scholarly journals From Traditional to Modern Water Management Systems; Reflection on the Evolution of a ‘Water Ethic’ in Semi-Arid Morocco

10.5772/30108 ◽  
2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandrine Simon
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Semi Arid

scholarly journals Remote Sensing for Biocultural Heritage Preservation in an African Semi-Arid Region: A Case Study of Indigenous Wells in Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia

2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 314
Author(s):  
Pamela Ochungo ◽  
Nadia Khalaf ◽  
Stefania Merlo ◽  
Alemseged Beldados ◽  
Freda Nkirote M’Mbogori ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Diversity Index ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Southern Ethiopia ◽  
Northern Kenya ◽  
Landscape Degradation ◽  
Biocultural Heritage ◽  
Semi Arid

The region of Southern Ethiopia (Borana) and Northern Kenya (Marsabit) is characterised by erratic rainfall, limited surface water, aridity, and frequent droughts. An important adaptive response to these conditions, of uncertain antiquity, has been the hand-excavation of a sequence of deep wells at key locations often along seasonal riverbeds and valley bottoms where subterranean aquifers can be tapped. Sophisticated indigenous water management systems have developed to ensure equitable access to these critical water resources, and these are part of well-defined customary institutional leadership structures that govern the community giving rise to a distinctive form of biocultural heritage. These systems, and the wells themselves, are increasingly under threat, however, from climate change, demographic growth, and socio-economic development. To contribute to an assessment of the scale, distribution and intensity of these threats, this study aimed to evaluate the land-use land-cover (LULC) and precipitation changes in this semi-arid to arid landscape and their association with, and impact on, the preservation of traditional wells. Multitemporal Landsat 5, 7 and 8 satellite imagery covering the period 1990 to 2020, analysed at a temporal resolution of 10 years, was classified using supervised classification via the Random Forest machine learning method to extract the following classes: bare land, grassland, shrub land, open forest, closed forest, croplands, settlement and waterbodies. Change detection was then applied to identify and quantify changes through time and landscape degradation indices were generated using the Shannon Diversity Index fragmentation index within a 15 km buffer of each well cluster. The results indicated that land cover change was mostly driven by increasing anthropogenic changes with resultant reduction in natural land cover classes. Furthermore, increased fragmentation has occurred within most of the selected buffer distances of the well clusters. The main drivers of change that have directly or indirectly impacted land degradation and the preservation of indigenous water management systems were identified through an analysis of land cover changes in the last 30 years, supporting insights from previous focused group discussions with communities in Kenya and Ethiopia. Our approach showed that remote sensing methods can be used for the spatially explicit mapping of landscape structure around the wells, and ultimately towards assessment of the preservation status of the indigenous wells.

scholarly journals Temporal and Local Heterogeneities of Water Table Depth under Different Agricultural Water Management Conditions

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 2148
Author(s):  
Jonathan A. Lafond ◽  
Silvio J. Gumiere ◽  
Virginie Vanlandeghem ◽  
Jacques Gallichand ◽  
Alain N. Rousseau ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Water Table ◽  
Cropping Systems ◽  
Irrigation Management ◽  
Sprinkler Irrigation ◽  
Water Table Depth ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Integrated Water Management ◽  
Growing Seasons ◽  
Good Drainage

Integrated water management has become a priority for cropping systems where subirrigation is possible. Compared to conventional sprinkler irrigation, the controlling water table can lead to a substantial increase in yield and water use efficiency with less pumping energy requirements. Knowing the spatiotemporal distribution of water table depth (WTD) and soil properties should help perform intelligent, integrated water management. Observation wells were installed in cranberry fields with different water management systems: Bottom, with good drainage and controlled WTD management; Surface, with good drainage and sprinkler irrigation management; Natural, without drainage, or with imperfectly drained and conventional sprinkler irrigation. During the 2017–2020 growing seasons, WTD was monitored on an hourly basis, while precipitation was measured at each site. Multi-frequential periodogram analysis revealed a dominant periodic component of 40 days each year in WTD fluctuations for the Bottom and Surface systems; for the Natural system, periodicity was heterogeneous and ranged from 2 to 6 weeks. Temporal cross correlations with precipitation show that for almost all the sites, there is a 3 to 9 h lag before WTD rises; one exception is a subirrigation site. These results indicate that automatic water table management based on continuously updated knowledge could contribute to integrated water management systems, by using precipitation-based models to predict WTD.

Current plant ecological features reflect historical forest management systems in semi-arid oak forests

2021 ◽  
Vol 167 ◽  
pp. 106268
Author(s):  
Mehdi Heydari ◽  
Sina Attar Roshan ◽  
Reza Omidipour ◽  
Manuel Esteban Lucas-Borja ◽  
Bernard Prévosto
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Oak Forests ◽  
Ecological Features ◽  
Plant Ecological ◽  
Historical Forest ◽  
Semi Arid

scholarly journals Changing rainfall patterns and farmers’ adaptation through soil water management practices in semi-arid eastern Kenya

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Walker Recha ◽  
Bancy M. Mati ◽  
Mary Nyasimi ◽  
Philip K. Kimeli ◽  
James M. Kinyangi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Rainfall Patterns ◽  
Semi Arid
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