Netgen was commissioned by Wits CRG (The Witwatersrand University Climatology Research Group) to develop a simple and easy to use database system for counts and calculations.
The first Green House Gas Inventory commissioned was for the Agriculture sector. South Africa has an international obligation to report on these results and there was very little data available from previous studies. Studies in South Africa prior to this one were paper based and on Excel spread sheets. The problem with this approach is that when people move in government departments we lose track of these documents and a year or so of collection is lost. An added problem is that most of these studies are conducted by external consultants and universities and the research gets lost as people move in positions and projects. It is also hard to manually compare year to year results.
To solve this problem Netgen developed a database system so that data can be stored on central servers and backed up as well as securely password protected. This allows the data to be retrieved for any particular year and also to be kept from project to project. An added advantage of the database is that figures per sector and across different years can easily be extracted and compared. The system also has a fully fronted website with all the relevant information pertaining to the collecting of the data as well the methodology used to produce the data. This is very important for future years as a starting point and will very quickly set the guidelines for data collection.
Netgen is very excited to be a part of this program and the second phase is now being rolled out to be completed by August. The Transport Sector is also being calculated and captured to give us a clear view of the emissions. The database will then represent two different sectors out of the total five sectors.
“The South African Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) is in the process of developing the National Greenhouse Gas Information Management System as part of the South African Air Quality Information System (SAAQIS). This system will include greenhouse gas emission reporting by all significant emitters and emission information holders. Netgen developed the SAAQIS phase I system for the department which is now housed at SAWS (South African Weather Services).
Netgen is assisting in the technical development of this project in order to continuously improve the accuracy of the greenhouse gas inventory. Netgen aims to develop a database for the Department of Agriculture to enable them to compile detailed sector inventories which will feed into, and complement, the national inventory.
The British High Commission (BHC) Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) works with a variety of organisations from government to civil society in South Africa, to create real measurable outcomes in support of SA’s low carbon transition. To this end, the BHC funded the website and Database development created by Netgen as portal to the database for public viewing.”