Berit Mohr
Berit is a GIS Consultant within the Digital Innovation Unit at the GFA Consulting Group GmbH in Hamburg. GFA is a company working in the development cooperation sector. Donors are typically governments, development banks etc. Berit has a background in Geology, Environmental Science and GIS and Remote Sensing. She has worked across sectors including Academia, Local government, international government and start-ups. Her passion is in using GIS and EO to make data visible and understandable for everyone. In her spare time Berit loves to be out hiking, in the garden and be part of the natural environment.
Sessions
Within the framework of the German Development Agency’s (GIZ) “Strengthening Drought Resilience Programme“ in Ethiopia, GFA developed a raster data methodology for analysing rehabilitated and protected dry valleys and implements/ed advanced trainings for governmental personnel. The project aims to assess the impact of locally installed irrigation infrastructure, i.e. water spreading weirs (WSW) along the riverbeds on its immediate surroundings. We have pioneered a rigorous and scientifically grounded methodology leveraging advanced satellite imagery. Our analysis incorporates vegetation indices and employs the Mann-Kendall Test to ascertain the notable trends in various changes induced by the WSW. These discerned patterns are systematically juxtaposed against a carefully selected control group for robust comparative analysis. A QGIS Plugin has been developed, allowing any user to undertake critical impact assessments of the WSW. During the design phase, we applied human-centric design principles ensuring the plugin efficiently blends in with daily work routines. Minding the potential gaps in technical capacity in target groups, the plugin and methodology were specifically designed so that:
1) anyone can use it
2) further development can be undertaken and
3) it can work in offline environments, e.g. to maintain utility in remote or underserved areas.
Sentinel and Landsat data are acquired for specific time frames and processed for a region of interest through an intuitive and customisable user interface. Different vegetation indices can be selected on which the Mann-Kendall Test is then applied. Finally, if desirable, a customised report can be exported showing the significant changes and accompanied test results.
In this talk, I will demonstrate the plugin and describe the developed methodology in further detail. Furthermore, I would like to share our lessons learned and immediate insights from application in the development cooperation context.