ICBA shares modeling & satellite data assimilation methods with Tunisia

Mr Karim Bergaoui, ICBA Climate Modeling Scientist, represented ICBA at the Utilisation [de la télédétection pour l’amélioration de la gestion des resources en eau et adaptation aux changements climatiques] – LDAS Tunisie, which was held 18-19 November 2012 in Tunis, Tunisia. At the national workshop on the use of remote sensing observations in the management of water resources and climate change adaptation, Mr Bergaoui shared with delegates from national and international institutions the results of ICBA’s MAWRED project, that uses modeling and satellite data in order to : 

• Monitor the groundwater changes in a regional scale (MENA region).
• Monitor the amount of water used in irrigation.
• Develop a high resolution land surface model for MENA countries (1km spatial grid).
• Develop atmospheric tools for adapting climate change scenarios from CMIP5 and assess the impact of climate change on water resources in the region.

During the workshop, participants were divided onto four different working groups focusing on: crop mapping, groundwater and surface water, drought monitoring and climate change. Mr Bergaoui then assisted the four groups to understand the different techniques and methods used in the MAWRED project and aggregated their feedback for the World Bank and NASA teams.

Mr Bergaoui’s facilitation was very well-received by the participants; so much so that they were keen to work with ICBA and to fund training sessions in ICBA to work especially on the dynamical downscaling of climate scenarios by using the high performance computing facilities at ICBA. Subsequently they would like to install a Land Information System (LIS) for Tunisia during the second phase of the project. 

Tunisia is one of the five GEF countries (Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon are the others) that the MAWRED team are assisting to understand the technology used by NASA (and transferred to ICBA) to optimize the management of water resources at a national scale in order to adapt to climate changes. 

Click here to learn more about MAWRED.