Open-access remote sensing products provide data for transboundary water management. This study presents a comprehensive overview of the applications, uncertainties and implications of these remote sensing data products in the context of transboundary water management. Focusing on different stages within the transboundary cooperation continuum, we delineate the potential role and application of remote sensing data at the various stages of this cooperation. Despite the uncertainties and capacity requirements for data acquisition, processing and interpretation, we argue that remote sensing broadens opportunities to monitor, assess, forecast, track or validate compliance in transboundary basins, thereby challenging traditional notions of water data exclusivity.

Representation of land-use and hydrologic interactions in respective models has traditionally been problematic. The use of static land-use in most hydrologic models or that of the use of simple hydrologic proxies in land-use change models call for more integrated approaches. The objective of this study is to assess whether dynamic feedback between land-use change and hydrology can (1) improve model performances, and/or (2) produce a more realistic quantification of ecosystem services. To test this, we coupled a land-use change model and a hydrologic mode. First, the land-use change and the hydrologic models were separately developed and calibrated. Then, the two models were dynamically coupled to exchange data at yearly time-steps. The approach is applied to a catchment in South Africa. Performance of coupled models when compared to the uncoupled models were marginal, but the coupled models excelled at the quantification of catchment ecosystem services more robustly.