Agriculture is by far the world’s largest water user (70% of total water withdrawn each year), but the limits to using new water have been largely reached and competition between uses and users is increasing. Moreover, other sectors (industry, energy and urban development) demand more water to be ‘freed up’ from the agricultural sector.
Hence, Water Productivity is a much discussed topic in the water and agricultural sector, especially in water-scarce countries. Water productivity relates to the amount of yield per unit of water used. Freeing up water now, locked in current low productivity uses, will ensure that water will remain available in the future to meet the increased demand for food, fodder and fiber as well as other uses and will reduce the risk of conflict.
The Water Productivity Open Access Portal or WaPOR, developed by the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) is a public tool that uses satellite data to monitor agricultural land- and water productivity throughout Africa and the Near East. The ability to monitor in near real time aims to assist relevant stakeholders in identifying water productivity gaps, proposing solutions to reduce these gaps to contribute to a sustainable increase of agricultural production and thus food security.
In this free, open webinar, Simon Chevalking (MetaMeta), Jonna van Opstal (Future Water), and Abebe Demissie Chukalla (IHE Delft):
- demonstrate how to use WaPOR, to obtain data like Gross/Net Biomass Water Productivity, Evapotranspiration, Land Cover, Precipitation, Land Surface Temperature, and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), among others; at continental (250m), national (100 m) or sub-national (30 m ) levels
- explain how to interpret and model such data
- showcase practical application of WaPOR at the field level
Related Resources:
- WaPOR Home Page: http://www.fao.org/in-action/remote-sensing-for-water-productivity/en/
- Video manuals on WaPOR: https://bit.ly/36xXvMP
- What is Water Productivity? (Video): https://bit.ly/2PLIMb2
- Water Productivity Dossier: http://www.thewaterchannel.tv/water-productivity
