Digital Earth Pacific's access to data and innovative tools, Ahi's story

The original blog in its format can be found here.

In a rapidly advancing technological landscape, Tonga's Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forests (MAFF) has embraced the Digital Earth Pacific (DEP) platform, ushering in simpler, cheaper and more accessible tools for the team to make the right decisions.

In an interview with Ahi'ahi Saipa'ia, a Technical Officer specialising in Geospatial Data Analysis at the Ministry in Tonga, we explore the benefits this is having on their work and the value to the nation.

Ahi joined the Land Cover Assessment Skills Transfer (LCAST) training held in Nuku'alofa, Tonga, earlier this year, organised by the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Government of Tonga with diverse representation from local ministries.

Ahi’ explains the benefits of the Digital Earth Pacific tools extend far beyond the walls of her role and team. According to her, the programme plays a pivotal role in elevating the Ministry's work, allowing them and other sectors to harness valuable information on agricultural land cover.

She continues by saying:” It is also going to help by creating a time series of climate change in a way that the Ministry (Agriculture) and the government will be able to solve problems for independent and commercial farmers.”

Reflecting on the impact of the Digital Earth Pacific programme on her work, Ahi’ expresses how it has elevated data collection efforts beyond the confines of vegetation crop field boundaries: “Besides collecting polygons of crops, the programme presents many ideas of how to analyse a set amount of data to reflect from it.”

“It gives me confidence in collecting field points I need to support creating an agricultural vegetation crop map and land cover map”.

This is because the decades of satellite data accessible in Digital Earth Pacific enable the mapping of agricultural field boundaries, crop type and crop health. Together, these products allow farmers and governments to estimate crop yield, and therefore, food security decisions can be timely made.

Hence, Ahi’ can access and create products that help her provide more valuable information to local farmers and communities whilst understanding how her environment is changing over time and the decisions that need to be made to increase resilience now and into the future for the agriculture sector in Tonga.

DEP has sparked innovative ideas for Ahi’ and expanded her skills in utilising QGIS, Python, and Jupyter notebooks for data analysis.

Adopting the DEP tools bodes well for Tonga's future, thinks Ahi’.

“These tools are important for our Ministry and our work. Not only is it an open source, but it allows us to digitise our agriculture system. The software from the Land Cover Assessment will create a time series of land cover to keep decision-makers updated on the information for future farm management planning, cropland, forest land and others.

“ Ahi’ recalls her work process previously and the transformation she recently witnessed. She recounts the transition from labour-intensive paper-based data collection and analysis to the streamlined, efficient digital methods today: “When I started working with MAFF, we used a paper-based method to collect data for our surveys. We would have to observe and visit plantation areas to get data, manually input them into Excel and then summarise, which is quite a long process. The introduction of QGIS, QField and satellite data, all part of the DEP, really improved our ways in terms of time and accuracy.”

“It only takes one code to retrieve a summary of a list of data, which is faster and more reliable. The Ministry has really benefitted from the DEP platform, and we can actually see a huge change, not only for me but for our Director and the Ministry as a whole. This will help us create a pathway for collecting data digitally for our future work and planning.”

When discussing the data that different ministries collect, Ahi emphasises their importance. “Accurate data produces better decisions and vice versa. It is crucial to have accurate data to inform leaders and decision-makers for better, well-informed decisions. They will affect the communities and the future of our nation".

In closing, Ahi' expresses her gratitude for DEP's role in opening doors for Pacific Islanders: “I thank the Digital Earth Pacific programme for creating opportunities for us Pacific Islanders, and I am also grateful that Tonga is part of this journey.”

Tonga's journey with Digital Earth Pacific is a testament to the transformative power of innovation and collaboration in the ever-evolving data and technology landscape. The nation stands at the precipice of a brighter, data-driven future, thanks to the collaboration DEP has with professionals like Ahi'ahi Saipa'ia.

SPC is thrilled to lead the development of the public digital infrastructure that is Digital Earth Pacific. To achieve the ambitious goals, we invite you to join us. Given our demand-driven approach, partnerships are an essential and major element of DEP. We seek mutually beneficial partnerships to deliver the programme, amplify the benefits, and ensure sustainability.