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The IWMI Philosophy and Strategy for Spatial Data Remote Sensing and GIS Data and Products in IWMI Research and their Gateway through IWMIDSP Prasad S. Thenkabail |
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The IWMI is making rapid advances in generating spatial data and knowledge bases that are at the very core of Integrated Water and Natural Resources Management in river basins, nations, regions, as well as globally. The need for a broad philosophy and strategy at IWMI in developing its internal capacity, spelling out its policy on research services and support, streamlining and disseminating RS/GIS data and products, and in playing a role of critical importance for IWMI as a knowledge center is of at most importance in order to optimize resources and maximize impact. The emphasis will be to highlight and demonstrate the importance of these data and products in IWMI’s strategic research agenda, medium term plan, and a vision of IWMI’s present and future work as outlined by Frank Rijsberman, IWMIs DG, in his March 28, 2005 letter to IWMI researchers and, by corollary, how they contribute to IWMI’s thematic research agenda, in it’s projects, and as a service to global research community through a river basin rich global public good (GPG) data and products of highest quality. Spatial data is indispensable tool for modern day research, especially in water and natural resources studies. This paper espouses a clear strategy and philosophy to apply and advance geospatial data, analysis, tools, technologies and methods in support of IWMI’s strategic research agenda pertaining to water productivity, water poverty, water and natural resources assessment and management, health, environmental flows, agricultural sustainability, and biodiversity. Over last two years, several path-breaking efforts in use of spatial data were undertaken. These efforts include just released global map of irrigated area (GMIA), mapping irrigated areas in river basins (e.g., Ganges, Krishna), water productivity studies (e.g., Rechna Doab, Krishna, Syr Darya), drought monitoring (e.g., Southwest Asia), and habitat mapping (e.g., Ruhuna). In addition, several new projects that are heavily dependant on quality spatial data are underway. These include wetland mapping and characterization (e.g., Limpopo and Ruhuna), knowledge base system for Sri Lanka (KBS-Lanka), and high resolution detailed irrigated area mapping for the regions (e.g., Indian sub-continent). Each of these studies generates a wide array of products of crucial importance in meeting the IWMI’s thematic research agenda and catering to the needs of various projects at IWMI HQ and ROs. This paper establishes a strategic and organizational framework for spatial data, establishes the minimum needs of sustainable internal capacity (including expertise, hardware, software, data), highlights the level of expertise needed, outlines the types of research services provided, identifies nature of data and products to be streamlined, presents storage and backup needs and solutions, highlights the bandwidth and hosting issues, addresses the intellectual property rights, discusses the linkages between IWMI HQ and ROs, and directs the approaches to market IWMI spatial data as a common global public good. The overarching emphasis is to support and promote IWMI as a knowledge center. Given this background, the need, the role, and the strategy that IWMI should take in streamlining and archiving RS/GIS data and products have been carefully thought through. We emphasize the following road map:
Considering the above scope, need, and the strategy, IWMI strategically proposes to maintain a well streamlined data for online web and ftp access through data gateways such as the IWMIDSP (http://www.iwmidsp.org), IDIS (http://dw.iwmi.org), GMIA (http://www.iwmigmia.org), DMS (dms.iwmi.org), and CSI (www.csi.cgiar.org) that are available to Global community as global public goods. All the above products will disseminate under a single front page under the banner of “IWMI Water and Climate Atlas Family”. The data products (e.g., global map of irrigated area, drought monitoring system, wetland maps) by themselves take no more than 1.5 terabytes of storage/backup space over next 2 years. The projection for 6-years is 10 terabytes. The products take only 10 to 25 percent of the total space, with rest going to data. The data stored in IWMIDSP is, for example, well streamlined (e.g., mosaic ked, normalized, produced in standard formats), and organized. It saves months of extra effort when a new project comes along (e.g., large volumes of data processed for global irrigated area mapping are used in wetland project and in river basin studies). It is a service IWMI will share with global research community as a global public good (GPG) data. 1.0 The need and the scope for a Spatial Strategy at IWMI There is a growing demand for RS/GIS datasets at IWMI as a result of its: (a) global mandate for water, (b) vastness of benchmark river basins spread across many parts of the world, (c) need for a consistent tool for rapidly measuring or assessing a host of critical research issues such as water productivity, mapping and characterizing irrigated areas, and wetland-agricultural land dynamics, and (d) assessing changes in resource base over space and time. The demand comes from projects such as Global irrigated Area Mapping funded by Comprehensive Assessment, various IWMI’s thematic research agenda (e.g., Krishna basin work within Theme 1), Challenge Program Secretariat and it’s research agenda (e.g., various CP proposals), and from numerous other projects at headquarters (e.g., wetland mapping), and/or from various IWMI centers around the Globe (e.g., Limpopo basin in Southern Africa and