About EMMA
EMMA is a decision-support tool for protected areas in South Africa’s Cape Floristic Region. It delivers continuously updated regional summaries and park-level reports on vegetation condition, anomalies, fire history, and veld age so managers can see what has changed and where to look next—co-developed with the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON) and academic partners at the University at Buffalo and the University of Cape Town.
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Project Workflow & Partners
Primary end-user and long-term steward: SAEON. The system informs protected-area managers and SAEON stakeholders including SANParks, CapeNature, and other conservation partners (e.g. WWF, The Nature Conservancy).
Project Team
- Adam M. Wilson, PI (University at Buffalo)
- Yingjie Hu, Co-I
- Jasper Slingsby, Co-I
- Glenn Moncrieff, Co-I
A 2021 Fynbos Forum workshop helped shape early manager needs for fire, invasives, and ecosystem monitoring.
Funding
EMMA was supported by NASA award 80NSSC21K1183, Near-Real-Time Forecasting and Change Detection for a Fire-Prone Shrubland Ecosystem (PI Adam M. Wilson, University at Buffalo; Co-Is Yingjie Hu, Jasper Slingsby, Glenn Moncrieff; period of performance 15 Sep 2020 – 14 Sep 2026). Primary end-user and long-term steward: SAEON (Eco-EMMA GitHub co-owned with University of Cape Town personnel). The system informs protected-area managers and SAEON stakeholders including SANParks, CapeNature, and other conservation partners.