New World Bank book on Water Management

10 May 2016

The World Bank recently published a new book on water management “Earth Observation for Water Resources Management: Current Use and Future Opportunities for the Water Sector”. The scope of the problems that the World Bank has to grapple with has expanded significantly, particularly in the realm of sustainable development, and today includes challenges related to climate change, resource depletion, natural disasters, and urbanization. These challenges require the collection and processing of data of much larger orders of magnitude than the poverty challenge alone requires. Under these circumstances, the World Bank has started tapping into remote sensing techniques as a means of acquiring the extensive data needed to advance its goals.

Water is a key driver of economic and social development as well as of poverty reduction. Growing economies and populations need more water resources to sustain economic activity and provide greater access to drinking water and improved sanitation, generate renewable energy, or increase sustainable food production. “Earth Observation for Water Resources Management: Current Use and Future Opportunities for the Water Sector” aims to shed light on the strengths and limitations of remote sensing in order to help specialists to provide decision makers with fast and reliable information.

The publication can be accessed here for free.