Is there such a thing as a free lunch? a reflection on open source GIS

An ArcGIS software license cost about 1400$ per year per computer. Despite of its high cost, it is the most used software for mapping and geo-data analysis. In developing countries, this is an unbearable cost and most GIS specialists work with pirated software. It is a matter of time until ESRI (the company that distributes the ArcGIS software) will start suing organization lacking legal in licenses even in developing countries (something that already happens in the developed world).

Open source software offer a free alternative to the ESRI products (http://catherinepfeifer.blogspot.ch/2011/08/desperate-need-for-more-geographical.html). Open source software is software which code is freely available and therefore any modification of the code has to be shared freely. User and developer communities work together in developing the software thanks to forums, wiki and meetings. In short, it is nonprofit software.

Last week I joint the Geostat 2012 in Muenster, Germany (http://www.geostat-course.org/Muenster_2012). It is the European summer school (All classes have been recorded and can be streamed on the geostat website) followed by the meeting of the developers for open source GIS. It was for me the occasion to familiarize myself with the latest development in open source GIS (not yet released code), in spatial analysis, but also to familiarize myself with the existing open source GIS software (the stable version) and make up my mind about their usefulness in a developing world context, where users often have only very little GIS background. 

participants testing out some R code

During the week I discovered how to use R (the open source version of Matlab, a statistical program) as GIS, Grass and Saga (both open source GIS). R is a relatively low level programing language, which needs initial investment to learn the coding language. Its spatial base package (SP developed by trainers of the summer school) and a whole other range of spatial package offer an amazing range of option to analyses spatial data. Visualization of data is feasible but reminds far behind the easy and good looking options given by ESRI. Also after one afternoon of programing with some R freaks, we did not manage to read and overlay two of my own maps L (mainly because projections and extend have to match). The most recent code development allow to link R with google earth for visualization, including the spatio-temporal visualizations. Other code recently developed or in development allow for spatio-temporal data analysis and data dissagragation (downscaling).

Grass is an open source software that has been initially developed for linux, but it is made compatible to all other operating systems and even got a relatively nice graphical user interface (GUI). It stays that the most efficient way to work with this software is to use the command window like with R. Unfortunately the nice options, such as easy copy paste, the automatic protocoling of work done, and the function history which allows to recall all the commands ever applied on a dataset are features that only work in the linux version, leaving the Microsoft user in a much less efficient environment. Also the graphical representation of data, the ease to change legends, colors and titles is relatively clumsy. Nonetheless, Grass comes with a set of amazing feature that the ArcGIS software will only offers years from now and probably at high costs. Among others Grass includes a new algorithm to compute water flow and therefore delineate basin without using the tradition “fill sink” opens, amazing 3D visualizations (available on Arc for an additional 3800 $ license), an up-coming spatio-temporal analysis tool (I have never worked this this type of data, I don’t really know what Arc offers, but I guess the base license will never allow manage spatio-temporal data so efficiently), terrain analysis tool and for the upcoming Grass 7 (to be released probably in about a year) will come with a tool that allows to compare two maps by swiping over it (an amazing visualization tool that will allow to show stakeholders in an easy way different spatial alternatives.) 

The GRASS 6.3 GUI

Similarly SAGA GIS offers a whole range of tools, 3D visualizations and terrain(working with point clouds) that are incomparable to what Arc offers. Saga runs directly without installation from any external storage devise. The GUI is smartly organized and once the logics of it is well understood, allows to perform manipulations efficiently. But here again the layout options are very limited and it is difficult to come up with maps that looks as good as those easily produced in ArcGIS.

Both Grass and Saga can be linked to R, allowing to combine the statistical power of R with GIS tools and algorithm developed by the open source GIS software. 

A SAGA 3D visualization of Innsbruck

In the developing world, the first objective is to train people to make simple geo-data analysis, to represent graphically geodata without great theoretical background. The open source options I have discovered last week require users that understand geographical data very well (no projections on the fly like in Arc), the layout options for producing good looking maps are limited, and often the GUIs are not as user friendly that the one from ArcGIS. None of the program I have seen really convinced me as an alternative of Arc GIS for stakeholders in the developing world. Other open source software exist that might mimic the Arc GIS option in terms of visualization, such as MapWindow or Qgis. It might be worth to look into these options.

