W.G.M. Bastiaanssen

• PhD
• Professor (Full) at IrriWatch

Study region Hindon River Basin, North India. Study focus Accurate estimation of water balance components is crucial for water management applications yet challenging due to errors in monthly gridded water balance data products. Error and uncertainty quantification is especially important in the absence of extensive in-situ data. This paper presen...

Precise estimation of the spatial and temporal characteristics of rainfall is essential for producing the reliable catchment response needed for proper management of water resources. However, in most parts of the world, gauged rainfall stations are sparsely distributed and fail to properly capture the spatial variability of rainfall. Furthermore, t...

The principles of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), conservation of natural capital, and water accounting requires Hydrological Eco-System Services (HESS) to be determined. This paper presents a modeling approach for quantifying the HESS framework using the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). SWAT was used–after calibration against remot...

Hydrological ecosystem services (HESS) describe the benefits of water for multiple purposes with an emphasis on environmental values. The value of HESS is often not realized because primary benefits (e.g., food production, water withdrawals) get the most attention. Secondary benefits such as water storage, purification or midday temperature cooling...

Strategic planning of water management at the river-basin scale requires (1) measurement and accounting of individual hydrological processes, (2) quantification of water resources, and (3) their optimal allocation. Scalable Water Balances from Earth Observations (SWEO) is an open-access parameterization enabling automated reporting of water footpri...

High-resolution spatial–temporal root zone soil moisture (RZSM) information collected at different scales is useful for a variety of agricultural, hydrologic, and climate applications. RZSM can be estimated using remote sensing, empirical equations, or process-based simulation models. Machine learning (ML) approaches for evaluating RZSM across nume...

Accurate estimation of evapotranspiration (ET) is essential for several applications in water resources management. ET models using remote sensing data have flourished in recent years allowing spatial and temporal assessments at unprecedented resolutions. This study presents geeSEBAL, a new tool for automated estimation of ET, based on the Surface...

Water managers around the world face the increasingly challenging task to evaluate the impacts of technological measures and policy mechanisms from the local to the river basin scale. A toolset providing quantitative, actionable information on dependencies and trade-offs between upstream and downstream water users is currently lacking. Yet, any int...

Study region Annual and monthly ET values from seven global remote sensing products (ALEXI, CMRSET, ETMonitor, GLEAM V3.3b, MOD16A2, SEBS V3 and SSEBop) were validated for 172 sub-basins in Thailand. Study focus This study describes a generalised validation procedure that uses rainfall (P), streamflow (Q) and storage change data (from the Gravity...

Increasing irrigation efficiencies remains the focus of numerous efforts to mitigate water scarcity. In reality, higher local efficiencies do often not reduce water scarcity, but instead cause a redistribution of water flows when the entire irrigation scheme or river basin is considered. Insufficient understanding of consumed fractions and non-cons...

Evapotranspiration (ET) is one of the most important components in the water cycle. However, there are relatively few direct measurements of ET available (e.g. using flux towers). Nevertheless, various disciplines, ranging from hydrology to agricultural and climate sciences, require information on the spatial and temporal distribution of ET at regi...

European agriculture and water policies require accurate information on climate change impacts on available water resources. Water accounting, that is a standardized documentation of data on water resources, is a useful tool to provide this information. Pan-European data on climate impacts do not recognize local anthropogenic interventions in the w...

This report describes the quality assessment of the FAO’s data portal to monitor Water Productivity through Open access of Remotely sensed derived data (WaPOR 1.0). The WaPOR 1.0 data portal has been prepared as a major output of the project: ´Using Remote Sensing in support of solutions to reduce agricultural water productivity gaps’, funded by th...

Evapotranspiration (ET) is one of the most important components in the water cycle. However, there are relatively few direct measurements of ET (using flux towers), whereas various disciplines ranging from hydrology to agricultural and climate sciences, require information on the spatial and temporal distribution of ET at regional and global scale....

Actual evapotranspiration (ET) is a major component of the water balance. While several international flux measurement programs have been executed in the tropical rain forest of the Amazon, those measurements represent the evaporative process at a few selected sites only. The aim of this study is to obtain the spatial distribution of ET, using remo...

