UNESCO IHP 2025: Strengthening Open Hydrology and Citizen Science
Date:
On the occasion of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme, I presented the activities we were undertaking under the UNESCO Chair on Open Water Science and Education led by Prof. Ann van Griensven. I gave three different presentations. In the first one, I presented the activities of the chair in coordinating the collection of hydrological data using low-cost soil moisture sensors and how we are collaborating with UNESCO to make this data accessble through the UNESCO-IHP Water Information Network System (WINS). The second talk I was a plenary where I was part of a panel discussing how citizen science can be explored to benefit hydrology. In this session I also presented the citizen science activities we are coordinating in Kenya and Bolivia under the chair and demonstrated a citizen science toolbox we are using to consolidate citizen science data. The third one was a more technical presentation during the 2nd International Drought Symposium organized by UNESCO-IHP Belgium. Here I present my research work on combining in situ measurements and process-based models to quantify the impacts of nature-based interventions as a measure to mitigate the impacts of droughts.