334 research outputs found
Working wetlands: classifying wetland potential for agriculture
Wetlands / Ecology / Natural resources / Social aspects / Case studies / Zanzibar / Tanzania / Zimbabwe / Swaziland
Implications of climate change and anthropogenic activity for the water security of West African river basins
West Africa experiences some of the most extreme climatic variability anywhere in the world. The
1970s and 1980s saw drought triggering regional-scale famine; in more recent years, a recovery
in rainfall totals has led to devastating flood events, such as those seen across the region in
2009. Knowledge of the potential impact of future climate and anthropogenic change on water
resources, food production and ecosystem services for highly vulnerable populations is essential
to water planners, managers and policy makers. The GWAVA water resources model provides
key information on the potential scale of water deficits and/or surpluses across West Africa for
the present and future climate using 29 Global Circulation Models from the CMIP5 ensemble.
Areas of concern are highlighted, and mitigating strategies explored, such as supplementary
irrigation or use of more drought-tolerant crops, as sustainable ways in which to support
climate-compatible development in the region. Analysis considers the role of current policy on
the allocation of water resources in West Africa, and how a changing future climate may impact
these policies and the region’s growing population
African Water: Supporting African involvement in the EU Framework Programme.
Water researchers in developing countries have yet to take full advantage of the funding and collaborative research opportunities presented by the EU Framework Programme. There are a variety of reasons for this, such as insufficient information and a lack of previous experience. The African Water initiative aims to increase the involvement of African water researchers through a range of activities including communication and dissemination, capacity building and development, and complementary initiatives. The project has demonstrated that there is a demand for such sector-specific support activities. However, African Water is a small component of a much larger process of partnership between the developed and the less-developed countries of the world, involving many different European and African organisations working across political, institutional and technical domains, and complementing the wide range of actions already being undertaken
A modelling approach to assess the impact of climate change & anthropogenic activity on the water resources of the Narmada river basin
The Narmada river basin is a highly regulated & artificially influenced catchment in Peninsular India, covering 98 796 km2. The basin includes the states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra & Gujarat, supporting a population of over 16 million people.
Agriculture is the dominant land use within the basin, accounting for over 56% of the basin area. There are over 3000 interventions, with up to another 30 dams planned for construction over the next half-century.
The study of the Narmada basin is part of an ongoing collaboration between CEH (UK) & NIH (India) with the goal of increasing water security for those living within the basin & surrounding watersheds
TWINLATIN: Twinning European and Latin-American river basins for research enabling sustainable water resources management. Combined Report D3.1 Hydrological modelling report and D3.2 Evaluation report
Water use has almost tripled over the past 50 years and in some regions the water demand already
exceeds supply (Vorosmarty et al., 2000). The world is facing a “global water crisis”; in many
countries, current levels of water use are unsustainable, with systems vulnerable to collapse from even
small changes in water availability. The need for a scientifically-based assessment of the potential
impacts on water resources of future changes, as a basis for society to adapt to such changes, is strong
for most parts of the world. Although the focus of such assessments has tended to be climate change,
socio-economic changes can have as significant an impact on water availability across the four main
use sectors i.e. domestic, agricultural, industrial (including energy) and environmental. Withdrawal
and consumption of water is expected to continue to grow substantially over the next 20-50 years
(Cosgrove & Rijsberman, 2002), and consequent changes in availability may drastically affect society
and economies.
One of the most needed improvements in Latin American river basin management is a higher level of
detail in hydrological modelling and erosion risk assessment, as a basis for identification and analysis
of mitigation actions, as well as for analysis of global change scenarios. Flow measurements are too
costly to be realised at more than a few locations, which means that modelled data are required for the
rest of the basin. Hence, TWINLATIN Work Package 3 “Hydrological modelling and extremes” was
formulated to provide methods and tools to be used by other WPs, in particular WP6 on “Pollution
pressure and impact analysis” and WP8 on “Change effects and vulnerability assessment”. With an
emphasis on high and low flows and their impacts, WP3 was originally called “Hydrological
modelling, flooding, erosion, water scarcity and water abstraction”. However, at the TWINLATIN
kick-off meeting it was agreed that some of these issues resided more appropriately in WP6 and WP8,
and so WP3 was renamed to focus on hydrological modelling and hydrological extremes.
The specific objectives of WP3 as set out in the Description of Work are
Understanding future water challenges in a highly regulated Indian river basin — modelling the impact of climate change on the hydrology of the upper Narmada
The Narmada river basin is a highly regulated catchment in central India, supporting a population of over 16 million people. In such extensively modified hydrological systems, the influence of anthropogenic alterations is often underrepresented or excluded entirely by large-scale hydrological models. The Global Water Availability Assessment (GWAVA) model is applied to the Upper Narmada, with all major dams, water abstractions and irrigation command areas included, which allows for the development of a holistic methodology for the assessment of water resources in the basin. The model is driven with 17 Global Circulation Models (GCMs) from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) ensemble to assess the impact of climate change on water resources in the basin for the period 2031–2060. The study finds that the hydrological regime within the basin is likely to intensify over the next half-century as a result of future climate change, causing long-term increases in monsoon season flow across the Upper Narmada. Climate is expected to have little impact on dry season flows, in comparison to water demand intensification over the same period, which may lead to increased water stress in parts of the basin
Initial lists of AMMA-2050 user-relevant climate metrics
AMMA-2050 (African Monsoon Multi-disciplinary Analysis 2050) will improve understanding of how the West African monsoon will be affected by climate change in the coming decades – and help West African societies prepare and adapt
Monitoring changes in power, speed, agility and endurance in elite cricketers during the off-season
The purpose of this study was to monitor changes in power, speed, agility and endurance in elite cricketers during the 20-week off-season period. Fourteen elite male cricketers (age 26.2 ± 5.3years; height 180.8 ± 8.5cm; mass 83.5 ± 6.7kg) conducted a physical testing battery in week 1 and week 18 of the off-season period. The testing included a yoyo intermittent recovery test (yoyo IRT), bilateral and unilateral countermovement jumps (CMJ), squat jump (SJ), broad jump (BJ), drop jump (to calculate reactive strength index – [RSI]), pro agility and 5, 10, 20m sprint tests. Results showed significant improvements (p < 0.05) in all fitness tests except for the pro-agility test (p = 0.076), with effect sizes ranging from 0.26-2.8 across the test battery. The results of this study show the off-season in cricket allows adequate time for significant improvements of physical qualities needed for the demanding in-season schedule of the sport and provide normative values for an elite cricket population
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