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How Earth Observation Tech Can Help Water Management Consultants
Technology used for earth observation has many applications, from accurate mapping and land use classification to improving crop yields and providing irrigation information, for example. But it’s also increasingly being used to help monitor natural resources – and it’s possible that water management consultants could benefit from this kind of technology as well.
Natural resources can be unpredictable and hard to both locate and manage, and with global warming and climate change they’re also under increasing pressure.
But satellites and so on can help to manage the natural resources that we do have – as well as helping to locate new ones, with data used to detect and analyse inland water resources, the desert, wetlands, mining activities, oil and gas operations, and more.
And now, according to science, research and technology news aggregator Phys.org, monitoring the location and amount of irrigation water in Pakistan could only be done using a huge amount of equipment and a large taskforce.
But thanks to the use of satellites, the process is a lot quicker and more effective. Information can now be included from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellite to monitor groundwater storage, as well as data on rainfall from the Global Precipitation Measurement mission. A land-surface water model has also now been developed to give the country the chance to look into its own future water supply.
Now, Pakistan is more in control of its water management processes and procedures, carrying out tasks like regulating ground water pumping, monitoring ground water storage and improving surface water supplies.
Leader of this project Faisal Hossain – associate professor at the University of Washington – was quoted by the news source as saying: “Ideally, we would love to see all the South Asian water management agencies be able to control their water management destiny. And that can happen through these wonderful Earth-observing satellites and data which are made freely available.”
The key to managing water resources properly is by having access to timely and accurate – and highly detailed – information on the status of these resources. It can help with flood prediction, water quality monitoring, studying the climate, groundwater recharge, and drought monitoring, among other applications.
And it’s certain that this will become increasingly necessary as time goes on, since unsustainable management practices and huge population growth around the world mean that global water resources are now being exploited very quickly indeed.
In January 2015, in fact, the World Economic Forum stated that one of the biggest global risks is the water crisis that we all now face, with water scarcity a growing threat. A recent European Space Agency initiative – Earth Observation for Sustainable Development – plans to increase uptake of information based on earth observation in development operations on a global scale.
Some of the main areas where geoinformation is required include water supply and sanitation, such as the monitoring of water quality and level of lakes and rivers so as to help support management for urban, industrial and agricultural use.