Landsat’s Role in Managing Water Resources
Water is essential for life. A third of Earth’s populace has unreliable access to clean water. With current population growth and environmental trends, the U.N. Environmental Program estimates that 1.8 billion people will face water scarcity by 2025. Water means survival for people and other species we rely upon to thrive, making proper stewardship of our water resources vital. Good decisions require good data. Since 1972 the Landsat series of satellites has been providing such data. Landsat-based decisions on how to manage limited water resources have impacted millions of people worldwide. From finding water for refugees in arid nations to reducing pollution in our national waterways, Landsat enables decisions that directly help people.
![Martha Anderson](https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/manderson1.jpg)
Plants from Space with Martha Anderson
USDA researcher Martha Anderson uses satellites and instruments like Landsat and ECOSTRESS to see how stressed plants are from space.
![Cabernet Savignon grapes in an E&J Gallo California vineyard](https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/img_7293_-_cabernet_sauvignon_grapes-768x512-1.jpg)
Raising a Glass in Wine Country to Better Water Management
Grape growers like Gallo are using data from Earth-observing satellites to better track soil and vine moisture levels, understand vine water use and plan grapevine irrigation.
![Kaiyu Guan and Chongya Jiang](https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Jiang1-1080x675-1-768x480-1.jpg)
New Satellite-Based Algorithm Pinpoints Crop Water Use
A new satellite-driven biophysical model can make accurate forecasts of crop water use that are critical for farmland water management and sustainability.
![Nereocystis luetkeana](https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/20200305_nu1-1024x481-1.jpg)
Landsat Boosts Understanding of Climate Change’s Impact on Kelp
Landsat imagery shows that bull kelp canopy area can vary dramatically from year to year, and that long-term population trends vary from reef to reef.
![A natural-color NASA/USGS Landsat 8 image showing ice breaking up in the Lena River Delta](https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/lena_oli_2015162-1.jpg)
Landsat Reveals Vanishing River Ice
The extent of wintertime river ice has declined by 2.5 percentage points globally over the past three decades.
![The coastal city of Zhuhai.](https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/zhuhai-4651069_960_720-1.jpg)
Landsat Provides “Complete Perspective” of Wetland Loss in China
Intertidal wetlands significantly contribute to China’s environmental and ecological diversity, but are facing unprecedented pressures from anthropogenic development, as well as the threat of future sea level rise.