Empowering water utilities: Crafting an end-user-friendly reliability ranking for evaluating satellite remote sensing advances through literature insights

ABSTRACT Satellite remote sensing provides extensive data for water management, enabling the measurement of hydro-meteorological and environmental variables. It aids in assessing trends, and hydrological conditions and guiding appropriate management actions. Satellite remote sensing serves as a cost-effective supplement to ground-based monitoring infrastructure. Over the past decade, satellite Earth observation technologies have advanced significantly, offering new opportunities for water utilities and agencies. These developments include improved satellite capabilities, enhanced data access, private sector involvement, and advancements in data processing and analytics. However, an end-user-friendly reliability ranking tool for evaluating numerous satellite remote sensing options is needed for operational decision-making purposes. Here, we summarise recent trends and the literature on satellite remote sensing for water management, evaluating its capabilities and available tools, focusing on the routine but essential operation of utilities. A novel assessment of satellite potential implementation to water-related applications using an end-user-friendly reliability ranking process is presented. The study focuses on selected application areas, including catchment monitoring, water demand estimation, flood monitoring, water quality monitoring, farm dam monitoring, urbanization trends, drought forecasting, fire spotting, and post-fire water quality impacts. This paper outlines the operational advantages/limitations of satellite remote sensing and provides recommendations for its adoption.