I found a project as shown by the website below:
https://www.space4water.org/local-perspectives-case-studies/escalating-…

Escalating water scarcity and groundwater overextraction in Jordan: climate-driven droughts and the urgent need for integrated resource management

Description
This challenge centers on Jordan’s worsening water crisis, one of the most severe globally. The country faces chronic water scarcity due to naturally low rainfall, limited renewable water sources, and rapid population growth. The crisis is further intensified by climate-driven droughts and unsustainable groundwater extraction, which together threaten long-term water security. The challenge aims to develop space-based monitoring and management strategies to better understand, predict, and mitigate the compounding impacts of drought and groundwater depletion on national water systems.

Has this problem been acknowledged in the past?
Yes. The Government of Jordan has consistently identified water scarcity as a national security issue, reflected in strategic plans such as the National Water Strategy (2016–2025), done by the ministry of water and irrigations. NGOs, the Royal Jordanian Geographic Centre (RJGC), UN agencies (e.g., UNDP, FAO), and international donors (e.g., USAID, GIZ) have also highlighted overextraction, drought risks, and climate change impacts on water systems. However, the integration of space-based tools into long-term water planning remains underutilized.

Can this challenge be solved using space technologies and data?
Yes. Space technologies are vital for monitoring, forecasting, and managing water resources at scale. Relevant Technologies and Datasets:

GRACE / GRACE-FO: To monitor changes in groundwater storage.
High resolution satellite images/ Sentinel-1 & Sentinel-2 / Landsat: For land cover analysis, evapotranspiration, and agricultural water use.
SMAP / AMSR2: To observe soil moisture and support drought severity assessments.
GPM / TRMM: To quantify precipitation trends and anomalies.
CMIP6 / ERA5 datasets: For long-term climate change modeling and scenario analysis.
Geospatial integration platforms (e.g., GIS + remote sensing): For visualization and decision-making tools.
Expected timeframe to develop a solution
Short-term (Pilot development): 6–12 months
Mid-term (Scaling + capacity building): 1–2 years
Long-term (Policy integration + sustainability): 3–5 years
Potential consequences if no action happens
Accelerated depletion of major aquifers, risking irreversible damage.
Increased water insecurity for households, agriculture, and industry.
Greater risk of economic losses and social instability due to water conflicts.
Reduced resilience to climate change and inability to meet SDG targets.
Higher costs for emergency water sourcing and infrastructure.
What are additional physical requirements for a solution?
Satellite data access and processing infrastructure.
Trained personnel in remote sensing, hydrology, and GIS.
Ground observation networks for validation and calibration.
Secure data storage and high-performance computing facilities.
Institutional collaboration frameworks among ministries, universities, and international partners.
Long-term funding mechanisms for operational sustainability.
Impact of a solution if the success criteria are fulfilled
Jordan will benefit from a robust, space-based water information system enabling sustainable groundwater use.
Improved drought resilience through accurate forecasting and early warning.
Data-driven governance and public trust in transparent water policies.
Regional knowledge-sharing model for other arid and semi-arid countries facing similar challenges.
Strengthened scientific and institutional capacity in climate-resilient water resource management.
Problem Definition
Jordan’s renewable freshwater availability is less than 100 m³ per person per year—far below the global water poverty threshold. Decades of overextraction have depleted groundwater reserves, particularly in critical basins like Amman-Zarqa. The problem is exacerbated by prolonged and more frequent droughts due to climate change, leading to diminished aquifer recharge and increased reliance on groundwater. Currently, water management lacks an integrated, data-driven system that connects drought monitoring, groundwater use, and climate projections. As a result, water planning and allocation remain reactive rather than strategic.
Success criteria
Develop an integrated, space-supported monitoring system for drought and groundwater dynamics.
Support data-driven policies for equitable and sustainable water resource allocation.
Strengthen early warning systems and climate adaptation strategies.
Enhance national and local capacity in geospatial and hydrological analysis.
Deployment of operational drought monitoring and groundwater tracking tools using remote sensing.
Reduced groundwater overextraction rates in target basins.
Implementation of policy changes informed by satellite-derived insights.
Improved collaboration between governmental and research institutions.
Thematic focus area
Water scarcity and drought
Groundwater
Relevant data sources/publications
FAO. AQUASTAT - FAO’s Global Information System on Water and Agriculture: Country Profile - Jordan. 2008. https://www.fao.org/aquastat/en/countries-and-basins/country-profiles/c….

Hasan, N. A., Dongkai, Y., & Al-Shibli, F. 2023. “SPI and SPEI Drought Assessment and Prediction Using TBATS and ARIMA Models, Jordan.” Water 15, no. 20 (2023). https://doi.org/10.3390/W15203598.

Jordan Ministry of Water and Irrigation. “National Water Strategy 2016-2025.” 2016. https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/jor156264E.pdf.

Royal Jordanian Geographic Centre maps and data
Jordan Meteorological Department (JMD)
CSIC Climate Services for SPI/SPEI computation
CMIP6 datasets (IPCC)
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) reports on water governance in Jordan

Happy New Year to the fellow members of the Valuing Water Community! I appreciate and look forward to the opportunities of learning and sharing as a new member of this community. We are lucky to have snow over the nearby mountain top after two weeks of rainstorm/windstorm which will be helpful for the mountain ecosystems. I just posted an event for your infomation about what we are doing now as part of CIEDM's grassroots actions of taking part in the celebration of the 2026 National Bird Day on 5 January and International Zero Waste Month throughout January, and welcome your comments.

