Remote sensing for water resources

The availability and quality of water in a region directly affects its level of economic development. This is particularly true in arid and semiarid regions of the world. In many parts of the world, hydrological gauge stations are few and water inventory is incomplete. Poor knowledge of spatio-temporal distribution of surface water makes it difficult for water resource managers and policy makers to develop adequate water management plans and to establish wise water-use policies. Quantifying and modeling water cycling at various spatial scales have been important and active research fields for the past 50 years. Remote sensing can play a significant role in determining evaporation and transpiration and surface water production capacity of various surface cover types, and in estimating the spatial distribution of water balance and scaling up site specific measurements of water quantity and quality to regional and global scales.

By Peng Gong & Jing M. Chen, CASI (Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute) 2004.