Enhancing Transboundary Water Monitoring in the Zambezi River Basin with Earth Observation
GDA Water Resources is using Earth Observation to support ZAMCOM and the AfDB in improving water quality monitoring across the Zambezi River basin.
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Description
The Zambezi River basin is Africa’s fourth-largest drainage system, covering over 1 million km² and linking eight countries – Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In such a vast shared system, upstream activities create immediate downstream risks. Due to this, the GDA Water Resources activity is working together with the Zambezi Watercourse Commission (ZAMCOM) and the African Development Bank (AfDB), to utilise Earth Observation (EO) to overcome logistical data gaps in order to coordinate transboundary water releases and spot risks earlier.
EO data provides a consistent, basin-wide view that helps replace sparse and uneven ground-based monitoring across the region. By using satellite-derived indicators such as chlorophyll-a and turbidity, ZAMCOM and the AfDB can build a shared evidence base that improves transparency and supports more coordinated decision-making between member states.
You can find out more about this Case Study on the GDA Impact Sphere: Keep track of what’s going on in remote areas of the Zambezi catchment
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