From global satellite water cycle products to field scale water states

Water resource management needs to consider a wide range of spatial scales and address a variety of problems, e.g. monitoring and managing droughts and water availability for different uses (root zone soil moisture, stream discharge as well as groundwater levels). Models provide an alternative to observations by bridging different scales and different processes, but the fidelity of model output strongly depends on the physical processes considered which in turn requires detailed information on the state of the soil and vegetation system and relevant forcings at the scale of interest. Therefore, there is a pressing need to harmonize the available information on the soil/vegetation system to reach a feasible approach for actual water management at field scales. A recent example is the 2022 summer drought, which posed challenges for water availability in vast regions in Europe, including some ill-prepared to cope with water scarcity. Climate change presents additional challenges regarding the preparedness and adaptation to future extremes, because e.g. similar or worse future events to that in 2022 may be expected more frequently.