The open source options nonetheless have convinced me as a scientist. Today, I combine stata, excel and ArcGIS, copy manually values, run simulation almost manually. If I make a mistake somewhere, it takes days to rerun. In principle all could be programmed with one R code that calls for data and routines with it owns suite of packages but also those from the open source software. It would decrease source of errors and allow to rerun code quickly in case of mistake. Also open source comes with a community of developer that support user and love to take up the challenges brought up by users. Therefore, features and tools might be up-coming faster than with ESRI. 

Tom and Gerard, two lecturers (and organizers) from Wageningen University

Definitely, there is no such a thing as a free lunch. Open source GIS comes with amazing computational options and GIS analysis for free, with an amazing community of support full of very nice people. But it comes with relatively high cost. It is a relatively steep learning curve for reaching a decent level of programming language. It needs a lot of patience to adjust the settings of one’s computer to make the software run, especially for Microsoft users who need to learn how to trick their system, and accept that some fancy stuff is simply not possible, because one cannot change the Microsoft code. It is definitely not what a stakeholder who wants to produce some simple map in the developing world is looking for. I guess one needs to hide a little nerd in one’s heart to take up the open source challenge … 

one of the social evenings with beers and sausages

Finally, I had a very good week. Not only did I learn about recent developments in open source GIS, but also that computer programmer are not autistic nerds with no social life. On the contrary, I met amazingly interesting, sociable and funny people. I would like to thank the organizer for the very smooth organization, for the trainers for sharing their passion and all the participants for the support and patience when my R was again sending an error message and for all the nice social evenings…

Groundwater in Ethiopia: Features, Numbers and Opportunities

Groundwater has a huge potential increasing resilience and incomes of the rural poor in Africa. Indeed it gives the possibility to smallholders to access water during the dry season and maintain home gardens (http://catherinepfeifer.blogspot.ch/2012/06/success-and-failures-maksenit-watershed.html), adding a cropping season or insure sufficient drinking water for the household and livestock.

Unfortunately very few data are available about groundwater in Africa and more particularly in Ethiopia. The recent global African map by  MacDonald et al 2012 (http://catherinepfeifer.blogspot.ch/2012/04/accessing-ground-water-is-easiest-way.html) is a good step but remains relatively non detailed. Seifu Kebebe a researcher from Addis Ababa University, has looked into more details into groundwater in Ethiopia and has just published a book about it.

This book obviously fills a huge gap for water management in Ethiopia!

More about this book and be found under the following links : 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Groundwater-Ethiopia-Features-Opportunities-Hydrogeology/dp/3642303900#reader_3642303900
http://www.springer.com/earth+sciences+and+geography/hydrogeology/book/978-3-642-30390-6
 
The International Water Management Institute in Addis Ababa, per courtesy of Seifu has access the groundwater maps presented in the book. Please contact the GIS team or myself for more information about these maps and conditions of access.

are we going to face a global food crisis?

What are will the consequences of the American drought on the world food prices? and how will this impact on the poor?
A good report from Aljazeera :

Modern traditions : todays livestock transhumance in Swiss Alps

Livestock transhumance has a long tradition in the Swiss Alps. Livestock moves from the valley bottom slowly upwards to the Alps at the beginning of the summer. As fodder is consumed, the livestock moves further upwards. When fodder is consumed on the highest location, or when first snow starts falling, the livestock moves downwards, and somewhere end of September is back at the valley bottom. In order to not carry milk down to the valley, it is transformed into cheese on the Alp. Often there is no electricity in the Alps and therefore cheese is produced manually, without milking machine and using fire to heat up the milk.

Sertigtaal, near Davos, Switzerland

Bringing the livestock to the Alps is therefore time and cost intensive in a world where intensive livestock production implies an industrialized production using imported soja or maize as fodder in a system where most of the cows never see the sky.

Grazing cows in the Sertigtaal near Davos

Nonetheless the tradition of transhumance in Switzerland still exists, and i met a farmer near Davos who showed me how the tradition has been modernized and industrialized.

Nowadays, there are mobile milking machines or milking wagons that make use of a generator for getting the electricity. With the installation i visited, 10 cows can be milked simultaneously. It takes about one hour to milk the 50 cows. The milk is directly transferred to a cooling container.

the mobile milking installation (milking wagon) for 5 cows, two of them are in use

the milking wagon from the side, the farmers stands in between the two "milking wagon" where the cows are standing for getting milked

The farmer does not live in the Alps anymore. Thanks to the good road he can come with is car every morning and evening. He also carries back the milk to the Valley where it will be processed into cheese. Because Alp milk has a special taste and gives particularly good cheese, the milk from the Alps is processed separately to produce Alp cheese, which can be sold above the average cheese price.

in front the tank to bring the milk to the Valley, in the the back the generator

To make it more profitable 6 farmers decided to work together and bring 200 cows of which 50 are dairy cows to the Alps and are managed by one. These dairy cows give an average of 15 litter milk per day and are fed on the alpine grass only.

the generator and the fuel tank

Great to see that even very old traditions can be maintained and modernized!

