Research proposal

Progressive geospatial analysis: applications in Congo

basin forest landscape modeling

By: Sumuni Bin Kivira Richard(a)

Director: Co-director:

(a) SUMUNI BIN KIVIRA Richard

MSc Management of Information Systems
Ecole Supérieure d’Informatique Salama, Lubumbashi
Email : binkivira@gmail.com
Tel: (+243) 993203254
Skype: Bin.netzero
1. Context and motivation

The challenge to maintain an acceptable balance between ecosystems, economies and communities
is continually increasing and this represents the call-to-action procedure which involves different
stakeholders, from policy decision makers to activists and scientists. Like other stakeholders, the
scientists play an important role using their knowledge of the natural sciences to protect the
environment and human health. They are identified as environmental scientists (Statistics, 2019)
whose day-to-day tasks can vary from climate change analysts to environmental health specialists.
The influence of technology and the rapid development of IoT (Internet of things) have led both
types of scientists to rely on gathered data coming from everywhere, analyzing them to shed light
on critical questions, including how to prevent or handle nowadays environment issues for
sustainable development. Due to the volume of these data, the speed at which they are collected
and the different formats they are provided in, it now requires using cutting-edge tools and
appropriate methodologies to determine, from the mass of collected data, potential threats to either
the environment or human health. This is the point where Information Technology (IT) plays a
key role supporting environmental data-driven decisions making at national, regional or
international level.
We are interested, at the regional level, to provide technological procedures that will support the
environment monitoring application to the Congo Basin forest. With such a body of applications,
our research will be focused on its landscape modeling. This, in addition to the understanding of
the environmental issues, implies IT skills: from the mastery of geospatial data analysis tools, use
of remote sensing techniques and satellite imagery data modeling to dynamic visualization models
which facilitate the interpretation of results. These results, not only will provide meaningful
information about the evolution of the Congo basin forest landscape, but will also lead to
predictions, - to project the future state of the landscape, using the Machine Learning algorithms
into the mass of satellite collected data.

To collect usable data that will provide tangible results, we will base our research work on urgent
climate goals expressed by regional organizations such as REBAC (the Ecclesial Network of the
Congo Basin) whose one of the missions is to act on governments and international institutions to
commit themselves to designing and implementing policies compatible with the preservation and
conservation of the Congo Basin ecosystems (REBAC, 2018), using scientific research
methodologies and approved tools from different platforms among them: the SERVIR (a regional
visualization and monitoring system whose core activities are oriented on helping developing
countries use information provided by Earth observing satellites and geospatial technologies for
managing climate risks and land use) (SERVIR, 2017).
2. Problem Statement

The Congo River basin is the second largest river basin in the world, after the Amazon. Its forests
constitute the second largest tropical forest mass, after the Amazon, covering a total estimated area
of 200 million hectares being the main forest resources of the African continent. (Wasseige C.,
2010). It extends over 6 countries: Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Central Africa
Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo making it the second largest ecological lung on
the planet. The Congo Basin forest is the home to an extraordinary rich fauna and flora biodiversity
that represents an immeasurable potential for regional socio-economic development. (Wasseige
C., 2010).

The biggest challenge this forest landscape is facing across the region is the industrial and artisanal
logging which is one of the major causes of deforestation, forest degradation and the poverty of
local communities inducing the other challenge of reconciling economic development with natural
resource conservation initiatives to achieve true sustainable development.