Uzbekistan). Further, recent advances in remote sensing satellites, sensors, processing algorithms, packaging mechanisms (e.g., data products) have made access to guaranteed high quality repetitive datasets that are free from public domain sources for the entire globe on a wide range of issues that include temperature, rainfall, soil moisture, 3-D depictions, biophysical quantities (e.g., LAI, biomass), and irrigation performance indicators and now a more mature concept water productivity (e.g., ET as one indicator of WP)-all very relevant in IWMI’s research and research facilitation agenda. Specific uses will vary from cursory use of simple datasets for reconnaissance and field work to more sophisticated uses for watershed modeling; land use and land cover change (LULCC) assessment, ecosystem modeling, drought assessments and reporting, river basin characterization, vegetation dynamics, rainfall estimation, soil moisture assessment, flood mapping, crop yield assessments, carbon sequestration and release budgeting, and a host of other issues of importance to IWMI researchers. Indeed, the modern day researcher can not do or facilitate effective research or research applications without the use of spatial data layers from RS/GIS. Given the above needs and requirements of IWMI and advanced high quality data and data products available from various sources, a critical requirement will be to standardize, organize, and calibrate these datasets and make them accessible to IWMI researchers, and its partners. These data and products are made available for future generations with well documented metadata, data quality, and derived data products ready for use. 2.0 Strategic framework and Philosophical stance Spatial data is indispensable tool for modern day research, especially in natural resources studies. Recent advances in satellite sensor data, guaranteed availability of science quality time-series data and products free for download over internet, advances in processing and handling of data, rapid computer processing and storage, decrease in cost of proprietary software, and increasing expertise in handling these complex datasets has facilitated proliferation in use of spatial data in research. Over last 3 years, there is an increasing use of spatial data in IWMIs thematic research, with clear pointers towards further increase in coming years. This has lead IWMI to develop a spatial data strategy as outlined in this paper. The strategic framework of spatial data linking the IWMI themes, sub-themes, projects, products, and other components such as services and network of institutes is outlined in Figure 1. The emphasis will be to advance IWMI research through spatial data. In the process methods and techniques of applying advanced sensor data in IWMIs research topics such as global map of irrigated areas (GMIA), wetlands, and droughts will be fully explored. The philosophy will be to develop series of products that are made available online through web and ftp access and disseminated as global public goods free of charge. The framework is built to advance IWMI as a knowledge center and knowledge disseminator (see Figure 1). The strategy calls for a strong and sustained internal capacity (e.g., hardware, software, data, and expertise), access to all the major data providers in the World, and linkages with advanced research centers, regional institutes, and National Institutes that advance the cause of spatial data (see Figure 1). The internal capacity must include streamlining complex spatial data sets for IWMI research. The magnitude of the effort involved in streamlining high-volume science quality RS/GIS mega-datasets (MDs) and terabyte-files (TFs) requires a massive coordinated effort in cataloguing, archiving, maintaining, and making them available and accessible in well calibrated knowledge bases (KBs) and data bases (DBs) in standard formats in a timely manner, with an organizational framework that includes a minimum critical mass in terms of expertise, infrastructure, and financial resources. As a knowledge center, IWMI will facilitate sharing of spatial data and products freely on internet, as is already evident in a series of web sites (Figure 1) that will all be disseminated under single IWMI water and climate atlas brand. Finally, the overarching vision for the IWMI RS/GIS unit will be to evolve itself into a center of excellence in spatial science application for water resources, river basin studies, irrigation, natural resources, agriculture, and biodiversity. Given its Global mandate for Water and presence of critical mass of a global network researchers working in its benchmark river basins (or field laboratories) across the World, IWMI is well positioned and has comparative advantage in developing and applying advanced methods and techniques in use of spatial data for water and natural resources assessment and management. This capability is established, for example, with IWMI’s effort in global map of irrigated areas (GMIA), online drought monitoring system, ongoing wetland mapping in river basins, path-breaking efforts in development of IWMIDSP, state-of-art warehouse for baseline benchmark river basin datasets through IDIS, and coordination with open source metadata development by CSI.
To apply and advance geospatial data, analysis, tools, technologies and methods in support of IWMI’s strategic research agenda pertaining to water productivity, water poverty, natural resources assessment and management, agricultural sustainability, biodiversity, and wetland studies in addition to regional and National capacity building leading to facilitation of knowledge generation and knowledge dissemination. The specific goals, listed below, are targeted to support, enhance, and advance IWMIs strategic research agenda through remote sensing and GIS techniques.
