Building an ethical research culture:Scholars of refugee background researching refugee-related issues

Recent scholarship on the need to decolonize refugee research, and migration research more generally, points to the urgency of challenging ongoing colonial power structures inherent in such research. Increased involvement of scholars with lived experience is one way to challenge and remake unequal and colonial power relations. Through discussions with researchers of forced migration, we aimed to explore the challenges, barriers and supports related to involvement in such research, and to identify how research practices and structures could be improved to increase and facilitate the involvement of scholars with refugee backgrounds. In this field reflection, we highlight key points and suggestions for better research practice which emerged from these discussions. In doing so, we are endeavouring to contribute to the important ongoing conversation about ethics and decolonising research. We build on existing ethical guidelines by opening up some of the complexities of ethical practice and offering concrete actions that can be taken to work through these

Building an ethical research culture: Scholars of refugee background researching refugee-related issues

Helen Baillot - ORCID: 0000-0003-2848-023X https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2848-023XRecent scholarship on the need to decolonize refugee research, and migration research more generally, points to the urgency of challenging ongoing colonial power structures inherent in such research. Increased involvement of scholars with lived experience is one way to challenge and remake unequal and colonial power relations. Through discussions with researchers of forced migration, we aimed to explore the challenges, barriers, and supports related to involvement in such research, and to identify how research practices and structures could be improved to increase and facilitate the involvement of scholars with refugee backgrounds. In this field reflection, we highlight key points and suggestions for better research practice that emerged from these discussions. In doing so, we are endeavouring to contribute to the important ongoing conversation about ethics and decolonizing research. We build on existing ethical guidelines by opening up some of the complexities of ethical practice and offering concrete actions that can be taken to work through these.This research was funded by the Scottish Irish Migration Initiative, a collaboration between University College Dublin and the University of Edinburgh. The webinar in March 2023 was supported by the Scottish Irish Migration Initiative, Universities of Sanctuary, and the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice at University College Dublin.https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/feae005pubpu

Identifying groundwater discharge to an Atlantic coastal lagoon (Oualidia, Central Morocco) by means of salinity and radium mass balances

International audienceRadium isotopes, Ra-223 and Ra-224, and salinity measurements were used to assess submarine groundwater discharge from a karstic aquifer system into a coastal lagoon located at Oualidia (Morocco), on the Atlantic shoreline. The Oualidia lagoon is classified as a Ramsar area owing to its ecological significance. Groundwater discharge to the lagoon occurs as intertidal springs, submarine springs and probably diffuse leakage. Groundwater sources and discharge fluxes were determined using mass balance calculations following single and multi-box approaches. Calculated flow rates varied from 0.2 +/- 0.2 to 1.2 +/- 0.6 m(3) s(-1). The single-box model can be considered representative enough of water cycling and mixing within the Oualidia lagoon. However, a certain complexity of the hydrological processes should be taken into account as the discharge varies from low to high tide periods. The discharge amount suggests that the Oualidia lagoon may contribute significantly to the regional karstic discharge. Both the regional geological structure and the piezometric map indicate a convergence of groundwater to the area of the lagoon which is located in the bottom of a large geological depression. It is deduced that a close relationship exists between the karst development and the lagoon

When climate variability partly compensates for groundwater depletion: An analysis of the GRACE signal in Morocco

International audienceSince April 2002, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission have opened new pathways for hydrologists to monitor the changes in terrestrial total water storage (TWS). Here, the Center for Space Research (CSR), Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and the average (AVG) GRACE mascon solutions were used to examine the changes in TWS and groundwater storages (GWS) in Morocco, with an emphasis on natural replenishment events and their link to snow cover area (SCA) and rainfall variability. New hydrological insights for the region: The results showed that GRACE TWS from AVG (TWS AVG) and GSFC (TWS GSFC) can fairly describe the temporal patterns of the groundwater level (GWL). Moreover, during 2002-2020, the TWS underwent a strong depletion relatively masked by natural recharge events. This was revealed as we identified two intermittent depletion episodes with statistically significant rates (− 1.03 ± 0.11 to − 0.31 ± 0.1 cm yr − 1) higher than those obtained for the long-term trend lines (− 0.28 ± 0.11 to − 0.15 ± 0.07 cm yr − 1). The TWS appeared to be strongly linked with the SCA metrics and rainfall indices with 1-3 months of lag. Our findings suggest that the rainfall distribution can be more insightful about changes in groundwater levels compared to the rainfall monthly totals

