Afro-European partnership for sustainable development
Africa's huge potential for development created by both human and geological resources has not been reached largely due to poverty and lack of trained and experienced personnel. At the same time, the sustainable use of resources is becoming more and more pressing with a growing population and increased urbanisation. European scientists recognised a need for shared Internet-based geographic information system (GIS) resources with open standards and interoperability together with human capacity building. EU funding of the 'African-European georesources observation system' (AEGOS) project supports the preparatory phase needed to design the system. The AEGOS project is focused on defining data management procedures, products and services to be provided and the African-European partner network. To date, data management has been addressed quite thoroughly. Scientists analysed spatial data infrastructure (SDI) reference models and websites of relevant African and European SDIs. Recommendations have also been put forth regarding a proposed SDI model for AEGOS. The consortium also conducted a careful survey of existing geoscience information technology (IT) facilities and their operation. As a result, they were able to identify important areas for improvement in both geoscientific data and human resources to meet AEGOS objectives. Data topics and their required attributes for sustainable use and monitoring as well as for user-identified services were identified as main problems regarding a national data and service infrastructure in many countries. Scientists also developed a first set of requirements for human resource capacity building covering skills and specialisations in project management, IT, data management and the like. In its final form, AEGOS will be a pan-African SDI that facilitates open sharing and utilisation of data on Africa's groundwater, energy, raw materials and mineral resources. The system will thus enable sustainable resource management, policymaking and capacity building in the geosciences.