Research Assistant in Geospatial Groundwater Analysis

The Economic Commission for Western Asia (ECWA) was established on 9 August 1973 pursuant to Economic and Social Council’s resolution 1818 (LV). Its purpose was to stimulate economic activity in member countries, strengthen cooperation between them promote development.

ESCWA's objectives are to support economic and social development in member countries, to promote interaction and cooperation between member countries, to encourage the exchange of experience, best practice and lessons learned, to achieve regional integration and ensure interaction between Western Asia and other regions, and to raise global awareness of the circumstances and needs of member countries.

ESCWA provides a framework for the formulation and harmonization of sectoral policies for member countries, a platform for congress and coordination, a home for expertise and knowledge, and an information observatory.

ESCWA activities are coordinated with the divisions and main offices of the Headquarters of the United Nations, specialized agencies, and international and regional organizations, including the League of Arab States and its subsidiary bodies, and the Gulf Cooperation Council.

The specialist would support in reviewing, digitizing, analyzing and classifying maps based on geoscience and hydrogeological attributes that are drawn from various groundwater resource databases and in supporting multi-layer geospatial analysis for the preparation of background briefs of selected aquifer systems in the Arab region and for developing ArcGIS story maps.

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of the Senior Sustainable Development Officer or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the UN Volunteer will:

• Digitize and produce hydrogeological maps based on received national data or from ESCWA’s archive.
• Researching and collected published groundwater related maps and data.
• Perform quality checks on maps received in electronic formats, including cleaning of the attribute tables, verification of map classifications and colour coding.
• Support preparation of the desk study on selected national and transboundary aquifers for the preparation of background briefs.
• Assist in the preparation of the multilayer analysis using GIS software for the chosen aquifers.
• Support preparation of ArcGIS story maps.
• Support publishing of GIS layers on dedicated groundwater platform.
• Support in other activities drawing upon GIS tools as requested.