Water cycle

World Water Day 2023 asks people to “Be the change you want to see in the world”.

Every year since 1993, World Water Day (22 March) raises awareness and inspires action to tackle the water and sanitation crisis.  It is about taking action to tackle the global water crisis of the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water. 

World Water Day 2023 is about accelerating change to solve the water and sanitation crisis.

The European Space Agency, in the context of the "Earth Observations Science for Society" Programme, the Global Energy and Water EXchanges project (GEWEX) of the World Climate Research Programme and Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) are organising a sequel joint event to Hydrospace2021 and EO4Water2020, called 5th Space for Water Cycle and Hydrology Workshop, HYDROSPACE 2023. 

Background

In the coming decades increasing population will drastically rise the demand for freshwater. Today, more than 600 million people lack access to safe drinking water and estimates show that with current practices, the world will face a 40% shortfall between forecast demand and available supply of water by 2030. Needs to increase agricultural production will significantly impact water withdrawals and will increase stress on people living in regions already suffering from water scarcity.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is organizing an Advanced Training Course on Land Remote Sensing with a focus on Hydrology and Hazards in collaboration with the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences. This course is dedicated to train the next generation of Earth Observation (EO) scientists and experts, working in the domains of hydrology or related hazards, in using data from Copernicus Sentinels and other satellite missions for science and applications development. The course is part of the EO Science for Society element of ESA’s Future EO programme.

The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Open Science Conference, focusing on “Advancing climate science for a sustainable future”, will be held in Kigali, Rwanda, and online on 23-27 October 2023, with the major goal of bridging science and society.

Remote Sensing of the Water: Sensors to Science to Society

In the past decade, there have been unprecedented changes in the fields of sensor technology, satellite missions, modeling and applications to benefit society. Small satellite systems are shifting observational paradigms to more rapid revisits, higher resolutions and ever-increasing volumes of data. The commercial sector has launched hundreds of satellites and companies are now in the business of understanding the water cycle.

High-resolution thermal Earth Observation (EO) has been identified as a major observational gap in our rapidly warming climate. Land-surface temperature is a key variable needed for understanding and adapting to climate variability, managing water resources sustainably for agricultural production, mitigating health stress during heatwaves, predicting droughts, monitoring coastal and inland waters and addressing natural hazards such as fires and volcanoes.