Scarcity of information on the water productivity of different water, land, and other ecosystems in Africa, hampers the optimal allocation of the limited water resources. This study presents an innovative method to quantify the spatial variability of biomass production, crop yield, and economic water productivity, in a data scarce landscape of the...

Crop water productivity (CWP) has become a recognised indicator in assessing the state of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 6.4—to substantially increase water use efficiency. This indicator, while useful at a global scale, is not comprehensive at a local scale. To fill this gap, this research proposes a CWP framework, that takes advantage of the...

Evapotranspiration (ET) has a large impact on water resources from a global to field scale and accounts for the largest flux in the hydrological cycle. As such, it is central in Water Productivity (WP) studies and the simulation and evaluation of this key variable is important in the reliable assessment of water productivity in a given study area....

Evolution in the Copernicus Space Component (CSC) is foreseen in the mid-2020s to meet priority Copernicus user needs not addressed by the existing infrastructure, and/or to reinforce services by monitoring capability in the thematic domains of CO 2 , polar, and agriculture/forestry. This evolution will be synergetic with the enhanced continuity of...

In this paper, evapotranspiration (ET) and leaf area index (LAI) were used to calibrate the SWAT model, whereas remotely sensed precipitation and other climatic parameters were used as forcing data for the 6300 km² Day Basin, a tributary of the Red River in Vietnam. The efficacy of the Sequential Uncertainty Fitting (SUFI-2) parameter sensitivity a...

Target 6.4 of the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) deals with the reduction of water scarcity. To monitor progress towards this target, two indicators are used: Indicator 6.4.1 measuring water use efficiency and 6.4.2 measuring the level of water stress (WS). This paper aims to identify whether the currently proposed indicator...

This technical policy brief presents the key findings of a water accounting analysis in the Ca Basin for the period January 2003 to December 2013 using the Water Accounting Plus (WA+) framework (more information at www.wateraccounting.org) undertaken as part of the USAID-funded Vietnam Forests and Deltas (VFD) program. Central issues in water manag...

The implementation of drought management plans contributes to reduce the wide range of adverse impacts caused by water shortage. A crucial element of the development of drought management plans is the selection of appropriate indicators and their associated thresholds to detect drought events and monitor the evolution. Drought indicators should be...

Distributed hydrological models are usually calibrated against the measured outflow of a certain drainage area, provided flow data is available. A close match with flow does however not mean that the spatially distributed hydrological processes are properly understood and simulated. In this paper, remotely sensed precipitation, evapotranspiration (...

The area under sugarcane is rapidly growing worldwide. The consequences of such growth on basin scale water consumption and competing water resources need to be understood. Conventional models for sugarcane evapotranspiration have shown limitations for different environmental conditions. To improve current estimations of sugarcane water consumption...

The heat storage changes (Q t) can be a significant component of the energy balance in lakes, and it is important to account for Q t for reasonable estimation of evaporation at monthly and finer timescales if the energy balance-based evaporation models are used. However, Q t has been often neglected in many studies due to the lack of required water...

Due to increasing pressures on water resources, there is a need to monitor regional water resource availability in a spatially and temporally explicit manner. However, for many parts of the world, there is insufficient data to quantify stream flow or ground water infiltration rates. We present the results of a pixel-based water balance formulation...

The implementation of drought management plans contributes to reduce the wide range of adverse impacts caused by water shortage. A crucial element of the development of drought management plans is the selection of appropriate indicators and their associated thresholds to detect drought events and monitor their evolution. Drought indicators should b...

Remotely sensed data can be helpful for monitoring Suspended Sediment Concentration (SSC) in small rivers to improve the spatial coverage of the monitoring in addition to conventional gauging stations. The utilization of data, collected by the instruments on board of satellites, to understand physical information of small inland water bodies is a s...

Asia’s fast economic and population growth poses considerable pressures on the environment. Water resources are becoming increasingly scarce because agriculture water demand increases and domestic and industrial sectors also compete for their fair share. Cambodia is heavily dependent on foreign water policies as it receives 70% of its water resourc...

Agricultural Water Productivity (AWP) is often simplified as the ‘crop per drop’, described as the output in terms of yield or biomass per unit of water input. This purely physical measure of Water Productivity (WP) using only a single factor input (water) does not consider: (1) the level of other inputs used in conjunction with water, (2) the oppo...

