The Nile River, the “Longest River in Africa,” spans 6,695 km and is home to around 257 million people. It is shared by eleven African countries, including Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, the United Republic of Tanzania, South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Egypt. The two major tributaries, White Nile and Blue Nile (Abbay River), make up the basin, and the Abbay River accounting for over 75% of the Nile flow. The Abbay Basin covers 173,000 km2 in Ethiopia flows approximately 1,400 km and the main topics of investigation in this book. The basin supports substantial populations, irrigation and hydropower projects, ecosystems conservation and agricultural activities. Major hydrological uses include large-scale irrigation projects and hydropower dams like the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam near the Sudan border. However, land degradation, soil erosion, and sediment loads are high in the basin, leading to loss of storage capacity in reservoirs. Climate change could also alter the hydrology of the Abbay Basin, potentially leading to increased floods and droughts. Management of the Abbay River faces challenges due to its highly variable flows, large land degradation processes and sediment loads, and its transboundary nature. This book provides an overview of the geographical overview, biophysical setting, natural resource degradation, hydro politics, and development potential of the basin. It also highlights recent advances in Earth Observation datasets, geospatial solutions, models, tools, and services utilization in the basin. Accordingly, the purpose of this book is to compile information about the biophysical setting, geo-environmental resource conditions, major economic activities, sociopolitical characteristics, legal rights to utilize the Abbay River as well as the contribution of remote sensing and advanced tools applications for Abbay Basin characterization, management and development.
