Mapping The Potential Of Rainwater Harvesting Technologies In Africa

In West Africa, especially in the Sahelian countries of Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and Mauritania, erratic rainfall sequences within and between years has often led to a high uncertainty in rainfed crop production. Over the past three decades, severe food shortages attributed to drought have been frequently reported in several Sahelian countries, most of which are amongst the least developed of the world. Innovative and indigenous ways to achieve improved crop yields through integrated land and water management such as rainwater harvesting and soil water conservation have been successfully tested and, in some cases, adopted in West Africa. This paper highlights the successful interventions of improved indigenous rainwater harvesting/soil water conservation technologies such as Zaï or tassa, stone rows and half-moon in the Sahelian zones of West Africa over the past 10 years, and their contributions to enhancing food security and alleviating poverty. The potential for adoption of these technologies at the farm level and their outscaling to areas with similar agroecological zones are also discussed.

1. Captures advanced technologies and applications for assimilation and implementation and addresses a wide spectrum of water issues. 2. Provides real world applications and case studies of advanced spectral and spatial sensors combined with geospatially driven water process modelling. 3. Details applications of the latest remote sensor systems including GRACE, SMAP, AVIRIS, Sentential, MODIS, Landsat 8, RapidEye, AirSWOT, and pays special attention to multidisciplinary cases studies. 4. It is global in coverage with applications demonstrated by more than 170 experts from around the world. 5. Edited by extremely qualified authors with lifelong expertise in water sciences and with an extensive record in books and journal publications.

Dry areas suffer not only from limited rainfall but also ‘natural leakage’—90% of rainwater is lost directly or indirectly, and is unavailable for agriculture or domestic use. Water harvesting is a low-cost, easy-to-use, environmentally-friendly way to recover a large part of this lost water. How does water harvesting work? Which sites or areas are best suited and how can these areas be identified? How to design, build and maintain a water harvesting system tailored to local needs? How can water harvesting contribute to combating land degradation, enhancing food security and adapting to climate change? This book provides the answers. The book is based on many years of research, training and development by three of the world’s leading experts in water management and agriculture. It is authoritative, comprehensive, and easy to read, containing practical examples, many illustrations and little jargon. This volume will be of great interest to researchers, development workers, farmers, policymakers, students of the natural sciences—in fact, anyone interested in efficient, sustainable management of water resources and agriculture.

Society's greatest use of water is in food production; a fact that puts farmers centre stage in global environmental management. Current management of food value chains, however, is not well set up to enable farmers to undertake their dual role of feeding a growing population and stewarding natural resources. The book considers the interconnected issues of real water in the environment and "virtual water" in food value chains and investigates how society influences both fields. This perspective draws out considerable challenges for food security and for environmental stewardship in the context of ongoing global change. The book discusses these issues by region and with global overviews of selected commodities. Innovation relevant to the kind of change needed for the current food system to meet future challenges is reviewed in light of the findings of the regional and thematic analysis.

Sustainable Water Engineering introduces the latest thinking from academic, stakeholder and practitioner perspectives who address challenges around flooding, water quality issues, water supply, environmental quality and the future for sustainable water engineering. In addition, the book addresses historical legacies, strategies at multiple scales, governance and policy. Offers well-structured content that is strategic in its approach Covers up-to-date issues and examples from both developed and developing nations Include the latest research in the field that is ideal for undergraduates and post-graduate researchers Presents real world applications, showing how engineers, environmental consultancies and international institutions can use the concepts and strategies

International Journal of Advanced Remote Sensing and GIS (IJARSG, ISSN 2320 – 0243) is an open-access peer-reviewed scholarly journal publishes original research papers, reviews, case study, case reports, and methodology articles in all aspects of Remote Sensing and GIS including associated fields. This Journal commits to working for quality and transparency in its publishing by following standard Publication Ethics and Policies.

'The authors advance our understanding of the role of non-state actors in global governance. Not only do they empirically investigate the role of public–private – type 2 – partnerships systematically, they also critically consider their role in mitigating global governance deficits and their accountability in global governance.' – Peter M. Haas, University of Massachusetts Amherst, US The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg is remembered mainly for the promotion of a novel form of global governance: the so-called 'partnerships for sustainable development'. This book provides a first authoritative assessment of partnerships for sustainable development, ten years after the Johannesburg Summit. The extensive research builds on a unique Global Sustainability Partnerships Database and a series of in-depth qualitative case studies. Key questions studied in this book include the overall effectiveness and influence of partnerships, their geographical, functional and organizational scope, and their legitimacy. This unique book systematically investigates the questions of emergence, influence and legitimacy, which will prove invaluable for scholars and students interested in global environmental governance and sustainability, public–private partnerships, sustainability at the UN level and environmental governance beyond international agreements and policies.