In 2022, 2.2 billion people still lacked safely managed drinking water, including 703 million without a basic water service; 3.5 billion people lacked safely managed sanitation, including 1.5 billion without basic sanitation services; and 2 billion lacked a basic handwashing facility, including 653 million with no handwashing facility at all. Moreover, the global urban population facing water scarcity is projected to double from 930 million in 2016 to 1.7–2.4 billion people in 2050.

Source : United Nations

The WorldWater Surface Water Dynamics project, launched in March 2020 , develops innovative Earth Observation (EO) tools to monitor seasonal and annual inland surface water dynamics. The project aims to empower countries and river basin authorities with advanced EO technology to better manage water resources and support reporting under global water-related agendas.

Its core objective is to create scientifically robust methodologies that exploit the full time series of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 imagery to monitor seasonal variations in surface water extent. These observations are complemented by Sentinel-3 radar altimetry to measure water levels and derive changes in lake volume and river discharge.

The proof of concept is implemented in five pilot countries—Mexico, Colombia, Greenland, Zambia, and Gabon—while large-scale validation is carried out in ten countries or regions, including Thailand , Denmark , Central Asia , and West Africa.