Levels of water scarcity vary from area to area in the MENA region, and so diminishing supplies could lead to greater political instability and more conflicts between states over access to precious resources.
While older methods of gauging rainfall, precipitation and evaporation remain valid in the modern era, satellite-imaging technology be used to monitor and better understand precipitation.
The accuracy and availability of satellite imagery varies from place to place, and so it cannot resolve all the questions water scientists need answered to help them develop proper solutions to water loss in the region.
The MENA region is placing unprecedented stress on water supplies, leading to an abrupt increase in water demand, threatening local food security and harming regional ecosystems.
There continued to be a significant lack of accuracy in the available satellite data and imagery related to water issues, mainly as a result of lack of participation in initiatives to collect it.
Some Arab Gulf states, such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, have established ambitious and promising space programs that could usher in a new age of satellite-based water.
The terrestrial water-storage loss in the Middle East is humongous and it’s on the scale of the average flow of the Colorado River Basin, which amounts to about 10 to 25 cubic kilometers of water lost to the atmosphere.