What's the future for GPSs?

GPS have changed how we collected data. Nowadays, all farm household surveys are geo-referrenced (coordinates of the farm) allowing to locate precisely the location. With the increasingly available geographical layers farm data can be related to bio-physical conditions, such a soil, rainfall, proximity to road, ...
Also GPS have taken over our lifes, most new mobile phones have one, most of the people in the developed world orients herself with a TomTom.

What is the future of this technology? and what are the risk? how to tick your GPS? Here some answers :

benefit sharing mechanisms in the Blue Nile Basin

These are my last hours in office before my home leave, the occasion to clean up and close down everything. A recent look at my drafts on my blog reminded me that since last November I wanted to write a post on benefit sharing mechanisms in the Blue Nile. Somehow i never wrote this post that now fit very well the topic as my last post was about payment for ecosystem services for Kenyan pastoralists (http://catherinepfeifer.blogspot.com/2012/08/benefit-sharing-mechanisms-kenyan.html) .

 During my field trip in November, we went to Hamusit (Amhara region, near Tana Lake), and we visit a dam, which water is used downstream for an irrigation scheme.

Dam near Hamusit

The watershed was one of the best managed watersheds I had ever seen in Ethiopia. Everywhere soil and stone bunds could be found. All the bund were vegetative bunds, upon which beans where growing. As bean are nitrogen binding they improve soil fertility. The whole plant can also be fed to livestock, that get more protein rich fodder and therefore will give more milk. Also inter-cropping could be found, maize was planted with beans.

 

 

 

 

the stone bunds

Fascinated by this very well managed watershed, i asked my Amharic speaking colleague to talk to a farmer passing by. We discovered that the people who are profiting from the irrigation schemes, come upstream for about 20 days to help the upstream farmers to build and maintain the bunds. The farmer explained that if the watershed is not well managed than siltation of the lake (created with the dam) will be too important and the capacity of the water reservoir will decrease. As the farmers downstream are the one who profit from having more water in the reservoir so they have to dedicate some of their time working on the fields of the up-stream farmers.

the vegetative soil bunds

By digging further it turned out that this was a governmental scheme organized by the DA that obliged farmers downstream to contribute to the up-stream farmers. 

Whether is is smart to have a top-down approach or not, is beyond the discussion here. Fact is that the farmers who benefit from better up-stream management contribute the up-stream management of the watershed. This is nothing else that a benefit sharing mechanism, which does not make use of cash payment but takes the form of labor exchange. 

This benefit sharing mechanism in Hamusit made me rethink the mass mobilization program of Ethiopia. This program mobilizes all farmers in one regions during a certain amount of days, during which they have the obligation to build bunds and terraces for free, independently of the ownership of the land. The objective is to get the whole watershed well managed, and help farmers who own land on the slope to build the right structures. 

Bunds and terraces will increase infiltration of water, conserve soil moisture and decrease run-off. Downstream farmers on the lowland will have more water as form of groundwater or river thanks to these structures. As the lowland is usually flat, there farmers do not need to build  the labor intensive terraces and can benefit from structure built upstream. So is the Ethiopian mass mobilization not a form of benefit sharing mechanism, which aknowledges that the benefit might be diffuse and cannot be quantified for each farmer separately? 

Food for thoughts when talking of benefit sharing mechanism... it is not always about money... and it can take unexpected forms...

