Global monitoring of runoff and lake storage:

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New Project, facilitated by GEO Hydrological
Applications Runoff Project (HARON) Basic
Rationale of the Initiative

• Global monitoring of runoff and lake storage
• - important elements of Integrated Global
  Observing
• Systems
• - integral parts of water resources management
• including prevention of water-induced disasters

IGWCO
GCOS
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HARON Basic Rationale (cont.)

• Provision of near real-time monitoring data and
  products of large scale rivers and lakes from
• in-situ gauge observations, and
• satellite observations (based on developing
  altimetry technology)
• Will fulfill goal of observing / analyzing
  surface runoff and lake storage variations over
  time.

IGWCO
GCOS
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HARON Project Raison dêtre

• Development of new in-situ and remote sensing
  sensors for water cycle measurements
• Near real-time regional and global computation
  of the water balance, as input for climate models
  and seasonal forecasting
• Validation of large-area precipitation fields
  against basin-wide hydrological records to
  validate GCMs
• Detection of climate variability signal in
  changing hydrological patterns of river runoff on
  seasonal and inter-annual scales
• Estimation of bio-geochemical fluxes from
  continents into world oceans
• Variation of freshwater fluxes from the
  continents and influence on thermohaline
  circulation / ocean currents

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Goals Objectives

• Main Goals
• Support water resources management while
  contributing in a cross-cutting fashion to all
  societal benefit areas of GEO
• Improve support the closure of the global
  water budget, in line with requirements of GCOS
  and the Global Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX)

Main Objective Integrate, in a phased approach,
dedicated river gauging networks of existing
hydrological stations into a global runoff
observation network
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Expected Results
Strengthening of in-situ and satellite monitoring
networks of estuaries, rivers, lakes, reservoirs,
and groundwater levels

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Implementation Phases
PHASE I Upgrade sustained maintenance of
major global run-off stations, monitoring
continental freshwater fluxes into the worlds
oceans PHASE II Integration of
hydro-meteorological and related in-situ
components with satellite observations PHASE III
Consolidation of integrated hydrological
observation network development and application
of user-oriented information products made
available by HARON
Production of an implementation plan for a broad
global water cycle data integration system,
combining water cycle in-situ, satellite, and
model output data
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Global Terrestrial Network - Runoff
Network consists of 380 gauging stations worldwide
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.Complement terrestrial with satellite (radar
altimetry) observations
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.Arriving at multi-platform integrated
observations
Red indicates area where NRT products are
currently generated
Blue indicates area where products may be
generated in the future.
Source ESA, De Montford University, UK
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Phase 2 (example I)
Establishment of phased connections with relevant
existing or proposed networks


Main Global Groundwater Regions



 


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Phase 2 (example II)
Establishment of phased connections with relevant
existing or proposed networks

GEMS-Water Stations Global Distribution



 


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Main Elements

• Rehabilitation of the in-situ observational
  infrastructure
• Technical upgrade, as required, of the major
  run-off stations which monitor continental
  freshwater fluxes into the worlds oceans of the
  GTN R network
• Linkage with relevant research and development
  activities
• Use of satellite altimeters to measure inland
  water heights for major rivers - relevant
  research issue to supplement in-situ observations
  for the derivation of discharge data

• Continuous follow-up on results of national and
  regional initiatives for application during
  project implementation