EvIDENz Countries

 
Ukraine
Ukraine is located in Eastern Europe and the second largest European country. Due to its location, it is vulnerable to reduced groundwater recharge, especially in the southern steppes of the country. Additionally, weather data shows that Ukraine is exposed to droughts every 2-4 years in the last century. The annual shortage of water (based on the difference between precipitation and potential evapotranspiration) is on average 200-400mm. The last drought, which occurred in 2017 in eastern Ukraine, was marked by water levels in rivers of only 20% of the necessary norm. This had a damaging effect on the local environment and led, among others, to decreased crop production.

UN-SPIDER's Earth Observation-based Information Products for Drought Risk Reduction at the National Level (EvIDENz) develops and tests new earth observation based methods to monitor the drought hazard characteristics. The Kiev region (oblast) is used to study agricultural economic loss due to yield changes of maize caused by drought.
 
Outcomes of EvIDENz shall enable uptake at the national level providing e.g. risk knowledge through Earth observation based drought hazard monitoring, exposure and of the agricultural sector, event-specific yield losses and supporting SFDRR targets on people affected by droughts and direct economic losses by droughts in the agricultural sector. UN-SPIDER will conduct a workshop in May.
 
South Africa
South Africa is the southernmost country in Africa, surrounded by the Atlantic and Indian Oceans on three sides. Besides being exposed to earthquakes, floods, storms, and wildfires, it is also severely affected by droughts. These droughts have manifested themselves all regions of the country, and have a great impact on subsistence farmers. In February 2018, the country declared a national disaster over its drought and water crisis, which was especially afflicting southern and western regions.
 
UN-SPIDER's Earth Observation-based Information Products for Drought Risk Reduction at the National Level (EvIDENz) develops and tests new earth observation based methods to monitor the drought hazard characteristics. The Eastern Cape Province of The Republic of South Africa is used as a study area to determine of the number of people affected in the agricultural sector (livestock and crops) due to drought hazard using space-based sensors in combination with socio-economic and statistical data.

Outcomes of EvIDENz shall enable uptake at the national level providing e.g. risk knowledge through Earth observation based drought hazard monitoring, exposure and of the agricultural sector, event-specific yield losses and supporting SFDRR targets on people affected by droughts and direct economic losses by droughts in the agricultural sector. UN-SPIDER will conduct a training in September.