In this research work, we will be more concerned with the deforestation and forest degradation
issue in the Congo Basin. While deforestation is defined as the conversion of forest land to another
land use or the long-term reduction of this parameter below a 10% threshold (Bérenger T, 2015),
the forest degradation is simply defined as the conversion of dense forests into degraded forests.
Reports on tropical deforestation indicate that deforestation happens in various places and that the
underlying causes are not always easily identifiable (Mudel and Roper 1996). Geist and Lambin
(2001) also stress that these causes vary, depending on the continents. Several direct causes may
explain the deforestation and forest degradation: slash-and-burn agriculture, collection of wood
energy, mining, forest exploitation and infrastructure development. In Africa, the causes are the
same as those noted around the world, with the development of agriculture as the primary factor
of deforestation (FAO 2010).
In the Congo Basin, the deforestation rate varies between countries. However, as a whole, the
Congo Basin displayed a net deforestation rate of 0.09% between 1990 and 2000, compared with
0.17% between 2000 and 2005. This shows that, during these two periods, the rate of deforestation
has increased.(Eugenio S., 2015). While forest degradation was 0.01% between 1990 and 2000,
this rate increased by a factor of 9 (that is 0.09%) between 2000 and 2005. Most of the deforestation
around the world is caused by commercial agriculture. The United Nations for Food and
Agriculture Organization (Eugenio S., 2015) mentioned that this challenge in the Congo Basin will
continue to grow if policies and regulations do not address the integration and protection of natural
resources through public and private partnerships. This, in other words, requires more attention of
all stakeholders, from environmental scientific researchers who will use new approaches to tackle
these global trends and more easily identify them, to local organizations and government decision
makers who will rely on scientific approved research results to initiate win-win solutions and
regulations.
In this cycle of involvement, environmental scientific researchers are positioned at the initial point,
deploying advanced technologies to study the effects of changing climatic conditions on
ecosystems and how environmental factors affect communities. These cutting-edge technologies
include: satellite remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems accessing large catalogues
of Earth observations to quantify the natural capital of these landscapes, by providing information
on their extent, state, and quality (Sami f., 2017). Earth observations generate vast amount of data
every day and thus, those datasets are getting bigger and more complex. The challenge is now how
to harness the value of that data.

To meet that challenge and for the sake our research, we will use integrated approach with big data
analytics, data mining, machine learning, Geodata combined with open source solutions, such as
Python, and R. We will explore interdisciplinary geospatial technologies, among them: spatial and
spatiotemporal data types, prediction changes for nonstationary multi-temporal satellite images
using HMM, multiple spatial databases, Google Earth, 3D InSAR technology, etc…
Using these tools and technologies, the Earth observations collected data combined with modeling
and additional datasets, will allow end users to monitor and project the future state of the Congo
Basin forest landscape.

3. Objectives of the study

As part of this research project, we propose to explore two types of remote sensing systems as
applied in forest landscape modeling: the passive remote sensing system and the active remote
sensing system. The passive systems detect the radiation subsequently from an external source of
energy, while the active systems generate and direct the energy toward a target and detect the
radiation.(Margarita N., 2017) . And we will particularly focus on the active remote sensing
system.
The Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) is an active system that emits and detects the reflected
discrete pulses of a laser light. Unlike the Radio Detecting and Ranging (RADAR), the LiDAR
data depends strongly from the meteorological impacts, such as cloud, rain, or snowfall. A
possibility of the LiDAR pulses to penetrate tree crowns and other vegetations makes the
application of this device very popular and indispensable in the remote sensing of the landscape.
The discrete-return LiDAR data are stored as a set of coordinate triples (x, y, z or latitude, longitude
and elevation, respectively). (Margarita N., 2017).
Finally, we will apply the Machine Learning algorithms to the forest landscape modeling, in
particular to the gathered data of the Congo basin forests in order to assess the performance of our
algorithms and allow greater use of the available data and improve our results. The benefits of
these methods will not only be observed in forest landscape modeling, but also in the field of
Machine Learning in general.

4. Resources needed

4.1.Software and Equipment

 Personal Computer, Dell Latitude E5570, Intel Core i5, 8.00 GB RAM;
 Operating System, Windows 10 Pro;
 Spyder, with Anaconda distribution;
 PostgreSQL, version 12.1;
 MatLab, version R2019b with Simulink 8.5 integrated;
 Latex, version 3.

