On 16 October 2025, the CENTAUR project participated in the Regional Meet-up on “Approaches to Assessing the Impacts of Drought”, organised by the Earth Observation Training, Education, and Capacity Development Network (EOTEC DevNet). The session was part of a series of regional meetings convened by EOTEC DevNet’s Drought Working Group, aimed at exchanging lessons learned and sharing experiences in drought impact monitoring globally. These series of session were held across Africa, the Americas, Asia-Oceania, and Europe, in which participants discussed advances in drought impact monitoring and region-specific approaches.
CENTAUR contribution to drought impact monitoring
Participating in the European session and representing the CENTAUR Horizon Europe project, Koen De Vos fromVITO Remote Sensing presented ongoing work on drought impacts on agriculture focusing on use cases from Mali, Mozambique, and Somalia, illustrating a practical perspective on agricultural drought forecasting.
During his presentation, our colleague introduced the CENTAUR project and its framework to address drought-related challenges by means of the CENTAUR platform, which integrates its innovative meteorological and agricultural indicators for drought impact monitoring and forecasting. In addition, he focused on impact-related indicators addressing food and water security, displacement, and violent conflict associated with drought conditions.
Likewise, we showcased our latest research on forecast models which integrate Earth Observation (EO) data, meteorological forecasts, and soil moisture into machine learning frameworks to anticipate vegetation stress up to three months in advance. This is achieved by predicting below-average anomalies in the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), a key indicator of vegetation health or “greenness.” Learn more in this article.
Koen De Vos (VITO) presenting CENTAUR’s results on the agricultural drought risk indicator
Supporting user uptake and capacity building
Reflecting EOTEC DevNet’s emphasis on capacity development, our contribution included an overview on how we engage with our end-users. Our consortium, coordinated by e-GEOS, involves 14 partners and works closely with national and regional stakeholders to ensure that our products and early warning capabilities are both technically relevant and practically useful.
By integrating scientific innovation with end-user engagement, CENTAUR exemplifies how EU-funded research projects contribute to anticipatory action against drought impacts and consequences on water and food security.
- Read the EOTEC DevNet sessions summary note: Summary Note
- Check the session slides at: Slides
- Watch the recording of the session: Recording
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