Impacts of climate change and pumping on groundwater resources in the Kou River basin, Burkina Faso
West Africa is subject to climatic variability with a long period of drought during the 1970s–1990s whose impact on groundwater remains poorly studied. This work focuses on the Kou basin in Burkina Faso, which holds a large groundwater resource resulting in exceptional springs. This resource shows s...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Académie des sciences
2023-05-01
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| Series: | Comptes Rendus. Géoscience |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://comptes-rendus.academie-sciences.fr/geoscience/articles/10.5802/crgeos.207/ |
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| Summary: | West Africa is subject to climatic variability with a long period of drought during the 1970s–1990s whose impact on groundwater remains poorly studied. This work focuses on the Kou basin in Burkina Faso, which holds a large groundwater resource resulting in exceptional springs. This resource shows signs of depletion that raise a critical question: What is the share of climate and that of withdrawals in the depletion of the resource? To answer this question, we used a hydrogeological model calibrated in steady state and in transient regime (monthly time step 1995–2014; annual time step 1961–2014). The results showed that pumping has a significant impact on the resource, especially in the vicinity of the pumping areas, and caused approximately 30% of the observed decrease in spring discharge. Drought periods and consecutive years without recharge also led to a decrease in groundwater levels. Thus, precipitation deficits and variability, combined with increasing pumping, have endangered the resource. |
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| ISSN: | 1778-7025 |