Where Global MapAid came from – Blog Three of Three

Where Global MapAid came from – Blog Three of Three

Global MapAid (GMA) or simply “MapAid” came into being as a result of a fellowship opportunity given to Rupert Douglas-Bate at Stanford University, under the Reuters Digital Vision Fellowship Programme, which resulted in a successful mapping and communications project in 2003.

Diverse missions initially

During those early days after 2003, MapAid worked in mostly in development zones, offering mapping services to small NGOs and their partners, which are all summarised at our timeline that shows some of this work, ranging from a “boots on the ground” post Hurricane Katrina mission in 2005, and Haiti emergency map mission in 2010, to a Nepal evaluation mission in 2015.

The Arab Spring

On 17 December 2010, the Arab Spring began in Tunisia, spreading across North Africa and the Arab world.

The trigger was a young man, Mohamed Bouazizi who set himself on fire on that fateful day in response to an overzealous government official who stalled his street business.

It was an act that catalysed the Tunisian Revolution and set in motion other revolutions across the Arab world, that became known as the Arab Spring. It was a time full of optimism and hope. It was a “youthquake” that started by a man whose aspirations for employment as a vegetable street trader had been snuffed out.

It is not without its own irony that Socrates, the father of modern political discourse and philosophy took a great deal of care to ask the opinions of vegetable street traders, in ancient Athens, trying to fearlessly learn wisdom from the street. Indeed some legends hold that too was occasionally a street trader.

What did the Arab Spring mean for MapAid ?

We smelled the coffee. It was clear that youth needed sustainable jobs, and that mapping that could support the planning and implementation for sustainable job programmes, or capitalism with a human face, would be a valuable contribution to sustainable peace. This is why Rupert applied for an Executive Management MBA at Henley Business School where his research thesis was on the key drivers that underpin sustainable job creation.

Micro credit to support youth jobs

One such key driver is micro credit, which in the right conditions of legal and economic integrity can be a successful small business facilitator.

In 2012, in Ethiopia, we set up a micro-credit mapping project led by the late Italian mapper Fabio Facoetti. We researched and made maps to show micro credit distribution, across the capital city Addis Ababa.

Below are some of Fabio’s maps.

He passed out of our sight Thursday 25th April 2013, aged 28, in Ethiopia.

From the start, the MODL/WellMapr© project was dedicated to Fabio.

MapAid hired and trained several data collectors, including Esset Hagos, Semhar Tesfatsion, Renske Duns and Binyamin Asmamaw.

In June of that year, we showed the maps to the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (EATA), and in particular Seyoum Getachew, who was at the time a senior irrigation engineer.

EATA is a special department within the Ministry of Agriculture tasked with the vital work of rapid reform at critical bottlenecks. Ato Getachew took a kindly look at these maps, and explained that in his personal opinion, and that of many of his esteemed friends and colleagues, a groundwater map of Ethiopia would make more sense. We therefore decided to pivot and focus on groundwater mapping.

Why water?

Water and Sanitation and Health or “WASH” constitutes the UN Sustainable Development Goal No.6 which underpins nine (9) other UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The advice MapAid received from the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency, was therefore 100% correct.

We spent several years trying different approaches to mapping groundwater and in 2016 commenced a partnership with Arab Minch University Water Technology Institute.

Then, in 2019 when MapAid won a place to speak at the November symposium in Washington DC, of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). We presented a paper with information about the water situation in Ethiopia, and asked one direct question:

“Can AI be used to map groundwater ?”

Can AI be used to map groundwater ?

A group of AI specialists volunteered to help at the AAAI symposium, from the Centre for the Study of Resilient and Sustainable Communities of George Mason University, Washington DC. Together with MapAid technologists and aid workers, and with notable mutual support, Arba Minch University Water Technology Institute was immediately invited to support the collaboration with local water specialists. Later Czech Geological Survey geologists became involved, forming a powerful collaboration.

While the question was not immediately answered in 2020, by 2024 the results of our research prototype felt encouraging enough to press on and prepare for “boots on the ground” field development from 2024 to 2027.

