Afternoon — Official Opening & Introduction to WaPOR¶
Day 2 · 13:30–16:30 · Modules 2 & 3
Official Opening of GEIDA Staff Certification Training (13:30–14:30)¶
Slide deck: Day 2 Deck 2 — GEIDA Introduction & Pathway
The official opening was conducted by:
- Director, ESID/AWRD — Brazid Risa (in person)
- Director, CCD/STI — May Ali Babiker Eltahir (online)
Key messages from the opening¶
"A road corridor, an irrigation scheme, a school, a health facility, a dam or a water supply system — all are first and foremost defined by a location." — ESID Director
"You are not invitees, you are the owners. The regional hub colleagues are the primary beneficiaries and the ultimate owners of this platform." — ESID Director
The ESID Director emphasised that GEIDA is a bank-wide platform — not just for technical staff, but for field-facing colleagues, GP headquarters staff, and independent evaluation:
- Without clearly knowing where a project is, what surrounds it, and what risks affect it — it is difficult to design, monitor, and assess results
- EO gives IsDB the ability to define project perimeters objectively, establish baselines, link locations to satellite-derived indicators, and create evidence-based connections across member countries
- GEIDA will help make project mapping more standardised — towards convergence in how critical spatial aspects are presented in project documents
Three batches of Foundation training are planned, followed by Advanced level. The platform continues to be developed as the certification programme grows.
Session 5 — Introduction to WaPOR & Field-level Analysis (14:30–16:30)¶
Slide deck: WaPOR Data History
What is FAO WaPOR?¶
FAO WaPOR (Water Productivity Open-access Portal) provides high-resolution EO data on water use, vegetation, and water productivity, specifically for agriculture and water resources.
Access: data.apps.fao.org/wapor
WaPOR vs eToolkit
The eToolkit gives a broad multi-sector overview at district to national scale. WaPOR goes much deeper into agriculture and water at field level — 20 m resolution — making it far more useful for irrigation scheme monitoring and water-productivity assessments.
WaPOR data layers¶
| Layer | What it measures | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| ETa (Actual Evapotranspiration) | Water consumed by vegetation and bare soil | 20–100 m |
| AETI (Annual ET & Interception) | Total annual water use | 20–100 m |
| NBWP (Net Biomass Water Productivity) | Biomass produced per unit water used | 20–100 m |
| PHE / SOE (Phenology) | Crop growing season start/end | 20–100 m |
| RZSM (Relative Root Zone Soil Moisture) | Soil moisture in the root zone, as fraction of saturation | 100 m |
| PCP (Precipitation) | Rainfall | ~5 km |
WaPOR coverage and time periods¶
WaPOR covers Africa and the Near East — the primary focus regions for IsDB agriculture and water projects.
- L1 — Continental (250 m), full Africa + Near East
- L2 — Country (100 m), selected countries
- L3 — Irrigation scheme (20 m), specific command areas
Data is available dekadal (10-day), monthly, and annual — allowing you to track seasonal variation and year-on-year trends.
What WaPOR enables for IsDB projects¶
- Irrigation efficiency monitoring (PIASR) — compare actual ET to reference ET; identify over- or under-irrigated zones
- Biomass / yield proxy (PCR) — track crop productivity change before/after project intervention
- Drought monitoring — anomaly detection in ETa or root zone soil moisture (RZSM) time series
- Water productivity benchmarking — compare productivity across seasons or against similar schemes
Exercise 2 continued — field-level WaPOR analysis¶
Participants navigated the WaPOR portal and:
- Selected their country and an agriculture project area
- Explored the ETa and root zone soil moisture (RZSM) time series for the area
- Compared water use across dry and wet seasons
- Identified which WaPOR layer would be most useful for a specific project document (PAD, PIASR, or PCR)
Try WaPOR for your next agriculture or irrigation project
If you are preparing a PAD for an irrigation scheme, pull the ETa and AETI time series for the command area from WaPOR. This gives you a genuine, satellite-verified baseline of water use before the intervention — at no cost.
Continue to Day 3 — Spatial Analysis & GeoLibre