CALL FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST – VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT: 2200233
REMOTE SENSING AND GIS SPECIALIST
Job Posting
: 26/Jan/2022
Closure Date
: 09/Feb/2022, 10:59:00 PM
Organizational Unit: NSL
Job Type
: Non-staff opportunities
Type of Requisition: Consultant / PSA (Personal Services Agreement)
Grade Level: N/A
Primary Location
: Italy-Rome
Duration: Variable
Post Number: N/A
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please note that Closure Date and Time displayed above are based on date and time settings of your personal device
FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background and culture.
Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented Members and person with disabilities are encouraged to apply;
Everyone who works for FAO is required to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct, and to uphold FAO’s values
FAO, as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations, has a zero-tolerance policy for conduct that is incompatible with its status, objectives and mandate, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination
All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks
All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality
Organizational Setting
The Land and Water Division (NSL) aims at enhancing the agricultural productivity and advancing the sustainable use of land and water resources through their improved tenure, management, development and conservation. It addresses the challenges member countries face in ensuring productive and efficient use of land and water resources in order to meet present and future demands for agricultural products, while ensuring the long-term sustainability of the land and water quantity and quality. It promotes equitable access to these natural resources with a view to enhancing productivity, livelihoods and ecosystem services. It provides assistance to member nations in developing policies, programmes, best practices and tools in the fields of irrigation and drainage, soil conservation, drought mitigation, water rights, access to natural resources, and improvement of land markets.
Contracts will be based in FAO HQ (or other location) with required travel for field missions, where relevant.
Reporting Lines
Under the overall supervision of the Director NSL, Land and Water Division, Technical supervision of the Head of the Geospatial Unit, collaboration with IT Service Division (CSI). When activities are carried out in countries, the consultant will be required to work in close collaboration with the FAO Representation in the relevant country of assignment, as well as the relevant FAO regional office.
Technical Focus
Geographic Information Systems/Remote Sensing.
Tasks and responsibilities
List of the tasks include:
• Technical assessment and identification of the most suitable satellite imagery, geospatial datasets and methodological approach to support the needs;
• Technical assistance in developing technical solutions using geospatial and digital technologies for monitoring vegetation, water, soil, ecosystem, land cover, land use, agricultural systems, value-chains, multi-hazard risks and vulnerability;
• Assist the preparation for image pre-processing of satellite data, including mosaicking, stacking, atmospheric corrections, object-based-image-analysis (OBIA) for segmentation and classification of land cover datasets;
• Contribute to the development of national land cover reference system, high-resolution national land cover datasets according to the LCML/LCCS ISO standard specifications, including validation and accuracy assessments;
• Assist in the development of cloud processing tools (e.g. GEE, SEPAL) and modules based on AI/ML/RS/GIS and big data;
• Provide technical assistance in using geospatial technologies and integrated approaches for monitoring ecosystem restoration in the context of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, including for its focus restoration types, such as forests, peatlands, mangroves;
• Contribute to the development of environmental project monitoring geospatial platforms including for Sustainable Development Goals;
• Assist in the preparation of emergency impact assessment and multi-hazard risk and crises analysis and reports using integrated approaches including available statistical data and geospatial technologies;
• Contribute to national capacity development on preparing guidance on using geospatial information for assessment, monitoring, forecasting and early warning systems of disasters and crises, disaster and crisis preparedness, anticipatory action, emergency response and recovery, and sustain peace and conflict prevention;
• Assist in the development of geospatial dataset on land and water resources, agro-climatic resources, agro-climatic yield, crop production, and agro-ecological zoning, at national land global levels;
• Contribute to the development of innovative technical digital agricultural solution to generate timely and efficiently geospatial data in support to crop monitoring, land suitability and agro-ecological zoning using e.g. cloud computing platform, data cube;
• Assist in the development of land and water resources information and management, use of geospatial for planning and sustainable urban development, with a particular focus on use of geospatial in the context of the FAO Green Cities Initiative;
• Provide technical guidance on the use of geospatial for establishing baselines and support the design, planning and development of monitoring and evaluation systems for innovation and green technologies for food systems and green infrastructure, improved food distribution systems and food environments, improved food and water waste management in the context of the FAO Green Cities Initiative;
• Support innovation in data collection through integrated approaches combining field and remote sensing, list and area frame sampling, for agricultural, land and water monitoring systems, including stratification, selection of sites for field data collection/validation;
• Support the collation, standardization, analysis and reporting of geospatial data from multiple sources in support to the FAO Hand-in-Hand initiative;
• Support the capacity development plans on geospatial technologies, including preparation of training and workshop material, preparation of information for meeting and conferences;
• Disseminate the geospatial data and metadata produced, in the various media formats (e.g. digital and paper atlas, map layouts, posters);
• Prepare technical and scientific reports, presentations, papers and guidelines describing the activities, results, conclusions and recommendations on the process and results;
• Perform any other tasks required.
• University degree in GIS, Geography, Environmental Sciences or related field;
• At least one year of experience for base level consultant or at least five years for middle level consultants in spatial data handling and analysis, satellite data processing and management, GIS and remote sensing applications of for land resources evaluation and/other natural resources studies, development of methodology in the field of agricultural/environmental monitoring (knowledge of land cover FAO methodology will be an asset) and technical report writing and/or preparation of workshop and training materials;
• Working knowledge of English, French or Spanish, and limited knowledge of one of the other two or Arabic, Chinese or Russian (for Consultants). Working knowledge of English (for PSA.SBS).
FAO Core Competencies
• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement
Selection Criteria
• Work experience in International Organizations and in remote sensing projects supporting developing Countries
• Work experience on geospatial data and metadata management and processing
• Work experience on image analysis
• Work experience on cloud-computing platforms (e.g. SEPAL, Google Earth Engine)
• Work experience on geo-statistical packages for automatic classifications
• Work experience on batch-scripting for data processing and data scientist packages
• Work experience on issues related to land evaluation or land use management and planning
• Experience on natural resources management and/or monitoring
• Familiarity with the tools of FAO’s Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) standard
• Extent of experience in training and knowledge sharing in particular in
• Language skills, and for certain consultancies in particular, experience in French-speaking environments
• Capacity to report results to different audiences.
Please note that all candidates should adhere to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
FAO does not charge any fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview, processing)
Please note that FAO will only consider academic credentials or degrees obtained from an educational institution recognized in the IAU/UNESCO list
Please note that FAO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/
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• We encourage applicants to submit the application well before the deadline date.
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