From innovative sensors to steady data streams: The TEMBO Africa project

TEMBO Africa is a Horizon Europe project that seeks to improve in situ sensing of weather and water in sub-Saharan Africa. To ensure beyond-the-project sustainability, we are using innovative sensors to measure variables such as rainfall, bathymetry, river flow, and large-scale soil moisture. TEMBO also develops services for hydropower, agriculture, and disaster management. These services will produce societal and economical value, for which governments and companies are willing to pay. These payments, in turn, serve to maintain the observation networks. One guiding principle is that the new data gathering method should cost less than 10% of existing methods in term of total costs of ownership. This principle implicitly pays special attention to the local availability of human resources. Many monitoring projects in Africa consist of installation by experts from the Global North, followed by a short training of local technicians. This works nicely until something breaks down. In TEMBO, African universities and spin-off companies are co-developing the technologies such that any operational problems can be solved without flying in expensive foreign experts. In this presentation, we will go through the sensor innovations and how these feed into different products and services.