The Socio-Technical Aspects of Water Management: Emerging Trends at Grass Roots Level in Uzbekistan (original) (raw)
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23rd Asian Conference of Remote Sensing, 2002
The quality of decision making in water resources management is proportionally dependent on the quality (reliability, standardization, spatial and temporal dimensions) of the information pertaining to water fluxes into the unit managed, may it be an irrigation system, an administrative unit or an hydrological (sub)basin. The availability of publicly distributed daily remote sensing data through the Internet comes forth as a high -probable information source for water resources monitoring, within economically strained Central Asian countries. The case of Ferghana province of Uzbekistan in the Syr-Darya river basin, where water is managed across administrative units rather than along basin approach, is analyzed. Remote sensing is proving to be an interesting support tool to analyze variations of spatial nature of water resource depletion in Ferghana Province, but the temporal aspect of the information is of highest interest to pin -point timely restricted water scarcity in some districts and/or irrigated areas. It c an be concluded that water management in the Ferghana Province can be supported by public remote sensing measurement of water depletion available within critical return periods.
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Land use map of the Fergana valley, 2011 Key Messages ≈ The use of modern Earth observation technologies, both ground-based and space-based, can substantially improve planning and decision-making in water and land management in Central Asia, supporting informed decisionmaking at local, national and regional levels. ≈ This requires short-term investments and a long-term commitment to funding the responsible national and regional institutions. ≈ New educational efforts are needed to train specialists, involving regional and national vocational training centers and university education. ≈ The global character of and the open access to satellite remote sensing data make them a transparent and low cost data source for use in transboundary river basin planning.
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