Monitoring Water Resources and Hydraulic Infrastructure with GNSS, InSAR, GRACE and SWOT Satellite Observations
A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Remote Sensing".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2026
Special Issue Editors
Interests: GNSS positioning; satellite remote sensing; water resources monitoring; AI for geodesy modeling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: ocean gravity field; seafloor topography; polar ice sheets; sea ice changes; sea level changes; land glacier mass variations; water resource changes
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: accurate positioning; geo-informatics; geodynamics; GNSS; plate tectonics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: atmospheric turbulence; geodetic time series modeling; PS zenith wet delay; VLBI; atmospheric simulations
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Monitoring water resources and hydraulic infrastructure is a multi-faceted process that utilizes a combination of in situ sensors and remote sensing observations. Currently, the increasing intensity of global climate change and anthropogenic activities is profoundly altering the Earth’s water cycle, resulting in severe spatial and temporal heterogeneity in water resource distribution across river basins and a rising frequency of extreme hydrological events such as floods and droughts. The rise in space-based geodesy technologies—including GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System), SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography), GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) and InSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar)—has brought new opportunities for monitoring water resources and hydraulic infrastructure. Conventional monitoring approaches are inadequate to meet the demands for large-scale, high-precision, and near real-time water resource management. Modern geodesy technologies, with their powerful autonomous positioning capabilities, offer high precision, global coverage, all-weather capability, and automation, enabling centimeter- and even millimeter-level deformation monitoring. Integrating multi-sensor observations from GNSS, InSAR, SWOT, and complementary missions such as GRACE enables the development of an intelligent, integrated space–air–ground monitoring system.
This Special Issue focuses on monitoring water resources and hydraulic infrastructure using modern technologies (e.g., GNSS, InSAR, SWOT, and GRACE satellite missions). We welcome contributions that present novel algorithms for integrating multi-satellite geodesic observations (GNSS, InSAR, GRACE, SWOT), support satellite-based flood forecasting and assessment, introduce open-source software for modeling hydraulic systems, advance groundwater and drought monitoring via multi-satellite observations, and enhance remote sensing applications for infrastructure diagnostics. This Special Issue aims to showcase innovative approaches that enhance the monitoring, management, and sustainability of water resources and hydraulic infrastructure through the integrated use of multi-satellite observations.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Novel algorithms for water resources and hydraulic infrastructure with GNSS, InSAR, GRACE and SWOT observations.
- Satellite-supported flood forecasting and assessment.
- Open-source software for modeling water resources and hydraulic infrastructure.
- Groundwater and drought monitoring with multi-satellite observations.
- Remote sensing of hydraulic infrastructure monitoring.
Dr. Xiaoxing He
Dr. Nengfang Chao
Dr. Rui Fernandes
Dr. Gaël Kermarrec
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- water resources
- hydraulic infrastructure
- GNSS
- InSAR
- GRACE
- SWOT
- satellite observations
- artificial intelligence
- remote sensing
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