13.1 Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards

Water scarcity and quality decline is a rapidly increasing challenges and becoming a top concern globally. To wisely manage water and achieve sustainable development, rapid and precise monitoring of water resources is crucial. Earth observation (EO) technologies play a key role in monitoring surface and underground water resources by providing rapid, continuous, high-quality, and low-cost EO data, products, and services. Currently, there are promising efforts in the use of EO technologies for water resource management but there are still huge gaps in the Africa region. The reason for the low utilization of EO technologies can be due to a lack of resources and funding including skilled and motivated human resources in the field and the lack of political commitment to foster EO products, data, and services. Therefore, the use of space technologies and their products to solve water-related problems needs collaborative efforts of all concerned stakeholders from global to local levels.

Ethiopia, like many developing countries, faces significant threat from droughts triggered by climate change. The country's heavy reliance on agriculture for production, export revenues, and employment makes it highly susceptible to climate change-induced challenges, such as frequent floods, droughts and rising temperatures. Therefore, this research aims to assess drought-prone areas in Meyo district, Borena Zone, thereby contributing to the attainment of SDG 13.1 and the creation of a more resilient and sustainable future in the face of climate change. To achieve the objective, the study employs the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Land Surface Temperature (LST) as indicators and the drought risk map was developed using weighted overlay analysis. Landsat images and rainfall datasets from December in the years 2002, 2012, and 2022 were analyzed to track changes. The result reveals a clear inverse relationship between NDVI and LST, where higher temperatures coincide with decreased NDVI values, signifying vegetation stress caused by reduced water availability. The study also highlights the deficient rainfall and high drought vulnerability in the norther and eastern parts of the study area. The provided drought risk map classifies areas into Low, Moderate, and High risk, illustrating the evolving drought scenario and it signifies increasing severity of drought risk in recent years, particularly from 2012 to 2022. The finding holds vital information for decision-makers, policymakers, and stakeholders in devising effective strategies to mitigate the adverse effect of drought and build resilience in the of climate change.

Nuredin Teshome received the Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Dire Dawa University and the Master of Science degree in Computational Physics from Haramaya University. In support of his bachelor, master studies and his enrolment for PhD studies he received fellowships to carry out research at Botswana International University of Science and Technology (2022-2023). In addition, he also received ‘Advanced Diploma in Data Science with R’, ‘Diploma in Environmental Management’ and ‘Diploma in Environmental Quality Monitoring and Analysis’ from Alison online training platform. From 2016 to 2019 he served as a lecturer and head of the Department of physics at Jigjiga University and he also serves as a lecturer at Wollo University starting from mid-2019. Currently, he is a PhD student at Addis Ababa University (Space Science and Geospatial Institute) in Space and Planetary Science Department.

Water scarcity and quality decline is a rapidly increasing challenges and becoming a top concern globally. To wisely manage water and achieve sustainable development, rapid and precise monitoring of water resources is crucial. Earth observation (EO) technologies play a key role in monitoring surface and underground water resources by providing rapid, continuous, high-quality, and low-cost EO data, products, and services. Currently, there are promising efforts in the use of EO technologies for water resource management but there are still huge gaps in the Africa region. The reason for the low utilization of EO technologies can be due to a lack of resources and funding including skilled and motivated human resources in the field and the lack of political commitment to foster EO products, data, and services. Therefore, the use of space technologies and their products to solve water-related problems needs collaborative efforts of all concerned stakeholders from global to local levels.

We present an interview with Amin Shakya, a PhD candidate at the ITC Faculty of Geo-information science and earth observation at the University of Twente. We delve into Amin’s first engagements with geospatial technologies, his current PhD research on river discharge estimation using earth observation, as well as his prior work on groundwater analysis using space technologies. Further, Amin is engaged with the youth community particularly with the Groundwater Youth Network. We discuss his take on the role of youth in climate change adaptation. Throughout this interview, we touch upon various water challenges across the globe, from disaster risk management in Nepal, to urban water challenges in Mexico, to his current PhD research focused in Europe and in Africa.

We present an interview with Amin Shakya, a PhD candidate at the ITC Faculty of Geo-information science and earth observation at the University of Twente. We delve into Amin’s first engagements with geospatial technologies, his current PhD research on river discharge estimation using earth observation, as well as his prior work on groundwater analysis using space technologies. Further, Amin is engaged with the youth community particularly with the Groundwater Youth Network. We discuss his take on the role of youth in climate change adaptation. Throughout this interview, we touch upon various water challenges across the globe, from disaster risk management in Nepal, to urban water challenges in Mexico, to his current PhD research focused in Europe and in Africa.

Nuredin Teshome received the Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Dire Dawa University and the Master of Science degree in Computational Physics from Haramaya University. In support of his bachelor, master studies and his enrolment for PhD studies he received fellowships to carry out research at Botswana International University of Science and Technology (2022-2023). In addition, he also received ‘Advanced Diploma in Data Science with R’, ‘Diploma in Environmental Management’ and ‘Diploma in Environmental Quality Monitoring and Analysis’ from Alison online training platform. From 2016 to 2019 he served as a lecturer and head of the Department of physics at Jigjiga University and he also serves as a lecturer at Wollo University starting from mid-2019. Currently, he is a PhD student at Addis Ababa University (Space Science and Geospatial Institute) in Space and Planetary Science Department.