Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)

Overview:

It is well recognized that long-term precipitation measurements are necessary for understanding and monitoring regional precipitation characteristics. This includes characteristics crucial for monitoring water resources and hazards, like floods and droughts. TRMM was the first NASA mission dedicated to observing precipitation. It operated from November 1997 to April 2015. The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission launched in February 2014 as a follow-on to TRMM.

Overview:

This online course covers precipitation (rainfall and snow fraction), soil moisture, evapotranspiration, runoff and streamflow, groundwater, and lake level heights. Participants are introduced to a number of NASA data products.

Objective:

Participants will be able to use NASA remote sensing observations and land-atmosphere models to: 

Overview

For years, mapping of crop types and assessment of their characteristics has been carried out to monitor food security, inform optimal use of the landscape, and contribute to agricultural policy. High-quality crop mapping has become a requirement for most nations given its importance in national and international economics, trade, and food security, and is a major topic of interest in the domains of policy, economics, and land management.

Overview

Integrated Water Resources Management requires exchange of data and information among sectors. Often data is stored in files on harddisks, CD-ROMs or DVDs. This makes it hard to find the data. In addition, metadata is often lacking, which makes it hard to evaluate the quality of the data and to reuse the data. A Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) can enable water sector organisations to improve the exchange of data within and among organisations.

Overview

The United Nations has documented that drought frequency and duration have increased globally since 2000. According to this report 2.3 billion people around the world are currently facing water stress. Although droughts only represent 15% of natural disasters, they killed 650,000 people between 1970 and 2019. Also, it is predicted that by 2050, drought could affect more than 75% of the world’s population. Droughts affect drinking water availability, ecosystems, and crop production – critical for quality and sustainability of plant, animal and human lives.

Overview

What is climate change ? How are mountain regions affected by the evolution of water resources and their uses ? What kind of risks need to be considered ?

Mountains are recognized as particularly sensitive physical environments where intense and rapid changes have in the past, and may increasingly in the future, place pressure on their resource base.

Learning objectives

During the challenging times of the COVID-19 outbreak, MOOCs are an effective way of reaching a large number of participants to share knowledge. The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and the Centre for Space Science and Technology Education for Asia and the Pacific (Affiliated to the United Nations) launched a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on “Geospatial Applications for Disaster Risk Management” on 13th October, 2020 the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Overview

Oceans, lakes, and rivers are major components of Earth’s surface water. Freshwater lakes and rivers are primary sources of water supply for drinking, agriculture, energy, and transportation, and support aquatic ecosystems and wildlife. A series of NASA satellites (e.g., TOPEX-Poseidon, Jason 1, 2, 3, & 6) with altimeter observations have been used to estimate ocean surface and inland lake surface heights (> 50 km2) since 1992.

Overview 

With the impending arrival of new, high-data-volume missions, the need to effectively archive and process significantly larger data volumes will require new data management technologies and architectures that are more cost-effective, flexible, and scalable than traditional on-premises systems. To meet these needs, the Earth Science Data Systems (ESDS) Program has adopted a strategic vision to develop and operate multiple components of the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) in a commercial cloud environment.

Overview

Monitoring crop growth is important for assessing food production, enabling optimal use of the landscape, and contributing to agricultural policy. Remote sensing methods based on optical and/or radar sensors have become an important means of extracting information related to crops. Optical data is related to the chemical properties of the vegetation, while radar data is related to vegetation structure and moisture. Radar can also image the Earth’s surface regardless of almost any type of weather condition.

Module

This module consists of four Courses with mainly theoretical background and one Course with a final assignment. Following the DPSIR structure (Driving forces, Pressures, State, Impact and Response), we will look first at some causes and consequences of water pollution and then learn how to measure and evaluate water pollution.

Introduction to GIS Programming

Welcome to the official course website for “Introduction to GIS Programming,” offered at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, during Fall 2024.

Course Overview

This course offers a comprehensive exploration of GIS programming, centered around the Python programming language. Throughout the semester, students will master the use of Python libraries and frameworks essential for processing, analyzing, and visualizing geospatial data.

Overview:

Rivers are a major source of freshwater. They support aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, provide transportation, generate hydropower, and when treated, provide drinking and agricultural water. Estimating and monitoring water budgets within a river basin is required for sustainable management of water resources and flooding within watersheds. This webinar series will focus on the use of NASA Earth observations and Earth system-modelled data for estimating water budgets in river basins.

