UPDATED EVENT FORMAT
The European Space Agency, the European Commission, and GEWEX are officially announcing that the EARTH OBSERVATION FOR WATER CYCLE SCIENCE 2020 conference will be moved completely online.
The dates remain unchanged, and the conference will occur from 16–18 November 2020.
The new event concept will feature discussion sessions focused on major science challenges in water research, where EO may provide a major contribution in the next few years. Participants are invited to submit discussion session proposals, which should aim at defining major scientific activities, initiatives, and experiments that will require an integrated and multi-disciplinary approach to science involving advances in Earth Observation satellite data, in situ observations, modeling, interdisciplinary research, and the use of novel technologies in a coordinated manner.
In the coming decades increasing population will drastically rise the demand for freshwater. Today, more than 600 million people lack access to safe drinking water and estimates show that with current practices, the world will face a 40% shortfall between forecast demand and available supply of water by 2030. Needs to increase agricultural production will significantly impact water withdrawals and will increase stress on people living in regions already suffering from water scarcity. The shortfall will be further exacerbated by the expected environmental changes associated to global warming and hydro-climatic extremes impacting people and ecosystems especially in most vulnerable regions.
Recent advances in Earth observation (EO) by satellites have improved global observations of several key variables of the global water cycle. This capacity will significantly expand in the coming years with the advent of novel mission and sensors (e.g., new Sentinel missions, novel Earth Explorers, new generation of meteorological satellites, new National and international missions, commercial and new-space satellites and constellations) offering a unique and unprecedented opportunity to advance our knowledge of the Earth system, its dynamics and interactions with human activities.
This Conference aims at reviewing the latest advances in the use of EO technology for scientific questions related to the water cycle and its applications, exploring the potential offered by the coming EO as well as the main challenges and opportunities for the coming decade.
The ultimate target of the event is to contribute to define a scientific agenda that may drive future scientific activities of ESA and other space agencies and partners in the coming few years. The Conference is open to EO scientists, water researchers and students, modellers, Earth system and climate scientists, industry, operational agencies, policy makers, representatives of local communities and other stakeholders interested in sharing their knowledge and experience and in contributing to drive the scientific agenda for advancing EO water research and applications.
Besides a Call for Abstracts, the community is also invited to propose discussion sessions focused on major science challenges in water research, where EO may provide a major contribution in the coming few years. Discussion sessions should aim at defining major scientific activities, initiatives and experiments that will require an integrated and multi-disciplinary approach to science involving advances in Earth Observation satellite data, in-situ observations, modelling, interdisciplinary research and the use of novel technologies in a coordinated manner.
Please submit an abstract and/or a proposal for discussion session before 21 September 2020.
More information on this virtual event can be found on the official website.
The Conference is co-organized by ESA, GEWEX, EC (DG-RTD), UNESCO, CNES, CNRS/IPSL and the University of Versailles.
Background image courtesy of ESA
