Opportunities and Challenges for water Management in South America

The availability and quality of surface water have deteriorated over the past decades in South America. Recent studies also point to the rapid melting of the Andes and desertification. Anthropic actions have compromised the integrity of aquatic ecosystems, and the effects of climate change are already perceptible with recurring water crises. The solutions to these problems depend on best management practices of water resources, which demand quality information about their dynamics and pressure vectors. In 2021, the MapBiomas network launched the MapBiomas Água initiative with monthly monitoring of the water surface in Brazil since 1985. The monitoring is based on Landsat images, at sub-pixel scale, processed on the Google Earth Engine platform, with the database, maps, and statistics available on the MapBiomas Água platform (https://plataforma.brasil.mapbiomas.org/agua). The project, started in Brazil, is expanding to other countries in South America and now seeks partnerships to develop new applications for managing, mitigating, adapting, and conserving water resources. In this session, we will present the perspectives, the potential of remote sensing, and possible synergies with the MapBiomas Agua database, aiming for better management and conservation of water