Surface water bodies are critical resources, yet face pressure from environmental changes across scales, ranging from widespread pollution and overexploitation to climate change and land use shifts such as urbanisation. They are further impacted by historical legacies often associated with local human activities (e.g. flood control measures, land cover changes driven by human needs, local pollution). These dynamics operate and interact at different spatio-temporal scales, from local (water quality, flood management, etc.) to global (biogeochemical cycles, etc.). Remote sensing, especially in combination with in-situ data and modelling approaches, is a powerful tool to analyse this complexity, but its integration with governance or policy strategies remains poorly understood and implemented.
This session invites submissions that highlight the potential of approaches combining remote sensing with in-situ data and/or modelling approaches to detecting, assessing, and tracking human impacts within and across watersheds. Submissions highlighting the value of remote sensing for water management and governance at multiple scales are particularly welcome. This can, for example, include studies on:
- Data, methods, and tools for multi-scale analyses of watersheds (combining field data and remote sensing; data or sensor fusion; time series; visualisation approaches)
- Critical appraisals of remote sensing approaches in river science and management (e.g. evaluation of global data products for their suitability for supporting decision making)
- Past, present and future human pressures and their impacts on floodplains and alluvial corridors, notably addressed at large or multiple spatial scales
- Governance, political strategies and regulatory frameworks interacting with remotely sensed data or derived products, which address or facilitate solutions for watershed management and resilience.