SESYNC Project for Sustainable Water Futures in Sub-Saharan Africa

Planning for sustainable water futures in Sub-Saharan Africa in the context of the SDGs

HOW CAN WE PLAN FOR SUSTAINABLE WATER FUTURES IN THE CONTEXT OF THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS? 

As part of the SESYNC pursuit “Planning for sustainable water futures in sub-Saharan Africa in the context of the SDGs”, I built a rapid progress tool to enable scenario testing for tradeoffs between water supply, impairment, natural capital, and traditional engineering. The model included upland, mid-river and river mouth landscapes with unique characteristic for river flow and human development, including population, water demand,  wastewater treatment, and water threats. The model included a green ‘cleaning’ process to treat and offset impaired water via ecosystem and in-stream processing in wetlands, rivers, and lakes. The following four scenarios were run to illustrate the impacts and trade-offs of preserving or degrading natural capital and investing in gray infrastructure to improve water quality:

  1. Intact natural capital and low investments in water treatment.
  2. Intact natural capital and high investments in water treatment.
  3. Degraded natural capital and low investments in water treatment.
  4. Degraded natural capital and high investments in water treatment.

CONTRIBUTIONS:

  • Developed research  concept, design, and workflow execution.
  • Developed scenarios and organized spatial information to define landscape and human development inputs.
  • Developed river network analysis to determine downstream impacts of upstream trade-off scenarios.
  • Developed and executed model code for robust river network flow model, scenario spatial analysis, and results for publication.
  • Engaged with SESYNC pursuit Working Group, demonstrating ability to work collaboratively across disciplines for impactful research.

PRODUCTS:

Proposal and Research Project:

SESYNC Research Project: Sustainable Water Futures, Full Title: Planning for sustainable water futures in sub-saharan Africa in the context of the SDGs

Publications:

Manuscript currently in progress .. materials will be provided upon publication. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.