Remote sensing applications for assessing water-related risks and its interdependencies with land cover change and biodiversity in southern Africa

Abstract

Given the ongoing population growth and changes in land management as well as projected climate scenarios, a key challenge in the African sub-Saharan countries is to secure water at sufficient quality and quantity for both the stability of ecosystems, with their functions and services and for human use. Changing conditions will severely affect hydrological pattern in southern Africa, for example in terms of increasing flood frequencies and magnitudes or change in groundwater levels, which in turn will create even more pressure on existing land management pattern and biodiversity. To monitor and assess such interrelated phenomena in data scarce regions like southern Africa, innovative remote sensing data and techniques can be successfully applied. Three case studies addressing flood monitoring, wetland inundation variability and groundwater recharge in the SASSCAL (Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management) region demonstrate the potential of optical and radar satellite products to assess water-related risks and associated impacts on land cover change and biodiversity in Southern African landscapes.