Overview:

This online training introduces participants to the data and applications of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission. GPM is an international satellite mission that provides next-generation observations of rain and snow worldwide every three hours. 

Overview

Estuaries are water bodies where freshwater from rivers and streams meets with seawater. Coastal and estuarine waters are important to humans as they are highly productive habitats supporting a variety of fish and wildlife. These environments also provide resources, economic benefits, and ecosystem services. That being said, the water quality of these coastal and estuarine areas is of great importance. This is heavily influenced by the flow of nutrients and sediment from land-based sources.

Overview

SeaDAS software, developed by the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group (OBPG), is used in the processing, analysis, and visualization of satellite images. SeaDAS uses OBPG algorithms to produce water quality data and can be used to obtain water quality parameters from current optical sensors such as OLI (Operational Land Imager), MSI (MultiSpectral Instrument), OLCI (Ocean and Land Colour Instrument), VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite), and MODIS (MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer).

The Copernicus/EUMETSAT Monitoring The Oceans From Space MOOC was first released in 2016 on the FutureLearn MOOC platform as a complete and highly innovative course which included videos, interactive exercises, tests, links, data apps and further reading. The course was run a number of times and introduced diverse new audiences to satellite Earth observation data.

This course is based on the World Bank’s “Strengthening Geospatial Information Management: Using the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework”. This course introduces the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (IGIF), which guides countries to strengthen their arrangements in geospatial information management.

Overview:

Prolonged drought can result in economic, environmental, and health-related impacts. In these training webinars, participants will learn how to monitor drought conditions and assess impacts on the ecosystem using precipitation, soil moisture, and vegetation data. The training will provide an overview of drought classification, as well as an introduction to web-based tools for drought monitoring and visualization.

Objective:

By the end of the training, participants will be able to:

The Training Modules constitute the core of the curriculum and include:

• 2-3 days training content
• Webinars
• Slides with voice over
• Exercises
• Case studies

There are eleven Training Modules:

Overview

Evapotranspiration (ET) is the process by which the land surface returns water to the atmosphere in the form of moisture. ET is a very important part of the water cycle in the Earth system. It is the sum of evaporation from bare soil and transpiration from vegetation. For a given watershed, the supply of water from precipitation, surface and groundwater can be depleted via ET. Therefore, estimating the amount of ET is crucial for calculating the overall water budget and for effective water management.

Overview

This is a free virtual (online only) workshop held in English. The majority of the course is composed of self-paced learning with educational resources provided through an online learning platform called Moodle. However, instructors will also be running live training sessions in the 2nd and 3rd weeks, where participants have the opportunity to join two-hour live ‘espresso’ training sessions covering SNAP and python demos, data access, tailored workflows, and question and answer sessions for 1:1 interaction.

The 2025 EUMETSAT Supporting Marine Earth Observation Applications (SMA) training course, a United Nations Ocean Decade activity, conducted in partnership with the University of Hull, will share knowledge, skills, resources and code so attendees are able to independently access and process data from the EUMETSAT product catalogue for their marine work-flows and applications.

Overview:

In this introductory webinar, participants will be provided with an overview of remote sensing for coastal and ocean applications. This will include a background in aquatic remote sensing, data access and tools for processing and analysing imagery, and examples and live demonstrations of applied science tools that have been developed for NASA and partner organizations. This course will review data products from MODIS, VIIRS, HICO, and other sensors commonly used for ocean applications.

Overview:

NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Satellite Mission is providing new soil moisture data, and modelling frameworks are providing new evapotranspiration data. This webinar series is intended to help participants learn about NASA soil moisture and evapotranspiration products and how to access and apply them for water resource management. Throughout the sessions, participants will learn how to monitor and manage water resources with techniques learned in training. The series begins with an introduction to satellite missions and useful data sets.

Overview

Groundwater makes up roughly 30% of global freshwater. It also provides drinking water for the world’s population and irrigation for close to one third of global agricultural land. Because of this level of reliance, monitoring groundwater is crucial for water resources and land management. The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE-Follow On (GRACE-FO) missions from NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) provide large-scale terrestrial water storage estimation from mid-2000 to present.

Water Productivity and Water Accounting using WaPOR (the portal to monitor Water Productivity through Open-access of Remotely sensed derived data) is an open online course targeting practitioners and academicians who are working in water resources management and related fields and have interest in applying open access remote sensing data and other open data to assess the water resources situation and water productivity and the extent to which water productivity increases have an effect on different water users in a river basin context.

