GEO Inland and Nearshore Coastal Water Quality Remote Sensing Workshop

Having and maintaining suitable water quality is critical to sustain life on our planet. Monitoring of water quality using remote sensing, in conjunction with strategic in situ sampling can play a crucial role in determining the current status of water quality conditions and helps anticipate, mitigate and even avoid future water catastrophes. The GEO Remote Sensing of Water Quality Workshop helped identify issues, gaps, solutions and recommendations to expand our capability and capacity to utilize remote sensing technology. A major outcome of the workshop was a series of recommendations, addressing a number of far-ranging facets of this emerging remote sensing application. Key recommendations focused on continuity of existing satellites, development of new and improved sensor/platform technology, algorithm development and calibration/validation activities, improvements in data accessibility, education, and capacity building through new demonstration project initiatives, and the formation of a scientific group dedicated to inland and coastal water quality remote sensing. It is hoped that this workshop is the beginnings of a coordinated effort to future advance of this technology. It is important to emphasize the need for strong linkages between the entities that produce the data and the end users, for this relationship will ultimately determine the success of these tools for future water resource management.