AquaLab is a web-based geographic information and notification system for water reservoir management. It intends to solve water managerial problems in Bulgaria and the surrounding region and later provide Earth observation (EO) services to greater Europe. Artificial water reservoirs are of paramount importance because they provide fresh water for irrigation purposes and society at large. AquaLab thus addresses the lack of a dynamic platform for indicating changes in water and informing society and institutions about potential water crises. The system uses Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data for water surface extraction while providing statistical information on the area at hand (including changes in water volume). AquaLab also presents predictive models based on machine learning techniques and the fusion of EO and in-situ data for precise volume computation. The advantages of AquaLab lie in its uniqueness in Bulgaria and its region. The platform provides the possibility to upload and store in-situ data on hydraulic or geodetic measurements concerning water reservoirs. It will bridge the gaps between institutions by serving as an online repository of geospatial information.
Expertise
“AquaLab adds a new level of service quality for professionals and transparency for the public, concerned in fresh water supply. An issue for many European countries facing the challenges of climate change. Copernicus Earth observation data are key to supply a reliable basis for this information.” – Gunter Schreier, Deputy Director, German Remote Sensing Data Center, German Aerospace Center (DLR)
MAP.ING Ltd.
Paulina Raeva, Tsvetelina Bordjukova, Petko Bordjukov,
Maya Ilieva, Silviya Katsarska-Filipova
paulina.raeva@gmail.com
