Objective: Set up cost effective innovative sensor networks that can be financed by climate services built on top of these networks. Concept: Transformative new methods to measure five essential hydrological variables (rainfall, soil moisture, river flow, bathymetry) at less than 10% of current costs. These reduced costs are essential to have realistic business models for services that cover the costs of building and operating the networks. The five essential variables will be available through GEOSS. Innovation: Seven new sensing methods will be introduced in Africa. The innovation does not focus only on moving up Technology Readiness Levels of new measuring methods but, especially, on the usefulness and practical applicability of these methods in the specific contexts. The direct linkage of sensors and new value-creating services is part of this innovation because this is essential for long-term financial sustainability. New services assimilate in situ and satellite data in numerical models to make optimal use of strengths of different sources of information. Knowledge of the African market: Building on earlier research-oriented projects and on experience in development of geo-services in Africa, in-depth knowledge of the opportunities and limitations of the African market is widely available within the consortium. Selection of focus services was based on this knowledge. These focus services are Flood Early Warning Systems, reservoir management, and crop germination insurance. These have been selected as the most promising services in the broader climate-oriented areas of geo-hazards, water management, and agricultural information.

Objectives: Provide currently unavailable geo-information on weather, water and climate for sub-Saharan Africa by enhancing satellite-based geo-data with innovative in situ sensors and developing related information services that answer needs of African stakeholders and the GEOSS community. Concept: A systematic feedback loop to reciprocally validate in situ measurements and satellite data in one integrated model. Over 500 in situ measurement stations using citizen science. State of the art advancement & Innovation potential: Building on and pushing further recent advances in sensor and communication technology to provide cheaper and more robust in situ measurements covering a wider area at a higher resolution in sub-Saharan Africa. Working with tech-hubs in Europe and Africa to feed creation and growth of European and African start-ups that develop sensors and geo-services, delivering complete value chains from sensor to customer-ready information delivery. Impact on call expectations: -Integration of in situ components into models based on GEOSS and Copernicus data -OGC compliant science-grade geo-data (atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere) delivered to GEOSS, incl. near-real time statistically characterized soil moisture data from Africa that can be used operationally (not currently available) and radar derived soil moisture measurements also available under cloudy conditions, or vegetation overgrowth -at least 20 new products for use in food, water, energy security, climate change and resilience to natural hazards validated and ready for large-scale implementation by consortium partners and external stakeholders -based on at least 10 innovative, cost efficient, robust, sensors, including fast neutron coun-ter, track¬ing of convective storms with consumer lightning sensors and accelerometer for tree-crown weighing -(Bio-degradable) sensors reduced to one tenth to one hundredth of their current price, extremely low-maintenance, use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.