After many tests, with different algorithms, the team had created a basic groundwater map of an area called Bilate sub-catchment that spans a latitude of 6°34′ to 8°6′ N and a longitude of 37°46′ to 38°18′ E, with a total area of 5276.25 km², some 100 Kilometres north east of Arba Minch town.

Collaboration and the mood music

Initially this project was called “Modelling of Optimal Drilling Locations” or MODL. However in 2022 the name changed to “WellMapr©” with a clear focus and mission to create an AI system that could provide a map to indicate sustainable groundwater sources. In 2023 we gratefully accepted the Czech Geological Survey into our collaboration, whose skills and financial support are much appreciated.

The “mood music” in our team of collaborators is one of mutual support, strong-results-orientation, gratefulness for multiple perspectives, and a can-do, effective problem-solving ethos.

All our efforts point to helping the small farmers, starting in Ethiopia.

Our mission

Our collaborative mission today is to improve drinking water, irrigation, and food supply for small farmers in Africa and starting in Ethiopia, where arguably, climate change has broken the bimodal rainfall patterns over the last 15 or 20 years. This has caused over 25 million people to become undernourished in the Horn of Africa.

The method

The way we want to achieve the mission, is to provide a groundwater mapping system, so that End users, such as agricultural and water decisions makers in donor organisations, and NGOs, drilling companies, and government departments and embassies, can make better informed choices about where to drill, especially shallow wells at or closer than 30 metres below surface. These End users want to drive down costs and drive out risks, therefore having a good map will certainly help – and enable more wells to be drilled with the savings.

In turn, the results of such wells will have a great impact.

Project rationale

Our mission is impact oriented. Small farm irrigation is proven to double or triple the food supply (1), given there is 25% undernourishment in Ethiopia (2). Water from a shallow well, after testing, is also far cleaner than most river water, thus reducing gut infections that are widespread from 60% to 80% of the population (3). Water from a nearby well significantly reduces the daily hours spent lugging water by women & children, time that can be spent on education, or leisure (4). A well nearby, also means women are less exposed to predatory males when they collect water (5). The longer-term impacts of better soil water conservation mean enhanced CO2 conversion into soil carbon, which when scaled to the global 2.5 billion small farmers, will significantly help climate change mitigation (6).

A project summary

Our laser focus is on a prototype AI system, WellMapr© that we have developed, to measure groundwater depth, especially to improve the success rate of shallow well drilling and digging – so that costs are reduced, and risks driven out.

We help drillers and donors do their jobs better through improved collaboration and drilling or digging accuracy.

We help NGOs working in areas of drought or no shallow groundwater to establish their case for alternative soil moisture conservation strategies.

A shallow well fulfils SDG 6 which leads to:

• x2 to x3 increase in crop yield, and
• better early years nutrition, and
• excess yield that can be converted to cash for family welfare, and
• clean water and sanitation, and
• a significant atmospheric carbon dioxide sequestration into soil carbon to help reduce climate change effects

In terms of UN Sustainable Development Goals, what does a shallow well achieve ?
And how does “the Water SDG6 supports other SDGs for small farms in Ethiopia ?

UN SDG
1 No Poverty	Surplus food (see SDG 2), can be sold at the market, moving farmers from subsistence to cash economy. This opens up life choices and family choices, for example, improving reproductive choice while reducing the necessity for a high birth rate, and reducing the need for urban or transboundary migration, to find jobs and food (1).
2 Zero Hunger	Irrigation from a well doubles or even triples food supply immediately. Our WellMapr can also show the absence of shallow water, where other soil water conservation strategies can successfully mitigate drought (1)(2).
3 Good Health & Well Being	Clean drinking water from a well, reduces 60-80% of gut infections, normally resulting from drinking river or lake water (3).
4 Quality Education	Women and children no longer have to lug water for hours every day, and the time saved can be spent on education (4).
5 Gender Equality	Women have more time for self-improvement, including running stalls at the local market and managing the family cash (4).
8 Decent Work & Economic Growth	Significantly increased crop growth means more work on small farms, tending & harvesting crops, especially for youth (12).
9 Industry, Innovation, & Infrastructure	Large excess quantities of food could be canned, dried, salted, bagged, and marketed (12) in small industrial units
13 Climate Action	Increased soil carbon due to better soil water management, will significantly reduce CO2 (6).
16 Peace Justice & Strong Institutions	Improved crop management means jobs which in turn contribute towards peace. Male youth, thus occupied, are essentially well occupied, versus being jobless and prone to other means of survival (11).

