Page 69 - CIWA Water Data Revolution Overview Report

tools. RBOs and ROs see data products facilitating access to analysis-ready data as opportunities
to expand their usage of RS by reducing the time and skills required by their staff to collect and
manage raw RS data. Furthermore, organizations were enthusiastic to increase their capacity to
work with analytical tools using RS data. Data analytics are a crucial component when creating
productive and sustainable water management operations, thus motivating organizations to
want to apply analytical tools using open-access RS data is critical. RBOs and ROs see potential in
learning more about tools that primarily use RS data, as they will allow them to perform informed
decision analysis that would have been otherwise impossible due to many constraints, including
high costs and limited input data.

This assessment provided valuable insight to guide the WDR planning and implementation.
Through this assessment, the following areas were explored and implications and
recommendations for the WDR were identified. Figure 13 shows the overlap of these
recommendations across the categories of data management and products, analytical tools,
trainings and capacity building.

RS data: Many RBOs and ROs do currently have expansive experience with RS data, but several
of them are unable to routinely access RS data for their operations.
Recommendation 1: We suggest that trainings on acquiring, managing, and storing various free
or low-cost RS data to assist with establishing routine usage of such data are essential for RBOs
and ROs.

Data products and analysis ready data platforms: Organizations are generally familiar with data
products that facilitate access to analysis-ready RS data, such as GEE. However, some are
unaware of these low-cost or freely available products. RBOs and ROs experience difficulties with
using data products due to a lack of technical staff with the expertise and time to routinely collect
data via these tools. For products and platforms that include data analysis mechanics, many
organizations also struggle with utilizing them to perform various types of analyses.
Recommendation 2: Instituting trainings focused on exposure to a range of affordable data
products, while building the capacity of technical staff to apply them efficiently and effectively
for various analyzes, is necessary.

Analytical tools: Using analytical tools is commonplace for most organizations, though there are
some that function primarily as agents coordinating communication among member states as it
pertains to transboundary water resources. That is, there are organizations that do not provide
any analytical services at the basin level. However, a majority of organizations do use analytical
tools to assist with understanding the basin-wide implications of various scenarios, such as
development projects within the basin, climate change impacts on the region, and disaster risks
from floods, droughts, and pollution. Currently, organizations mainly rely on tools that require
ground observations and may be costly to acquire or sparse.
Recommendation 3: We recommend to build the capacity of organizations to use analytical tools
that rely on free or low-cost RS data, at least as a complementary data source, thus allowing
organizations to perform data analytics in regions where in situ monitoring is lacking. We also

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