Published: 29/08/2018

World Water Week 26-31 August 2018 Stockholm

Root-zone soil moisture as seen in May 2016 – ESA’s SMOS mission was launched in 2009 to provide global observations of soil moisture and ocean salinity – two important variables in Earth’s water cycle. While this novel Earth Explorer satellite continues to advance our understanding of the planet, it is also showing considerable potential for real-world applications to improve everyday life. – © ESA/Cesbio Id 360304
Denmark scorched – The image on the left from July 2017 shows lush green fields, but as the image from this July shows, the heat and lack of rain has taken its toll on the health of the vegetation. This year’s summer weather means that the same comparison could be made for many other parts of Europe.

The two Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites carry high-resolution multispectral optical imagers to monitor changes in vegetation. While the difference in plant health in these two images is clear to see, the mission offers measurements of leaf area index, leaf chlorophyll and leaf water content, which allow for a detailed assessment of plant health. – © contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017-18), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. Id 397389

Water is crucial to life on Earth. But today, its over-exploitation and pollution present challenges for the environment, economies and global living standards. These issues are addressed by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the annual World Water Week, which runs from 26-31 August 2018 in Stockholm. This was reported by ESA on 27 August.

World Water Week provides an ideal opportunity for thousands of participants from academia, industry and government to exchange ideas on this year’s theme of Water, Ecosystems and Human Development. Organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute, the week-long forum promotes collaborative action to help solve the looming water crisis. The event takes place as Europe recovers from an exceptionally dry and hot summer, which caused a drought in northern countries, for example Denmark and Sweden.