FEWS NET/NASA Partner Highlights New Tools for Monitoring Surface Water Availability

Dr. Amy McNally, a NASA Harvest partner at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center working on FEWS NET (Famine Early Warning Systems Network), attended the All-FEWS NET meeting in Casablanca, Morocco, April 9-13, where she presented the speed-talk “New Tools for Monitoring Surface Water Availability” and met with partners from the U.S. government and around the world who specialize in Markets, Trade and Prices, Humanitarian Assistance, Livelihoods Analysis, Nutrition and Agro-climatology.

This presentation defines how water availability is central to food security due to its importance for agricultural, livestock and domestic needs. Water is needed as well for irrigation and hydropower which can impact accessibility of food and affect economic livelihoods. Using the FEWS NET Land Data Assimilation System, with CHIRPS rainfall inputs (hosted by EOFSAC partner University of California Santa Barbara's Climate Hazards Group), we can better track water availability needs. New water stress monitoring maps highlight places where people may not have access to the minimum amount of water to meet their day-to-day needs.