Characterizing water resources of the Nile Basin using remotely sensed data

Abstract:

The Nile is one of the largest river basin in the world with a rich biodiversity as well supporting the lives of 450 million people residing within the 11 riparian countries. This vital resource is under a growing stress due to population growth, rapid development and climate change. In this work, we explore the use of the latest various remote sensing products to capture the water resource of the basin: rainfall from GPM and TRMM, soil moisture from SMAP and SMOS, evapotranspiration from MODIS and EUMETSAT LSA-SAF, and total water storage variations from GRACE. The satellite estimates were supplemented and checked by ground measurements whenever possible. Our results show that spatiotemporal variations of the basin’s water resources characteristics are well captured by remote sensing products rather than the scarce point measurements that currently exist. Several aspects of our results will be presented and discussed.