IGCP 565 Project Workshops

IGCP 565 Workshop 5: Water Security for Africa: Bringing Together Research, Monitoring, and Managing October 29-30, 2012 Johannesburg, South Africa

Background: The IGCP 565 Project "Developing the Global Geodetic Observing System into a Monitoring System for the Global Water Cycle" has been organizing a sequence of annual workshops which successively addressed scientific questions related to the development of products for regional water management. The first workshop held in 2008 in San Francisco, USA identified the open scientific questions related to the water cycle and regional water management and the extent to which geodetic observations could help improve monitoring and address the scientific questions. Considering the importance of satellite gravity missions, the second workshop organized in Graz, Austria, developed a road map for future satellite gravity missions. The third workshop convened in Reno, Nevada, USA focused on the separation of tectonic and hydrological signals in geodetic observations. The fourth IGCP 565 workshop held in Johannesburg, South Africa, focused on the assimilation of geodetic observations into hydrological land model schemes to better simulate terrestrial water storage and transfer, and had a particular focus on local to regional scales. The fifth and final workshop, which again was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, demonstrated the applicability of hydrogeodesy to practical problems, with a focus on water budget and resource management at river basin scales.

Sponsors: The workshop was jocp intly organized by the IGCP 565 Project, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS), WaterNet and the Water Research Commission (WRC), WRC Project No: K5/1851.

Scope: The final workshop of the IGCP 565 Project had the goal to bring together representatives of research, monitoring and managing programs and projects active in Africa in an effort to make progress towards water security for Africa. The need for improved cooperation and coordination of the various projects and programs addressing watercycle and water-management related studies and activities was highlighted by the participants of the Fourth IGCP 565 Workshop as a critical condition. The Workshop was organized together with several related projects bringing together researchers, agencies conducting monitoring programs, managers, educators, and social and political decision makers in an effort to make progress towards better informed water management in Africa.

Goals: The goals of the workshop were to

1. review the challenges for water security in Africa;
2. identify the role of hydrogeodesy in addressing these challenges;
3. explore synergies between the various programs addressing water security;
4. foster linkages between research and water management.

Format: The Workshop was organized into four half-day sessions. The first session presented an appropriate platform for reaching out to and exchanging information with participants of the WaterNet symposium and other stakeholders in hydrogeodesy. The second session reviewed the challenges for water security in Africa. The third session presented examples of the use of hydrogeodesy, particularly in Africa. The fourth session discussed, coordinated and integrate on-going and proposed projects and programs linked to hydrogeodesy. This final session also provided ample opportunity to discuss the focus of a hydrogeodesy program for the next five years.

Co-Location: The final workshop of the IGCP 565 project was organized in co-location with the 13^th WaterNet Symposium, which took place subsequent to the IGCP 565 Workshop on October 31 to November 2, 2012 at the same venue. Also related was the International Water Governance Conference (WRC-DWA) hosted by the Water Research Commission, which took place on November 5-7, 2012 in Drakensberg.

Participation: The Workshop was open for all interested participants, with preference to representatives of relevant programs, projects, agencies, and communities. Among the organization represented were the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the GEO Water Community of Practice, the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS), the Concil for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), WaterNet, the Water Research Commission (WRC) through WRC Project No: K5/1851, the South African National Space Agency (SANSA), the Africa Earth Observatory Network (AEON), Rural Development, UMVOTO, the University of Bonn, Germany, and the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits).