Land Use Intensity's Potential, Vulnerability and Resilience for Sustainable Agriculture in Africa (LUISA)
LUISA Project
2024 - Oct. 2025
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Overview
Led by European Space Agency (ESA), This project results from a consortium amongst several institutions engaged in Spatial Data-based solutions in Africa and Europe. The long-term goal of "Land Use Intensity's Potential, Vulnerability and Resilience for Sustainable Agriculture in Africa" (LUISA) is to build the resilience of smallholder farmers and pastoralists in Africa to land use intensification resulting from rapid population growth and climate change. LUISA will achieve this goal by developing a satellite-driven decision-support platform from which policymakers can deliver more effective and reliable carbon monitoring across Africa. Human Appropriation of Net Primary Productivity (HANPP) is a key environmental indicator that helps decision-makers to understand the drivers and consequences of land use intensification on carbon dynamics on a pixel basis over large areas. The African land system is undergoing rapid changes and novel approaches are needed to understand the drivers and consequences of land use intensification, as well as the dependency, vulnerability and resilience caused by climate change. It is paramount to understand Africa's potential, vulnerability and resilience for a sustainable agriculture, defined as one that is low-carbon, resource-efficient, and socially inclusive. Therefore, The LUISA Project developed and is implementing new methods, effectively linking and integrating modelling, satellite EO products (Sentinels, Explorers, Meteo missions, ESA-CCI) and dataset with in-situ, stakeholder-generated, social-economic data to advance the estimation of continental Africa potential, vulnerability and resilience for a sustainable agriculture.
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Kick-off visit to the district economic activities service (Nhamatanda, June 2024)
For in situ data collection to train the model, four use cases were developed in Senegal (Silvopastoral area), Mozambique (Beira Agriculture Growth Corridor), Ethiopia (Highland region of Lake Tana) and Uganda (Mount Elgon Agroforestry Zone).
For Mozambique Use case, Mixed research was conducted to collect data to support the remote sensing-based platform for biomass monitoring through HANPP. The qualitative research was based on consultations with stakeholders in the Beira Agricultural Growth Corridor, through guided interviews with key informants.
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KII Section with Mozambique Sugar-cane company- Tongaat Hulett S.A (Mafambisse, July 2024)
Additionally, Community consultations were carried out through focus group discussions separately with smallholder farmers and forestry operators.
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Focus Group Discussion With Nhampoca Community (Nhamatanda, July 2024)
Quantitative research was conducted with forestry operators and timber vendors to understand the dynamics of the forestry extraction and agricultural sectors in the region and the factors that contribute to the occurrence of biomass in the region. Databases from private companies and from the provincial government were also gathered.
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Data collection at EN6. with wood, charcoal and timber vendors (Tica, July 2024)
Results
This mixed approach allowed the development of a robust platform with essential parameters to monitor the HANPP and biomass measurement at continental level.
Applied Skills
Remote Sensing
Qualitative Research
Quantitative Research
Natural Resources Management
Involved institutions
