Dr Jean-Christophe Comte and PhD student Samson Oiro have received a £10k Environment and Sustainability Research Grant from the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) for a project entitled, ‘East African groundwater resources under climatic and human pressure: A comparative study bringing field evidence to water sustainability in Kenya.’
The overall aim of the wider research is to establish the response of two Kenyan aquifer systems to climatic change and human development - the Nairobi volcanic suite aquifer and the Tiwi-Mombasa coastal aquifer that are increasingly important water resources for over 6.5M and 1M people, respectively. The project will produce a new conceptual understanding of the response of groundwater resources to climate change and human activities in these aquifers, which are strategic to the socio-economic development of Kenya and the wider East Africa region. The RGS funding will contribute to achieving these goals through acquiring and integrating new field data (including regional geophysical and isotopic data – first campaign completed this summer) into groundwater conceptual and simulation models, and engaging stakeholders in simulation model design for optimal transfer to groundwater governance, management and policy.
By providing a comparison between two contrasted aquifer systems that are exemplars of the wider East African region (Nairobi/rift-valley uplands and Tiwi/coastal lowlands), the outcome of the research will be a greater understanding of the resilience of groundwater resources to climatic and anthropogenic changes in East Africa, and the delivery of tools for implementing sustainable groundwater management strategies.