REMOTE SENSING FOR AGRICULTURAL WATER MANAGEMENT (RS4AWM) EDUCATIONAL COURSE WITHIN POST-GRADUATE PROGRAM FOR WATER PROFESSIONALS

Abstract. Geospatial technology has become a core subject in many of the graduate and post-graduate educational curriculum. Last two decades saw substantial development in the field of geospatial science including earth observation and remote sensing and these technologies are widely being used in applications related to land and water resources monitoring, agricultural water management, hydrology, climate science, ecology, environmental science, civil and planning etc. Among these geospatial technologies for agricultural water management is extremely valuable because food and water security are among the biggest challenges that many countries are facing. This is widely recognized in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2 and 6. Reliable information at local and regional scales are the building block for identifying effective and sustainable coping strategies. In this context, developing the capacity of the local experts in using these technologies to support informed decision making is important. RS4AWM course aims at contributing toward this goal by training future generation of water and agriculture professional who will be equipped to use geospatial tools and data in addressing future food and water challenges at different scales. In this manuscript, we explain the evolution and structure of this course and how it is designed to cater the water professionals globally.