Partners / Links

1. User Group

The Aquifer project is built up around User Group made up of national and administrative authorities responsible for water resources management. These users are grouped around two internationally shared aquifers: the Système Aquifère du Sahara Septentrional (SASS) and the Système d'Aquifères d'Iullemeden (SAI) aquifer.

SAI Users include:

Mali: Ministère des Mines, de l'Energie et de l'Eau
Niger: Ministry of Hydraulic and Environment
Nigeria: Federal Ministry of Water Resources

SASS Users include:

Algeria: Agence Nationale des Ressources Hydrauliques (ANRH)
Libya: General Water Authority (GWA)
Tunisia: Direction Générale des Ressources en Eaux (DGRE)

2. User Coordinator

The extern Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) is an international organisation whose mission is to serve as a tool for liaison and an international framework for partnership and consultation, and to contribute to the mastery and exchange of information of use in the combat against desertification and the attenuation of the effects of drought (Article 1 of the OSS Statutes).

It is composed of African and non-African states, sub-regional organisations devoted to combating desertification and attenuating the effects of drought (CILSS, IGAD, UMA...), United Nations organisations, intergovernmental organisations and non-governmental organisations.

One of the activity axes of OSS is the Joint management of shared water resources. The joint management of shared water resources constitutes, especially in arid and semi-arid areas, a highly strategic stake closely linked with the problems of combating desertification and mitigating the drought effects as well as with improving live conditions and poverty eradication. extern SASS or NWSAS (North-Western Sahara Aquifer System) was taken up as in special programme which started in July 1999.

Due to its mandate and activities, OSS is predestined to act as the User Co-ordinator for Aquifer. The User Co-ordinator establishes the link to the User Group and facilitates a communication line between them and the consortium. On one side, OSS co-ordinates and mediates the User Group in the execution of their assigned tasks and on the other side, it 'owns' certain work packages.

3. European Consortium Partners

The consortium was built up to combine complementary expertises and experiencesand to provide response to the requirements of the Aquifer project. The European consortium consists of the following partners:

	GAF AG, Germany - as the prime partner with its specific experience in:
	Application of satellite remote sensing and GIS technology specifically in land use / cover mapping and change detection, natural resources mapping, hydrogeology and agriculture Training and know-how transfer International project experience including Africa and the Arab world Management of international, multi-partner and interdisciplinary projects Distribution and provision of Earth observation data
	SCOT, France - as competent partner in:
	Applied remote sensing and GIS specifically for land use and land cover, water resources management and change detection Training and know-how transfer Extensive work and training experience specifically in French speaking Africa
	With its two institutes "Water Resources Management" and "Digital Image Processing" Joanneum Research, Austria provides state-of the art know-how to the consortium specifically concerning the aspects of water balance and water abstraction as well as for the state-of-the are processing of satellite image data.
	A leading European company in the field of space technology and application Telespazio, Italy provides to the team specifically its long experience in the DTM generation from SAR systems and in subsidence monitoring.
	Departement of Geoinformatics and Remote Sensing, University of Jena, Germany, is a well reputed research organisation in remote sensing, image processing and its applications. The Department specifically brings to the team its specific experience in regional monitoring of vegetation and water resources by means of EO and ancillary data.
	Vista Geowissenschaftliche Fernerkundung mbH, Germany is a well known and specialised company providing its expert services and long experience in the field of radar and hyperspectral mapping.

4. Partner Institutions from Maghreb/Africa -- Local Service Providers

The Local Providers are technical partners and carry out the design, production, delivery and implementation of the product in their specific country/region: land use/land cover and land use/land cover change.

	The Local Providers for the SASS countries are:
	Centre National des Techniques Spatiales (CNTS - Algeria) Centre National de Télédétection (CNT - Tunisia) Libyan Center For Remote Sensing and Space Science (LCRSSS - Libya)


	The Local Provider for all Iullemeden countries is:
	The AGRHYMET Regional Centre (Niamey - Niger)

5. Other Links

	African Development Bank
	African Water Facility
	ESA (European Space Agency)
	ESA - DUE (Data User Element)
	ESA - TIGER Initative
	Epidemio (EO in Epidemiology)
	GMFS (Global Monitoring for Food Security)
	FAO: Water Resources, Development and Management Service
	UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)
	WSSD (World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg 2002)