benefit sharing mechanisms : a Kenyan success story

Benefit sharing mechanisms is becoming a more and more important topic both in science and in political discourses. Benefit sharing mechanisms are used to "set the incentives right". This is when one agent does not have a personal interest is doing something or not doing something though it would actually contribute to a social benefit (benefit to others). Payment for ecosystem services is one way to implement benefit sharing mechanisms.
Whereas in the developed world, payment for ecosystems services are usually enforced by the government (an example of payment for environmental services are the voluntary agri- enviroental schemes), examples in the developing world are still rare.
Last week on Aljazeera I came across one amazing example in Kenya, where benefits from tourism is shared with pastoralists. A fund to which tourists contribute is made to pay pastoralist to not give there land for tourism activities and make sure that sufficient open space is maintained for wildlife. It is good example from Kenya on how one can share benefits and give pastoralists a secured income for preserving their land :

it is just another day for you and me in paradise

Over the last months I have been reporting from my field work for the Nile 3 project. It is time to close this reporting series and to look back on one of the most interesting time I had in Ethiopia.
The field work brought be to some remote place of the Ethiopian Blue Nile, places where no tourist ever ends up, places where Ethiopia unfolds its deepest beauty, magics and love. I am still wondering that one can get paid to do such an interesting work, i would be ready to pay for the such an experience. On the road I met amazing people, farmers, scientists, drivers, assistants, translators, friends. Almost everyone gave her/his best to contribute to the success of field work.

The Nile viewed from the sky

It was a time full of unforgettable and magic moments.

I have met this group of farmers in Shambu who a long time ago gave up waiting for any government or NGO to help them, and decided to take their own fate in hand, making use of the presence of my team to learn more about how to best implement their ideas.

Focus group discussion with the farmers in Shambu

Seeing a farmer answering his mobile phone... realizing that modernity has found its way into very traditional livelihoods. 

The Shambu farmer with his mobile phone

I have seen these women who cannot read and write for the first time in their life try to draw a house and having so much fun doing it, even if the drawing look very childish.

I was sitting in these restaurants after long days of work (and very little showers as there was no running water) trying to guess if today I would get Tibs with Kitfo or rather Kitfo with Tibs :-). I must have eaten at least one sheep and one goat over that field month.

Going through the household questionnaire and discover that I would myself have answered more than 10 times to the question "how many times were you not able to eat the food of your choice because of shortage?" (due to the lack of cheese in Ethiopia) but would have answered 0 times to the question "how many days didn't you eat because of food shortage?"

Seeing hundreds of  farmers walking for many hours with their harvest, baskets, animal walk to the nearest market to exchange some goods (while i was driving the same distance in minutes). It reminded me that probably livelihoods some 200 hundred years ago in Switzerland, when my grand grand mother was young, were probably not so different. And suddenly get a deep respect for those generations in my country who contributed to make my life easier...

I have met these young scientists fighting for their future, being extremely involved and doing a very competent and dedicated job. I never had to fight in this way to get access to education...

I met this exceptionally smart and open group of young Ethiopian men, who love their country as much as they can criticize it. With discussion throughout the night, they made me understand what it means to be a young African man teared between modernity and tradition, between wanting to see the world, to be young urban and aware and at the same time wanting to get served by very traditional wife.

I discovered the content of all Teddy Afro songs, and developed an even deeper respect for this singer that manages to spread messages that go far beyond " i love you" and touches issues like democracy and Ethiopian identity in a changing Ethiopia.

long car rides with the whole team and always with Teddy Afro

Dancing and singing on Teddy Afro songs in the long car rides with very funny drivers... 

slaughtering an oxen

I though I would visit a mushroom farm but ended up with 10 Ethiopian men slaughtering an oxen and getting fed the raw tongue for breakfast... (was maybe not the smartest idea)

the raw meat for breakfast

But what probably has moved me most, is to realize that i am extremely privileged. I have no food shortage, I do not need to walk for hours to get a piece of soap nor I do need to fight for basics... It is just another day for me in paradise. And as you are reading this blog post, realize that you have electricity and internet access and it is just another day for you in paradise. But what makes me so incredibly priviledged is that I got the opportunity to discover this beautiful side of Ethiopia, to meet all these people and understand a little bit better what drives people in this country. And I hope that you could get a glimpse of this through my blog over the last months (just make use of the N3 field report series tag to find all the related posts).

" I had forgotten where i am coming from , but suddenly it came back into my mind and it is turning around in my head. Yes I am African, oh Africa mama..."


A big thanks to all who contributed to make my field trip an unforgettable time.

Here the link official blog post on the NBDC blog about this field work
http://nilebdc.org/2012/07/03/multi-scale-participatory-mapping/

A traditional Ethiopian family

During the field campaign of my project, I followed some enumerators and joint the interview. The first farmer, i interviewed was a traditional Ethiopian family. The husband and head of household decided to answer our questions and sat down with us. His wife was working in the field and the two kids very soon ended up sitting next to me. Their oldest son was at school. 

