# Satellite Remote Sensing of Precipitation and the Terrestrial Water Cycle in a Changing Climate
## 4 Applications Related to the Water Cycle
### Food Security  
Water cycle changes influence the lives of millions of people affected by droughts who face a threat to their livelihoods. These people are heavily dependent on rainfed agriculture and livestock, especially in Africa, Central America, and Southwest Asia. The US Famine Early Warning System NETwork (FEWS NET; [[http://fews.net](http://fews.net)]([http://fews.net](http://fews.net)), last accessed 21 August 2019) provides guidance for effective humanitarian relief efforts, drawing information from many disciplines such as remote sensing (precipitation above all), climate predictions, agroclimatic monitoring, and hydrological modeling [299]. Climate services make available climate information, including precipitation data, that are often inaccessible to those who need them most. The collaboration between NASA and the US Agency for International Development has funded the SERVIR remote sensing initiative ([[https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/servir/index.html](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/servir/index.html)]([https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/servir/index.html](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/servir/index.html)), last accessed 13 September 2019) to provide state-of-the-art, satellite-based Earth monitoring, imaging and mapping data, geospatial information, predictive models, and science applications to help improve environmental decision-making among developing nations in many parts of the world. The Enhancing National Climate Services (ENACTS; [[https://iri.columbia.edu/resources/enacts/](https://iri.columbia.edu/resources/enacts/)]([https://iri.columbia.edu/resources/enacts/](https://iri.columbia.edu/resources/enacts/)), last accessed 21 August 2019) project of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) [300] is an initiative to improve the availability, access, and use of climate information in Africa for the characterization of climate risks and to help with decision making. The recently-developed NASA Hydrological Forecasting and Analysis System (NHyFAS) has been applied to Southern Africa to support food insecurity early warning in the region [301]. In Europe, the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) Water of the European Union deals with research to ensure the availability of water in sufficient quantities and of adequate quality as a pan-European and global environmental challenge ([[http://www.waterjpi.eu](http://www.waterjpi.eu)]([http://www.waterjpi.eu](http://www.waterjpi.eu)), last accessed 13 September 2019). The European Commission (EC) has launched numerous climate service projects under the umbrella of Copernicus ([[https://www.copernicus.eu/en](https://www.copernicus.eu/en)]([https://www.copernicus.eu/en](https://www.copernicus.eu/en)), last accessed 20 August 2019), i.e., divided in atmosphere, marine, land, climate change, security, and emergency. The European Drought Observatory (EDO) [302] (Figure 11) is an example of such Copernicus initiatives ([[https://edo.irc.ec.europa.eu/edov2/php/index.php?id=1000](https://edo.irc.ec.europa.eu/edov2/php/index.php?id=1000)]([https://edo.irc.ec.europa.eu/edov2/php/index.php?id=1000](https://edo.irc.ec.europa.eu/edov2/php/index.php?id=1000)), last accessed 24 September 2019).  
Figure 10: Map of 2085 landslides with fatalities as reported in the Global Landslide Catalog. Courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory, using landslide susceptibility data provided by T. Stanley and D. Kirschbaum ([[https://pmm.nasa.gov/articles/help-create-largest-landslide-database](https://pmm.nasa.gov/articles/help-create-largest-landslide-database)]([https://pmm.nasa.gov/articles/help-create-largest-landslide-database](https://pmm.nasa.gov/articles/help-create-largest-landslide-database)), last accessed 24 September 2019) [294; 295].