A series of successful trials in the maritime, aviation and agricultural sectors have recently been carried out with South Africa’s satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS).

The tests measured accuracy, integrity and reliability. Accuracy came in at 95% with availability at 99.5%. The performance was equal to similar systems in Europe and the US, attendees at an SBAS -Africa workshop in Cape Town were told.

The flagship project to develop a cost-effective SBAS for South Africa could add R15.6-billion to the South African economy over 25 years, with a return on investment of 10:1, said Paul Hill of London-based Avanti Communications Group, which leads the SBAS-Africa project.

The SBAS was designed to provide up-to-date and accurate spatially-referenced information that could have huge benefits in sectors such as aviation, agriculture, geomatics, logistics and maritime. 

The SBAS-Africa project made use of two Avanti satellites, ARTEMIS and HYLAS 2. A navigation transponder on board the ARTEMIS spacecraft broadcast navigation data, while HYLAS 2 ensured reliable high-performance data communications for the SBAS infrastructure.

The leaders of the project have been working on a preliminary business case in line with the National Treasury’s capital planning guidelines. They have assessed departments and plans, including the National Development Plan.

“The system could work across multiple government departments and have wide socioeconomic benefits. It would lead to delivering policy faster and at a lower cost and improve information for decision-making purposes,” said SBAS economic consultant Peter Milway.

On the land and environmental front, it would have the ability to monitor soil erosion over a wide scale. It could improve water management, help with population censuses, water borehole registration, monitoring and enforcement and verify the location of public infrastructure ranging from schools to park benches.

It could also make precision farming a reality for more emerging South African farmers.  

The project leaders said using SBAS-enabled spatial referencing and surveying equipment would save significant amounts of time over traditional mapping methods.

South African National Space Agency (Sansa) space operations chief engineer Eugene Avenant said the system could boost productivity in various sectors, enhance environmental sustainability, stimulate innovation and create jobs. 

Milway added that there was a big need for low-cost hand-held devices providing 1 m accuracy that improved on the existing Global Positioning System (GPS).

The standard GPS was free of charge and provided 5 m to 10 m accuracy.

SBAS had sharpened this substantially to a 1 m horizontal accuracy. The SBAS was expected to provide about 1 m accuracy free of charge on land and offshore. Many existing GPS receivers and systems would be able to use the SBAS with little or no modification, said Avenant.

The R150-million SBAS-Africa programme was funded under the UK Space Agency’s International Partnership Space Programme and established a unique collaboration between the UK and South Africa through Sansa.