The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) launched the South Asia Drought Monitoring System (SADMS) online portal. The SADMS is an early warning drought monitoring tool that provides weekly maps of drought conditions produced through the combination of satellite images of vegetation, weather data, soil moisture levels and crop yield information. The online portal was presented at a regional workshop in New Delhi on 30 January 2017, where use of satellite data and ICT for drought monitoring was discussed.
The new portal provides near-real time information on drought and helps in data sharing and viewing of all available drought maps for the entire region. South Asia routinely suffers from drought, which has severe impacts on over one billion people depending on agriculture related livelihoods. Stakeholders attending the event praised the SADMS tool saying that the information helps to prevent these impacts. The portal then makes the information further available to larger audience.
You can visit the portal here: http://dms.iwmi.org/
Read more: http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/2017/01/press-release-satellite-based-early-warning-system-to-bolster-drought-risk-reduction/
