Surf and Turf: Studying Land to Help Protect Reefs
As farmland increases in Belize, more and more sediment and agricultural runoff is making its way into the country's rivers and eventually into the sea — where it reaches the Belize Barrier Reef.
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As farmland increases in Belize, more and more sediment and agricultural runoff is making its way into the country's rivers and eventually into the sea — where it reaches the Belize Barrier Reef.
Through the Improving the Mekong River Commission's (MRC) Regional Flood Forecasting Service, SERVIR Mekong supported the MRC to use new-generation satellite-derived precipitation products to increase flood forecast accuracy.
The Mekong River is a trans-boundary river system originating in Tibet and spanning China and five countries in Southeast Asia. It is important to monitor the amount of suspended sediment -- a key indicator of water quality -- in the river at various locations via in situ collections and visible satellite imagery.
Densely populated communities living along low-lying deltas in Southeast Asia are dependent on the underground water stores these deltas provide for their livelihoods. Read about recent SERVIR activities toward helping this region use NASA's publicly available satellite data to support decision making on water resources issues.
Vietnam and Thailand, like other countries in the Mekong region of Southeast Asia, have long dealt with water-related problems -- flooding in the rainy season, drought in the dry season, and degradation of water quality because of a growing population, urbanization, and agricultural and industrial expansion. Efficient management of water resources is all-important for these countries.
The Mekong River Commission (MRC) is an intergovernmental organization that provides coordination and technical input on flood management to the members of the Lower Mekong countries including Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Transboundary water management is a challenge to countries in the Lower Mekong. Surface water distribution changes over space and time and these patterns can provide insight into ecological structure and function, patterns of flooding and flood risk, and the impacts on the landscape, infrastructure, and the people at-risk.
Through USAID's SERVIR-Mekong grants program, in partnership with NASA, the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) arranged a regional training workshop to estimate future flood exposure by combining scenarios for urban growth with flood models.
On March 8 to 9 SERVIR-Mekong organized a final workshop for the Small Grants Program, a 10-month program that supported organizations and institutions that use Earth observations to address environmental management challenges in the Mekong Region.
SERVIR hubs are at the forefront in developing high-quality water information, tools, products, and services that enable partner countries to monitor, measure, and report on water resources and changes, and to better predict and manage water-related disasters.