SAEON’s ODP is managed by the uLwazi Node. The ODP is a data infrastructure that facilitates the publication, discovery, dissemination, and preservation of earth observation and environmental data in South Africa. Portions of the ODP metadata are visible in the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) and DataCite. The system also supports national data mobilisation initiatives, including the South African Risk and Vulnerability Atlas and the Marine Information Management System, which is co-developed with the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.

uLwazi (meaning “knowledge”), one of SAEON’s seven nodes, was established in 2018 to support data management and the development of information platforms and decision-support tools for government departments. It is comprised of four areas coordinated by specialist team leaders in IT infrastructure, Data Curation, Systems Development and Data Science.

Last year the SAEON ODP was certified as a Trustworthy Data Repository by the CoreTrustSeal Standards and Certification Board. This was the result of years of work by the uLwazi Node to ensure that the SAEON ODP was set up and run according to international standards and led to the SAEON ODP being the second repository to receive the certification on the African continent. The work put into achieving this certification laid a solid foundation for the SAEON ODP.