Geospatial Expert – DIWASA Fellowship

Digital Innovations for Water Secure Africa” (DIWASA, in short) is an IWMI flagship project with initial funding for - but a second phase extending till . In the first phase, the project focused on two main components – Water Accounting (at selected basins and continental levels) and Water Resilience (information products for support managing flood and drought risks). This led to the development of multiple water data products and tools. The second phase of DIWASA aims to improve water security across scales (basin, country, and continental level) in Africa through improved availability, access, and application of water data, products, and tools. It focuses on working with stakeholders and Digital Earth Africa to enhance the use of water data, products, and tools to have a more significant impact on water security in Africa. The project primarily focuses on Ethiopia, Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Zambia. It targets reaching out to up to five more countries, river basin organizations, and continental-level organizations through capacity development and training activities. IITA on behalf of IWMI is seeking to employ the services of a Geospatial Expert- DIWASA fellowship at Lusaka Station.

The position is hosted by The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Zambia, on behalf of International Water Management Institute .

Summary of Fellowship :

Our fellowship program provides a great opportunity for early careers (who are at the beginning or early stages of their career) to gain experience working with earth observation data and products to tackle real-world water challenges. The fellow will get an opportunity to work with a group of researchers with a strong background in remote sensing hydrology. They will also collaborate with key stakeholders of the DIWASA project, including governmental ministries, universities, and research centers. The fellow will become members of the water accounting network that brings together thousands of experts who apply earth observation to solve water challenges in Africa.

Main tasks of the fellow :

The main tasks of the fellow are to

• Gather and analyse ground truth data for land use / cover classes, including for rainfed and irrigated croplands.
• Develop time series high-resolution annual land use and land cover maps for the Lunsemfwa basin using landsat or sentinel imagery for the period – .
• Separate crop land to rainfed and irrigated land using remote sensing-based approach.
• Post-process the land use and land cover map using ancillary data sets (e.g. building, water body and other maps obtained from global and national data sources) /

Learning objectives :

The fellow will learn how to :

Learning benefits for the fellow – related to mentoring, training, networking, professional development) :

Learning benefits for the fellow include

Description of mid-term evaluation :

The mid-term evaluation will be made based on the following evaluation criteria.

Final deliverables :

The fellow will prepare a comprehensive report that includes the following components.

Qualifications :

A Ph.D. candidate in the fields of water resources with a strong programming and remote sensing analysis skills

The Regional Hub Administrator

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture

SARAH Campus

Plot B Ngwerere Road

Chongwe District Lusaka Province

P.O. Box

Chelstone, Lusaka, Zambia

IITA is an equal opportunity employer and particularly welcomes applications from female candidates.

Please note that only short-listed candidates will be contacted.