Every time you wash your hands in a sink, take a drink from a water fountain, or flush a toilet, you tap into a vast system of water resources. Humans wrangle Earth’s water supply by building dams and reservoirs to store and manage this vital resource. However, natural disasters, inadequate infrastructure, and climate change can put water resources in jeopardy and place communities’ health at risk. 

Data collected by NASA’s Earth-observing instruments help scientists understand the challenges facing water systems, such as floods, sanitation issues, and droughts. When combined with socioeconomic surveys, these satellite images reveal the impact of water resources on people and communities. 

NASA’s water resource data include databases of dams and reservoirs, flood surveys, ecosystem studies, and water cleanliness maps. These products have formed the basis of studies into topics such as the loss of groundwater storage, environmental and socioeconomic conditions in transboundary river basins, and the causes of regional freshwater storage trends.