I. Introduction

1. The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), and the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water (PSIPW) organized the Sixth Space4Water Stakeholder Meeting on 23–24 October 2025 in an online format.

2. The present report outlines the objectives, attendance, programme discussions, outcomes, and conclusion of the meeting. The event provided a platform for the exchange of experiences, presentation of country case studies, and collaborative development of space-based solutions addressing global water-related challenges.

II. Background and objectives

3. The Space4Water project, jointly implemented by UNOOSA and PSIPW strengthens cooperation between the space and water communities to promote the use of Earth observation (EO) data and geospatial technologies for sustainable water management, hydrology and aquatic ecosystem protection. It aims to bridge science, technology and policy, facilitating knowledge sharing, and co–development of practical solutions in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

4. The Sixth Stakeholder Meeting built on the outcomes of previous meetings, particularly the Fifth Stakeholder Meeting held in Vienna in May 2025. The meeting emphasized collaboration within thematic working groups, the presentation of updates on case studies and the demonstration of operational tools.

5. The objectives of the sixth Space4Water Stakeholder Meeting were to consolidate the growing community of practice, foster the exchange of knowledge and continue the work on space-based solutions addressing water-related challenges. Participants were further invited to review and refine research on relevant water variables, monitored via space technology and to give feedback on thematic focus area. The hands-on collaboration to co-design solutions addressing previously identified water-related challenges was a central element of the meeting.

6. The meeting finally also served to monitor progress on the space-based solutions since the Fifth Stakeholder Meeting in Vienna 2025.

III. Attendance

7. A total of 49 persons registered for the meeting, of which 40 were accepted for participation in the meeting. 22 women (55 per cent) and 18 men (45 per cent) attended the meeting online.

8. The following 23 countries were represented among the online participants: Bahrain, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Ethiopia, the Gambia, Ghana, India, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States of America, Uzbekistan and Venezuela.

IV. Programme

A. Overview

9. The programme comprised opening remarks, technical presentations, case study updates and short training sessions on relevant tools during day one, followed by an interactive community session, thematic discussion and breakout sessions for working groups on day two.

10. The total duration of the event was 10 hours over two days. It involved 12 individual speakers (six women and six men) who delivered presentations. The programme covered ten sessions, started with an opening session and a session dedicated to the introduction of participants.A session focused on country case studies included a presentation of practices in Uzbekistan followed by a presentation on the update of the case study of The Gambia. The following session focused on space-based solutions for water related challenges, where selected groups showcased the progress since the last Stakeholder Meeting. Specifically, three presentations were delivered covering the following topics: wetland extent mapping – North Central Nigeria, Ibaji State, change detection in land cover mapping using remote sensing data over prioritized hydrographic basins of Venezuela and data-driven irrigation demand forecasting for rotational water management under the Warabandi system. This was followed by a session including short training presentations on relevant tools using space-based data and technology to address water challenges. Interactive sessions of the Space4Water community included one community interaction, introducing Thematic focus areas, variables and working group pages and delivering feedback on this, followed by hands-on breakout sessions dedicated to co-create space-based solutions for already identified water-related challenges and presenting outcomes.

11. The delivered presentations can be requested by participants via email from the organizer on an individual basis. 

B.  Opening

12. The Sixth Space4Water Stakeholder Meeting was opened formally by the Deputy Director of the Office for Outer Space Affairs in which he welcomed participants and underscored the role of space-based technologies in addressing hydrological and environmental challenges, including sustainable water management, hydrological monitoring and preservation of aquatic ecosystems. He noted that about 200 individuals are now part of the Space4Water community and emphasized the importance of operationalizing scientific innovations to benefit communities affected by drought, floods and pollution. The Deputy Director called for open exchange and collaboration on solutions and emphasised that this is not exclusively “a technical discussion, but a conversation about the future of our planet, our people and our shared responsibility to protect one of the Earth’s most vital resources.”.

13. The Project Manager of the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water (PSIPW) delivered opening remarks and presented the ongoing efforts to promote innovative water management solutions many of which are using space-based data by awarding five individual prizes to leading scientists and sending a selected award winner to the Conference of the Parties (COP) annually. The topics cover the entire water resources landscape, including groundwater, surface water, alternative water resources, water management protection and a creativity price for interdisciplinary research.  He showcased examples of PSIPW awardees who used EO data for groundwater mapping, flood forecasting and climate resilience, highlighting the interlinkage between the Prize and the Space4Water initiative. He also encouraged participants to submit nominations for the upcoming PSIPW Prize until 31 December 2025.

