Fundación EcoCiencia carried out the first phase of training for technicians from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) within the framework of the SERVIR-Amazonia program, to conclude with the delivery of the Spatiotemporal Monitoring of Water Erosion (MEEH acronym in Spanish) service.
The application was developed jointly by Alianza Bioversity and CIAT, the General Coordination of National Agricultural Information (CGINA) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) of Ecuador and the EcoCiencia Foundation as a local partner of the program. The platform for monitoring water erosion in the Ecuadorian Amazon is available in the Geoportal of Ecuadorian Agriculture.
Kevin Apolo, analyst of the Directorate of Generation of Agricultural Geoinformation of the Ministry of Agriculture, said that: “We frequently use Google Earth Engine and the training reinforces the knowledge to apply it in the different areas of work.”
This service detects soil loss due to water erosion by applying the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) with a spatial resolution of 30 meters. There are various factors such as the amount of rain, the ease with which the soil can be eroded, the length and inclination of the terrain, the coverage and use of the land, and management practices.
Rodrigo Torres, coordinator of the geography unit, and Lorena Caiza, GIS specialist, gave training sessions on basic knowledge of Google Earth Engine, for the technological transfer of the service.
Rodrigo Torres, coordinator of the geography unit, and Lorena Caiza, GIS specialist, gave training sessions on basic knowledge of Google Earth Engine, for the technological transfer of the service. Thanks to this, it is possible to monitor water erosion caused by rain, in the last 20 years.
Ricardo Elizalde, geography specialist of the Military Geographic Institute, said that: “It is very important to review this type of methodologies because they contribute a lot in the areas we work in. The facilities provided by Google Earth Engine are quite satisfactory, it is linked to your own server and allows you to save a lot of memory space.”
The activities were carried out within the framework of the SERVIR-Amazonia Program, which is part of SERVIR Global, a development initiative jointly funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).