This book employs a suite of remotely sensed products and advanced technologies to provide the first comprehensive space-based sensing of Lake Victoria, the world’s second largest freshwater lake that supports a livelihood of more than 42 million people, modulates regional climate, but faces myriads of challenges. Proper understanding of the lake and changes in its physical dynamics (e.g., water level, shorelines and areal dynamics) resulting from the impacts of climate variation and climate change as well as anthropogenic (e.g., hydropower and irrigation) is important for its management as well as for strategic development before, during and after climate extremes (e.g., floods and droughts) in order to inform policy formulations, planning and mitigation measures. Owing to its sheer size, and lack of research resources commitment by regional governments that hamper its observations, however, it is a daunting task to undertake studies on Lake Victoria relying solely on in-situ “boots on the ground” measurements, which are sparse, missing in most cases, inconsistent or restricted by governmental red tapes. To unlock the potentials of Lake Victoria, this book argues for the removal of obsolete Nile treaties signed between Britain, Egypt and Sudan in the 1920s and 1950s, which prohibits its utilization by the upstream countries. The book is useful to those in water resources management and policy formulations, hydrologists, environmentalists, engineers and researchers. In a unique cross-disciplinary approach, the Book articulates the various climatic impacts and explanations from natural and anthropogenic origins, which affected Lake Victoria and its vicinity, including the drastic increase and depletion of water level in the Lake and dams, floods and droughts, water quality/security, crop health, food security, and economic implications. With no exception as in his many publications, Joseph L. Awange used data analysis methodologies including filtering, adjustment theory, and robust statistics, to quantify the hydrologic and other parameters, and their estimated uncertainties. The Book is recommended for readers from a diverse disciplines, including physical and social sciences, policy, law, engineering, and disaster management. Professor C.K. Shum, Ohio State University.

This book constitutes a pioneering and unique work on Lake Victoria. It is the world’s second largest fresh-water lake and supports the livelihood of more than 30 million people. Surprisingly, there has been no comprehensive book addressing its problems and potentials. Ecology, environmental pollution and resource management are some of the issues addressed by this comprehensive insight into the limitations, challenges and opportunities facing Lake Victoria.

This book is useful to those in water resources management and policy formulations, hydrologists, environmentalists, engineers and researchers. Exploiting advanced statistical techniques and the latest state-of-the-art multi-mission satellites, surface models and reanalysis products, this book provides the first comprehensive weighing of the changes in the Nile River Basin’s (NRB: ~ 3,400,000 km2 ) stored waters' compartments, surface, soil moisture and groundwater, and their association to climate variability/change and anthropogenic impacts on the one hand. On the other hand, it argues on the need for equitable use of the NRB’s waters by all 11 countries within its basin, and doing away with obsolete Nile treaties that were signed by Britain, Egypt and Sudan, which prohibit the use of the Nile by 8 upstream countries. With Ethiopia’s construction of Africa’s largest dam (GERD; Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam) along the Blue Nile, which is expected to take several years to fill, the Nile is back on the news. Combined with Uganda’s Nalubaale, Kiira and Bujagali dams on the White Nile, these human-induced impacts (i.e., damming), coupled with those of climate variability/change, are expected to exacerbate tension with the low stream countries (Egypt and Sudan) fearing the cut in theNile’s total volume. Furthermore, the Nile river, arguably the world’s longest river (6800 km), impacts on the livelihood of over 300 million people of 11 countries within its basin. This population is expected to double in the next twenty-five years, thereby putting extreme pressure on its water resources. An in-depth analysis of changes in the Nile’s stored waters, therefore, is essential to inform its management and sustainable equitable use. Owing to its sheer size, however, obtaining in-situ data from “boots on the ground” is practically impossible, paving way to the space-based weighing of the Nile River Basin using a suite of high spatio-temporal remotely sensed and reanalysis products, as well as those of hydrological models. “Arguably, the Nile River is the most unique river in the world. It spans extremes of rainfall from being measured by meters to being measured by centimeters, from the humid tropics to the driest of deserts. Yet, thirsty people live throughout this basin and therefore the demands on its water resources are uneven. Knowing the water amounts throughout the entire Nile Basin is a critical step for governments and international treaties to avoid the “Tragedy of the Commons”. Africa can embrace this future through the leadership of Prof. Awange and others like him who have devoted their careers to Africa’s waters” —Doug Alsdorf, Ph.D., Professor of Geophysics at the Ohio State University (USA).

