Africa is “ground zero” for vulnerability to climate variability and change because of its overall low level of adaptive capacity. Any increases in frequency and severity of climate related events such as floods, drought, heat waves, etc. would only increase the risk of disasters. However, climate relevant information in Africa is, in general, very scattered and with low resolution, and characterized by significant uncertainties. Further, the capacity of relevant stakeholders to collect, process and deliver appropriate climate related information is, overall, limited.

A seminar on Rainwater Harvesting Techniques: A Tool to Deal with Water Scarcity, was held at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) building, 9-10 March 2017, Santiago Chile. It was organized by UNESCO-IHP’s Global Network on Water and Development Information for Arid Lands (G-WADI) and the UNESCO-affiliated center CAZALAC (La Serena, Chile), and was hosted by FAO.

In the wake of heavy flooding in Southern Thailand in early January, water scientists and policy-makers from ASEAN member states gathered in Bangkok to promote capacity building in using satellite-based rainfall estimation products to plan for and manage water-related natural disasters as well as to strengthen research collaboration through the ASEAN academic network.

UNESCO G-WADI partners Princeton University (USA) and Southampton University (UK) led a workshop on Drought Monitoring for Southern African Countries on November 9-11, 2016. The technology exchange was aimed at helping countries to strengthen their capacity in water-related disaster risk reduction. 

The University of California, Irvine's Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing, which has a long collaborative relationship with G-WADI, has released a new mobile app “iRain”, combining real-time rainfall information, citizen science and social media.

The Global Network on Water and Development Information for Arid Lands (G-WADI) celebrated a decade of achievements with an international conference entitled “G-WADI: More than a decade enhancing water and sustainable development for arid regions”. The meeting took place on 25-27 October 2016 in Beijing, China.

From 11-20 July 2016 in Foz do Iguacu, Brazil, a training course was held on “Application of Satellite Remote Sensing to Support Water Resources Management in Latin America and the Caribbean”. The course was organized locally by the International Hydroinformatics Center, a bi-national (Paraguay and Brazil) UNESCO category 2 center hosted by Itaipú Binacional.

On February 17th – 18th, 2016 in Khartoum, Sudan, G-WADI held a Training Workshop on “Advances in Water Resources Management in Arid and Semi-Arid Areas: A G-WADI approach”. The workshop was organized by the Water Research Centre of the Faculty of Engineering, University of Khartoum, in collaboration with the Regional Centre on Capacity Development and Research on Water Harvesting (RCWH) and the Sudanese National Commission for UNESCO.

All of Namibia’s perennial rivers are border rivers and have their origin outside of the country. In the northeast, the Kunene, Kavango and Kwando Rivers originate in Angola, and the Zambezi River in Zambia; while in the south, the Orange River originates in Lesotho. Water resources planning, and emergency preparedness for floods and droughts, requires information on upstream conditions of these rivers.

Experts from the Center for Hydrometeorology & Remote Sensing (CHRS), at the University of California Irvine, participated and instructed in a capacity building workshop in Bangkok, Thailand. Professor Kuolin Hsu and postdoctoral scholar Phu D. Nguyen trained participants on the use of the PERSIANN satellite precipitation product for rainfall monitoring applications.