Overview
The objective of the WLRC in general and the Database in particular is to facilitate the compilation, archiving, and exchange of data and information for policy makers, research community and all the stakeholders who need data for sustainable management of land and water resources within and across border thereby influencing informed actions and decision making. Thus to achieve this objective, building on existing vastly accumulated knowledge and data, developing an integrated and full-fledged database was found important. The initial phases of the envisaged system demanded developing an IT infrastructure in the WLRC office that allows easy and secured access to share data and research results on water and land in Ethiopia and the Nile Basin at large.
The IT infrastructure in WLRC is designed to provide support for all interested people/institutes and facilitate sharing of data, documents, models, procedures and final outputs with both contributing researchers and project stakeholders in relation to the database.
The resource centre will focus not only on data storage and sharing but also on capacity building in using the data and information available in the system. Successful data sharing and availability should ensure data storage, common data access and standardized data formats. It is based on this principle that the database is developed and has all the required IT infrastructure that include high-capacity server (both hard ware and software), highly qualified professionals in the field of ICT and geospatial technology together with data collection and sharing protocols.
The database is managed in a centralized manner, with a shared web-based portal system, rather than a single centralized desktop-based system. Through the system all the available raw data and information will be accessed via the developed interface and security protocols to a wider community.
The other critical success factor for efficient data sharing is the availability of efficient interactive interface to search and investigate, processed and semi-processed project outputs and other documents which are placed in the database. For this application the system has an independent search engine placed in the web interface that enables the users to easily download the data they need. This interactive interface is made in a way that it is understandable by all types of users without expert help. It is designed to be managed as simple as that of exploring through the Internet.
Data sources
The database was designed assuming two data sources, i.e., secondary and primary. The lion share, the secondary database, is from the Soil Conservation Research Programme (SCRP) which is very rich both in terms of temporal and spatial coverage as well as focus on water and land management. This database contains data on runoff and soil loss both at plot and watershed levels, land use, soil, implication of soil and water conservation measures, meteorology and various socioeconomic information from seven smaller watersheds and associated test and experimental plots. The seven watersheds were selected to represent major agro-ecological zones of the country. At least ten years of data is available from all seven watersheds, and an additional 16 years of data is available from four of the watersheds.In addition to this, CDE has a well-organized spatial database called Ethio-GIS. The updated version of this data will be incorporated in the database. Overall the SCRP ‘s spatial and non-spatial data is the best known data in this part of Africa and will be the major source of our database. Apart from this data the database will also use data from other agencies such as MoWE, MoA, EMA and other development partners. The secondary data will be supplemented with continuous and focused data collection from observatories, learning watersheds and other set-ups.
Data inventory and needs assessment
To define the database structure and users’ requirement, WLRC has assessed and evaluated the available data, and information in different governmental and non-governmental organizations and their use requirements as much as possible. The preliminary inventory and needs assessment shows that there is plenty of information, though fragmented, that need to be incorporated in the database. The IT team also assessed scenarios of use cases and users type to design the information system based on the users’ cases. These case have been crucial for the IT team to achieve an understanding about the wider users to fulfill the objectives of WLRC from the perspective of land and water resources data collection, storing and information dissemination that enable proper management of land and water resources in a sustainable way. Furthermore, the IT team designed the database system with options that allows users to send their requirement to the IT team so that the system can be further improved.