Welcome to SAEON

WELCOME! Let’s network …

We proudly present the launch issue of the SAEON e-Newsletter, another highlight in an exciting year for the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON).

This monthly newsletter is aimed at keeping you, our key stakeholders, informed of what is happening within SAEON and its broader international networks for long-term environmental research, and drawing you into the fold of the SAEON “family”. This is as much your newsletter as it is ours, and we invite you to help shape it by sending your comments and SAEON relevant information to the editor:  mitzi@saeon.ac.za

Brief overview

To take you one step back and give you a brief overview of SAEON and its main activities so far: The formation of SAEON was proposed based on the recognition that many large-scale environmental processes on which human wellbeing depends, tend to change slowly relative to the “noise” in the signal, making it virtually impossible to detect change if the observation period is brief. Our purpose at SAEON is to deliver long-term information over a range of eco-regions and land uses, that will be relevant to the sustainable development of South Africa ’s natural resources and habitats.

SAEON’s vision, therefore, is one of ‘a sustained, coordinated, responsive and comprehensive South African Earth observation network that delivers long-term reliable data for scientific research and informs decision-making for a knowledge society and improved quality of life'.

SAEON is in the process of establishing observation platforms linked by innovative information management systems for multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional ecosystem observation studies at multiple scale and with strong regional and global links. These observation platforms will be coordinated as nodes.

Milestones

One of our first milestones was the launch of the SAEON Ndlovu Node at Phalaborwa, hosted by the South African National Parks, almost a year ago. In the past year a manager was appointed for the Node, and vast ground has been covered in creating a blueprint for the establishment and management of this and other prospective SAEON nodes. Work on the construction of the Ndlovu Node offices and laboratory at the entrance to the new Limpopo Transfrontier Park commenced in May, and is showing good progress.

In collaboration with the respective research communities, SAEON is currently at advanced stages of identifying potential hosts for the SAEON Coastal-Inshore and Marine-Offshore nodes, and a selection of sites is under scrutiny for the prospective SAEON Fynbos Node.

An effective, fully integrated information management system is vital to enable SAEON to deliver on its mandate of making reliable and accessible environmental information available to users. SAEON’s Information Management Co-ordinator is investigating the best ways and means to establish an ethical and accessible data management system for SAEON. He is currently in discussion with various role-players, such as the CSIR, to establish a network of information databases that can be accessed through varied computerised portals.

As ecosystem understanding is gained through SAEON’s data and data products, information will be made available to be fed into new policies and strategies for environmental stewardship, more specifically for trying to deal with changing Earth and environmental systems, as these systems are already being forced into unprecedented behaviour by global climate change and local human interferences.

Capacity building in observation science and eco-informatics is vital for SAEON’s future success. A number of postgraduate researchers have already benefited from SAEON’s support, and a postdoctoral researcher, Dr Silvia Mecenero, was appointed for a contract period to develop form-based standard meta data sets. Four of these early career researchers formed a committee to start a South African students’ network in association with SAEON.

Another SAEON objective is to work towards direct social benefits through improved environmental science education (public and formal) and awareness, as well as environmental quality, sustainable development and livelihoods practices.

We have strengthened the education and outreach programme at Phalaborwa with the appointment of an Education and Outreach Officer for the SAEON Ndlovu Node, who will be working closely with the Education and Outreach Coordinator at the SAEON National Office in Pretoria .

In the pipeline

A vote of confidence in SAEON and its achievements so far, is that it has just been nominated as the implementing agency for the South African Earth Observation Strategy (SAEOS). The SAEOS, a cabinet approved initiative of the Department of Science and Technology, will link all South Africa’s Earth observation data holdings, and will be linked internationally to the intergovernmental Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).

Another exciting initiative that is in the pipeline is the first SAEON Summit, a conference on observation science planned for the first quarter of 2006. The call for papers will go out shortly, so watch this space.

SAEON is moving ahead steadfastly, and by reading this newsletter you will stay informed and involved …

- Johan Pauw, head of SAEON