Abstract:
Africa and Asian continents are both experiencing impacts of climate
change that is affecting its water potential, thereby worsening the
situation for its inhabitants who rely heavily on rain-fed agriculture.
Monitoring changes in stored water as a result of climate change in
these continents is however compounded by sparse monitoring networks,
insufficient large scale in-situ hydro-metrorological data, lack of
systematic approach to monitoring, impacts of climate variability and
human-induced factors such as water withdrawals, etc. This presentation
provides examples of geodetic application to monitoring not only changes
in stored water (surface, groundwater, ice/snow, and biomass), but also
global warming in Africa and Asia. In essence, this presentation is a
motivation to geodesists to “think out of the box” and face the emerging
challenges of the 21st century exemplified by the increase in severity
and frequency of droughts in the Greater Horn of Africa (GHA) and the
challenges posed by the changing monsoon characteristics in Asia among
others.