The first thing that stroke me was the fact that he as well as his son wore shoes, whereas the wife and the daughter were barefoot. Also he did not know the age of the children and needed to ask his wife. Both wife and husband are illiterate, the oldest son can read and write. 

This household owns 3,5 timat of land (almost a hectare) on which they grow potatoes, wheat and barley. He also does some crop-sharing on plots of other farmers. He makes compost to improve soil quality, and also uses fertilizers. Also all his land was terraces, and animal movement within the land was limited and partially fed in a cut-and-carry system. He got lot of agricultural advise from the extension services over the past years. Also the district administration gave seeds for farmers on credit, that needs to be reimbursed after the harvesting. The household can live about 11 months from their own production. On Saturday, they go to the market in the nearest town and sell some of their products caring them on the horse or on their head. For buying livestock, cloth and agricultural input the go the a bigger town.

They have seen their neighbor planting apple trees and would like to plan apples too. But they don't have a well or other source of water to irrigate the young apple trees during the dry season. They think that apple is a very profitable business. This is an interesting statement as the oldest tree in the area is 3 year old and none of the apple tree in the area did provide any benefit to anyone. It is an anticipated business and no one really know if there will be a value chain for these apples... 

The wife is part of a women's association which allows her to access information about health and family planning. The association also helps out selected women with a credit, of which she did not benefit.
I asked the girl about her dream, she did not answer as she is not allow to talk. Her father explained to me that she is going to become a doctor and help people to be healthy...
Despite of all the work and difficulty this family is facing on a daily base, they gave me the feeling that they were happy...

What about a chicken farm?

On my recent field trips to 4 different watersheds in the Blue Nile Basin, two majors practices were the most promissing : fruit tree and poultry. Whereas my last post focused on the fruit trees (http://catherinepfeifer.blogspot.com/2012/07/fruit-trees-hopes-illusions-and.html), here are some thoughts about poultry farming.

In Shambu watershed and in Maksenit farmers have little amount of chicken (2-3 in Shambu 5-6 in Maksenit) and wished they could increase their chicken production. In both sites the envisage farmers to own between 20-30 chicken each.

In Shambu, the reason for not having more chicken is the cold climate, that makes reproduction difficult. In Maksenit where it is significantly warmer the reason for not having more chicken is the lack of access to medicine to control diseases.

Chicken in Maksenit 

Shambu farmers would like to get an incubator, so that they could get more chicken. But they they that they cannot access an incubator and therefore are stuck where they are. I found on the internet the instruction on how to build a low cost incubator with local material : http://www.ehow.com/how_4988665_build-chicken-incubator-light-bulb.html. It looks very easy and even feasible for the Shambu farmers. But does it make sense to build an incubator in an area where electricity cuts are common? there is no way to guarantee constant temperature and therefore all the eggs will die. So after discussing with a friend who understands more, I discovered it might be easier to go for the natural way, it would be sufficient to keep a critical amount of chicken (about 8-10) together, in order to have less egg dying because a chicken decided to get some food for too long. And then increase slowly slowly the amount of chicken in the area.

Stays the disease problem, in which i haven't dug into it yet. But it would be worth looking better in the poultry option for Ethiopia. On my last trip to Kenya I had the chance to visit a chicken farmer who breeds his 200-300 chicken. In that also the way forward in Ethiopia?

200 chicks on a Kenyan farm

Nonetheless, one should never forget to look at market access. In Shambu an alive chicken goes for 80-120 birr, i just bought my frozen chicken 80 birr in the shop next to ILRI in Addis. Shambu chicken are expensive because there are very few chicken locally. But as production increases prices will fall. Bringing chicken to the towns meant to compete with "my chicken" that comes from a commercial chicken farm near Mojo (South of Addis). Will smallholder be able to compete with those low prices? 

A farm with 100 chicken in Kenya

A short look at the Kenyan situation might give some ideas. Smallholders have a hard time with poultry. They all produce when it is easy, then there is enough fodder. This implies that too many chicken come on the market at the same time, price falls and farmer get obliged to sell below production price. It is only a good business when one is able to produce in the more difficult dry times.

No wonder that in Europe, poultry chain in fully integrated. The integration allows to coordinate the chicken production (farmers get contract stipulating how many chicken he needs to grow by when even with which fodder and medicine) and make sure that a sufficient amount of chicken are available, not more not less...

I wonder under which conditions there is room for smallholders in Africa in the poultry sector. But for sure there is a transition time during which poultry might be a good business...