8th GIS Day Celebration in the Tsavo Ecoregion at TTU

Dates: 14 – 15 Nov. – Pre-conference training | 16 Nov. for the GIS Day Conference GIS: Catalysing Integrated, Smart and Green Development

Opportunities in GIS careers: Past, Present and Future

Register here to participate in the hybrid conference:  Click to open link  

Registration link to the hybrid event here:  CLICK TO OPEN 

"If human capital is the brain, data the blood, mentors the inspirational backbone, then GIS is the nervous system of decision support systems"...#MyTake

Invitation to the World GIS Day Celebration, 2022

We have the pleasure of welcoming students, support staff, faculty, administrative staff, and all invited guests from government, industry, and civil society to this year’s GIS Week, which will culminate in the World GIS Day celebration on 16th November 2022. Taita Taveta University (TTU) has the motto “Home of Ideas”. The university started celebrating the GIS Day on 18th November 2015 and has maintained the tradition since then. Every year, we register a theme that resonates with the times. This year is no exception. We will hold a hybrid conference bringing together speakers and presenters from various sectors and industries including TTU staff, alumni, and students at home and abroad.

An Exciting Venue in the Tsavo Ecoregion

As shown in the map, Taita Taveta University (TTU) is located 8 km from Voi town, off Voi-Mwatate Road, Taita Taveta County. Chartered as a fully-fledged university in 2016, TTU is a young and progressive university with a student population of about 3,000. The Agriculture, Earth and Environmental Sciences campus is located further away in Ngerenyi, a place whose climate is favourable to agriculture in contrast to the hot and semi-arid Voi area. The modern Voi Train Station for the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) has boosted Voi as the most populous and developed town in Taita Taveta County currently. Over the years, Voi has stood out for reliable power supply. The university, the only one so far in the county, has also influenced immigration into Voi, hosting a growing population of university students and staff. 

Etched boastingly in the Tsavo ecoregion, Taita Taveta County fascinates tourists as a picturesque landscape of scenic diversity in a mineral-rich belt, famous for gemstones. The minerals include rare gemstones such as Tsavorite and ruby, manganese that can be mined for a century near the university, iron ore, base metals such as copper, and industrial minerals such as limestone, wollastonite, and kaolin. Large group ranches, nature conservancies, Teita sisal project as one of the world’s largest sisal plantations, vibrant agriculture in Taveta area, and drastically varying altitudes and temperatures from low to high are key features of the county. Lake Chala and Lake Jipe are key natural assets in the county that are also rich in fishing stock, making fishing a potential economic activity which, given sustainable management, can transform economic and nutritional outcomes in the region.

Spatial context of Taita Taveta University (TTU)

More than 60% of the county’s spatial extent of 17,000 km  2   is covered by the Tsavo National Park. Headed by a Governor according to Kenya’s devolved governance structure in a quasi-federal system, Taita Taveta has been interestingly unique politically. Every election cycle, the incumbent has been voted out. The citizen-driven pressure to perform is, therefore, evident. Abstracting, organising, perceiving, interpreting, and anticipating spatial development trends and patterns for smart and green outcomes over time is a key challenge governors must confront. This development challenge is even more crucial in the face of changes occasioned by (geo)data-driven technological revolutions, demographics, globalisation, and climate change. In this respect, GIS technology is a development game changer that incumbents can utilise to ensure participatory decision-making and sustain political relevance.

A Timely Theme for the Home of Ideas

Coming at a time world leaders have converged in Egypt for the 27  th   Conference of the Parties (COP27) on climate change, this year’s GIS Day has been given the local theme: GIS: Catalysing Integrated, Smart and Green Development. Africa is already more than 43% urban. The following paragraph accompanied the online registration of the GIS Day at TTU, occupying a distinguished spot in Kenya’s coastal region.

The future is inescapably urban, in a world whose urban population crossed the 50% mark in 2008 and is now well past 56%. An integrated, smart and green urban future demands quality spatial data in all dimensions (4Vs). GIS is essential to this future. 

TTU, for early registration, received five complimentary one-year single-use ArcGIS licenses from Esri to support GIS skills development. Based on agreed criteria, five recipients of the licenses will be identified.

TTU to start celebrating the GIS Week on 14th November 2022

The GIS Journey at TTU and Esri Support

GIS was first introduced as a topic within the third-year BSc programme in Mining and Mineral Processing Engineering at TTU. This was within the course outline for Engineering Surveying II (Semester II of Year III). There was, however, no dedicated GIS Lab or software for practical exercises.

In 2015, the pale story started to give way to a fresh appeal with the first-ever organised GIS Day at TTU (then a constituent college of JKUAT, hence TTUC) targeting the entire Tsavo ecoregion and actively involving the University Management and the County Government of Taita Taveta to win a buy-in organically. The carefully chosen inaugural theme was Leveraging Spatial Dimensions of Local Development Agenda.

First GIS Day celebration at TTUC in 2015

In 2016, GIS evangelism within the TTU community continued with the support of Prof. Simon Onywere as the Esri-appointed GIS Ambassador for universities, working closely with Esri Eastern Africa. Eventually, TTU qualified to receive Esri Education Site Licenses to promote GIS education, training, and research effectively on campus.

