IGCP 565 Workshop 4: Integration of geodetic observations and products in models of the hydrological cycle
Support for water management through hydrological models and data assimilation
November 21-22, 2011
Johannesburg, South Africa
Workshop Findings and Recommendations
Main Findings:
Africa is a “hot spot” in terms of water issues, due to large climate variability and high sensitivity to change, impact of limited water availability on all socioeconomic sectors, health, and food security, and the highly sensitive interaction between climate and the socio-economic systems.
Research to understand the effects of climate variability on key reservoirs is limited.
Research is hampered by the lack of long enough observed time series for fundamental variables and trends.
Hydrogeodesy represents a new and fundamental approach for monitoring land water storage changes.
Predictive terrestrial water storage models for sub-regions of Africa are under development, but the full integration and validation of geodetic observations into these models is still pending.
Application of hydrogeodesy to regional water management is hampered by data access, challenges in use of products, and the absence of a workbench.
There are many water-related initiatives, but synergies between the activities are not fully exploited.
Recommendations
Improve coordination and exploitation of synergies between on-going activities.
Improve access to data through cooperation between agencies and researchers.
Improve access to tools through the development of workbenches.
Demonstrate the relevance of hydrogeodesy and predictive models through demonstration projects on river basin-scale.