Overview

This advanced-level training will focus on using remote sensing observations from Landsat 8 and 9, Sentinel-2, and Sentinel-3 for assessing water quality parameters, including chlorophyll-a concentration, turbidity, and Total Suspended Solids (TSS) in inland lakes. This training will also highlight the importance of in situ measurements of these parameters, coincident with satellite observations, in developing methodologies for operational water quality monitoring.

Water is a crucial element in climate and for society. Find out about the latest engineering interventions for water management in rivers, coasts and the urban environment. Water is essential for life on Earth and of crucial importance for society. Water also plays a major role in affecting climate. Its natural cycle, from ocean to atmosphere by evaporation, then by precipitation back to land returning via rivers and aquifers to the oceans, has a decisive impact on regional and global climate patterns.

Overview 

The SDG Academy and the Stockholm International Water Institute have come together to offer this MOOC on some of the most important water issues. They focus on the key role water plays in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, not least SDG 6, about sustainable water and sanitation for all. The course intends to explain the global water crisis through linkages between water, environment, and societal development, focusing on how to tackle issues such as growing water uncertainty and deteriorating water quality.

Overview:

Polluted water influences all aspects of life, including people, animals, and the environment. NASA satellite observations provide near real-time information about water quality. This freely available data can help decision-makers in their work. Satellite data can have applications for managing drinking water, public health, and fisheries.

Overview:

10 advanced tutorials for hydrological applications with QGIS.

Overview

Mapping crop types and assessing their characteristics is critical for monitoring food production, enabling optimal use of the landscape, and contributing to agricultural policy. Remote sensing methods based on optical and/or microwave sensors have become an important means of extracting information related to crops. Optical data is related to the chemical properties of the vegetation, while radar data is related to vegetation structure and moisture. Radar can also image the Earth’s surface regardless of almost any type of weather condition.

Overview

Waterborne diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, hepatitis A, typhoid, and polio are caused by contaminated drinking water and poor sanitation (World Health Organization). Inadequate management of urban, industrial, and agricultural wastewater worsens water quality in water bodies, introducing chemicals and exacerbating growth of pathogens in water. Every year, waterborne diseases are responsible for approximately one million deaths, the majority of which are children under the age of five.

Overview:

Coastal and marine ecosystems serve key roles for carbon storage, nutrients and materials cycling, as well as reservoirs of biodiversity. They also provide ecosystems services such as sustenance for millions of people, coastal protection against wave action, and recreational activities. Remote sensing of coastal and marine ecosystems is particularly challenging. Up to 90% of the signal received by the sensors in orbit comes from the atmosphere.

Obvious:

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) can have a negative impact on the ecosystem and human health. Satellite remote sensing is able to collect data frequently and over a large area to identify impaired water quality from HABs. This data can inform decision-makers on where best to put their resources for taking water samples, determine what toxins are in the water, whether they need to change or move drinking water intakes, and whether a fishery needs to be closed. Remote sensing data enables individuals and organizations to have more flexible plans for water sampling.

Overview

Since the launch of NASA’s first Landsat mission in 1972, satellite imagery has been used for global agricultural monitoring, providing one of the longest operational applications for the Landsat program. Although satellite observations of land began with agricultural monitoring, only in recent years has agricultural remote sensing seen reinvigoration among space agencies, national ministries of agriculture, and global initiatives.

Description

These webinars are available for viewing at any time. They provide basic information about the fundamentals of remote sensing, and are often a prerequisite for other ARSET trainings.

Overview

This advanced-level training will focus on using remote sensing observations for monitoring post-fire impacts on watershed health, building off the ARSET training offered in 2021: Satellite Observations and Tools for Fire Risk, Detection, and Analysis.

Introduction

For many studies models are used or developed. During modelling courses not much attention is paid to the preprocessing of input data and parameters needed for the models. A lot of open source software is available for this purpose. Besides desktop tools with graphical user interfaces, scripting is very useful for processing large datasets and timeseries. With the skills learned in this course you will be able to more efficiently process your data and setup and improve your models.

Digital Earth Africa learning platform

This learning platform helps users understand the significance of Earth observations, explore Digital Earth Africa datasets through an interactive map, and get started on the basics of python coding for spatial analysis.

Digital Earth Africa makes Earth observation (EO) data readily available, delivering decision-ready products to the African continent. Data generated by Digital Earth Africa will provide valuable insights for better decision-making across many areas, including resource management, food security and urbanisation.

