Soil moisture and the Water-Energy-Food Nexus

In recent years, the Water-Energy-Food Nexus has become a ‘hot topic’ at international conferences, workshops and debates. Soil moisture has a great potential benefit for the W-E-F nexus and a global soil moisture monitoring system that captures spatial and temporal trends in moisture conditions is of importance.

The CCI soil moisture team was invited to present latest activities at a workshop entitled Earth Observations and the Water-Energy-Food Nexus held at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, Italy from 25 – 27 March 2014.

Goals of the workshop were:

1. To identify specific examples of where Earth Observations (EO) can add to Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus assessments and to inform EO users on how to address issues related to water, energy and food security

2. To review the information needs of resource-managers and policy-makers dealing with WEF issues

3. To assess gaps in monitoring information and services that could be addressed by satellite and in-situ data products

4. To develop a synthesis report on the state of EO applications to WEF issues, based on the outcomes of the workshop

The results will be directed at the sponsoring agencies and the May 2014 UNEP-GWSP conference, and will include recommendations for expanding the support from the Earth Observations community for the WEF nexus.