Vacancy code: VA/2012/ICA/71598/ORASECOM-WIS
Job title: ORASECOM Water Information System, WIS: Enhancements and training
Post level: Senior Specialist, I-ICA 3
Duty station
Home office of the consultant, including frequent interactions with the ORASECOM Secretariat in Centurion, South Africa.
Missions to line agencies and other data custodians in Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, and South Africa, as required.
Duration
Retainer contract April 2012 to December 2012, 100 person days
Project context
The Orange-Senqu River Basin is one of the larger river basins in southern Africa. The river system is regulated by some 30 large dams and includes several larger inter- and intra-basin transfers. Extensive water utilisation for urban, industrial and agricultural purposes has significantly reduced natural flow, to the extent that the current flow reaching the river mouth is in the order of half of the natural flow.
Future river basin management in the Orange-Senqu River Basin has to balance these competing water uses, and deal with increasing rates of human-induced change and the mounting concerns about the causes and consequences of this change. Differences in legal frameworks, historical backgrounds and technical capabilities of the four riparian States Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa add to the complexity.
The four riparian States are strongly committed to a joint, basin-wide approach to addressing threats to the shared water resources. This led to the Agreement on the Establishment of the Orange-Senqu River Commission in 2000 (ORASECOM Agreement).
As a fairly young organisation, ORASECOM’s mandate and governance arrangements are evolving. Consensus was reached among the riparian States that one of the primary mechanisms for ORASECOM’s technical advice will be the development of a basin-wide Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) Plan. While the scope of the IWRM Plan and the process of its development remain to be further clarified, the perspective emerges that the IWRM Plan shall provide the cooperation framework for the management and development of water and related resources, focusing firstly on trans-boundary issues. However, the riparian States also recognise that some actions may arise from shorter term or more narrowly focused studies.
The Orange-Senqu River Basin Environment Programme (also the ORASECOM Programme), agreed at the ORASECOM Council Meeting in April 2007, brought the various ICP supporting ORASECOM under one umbrella. The Programme includes six thematic areas:
• Institutional and organisational strengthening;
• Capacity building on shared watercourse management;
• Information System;
• Communication and awareness building;
• Trans-boundary projects and studies; and
• Conservation and environmental strategies and policies.
Project brief
During preparation of the UNDP-GEF funded Project a preliminary Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) of the basin was developed.ORASECOM adopted this document in April 2008. The preliminary TDA charted the main environmental threats to the basin and ascertained their root causes.
The Project is currently finalises the TDA by addressing a number of knowledge gaps. The final TDA will serve as the scientific basis to proceed to National Action Plans (NAPs) in the four riparian States and a related basin-wide Strategic Action Programme (SAP). A participatory process has been designed for the development of the NAPs and the SAP.
In addition, the Project implements four research and demonstration projects:
• A research project on environmental flows, covering methodological issues and setting environmental flow requirements for the non-perennial Fish River catchment (in Namibia), as well as the mouth of the Orange-Senqu River (shared by Namibia and South Africa);
• A demonstration project on water demand and quality management in the irrigation sector, cooperating with the Noordoever-Vioolsdrift Joint Irrigation Authority (Namibia and South Africa) as well as commercial farmers in the perimeter; and
• Two demonstration projects on community based rangeland management, in Botswana and Lesotho.
The four year Project started in December 2009.
ORASECOM Water Information System
The role and responsibilities of ORASECOM relating to data and information management are laid out in the Revised Protocol on Shared Watercourses in the Southern African Development Community (SADC Protocol, 2000) and the ORASECOM Agreement.
The SADC Protocol states that “Parties shall exchange available information and data regarding the hydrological, hydro geological, water quality, meteorological and environmental condition of shared watercourses.”
The ORASECOM Agreement includes three tasks related to data and information management:
• Exchange of data and information: Art 7.4 obliges the Parties to the Agreement to “exchange available information and data regarding the hydrological, hydro-geological, water quality, meteorological and environmental condition of the River System.”
• Standardisation of river monitoring: Art 5.2.5 advises the Parties to work towards “the standardised form of collecting, processing and disseminating data or information with regards to all aspects of the River System.”
• Notification of projects: Art 7.5 obliges: “a Party planning any project, programme or activity with regard to the River System which may have a significant adverse effect upon any one or more of the other Parties, or which may adversely affect such River System, shall forthwith notify the Council and provide all available data and information with regard thereto.”
As would be expected, line agencies in the riparian States as well as other institutions acquire and manage a large range of data and information relevant to water resources management in the Orange-Senqu River Basin. These data include hydrology-meteorology, hydrogeology, and water quality. Whereas some important data custodians in the riparian States have been identified, knowledge of where datasets may be held is mostly fragmented and not easily accessible.
