Satellite Based Water Monitoring and Flow Forecasting

Summary

The project supports the Niger Basin Authority with the development, operation and maintenance of a Meteosat based water monitoring, flow forecasting and information diffusion system for the nine countries of the Niger River basin. Satellite-based monitoring provides a very cost-effective alternative to ground stations for collecting critical data, and enhances the capability of the NBA Member States to monitor water resources and manage environmental aspects.

Location

Benin, Burkina, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Chad

Sector

Water

Applicant

Niger Basin Authority

Competent Authority

Niger Basin Authority

Parties Involved

EARS Holding BV and UNESCO IHE - Institute for Water Education

Project number

ORIO10/NE/22

Total project cost / Total ORIO Grant amount

6,900,000 Euro / 2,800,000 Euro

Status project

Implementation phase



The project consists of the following elements:

• Implementation of the satellite based Energy and Water Balance Monitoring System (EWBMS), which, on a daily basis, will provide climatic data fields of temperature, radiation, evapotranspiration and precipitation;
• Implementation of the Large Scale Hydrological Model (LSHM), which uses the data from the EWBMS to generate river flow rates and forecasts;
• Implementation of the Drought Monitoring System (DMS), which will provide meteorological, hydrological, agricultural and climatological drought information for the entire basin;
• Testing, calibration, validation and optimisation of the systems provided;

Creation and training of an operational satellite monitoring unit at NBA, responsible for operating these systems and diffusing the data and related information products among users in the member countries;
Training of users.