Groundwater Futures in Sub-Saharan Africa

撒哈拉以南非洲地下水未来（GroFutures）将开发科学证据和包容性地下水管理流程，使地下水资源可持续地用于撒哈拉以南非洲（SSA）的扶贫工作。它将增进对撒南非洲地下水数量和可再生性的了解，并开发可靠的模型和工具，以预测在不断变化的气候、土地使用和需求情景下的可用地下水资源，包括扩大灌溉可耕地。GroFutures将检查当前的地下水治理过程，并确定更可持续和公平地利用地下水资源的途径，这些途径与不断变化的需求和资源可用性的预测相一致。它将组建一个国际科学家联盟，该联盟在地下水研究和利益相关者参与SSA方面拥有无与伦比的记录，既利用了大量额外投资（461，000英镑），又与英语和法语非洲的研发社区合作。GroFutures还将建立一个非洲地下水观测站网络，代表撒哈拉以南非洲的主要地下水环境和发展治理挑战，其中包括一个新的数据集，包含25个地下水位观测记录，持续时间为2至60年，来自整个撒哈拉以南非洲，能够对气候，土地使用和地下水补给之间的关系进行最严格的分析。将建造专门的盆地观测站，以便能够非常详细地监测地下水补充的物理过程，并采用新的方法来量化非洲含水层的地下水量，从而克服目前对撒南非洲地下水了解的根本局限性。GroFutures还将采用创新和参与性的地下水管理办法，以便在就地下水资源的分配和开发作出决定时明确考虑穷人的意见。

Groundwater Futures in Sub-Saharan Africa (GroFutures) will develop the scientific evidence and inclusive groundwater management processes by which groundwater resources can be used sustainably for poverty alleviation in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It will improve understanding of the volume and renewability of groundwater in SSA, and develop robust models and tools to forecast available groundwater resources under changing climate, land-use and demand scenarios, including expansion of arable land under irrigation. GroFutures will examine current groundwater governance processes and identify pathways toward more sustainable and equitable use of groundwater resources that are reconciled to projections of changing demand and resource availability. It will assemble an international consortium of scientists with an unmatched track record of groundwater research and stakeholder engagement in SSA that both leverages substantial additional investment (£461,000) and engages with research and development communities across Anglophone and Francophone Africa. GroFutures will also establish a Network of African Groundwater Observatories that representing the primary groundwater environments and development governance challenges in SSA that features a new dataset of 25 records of groundwater-level observations that are 2 to 6 decades duration from across SSA enabling the most rigorous analysis of the relationships among climate, land-use and groundwater recharge that has ever been conducted in the tropics. Dedicated basin observatories will be constructed that will enable very detailed monitoring of the physical process by which groundwater is replenished and application of a new method for quantifying the volume of groundwater in African aquifers thereby overcoming fundamental limitations in present knowledge of groundwater in SSA. GroFutures will also employ an innovative and participatory approach to the management of groundwater which will enable for explicit consideration of the views of poor people in making decisions over the allocation and development of groundwater resources.