ENVIRONMENTAL AND LIVELIHOOD VULNERABILITY MAPPING IN
NORTH AND SOUTH DARFUR
Second Briefing Note – 20 December 2009
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INTRODUCTION
This is the second of a series of briefing notes that will be produced during the environmental and livelihood
vulnerability mapping (ELVM) project in Darfur. The project is being undertaken for IOM Sudan by ProAct
Network, under funding from the Government of Japan. The following sections provide a brief update on the
development of the conceptual model underpinning the project, image and data acquisition and, the
immediate next steps.
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PROGRESS ON THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Following an extensive desk review of existing literature on environmental and livelihoods vulnerability
concepts, models, and methodologies, a team meeting convened on the 18-20 November 2009 reviewed and
revised these in order to reach definitional consensus. This now forms the basis for the vulnerability
framework applied to the ELVM project in North and South Darfur. The following definitions have been
integrated into the ELVM conceptual framework:
“Vulnerability” is the extent to which a system may be impacted by a hazardous event to which it is
exposed, after accounting for the system’s adaptive capacity.
“Exposure” is the probability of the system experiencing a hazard.
A “hazard” is a natural or man-made threat to the system’s condition.
An “impact” is the extent of change in the system’s condition due to the occurrence of a hazardous
event.
“Adaptive capacity” is a system's ability to adapt to a hazardous event – by anticipating it, resisting it,
coping with its impacts and recovering from them.
In order to construct an initial vulnerability atlas for the study area, the ELVM project will build a model for
estimating vulnerability at the geographic level. The model will include all major vulnerability components,
following the above-mentioned definitions, and using context-specific indicators for which data is available or
can be extracted from remote sensing analyses. Subject to data availability and quality, the final vulnerability
estimates may also take into consideration current environmental degradation.
Verification procedure
The spatial vulnerability estimates will be contrasted and verified using the latest data from IOM’s Village
Assessments, existing results from the most recent relevant studies on Darfur and selected high resolution
satellite imagery. Field verification will also be undertaken at selected locations and complemented with
community environmental mapping techniques. The latter procedure will supplement IOM's survey
information and will permit the refinement of the mapping of potential natural resource based livelihoods
activities in the region. It will also capture the communities' perceptions of livelihood activities’ vulnerability
to major hazards.
Site selection is progressing according to the following procedure: based on IOM-determined priority sites in
the return process and cross-referencing with known landscape forms, climatic zones and livelihood activity
areas, a shortlist of sites will be presented to IOM for security and logistical screening. Between eight and
twelve field verification visits will be undertaken over a three week period, with primary focus on South
Darfur. These visits will serve to both verify and refine the analysis of satellite imagery, and to gather
community-derived data in so far as relevant to natural resource-based livelihood activities, which will
similarly be used to refine the ELVM Atlas for North and South Darfur.
A near final version of the ELVM project report will be subject to review by an academic and technical
steering group comprised of both international and Sudanese experts. Their feedback is expected to allow
further refinement of the vulnerability atlas, and increase access to relevant expertise and experience in
Darfur.
The ELVM Atlas shall contain: an updated land cover map (2009) associated with potential natural resourcebased livelihood activities; maps of exposure to hazards (e.g. droughts, floods, and over exploitation of
natural resources); and a set of vulnerability maps, based on spatial models which incorporate multi-hazard
exposure and adaptive capacity indicators.
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PROGRESS ON IMAGE ACQUISITION, RELEVANT DATA AND MAPPING
The datasets and satellite imagery acquired in the context of this project is vast, therefore only a brief
overview is provided here.
Vegetation and rainfall data is derived primarily from the analysis of NOAA AVHRR dataset. Progress has
been made in rendering this information accessible to the project, and Normalised Difference Vegetation
Index (NDVI) profiles have been plotted throughout North and South Darfur. These data shall be correlated
with a variety of other sources, including for example meteorological data, Landsat imagery, and SPOT
satellite imagery.
Climate data for Darfur has been acquired from the WorldClim project and includes precipitation, temperature
and bioclimatic parameters.
Topographic data shall be derived from two sources: the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (STRM) and the
ASTER Global Digital Elevation Map (GDEM).
Land cover data has been generated from visual interpretation of Landsat images, which shall be re-inforced
and updated using the Globcover Land Cover product. These two datasets shall be used to determine the
dominant land cover types within different climatic zones, and to generate knowledge on the connections
between land cover types and associated livelihood activities.
The project has ordered medium resolution Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) satellite imagery for the
full geographic extent of the project, which provides contemporary coverage of the entire study area. As
indicated above, high resolution imagery shall also be purchased for select indicative sites using a stratified
sampling scheme, based on a classification of Darfur into ecological zones.
Photo interpretation shall also form an important source of information. The project currently has access to
over two thousand geo-referenced photographs of the study area, and will acquire additional photos following
the field verification visits.
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IMMEDIATE NEXT STEPS
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Further data collection.
Work with IOM’s GIS/Mapping Unit to refine their contribution to the project.
Digitise and geo-reference historical maps and other data relevant to the project, which was obtained
during the first ELVM mission to Khartoum.
Continue the refinement of site selection criteria.
Complete the logistical and security screening of candidate field verification sites.
Prepare information packs for the field verification sites.
Continue analysis of acquired datasets and satellite imagery.
For additional information on the project please contact Paul Rushton at IOM (prushton@iom.int)
or Grant Wroe-Street at ProAct Network (grant.wroe-street@proactnetwork).