Deltas in space

When unprecedented rainfall hit Pakistan in the summer of 2010, aid organizations worldwide urgently needed real-time data about the extent of the flooding, rainfall predictions and population concentrations.

A dozen international organizations worked 24/7 on mapping this information. It was a Dutch website, www.hydrology.nl, that provided a comprehensive overview of information sources, such as maps, satellite images and other geographical data, and attracted hundreds of unique visitors daily from Pakistan alone.

There is a distinct difference in thinking between the space sector and the water sector

"Good interdisciplinary cooperation is key." Ruud Grim knows all about it. As Senior Advisor at the Netherlands Space Office (NSO) he is one of the key people working on broader application of data services. NSOs research indicates that there is still an enormous potential for unused current space technology. "Even though Dutch infrastructure is well developed, space technology is mostly put to use either in science or just goes back into more space technology. Other markets could make far more use of this technology, especially international cooperation projects, for example when it comes to achieving the Millennium Development Goals for food, water and biodiversity." According to read more ยป

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Article information

This is an abstract of an article, published in the magazine Deltas in times of climate change.

Author of this article
Michael van der Valk

Contacts

Dr Babar Kabir
Director, BRAC Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Programme (WASH) and BRAC Disaster, Environment and Climate Change Programme (DECC), Bangladesh
www.brac.net

Dr Ruud Grim
Senior Advisor, Netherlands Space Office
r.grim{at}spaceoffice.nl
www.spaceoffice.nl

Bas van der Peet
Marketing Manager Space, National Aerospace Laboratory NLR, Netherlands
peet{at}nlr.nl
www.nlr.nl

Dr Raimond Hafkenscheid
Co-operative Programme on Water and Climate (CPWC), The Netherlands
info{at}cpwc.nl
www.waterandclimate.org