14. Finally, a presentation on the Space4Water project was delivered by the Lead of the Space4Water Project, providing updates on project milestones, including conferences held every three years, the web portal launch in 2018, quarterly webinars and the project’s current agreement being negotiated to ensure long-term continuity. Key highlights included the launch of 13 Thematic working groups, multilingual article translation into five languages, the publication of the first good practice on dataset selection and the first country case on Brazil published in 2025. 

C.  Introduction of participants

15. All participants were invited to introduce themselves or the stakeholder they represented and to share the thematic and regional focus of their work, as well as whether their work concerned the local, national, regional or international level. 

D. Country case studies

16. The country case study update for The Gambia was delivered by a representative from the National Early Warning and Response Mechanism Coordinating Centre, The Gambia. Located in West Africa, the country experiences a hot semi-arid climate characterized by a long dry and a short wet season with an average annual precipitation of 1,000 millimetres. The country’s freshwater resources are strongly influenced by the West African monsoon. The case study illustrated how space-based monitoring supports national drought preparedness and the protection of freshwater resources from saltwater intrusion. The Gambia River extends 480 kilometres inland and does not only serve as the primary pathway for transportation and trade but is also vital to the economy through agriculture, providing water for irrigation and is a significant ecosystem for biodiversity. The case study outlined efforts by national authorities to monitor surface and groundwater resources using open-access satellite data, specifically data from Sentinel-1/2, Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), Landsat, the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and drought indices. The institutional context was also described. While The Gambia has no national space agency, it is developing collaboration with the Mauritius Research and Innovation Centre.

17. A stakeholder from the Center for Space Monitoring and Geoinformation Technologies presented the Space4Water country case study for Uzbekistan. The Space Research and Technology Agency under the Ministry of Digital Technologies of the Republic of Uzbekistan — “Uzbekspace” agency has established a monitoring system and implementation mechanism through international cooperation to support water resource management focusing on three regions. The project digitalizes irrigation networks, 49,500 kilometres of water bodies, including rivers, streams, canals and ditches, and analyses evapotranspiration to optimize water use efficiency with the main goals of 1. increasing crop yield while maintaining the current level of water consumption and/or; 2. reducing water consumption while maintaining current level of crop yield. Water consumption indicators for seven crop types were identified over an area of 52,400 square kilometres covered by satellite monitoring. Outputs include a so called “hydromodule” zoning map and an interactive portal for monitoring water consumption by crop type. Analysis showed that the crop type wheat, uses less water than irrigation standards in the investigated region. Next steps include integrating Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and ground station data for improved soil moisture estimation.

E. Space-based solutions and draft solutions 

18. The solution on Wetland extent mapping in North Central Nigeria, Ibaji State was presented by representative from the National Space Research and Development Agency, Nigeria, and a representative from Ruhr Universität Bochum, Germany. The solution addressed the challenge of declining wetlands in a major confluence and floodplain region, where seasonal flooding and human activities threaten biodiversity and agricultural productivity. Satellite data from Landsat 5, 7 and 8 and Sentinel-1 and 2 for the years 1985 to 2024 were processed in Google Earth Engine. Additionally, the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI), Normalized Difference vegetation Index (NDVI) and a soil moisture index were developed to monitor water and vegetation. A Random Forest classifier was used to distinguish open water, wetland vegetation and dryland classes. Results indicated a gradual decline in permanent wetlands and expansion of cultivated land. While water extend could be mapped reliably, the attribution of wetland vegetation types remains limited by the scarcity of in-situ reference data. Further field validation is planned to improve classification accuracy and to quantify the impact of land-use change on local hydrology.

19. A solution on Change detection in land cover mapping using remote sensing data over prioritized hydrographic basins of Venezuela was shared by a representative of the Bolivarian Agency for Space Activities, Venezuela. The project assesses land-cover transformations in eighteen priority basins where agricultural expansion, deforestation and flooding have altered hydrological and ecological functions. Data from MapBiomas (2014-2023) and Sentinel Land Cover (2017-2024) were analysed using a semi-automatic classification plugin in Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS) and validated with high-resolution imagery from PlanetLabs. Change detection and post classification assessments are being developed with the Modules for Land Use Change Evaluation (MOLUSCE) plugin for QGIS. Preliminary results showed that between 2017 and 2024 most assessed land-cover classes declined: cropland by 39 per cent, bare ground by 33 per cent and built-up areas by 25.4 per cent, while grassland increased by 9.8 per cent, suggesting a shift towards semi-natural vegetation due to both environmental and socio-economic factors. The workflow demonstrates how national stakeholder can employ open-source platforms to track basin-level changes and support land-use planning for water conservation.