Bicycles help Zambian farmers push out through deought

see this news on The Times: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/zambian-farmers-conservat…

The importance of hedgerows in combating desertification

A hedgerow is a dense, continuous linear formation consisting of one or more rows of shrubs around a site to be protected from animals and other threats. It plays a vital role in the fight against desertification by protecting soils from wind and water erosion, improving soil fertility, and conserving moisture. They act as natural barriers that reduce land degradation, enhance biodiversity, and create favorable microclimates for crops and livestock. By stabilizing ecosystems and supporting sustainable land management, living hedges contribute significantly to the resilience of rural landscapes and communities facing climate change.
1. Objectives
The establishment of hedgerows aims to contribute sustainably to combat desertification in the Sahel region through the following objectives :
Protecting production areas (gardens, orchards, cultivated fields) from stray livestock and associated damage ;
Demarcating and securing agricultural land, plots, access corridors, and developed areas to reduce land pressure ;
Effectively combating wind and water erosion by reducing wind speed and water runoff;
Reducing deforestation and illegal logging through a renewable plant source ;
Preventing and mitigating land and agropastoral conflicts related to access to and use of land and natural resources;
Restoring degraded land and improving the resilience of agrosilvopastoral systems to the effects of climate change.

2. Context and Environmental Conditions
Hedgerows are a proven soil and water conservation technique, widely used in Sahelian agropastoral zones characterized by annual rainfall between 300 and 600 mm.
In these fragile environments, highly exposed to desertification, hedgerows help to slow desertification, stabilize soils, protect crops, and promote vegetation regeneration. They thus constitute a sustainable, low-cost solution adapted to local knowledge for integrated land management.

3. Implementation Steps
The establishment of hedgerows follows a gradual process adapted to the local agricultural calendar:
Production of seedlings in a nursery using species adapted to local climatic conditions;
Marking planting lines for optimal spatial organization;
Soil preparation and digging of planting holes (April–May) to anticipate the rainy season;
Transportation of seedlings to planting sites;
Plant or direct sowing at the beginning of the rainy season (June–July) to ensure better establishment and survival of the seedlings.

4. Technical Specifications for Planting
Planting Holes:
Diameter: 40 cm
Depth: 60 cm
Spacing between plants: 30 to 100 cm depending on the species used ;
Spacing between rows: 50 cm ;
Arrangement: 1 to 3 rows of plants arranged in a staggered pattern to increase effectiveness against wind, erosion, and animal passage.

5. Characteristics of Forest Species Adapted to Combating Desertification
The species selected for hedgerows must meet the following criteria:
Ability to grow in rows and at high density;
Ability to regenerate vigorously after frequent cutting;
Ease of propagation and maintenance using techniques accessible to local producers;
No toxicity to surrounding crops;
High hardiness and rapid initial growth in arid conditions ;
Thorny and unpalatable to livestock;
Shrubby habit with dense branching providing good protection ;
Taproot system limiting water competition with crops.

6. Commonly Used Species
In the Sahelian context of combating desertification, the most commonly used species for hedgerows are :
Bauhinia rufescens, Acacia senegal, Acacia laeta, Acacia nilotica, Acacia ataxacantha, Ziziphus mauritiana, Combretum aculeatum, Mimosa pigra, Lawsonia inermis, Jatropha curcas, Euphorbia balsamifera, and Prosopis juliflora.

This is an interesting article, fulltext here: https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EF005971

A Tale of Two Unprecedented Droughts in Southeast Asia: Physical Drivers and Impending Future Risks

Authored by: Shuping Ma, Xiao Peng, Xinyue Liu, Zhongwang Wei, Zhixiao Niu, Wenpeng Zhao, Ming Pan, Xiaogang He

Abstract: Conventional wisdom suggests that tropical droughts in Southeast Asia are closely linked to natural climate variability like El Niño. However, the extreme 2014 drought occurred independently of El Niño, suggesting other dynamic forcings at play. Here we use moisture budget analysis, moisture tracking, and physics-informed joint probability modeling to disentangle the interplay between dynamic and thermodynamic drivers behind this unprecedented drought and to assess future drought risks under climate change. We find that the 2014 drought primarily resulted from air subsidence due to anticyclone-driven mid-troposphere divergence, leading to significant precipitation deficits, which are further intensified by reduced marine moisture inflow from the West Pacific. Incorporating the dynamic and thermodynamic drivers into our bivariate probabilistic analysis, we find that the likelihood of 2014-like droughts will increase by 25% and 43% under stabilized and business as usual pathways, respectively, by mid-century (2030–2064). Such increases in drought risk are dominated by climate-change-induced changes in dynamic processes, particularly reduced mid-troposphere vertical motion, where thermodynamic processes and the dependence structure between the two play a less significant role. However, significant inter-model inconsistence in attributing the relative importance of these factors highlights the challenges of using current climate models for robust risk assessment.

Plain Language Summary
In early 2014, Southeast Asia experienced an extreme drought. Our analysis explores the role of the intricate interplay between dynamic and thermodynamic processes in drought formation. We find that the probability of experiencing droughts similar to the 2014 event increases by 25% under the SSP126 scenario compared to historical likelihood, and under the SSP585 scenario, this increase is even more pronounced at 43%, when employing vertical motion and relative humidity to describe the combined effect of the thermodynamic and dynamic processes. Overall, we anticipate a significant increase in the frequency of extreme drought conditions under more severe warming scenarios, with the dynamic factors mainly contributing to the increased likelihood of 2014-like droughts in the future.

Key Points

We explore the intricate interactions among the physical mechanisms that contribute to the historic 2014 Southeast Asia drought

The extreme drought, characterized by the interplay of vertical motion and relative humidity, has a “likely” return period of 95 years

The frequency of extreme drought conditions will increase by 25% and 43% under future scenarios, with dynamical factors playing a key role