The southern African region lacks the human and institutional capacity to ensure the effective monitoring and assessment of its wetlands.  WeMAST (Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Service for Transboundary Basins in Southern Africa), through its capacity development pillar, aims to extend existing EO (earth observation) capabilities to SADC (Southern African Development Community) decision makers for wetland assessment and monitoring, through capacity development and leverage awareness.

Pursuant to the GMES and Africa Support Programme directive, to  promote the development of local capacities, institutional, human and technical resources for access to and exploitation of EO-based services on an operational basis for sustainable development in Africa, WeMAST, has a strong capacity development component that is being facilitated by the University partners of the consortium.

WeMAST fully funds six Master students and two Post Doctoral students. In this line, the following studies are supporting the work on WeMAST, being performed by its partner institution (click on the student name or picture to read more about their work for WeMAST):

Tatenda Dzurume

University of Western Cape
Supervisor: Dr Timothy Dube

Tatenda Dzurume (MSc at UWC) aims to identify the impacts of land use and land cover on wetland water quality within the Limpopo River Basin and this will be done by determining LULC and associated changes around selected wetlands by using Landsat imagery. Her thesis topic is “The use of Remote sensing data, for assessing water quality in wetlands within the Limpopo River Basin (South Africa)”

Siyamthanda Gxokwe

University of Western Cape
Supervisor: Dr Timothy Dube

Siyamthanda Gxokwe (Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Environmental and Water Science at UWC) aims to develop a framework utilising freely available remote sensing information on wetlands in the Limpopo Transboundary Basin, to improve the detection and monitoring of the status of all wetlands in semi-arid and arid areas. His thesis title is “Developing an integrated remote sensing framework for wetlands detection and monitoring within the Limpopo Transboundary River Basin”

Ian Gofamodimo Magwaneng

University of Botswana
Supervisor: Prof Piet Kenabatho

Ian Gofamodimo Magwaneng (MSc Environmental Science- Geospatial Science at UB) aims to provide new insights into the role of earth observation in the monitoring and assessment of crop yields in more complex and dynamic ecosystems such as the Okavango delta. His thesis title is “Application of Geospatial Science for the Assessment of Crop yields under the Molapo Farming scheme: The Case of Okavango Western Plains“.

Mulema Mataa

University of Zambia
Supervisor: Dr Kawawa Banda

Mulema Mataa (MSc in IWRM at UNZA) aims to evaluate groundwater – surface water interactions in the Barotse Floodplain. To this end, he utilises a multidisciplinary approach involving remote sensing, field observations, hydrochemistry and isotopic analysis for his thesis “A multidisciplinary approach to assess groundwater-surface water interactions in the Barotse Floodplain”.

Botlhe Matlhodi

University of Botswana
Supervisor: Prof Piet Kenabatho

Botlhe Matlhodi (PhD at UB) aims to evaluate the effects of LULC change on streamflow’s of the Gaborone dam catchment from 1984 to 2015. To achieve this, amongst others, LULC changes in the catchment have been assessed through the application of geospatial techniques using the freely available Landsat datasets (1984, 1995, 2005 & 2015). Her thesis topic is “Evaluating Land Use Land Cover Change Effect on Streamflow Dynamics in the Gaborone Dam Catchment, Botswana”.

Tatenda Musasa

Midlands State University
Supervisor: Dr Thomas Marambanyika

Musasa Tatenda (MPhil at MSU) gathering ground truthing information in the field. Musasa will use satellite imagery from the Copernicus programme and from other satellite providers, to assess land cover or land use changes in the Driefontein and Intunjambili wetlands. His thesis topic is “Sustainability of wetland resource utilisation patterns in the Driefontein and Intunjambili wetlands in Zimbabwe”

Keto Ngwenya

Midlands State University
Supervisor: Dr Thomas Marambanyika

Keto Ngwenya (MPhil at MSU) engaging the local community of the Intunjambili wetland about the threads of veld fires. Keto aims to analyse stakeholder engagement in two wetland communities in Zimbabwe and moreover will assess the use of EO technologies by stakeholders. Her thesis topic is “Stakeholders’ knowledge and use of Earth Observation (EO) data in wetland assessment and monitoring”.

Victoria Ngwenya

University of Zambia
Supervisor: Dr Kawawa Banda

Victoria Ngwenya (MSc in IWRM at UNZA) aims to assess the ecological river health of the Barotse flood plains. The floodplain will be assessed for its biological, physical and chemical integrity using the Shannon diversity index, habitat evaluation index (QHEI) and water quality index respectively. Her thesis title is “Ecological river health assessment of the Barotse Floodplains”.