Project Team: Peru Water Resources Team
Team Location: Wise County Clerk of Court’s Office, Wise, Virginia
Hydrologic Response Unit (HRU) values accounting for slope variability in the Chicama River Watershed, Peru, created using Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). Image Credit: Peru Water Resources Team.
Authors:
Manzi Roger Dusabimana
Sarah Medley
Rohini Swaminathan
Grant Bloomer
Mentors/Advisors:
Dr. Kenton Ross (NASA DEVELOP National Science Advisor)
Dr. DeWayne Cecil (NOAA, Global Science and Technology Inc.)
Dr. Helen Jung (California Baptist University)
Past/Other Contributors:
Steve Padgett-Vasquez (DEVELOP)
Catherine Steentofte (DEVELOP)
Abigail Holbrook (DEVELOP)
Abstract:
La Libertad is the third most populous region in Peru with about 30 percent of its population living under the poverty line and lacking proper water and sanitation systems. Partnering with Water for People, a nonprofit organization, this project aimed to create products for water resource management plans in La Libertad region. The datasets necessary for Water for People to create water resource management plans are extremely limited in Peru. NASA Earth observations were used to bolster the dataset being used by Water for People. Earth observations systems such as Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) surface reflectance data, Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), climatic data from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GEOS) and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), and land use data from the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) were used in this project. The above data were processed to build an automated Python-powered program derive evapotranspiration values and land cover data.åÊ This Python program is based on the principals of the Mapping Evapotranspiration at high Resolution with Internalized Calibration (METRIC) model. Furthermore, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used to build a model that will enable the end-user to quantify the impact of land management practices in the Chicama River Basin. The final deliverables which include maps, models, datasets and tutorials were developed to depict the distribution of water resources across the region. These will enable Water for People create water management programs for the La Libertad region, and eventually implement the same methodologies in other regions all over the globe.