Availability of the current and future water resources in Equatorial Central Africa: case of the Nyong forest catchment in Cameroon

Availability of the current and future water resources in Equatorial Central Africa: case of the Nyong forest catchment in Cameroon

To anticipate disasters (drought, floods, etc.) caused by environmental forcing and reduce their impacts on its fragile economy, sub-Saharan Africa needs a good knowledge of the availability of current water resources and reliable hydroclimatic forecasts. This study has an objective to quantify the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental monitoring and assessment Vol. 196; no. 3; p. 298
Main Authors: Ebodé, Valentin Brice, Onana, Jean Yannick Ngono, Dzana, Jean Guy, Amougou, Joseph Armathé, Batha, Romain Armand Soleil, Boyomo, Thomas Magloire Souga, Mbeih, Gaston Evarice Ndjela
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01-03-2024
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution
Basins
Calibration
Cameroon
Catchment area
Climate
Climate Change
Climate models
Climate variability
Disasters
Drought
Earth and Environmental Science
Ecology
Ecotoxicology
Environment
Environmental Management
Environmental Monitoring
Evapotranspiration
Evolution
Forests
Future water resources
Hydrologic models
Hydrology
Land cover
Land use
Monitoring/Environmental Analysis
Precipitation
Precipitation and runoff
Rainfall
Resource management
Rivers
Roads
Runoff
Sediment load
Soil water
Surface runoff
Water
Water availability
Water Resources
Water resources management
Water shortages
Water yield
Cameroon
Central Africa
SWAT
Regional climate models
Land use and land cover change
Nyong basin
Central Africa
Climate variability
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Summary:To anticipate disasters (drought, floods, etc.) caused by environmental forcing and reduce their impacts on its fragile economy, sub-Saharan Africa needs a good knowledge of the availability of current water resources and reliable hydroclimatic forecasts. This study has an objective to quantify the availability of water resources in the Nyong basin and predict its future evolution (2024–2050). For this, the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model was used. The performance of this model is satisfactory in calibration (2001–2005) and validation (2006–2010), with R 2 , NSE, and KGE greater than 0.64. Biases of − 11.8% and − 13.9% in calibration and validation also attest to this good performance. In the investigated basin, infiltration (GW_RCH), evapotranspiration (ETP), surface runoff (SURQ), and water yield (WYLD) are greater in the East, probably due to more abundant rainfall in this part. The flows and sediment load (SED) are greater in the middle zone and in the Southwest of the basin, certainly because of the flat topography of this part, which corresponds to the valley floor. Two climate models (CCCma and REMO) predict a decline in water resources in this basin, and two others (HIRHAM5 and RCA4) are the opposite. However, based on a statistical study carried out over the historical period (2001–2005), the CCCma model seems the most reliable. It forecasts a drop in precipitation and runoff, which do not exceed − 19% and − 18%, respectively, whatever the emission scenario (RCP4.5 or RCP8.5). Climate variability (CV) is the only forcing whose impact is visible in the dynamics of current and future flows, due to the modest current (increase of + 102 km 2 in builds and roads) and future (increase of + 114 km 2 in builds and roads) changes observed in the evolution of land use and land cover (LULC). The results of this study could contribute to improving water resource management in the basin studied and the region.
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ISSN:0167-6369
1573-2959
DOI:10.1007/s10661-024-12471-y