Page 15 - CIWA Water Data Revolution Overview Report

Water Data Revolution: Closing the data gap for transboundary water in Africa

Additionally, the assessment highlighted a strong demand for training in the application of RS data
and tools across three main topics: water accounting, drought monitoring, and flood
management (Figure 5). While drought and flood management are critical topics, it is
acknowledged that various initiatives are already supporting RBOs across Africa in these areas

(e.g. NBI). Moreover, generating effective analytics for these topics—especially for flood
management—faces several challenges. The spatial and temporal resolutions of public domain
RS data may not adequately meet the specific needs of local flood management, particularly for
addressing small-scale or flash floods. While some RS platforms provide near-real-time data,
delays in data acquisition, processing, and interpretation can hinder timely and effective flood
response.

RBOs expressed an urgent need for RS and analytical tools that support decision-making related
to transboundary water resources management (Figure 6). In this context, water accounting

analytics is highly relevant and critical due to its potential to support RBOs fulfill their mandates
and its broad applicability across various water management organizations. Furthermore, recent
advancements in open-access remote sensing data and analytics have made it possible to develop
water accounting tools at a lower cost—an important factor for ensuring the sustainability of
these tools.

Figure 4: Constraints identified by respondents that inhibit working with tools using RS data for WRM.

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