Middle East Bureau Technical Services Monitoring Agriculture and Water Resources Development (MAWRED)

MAWRED's activity objective was to support regional policy makers in current and future water and agriculture resource planning. NASA worked closely with ICBA as a regional institution, providing tools and training to ICBA’s staff on the use of NASA’s technologies. In return, ICBA provided similar trainings and hands-on capacity building to a range of regional organizations within the participating countries and institutions, building on the working partnership between USAID, NASA and the World Bank, which was established in 2008.

Activity Description

Activity Description

USAID/OMEP funded a regional effort to develop a RS modelling node for the MENA LDAS system to be based at ICBA in order to further develop the work started under a partnership between USAID, NASA, and the World Bank in 2008. The ICBA/MAWRED activity made use of satellite observations, in situ data, and integrated hydrologic models to generate water data sets to support MENA decision makers in their deliberations. The specific objectives of the project included the following:

  • Host one of the nodes of the MENA-LDAS Model.
  • Develop and strengthen the network of RS entities and experts to exchange experiences and lessons learnt.
  • Design and deliver an extended residential course for mid-level water specialists on the use of RS and the MENA-LDAS Model for water management.
  • Design and deliver a high level conference for key water decisionmakers.

Expected Outcomes

Expected Outcomes
  • The provision of high quality hydrological and climatic data products which are developed in response to the needs of planners and decision makers and downloadable through a web portal
  • A refined and operating MENA-LDAS model capable of producing data at a useful resolution and accuracy for supporting decision making within a country
  • Two high quality workshops/training events on a) MENA-LDAS modelling and b) use of its data in water and land policy development and management;
  • Increased network development and knowledge exchange among regional RS/modeling specialists and water data users.
  • Written articles and other web based communications will be used to explain the findings of the work to a wide number of different audiences;
  • The provision of research facilities which will continue to be open to researchers and interns from the region to use
     

Actual Outcomes

Actual Outcomes
  • Morocco: Notable progress has been achieved in locust invasion risk, which used RS data, supported by field ground-truthing to produce locust risk maps and early warning maps. The Land Information System (LIS) platform was successfully installed for CRTS.
  • Lebanon: Links have been established with stakeholders and end users such as the Ministries of Water Resources, Forestry and Agriculture, farmers associations, and civil aviation.
Activity
Complete
2009 - 2016
Award Number
263-G-00-09-00014-00
Funding Level
$3,000,000.00
Population Focus
Rural