This book will benefit users in food security, agriculture, water management, and environmental sectors. It provides the first comprehensive analysis of Greater Horn of Africa (GHA)’s food insecurity and hydroclimate using the state-of-the-art Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and its Follow-on (GRACE-FO)’s, centennial precipitation, hydrological models’ and reanalysis’ products. It is here opined that GHA is endowed with freshwater (surface and groundwater) being home to the world's second largest freshwater body (Lake Victoria) and the greatest continental water towers (Ethiopian Highlands) that if properly tapped in a sustainable way, will support its irrigated agriculture as well as pastoralism. First, however, the obsolete Nile treaties that hamper the use of Lake Victoria (White Nile) and Ethiopian Highland (Blue Nile) have to be unlocked. Moreover, GHA is bedevilled by poor governance and the ``donor-assistance” syndrome; and in 2020-2021 faced the so-called ``triple threats’’ of desert locust infestation, climate variability/change impacts and COVID-19 pandemic. Besides, climate extremes influence its meagre waters leading to perennial food insecurity. Coupled with frequent regional and local conflicts, high population growth rate, low crop yield, invasion of migratory pests, contagious human and livestock diseases (such as HIV/AIDs, COVID-19 & Rift Valley fever) and poverty, life for more than 310 million of its inhabitants simply becomes unbearable. Alarming also is the fact that drought-like humanitarian crises are increasing in GHA despite recent progress in its monitoring and prediction efforts. Notwithstanding these efforts, there remain challenges stemming from uncertainty in its prediction, and the inflexibility and limited buffering capacity of the recurrent impacted systems. To achieve greater food security, therefore, in addition to boosting GHA's agricultural output, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs suggest that its “inhabitants must create more diverse and stable means of livelihood to insulate themselves and their households from external shocks”. This is a task that they acknowledge will not be easy as the path ahead is “strewn with obstacles namely; natural hazards and armed conflicts”. Understanding GHA’s food insecurity and its hydroclimate as presented in this book is a good starting point towards managing the impacts of the natural hazards on the one hand while understanding the impacts associated with extreme climate on GHA's available water and assessing the potential of its surface and groundwater to support its irrigated agriculture and pastoralism would be the first step towards “coping with drought” on the other hand. The book represents a significant effort by Prof Awange in trying to offer a comprehensive overview of the hydroclimate in the Greater Horn of Africa (GHA). Prof Eric F. Wood, NAE (USA); FRSC (Canada); Foreign member, ATSE (Australia).

New scientific discoveries in the Congo Basin as a result of international collaborations The Congo is the world's second largest river basin and home to 120 million people. Understanding the cycling of water, sediments, and nutrients is important as the region faces climatic and anthropogenic change. Congo Basin Hydrology, Climate, and Biogeochemistry: A Foundation for the Future explores variations in and influences on rainfall, hydrology and hydraulics, and sediment and carbon dynamics. It features contributions from experts in the region and their international collaborators. Volume highlights include: New in-situ and remotely sensed measurements and model results Use of historic data to assess precipitation and hydrologic changes Exploration of water exchange between wetlands and rivers Biogeochemical processes in the Congo's forests and wetlands A scientific foundation for hydrologic resource management in the region Studies from different parts of the Congo river and its adjoining basins This book is available in English and French. The American Geophysical Union promotes discovery in Earth and space science for the benefit of humanity. Its publications disseminate scientific knowledge and provide resources for researchers, students, and professionals. Find out more about this book in this short video and this article.

Coastal Altimetry: Selected Case Studies from Asian Shelf Seas provides information on developments over the past decade in the processing of remotely sensed altimetry in coastal areas, with an overview of expected errors and where they stem from, along with remaining gaps in processing. Challenges covered include the retracking of the altimetric signal to account for land contamination, tropospheric water corrections, and tidal model improvements, along with the pros and cons of widely available products. Additional chapters provide recent research in the regional seas of Asia and cover variability, dynamics, predictability and prediction, impacts of extreme events, effects to ecosystems, and more. This book offers readers a dataset that can illuminate our understanding of the propagation of planetary boundary waves that have a significant sea level signal in near coastal regions. As such, researchers and students who have a foundation in satellite altimetry and want to know the latest development of open ocean and coastal satellite altimetry, especially in Asian coastal regions, will benefit from this book. - Presents the advancement of coastal altimetry technologies from various dedicated experts - Includes case studies throughout to give real-life examples that can be implemented globally - Provides chapters that include summaries of key points and an outlook to the future