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The data utilized in this publication was made possible throughsupport provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development,under the terms of Contract No. AID-663-TO-16-00001, CooperativeAgreement Nos. AID-OAA-A-16-00075 and AID-615-A-15-00008
Published In
Science of the Total Environment
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-2019
Subjects
Groundwater ecology -- East Africa, Remote monitoring
Abstract
Millions of people in the arid regions of Kenya and Ethiopia face water scarcity and frequent drought. Water resource forecasting and reliable operation of groundwater distribution systems may improve drought resilience. In this study, we examined three remote sensing data sets against in-situ sensor-collected groundwater extraction data from 221 water points serving over 1.34 million people across northern Kenya and Afar, Ethiopia between January 1, 2017 and August 31, 2018. In models containing rainfall as a binary variable, we observed an overall 23% increase in borehole runtime following weeks with no rainfall compared to weeks preceded by some rainfall. Further, a 1 mm increase in rainfall was associated with a 1% decrease in borehole use the following week. When surface water availability is reduced during the dry seasons, groundwater demand increases. Our findings emphasize the imperative to maintain functionality of groundwater boreholes in these regions which often suffer drought related emergencies.
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DOI
10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.206
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/28676
Publisher
Elsevier
Citation Details
Thomas, E. A., Needoba, J., Kaberia, D., Butterworth, J., Adams, E. C., Oduor, P., ... & Nagel, C. (2019). Quantifying increased groundwater demand from prolonged drought in the East African Rift Valley. Science of the Total Environment, 666, 1265-1272.
Description
©2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.