Supporting Drought Resilience in Angola Through a Data-Driven Decision Support Tool

Blue Raster is a long term partner of the MIT Media Lab’s Space Enabled program, working together on projects that show how satellite data and GIS technology can be applied to some of the most pressing issues on Earth. Previous collaborations include work with Green Keeper Africa, the NASA SDG Toolkit, and Fight Toxic Prisons. Each of these efforts has used remote sensing techniques, GIS tools, and spatial data to reveal challenges, inform decision making, and spark change.

Drought Challenges in Angola

Angola faces recurring droughts that pose serious challenges to agriculture, water resources, and community livelihoods. Much of the country relies on rain-fed agriculture, making farmers particularly vulnerable to irregular rainfall and prolonged dry periods. Droughts can reduce crop yields, limit access to clean water, and exacerbate food insecurity, especially in rural communities. Climate variability, land degradation, and deforestation further increase the severity of these events, creating an urgent need for data-driven tools to monitor conditions and inform timely interventions.

Introducing the Angola Drought Management Decision Support Tool

To address these challenges, Blue Raster partnered with the Space Enabled Program at MIT Media Lab and the Angolan National Space Program Management Office (GGPEN) to develop the Angola Drought Management Decision Support Tool. The goal of this project was to translate a workflow originally developed in MATLAB into a GIS-ready, repeatable workflow with an intuitive and interactive user interface. The tool leverages satellite data, GIS, and geospatial analysis to provide actionable insights into drought conditions and support effective planning and response.

Interactive Mapping and Analytical Capabilities

The tool empowers local stakeholders in both the public and private sectors to explore recent and historical drought conditions through an interactive mapping interface built with ArcGIS Experience Builder. Users can analyze drought severity changes over time using a time slider widget spanning a 10-year period. In addition to environmental data, the tool integrates socio-economic vulnerability indices covering health, demographic, and agricultural factors, allowing decision makers to link environmental conditions with community vulnerability.

Automated Data Workflow

Behind the scenes, Blue Raster has implemented a robust data pipeline built in Python. Each week, the program initiates downloads of daily 9-km resolution Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) data from NASA for the prior 8-days and calculates average soil moisture in each grid cell over this 8-day period. It then determines the root zone soil moisture in each grid cell based on the prior 64 days of soil moisture data.

Drought levels for each grid cell in the 8-day period are calculated based on the root zone soil moisture values and peer-reviewed monthly historical drought thresholds. These results are then aggregated using zonal statistics to the province and municipality level. The gridded drought and root zone soil moisture data are converted to geospatial rasters (.TIF) format for visualization, which are then added to mosaic datasets stored in file geodatabases and published as image services through ArcGIS Image Server.

These services are hosted in ArcGIS Enterprise and visualized in the ArcGIS Experience Builder application, providing accessible, reliable, and actionable data to local stakeholders. To ensure smooth operation, the Python workflow is automated to run weekly, and AWS Simple Notification Service (SNS) is configured to notify administrators once the process completes successfully.

Supporting GIS for Good Initiatives

Through projects like this, Blue Raster continues to support GIS for Good initiatives. By turning complex environmental and socio-economic data into actionable insights, we help local decision makers and organizations create lasting positive impact and build resilient communities.

Acknowledgements

Blue Raster would like to recognize the following individuals for their contributions to this work:

Danielle Wood, Director of the Space Enabled Program at MIT Media Lab
Dr. Zolana João, Director-General of the Angolan National Space Program Management Office (GGPEN)
Sharif Islam, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Space Enabled Research Group, MIT
Dara Entekhabi, Bacardi and Stockholm Water Foundations Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, MIT
Luciano Lupedia, Head of the Space Application Development Department, Angolan Space Program Management Office (GGPEN)
Dr. Yusuke Kuwayama, Associate Professor, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

To learn more about how Blue Raster is using GIS, remote sensing and satellite data to tackle real-world challenges, contact our team today to see how these solutions can support your organization.

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