options and allow the user to perform analyses on their own data.
The case studies presented in this publication illustrate how the AWRD archive and tools can be used to address key inland aquatic resource management issues such as the status of fishery resources and transboundary movements of aquatic species. This publication by no means cover all the issues that could be resolved using the AWRD, but they do provide a solid reference base for inland aquatic resource management in Africa. Based on a review and recommendations by CIFA, a number of opportunities to implement the AWRD tools and data in Africa have already been identified. Likewise, a number of future developments for the AWRD have been proposed, including AWRD-like frameworks for Latin America and Asia.
This publication is organized in two parts to inform readers who may be at varying levels of familiarity with GIS and with the benefits of the AWRD. The first part describes the AWRD and is divided into two main sections. The first presents a general overview and is addressed to administrators and managers while the second is written for professionals in technical fields. The second part is a “how to” supplement and includes a technical manual for spatial analysts and a workbook for university students and teachers.
The primary AWRD interface, tool-sets and data integral to the function of the AWRD are distributed in two DVD’s accompanying part 2 of this publication and are also available for download on the Internet in FAO’s GeoNetwork and GISFish GIS portals. A more limited distribution of the above primary database/interface, but divided among ten separate CD-ROM disks, is available upon request to FAO’s Aquaculture Management and Conservation Service. Also, high resolution elevation datasets and images amounting to 38 gigabytes are available upon request for those who need them.

©FAO 2007


Contents

Preparation of this document   (Download pdf 589 kb)
Foreword
Abstract
Acknowledgements
Acronyms and abbreviations


1. SPATIAL ANALYSIS FOR INLAND AQUATIC RESOURCE MANAGEMENT  (Download pdf 458 kb)

2. CONCEPTS AND APPLICATION CASE STUDIES

3. GLOSSARY  (Download pdf 458 kb)
References

Appendix  (Download pdf 458 kb)
Summary of the African Water Resource Database

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