The Interagency Science and Applications Team Remote Sensing Informed Hydrologic Modeling and Decision Support along the Nile Basin

In 2020, the US State Department, NASA, the USACE Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), and US Air Force Directorate of Weather formalized a technical subcommittee within the Interagency Water Working Group known as the Interagency Science and Applications Team (ISAT). The purpose of the group is (1) to lead intergovernmental collaboration between the research and operations communities, (2) lead development of integrated applications that increase the utility of earth system observing, surface and subsurface water characterization products in water-related decision making, (3) improve and increase the development of integrated tools that better inform decision makers on water issues, and (4) enhance the operational community's ability to support water-related activities with optimized, integrated technologies. A significant component of the ISAT goals is to provide integrated data and analyses supporting regional water-security assessments for any global regions. The ISAT partners have developed a prototype integrated remote-sensing, data assimilation, and hydrologic modeling system that has been demonstrated on a number of global watersheds including the entire Nile River Basin in Africa. This presentation will discuss the Terms of Reference outlining the goals of the ISAT, describe how the ISAT partners hope to engage and collaborate with the broader the hydrometeorology and hydroclimatology communities, and describe recent ISAT support for regional water-security related efforts.