Conclusions and Summary – WellMapr© in Ethiopia

We have started in Ethiopia, where 47 million small farmers are living under the poverty line.

Our WellMapr AI system works, as a prototype, and is getting ever more accurate. Ethiopia has got 5% coverage of shallow wells, in the anticipated areas for shallow groundwater.

This means 95% of potentially shallow groundwater areas are unexplored and are located within 120,000 Square Kilometres in Ethiopia (7).

In Year 1, our initial area in Ethiopia will be a pilot program to start in the Gamo Zone, near Arba Minch University, which has an area of 7,415 Square kilometres. Our Goal is to support End users (who will be mostly aid agencies) to implement a 10% increase in irrigated area in Gamo, to benefit 172,028 or about 10% of the population in 2.5 years.

In the end, this may represent about 28,600 new shallow wells, for one well per family with an average size about 6 pax.

As a collaboration, we plan to work hand-in-hand with our esteemed local partners and leaders, the University of Arba Minch, Water Technology Institute. We are also grateful to work closely with the Ministry of Water and Energy and other organisations such as Vita Ireland and Acacia Water.

Visit our timeline

Initially, the charity aimed to provide general information and mapping services to enhance decision-making efficiency in humanitarian development aid and occasional disaster relief efforts, and at our website is a timeline that summarises our work.

Join Us

Global MapAid’s work is critical in tackling unemployment, mitigating climate change, ensuring food security, and fostering peace. We invite you to join us in broadening our impact. For more information, visit our website or contact Rupert Douglas-Bate at [email protected]

More Information

• Global MapAid website: www.globalmapaid.org
• Global MapAid history timeline: Our Story
• Rupert Douglas-Bate LinkedIn: Rupert Douglas-Bate

Citations

1) Groundwater resource potential and status of groundwater resource development in Ethiopia. (2019) Authors Mengistu, H.A., Demlie, M.B. & Abiye, T.A. Review: Hydrogeol J 27, 1051–1065. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-019-01928-x

2) Prevalence of undernourishment (% of population) – in Ethiopia (2023)
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SN.ITK.DEFC.ZS?locations=ET

3) Prevalence and Associated Risk Factors of Intestinal Parasites and Enteric Bacterial Infections among Selected Region Food Handlers of Ethiopia during (2014–2022): A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, National Library of Medicine, Abayeneh Girma and Aleka Aemiro

4) Collection time inequalities: fetching water in Ethiopia A. Cassivi, 41st WEDC International Conference, (2018) E. O. D. Waygood & C. C. Dorea

5) Water to Thrive, Why Has the Global Water Crisis Disproportionately Impacted Women in Ethiopia ? (2018) https://www.watertothrive.org/

6) The 4 per 1000 Initiative https://www.futurepolicy.org/

7) Assessing potential land suitable for surface irrigation using groundwater in Ethiopia. (2017) Authors: Abeyou W.Worqlul, Jaehak Jeonga Yihun T.Dile, Javier Osorioa, Petra Schmitter, Thomas Gerik, R.Srinivasan, Neville Clark, Elesvier, Applied Geography Volume 85

8) Farm Africa website https://www.farmafrica.org/ethiopia/ethiopia

9) Viewpoint. Small holders can feed the world. (2023) IFAD

10) For Up to 800 Million Rural Poor, a Strong World Bank Commitment to Agriculture (2014) https://www.worldbank.org/

(11) Hunger to Violence: Explaining the Violent Escalation of Nonviolent Demonstrations (2019), Daniel Gustafson, Journal of Conflict Resolution

(12) Boosting Productive Employment in Africa, What Works and Why, (2018) Synthesis Report Series INCLUDE