About
Anthropogenic Water Use (AWU) has been declared as an Essential Climate Variable (ECV). Even though the term AWU encompasses several water uses, it is mainly represented by agricultural water allocated for irrigation purposes, which largely prevails on industrial and domestic water uses, thus representing a primary source of anthropogenic interference with the “natural” hydrological cycle. More than 70% of global freshwater withdrawals are attributable to irrigation; in some countries, the rates of water depletions linked to such practices reach up to 90% of the available freshwater (McDermid et al., 2023). Additionally, the impact of irrigation is expected to further increase in the next decades given the projected climate change scenarios associated with the foreseen population growth and consequent rising of food demand and living standards.
Objective
The overarching objective of Climate Change Initiative – Anthropogenic Water Use (CCI-AWU) precursor project is to derive long-term (at least over twenty years, since early 2000s) AWU time series for selected regions using several approaches exploiting remote sensing observations, as a proof-of-concept of the feasibility towards a proper AWU ECV product. In particular, AWU is more specifically intended as agricultural water allocated for irrigation, which represents the largest anthropogenic water use, thus making irrigation being the most impactful human activity on the hydrological cycle.
About the project
The monitoring of AWU dynamics has recently been enhanced through advancements in remote sensing technologies and Data Assimilation (DA) systems. Within this context, the CCI-AWU project aims to develop the AWU ECV by exploiting Earth Observations (EO) in the following ways:
- Creating coarse-scale/long-term (e.g., 20 years) AWU datasets for selected pilot locations (e.g., regional/basin scale) to advance understanding of human disturbances on land-atmosphere interaction processes.
- Assessing the capacity of coarse-scale (mainly microwave) EO data to inform irrigation retrieval algorithms and advanced land surface models for irrigation applications, thereby advancing the closure of the water cycle from a climate perspective.
- Developing tools and techniques to properly characterize the uncertainties associated with each AWU dataset. This includes validating AWU products against benchmark data and cross-comparing developed products to enhance uncertainty characterization.
- Utilizing AWU estimates to: (1) enhance agro-hydrological modeling and provide insights into water management practices, (2) facilitate closure of the water budget, and (3) conduct a comprehensive comparison between satellite-derived and model-derived AWU estimates.
Data
Once products are sufficiently mature i.e. validated and checked for consistency by the climate science user community they will be available via the ESA CCI Open data portal
Key Documents
Below you will find full documentation relation to the ESA Climate Change Initiative's Total Anthropogenic Water use project
Team
The ESA CCI Anthropogenic Water Use team consists of leading scientists from 5 organisations in Europe. The project is led by Dr. Luca Brocca (National Research Council of Italy) and managed by Dr. Sara Modanesi (National Research Council of Italy).
- National Research Council of Italy, Research Institute for Geo-Hydrological Protection, CNR-IRPI
- Vienna University of Technology, TUWIEN
- University of Perugia, UNIPG
- Politecnico di Milano, POLIMI
- Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, KULeuven
Publications
Dari J, Morbidelli R, Quintana-Seguí, P and Brocca L (2024) The Temporal-Stability-Based Irrigation MAPping (TSIMAP) Method: A Virtuous Trade-Off between Accuracy, Flexibility, and Facility for End-Users. Water, Volume 16, Issue 5. https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/16/5/644
Contacts
The following people can be contacted within the Total Anthropogenic Water Use CCI project:
- Scientific Leader: Dr. Luca Brocca (National Research Council of Italy)
- Project Manager: Dr. Sara Modanesi (National Research Council of Italy)
- ESA Technical Officer: Dr. Clement Albergel (ESA)
Latest news & events
Call for new projects: Additional Essential Climate Variables
New R&D procurement as part of ESA's CLIMATE-SPACE programme
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ESA Tender Action Number: 1-12141. ESA Activity Number: 1000039650.
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