TomorrowNow

Partnership Overview

Kartoza and TomorrowNow work together to deliver climate intelligence and environmental decision support systems that help organisations across Africa and beyond make data-driven decisions in the face of climate uncertainty.

At the heart of this partnership is the GAP (Global Access Platform), an open source platform that aggregates climate, weather, and environmental data from multiple sources into a single, accessible interface. The platform is designed to serve farmers, government agencies, NGOs, and researchers who need reliable environmental information for planning and operations.

What TomorrowNow Does

TomorrowNow is a non-profit organisation dedicated to democratising access to climate intelligence. Their mission is to ensure that communities most vulnerable to climate change have access to the same quality of weather and climate data available to developed nations.

Through the GAP platform, TomorrowNow provides:

• Short-range weather forecasts tailored to local conditions and livelihoods
• Seasonal climate outlooks to support agricultural planning and disaster preparedness
• Historical climate data for trend analysis and research
• Environmental monitoring indicators including vegetation health, soil moisture, and drought indices

How Kartoza Supports TomorrowNow

Kartoza serves as a key technology partner for TomorrowNow, providing software development and geospatial expertise to build and maintain the GAP platform.

Platform Development

Kartoza contributes to the architecture and development of the GAP platform, building the backend data pipelines that ingest, process, and serve climate data from sources such as ECMWF, NASA, and national meteorological services. We build the geospatial APIs that power the platform’s map-based interfaces and data delivery endpoints.

Data Engineering

Climate data comes in many formats, resolutions, and coordinate systems. Kartoza handles the complex work of harmonising these disparate data sources into consistent, queryable datasets. This includes raster data processing, time series management, and spatial indexing for fast retrieval.

Visualisation and User Interfaces

We design and build the web interfaces that make complex climate data accessible to non-technical users. This includes interactive maps, time series charts, comparison tools, and report generation features that translate raw data into actionable insights.

Infrastructure and DevOps

Kartoza manages the cloud infrastructure that runs the GAP platform, ensuring reliability, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. This includes container orchestration, automated deployments, monitoring, and backup systems.

Use Cases

Smallholder Agriculture

Farmers in sub-Saharan Africa use GAP to access localised weather forecasts and seasonal outlooks, helping them make informed decisions about planting times, crop selection, and harvest scheduling.

Disaster Risk Reduction

Government agencies and humanitarian organisations use the platform to monitor drought conditions, flood risks, and extreme weather events, enabling earlier warning and more effective response.

Climate Research

Researchers access historical and near-real-time environmental data through the platform’s APIs, supporting studies on climate change impacts, adaptation strategies, and environmental monitoring.

Development Planning

Development organisations use GAP data to inform project design, site selection, and impact assessment for climate-sensitive programmes in agriculture, water, and health.

Technology Stack

The GAP platform is built entirely on open source technologies, including:

• Django and Django REST Framework for the backend API
• PostGIS for spatial data storage and queries
• GeoServer for OGC-compliant map services
• React for the web frontend
• Kubernetes for container orchestration and scaling

This commitment to open source ensures transparency, community contribution, and long-term sustainability of the platform.