Evolution of small reservoirs in Burkina Faso

Small reservoirs (SRs) are important infrastructures for providing water for a wide range of activities in Burkina Faso and other semiarid environments. In recent years, SRs have become even more important, considering the effects of climate change and variability such as erratic rainfall patterns, recurrent droughts and floods, delays in the onset of the rains (Laux et al. 2008), increased incidence of in-season dry spells (Lacombe et al. 2012), and high evapotranspiration rates. SRs provide vulnerable rural communities with water for multiple purposes, including domestic and agricultural uses (McCartney et al. 2012; Venot et al. 2012). However, a number of external factors are negatively influencing the sustainable uses of SRs. Rapid population growth (Zuberi and Thomas 2012) and its attendant human-induced activities are a threat to the quality of water in SRs, as are agricultural extensification and intensification around SRs, including the increased use of inorganic fertilizers

Land Usage Changes and its Effects on the Provision of Social Facilities to Residents of the Kumasi Metropolis of Ghana

The extent to which changes in land use has affected the availability and usage of social facilities were studied. Emphasis was placed on four (4) facilities – pipe-borne water, sewage channels, sanitary sites and public open spaces. The stratified, simple and purposive sampling techniques were used to select 327 respondents made up of building owners, chiefs and government land institutions. Ten communities in the Kumasi metropolis of Ghana formed the study area. Geographic Information System (GIS) tools were employed to map out changes in land use in the study communities. Results of the study showed that residents in the Kumasi metropolis were denied of all the four social facilities as a result of illegal allocation of lands meant to provide these services. Homes were unable to be connected to the service lines of the water company while others had interruptions in the flow of water. Again residents had difficulties disposing of refuse and waste water from their homes. Open spaces provided on maps were virtually absent on the ground. However, where some of these facilities existed, they were highly inadequate compared to the existing population. Residents, therefore, survived by adopting alternative ways of accessing the facilities most of which were financially costly and detrimental to the health of residents. The practices adopted also encourage environmental decay and finally affects the beauty of the metropolis. Based on the findings, this research recommends that future research investigates how changes in land use affect the health of residents in the Kumasi Metropolis.Keywords: Ghana, Land, Land Use Changes, Social Facilities, Traditional Authorities, Kumasi Metropolis

Characterization of small reservoirs in Burkina Faso

Small reservoirs (SRs) are used for multiple purposes in Burkina Faso and West African agroecological landscapes (Venot et al. 2012). These SRs are used for domestic (drinking, bathing and washing) and agricultural (crop, livestock and fishery) purposes, among others (McCartney et al. 2012). However, natural processes and human-induced activities in the surrounding landscapes can be a threat to the water quality and sustainable use of SRs. In order to reduce negative effects, several projects have been designed to study different aspects of how SRs are used and impacted by natural and human-induced activities. But the number of SRs in Burkina Faso (about 1,450) (Cecchi et al. 2009) makes it practically impossible to study every single one of them. A possible solution to this is to categorize the SRs into groups in terms of their responses to the aforementioned natural and anthropogenic influences. Such categorization can provide the basis for site selection in subsequent research programs and further permit generalization (upscaling) of results obtained for selected SRs (at local scale) to many other SRs (at national scale)

Contribution of informal shallow groundwater irrigation to livelihoods security and poverty reduction in the White Volta Basin (WVB): Current status and future sustainability

Shallow groundwater irrigation (SGI) using hand-dug shallow wells and dugouts is expanding, in the WVB, and is becoming attractive to farmers throughout. SGI is farmer-driven and has developed without any government or donor involvement. The production of vegetables and cash crops during the dry season utilizing SGI has provided farmers with a supplemental source of income and an alternative to seasonal urban migration. Although SGI has been increasing substantially, the extent of this practice is not documented.This project has help assess, the impacts of intensive SGI on sub-basin hydrology, net groundwater recharge farmers' livelihoods and on rural poverty reduction in the Atankuidi catchment a tributary of the WVB with the highest per capita groundwater use

Land and people

Our relationship with the landscape has developed through time and more and more the environment is responding to human-driven changes. Now is the time to steer this relationship towards a sustainable future, suggest our Editorial Board Members. Our relationship with the landscape has developed through time and more and more the environment is responding to human-driven changes. Now is the time to steer this relationship towards a sustainable future, suggest our Editorial Board Members

Post Birth Challenges among Working Mothers in a Higher Educational Institute in Ghana: Implications for Occupational Competitiveness of Working Mothers

