Climate variability, urban growth and competing demand for irrigation, industry and households are putting pressure on water systems across Africa. Managers need to know how much water is available, where it is vulnerable and who is underserved, and they need that knowledge in a form that can be defended in front of a board, regulator or funder.

The Spatial Data Analysis for Water Management Training Course provides a systematic path from raw spatial data to decision-ready outputs. Participants start with data handling and map projections, move to terrain and hydrological analysis, and then work through remote sensing of rainfall, vegetation, surface water and land use change. Later modules apply spatial statistics, network analysis and risk modelling to supply, demand, flooding and drought, and show how to document workflows so analyses can be repeated each season.

Ten days allow a depth of practice that shorter courses cannot. Each day combines a short briefing with computer laboratory work on realistic datasets, and participants finish with a portfolio of maps, a documented workflow and a final project built around a catchment or service area of their choice.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Prepare, project and manage spatial datasets for water analysis in QGIS.
• Delineate watersheds and stream networks from digital elevation models.
• Process rainfall, evapotranspiration and satellite data to describe water availability.
• Classify land cover and detect change that affects runoff and recharge.
• Map water service coverage, assets and network performance.
• Model flood extent, drought severity and groundwater vulnerability.
• Apply interpolation, hotspot and overlay analysis to prioritise interventions.
• Automate repeatable map production and communicate results to decision makers.

The course is aimed at professionals who plan, operate or regulate water resources and services, including:

• Water utility planners and engineers
• Hydrologists and catchment managers
• Irrigation and agricultural water specialists
• WASH and rural water programme officers
• Environmental and climate adaptation officers
• GIS analysts and remote sensing technicians
• Basin authority and regulator staff
• Researchers and consultants in water and sanitation
• County and municipal infrastructure planners

Participants leave with:

• A QGIS project workflow for a catchment or service area of their own.
• Skills to delineate watersheds and compute basic hydrological indicators.
• Working methods for rainfall, land cover and surface water analysis from satellite imagery.
• Maps of water access, asset condition and flood or drought exposure.
• A documented, repeatable analysis script or model.
• A final project report with maps ready for management or donor briefings.

The training is laboratory-intensive, with most time spent at the computer. Delegates take part in:

• Guided QGIS exercises on basin, utility and rainfall datasets
• Satellite image processing labs using free imagery
• Small-group problem solving on water access and risk cases
• Scripting clinics for repeatable workflows
• A capstone project supervised by facilitators with peer review

Delegates who attend the full ten days and complete the laboratory exercises and final project receive a CPD-accredited Certificate of Completion issued by Vision Reach Global Consultancy.