In 2017, TTU won a grant of about 800,000 Euros per year for 2017-2020 from Finland, by working on a successful “TAITAGIS” proposal with the University of Helsinki to promote GIS education. An ultramodern multimedia GIS Lab was launched and equipped using the funds while supporting collaborative teaching by both Kenyan and Finnish experts. MSc in Geoinformatics programme with specialisation pathways in either Environmental Monitoring or Mining and Geology was subsequently launched. The MSc programme is active to date. In addition to the MSc programme, a BSc programme in Geoinformatics was also launched, the first cohort now in the final academic year.

Kick-off meeting of TAITAGIS in 2018

Spacious TAITAGIS Lab

Plotter - part of TAITAGIS lab equipment

Through educational software and training support, Esri Eastern Africa has been a key partner in promoting the diffusion of GIS technology among universities in Eastern Africa. Based on this evidence, the company has always been invited to send trainers to grace the GIS week at TTU since the inaugural celebration the university organised in the Tsavo ecoregion in 2015. Pre-conference training in the computer labs has been a key feature of the programme preceding the World/International GIS Day.

A typical lab setting during interactive GIS practice sessions by TTU students

The County Government of Taita Taveta has been sending a chief guest, usually the Governor or Deputy Governor, to grace the GIS Day and network for collaborative projects that can utilise GIS technology.

Over the period 2018 – 2021, Esri offered TTU education site licenses for training and research. The students of Master of Science (Geoinformatics) were the first beneficiaries of this software support, using ArcGIS for spatial analysis and modelling in their theses. One of the MSc graduates is already pursuing a doctorate at the University of Helsinki and applying GIS technology to address human-wildlife conflict in Taita Taveta.

The recent renewal of the GIS education site licenses from November 2022 to January 2025 is already welcome news that will yield more fruits, especially within the student community with growing interest in applying modern Esri solutions to their projects and theses. Utilisation of the assigned credits in spatial analysis and publishing needs is targeted for a major enhancement, going by past statistics.

The GIS Transformation Map

In any skills development enterprise, the currency of accounting is the demonstrated quality of outputs in the form of trained individuals who can provide competent solutions. The following visual maps compare the GIS awareness and uptake level at TTU in 2017, by stakeholder profile, to the current (2022) scenario. The upward arc of influence in terms of average GIS awareness is evident.

These transformation maps demonstrate how the software and training support by Esri Eastern Africa have contributed to enhancing the level of awareness of GIS as well as the utilisation and uptake of Esri GIS solutions. The base year of reference is 2017, just after dedicated training and GIS evangelism at TTU facilitated by Esri Eastern Africa and in 2015 and 2016.

It can be noted from the 2022 map against the 2017 map that:

  1. there has been a general increase in the level of awareness and uptake of GIS solutions at TTU and the immediate community;
  2. the number of cases that with extreme training needs have almost been exterminated and most training needs have been reduced to either a low or a basic level;
  3. in the year 2022, the areas that are most needy of GIS training and awareness raising for increased uptake and utilisation are ArcGIS Pro, Survey 123, Mining & Geology solutions, and GIS for local government and devolved services.

  

The situation map of GIS awareness at TTU in 2017

The improved situation map of GIS awareness at TTU in 2022

Lessons

TTU’s voyage of GIS transformation may not be a meteoric rise yet, but it shows promising signs of being a standard reference for universities in the region for such a dedicated rise in the near future, if given a further boost. The lessons have once been captured figuratively as a customised GCN Triangle of goodwill, championship, and networking and the 4Vs of vision, visibility, value, and volume/critical mass, as illustrated below and evidenced by other photographs of past events.

Customised 4Vs describing the pillars of enhancing the uptake of GIS technology - TTU experience

Towards a critical mass - engaging past products of GIS training at TTU and Esri Eastern Africa as the university's GIS Technician

Networking with key decision makers in the coastal counties of Kenya, 2018

The following recommendations have arisen from the lessons with respect to the 8th GIS Day to be held at TTU.

  • Esri Eastern Africa to send at least one trainer to showcase modern Esri solutions to the TTU university community over the period 14-16 November.
  • The cumulative lessons from TTU and the specific lessons from the GIS week held at TTU to be discussed with Esri and/or presented at key Esri events and the annual Esri summit with a view to informing an insightful, if not radical, recalibration of outreach strategy to learning institutions in Eastern Africa for enhanced and measurable outcomes.

Reported by Nashon Adero The Esri GIS License Administrator for TTU and TAITAGIS Coordinator

Opportunities in GIS careers: Past, Present and Future

Registration link to the hybrid event here:  CLICK TO OPEN 

Spatial context of Taita Taveta University (TTU)

TTU to start celebrating the GIS Week on 14th November 2022

First GIS Day celebration at TTUC in 2015

Kick-off meeting of TAITAGIS in 2018

Spacious TAITAGIS Lab

Plotter - part of TAITAGIS lab equipment

A typical lab setting during interactive GIS practice sessions by TTU students

The situation map of GIS awareness at TTU in 2017

The improved situation map of GIS awareness at TTU in 2022

Customised 4Vs describing the pillars of enhancing the uptake of GIS technology - TTU experience

Towards a critical mass - engaging past products of GIS training at TTU and Esri Eastern Africa as the university's GIS Technician

Networking with key decision makers in the coastal counties of Kenya, 2018