2026-07-09 –, Bakker-Nortzaal Language: English
Colombia's official water accounting method (ENA) relies on intensive field data and is only updated every four years, making it difficult to capture seasonal variability driven by El Niño and La Niña. This study explores whether freely available satellite data from FAO's WaPOR platform can support more timely and continuous agricultural water monitoring. By combining WaPOR's evapotranspiration products with ENA's crop mask in an open, adapted, and reproducible notebook-Python-based framework, we compare water consumption estimates at the sub-basin level across Colombia for 2020. Results show strong spatial agreement (R² = 0.83) between both methods, with a systematic offset explained by the difference between potential and actual evapotranspiration.
In this session, we will walk through the methodology and key findings of the comparison, explain what drives the seasonal differences between the two approaches, and demonstrate how open tools (WaPOR) can bridge the gap between satellite data and operational water management, making climate adaptation tools more accessible for Colombia.
