Drought

Droughts have extensive and profound repercussions on populations, livelihoods, ecosystems, and economies. The most vulnerable people are unduly affected by their financial consequences. Although droughts affect millions, lead to food shortages, poverty, and inequality, their immense and widespread effects are often underreported.

Climate change is aggravating the intensity, duration, and prevalence of droughts globally through rising temperatures and disturbances of rainfall patterns. Within the next 80 years, climate change will be the primary cause of the increased drought exposure of 129 countries (Smirnov et al., 2016). As global temperatures rise due to climate change, pressing action is needed to manage the risks related to droughts, and to diminish their destructive impact on human lives, livelihoods, and ecosystems.

On 17 June 2021, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) celebrated the …

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Introduction

Space-based applications related to Earth Observation and geospatial data play an important role in supporting disaster risk reduction, response, and recovery efforts through providing accurate and timely information for decision-makers. Monitoring floods, drought conditions and water resource environments using satellite remote sensing (RS) technologies have become more essential recently in particular for developing countries.

This workshop will address the use of space technologies (remote sensing, telecommunication and global navigation satellite systems) for various applications in natural disaster managements that can provide sustainable social and economic benefits. Current and planned projects/research that use space-based technologies for both practical applications and scientific explorations will be presented. Cooperative efforts and international partnerships for capacity-building, training and research will be discussed.…

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Space-based applications related to Earth Observation and geospatial data play an important role in supporting disaster risk reduction, response and recovery efforts through providing accurate and timely information for decision-makers. Monitoring floods, drought conditions and water resource environments using satellite remote sensing (RS) technologies have become more essential recently, in particular for developing countries.

The workshop will be held in Tehran, Iran, from 9 to 11 August 2021, in a virtual format, and will be hosted by the Iranian Space Agency (ISA). The workshop will explore how current space technologies help identify and monitor the effects of a changing climate – including the onset of drought, flash floods, and general water resources conditions as a result of global climate change, in particular on an international and regional scale. The discussions at the workshop will also be linked to the 2030 Agenda for…

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The United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER) and the Office of the State Ministry for Disaster Management and Humanitarian Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (ANDMA) carried out a virtual thematic meeting on ‘Assessing Drought and Water Resources Conservation Using Earth Observation’, in collaboration with Delta State University and the  International Water Management Institute (IWMI). All key stakeholders involved in disaster risk reduction, especially dealing with drought, attended the meeting which was chaired by His Excellency Deputy Minister Mohammad Qasim Haidari. This meeting, held on 26 May 2021, is part of the UN-SPIDER Technical Advisory Support to Afghanistan. It was attended by 48…

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The Copernicus Open Access Hub provides complete, free and open access to Sentinel missions data.

This introductory webinar will cover the fundamentals of Solar Induced Fluorescence (SIF) and LIDAR, their applications, and an overview of different satellite data sources that are openly available. In addition, it will also include a step-by-step guide on how to access, open, and interpret SIF and LIDAR data.

SIF is a relatively new satellite retrieval, providing a direct measurement related to plant photosynthetic activity. It serves as a strong proxy to gross primary production (GPP), capturing dynamic responses of vegetation to stressors such as drought and temperature.

LIDAR is a system that illuminates a target and measures distance through the time taken for a pulse to reflect back to the sensor. LIDAR can be used to generate topography and vegetation height maps and retrieve digital elevation data necessary for flood modeling and vulnerability, along with risk analysis. They are valuable datasets for post-disaster assessment of debris deposition,…

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