Overview:

These training webinars will focus on integrating NASA Earth observations into water quality monitoring decision making processes. This will include a brief overview of data products used for water quality monitoring, an overview of aquatic remote sensing-specific criteria, methods and best practices, obtaining NASA Earth observation data for water quality monitoring, and practical skill building in image processing for water quality monitoring of coastal and larger inland water bodies. 

Overview

Frozen water on or below the earth’s surface, known as the cryosphere, is a vital component of the Earth system and includes snow, glaciers, ice sheets, sea ice, and permafrost. Approximately 75% of the Earth's total freshwater is stored in glaciers, ice sheets, and permafrost (USGS). In many regions, snowmelt also serves as a major source of freshwater.

Overview:

In this self-paced online course, the participants will be introduced to the Programming for Geospatial Hydrological Applications. Participants will learn an essential skill for researchers dealing with (spatial) data. With scripting participants will be able to better control analysis using command line tools. They can also automate their procedures by writing batch scripts. Furthermore, participants can process their data and make models using Python and its useful libraries

Overview

This two-part, advanced webinar series is a follow-on to the training on coastal and estuarine water quality held in September 2021. It is a hands-on training with demos provided by instructors, followed by an hour of lab time for participants to use Level-1 MODIS and VIIRS data provided by the Ocean Biology DAAC (OB.DAAC) and SeaDAS and OCSSW software for deriving water quality parameters.

Overview

Water quality monitoring in coastal ocean estuaries and inland lakes is critical for ecosystems and fisheries management and safe drinking water. Remote sensing of water quality parameters has conventionally used data from multispectral sensors (e.g., Aqua-MODIS, Landsat-OLI, Sentinel-3 OLCI, Sentinel-2 MSI) with a limited number of spectral bands.

Overview:

Natural lakes and man-made reservoirs are a part of Earth’s surface water. Freshwater lakes and reservoirs are used for drinking water, fishing, and recreational activities. Aside from the aesthetic and scenic value added by their presence, lakes support surrounding plant and aquatic ecosystems and wildlife. A variety of factors affect lakes and reservoirs, including climate variability and change, land use, and other watershed activities influencing surface runoff and groundwater.

Overview:

Hydrologic modeling is useful for flood, drought, and water resources management. The Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) Model uses inputs to better understand hydrological processes in near real-time. Many of the inputs are available from NASA remote sensing and Earth system models, allowing the model to provide soil moisture, evapotranspiration, and runoff as outputs. Together with precipitation data, these outputs provide quantitative assessment of a regional water budget.

Overview

Rivers are a major source of freshwater. They support aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, provide transportation, and generate hydropower. Managing river basin watersheds is critical for developing policies for sustainable water allocation and development. Over the course of four sessions, this introductory webinar series will address using satellite data and Earth system modeling data sources to estimate surface water budgets.

Objective

By the end of this training, attendees will become familiar with:

Overview

Welcome to the open access course Use of FAO WaPOR Portal from IHE Delft Institute for Water Education and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). WaPOR is the portal to monitor Water Productivity through Open-access of Remotely sensed derived data and has been developed by FAO. The FAO’s WaPOR programme assists countries in monitoring water productivity, identifying water productivity gaps, proposing solutions to reduce these gaps, and contributing to a sustainable increase in agricultural production.

Overview

This training is focused on the introduction of the NASA Land Information System (LIS) output of soil moisture at various depths for drought analysis and monitoring. Traditional drought applications and indices focus on sensible weather (temperature, wind, etc.) and precipitation trends and their impacts on the hydrologic system.

General Information

Introduction

Integrated Water Resources Management requires exchange of data and information among sectors. Often data is stored in files on harddisks, CD-ROMs or DVDs. This makes it hard to find the data. In addition, metadata is often lacking, which makes it hard to evaluate the quality of the data and to reuse the data.

Digital Earth Africa learning platform

This learning platform helps users understand the significance of Earth observations, explore Digital Earth Africa datasets through an interactive map, and get started on the basics of python coding for spatial analysis.

Digital Earth Africa makes Earth observation (EO) data readily available, delivering decision-ready products to the African continent. Data generated by Digital Earth Africa will provide valuable insights for better decision-making across many areas, including resource management, food security and urbanisation.

The Training Modules constitute the core of the curriculum and include:

• 2-3 days training content
• Webinars
• Slides with voice over
• Exercises
• Case studies

There are eleven Training Modules: