Last week a 3-day workshop was organized in Ecuador for technical experts on water resources management. This workshop concluded the project carried out in the Tungurahua province, on remote sensing-based rainfall mapping. The objective of the workshop was to transfer the results to the technical staff of the province administration and other institutes in Ecuador (as the National Hydro-Meteorological Institute, and Universities).

The workshop finished with a seminar on the product and results, and its possible applications. This seminar was aimed at regional and national decision makers and project managers working with water resources and agricultural planning. After the seminar a discussion took place on the following steps to be taken by the regional and national stakeholders towards an integral and reliable monitoring system for water resources.

The spatial rainfall mapping algorithm was based on previous developments by FutureWater, and combines different remote sensing data sources with ground-based observations to obtain a detailed estimation of temporal and spatial rainfall distribution. Decision makers in mountainous areas as the Andes face a lack of information as rainfall is extremely variable in these areas (so-called micro-climates). Point measurements are often not representative for non-gauged areas where water resources need to be planned. Nowadays, remote sensing data provides an additional valuable source of information on the variability of the water resources.

For more details on the spatial rainfall mapping product, visit the project-page. The report will be online within a few weeks.