This paper presents the initial results of three years of investigation activities, carried on in the Dar es Salaam coastal plain (Tanzania) by the Adapting to Climate Change in Coastal Dar es Salaam (ACC-DAR) project, a cofounded research project, granted by the European Union, led by the Sapienza, University of Rome, in cooperation with Ardhi University of Dar es Salaam. The ACC-DAR project activities will enhance the capacities of Dar’s municipalities by increasing their understanding of adaptation practices, and by developing methodologies for integrating adaptation activities into strategies and plans for Urban Development and Environment Management (UDEM) in unplanned and unserviced coastal settlements. In order to provide a series of enhanced methodologies for improving municipal activities related to climate change (CC) issues in the water management sector, the specific environmental phenomenon of seawater intrusion was investigated. This phenomenon is already contributing, and will increasingly contribute as CC progresses, to the degradation of those natural resources on which a large part of Dar es Salaam’s peri-urban livelihoods depends.
The target of this study was to investigate groundwater availability changes in Dar es Salaam’s coastal aquifer as a consequence of seawater intrusion and urbanization processes in the framework of CC effects, with the aim to set up an integrated approach to evaluate CC effects on groundwater resources in coastal plains affected by seawater intrusion, and to better manage these important natural resources. As such, geological and hydrogeological characterization of the area is part of the study, as lithological properties of outcropping geological formations and their main hydrogeological settings, as well as chemical groundwater characterization also depend on them, but they were not the target of the study