4.2. Documentation (books)

1. Pinliang Dong, Qi Chen. LiDAR Remote Sensing and Applications. New York:
CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group, 2018.
2. Emilio Chuvieco. Fundamentals of Satellite Remote Sensing, an Environmental
Approach, 3rd Edition. New York: CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group, 2020.
3. Suraj Kumar Singh, Shruti Kanga, Varum Naratan Mishra. Spatial Information
Science for Natural Resource Management. Pennsylvania: IGI Global, 2020.
4. Sami Faiz, Khaoula Mahmoudi. Handbook of Research on Geographic Information
Systems Applications and Advancements. Pennsylvania: IGI Global, 2017.
5. Margarita N. Favorskaya, Lakhmi C. Jain. Handbook on Advances in Remote
Sensing and Geographic Information Systems: Paradigms and Applications in
Forest Landscape Modeling. Cham: Springer International Publishing AG, 2017.
6. Joseph Gabay, David Gabay. UML 2 Analyse et Conception : Mise en œuvre guidée
avec études de cas. Paris : Dunod, 2008.
7. Valliappa Lakshmanam. Automating the Analysis of Spatial Grids: A Practical
guide to data mining geospatial images for human & environmental applications.
Chaim: Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht, 2012.
8. Nicolas Baghdadi, Clément Mallet, Mehrez Zribi. QGIS and Applications in
Agriculture and Forest. London: ISTE Ltd, 2018.
 9. Tarmo K. Remmel, Ajith H. Perera. Mapping Forest Landscape Patterns. New
York: Springer Science+Business Media LLC, 2017.
10. Maarten J. de Wit, François Guillocheau, Michel C.J. de Wit. Geology and
Resource Potential of the Congo Basin. Berlin: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg,
2015.
11. Alexander J. Zaslavski. Optimal Control Problems Arising in Forest Management.
Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 2019.
12. Kang-tshung Chang. Introduction to Geographic Information Systems, 9th Edition.
New York: MacGraw-Hill Education, 2018.
13. Christopher Pettit, William Cartwright, Ian Bishop, Kim Lowell, David Pullar,
David Duncan. Landscape Analysis and Visualisation: Spatial Models for Natural
Resource Management and Planning. Berlin: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg,
2008.
14. James D. Miller. Big Data Visualization: Learn effective tools and techniques to
separate big data into manageable and logical components for efficient data
visualization. Birmingham: Packt Publishing, 2017.
15. Tania Mulik. Applied Data Visualization with R and ggplot2: Create useful,
elaborate, and visually appealing plots. Birmingham: Packt Publishing, 2018.
16. Joel Lawhead. Learning Geospatial Analysis with Python: Understand GIS
fundamentals and perform remote sensing data analysis using Python 3.7, 3rd
Edition. Birmingham: Packt Publishing, 2019.
17. Curtis Miller. Hands-On Data Analysis with NumPy and pandas: Implement
Python packages from data manipulation to processing. Birmingham: Packt
Publishing, 2018.

4.3.Work environment

The development will be conducted on a personal computer using appropriate software tools. We
will, if necessary, occupy the office of the Research and Development Center in Applied
Computing (CREDIA) located within the Salam Computer Science College building. During the
data analysis period, we will need to meet some regional environmental experts.
 4.4.Budget

Description Budget
3 books on Remote Sensing Applications in Forest Land Scape modeling.
$ 463.91
Purchase and freight price
Conference on “Healing Earth”, 13 - 17 April 2020, Kinshasa. -
Data Science Africa Workshop, June 22 - 26, 2020, Kampala $ 1 540.00
African Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment (AARSE) 2020,
“Space and Geospatial Technologies for the Africa we want”, October 26 - 30, $ 1 540.00
Kigali
Total $ 3 543.91

5. References

(1) Bérenger T, D. J. S. I. A. M. T., 2015. State of the forests of the Congo Basin. In: Deforestation
and forest degradation in the Congo Basin. State of knowledge, current causes and perspectives.
Bogor Barat: Center for International Forestry Research, pp. 9-10.

(2) Eugenio S., e. a., 2015. National Land Use Plan. In: How existing legal frameworks shape forest
conservation. A study case od Congo basin. Rome:
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS, pp. 6-7.

(3) Margarita N., L. C., 2017. Handbook on Advancements in Remote Sensing and Geographic
Information Systems. Paradigms and Applications in Forest Landscape Modeling. Cham: Springer
International Publishing AG.

(4) REBAC, 2018. REBAC Mission. [Online]

Available at: https://rebaccongobassin.org/mission/
[Accessed 9 2 2020].

(5) Sami f., K. M., 2017. Handbook of Research on Geographic Information Sytems Applications and
Advancements. New York: IGI Global.

(6) SERVIR, 2017. About SERVIR. [Online]

Available at: https://servirglobal.net/about-Servir
[Accessed 9 2 2020].

(7) Statistics, U. B. o. L., 2019. Bureau of Labor Statistics. [Online]

Available at: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-social-science/environmental-scientists-
and-specialists.htm
[Accessed 9 February 2020].

(8) Wasseige C., e. a., 2010. The Forests of the Congo Basin - State of the Forest 2010. 1rst ed.
Luxembourg: Observatoire des Forets d'Afrique Centrale, Bruce Davidson.
6. Signatories

Director: Date:
Codirector: Date:
Student: Date:

Appreciation and signature of the members

Date:
Date:
Date:

Committee and supervision decision

Date: President Signature: