Enable data provision and exchange
Facilitate the acquisition, provision, integration, management and exchange of heterogeneous data resources for the delivery and dissemination of WASCAL services.
WASCAL Data Infrastructure
WADI
WADI stands for WASCAL Data Infrastructure. It is the hardware, software, network resources and IT services established by WASCAL to collect, store, manage, discover, access, share and disseminate primary and secondary research data related to environment and climate change in West Africa.
WADI is one of the three pillars of the WASCAL Data Centre for data and related services provision. Data are accessible through the portal at wadicatalog.wascal.org, with a mnemonic redirect available at www.wadi.wascal.org.
Objectives
A regional infrastructure for science-based climate services
Delivering research and science-based services on climate change and adapted land use requires collecting and integrating significant volumes of data from climate, hydrology, agriculture, socio-economics, environmental sciences, geography and other domains.
Build a regional data hub
Connect data providers, data users and data managers to address data scarcity and contribute to filling data gaps across the region.
Services
Services delivered by the WASCAL Data Centre
Through this infrastructure, interlinked with WASCAL Observation Network automatic weather and hydro stations, the WASCAL Data Centre provides regional data services to researchers, students, projects and institutional stakeholders.
Regional data collection
Automatic data collection from Automatic Weather Stations provided to member countries by WASCAL.
Regional data storage
Tools and free storage space are offered to West African researchers and students.
Discovery, access and dissemination
Services for discovering, accessing, sharing and disseminating regional research datasets.
Mirroring and platform hosting
Secure hosting and mirroring services can be provided to projects and institutional stakeholders, including tools, storage space and deployment support for data platforms.
Strategic service expansion
WASCAL data strategy also targets additional services for data integration and standardization, climate data computation and visualization, demand-driven decision support, and the WeDataMIND initiative, with WADI as a key infrastructure cornerstone.
Portals
Delivery channels
WADI services are delivered through complementary tools that support discovery, spatial visualization, metadata standardization and dataset publication.
- WASCAL Data Discovery Portal Primary access point for discovering and accessing data resources.
- WASCAL Geoportal Graphical and spatial visualization of datasets.
- Central Metadata Catalogue Standardized metadata provision and upload of collected datasets.
Actors
A regional data ecosystem
WADI connects data providers, data users and data managers across WASCAL networks, member countries and international research partnerships.
Data providers
- WASCAL observation networks covering hydro-meteorology, remote sensing, biodiversity and socio-economics across three research catchments.
- WASCAL Graduate Research Programmes, with around 100 students per batch conducting field data collection for Master and PhD work.
- WASCAL Competence Centre scientists contributing to national, regional and global initiatives, including climate change projections for West Africa.
- Regional data-sharing agreements with National Meteorological Agencies, including agreements signed with 9 of 10 WASCAL member countries.
- International research partners from Germany, including the University of Bonn and Research Centre Juelich, as well as partners from countries such as France and the Netherlands.
Data users
Scientists and non-scientists from around the world use WADI to search for and request data. The public usage map provides a country-level view of data searches performed through the infrastructure.
View the WADI usage mapData managers
WADI was initially implemented and administered by two Data Managers from Germany, then co-managed with WASCAL staff through a Data Management Group. Since April 2018, WADI has been under the full control of the WASCAL Data Management department, while maintaining collaboration with German partners for temporary support and continuity.
Impacts
Visibility, usage and international reach
Several people from dozens of countries have conducted data searches or requests on WADI, mostly from research and education institutions such as universities and research centres in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe.
As a regional data centre accessed worldwide, WADI strengthens WASCAL visibility by helping African and international researchers discover and access data made available by WASCAL and its partners.
WADI also provides the IT infrastructure needed for online delivery and dissemination of WASCAL climate and environmental services to policy makers, communities and scientists, supporting WASCAL as an international programme.
Work with WADI
Discover, publish and manage data with WASCAL
Use the WASCAL Data Portal to explore datasets, coordinate publication workflows or contact the Data Centre team for institutional support.