Special UNISPACE III volume

Marsteller, Deborah

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Persistent identifier:: 856485039

Author:: Marsteller, Deborah

Title:: Special UNISPACE III volume

Sub title:: including: ISPRS Workshop on "Resource Mapping from Space", ISPRS-EARSeL Workshop on "Remote Sensing for the Detection, Monitoring and Mitigation of Natural Disasters", ISPRS-NASA Seminar on "Environment and Remote Sensing for Sustainable Development", July 1999, Vienna, Austria

Scope:: IV, 170 Seiten

Year of publication:: 1999

Place of publication:: Coventry

Publisher of the original:: RICS Books

Identifier (digital):: 856485039

Illustration:: Illustrationen, Diagramme, Karten

Language:: English

Usage licence:: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Publisher of the digital copy:: Technische Informationsbibliothek Hannover

Place of publication of the digital copy:: Hannover

Year of publication of the original:: 2016

Document type:: Monograph

Collection:: Earth sciences

Chapter

Title:: ISPRS Workshop on "Resource Mapping from Space"

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Chapter

Title:: MONITORING WATER RESOURCES AND AGRO-ECOSYSTEM PRODUCTIVITY FROM SPACE. Wim G.M. Bastiaanssen

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

International Archives of Photogrammetrv and Remote Sensing. Vol XXXII Part 7C2, UNISPACE III, Vienna 1999 38 /ssebk I5PR5 UNISPACE III - ISPRS Workshop on “Resource Mapp ing from Space ” 9:00 am -12:00 pm, 22 July 1999, VIC Room B Vienna, Austria I5PRS MONITORING WATER RESOURCES AND AGRO-ECOSYSTEM PRODUCTIVITY FROM SPACE Wim G.M. Bastiaanssen*/** * International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences (ITC), P.O. Box 6, 7500AA, Enschede, The Netherlands, Associate Professor in Water Management Analysis ** International Water Management Institute (IWMI), P.O. Box 2075, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Consultant ISPRS Commission: Technical Forum, Working Group: Resource Mapping from Space KEY WORDS: Global water scarcity, water resources management, biomass growth, earth observations ABSTRACT There is a considerable shortage of water for drinking, sanitation and, most importantly, for growing crops in developing countries. This water crisis will expedite in the next century and will affect the living and growing conditions in densely populated river basins. The baseline question goes back to whether we have sufficient quantities of water to maintain living standards. Unfortunately we have to conclude that there are no proper clues on the utilization of water resources in river basins and on where water leaves the hydrological system through evaporation into the atmosphere. Hence, water managers can hardly present reliable figures on the water balance and the users of water, and there is a need to exploit new information technologies to help them. Operational low resolution satellites fly over river basins on a daily basis (e.g. NOAA-AVHRR), and provide the opportunity to monitor the status of land and water resources, providing that the sky is free of clouds. Low resolution satellites with a short revisit period are attractive to concurrently monitor large scale evaporation and vegetation growth processes in developing countries, if the data is provided free by the supplier and proper interpretation algorithms with a physical basis are applied. Some examples from Pakistan are presented. 1. INTRODUCTION The renewed interest for water conservation and the productivity of resources directly follows the increasing water scarcity at the global scale. The world’s population has recently passed 6 billion and the finite amount of water resources has to be shared with more people in the next millennium. By 2025, more than a quarter of the world’s population or a third of the population in developing countries will live in regions that will experience severe water scarcity (Seckler et al., 1999). Food projections for 2040 reveal the need for a two to three-fold increase in food productivity, as compared to 1990 (Penning de Vries et al., 1995). Although the hydrological research community has endeavoured to solve issues in climate hydrology (e.g. Hutjes et al., 1998) and water balances of tropical forests (e.g. Shuttleworth, 1988), there is a need to investigate water resources management in developing countries where millions of people do not have access to sanitation and irrigation water. Information on regional water inflow through precipitation, snow melt and groundwater movement and outflow through evaporation from rainfed agriculture, irrigated agriculture, forests and natural vegetation, is often incomplete or inadequate for comprehensive water availability analysis (Burton et al., 1999; Bastiaanssen, 1999). Proper water management at the river basin scale requires accurate information on the spatial distribution of rainfall, water storage and distribution through irrigation canals, and the vegetation growth resulting from that. Currently, a few number of meteorological stations, cross regulators and piezometers are used for hydrological analyses at the regional scale. Because conventional networks are characterized by insufficient spatial and temporal coverage of the Earth’s surface, earth observation data from space platforms is becoming increasingly important to supplement existing hydrological data networks at the ground (Rango and Shalabv. 1998). The average annual per capita domestic water needs are 20,000 liter, but Gambia and Haiti have 2,000 liter/capita to consiune domestically while Australia lias 606,000 liter/capita. One hectare of wheat evaporates 5,000,000 liter to form grains and wetlands under tropical condition may sometimes need 15.000,000 liter/ha/yr to remain environmentally wet and maintain a healthy vegetation and bio-diversity. Hence, sowing one hectare of wheat gives 250 persons less to drink and bath, but it is unavoidable to feed the people. The difficulties in choosing between water allocations are most acutely experienced in river basin systems, where most citizens commonly live and work. Knowledge of the land and water use patterns in the rural areas is of prime importance for natural resources managers because it swallows the bulk of the water resources. The irrigation sector withdraws an estimated 70 to 90 percent of freshwater resources in developing countries (World Bank, 1992; FAO. 1994). Although the public perception is that the irrigation sector wastes fresh water resources, this opinion is not necessarily correct. Vast volumes of canal water that initially missed the crop can be recaptured by pumping groundwater from shallow aquifers, downstream capillar)' rise to the root zone, and return flow into tributaries or the main river itself. Recycling of water resources considerably increases the overall productivity of water. New innovations involve the

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