Digital Earth Africa

Satellite Data for Sustainable Development

Digital Earth Africa

The Challenge

Leveraging Satellite Data for Sustainable Development 

For decades, satellites have captured images of Africa’s terrestrial surfaces and coastal zones, offering valuable information on land and water resources and the human and climate impact on them. While a valuable asset to the African economy,  Earth observation data has yet to be exploited to its full potential.  The complexity of using these large volumes of data which are challenging to access from the African continent, and further require capacity to prepare, analyse and turn into actionable insights, have contributed to this underutilisation.

Driving Progress Towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Digital Earth Africa supports all of Africa to drive progress towards the national development priorities and global challenges such as the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

View the SDGs
Sustainable Development Goal 2Sustainable Development Goal 6Sustainable Development Goal 9Sustainable Development Goal 11Sustainable Development Goal 13Sustainable Development Goal 14Sustainable Development Goal 15

Supporting Africa’s Vision Through Agenda 2063

DE Africa also contributes directly to enabling Earth Observations (EO) in Africa that work towards the African Union’s Agenda 2063 framework. 

The African Union states that Agenda 2063 is “Africa’s blueprint and master plan for transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the future. It is the continent’s strategic framework that aims to deliver on its goal for inclusive and sustainable development and is a concrete manifestation of the pan-African drive for unity, self-determination, freedom, progress and collective prosperity.”

Read about Agenda 2063

Goal 1

A high standard of living, quality of life, and wellbeing for all citizens.

Goal 5

Modern agriculture for increased productivity and production.

Goal 6

Blue/ocean economy for accelerated economic growth.

Goal 7

Environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient economies and communities.

The Solution

A Data Cube for All of Africa

Digital Earth Africa offers an operational data infrastructure that makes more than three decades of historical satellite images, as well as near real-time updates, freely available and openly accessible across the entire African continent. By providing these in an analysis-ready format, as well as transforming the data into decision-ready information, Digital Earth Africa removes barriers to access and to effective use of Earth observation data for Africa. Launched in 2019, Digital Earth Africa now hosts more than six petabytes of data stored in Amazon Web Services Africa region (Cape Town), ensuring a secure and high-performing service.  

ODC Technology

Digital Earth Africa leverages Open Data Cube (ODC) technology to simplify the management of vast data archives. The ODC, a not-for-profit open-source project and community, was created and is facilitated by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), with the Australian Geoscience Data Cube (AGDC) as its initial implementation.

Application for Decision Makers

By equipping decision makers – from governments to community leaderswith accessible datasets that can be used to inform evidence-based, data-driven insights, Digital Earth Africa’s cloud based digital infrastructure provides a compelling tool to help Africa sustainably manage its natural resources and mitigate the impacts of climate change.

The Impact

Action for Impact

May 30, 2025

Addressing Earth observation data barriers In Africa with Digital Earth Africa and the Open Data Cube

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May 6, 2025

Mapping seagrass in Senegal: A new step toward sustainable marine ecosystems

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March 17, 2025

DE Africa’s tools are revolutionising how coastal erosion is studied in Ghana

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