Real-Time Water Management With Satellites

Upper Niger River study shows that satellite altimetry could help resource managers optimize reservoir releases even on ungauged rivers

With the demand for water stored in reservoirs rising in many areas, it is becoming increasingly important to optimize reservoir releases to meet human needs and to satisfy environmental constraints. To accomplish this in real time, managers must take into account reservoir storage and inflow records as well as data on downstream conditions, including inflows from tributaries and the operations of downriver facilities. In basins where in situ data are sparse or delayed in transmission, as is the case for many of Africa's large rivers, emergent satellite altimetry could provide a viable alternative.

In a proof-of-concept modeling study, Munier et al. investigated the potential for using water level data from the upcomingSurface Water and Ocean Topography(SWOT) mission—a collaboration between NASA and Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales—to more effectively manage water resources in Mali's UpperNiger RiverBasin. The primary SWOT instrument will be a wide-swath altimeter, which will have the ability to map water elevation and areal extent at an unprecedented spatial resolution (50-100 meters) and vertical accuracy of several centimeters when measurements are averaged over areas of 1 square kilometer.

Source: EOS

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