About WaSCIA
‘Water Stress and Climate Indices for Africa’ (WaSCIA) is an ESA funded project that aims to deliver high-quality Water Stress and Climate Indices through an easy-to-use web interface to help the management of drought and water stress in Africa.
The project is led by Telespazio UK with the partnership of RSS-Hydro, Telespazio France, AGRHYMET (Centre Regional de Formation et d'Application en Agrométéorologie et Hydrologie Opérationnelle), LPAOSF (Laboratoire Physique de l'Atmosphère et de l'Océan Simeon Fongang) and DGPRE (Direction de la Gestion et de la Planification des Ressources en Eau Sénégal).
The benefits of an effective drought monitoring solution include:
- Detection of early onsets of water stress related to drought conditions, its severity and spatial extent
- Improvement in understanding water-crop productivity in the long term
- Assisting yield forecasting efforts and food security
The solution aims to deliver weekly water stress information derived from Earth Observation (EO) data and climate indices derived from ERA5 reanalysis data. It will provide this information at national level for Senegal, with the goal of being extended to other African countries. The service will leverage on open-source innovative information technology and be deployed using an existing cloud-based platform, Web Advanced Space Developer Interface (WASDI). A decision support tool will provide end users with threshold warning information that will help to manage risks associated with drought conditions.