Abstract
The mitigation of losses due to extreme climate events and long-term climate adaptation requires climate informed decision-making. In the past few decades, several remote sensing and modeled-based Earth observations (EOs) have been developed to provide an unprecedented global overview and routine monitoring of climate and its impacts on vegetation and hydrologic conditions, with the goal of supporting informed decision-making. However, their usage in decision-making is particularly limited in climate-risk vulnerable and in situ data-scarce regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, due to lack of access to EOs. Here, we describe the Early Warning eXplorer (EWX), which was developed to address this crucial limitation and facilitate the application of EOs in decision-making, particularly in the food and water-insecure regions of the world. First, the EWX's core framework, which includes (i) the Viewer, (ii) GeoEngine, and (iii) Support Applications, is described. Then, a comprehensive overview of the Viewer, which is a web-based interface used to access EOs, is provided. This includes a description of (i) the maps and associated features to access gridded EO data and anomalies for different temporal averaging periods, (ii) time series graphs and associated features to access EOs aggregated over polygons such as administrative boundaries, and (iii) commonly used EOs served by the EWX that provide assessments of climate and vegetation conditions. Next, examples are provided to demonstrate how EWX can be used to monitor development, progression, spatial extent, and severity of climate-driven extreme events to support timely decisions related to mitigation of food insecurity and flooding impacts. Finally, the value of a regional implementation of EWX at the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) in Nairobi, Kenya, is highlighted. Regional implementation of the EWX facilitates access to regionally focused EOs and their availability at polygon boundaries most relevant to the local decision-makers. Similar instances of EWX implemented in other regions, especially those susceptible to food and water security, will likely further enhance the application of EOs for informed decision-making.
Highlights
THE EWX OVERVIEWFood and water security, globally, is susceptible to climate-related The EWX is implemented based on three main components risks due to climate variability and change (Schmidhuber and (Figure 1)
Capacity building in the region of eastern and southern Africa. It we provide an overview of the EWX, describe its features, is expected that, depending on users’ Earth observations (EOs) needs, they can decide and demonstrate examples of how the EWX can be used to to access EOs using any of the versions of the EWX
Climate-related risks to food and water security are on the rise globally
Summary
Food and water security is susceptible to climate-related The EWX is implemented based on three main components risks due to climate variability and change (Schmidhuber and (Figure 1). Maps show the value or anomalies of a selected EO (Figure 3), averaging period, and region at the native grid-cell resolution [which varies from 5 km X 5 km for Climate Hazards Center InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS) and CHIRPS-Global Ensemble Forecast System to 250 m for Normalized Difference Vegetation Index] of the EO. This highlights the value of drought monitoring using the EWX as an early warning tool for food insecurity
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