Management of Ground Water in Africa Including Transboundary Aquifers: Implications for Food Security, Livelihood and Climate Change Adaptation
Yvan AltchenkoSeleshi Bekele AwulachewBenjamin BridaHama Arba DialloDam MogbantePaul PavelicCallist TindimugayaKaren G. Villholth
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Abstract:
Groundwater is one of the most important sources for drinking water, livestock water, and irrigation in Africa. It is of vital importance in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) target of accessing clean water, as most of rural Africa and a considerable part of urban Africa are supplied by groundwater. Groundwater also has a major role to play in improving food security through expansion of irrigation supplied by shallow and deep wells. As such, groundwater has high relevance to the development and wellbeing of Africa, if adequately assessed and sustainably exploited. However, impacts of rapid development and climate change on water resources, including groundwater, are expected to be very severe unless major actions are taken to address the limited human and institutional capacity and hydrogeological knowledge base needed to devise sustainable adaptive water management strategies. Whilst the potential for groundwater resources development and the extent of their vulnerability due to climate change in the African context continue to be reported in the literature, a quantitative understanding of these issues remains poor. Although groundwater systems respond to human and climatic changes slowly (relative to surface water systems), climate change still could affect groundwater significantly through changes in groundwater recharge as well as groundwater storage and utilization. These changes result from changes in temperature and precipitation or from change in land use/land cover, and increased demand. There is therefore a need for ensuring sustainability and proper management of groundwater resources through instituting proper aquifer management practices such as the establishment of groundwater monitoring systems, better understanding of the role of groundwater storage and groundwater discharges in sustaining aquatic ecosystems, understanding the interactions between various aquifers (including transboundary aquifers) and assessing the impact of increased pumping from various aquifer systems on the sustainability of groundwater abstraction. This paper provides an overview of the regional hydrogeological framework, the current state of knowledge of aquifer systems, their development potential and climate change impacts on groundwater, research gaps, and policy implications for meeting the MDGs of accessing clean water and livelihood goals in Africa.Keywords:
Climate Change Adaptation
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Abstract The worsening water scarcity has imposed a significant stress on food production in many parts of the world. This stress becomes more critical when countries seek self-sufficiency. A literature review shows that food self-sufficiency has not been assessed as the main factor in determining the optimal cultivation patterns. However, food self-sufficiency is one of the main policies of these countries and requires the most attention and concentration. Previous works have focused on the virtual water trade to meet regional food demand and to calculate trade flows. The potential of the trade network can be exploited to improve the cropping pattern to ensure food and water security. To this end, and based on the research gaps mentioned, this study develops a method to link intra-country trade networks, food security, and total water footprints (WFs) to improve food security. The method is applied in Iran, a water-scarce country. The study shows that 781 × 10 6 m 3 of water could be saved by creating a trade network. Results of the balanced trade network are input to a multi-objective optimization model to improve cropping patterns based on the objectives of achieving food security and preventing water crises. The method provides 400 management scenarios to improve cropping patterns considering 51 main crops in Iran. Results show a range of improvements in food security (19–45%) and a decrease in WFs (2–3%). The selected scenario for Iran would reduce the blue water footprint by 1207 × 10 6 m 3 , and reduce the cropland area by 19 × 10 3 ha. This methodology allows decision makers to develop policies that achieve food security under limited water resources in arid and semi-arid regions.
Virtual water
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This paper constructs a water resources security evaluation model from the “man (human activity intensity)-land (geological and geomorphological features)-water (water resources background conditions)” perspective, which accounts for the characteristics of hydrology and water resources in karst areas. A water resources security evaluation index system is established from three aspects (i.e., the background conditions of water resources, human activity intensity and geological and geomorphological features). The evaluation standard threshold is determined in accordance with relevant standards and domestic/foreign development experience. Both the comprehensive weights obtained by the Lagrange coefficient and the multi-objective fuzzy membership functions are used to comprehensively evaluate the spatial and temporal evolution of water resources security in Guizhou Province from 2001 to 2015. The results show that the water resources security comprehensive index of Guizhou Province was between 0.6 and 0.8 during this time (relatively safe type) and the safety was trending upwards. However, the comprehensive index of water resources security of each city in Guizhou Province demonstrates significant spatiotemporal variation. Whilst the comprehensive index was low in the Western part and high in the Eastern part of the province, it generally improved over time for the entire province. Moreover, the criteria layer indexes of water resources security in Guizhou Province and all cities also showed different degrees of variation and regional consistency across space and time. The interaction among these three aspects promoted the spatiotemporal variation of the Water Resources Security Comprehensive Index. In order to safeguard and improve water resources security, it is important to strengthen ecological and environmental management, promote the efficient use of water resources, establish sound management measures and security system related institutions and ensure water resources security.
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