20. A solution entitled Data-driven irrigation demand forecasting for rotational water management under the Warabandi system addressed the long-standing challenge of aligning irrigation scheduling with actual crop water requirements in Pakistan’s Indus basin was presented by a stakeholder from Geoinformatics, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural research (CGIAR) at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). Combining EO and climate data to predict irrigation demand under the Warabandi schedule, the project utilizes vegetation indices (NDVI, soil-adjusted vegetation index (SAVI)), Land Surface Temperature (LST), net radiation and evapotranspiration estimates derived from Landsat, Sentinel and PlanetScope imagery. The input data is complemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) Reanalysis v5 (ERA5) and Climate Hazard Group InraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS). Machine-learning models were trained and validated against flux-tower and field observations to generate short-term forecasts for crop water demand. Outputs are visualized through an online dashboard that provides seven-day irrigation advisories. The system aims to improve water-use efficiency and reduce groundwater dependence. Next steps include automating data retrieval from cloud platforms and scaling the model from distributary to canal-command level.

F. Trainings on relevant tools using space-based data 

21. A tutorial on the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) ArcGIS StoryMap was given as a short training by a stakeholder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab. The session focused on the interactive storytelling and visualisation tool with emphasis on presentation of water-related data, demonstrating how scientific information can be made accessible to the public. The training illustrated how multi-layer maps, time series graphics and text can be combined to communicate research findings and raise awareness among policymakers and communities. The demonstration underscored the importance of clear data visualization and narrative framing to bridge the gap between technical analysis and public understanding.

22. The second short training introduced FastFlood, a web-based rapid-modelling platform designed to provide near-instant, high-resolution flood simulations worldwide. The tool integrates globally available topography, climate, soil and infrastructure datasets to deliver hydrological and hydraulic simulations. Built on a hybrid modelling framework combining physical water-balance equations and artificial-intelligence-assisted parameter optimization, FastFlood enables users to generate detailed flood-depth, velocity and duration without local model calibration. The platform automatically sets up model domains using eighteen datasets and precipitation forecasts from ECMWF. Participants noted the system’s potential to support early-warning services.

23. During a tour de table on powerful tools used by community members, a wide range of widely adopted platforms and technologies were highlighted. These included: 

G. The Space4Water community: Interactive

24. The Space4Water Project Lead presented the thematic focus areas and working group pages that were added to the Space4water portal since the Fifth Stakeholder Meeting. Variables relevant to the Thematic focus areas were introduced and the bottom-up approach of working on these was explained. The challenge of grouping the variables was declared and an overview of the structure of a variable was presented.

25. Feedback from participants was asked on missing thematic focus areas. It was concluded that possible additions include two focus areas climate change and water and health.

H. From water-related challenges to space-based solutions 

26. Participants were divided into six thematic working groups. Group A – Water – Food Nexus, Group C – Water Scarcity, Drought and Groundwater, Group D – Land Use Land Cover (LULC), Group F – Water Quality, Group H – Floods, Landslides and Early-Warning and Group M – Wetland Extent Mapping. Each group was tasked to collaboratively develop and work on space-based solutions tailored to address their assigned challenges in individual breakout sessions for each thematic working group.

27. An additional task included reviewing the structure and content of the variable documents assigned to each group by the Space4water Project Lead, to improve clarity and consistency. 

I. Presentations of space-based solutions and feedback on thematic focus areas and variables

28. Each group presented the draft solutions they co-designed during the hands-on sessions and gave feedback on the variable documents assigned to them or sent the revised documents including the feedback.

29. Group A - Water-Food-Nexus worked on the variables soil salinity, irrigation estimates, crop types, crop area, crop yield, soil type, evapotranspiration, precipitation and vegetation health. The members found the variable Solar Radiation/ Net Radiation missing. The group addressed the challenge 76: Data-driven irrigation demand forecasting for rotational water management under the Warabandi system and indicated the next steps for the challenge to upscale to a bigger area using PlanetScope data, such as NDVI, LST, SAVI, net radiation and crop classification validation. In addition, evapotranspiration patterns shall be analysed as well as system irrigation efficiency and the collection of in-situ data.