The emphasis of remote sensing and GIS (RS/GIS) based spatial data and knowledge bases at IWMI will be to meet the needs of the vision of IWMI’s present and future work as outlined by Frank Rijsberman in his March 28, 2005 letter to IWMI researchers. That is to say, all the data and products should have overwhelming emphasis on meeting the needs of issues of key importance for IWMI’s research agenda such as water productivity mapping, water poverty mapping, impact assessment, and the critical needs of the 4 new themes. Indeed, this emphasis has been at the core of what we do in RS/GIS unit. For example, Global irrigated area mapping project (GIAM) has generated numerous products that consists of, but not limited to, global map if irrigated area (GMIA), global map of rainfed cropped areas (GMRCA), global map of land use/land cover (GMLULC), and a generic IWMI disaggregated land use/land cove map of the world. The study also resulted in generating large volumes of primary datasets that were the fulcrum of GIAM project product line. The products certainly need to have a wide global reach and accessibility. The primary data itself will be of invaluable use to other IWMI research projects (e.g., as already demonstrated in drought and ongoing wetlands project) where a significant proportion of the past data that is well calibrated is readily available, instead of spending months of data preparation. At river basins, a large storehouse of baseline data (e.g., primary data like satellite sensor data, and secondary data like rainfall and DEM, vector data like administrative boundaries, and ground truth data) and products (e.g., drought monitoring system, irrigated area mapping methodology papers) have been derived for the IWMI and the CP river basins from around the World. 5.0 Organizational framework of spatial data at IWMI The RS/GIS unit is the central repository of all spatial data at IWMI (see Figure 2) and is made available through IWMIDSP. The primary activity is centered in IWMI HQ, but is also supported by regional offices. The goal is to de-centralize these efforts by strengthening regional offices in RS/GIS capacity. The IDIS effort coordinates the non remote sensing spatial and non spatial data from the CP benchmark river basins. The CSI is a CGIAR-wide initiative to harmonize spatial data between centers and provide a common platform for metadata. Over last two years, the IWMI themes and projects generate spatial data and products that constitute key component of spatial data at IWMI.
6.0 Internal capacity at IWMI to support spatial data activities Over last two years IWMI has worked towards building and sustaining a top notch internal capacity. The components of internal capacity include expertise, hardware, software, data, bandwidth, hosting, and storage and backup solutions. The vision will be to sustain it over years and create niche for IWMI as a unique lead center for spatial data and knowledge related to water and natural resources. The ideal model for establishing critical mass of experts in spatial data at IWMI is outlined in Figure 3. It is (see Figure 3): (a) advised by IWMIs DG, theme leaders, and the Global research director; (b) lead by head of RS/GIS unit recruited internationally; (c) scientifically enriched by post doctoral fellows, researchers, and visiting scientists recruited internationally; and (d) supported by core regional and National research staff. Currently, IWMI is well endowed in these expertise. The suggested improvements include inviting a regional visiting scientist on a routine basis to spend 1-year to do writing (e.g., books, papers, monographs) in coordination with existing IWMI researchers on issues of importance of IWMI. There is also a definite need to strengthen the RO capacity in spatial data expertise. There is also a loose group of researchers who are interested and/or users of spatial data at IWMI and who play an important role in advancing the use of spatial data and bring in their unique expertise. IWMI also currently heads the CSI activities, which is playing a credible role in advancing spatial data use in CGIAR centers.
The state-of-art computer hardware is a must for a spatial data center of excellence. The IWMI has taken right steps in establishing a sustainable hardware solution. Currently, there are 7 high end state-of-art Dell and/or other PC workstations. The other hardware include a plotter, over 40 USB disks each of 120-300 GB of storage, two digitizers, one scanner, and three printers. The storage, backup, bandwidth, and hosting solutions are discussed separately in section 15. The RO capacity in hardware is mostly inadequate. There is a requirement for at least 1 or 2 state-of-art computer system per regional office that is exclusively used for spatial data processing. Multiple software and multiple licenses are a pre-condition to running an effective spatial data center. IWMI has established excellent licensing agreements for major remote sensing and GIS software providers. Currently we have adequate GIS software with 30 licenses each of ArcGIS and Arcview (consist of ArcInfo, ArcEditor, ArcView, Spatial Analyst and other extensions. Only yearly renewal is needed. The remote sensing software at IWMI includes 25 licenses of Earth Resource Mapper (ERMapper 7.0), and 30 licenses of ERDAS Imagine 8.8. A clear licensing for ENVI has not been established but at least a few copies may be required. In addition, there are 50 Statistical analysis System (SAS 8.2) licenses. The spatial data