Using Remote Sensing and GIS to Support Drinking Water Supply in Refugee/IDP Camps

Abstract

Supplying the population of a refugee or internally displaced persons (IDP) camp with sufficient drinking water is a key concern of humanitarian organisations. This requires in-formation on the geological and hydrogeological situation at the camp site, which is often missing or not available within a reasonable timeframe. Depending on outcrop situation and geological complexity, remote sensing can contribute to a rapid hydrogeological assess-ment, and greatly reduce the required fieldwork. In the context of the project EO4HumEn (Earth Observation based services to support hu-manitarian operations: monitoring population and natural resources in refugee/IDP camps, funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency FFG, ASAP 9, Nr. 840081), a team of hydrogeologists and GIS experts supported by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Austria developed a workflow to extract hydrogeological information from easily acces-sible remote sensing data in a series of short-term desk studies.