Building understanding of climate variability into planning of groundwater supplies from low storage aquifers in Africa (BRAVE)

非洲人口增长迅速，预计在2000年至2050年期间将增长150%以上。这将导致对水的需求增加。地下水已被确定具有满足家庭使用、粮食生产和其他生产性用途日益增长的用水需求的潜力，特别是因为地下水被认为比地表水资源更能适应气候变化。然而，人们认识到，在地下水储量相对较少的非洲大片地区，可能会出现地下水长期补给不足导致水资源短缺的情况。随着地下水被推广为解决非洲未来供水需求的一种手段，进一步的研究对于研究越来越依赖这些低储水量含水层的社区的潜在脆弱性至关重要。这将有助于在规划地下水开发时做出更好的决策。BRAVE项目（将对气候变率的理解纳入非洲低蓄水含水层地下水供应的规划）旨在利用气候、地表和地下水模型的最新发展，提高对气候变率、当前和未来气候以及土地利用和水需求变化对这些地下水资源的影响的认识。该项目的一个关键要素是确保模型输出的形式能够解决那些就水资源开发作出决定的人所提出的问题。BRAVE项目将以西非的沃尔特河流域（RVB）为案例研究区域，在布基纳法索和加纳开展工作。它汇集了一个由国际公认的气象学家、水文地质学家、陆地表面建模者和知识交流专家组成的强大团队，他们具有在非洲工作的丰富经验，并以最近nerc资助的研究为基础。

Africa's population is growing rapidly and is expected to increase by over 150% between 2000 and 2050. This will result in an increased demand for water. Groundwater has been identified as having the potential to meet much of the growing water requirements for domestic use, food production and other productive uses, especially as it is seen as being more resilient to climate variability than surface water resources. However, it is recognised that in large regions of Africa where the groundwater store is relatively small there may be occasions when extended periods of low groundwater recharge result in water shortages. As groundwater is being promoted as a means to address Africa's future water supply needs, further research is crucial to study the potential vulnerability of communities that become more reliant on these low storage aquifers. This will allow better decisions to be made when planning groundwater development. The BRAVE project (Building understanding of climate variability into planning of groundwater supplies from low storage aquifers in Africa) aims to take advantage of recent developments in models of climate, the land surface and groundwater to improve the understanding of how these groundwater resources are affected by climate variability, under present and future climate, and by changes in land use and water demand. A key element of the project is to ensure that the output from the model is in a form that addresses the questions being asked by those making decisions on water resource development.The BRAVE project will use the River Volta Basin (RVB) in West Africa as a case study area, working in Burkina Faso and Ghana. It brings together a strong team of internationally-recognised meteorologists, hydrogeologists, land surface modellers and knowledge exchange experts, with extensive experience of working in Africa, and builds on recent NERC-funded research.