Dr. Kwabena Asante is a surface water hydrologist at EROS who specializes in monitoring the earth's rivers and lakes using remotely sensed data sets and hydrologic models. In particular, he develops operational models for forecasting and mapping large-area flood events around the world. The products of this monitoring are used to brief disaster managers at the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, US Agency for International Development, and other agencies working in at-risk communities around the world. These applied research efforts help to reduce damage to property and to save lives. He recently spent two years in southern Africa developing the lower Limpopo Flood Warning System, an Atlas of Disaster Preparedness and Response, and assisting in the implementation of regional early warning systems. He is currently involved in water resource management projects in Africa, South-East Asia and North America. He entered the field of hydrology during his academic career which included simulating the operation of large reservoirs and investigating surface runoff processes at the continental-scale. He also implemented a scheme for predicting the distribution of streamflow entering the world's oceans from the land surface in a coupled global climate model. He holds a BSc from the University of Nairobi, Kenya, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Fig. 1. A source to sink hydrologic model showing the coupling of the major river basins of Africa to an atmospheric model and an ocean model. This study provided climate modelers with a way to simulate the transportation of surface water to various parts of the ocean with appropriate timing delays.
Fig. 2. A digital terrain model representation of a major flooding event with an inset of the cooresponding Landsat 7 satellite image of the flood. Digital terrain models are used to study potential impacts of flooding on vulnerable populations and infrastructure.