SPACE4ALL

Mapping climate vulnerabilities of slums by combining citizen science and earth observation technology

2024 - ongoing

Overview

SPACE4ALL is a project owned by the ITC- University of Twente https://www.itc.nl/, funded by NWO (Dutch Research Council) with the overall objective of unraveling the climate vulnerabilities of deprived communities in large and secondary cities in the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) context by combining citizen science (CS) and earth observation (EO) techniques. The project will develop and test innovative methodologies to map hotspots of urban poor affected by floods, assess their vulnerabilities and livability perceptions. EO methods have the advantage of producing physical data for large areas and have shown their capability to map the physical aspects of slums. The project addresses the gaps by developing an innovative AI methodology by combining CS data and EO data with climate change data to locate hotspots of urban poor exposed to climate-related hazards (e.g., sea-level rise, storms, floods, extreme temperatures). In urban contexts with rapid expansion of unplanned settlements, the project aims at understanding the disparities in the living conditions of the most vulnerable population. They often occupy areas with inadequate infrastructure and service provision. The project requires high-quality reference spatial data to analyze and validate our results. To address this, the project team is commissioning a slum delineation study for the cities of Chimoio and Beira in Mozambique.

SPACE4ALL Research Approach

This novel approach had the main purpose the development and training of deep learning models in order to map the degree of vulnerability of slum communities to climate-related risks across both large and secondary cities in Africa, to enhance the precision and the flooding early-warning capacity of the model.

SPACE4ALL Research Approach

The project was conducted in African cities, namely Kisumu and Nairobi in Kenya, Accra and Tema in Ghana and at last Beira and Chimoio in Mozambique, in partnership with African institutions such as Data4MOZ and Sdi Kenya.

Study countries of the project

The study was conducted in a participatory format where the citizens were able to point and map the vulnerable areas of the city to climate hazards, especially flooding, including its depth level of the floods for the latest events.

Participatory validation: Kisumo, January 2025

The applied methodology allowed to gather local experts and stakeholders experience regarding the city's vulnerability to climate hazards through workshops with governmental and municipality institutions, NGO, private sector and community-based organizations that are engaged on climate action, WASH and urban planning.

Participatory validation with stakeholders: Beira, February 2025

Contribution

Under the Data4MOZ umbrella, as remote sensing analyst in the institution, my contribution for Space4All extended into the field data collection and model validation, conducting field validation sessions in Kisumo (Kenya) together with ITC-University of Twente members and leading the activities in Beira and Chimoio (Mozambique), engaging the local communities and stakeholders for model validation sessions and gather subsidies by field observations, transect walks and mapping informal settlements.

Transect Walk in Manyata B Neighbourhood, Kisumu, Kenya, January 2025

Preliminary Results

Reports Available under request

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Applied Skills

GIS

Remote Sensing

Community Engagement

SPACE4ALL

Overview

SPACE4ALL Research Approach

Contribution

Preliminary Results

Applied Skills

Involved institutions