Bridging the Gap between Satellite Analytics and Agency Practice: An Open-Source Platform for Basin-Scale Water Monitoring

State and municipal water-resource agencies face a persistent gap between basin-scale satellite analytics capabilities and their practical use due to cost, infrastructure, and evaluation constraints. This study introduces SHAD-RD (Socio-Hydrologic Adaptive Radiometric Decision), an open-source, end-to-end geospatial analytics platform designed for deployment on standard workstations without subscription-based software. Developed under a Design Science Research framework, the system integrates Google Earth Engine preprocessing, Prithvi Earth-observation model feature extraction, Light Gradient Boosting Machine modeling, and R/Streamlit-based visualization within a four-module pipeline with embedded system-level evaluation. A benchmark across the Tennessee and Flint River basins (2018–2025) demonstrates large-scale data integration and generation of matched satellite–turbidity observations at the subwatershed level. The platform achieves accurate geometric alignment while transparently reporting limitations in radiometric accuracy and data completeness. Spatially structured validation and operational tests of drought, flood, water quality, and overflow indicators reveal both performance and gaps. SHAD-RD provides a reproducible, agency-deployable architecture that bridges the gap between satellite analytics and agency practice through accessible implementation and transparent system-level diagnostics.