at IWMI is organized by RS/GIS unit (through its IWMIDSP), IDIS, and CSI (see Figure 3). The spatial data and products from various research projects are at IWMI are released through separate stand alone web site and/or ftp downloads or at times through IWMIDSP (Figure 3). RS/GIS unit is responsible for streamlining and cataloguing all spatial data at IWMI. These data are released as a global public good through IWMIDSP. Comprehensive river basin datasets are available for a number of benchmark basins spread across the World such as Limpopo (South Africa), Ruhuna (Sri Lanka), Krishna (India), and Ganges-Indus (India and Pakistan). Many innovative datasets are in IWMIDSP. These include:: (a) AVHRR 0.1 degree monthly data as a single mega file of 956 bands over 20 years (red, near-infrared, 2 thermal infrared bends), (b) MODIS continuous streams of data from 2000 to present every 8-days for several benchmark river basins mentioned above, (c) Ground truth data of the world, (d) SRTM 90-m DEM data for Asia, (d) rainfall data available monthly for last 40-years at 0.5 degree resolution for the entire globe, and (e) Satellite sensor data from sensors such as SPOT vegetation, Landsat ETM+, TM, MSS, and a few IKONOS images for various spots in the World. In addition series of data and products are released through stand alone web sites such as GMIA (See data and knowledge gateways in Figure 1). 7.0 Research and service support to IWMI researchers Various IWMI researchers have specific project-based need for information. When these are often simple maps or image maps, they come under services offered by the RS/GIS unit (see Figure 1). When substantial involvement is required (e.g., development of mapping methods) then it comes under research support. In addition the RS/GIS unit does its own research when a technical issue relating to spatial data is unresolved. The guidelines for support are as follows: The minor requests such as digitizing, map printing, reprojection, and rectification that may just take 1-2 day work and on a rare basis. When researchers have several 1-2 day work routinely it is no more a minor support. Minor work needs no budget codes. When a researcher anticipates 1 or more months of RS/GIS work involving work such as methodology development, manipulation, and even large number of days of routine minor work, it is considered significant. The service role will involve supporting other IWMI researchers for obtaining data, performing simple analysis (e.g., georectification of images, spatial analysis of datasets that are already organized and available), or providing other services (e.g., printing). Typically, these services will be for no more than 1 month at the maximum. It is expected that all services will be charged to a project code on a cost recovery basis. 7.3 Research support or research (major) Some projects have major RS/GIS components involving several months or even years of staff time and substantial intellectual involvement. In some of these projects spatial data may play pivotal lead role. Such projects require extensive planning and discussion even at stage of proposal writing. Need may arise to recruit temporary support exclusively for the project regionally and/or involve interns and/or students. Such a measure will help the researcher to work closely with exclusively hired RS/GIS staff and gain maximum scientific value in use of spatial databases. The recruits will work under the overall guidance of the RS/GIS head. This advice will involve recommending datasets to be used, protocols for handling the data, procedures for proper archival and metadata bases, developing methods and techniques, and writing reports and papers. 7.4 Other spatial data Services to IWMI researchers The IWMI RS/GIS unit provides a number of other services to IWMI researchers based in HQ and ROs. This may include documents on how to search images ("dummy’s guide to search and order images"), metadata understanding, georectification guidelines, technical advice on image processing, and advice on approaches in using spatial data in projects. The documents are made available through IWMIDSP and hence accessible throughout the world. The RS/GIS unit training materials on remote sensing and GIS techniques, with specific focus on IWMI research agenda, are made available through IWMIDSP. The RS/GIS unit plans to conduct yearly workshops on different aspects of spatial data at IWMI. Workshops will play a key role in informing the researchers about IWMI RS/GIS data holdings, Meta data and data characteristics, procedures and techniques for accessing the data, and even some of the analysis techniques. Coordinated efforts through CSI offers IWMI an opportunity to link with other CGIAR members. Our recommendations on the workshops are as follows:
