A CROSS 2023 Grant Won by Jérôme CHENAL and Olivier GALLAY's teams
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The CEAT laboratory of Jérôme CHENAL at EPFL and the DO laboratory of Olivier GALLAY at UNIL have just won one of the CROSS grants for 2023. The project is entitled Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Approach Using Remote Sensing and GIS For Drought Impacts Assessment On Vegetable Health and is conducted in East Africa.
The CROSS College of Humanities, directed by Professor Frédéric Kaplan (https://www.linkedin.com/in/frederickaplan/), is a program that promotes interdisciplinary research between EPFL and UNIL that addresses current human and technological challenges. CROSS launches annual competitive grants to all laboratories of these two institutions.
This year, the CROSS 2023 Call for Projects on "Crisis" saw the participation of 9 proposals. Following the evaluation of the Scientific Committee of the CROSS Program, the proposal of the tandem EPFL (ENAC, CEAT) - UNIL (DO, HEC) has been awarded one of the grants. The team EPFL (ENAC, CEAT) is directed by Jérôme CHENAL (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerome-chenal/), assisted by Baraka Jean-Claude MUNYAKA (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-jean-claude-baraka-munyaka-093676235/) and the team UNIL (DO, HEC) is directed by Olivier GALLAY (https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivier-gallay-0473631/) assisted by Mikele GADJA (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikele-gajda/).
This project aims to use Satellite-based remote sensing to identify and monitor drought severity in Murehwa District, Zimbabwe and West Pokot County, Kenya. Moreover, a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach will be developed to assess the impacts of drought on vegetable health. As droughts growingly recur in sub-Saharan Africa and other regions, dams are drying up, livestock is dying, and food insecurity impoverishes populations. Scientific, political and humanitarian efforts are needed.
It should be noted that in a broader sense, in addition to the CEAT Laboratory and the UNIL Department of Operations (DO), the project will be carried out under multiple labels including that of the Excellence in Africa (EXAF) Center, that one of the Pokot Women Empowerment Organization (POWEO) and that one of the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) Agricultural Economics and Extension Department. POWEO and UZ-AEED are local organizations assisting with secondary and primary data collection.
The work is expected to last from January to November 2023. Deliverables such as scientific publications and reports, conferences and seminars are expected. We look forward to following the project's progress and keeping you informed of the overall results in our upcoming publications. Stay tuned!