Innovators III SPONGE

Maintenance of vital water resources is a global challenge, and requires global approaches. The United Nations Environmental Programme UNEP established the data access and knowledge management platform UNEP Live, and the Global Environmental Monitoring System (GEMS/Water) in order to provide timely, scientifically credible, policy-relevant environmental data, and assist member states in evidence based decision-making, action and planning for sustainable development. This project aims at the facilitation of water resource management information from Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 for the large global UN water community. 

 

In the scope of the SPONGE project, we propose to demonstrate the potential of Earth observation to address this need. We establishing a 1-year Sentinel-2 pilot service and provide an assessment of Sentinel 1 and Sentinel 3 derived surface water and catchment basin parameters. In collaboration with GEMS/Water and selected National Focal Points, appropriate methods will be developed and validated using existing in situ monitoring stations, and subsequently test these methods to improve coverage in underrepresented areas.