FAO/ICARDA/AOAD Online Workshop on Digital Platforms for Rainwater-Harvesting Interventions

On 12 June ICARDA, in collaboration with FAO and AOAD, conducted a Regional Workshop on Web-Based Digital Platform to Support Decision Making for Context-Specific Scaling of Rainwater-Harvesting Interventions 

This activity is part of the regional project led by FAO called “Implementing the 2030 Agenda for water efficiency/productivity and water sustainability in NENA countries” (WEPS-NENA) funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).  

A specific action called "Assessment of water-harvesting scaling-up potential for the NENA Region" is led by ICARDA in collaboration with AOAD. This regional workshop was to demonstrate and co-develop a Regional Rainwater-Harvesting Potential Mapping Platform with various stakeholders in the region. Around 150 people from various countries in the region participated, and they highly appreciated the value of this platform and suggested ways to further improve for bespoke applications.  

The SIDA-funded project is being implemented in eight countries (Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia) to establish a robust water accounting system, implement a series of interventions to increase water efficiency and productivity in selected farming systems, and ensure sustainable, socially equitable and human-rights based development. 

In recent years, ICARDA has made substantial progress in advanced digital processing (digital augmentation) and related tools’ development as part of the GeoAgro platform. This platform brings together vast experience and expertise in geospatial modeling and mapping on of water harvesting potential in the region. Building on recent advances in machine learning, and cloud computational power.  

The platform can be accessed through www.mena-rainwater.org