Indonesia: Remote Sensing Specialist

Background

The World Food Programme in Indonesia provides technical support to Government of Indonesia on analysis and monitoring of the food security situation across the country. A broad monitoring system for Indonesia which examines the impact of climate and natural disasters on the population is crucial to mitigating risks. The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) has strong expertise in emergency preparedness and response. In the current context in Indonesia, the impacts of El Nino have raised serious concerns on the impacts of drought on food security. Specific expertise on monitoring droughts is currently limited within BNPB. As part of WFP’s role in providing technical assistance to Government of Indonesia, an experienced Remote Sensing specialist is sought to be embedded within BNPB for a three month consultancy.

Objectives and scope of work

The overall objective of this consultancy is to develop technical capacity within BNPB on monitoring droughts and floods in Indonesia, to establish workflows which utilize remote sensing data and related information for drought monitoring and to identify methods which can be employed in provincial and district offices for assessing and ground-truthing drought severity. All of these objectives will ultimately lead to timely and useful information that can be used by multiple government entities to mitigate the agricultural and socio-economic impacts of drought and floods. The consultant will establish an analytical framework, data sources and processes that will ultimately lead to development of drought and flood monitoring products in Indonesia.

Specifically, the consultant will:

1. Identify methods, datasets and tools for monitoring drought in Indonesia from a meteorological, hydrological, agricultural and socioeconomic perspective.


2. Identify data and methods for establishing flood risk models in Indonesia.


3. Create processes for acquiring and processing identified datasets with as much automation as possible.


4. Collect and pre-process earth observation and climate datasets for all of Indonesia. Minimum variables to include are rainfall estimates, vegetation indices, and temperature data at the best resolution available.


5. Derive drought and flood risk indicators, and their frequency (hazard maps) for Indonesia, at the highest resolution, and disaggregated by month, at minimum.


6. Combine data layers covering hazard exposure and population vulnerability along with a modelling component to determine baseline probabilistic levels of humanitarian impact associated with hazards, on a monthly basis, at a sub-provincial level, across Indonesia.


7. To support potential interventions by Government of Indonesia, identify subnational areas with varying degrees of exposure to drought and flood risks, and population vulnerability, on a monthly level.


8. Identify data to be collected by BNPB counterparts at provincial and district level which can be reported and integrated into drought and flood risk analysis in a time efficient manner.


9. Establish criteria for identification of drought impacted area which combines remote sensing and locally collected data with a clear and transparent methodology.


10. Support the development of guidance materials, tutorials and training materials for BNPB staff and Government of Indonesia broadly.


11. For all of the above tasks, place significant emphasis on capacity development and mentoring of BNPB staff.

Duration and location

This consultancy is required to begin on 1-October-2015 for a period of 3 months. The consultant will be based in Jakarta and work within BNPB’s offices. She/he will be required to periodically meet with WFP in Jakarta to report on progress and issues faced.

Minimum qualifications and experience

The consultant must have a strong technical understanding of climate models, drought monitoring, floor risk analysis, and vulnerability assessments. She/he must have:

1. At least seven years of experience in using remote sensing data for monitoring drought and identifying flood risks.


2. Master’s degree or higher in GIS, climate sciences, agriculture, or a related field.


3. Expert in application of remote sensing data to analyze agricultural and socioeconomic impacts of weather phenomenon and climate change.


4. Ability to work closely with Government in a capacity development function.


5. Excellent written and communication skills in English. The ideal candidate will also be fluent in Bahasa Indonesia.