Dynamics of groundwater recharge near a semi-arid Mediterranean intermittent stream under wet and normal climate conditions

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Evaluation and analysis of deep percolation losses of drip irrigated citrus crops under non-saline and saline conditions in a semi-arid area

International audienceIn arid and semi-arid regions, irrigation management is important to avoid water loss by soil evaporation and deep percolation (DP). In this context, estimating the irrigation water demand has been investigated by many studies in the Haouz plain. However, DP losses beneath irrigated areas in the plain have not been quantified. To fill the gap, this study evaluated DP over two drip-irrigated citrus orchards (Agafay and Saada) using both water balance and direct fluxmeter measurement methods, and explored the simple FAO-56 approach to optimise irrigation in order to both avoid crop water stress and reduce DP losses in case of non-saline and saline soils. The experimental measurements determined different terms of the water balance by using an Eddy-Covariance system, fluxmeter, soil moisture sensors and a meteorological station. Using the water balance equation and fluxmeter measurements, results showed that about 37% and 45% of supplied water was lost by DP in Saada and Agafay sites, respectively. The main cause of DP losses was the mismatch between irrigation and the real crop water requirement. For Agafay site, it was found that increased over-irrigation had the effect of reducing soil salinity by leaching salts.The applied FAO-56 model suggested an optimal irrigation scheduling by taking into account both rainfall and soil salinity. The recommended irrigations could save about 39% of supplied water in non-saline soil at Saada and from 30% to 47% in saline soil at Agafay

Projection of irrigation water demand based on the simulation of synthetic crop coefficients and climate change

International audienceAbstract. In the context of major changes (climate, demography, economy, etc.), the southern Mediterranean area faces serious challenges with intrinsically low, irregular, and continuously decreasing water resources. In some regions, the proper growth both in terms of cropping density and surface area of irrigated areas is so significant that it needs to be included in future scenarios. A method for estimating the future evolution of irrigation water requirements is proposed and tested in the Tensift watershed, Morocco. Monthly synthetic crop coefficients (Kc) of the different irrigated areas were obtained from a time series of remote sensing observations. An empirical model using the synthetic Kc and rainfall was developed and fitted to the actual data for each of the different irrigated areas within the study area. The model consists of a system of equations that takes into account the monthly trend of Kc, the impact of yearly rainfall, and the saturation of Kc due to the presence of tree crops. The impact of precipitation change is included in the Kc estimate and the water budget. The anthropogenic impact is included in the equations for Kc. The impact of temperature change is only included in the reference evapotranspiration, with no impact on the Kc cycle. The model appears to be reliable with an average r2 of 0.69 for the observation period (2000–2016). However, different subsampling tests of the number of calibration years showed that the performance is degraded when the size of the training dataset is reduced. When subsampling the training dataset to one-third of the 16 available years, r2 was reduced to 0.45. This score has been interpreted as the level of reliability that could be expected for two time periods after the full training years (thus near to 2050). The model has been used to reinterpret a local water management plan and to incorporate two downscaled climate change scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). The examination of irrigation water requirements until 2050 revealed that the difference between the two climate scenarios was very small (< 2 %), while the two agricultural scenarios were strongly contrasted both spatially and in terms of their impact on water resources. The approach is generic and can be refined by incorporating irrigation efficiencies

Multi-decadal analysis of water resources and agricultural change in a Mediterranean semiarid irrigated piedmont under water scarcity and human interaction

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Sub-chapter 2.3.2. Water resources in South Mediterranean catchments

Climate change Positive trends in mean temperatures and a decrease in the number and amplitude of cold outbreaks have already affected all North African countries (Driouech et al., 2013). A global data set of near-surface meteorological variables was used to assess the long-term changes in temperature and precipitation in North Africa in the 20th century (Szczypta et al. in prep). The analysis revealed a significant increase (0.9 °C) in mean temperature between 1900 and 2010 (Figure 1). The i..