IWMI actively seeks participation of interns- both from South and North; special encouragement is given to those from the South. We will strive to develop RS/GIS capacity in the region. We will also gain from networking with advanced centers of excellence from around the Globe. In order to accomplish this goal, we will sponsor local, regional, and International interns to come and work with us for 6 months to 2 year. 8.0 Key datasets: what to streamline at IWMI and why? The overarching emphasis will be to focus on data and products that are out shoots of the IWMI research projects (see section 2). Outside this scope, little or no data will be acquired. Special focus and emphasis will be on benchmark river basin datasets. Comprehensive river basin datasets are available for a number of benchmark basins spread across the World such as Limpopo (South Africa), Ruhuna (Sri Lanka), Krishna (India), and Ganges-Indus this is not a basin in itself (India and Pakistan). This pathway and its use have not been discussed yet - I expected a section on it under the detailed approach supporting the strategy. Many innovative datasets are in IWMI data storehouse pathway (IWMIDSP): http://www.iwmidsp.org. These include: (a) AVHRR 0.1 degree monthly data as a single mega file of 956 bands over 20 years (red, near-infrared, 2 thermal infrared bends), (b) MODIS continuous streams of data from 2000 to present every 8-days for several benchmark river basins mentioned above, (c) SRTM 90-m DEM data for Asia, (d) rainfall data available monthly for last 40-years at 0.5 degree resolution for the entire globe, and (e) Satellite sensor data from sensors such as SPOT vegetation, Landsat ETM+, TM, MSS, and a few IKONOS images for various spots in the World. Questions have been raised on the need for storage and archival of large volumes of data and/or products generated within: (a) IWMI research projects, and/or (b) as a result of cataloguing baseline datasets in benchmark river basins. These are addressed in section Almost all of GIS, secondary raster-vector, and ground truth data occupy at most few hundred gigabytes and are not an issue for storage and backup solutions. Satellite sensor data occupy large volumes of storage and backup, but are invaluable sources of data for much of IWMI’s research agenda. A wide array of advanced satellite sensor data is currently available for historical and present time-periods on near-continuous basis for the entire world. These are well calibrated and mostly available for free. There are huge volumes of very high quality RS/GIS data that is freely available (e.g., MODIS, AVHRR, Landsat pathfinder, LULC from USGS) that needs to be made available to IWMI researchers. The plans within the CP will be to use satellite sensor data from three distinct eras: (1) The Earth Observing System (EOS) era of MODIS-Terra/Aqua, Landsat-7, SSM/I, TRMM, SRTM, (2) The New Millennium era of the test of concept satellites such as Earth Observing-1 (EO-1), and (3) the older generation AVHRR pathfinder, Landsat pathfinder/geocover, and SPOT and other systems. The data from these wide array of sensors are near-continuous (e.g., 8-day reflectance MODIS images) in a wide range of scales (or pixel resolutions), radiometry, band numbers, band widths, advanced optics, advances in algorithms, and processing that lead to unprecedented quality. Also, much of the secondary data (e.g., land use, biomass, LAI) currently constituting the GIS datasets are derived and/or heavily dependent on some form of satellite sensor data. Specific attempts will be made to gather data from sensors of wide array of characteristics that include multispectral, hyperspatial, hyperspectral, thermal, and radar. Our recommendation on data acquisition, streamlining, and cataloguing is as follows:
9.0 Advantages of streamlined data in IWMIDSP Most of these are unique datasets that are only available through IWMI and were out shoots of an IWMI research project. Often, the data used in one project are found useful in other projects. This is why a mechanism for sharing and notification on new information is needed. For example, a large volume of datasets produced for Global map of irrigated area have been found useful for wetland project, saving several months of work in data preparation. Also, the streamlined data in IWMIDSP is highly processed (e.g., mosaicking, normalizing, time-series mega-files) that in itself for a river basin will take a month or over work for a one expert. A classic example, is the IWMI drought monitoring project. The AVHRR data was composed over 2 months and when the drought project came along there was a ready made data to start the project straight away. This is also true for many river basin projects. In addition, the IWIDSP data plays a crucial role for propagating IWMI generated data and products to global research community. It is global public goods (GPG) data at its best. 10.0 Volume of datasets streamlined and their storage and backup needs The products or knowledge bases itself will need only a modest storage and backup solutions. It is estimated that the products from various projects (section 2.1 to 2.11) may reach 1 terabyte over next 5-6 years. In contrast, the rough thumb rule is that the datasets will be 10 times the product capacity- meaning the storage and backup solutions will be up to 10 terabytes over 5-6 years. Over next 2 years, a combined storage and backup solution for products/knowledge bases and data sets will 2 terabytes. The above solution does not include USB drives. About 10 TB of USB storage and backup (in mirror system) will be required over next 5-6 years. However, the USB solution is cheap. Further, we should not be thinking of more than 2 years as some revolutionary storage solutions are on their way and should be in market in 2 years, virtually reducing storage backup costs dramatically 11.0 Data structure and data organization The data are organized at 4 levels:River basins, Nations, regions, and the Globe (see Figure 7). Most emphasis will be placed on river basin datasets. However, since IWMI has a global mandate for water, critical datasets that will be needed for Nations, regions, and the Globe will be made available through IWMIDSP.