This study presents an "Earth observation-based" method for estimating root zone storage capacity – a critical, yet uncertain parameter in hydrological and land surface modelling. By assuming that vegetation optimises its root zone storage capacity to bridge critical dry periods, we were able to use state-of-the-art satellite-based evaporation data...

With changes in weather patterns and intensifying anthropogenic water use, there is an increasing need for spatio-temporal information on water fluxes and stocks in river basins. The assortment of satellite-derived open-access information sources on rainfall (P) and land use/land cover (LULC) is currently being expanded with the application of actu...

A river basin is the prime land unit for collection and depletion of water, ultimately leading to rich and attractive environments to live in, having food security, industrial production and socio-economic development. Water flows across and underneath, international boundaries and sustains entire agro-ecosystems, whose boundaries do not conform to...

The Incomati basin encompasses parts of South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique, and is a water stressed basin. Equitable allocation of water is crucial to sustain livelihoods and agro-ecosystems, and to sustain international agreements. As compliance monitoring of water distribution by flow meters is laborious, expensive and only partially feasible...

This study presents an "earth observation-based" method for estimating root zone storage capacity – a critical, yet uncertain parameter in hydrological and land surface modelling. By assuming that vegetation optimises its root zone storage capacity to bridge critical dry periods, we were able to use state-of-the-art satellite-based evaporation data...

The scarcity of water encourages scientists to develop new analytical tools to enhance water resource management. Water accounting and distributed hydrological models are examples of such tools. Water accounting needs accurate input data for adequate descriptions of water distribution and water depletion in river basins. Ground-based observatories...

Accurate information on the distribution of the surface energy balance components in arid riparian areas is needed for sustainable management of water resources as well as for a better understanding of water and heat exchange processes between the land surface and the atmosphere. Since the spatial and temporal distributions of these fluxes over lar...

The increasing competition for water resources requires a better understanding of flows, fluxes, stocks, and the services and benefits related to water consumption. This paper explains how public domain Earth Observation data based on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Second Generation Meteosat (MSG), Tropical Rainfall Measurem...

The Bowen ratio surface energy balance method is a relatively simple method to determine the latent heat flux and the actual land surface evaporation. The Bowen ratio method is based on the measurement of air temperature and vapour pressure gradients. If these measurements are performed at only two heights, correctness of data becomes critical. In...

Geospatial technologies continue to advance mapping methods across societal sectors. Remote sensing, or the collection of Earth-viewing digital images by satellite or aircraft, is increasingly used as a viticultural production tool. The images may be used in isolation, or analyzed in combination with other supporting spatial data layers within a co...

Groundwater abstraction and depletion were assessed at a 1-km resolution in the irrigated areas of the Indus Basin using remotely sensed evapotranspiration (ET) and precipitation; a process-based hydrological model and spatial information on canal water supplies. A calibrated Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was used to derive total annu...

The scarcity of water encourages scientists to develop new analytical tools to enhance water resource management. Water accounting and distributed hydrological models are examples of such tools. Water accounting needs accurate input data for adequate descriptions of water distribution and water depletion in river basins. Ground-based observatories...

Water Accounting Plus (WA+) is a framework that summarizes complex hydrological processes and water management issues in river basins. The framework is designed to use satellite based measurements of land and water as input data. A concern associated with the use of satellite measurements is their accuracy. This study focuses on the impact of the e...

The information of water level variations in lakes and reservoirs is essential for many applications such as water resources management. The conventional in-situ measurements of water levels based on gauge station are often rarely available or difficult to be shared to the public especially for lakes in the developing countries and trans-boundary b...

The information of water surface temperature (WST) is essential for many applications such as the estimation of evaporation from lakes and reservoirs. Generally, there is rarely continuous long-term in-situ measurement of water surface temperature for most lakes especially in developing countries. The freely available satellite data is an alternati...

The paper demonstrates the application of a new water accounting plus (WA+) framework to produce information on depletion of water resources, storage change, and land and water productivity in the Indus basin. It shows how satellite-derived estimates of land use, rainfall, evaporation (E), transpiration (T), interception (I) and biomass production...

