Capacity Building in Geographic Information Technologies for Disaster and Natural Resource Management
Extreme climatic events and land management
Variations in temperature and rainfall due to climate change create increased exposure to extreme climatic events causing disasters such as severe flooding, landslides, and erosion. This may also require modification of current land use practices and management. This is a reality for Mozambique, a country with a long Indian Ocean coastline and an important and susceptible agricultural sector. It should be stressed that disasters are always striking differently at different places (i.e. in space), and also occur over time. Thus, building capacity in Geographical Information Technologies (GIT), focusing on time and space, is crucial for disaster and natural resource management. This is also the focus of this research training program.
Capacity building in Mozambique
Mozambique is in need of technical competence as well as technological solutions to cope with existing and potential challenges. The aim of this project is thus to build capacity within Mozambique, in order to make it possible for the country to adapt, respond to, and mitigate potential impacts of climate change, and thus promote sustainable environmental development. This will be done through close cooperation with world-leading universities in Sweden and South Africa. An existing BSc program in GIT/disaster management will be revised, and a new MSc program will be developed. Staff will be jointly trained to MSc and PhD level together with world-leading partners in Sweden and South Africa. Joint research will be carried out, and a very strong partnership to attract external funding will be created. Apart from this, pedagogic training, training of supervisors, and language training will increase capacity at the target university and improve long term sustainable development in Mozambique.
Contact information
Petter Pilesjö
Email: petter [dot] pilesjo [at] gis [dot] lu [dot] se (petter[dot]pilesjo[at]gis[dot]lu[dot]se)