In Ghana, most formal employment opportunities require employees to work for 8 hours for 5 consecutive days each week. While this may not be challenging to men in the socio-cultural context of Ghana, the socio-cultural expectation of women as carers and home keepers sometimes make this requirement of formal occupations difficult for some women. Of all the challenges facing women in formal occupations in Ghana, one of the least explored is the implication of post birth depression on the productivity of women within the formal sector in Ghana. This paper presents data from an exploratory qualitative research that used qualitative interviews to explore the post birth mental health challenges of working mothers within a public university in Ghana. The paper reveals that working mothers suffer stress, frustration and self-esteem challenges and that these challenges have implications for the occupational wellbeing of women in higher educational institutions. While these challenges are similar for women in other occupational fields, our argument is for higher educational institutions to consider the real and present implications that these challenges have for the occupational progress of working mothers

Food Vending Among Men in Kumasi: Socio-Cultural Advantages, Constraints, and Coping Strategies

Research on men in female-dominated occupations has focused mainly on formal sector occupations in North American and Western European settings. It remains unclear whether men in informal sector occupations in the Global South enjoy advantages, face challenges and adopt coping strategies that are similar to those documented in literature. This research focuses on men in an informal and female-dominated occupation in Ghana. Using semi-structured interviews, this research explores the advantages men enjoy as traditional food vendors, their constraints, and the coping strategies they adopt. This research found that while male traditional food vendors face some social ridicule, they nonetheless enjoy certain gendered advantages at the expense of other female food vendors. This research contributes to a further understanding of the effects of gendered perceptions on the wellbeing of both male and female vendors, and thereby provides stakeholder organisations with knowledge needed to improve the well-being of street food vendors

A novel framework of detecting convective initiation combining automated sampling, machine learning, and repeated model tuning from geostationary satellite data

This paper proposes a complete framework of a machine learning-based model that detects convective initiation (CI) from geostationary meteorological satellite data. The suggested framework consists of three main processes: (1) An automated sampling tool; (2) machine learning-based CI detection modelling; (3) repeated model tuning through validation. In this study, the automated sampling tool was able to track the CI objects iteratively, even without ancillary data such as an atmospheric motion vector (AMV). The collected samples were used to train the machine learning model for CI detection. Random forest (RF) was used to classify the CI and non-CI. To enhance the advantages of the machine learning approach, we adopted model tuning to iteratively update the training dataset from each validation result by adding hits and misses to the CI samples, and false alarms and correct negatives to the non-CI samples. Using 12 interest fields from the Himawari-8 Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) over the Korean Peninsula, this simple and intuitive tuning process increased the overall probability of detection (POD) from 0.79 to 0.82 and decreased the overall false alarm rate (FAR) from 0.46 to 0.37 with around 40 min of the lead-time. Amongst the 12 interest fields, Tb(11.2) ??m was identified as the most significant predictor in the RF model, followed by Tb(8.6-11.2) ??m, and Tb(6.2-7.3) ??m. The effect of model tuning on the CI detection performance was also analyzed using spatiotemporal validation maps. By automatically collecting and updating the machine learning training dataset, the suggested framework is expected to help the maintenance of the CI detection model from an operational perspective

The water resource implications of changing climate in the Volta River Basin

The Volta River is one of the major rivers in Africa. A transboundary basin, which is the principal water source for approximately 24 million people in six riparian states, it is likely to experience increasing stress in the near future as a consequence of both greater water demand and climate change. In a study to ascertain the joint impacts of changes in demand and supply within the basin, a dynamic regional climate model (CCLM), a hydrological model (SWAT) and a water resource model (WEAP) were used to provide an assessment of the possible implications of one downscaled ‘middle impact’ (i.e., lying between extremes) climate change scenario on the performance of existing and planned irrigation and hydropower schemes. The models were used to simulate the climate change in tandem with four scenarios, each reflecting different levels of water resources development as indicated in the plans of the riparian states. It is not possible to quantify the error arising from the models in combination and the results should be considered indicative rather than absolute. Nonetheless, they provide a useful indicator of possible future change and have important implications for water resource planning. The results indicate that, by the middle of the twenty-first century, basin-wide average annual rainfall, mean annual runoff and mean groundwater recharge, will all decline. These changes significantly undermine the technical performance of existing and planned reservoirs, which, in turn, affects development outcomes. In the ‘intermediate development’ scenario, climate change is anticipated to reduce average annual hydropower generation by approximately 30% and increase average annual unmet irrigation demand four-fold by the middle of the century. By the end of the century and in the ‘full development’ scenario, the reduction in technical performance of reservoirs is even greater. Therefore, even though investment in reservoirs brings benefits, these benefits are significantly reduced in comparison to those that would accrue in the absence of climate change. The changes are likely to have dire consequences for economic development, food security and poverty in the region. Against this background, water resources development in the basin requires interventions that bolster resilience and water security. This necessitates much more systematic planning of water storage, greater cooperation between the riparian states and consideration of innovative approaches to water storage, such as managed aquifer recharge