The Bowen ratio surface energy balance method is a relatively simple method to determine the latent heat flux and the actual land surface evaporation. Despite its simplicity, the Bowen ratio method is generally considered to be unreliable due to the use of two-level sensors that are installed by default in operational Bowen ratio systems. In this p...

Coping with water scarcity and growing competition for water among different sectors requires proper water management strategies and decision processes. A prerequisite is a clear understanding of the basin hydrological processes, manageable and unmanageable water flows, the interaction with land use and opportunities to mitigate the negative effect...

Is the total evaporation from a wetland surface (including: open water evaporation, plant transpiration and wet/dry soil evaporation) similar, lower, or higher than evaporation from an open water surface under the same climatic conditions? This question has been the subject of long debate; the literature does not show a consensus. In this paper we...

The surface energy fluxes and related evapotranspiration processes across the Indus Basin were estimated for the hydrological year 2007 using satellite measurements. The new ETLook remote sensing model (version 1) infers information on actual Evaporation (E) and actual Transpiration (T) from combined optical and passive microwave sensors, which can...

Coping with the issue of water scarcity and growing competition for water among different sectors requires proper water management strategies and decision processes. A pre-requisite is a clear understanding of the basin hydrological processes, manageable and unmanageable water flows, the interaction with land use and opportunities to mitigate the n...

The paper describes the application of a new Water Accounting Plus (WA+) framework to produce spatial information on water flows, sinks, uses, storages and assets, in the Indus Basin, South Asia. It demonstrates how satellite-derived estimates of land use, land cover, rainfall, evaporation (E), transpiration (T), interception (I) and biomass produc...

ETLook is a newly developed algorithm to compute the evapotranspiration of large areas using an array of remote sensing data: moderate resolution visible and near infrared data from the MODIS sensor, and low resolution estimates of soil moisture from the AMSRE sensor. The Penman-Monteith equation is solved separately for vegetation and soil, enabli...

Two Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) products i.e. 3-hourly TRMM 3B42 and monthly 3B43 data were validated using 39 rain gauge stations in the Caspian Sea Region (CSR) in Iran with complex topography. The period 1999-2003 were selected. The validations were performed at monthly and annual scale...

The latent heat of evapotranspiration (ET) plays an important role for water resource management in water scarcity areas. Compared to the water balance method or to in situ measurements, an operational integrated monitoring method of regional surface ET from remote sensing data is a potentially useful approach to achieve water saving. This study pr...

This review-paper has been prepared by staff of the eLEAF Competence Center, under assignment of Winrock International. The aim of the paper is to contribute to strengthening assessment approaches of mitigation and monitoring crop-based biofuels (and thus bioenergy) by facilitating the effective development and use of remote sensing. The purposes h...

The availability of accurate rainfall data at proper temporal and spatial scales is vital for knowledge of renewable water resources and safe withdrawals for irrigation. Rain gauge networks in mountainous basins such as the Indus are sparse and insufficient to plan withdrawals and water management applications. Satellite rainfall estimates can be u...

Vaporization is an important flux in the hydrological cycle. The total vaporization flux consists of Transpiration (T) by canopy and direct Evaporation (E) from interception, the surface and the top soil. The availability of soil moisture effects estimation of E and T. In this paper, we explore how the differences in representation of available wat...

This paper presents an interactive web-based rapid assessment tool that generates key water related indicators to support decision making by stakeholders in land use planning. The tool is built on a consistent science based method that combines remote sensing with hydrological and socioeconomic analyses. It generates transparent, impartial, and ver...

This paper presents an interactive web-based rapid assessment tool that generates key water related indicators to support decision making by stakeholders in land use planning. The tool is built on a consistent science based method that combines remote sensing with hydrological and socioeconomic analyses. It generates transparent, impartial, and ver...

Geospatial technologies continue to advance mapping methods across societal ­sectors. Remote sensing, or the collection of Earth-viewing digital images by satellite or aircraft, is increasingly used as a viticultural production tool. The images may be used in isolation, or analyzed in combination with other supporting spatial data layers within a c...

Surface Energy Balance Algorithms for Land (SEBAL) and Mapping EvapoTranspiration at high Resolution with Internalized Calibration (METRIC) are satellite-based image-processing models that calculate evapotranspiration (ET) as a residual of a surface energy balance. Both models are calibrated using inverse modelling at extreme conditions approach to...