30. Group C - Water scarcity, drought and groundwater examined the variables mass change, precipitation, soil moisture and vegetation health. Group C suggested adding the following variables: land surface temperature, water surface temperature, snow water equivalent, water quality, including chlorophyll-a, Coloured Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM), water turbidity, wetland extent and to update the variable mass change to groundwater anomaly and irrigation to water use. The challenge 93 Escalating water scarcity and groundwater overextraction in Jordan: climate-driven droughts and the urgent need for integrated resource management could not be addressed and worked on due to the absence of the lead of the group.

31. Group D - LULC addressed challenge 90: Change detection in land cover mapping using remote sensing data over prioritized hydrographic basins of Venezuela An update on the challenge was given in the presentation on the first day. The group members found the use of numerical models to simulate the impact of land cover change, use of a model to suggest location of most appropriate interventions to protect reservoirs from pollutant discharge and detecting and filtering showing multiple changes of scattered pixels to be useful for their work ongoing. For their assigned variable LULC they provided feedback on the use of indices and spectral bands in.

32. Group F – Water quality worked on feedback on the variables CDOM, chlorophyll-a, lake water storage and total suspended matter (TSM) and primarily provided feedback on the structure of the documents. For the two challenges Group F was supposed to address, namely Challenge 75: The disappearance of Lake Ol’ Bolossat: a threat to biodiversity, livelihoods and water security in Central Kenya and Challenge 86: Sedimentation, reduced water quality, and ecosystem degradation threats in the catchment areas of Lake Baringo and Lake Bogoria the group lead did not attend, which is why no progress was made on this topic during the breakout session.

33. Group H – Floods, landslides and early warnings gave feedback on the variables Digital Elevation Maps (DEM), glacier dynamics, impervious surface, inland water level, snow cover extent, soil moisture, streamflow and surface water extent and mainly proposed to add specific datasets. The Challenges addressed are Challenge 73: Spatiotemporal analysis of hydrometeorological disasters in the Indian Himalayas: integrating space-based techniques for enhanced disaster resilience and Challenge 82: Social vulnerability to flooding in Bangladesh. For Challenge 73 the group members identified the want to split solutions into individual hazard maps for each Hydrometeorological disasters (HMDs) and aggregate them into one single susceptibility map. To make progress on Challenge 82 the group stated they have all information needed to move forward.

34. Group M – Wetland Extent Mapping investigated variables LULC, Snow Cover Extent and Surface Water Extent. The group addressed Challenge 64: Wetland extent mapping - North Central Nigeria, Ibaji State but was not able to present their progress due to an absent presenter.

J. Feedback

35. The Space4Water initiative continues to serve as a vital platform for inclusive dialogue and innovation, bridging the gap between space technology and sustainable water management. The insights gathered from this Stakeholder Meeting will inform future programming and strengthen the community’s collective capacity to address global water challenges. As of 6 November 2025, the meeting was rated with 4.33 out of 5 possible points (86 per cent). It was suggested by a majority of those who filled the feedback form, that both, the working group meetings as well as the hands-on sessions in stakeholder meetings should be kept. It was suggested that a technical person from the group should take the lead and manage the group. 

K. Closing statement 

36. The meeting concluded with remarks from a representative from the Space4Water project, who expressed appreciation for the active engagement, constructive contributions and sustained spirit of collaboration demonstrated by participants through the sessions. Participants were informed that a summary report would be prepared and shared, together with a compilation of tools and resources referenced during the meeting

37. It was reaffirmed by community members that the meeting structure and collaboration mechanisms agreed during the Fifth Stakeholder Meeting will continue. Monthly thematic meetings will remain in place to maintain momentum and support development of solutions, recognising the format is evolving through a process of trial and refinement. Stakeholders acknowledged the distinction between breakout sessions during stakeholder meetings and monthly thematic coordination calls and confirmed the value of maintaining all formats at the current stage of community growth.

38. Participants reflected on attendance challenges and discussed options for addressing situations in which members are unable to participate in scheduled meetings. While no consensus was reached on a formal approach, there was general agreement on the importance of transparent communication and participants were encouraged to notify group colleagues when they are unable to attend in order to support effective planning and coordination for all members.

39. In closing, UNOOSA encouraged participants to continue engaging actively in working groups, to share feedback to inform future planning and evaluation and to uphold the collaborative and inclusive ethos of the Space4Water community.