A new methodology for virtual water level Gauges

Monitoring water stored in lakes and reservoirs is much needed in various countries for energy generation, food security and mitigating floods, among recurrent global issues. Natural and human-made open water bodies do not all have monitoring systems, this lack of regular information generates uncertainties in modeling, and increases unaccounted time-bound residuals in water balances. A large amount of water bodies storage variations are not monitored around the World. Here we show that this can be changed by the creation and the implementation of the concept of water Level Virtual Gauges (wLVGs) based on slope tracks upstream of water bodies, correlated to publicly available satellite remote sensing information returning water levels bi-monthly on average, sometimes weekly. An operational RMSE is found to be 12-52 cm height, depending on the characteristics of the upstream slopes used to calibrate wLVGs. This methodology is simple enough to be implemented for all medium to large reservoirs, but is alsofound successful for smaller rural reservoirs in tropical/sub-tropical countries. We anticipate that this can open globally distributed pathways to monitor open water bodies across the World, improve public databases on water storages and give management information for non/less-monitored water bodies

Wavelet-based spatio-temporal fusion of observed rainfall with NDVI in Sri Lanka

Paper presented at the 33rd Asian Conference on Remote Sensing, Pattaya, Thailand, 26-30 November 2012Availability of rainfall time-series is limited in many parts of the World, and the continuity of such records is variable. This research endeavors to extend actual daily rainfall observations to ungauged areas, taking into account events of rainfall as well as cumulative total daily rainfall, over a period of 11 years. Results show that rainfall events histograms can be reconstructed, and that total cumulative rainfall is estimated with 85% accuracy, using a surrounding network of rain gauges at 30-50 Km of distance from the point of study. This research can strengthen various types of research and applications such as ungauged basins research, regional climate modeling, food security early warning systems, agricultural insurance systems, etc

Lunar Science

Lunar science is in the middle of a small revolution, with now many new countries sending orbiters, landers, and even sample return missions to the moon. Additionally, both governments and private companies are now more and more considering the moon as a base for solar system exploration. With such an increase in attention, lunar science is now encompassing several unified dimensions. The first is the science of the moon itself, its origin, evolution, and inner composition. The second is how humans can live on the moon, covering biology and in general the logistics of surviving there, including surface mapping and in-situ resource utilization

Monitoring on-farm water storage use: from LIDAR to multi-source remote sensing

Faced with unreliable rainfall patterns, Australian farmers have developed on-farm water storage (OFS) solutions over the drought years. Recent thinking in water policy under the Commonwealth government considers extending the Cap over surface water to OFS as they are not currently covered under the Cap and eluded the effective water policy arrangements across users and the states. A unified approach to Cap implementation involving water diversions from the river system, OFS and other direct diversions and withdrawals as well as groundwater extractions is essential to enhance the scope and integrity of the Cap mechanism and bring diversions within the sustainable yield limits. This study lays ground for a detailed volume assessment calibration of each OFS within a water basin, within the prospect of using such information to enable a multi-source remote sensing monitoring system

Spatio-temporal patterns of rice submergence in north-eastern Thailand with TERRA-MODIS

Paper presented at the 33rd Asian Conference on Remote Sensing, Pattaya, Thailand, 26-30 November 2012Rice submergence is the condition by which the water level rises above the rice crop canopy. In general,rice plant response to submergence is to elongate its shoots above the rising water level. This costs in energy andeventually has a direct impact in terms of reducing yields. A specific gene, called Sub1, when introgressed intopopular rice varieties by Marker Assisted Back-crossing, nearly stops the natural elongation process and permits agiven local rice variety to sustain submerged conditions for a generally recognized period of about 2 weeks. Plantbreeders now look for well-identified and location-accurate submergence areas in order to disseminate suchimproved local rice varieties. Remote sensing is proposed to provide surface water maps at high temporalresolution, determining a percentage of occurrences of surface water for a given pixel. Occurrence is defined as thecount of days of identified surface water within a given period, returned in a percentage on that period. Rice areamaps and knowledge of crop calendars are proposed to add to the assessment of submergence prone areas in theNortheastern Thailand

BMP implementations in Himalayan context: can a locally-calibrated SWAT assessment direct efforts?

Soil erosion due to accelerating runoff in various land cover types pose a serious threat to the long term sustainability of the fragile Himalayan landscape characterized by subsistence farming. Delimitation of high runoff zones, fostering soil erosion in the agricultural dominated watersheds is thus a necessity for watershed managers, NGO’s, urban planners, policy makers, and municipal administrations. The approach is practical, SWAT is a straightforward modeling system using GIS information. The BMP is also a very practical approach to mitigation of runoff accumulation on sub basin. A set of interviews with people familiar to the issues locally strengthened the confidence in the results. Results from this research show that terraces can reduce storm water runoff very effectively. There is a huge difference in amount of runoff after terraces are added to the simulation. Results showed a reduction of 57% in runoff volume during August 2004. If the area near the river is preserved as a buffer strip and a tree cover is maintained around it then it minimizes the effect surface runoff. The effect of riparian buffer is modeled in SWAT and the results show about 6% decrease in surface runoff when a buffer of 500 m is applied around the main river only. This study has drawn a location map of BMP implementations of most meaningful impact for the rehabilitation and safeguard of rivers, streams, lakes and wetlands around the river Siran in the Mansehra Tehsil, Pakistan

Use of satellite imagery for land use mapping and crop identification in irrigation systems in Pakistan

In Strosser, P. (Ed.), The collaboration between IIMI and CEMAGREF in Pakistan: Proceedings of a one-day workshop, October 3, 1997, International Irrigation Management Institute, Lahore. Lahore, Pakistan: IIMI. Pakistan National Progra