For easy access to IWMIDSP data, use the "search" option capabilities. We have received suggestions that the data access must be further simplified using the following categories that are directly clickable by:
All IWMIDSP data will have metadata. Currently, metadata has been completed for limpopo river basin and will be followed up for all other datasets in collaboration with the CSI and IDIS group. IWMI (Rob Zomer) heads the Consortium for Spatial Data Infrastructure (CSI)- a Global network of CGIAR and other International centers to coordinate, collate, and share RS/GIS data. The IWMI uses M3CAT for entering the metadata and all the metadata is put into FGDC clearinghouse. The CSI has GeoNetwork (http://www.fao.org/geonetwork) for its metadata. Five centers have been identified to participate in the GeoNetwork Pilot Project (CIFOR, ILRI, IWMI, CIAT, CIMMYT), using the OpenSource GeoNetwork software developed by FAO/UNEP. Currently we have two installations of the prototype on line at IWMI, in the test stage. The software is still very rough, and needs a bit a tweaking to do what we want, but we think we will be able to do much of what we intend to implement within the deliverable of the ICT/KM project with this package, and quite a bit more. All spatial data at IWMI will be made accessible via Intranet and internet (with some restrictions). All data will have metadata files containing information on data quality, source, credit, access sites, header information, and legend information. 14.0 Products or Knowledge bases The current philosophy within IWMI, is to use RS/GIS data only within the context of: (a) IWMI research projects and (b) producing baseline data in benchmark river basins. The products from these projects will remain as key IWMI knowledge bases. Some of the key RS/GIS based knowledge bases at present are: 14.1 Benchmark river basins and baseline datasets and products Greatest emphasis will be placed on developing spatial datasets in the IWMI and challenge program (CP) benchmark river basins (see Figure 4). The needs of remote sensing/GIS data in benchmark river basins will be met by a two-fold strategy that takes into considerations issues: (1) specific to individual basins: in which datasets, methods, and approaches will be in-built to achieve science goals of thematic research arising from the proposals (e.g., wetland project), and (2) common to all basins: in which stand alone research will be conducted that cuts across all basins to produce products that are of uniform standards, apply advanced and uniform methods, and produce products that are of high value to all researchers and managers working in and for the basins (e.g., irrigated area maps, water productivity). The IWMI and the Challenge program (CP) benchmark river basins offer a rich scope for interdisciplinary research in areas including large river basin water resources and hydrology, water productivity, droughts, ecology, change analysis related to natural and anthropogenic perturbations, agriculture, economics, inter annual land use and climate change, land degradation, and policy issues related to water use. A study of these river basins offer many great challenges that include the vastness and complexity of river basins, and a critical need for consistent sets of quantitative data on a wide range of characteristics within and across basins obtainable repetitively over space and time and at various spatial scales. Such a challenge to obtain a consistent set of dataset over time periods is only possible through satellite based remote sensing. The IWMI has four benchmark river basins-Ruhuna (Sri Lanka), Rechna Doab (Pakistan), Olifants (South Africa), and Krishna (India). CP has nine large river basins in the developing world. These benchmark basins represents a wide range of biophysical, hydrological, ecological, climatologically, and socio-economical conditions and have been selected as hot spots for sustained research activity. The CP river basins are: São Francisco (Brazil), Volta (Ghana), Limpopo (South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Botswana), Nile (10 countries with focus on Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Sudan), Karkeh (Iran), Indo-Gangetic (India and Pakistan) Plain, Yellow river basin (China), Mekong (Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia), and "Virtual Andes" (S. America). The Andes is "virtual" since it is not a basin in itself, but a number of representative sites spread across Andes mountain ranges The baseline datasets are expected to be about 150 GB per river basin over next 3 years.
14.2 Global map of irrigated area (GMIA) and mapping irrigation at various scales Mapping irrigated areas in a wide array of scales or pixel resolutions and at various levels (e.g., national, benchmark basin, watershed) is one of the focus areas of IWMI’s recent work. The goal is to map and characterize irrigated areas using a consistent dataset from satellite sensors. The existing maps and statistics from the national systems do not adequately address informal irrigation (e.g., ground water, tanks), the irrigation intensity, and patchy irrigation along the stream network. As an initial effort IWMI just released the first satellite sensor based irrigated area map of the World (http://www.iwmidsp.org). The global irrigated area (http://www.iwmigmia.org) project is the single biggest producer of products in an IWMI project. The product list includes 4 key maps:
The product line includes maps, images, animations, plots, and tables. Irrigated area characteristics like crop duration, onset-peak-senescence, and sub-pixel areas are provided. These maps and related products will be about 75 GB. The primary, secondary, vector, and ground truth data used to derive the products will be about 150 GB.
14.3 River basin irrigated area mapping The river basin irrigated areas (http://www.iwmigmia.org) are mapped at 500-m scale using near continuous MODIS data. The products provide information on distinct types of irrigation (e.g., single crop, double crop; Figure 7). Advanced methods of mapping irrigated areas have been developed. River basin irrigated area products are expected to run into about 10 GB per basin. The primary, secondary, vector, and ground truth datasets used to derive the products will be about 150 GB per river basin; leading to nearly 1.5 TB from all IWMI and CP river basins.
14.4 Drought assessment and monitoring An online drought monitoring system (DMS) has been developed for Southwest Asia (dms.iwmi.org) (e.g., Figure 8). The DMS is a near-real-time drought monitoring system based on AVHRR and MODIS images and will require about 50 GB for products during 2005. The data will be several fold more, about 100 GB per year. Following this effort, IWMI is doing further research in drought as a core funded project and in the Uniliver funded project in Ruhuna benchmark river basin. The overarching goal is to conduct application oriented research and make data and products available and accessible online as a global public good (GPG).
