WaterSENSE
Making SENSE of the water value chain in Australia


Shortages of freshwater will be one of the most pressing problems in feeding the world this century. To optimize use of available water it is important to distribute it wisely across the planet. WaterSENSE provides water managers with a toolbox of reliable and actionable information on water availability and water use, anywhere in the world, in support of sustainable water management and transparency across the entire water value chain. The goal of WaterSENSE is to develop a modular, operational, water-monitoring system built on Copernicus Earth observation data.
The Project
The WaterSENSE project provides water availability and mapping services for any place in the world at different time and spatial resolutions, based on earth observation data, hydrological models and local field data. The results of these services will be open access to develop value-adding services.
Novel research in the project will develop scalable information services, based on advanced big-data processing algorithms, to determine variables such as evapotranspiration, irrigation water use, rainfall and soil moisture. Machine learning is used where appropriate to allow automatic data processing and reduce uncertainty.
The goal of WaterSense
The goal of WaterSENSE is to develop a modular, operational, water-monitoring system built on Copernicus EO data;
- To provide water managers with a toolbox of reliable and actionable information on water availability and water use (Water use & compliance monitoring accross an entire basin);
- To support sustainable water management and transparency across the entire water value chain; and
- To start in Australia, South-Africa and The Netherlands; scalable to anywhere in the world.