SciDevNet

A mobile phone application that enables users of low-cost phones to submit water quality results quickly and easily is having a positive impact among users.

The Water Quality Reporter (WQR) application was developed by the iCOMMS team at the civil engineering department at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, under the leadership of Associate Professor Ulrike Rivett.

A pilot version of an online mapping tool has been launched in Africa which enables researchers and policymakers to identify how climate change vulnerability, conflict, and aid intersect.

Researchers from the Strauss Center's Climate Change and African Political Stability (CCAPS) programme, United States, integrated data from areas of climate change vulnerability and active aid-funded projects in Malawi, and mapped this information onto the locations of Malawian conflicts up to 2010.

Nairobi — Millions of people in Africa and the Middle East will be able to benefit from free, unlimited access to the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia through their mobile phone, starting later this year.

The scheme targets the region's 70 million customers of the mobile network provider Orange, who will be given free access to Wikipedia on their internet-enabled 'smart' phones.

E-governance could help Ghana's higher authorities to deal responsibly with its new-found oil wealth, a leading scientist has said. In 2007, UK firm Tullow Oil announced the discovery of about 600 million barrels of offshore light oil in Ghana - the biggest recent oil discovery in Africa. But the country must develop new ways of interacting with its citizens and be more open to the public on activities within the oil industry to avoid conflict, said Akua Appiah-Akuramaa from the Geological Survey Department of Ghana.

African satellite images are useful but only if scientists have the means to access and study them A landmark decision to allow free access to key earth observation data has failed to impact Africa sufficiently because of poor Internet connections, say researchers.

The US Geological Survey took the decision to allow free access to Landsat Earth observation satellite data in January 2008 – a deal that opened up nearly 40 years of images, or 'scenes'. The data can be used to monitor changes to the land, such as the effects of climate change on crops, or urbanisation.