Figure 8: Drought monitoring at district level. The images on the left illustrate spatial distribution of the Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) in the State of Rajasthan during May to October 2002. The VCI is progressively decreasing throughout the State, reaching Severe drought Condition (VCI < 20%) Through the State in October. The top plot shows the illustration of VCI. The VCI = 0 in extreme dry month, VCI = 50% reflects a fair vegetation 14.5 Wetland mapping in river basins Wetlands are closely linked to IWMIs mandate. With increasing demand for water for agriculture, needs for environmental flows, and the richness of the flora and fauna the wetlands are the unique hot spots that need better classification, understanding, and monitoring. A concerted effort is underway to map the wetlands of Ruhuna and Limpopo river basins. IWMI is leading the methodology development in Ruhuna and Limpopo (e.g., Figure 9). Based on these methods, our goal is to expand the wetland mapping to the entire globe in year 2006 through 2008. The wetland products are expected to be about 20 GB per basin. For the world it will be about 100 GB at 1-km scale.
14.6 Water productivity in river basins To develop a better understanding, and hence map, on how to increase water productivity (or growing more food per drop of water) is at the heart of IWMI’s research strategy (see DGs messages on the internet). Currently, agricultural water productivity is studied in the Rechna Doab, Pakistan. Satellite sensor derived data will be key to deriving most of the water productivity indicators in a consistent manner over time and space. Irrigated areas mapped at global and river basin level can be used as one of the indicators for calculating water productivity. More comprehensive work on this is yet to progress: where the water productivity of the entire river basin is looked at in terms of kilogram of yield per unit of water (or dollar/m3). Many indicators are needed to arrive at this. For example: (a) biomass productivity of crops, forests, and grasslands, (b) livestock carrying capacity, (c) Evapotranspiration, (d) grain yield, (e) leaf area index, (f) reservoir water fluctuations. Most of these indicators are best identified using satellite remote sensing (e.g., Figure 10). A consistent estimate of river basin water productivity expressed in Kilogram of yield produced/m3 of water delivered or, alternatively, as value in $ of yield produced/m3 of water delivered. Spatial data will play a critical role, in conjunction with other data, in establishing the indicator. For example, indicators for the environmental aspects, including fisheries, need to link information from RS to other data. Concerted effort here in computing water productivity for river basins (e.g., Figure 10), the coming years, is expected to produce about 100 gigabytes of data per river basin.
Figure 10: Indicator mapping- basin biomass variations over time and space. In order to derive water productivity various indicators are estimated and mapped. The growing season in the Indian sub-continent shown in above figure are: Khariff (June-October), Rabi (November-March). Remote sensing techniques, especially finer spatial resolution data, provide a powerful means of mapping natural habitats. Availability of time-series MODIS images for free on an 8-day basis enables monitoring. The GIS spatial modeling facilitates interactions with eco-agriculture. Very high spatial resolution images, along with coarse resolution images and GIS data layers are used to characterize and map habitats in the Uda Walawe basin in Sri Lanka. The impact of irrigation projects on the landscape mosaic and habitat biodiversity is assessed (e.g., Figure 11). The products are expected to be about 10 GB. The primary, secondary, vector, and ground truth datasets used to derive the products will be about 20 GB.
Figure 11: Dramatic changes in year 2003 relative to 2001 detected on Landsat ETM+ FCC’s. The clear cut areas and/or other dramatic changes are highlighted qualitatively as depicted in the before and after images. The yellow line is the study area in Uda-Walawe Left Bank Irrigation Upgrading and Extension Project, Walawe, southern Sri Lanka. The pink boxes highlight the areas of change (left image before irrigation project and the right after), Color key: cyan: agriculture or barren, red: dense vegetation, blue/dark: water or wetness. 14.8 Knowledge base system for Sri Lanka (KBS-Lanka) The overarching goal of KBS-Lanka project is to provide a remote sensed and GIS based integrated information system and establish a working methodology to effectively use this information, and to develop an online dissemination service to reduce vulnerability issues and minimize adverse effects on the population in disaster situations. The emphasis will be in using free public domain data of high scientific quality from reliable global public good sources in addition to limited use of high-resolution commercial satellite imagery. This is a newly funded project from Unilever Sri Lanka to create a knowledge base system to respond to disasters in Sri Lanka. Overwhelmingly based on remote sensing and GIS, the product line will require 100 GB during 2005 and 2006. The primary, secondary, vector, and ground truth datasets used to derive the products will be about 100 GB. 14.9 Tsunami rapid response maps and information Soon after Tsunami, IWMI got involved actively in disseminating spatial information on Tsunami on a daily basis in collaboration with the Sri Lankan Co-coordinating National Office (CNO) and MapAction, a UK based NGO. Over 200 maps (e.g., Figure 12) were produced that included geographic-specific information on causalities, damage to infrastructure, location of camps, delivery of food, need for food, and so on. These maps and data are made available to Global community through: http://www.iwmidsp.org/iwmi/info/tsunami.asp. However, the need for precise estimates of damage and their implications to local communities is of critical need for planning a re-construction and re-habilitation efforts. This is best achieved using high resolution satellite imagery. Currently, numerous satellites are continually acquiring images of Tsunami affected areas. The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) has access to a large volume of data from multiple high resolution sensors that include Landsat ETM+, ASTER, IKONOS, IRS-1C/1D, Resourcesat, and SPOT HRV. Further acquisitions are continually ongoing. The data include post-Tsunami a nd Pre-Tsunami for the entire Tsunami affected areas, is catalogued as Tsunami Satellite Sensor Data Catalogue (TSSDC) and will be soon released through CSI
