Stock Water India

Dams are strategic tools for countries and their management of water resources. StockWater aims to put in place a system for monitoring the load of dams based on satellite data, and a specific processing system, thereby facilitating the work of the public authorities in this area.

Overview

Water resources monitoring, including surface and ground water, is a vital issue for governments and public institutions. Water resources are essential for society and economic activity (drinking water, irrigation, hydroelectricity, industry, flood control) and for natural and water ecosystems.

Generally, reservoirs stock information is collected and held by the local reservoir managers (public or private). Regional and national authorities might access this information with a certain latency, which depends on national water policies. Central authorities are then confronted to 2 issues: long latencies to retrieve water stock information and sparse or inexistent information about the small reservoirs.

Stock-Water project holds a partnership initiative, open to new countries willing to participate, that proposes a global solution to monitor reservoirs stock volumes based on frequent satellite measurements. This solution is based on reservoirs area monitoring by imaging satellites (Sentinels 1&2). Volume information is then derived using digital elevation models (DEM) around reservoirs areas. Recent prototypes have been qualified on 29 reservoirs in France, ranging from 20 to 1600 hectares, yielding incertitude below 15% on volume rates.