Decision makers and managers need reliable and accurate decision support systems for flooding and water resources management in a changing climate. This is an important societal challenge in Denmark, but even more urgent in parts of the world with a less benign climate, e.g. China. China's climate and hydrology are extremely variable in space and time; floods and droughts occur regularly and cause significant economic damage. The annual average flood losses in China are in excess of 18 billion US$ while a single drought in 2016 caused losses of 3 billion US$ and affected more than 10 million people (CRED EM-DAT (Feb. 2015), www.emdat.be). New data streams coming from satellite and airborne platforms can significantly improve the reliability and accuracy of modelling and forecasting systems. Operational use of such datasets in flood and drought warning systems is still in an early development stage and significant opportunities have not been fully exploited.
The aim of the projects is to combine recent progress in satellite and UAS remote sensing of inland water and land surface variables to inform hydrological models and provide better decision support. The technology will be demonstrated for three case study regions, including the watershed of the Yellow River upon Tangnaihai station (TNH), the watershed of the YiLuo River which is the tributary river of the Yellow river (YiLuo), and the watershed of the Daqing River, which is one of rivers in the Haihe River system (Daqing), to facilitate national and international market entry.
The project's satellite remote sensing activities are carried out in coordination with the EOForChina project and UAS hydrometry activities are coordinated with the Riverscapes project.