Figure 12: Rapid response to Tsunami through map information. Two examples shown are: damage to infrastructure (left) and causalities (right) mapped with geographic precision. There are now about 200 different types of maps produced by IWMI-MapAction-CNO made available through: http://www.iwmidsp.org The state-of-art capability of IWMI RS/GIS unit was apparent during the Tsunami rapid response. This lead to over 300 maps. The volume of these maps itself is quite insignificant-1 gigabytes. But the primary satellite images, from which information is still not generated, run into about 150 gigabytes. IWMI is currently active in use of spatial data for health related issues in Sri Lanka and in Africa. Specific example is in Malaria risk mapping (works of Evelyn, Olivier, Eline) and SIMA. Sustained effort in using spatial data in health will be encouraged and supported. 14.11 Poverty mapping and water poverty maps Presenting poverty through maps is a powerful tool to influence decision makers on where to look for poverty and what factors are contributing to them. The poverty maps are derived from spatial analysis of poverty indicators that could include factors such as income, literacy, access to markets, and mortality. Water poverty maps will emphasize water related indicators of poverty such a distance to safe water and availability of water for irrigation. The water poverty maps are produced at various administrative levels (e.g., National, regional, state, district, village) and at varying details depending on the data availability. There is a substantial opportunity in the near future to use spatial data for issues of critical importance to IWMI such as in water poverty mapping. Depending on the scope, the volume of storage requirement for information is likely to vary between few gigabytes to about 50 gigabytes. The LEAD project involves applying advanced geospatial tools to meso-scale watershed management, identifying remote sensing based ecological criteria and watershed performance indicators, and landscape analysis for improved livestock management. Proposal for next phase looks at developing land use index for monitoring ecosystem services and promoting improved management on common grazing areas. This four year project, until 2007, modeling impact of Kyoto protocol, and climate change, particularly the water dimension of climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration "sinks". Includes eight case studies in four countries: Ecuador, Kenya, Bolivia, Uganda, and global, regional and continental level analysis and modeling. Land use suitability model developed for estimating carbon sequestration at local and regional/global scales. Global analysis of availability of land rated suitable for CDM-AR under the UNFCC guidelines has been completed, with current efforts to focus on modeling the water dimension. 14.14 Agroforestry and Land use Change Is studied on Irrigated "Green Revolution" Rice-Wheat Production Areas in Northwest India. Impact of land use change, particularly widespread adoption of agroforestry technologies on water balance and farmer livelihood, at various scales. Includes development of methodologies to monitor and assess extent of trees on farm through remote sensing. Online implementation of the PODIUM model (http://podium.iwmi.org), development of additional environmental water requirements module, and development of educational site exploring the food security, water scarcity, and environmental requirements nexus which the Podium model explores. 14.16 Land use Production Mapping in Andhra Pradesh Improving global land use mapping methodologies to discriminate between production systems (beyond land cover mapping, disaggregating the mixed farming system category). This is a case study sponsored by FAO, leading up to a workshop to develop a global strategy (and funded project to map production systems globally). Using 250 m MODIS data, and mandal level cropping statistics with extensive ground truthing,, and participation with ICRISAT and IWMI-India to develop land use, farming system, and production typologies. 15.0 Strategy to manage storage and back up demands at IWMI The overall storage requirements for all of RS/GIS units work for 2005 and 2006 will be 1.5 TB (250 GB for products and 1250 GB for data) (see Table 1). The 6-yr projection will be 10-TB from data and products. Table 1 is by no means comprehensive. There are projects that are not listed and/or may come up in the future. However, the table does take into account these demands either through line item "others" or by building a, hidden, robust buffer of data and storage in each of the projects listed below. It is also expected, based on current industry demands, that there is a definite decrease in dollar per unit of storage with time. The important spatial data and products generated at ROs will be deposited at IWMI HQ for streamlining and for global access. Examples, are the Krishna and the Limpopo basin data. However, the ROs will also be equipped with adequate data storage and backup through local servers and/or other hardware such as USB drives. Each RO will hold data that is relevant to their region or scope of their study and need not have to mirror all the data holding of IWMIDSP or IDIS. Since IWMIDSP, IDIS, and CSI are all online systems made available globally, the ROs always have access to them. The 240-400 GB USB storage and backup systems are in place in South Africa (for Limpopo data) and Ghana (for African Landsat data). Table 1. Storage and backup solution for RS/GIS unit for (a)2 yr, & (b)6-yr starting 2005. |