During 2011 the UNDP-GEF Project supported ORASECOM in establishing a Water Information System (wisp.orasecom.org). It provides the following functions:
• Repository and cataloguing to ensure integrity of data and information acquired and produced by ORASECOM and the projects associated with it.
• Web-based search and discovery of data to enable discovery of ORASECOM data and information.
• Data exchange and sharing with appropriate users, including download of ORASECOM data and information for different user groups, while respecting third party data ownership rights.
• Web based provision of data products to the general public, e.g. visualisation of selected data in thematic maps.
• Profiles of the data custodians in the riparian States and links to their websites to facilitate data and information discovery and sharing.
• Under a GIZ executed project under ORASECOM a single integrated water resource network model (IWRMP) has been established for the entire Basin. All IWRMP data have now been systematically stored. It is now possible for the four riparian States to access raw data for the IWRMP and run the models themselves.
Tasks
The following enhancements, a facility for regional selection, and WIS presentations and training have been identified during the review and evaluation processes that occurred in the first phase of the Water Information System project.
Enhancements List A – 5 person days, to be delivered in April 2012
1. Show mouse cursor over table rows.
2. Make panel column widths fixed and independent of content.
3. The active links on the country flags is not working.
4. Order of the countries must be alphabetical.
5. Place labels under the login key and the help light bulb.
6. Show the size of the download file in the search results.
7. Make the plain URL a link on the search results.
8. 8Remove folder details in search results.
9. The “Clear All” button should also clear the themes and date search.
10. The opening page in the search screen should be empty.
11. Home page needs one more paragraph.
12. Update the ORASECOM logo and make link to www.orasecom.org.
13. The logon screen requires a cancel button.
14. Change news to items of interest.
15. The date search needs a calendar image.
16. Put an Outlook button for an event.
Enhancements List B – 10 person days, to be delivered in April and May 2012
1. Date search is not working properly.
2. Activate a scroller on the left hand themes panel.
3. Filter search to items that you are allowed to see.
4. Dedicated page for related sites. Must be linked to organisation’s URLs in database.
5. The ORASECOM Live page is not working properly.
6. Add the scenarios page.
7. The same themes are required for documents, data and studies.
8. Keywords do not wrap.
9. A contact us button and screen is required.
10. A URL link on the map is not working properly.
Enhancements List C – 15 person days, to be delivered in May and June 2012
1. A background monitoring and reporting facility is needed to track and report web site usage statistics – the search keywords and actual downloads in particular.
2. A more sophisticated search algorithm is required that is able to score the match of an item to the search criteria.
Enhancements List D – 10 person days, to be delivered in June and July 2012
1. A You-Tube style introduction is required in different languages.
2. A more interactive help system is required with suggestions.
Regional Selection for WRYM – 20 person days, to be delivered in August 2012
A dataset has been provided for the “Water Resource Yield Model” for the entire ORASECOM catchment. A facility is required to select a smaller sub region on a map and the system should extract all the data elements from the WRYM dataset that are located in that region.
Regional Selection for WRSM2000 – 20 person days, to be delivered in October 2012
A dataset has been provided for the “Water Resource Simulation Model” for the entire ORASECOM catchment. A facility is required to select a smaller sub region on a map and the system should extract all the data elements from the WRSM2000 dataset that are located in that region.
WIS presentations and training – 20 person days, to be delivered as required, April to December 2012
Present the Water Information System at various forums, including presentations and hands-on training at the respective line agencies in the riparian States. Participate in liaison, coordination and integration activities with other contextual initiatives, i.e. the SADC
Requirements
One senior consultant, preferably based in the region, with masters degree and a minimum of eleven years practical experience relevant to the scope of work:
• In-depth experience in conceptualisation and implementation of complex environmental information systems for larger regional organizations.
• Preferably scientific background and experience in application of GIS systems, and advanced programmers experience with GeoNetwork Open Source, in particular user interface programming.
• Software development experience with the water resource modelling applications used in southern Africa – and the WRYM and WRSM2000 in particular.
Submission of applications
Qualified candidates may submit their application, including a letter of interest with proposed honorarium, complete Curriculum Vitae and an updated United Nations Personal History Form (P.11) (available on our website), via e-mail to iwvacancies@unops.org. Kindly indicate the vacancy number and the post title in the subject line when applying by email.
Please note that this is a local post and is open to all nationals of the country of the duty station and to individuals who have a valid work permits.
Additional Considerations
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a level below the advertised level of the post.
For more information on UNOPS, including its core values and competencies, please visit the UNOPS website at www.unops.org.
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