ABSTRACT
Global climate change has imposed immense pressure on water resources and freshwater availability. Along with this, anthropogenic factors, i.e., population expansion, industrialization, and increased cropland and cropping intensity, have significantly increased the consumption of freshwater. The projected change in climate conditions and the total population will exert more pressure on water resource availability throughout the world. However, the magnitude of such changes will be different in various landscapes. Thus, it is essential to prescribe landscape-level water resource management plans and policies to mitigate the impact of climate change, ensuring sustainable livelihood development. The focus of this chapter is to present an overview of the use of satellite remote sensing technology for water resource mapping. Emphasis is given to surface water mapping, water quality assessment, and flood inundation mapping employing the freely available optical, microwave, and LiDAR data. Also, we briefly discuss a few previous studies assessing the impact of climate change on surface water resources. The latest optical and microwave data provided by the Sentinel missions are suitable for near-real-time monitoring. It has been realized that robust platforms need to be developed, employing freely available remote sensing data and open source software or platforms like Google Earth Engine for improved monitoring of water resources and to prescribe suitable management plans.
