News

Users of G-WADI linked PERSIANN precipitation data and information downloaded almost 19 terabytes of data in 2018. This continued a five-year trend of annual doubling of data downloaded that began in 2013. The data products and systems were designed by, and are served by, the University of California, Irvine's Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing. The majority of the data downloaded was from the real-time precipitation product PERSIANN-CCS. The “climate data record" product, PERSIANN-CDR and the original PERSIANN product constituted most of the rest of the data downloads

On January 12th-19th 2019, in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, a week-long training course on "Applying Satellite Remote Sensing for Water Resources Management in Africa” was held. Hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), the course was organized under the auspices of UNESCO’s programme on Enhancing Climate Services for Improved Water Management, or CliMWaR. The ~40 participants came from Angola, Botswana, Egypt, eSwatini (Swaziland), Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The 8th Asian G-WADI and 2nd International Drought Initiative (IDI) expert group meetings were held in Khorasan Razavi Province (Holy City of Mashhad), Iran on 10-12 December 2018. These events were hosted by Khorasan Razavi Regional Water Authority in close cooperation with the Regional Centre on Urban Water Management (RCUWM), under the auspices of UNESCO. The event received the support of UNESCO's International Hydrological Programme, UNESCO Field Offices in Tehran, Jakarta and New Delhi, the Ministry of Energy of I.R Iran, Iran Water Resources Management Company and the University of Ferdowsi, Mashhad.

In October 2018, after over a decade of effort, a Drought Atlas for Latin America and Caribbean was released by UNESCO-IHP and the Water Center for Arid and Semi-Arid Zones in Latin America and the Caribbean (CAZALAC). The Atlas uses Regional Frequency Analysis (RFA), based on a statistical method called L-moments, to assist drought planners and decision-makers in both public and private sectors. 

UNESCO and the Water Center for Arid and Semi-Arid Zones in Latin America and the Caribbean (CAZALAC) have released the Atlas de Sequías de América Latina y el Caribe, or Drought Atlas for Latin America and the Caribbean.

The participation of the general public in the collection and interpretation of information for research and decision-making is often referred to as citizen science. While citizen science itself has existed since the beginning of scientific practice, advances in technology detection, data processing and visualization, and communication of ideas and results are creating a wide range of new opportunities for public participation in scientific research.

One of the techniques for drylands water management identified in the earliest years of the G-WADI network was for the collection and management of flood- or rainwaters to increase water availability for domestic, agricultural or ecosystem use. This approach, called “water harvesting”, has been a traditional means of storing water in the Indian Subcontinent, the Middle East, North and East Africa, and the Americas for millennia. G-WADI Workshops on the topic have been held on three continents, beginning in 2005.

In arid East Africa, water is an increasingly scarce commodity. Governments in the region need better tools to manage this water, beginning with accurate estimates of rainfall in both real time and historically. The University of California, Irvine’s Center for Hydrometeorology & Remote Sensing (CHRS) has created satellite precipitation data and information systems that are useful for both purposes. G-WADI and its technical secretariat, ICIWaRM, have supported development of these tools for almost a decade.

As part of the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, UNESCO-IHP, World Meteorological Organization, the International Center for Integrated Water Resources Management (ICIWaRM) and the International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM) organized a side event on Hydrology towards Sustainable Resilient Societies. The event took place on July 10, 2018 at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

The G-WADI Program was featured in several talks at the 8TH GEWEX Open Science Conference: Extremes and Water on the Edge, May 6 - 11, 2018  in Canmore, Alberta, Canada. A presentation by UNESCO IHP staff, titled "Climate-informed Decision Making under Deep Uncertainty," highlighted products developed by G-WADI and its partners, such as Latin American and Caribbean Drought Monitor, the African Flood and Drought Monitor, the PERSIANN family of products, the Latin American and Caribbean Drought Atlas, and their applications.