Satellite-Based Water Quality Monitoring Service
The Satellite-Based Water Quality Monitoring Service leverages Earth observing satellite information to assess historical water quality changes of in-land trans-boundary lakes. The service uses Google Earth Engine and the Tethys platform to process and display Landsat, Sentinel, and MODIS Earth observation data for mapping water quality parameters including Chlorophyll-a, lake surface temperature, and total suspended matter. The service also analyzes Earth observation data to generate static maps of the coverage of water hyacinth and land use and land cover for specific epochs. SERVIR partners with organizations such as the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization to further calibrate and validate this data. The resulting products are hosted in a water quality decision support web application where users can access them to support their decision-making processes related to land management and efforts to control the pollutants that contribute to poor water quality.
Rationale
Lake Victoria is the second largest source of freshwater in the world and a critical freshwater resource in East Africa, covering 68,800 km2 with a catchment that spans 193,000 km2. It is an important source of food, energy, drinking and irrigation water, and transportation while also serving as a repository for agricultural, human and industrial waste generated in the catchment. Increasing population and the subsequent high demand for food puts additional pressure on the lake basin as natural land is converted to agriculture and urban environments. Additionally, the lake and surrounding catchment transcends five international boundaries, complicating monitoring and management. Thus, collecting the in situ data to guide informed decision making across this vast region is challenging. Remote sensing is currently the only tool capable of providing synoptic information on regional landscape-scale environmental changes and water quality parameters in a timely fashion.
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Users
Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute
Ministry of Water and Irrigation - Tanzania
Kenya Marine and Fisheries Institute
Ministry of Water and Irrigation - Tanzania
National Fisheries Resources Research Institute - Uganda
Ministry of Water and Environment - Uganda
East African Community - Lake Victoria Basin Commission
Malawi Fisheries Research Institute - Malawi
Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development - Malawi
Ministry of Environment - Water Resources Management - Rwanda
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Data Products
Lake Malawi - Lake Surface Temperature (sst / sst4)
Lake Malawi - Chlorophyll (chl_oc(2/3), chlor_a)
Lake Malawi - Light Attenuation Coefficient (K_490)
Lake Malawi - Total Suspended Matter (tsm_clark)
Lake Victoria - Chlorophyll (chl_oc(2/3), chlor_a)
Lake Victoria - Lake Surface Temperature (sst / sst4)
Lake Victoria - Light Attenuation Coefficient (K_490)
Lake Victoria Basin Land Cover 1985
Lake Victoria Basin Land Cover 1990
Lake Victoria Basin Land Cover 1995
Lake Victoria Basin Land Cover 2000
Lake Victoria Basin Land Cover 2010
Lake Victoria Basin Land Cover 2014
Lake Victoria Macrophytes 01_02_2015
Lake Victoria Macrophytes 01_03_2015
Lake Victoria Macrophytes 09_29_2014
Lake Victoria Macrophytes 13_09_2014