Connect4 water resilience: connecting water resources, communities, drought and flood hazards, and governance across 4 countries in the Limpopo basin

“CONNECT4水恢复力”项目汇集了一个由来自英国、博茨瓦纳、南非、津巴布韦和莫桑比克的学术界、政策和实践领域的水文学家和社会学家组成的多学科团队，调查影响林波波河流域（LRB） 4个国家对干旱和洪水的脆弱性和恢复力的物理和社会因素。该研究将更好地了解脆弱性的物理和社会方面内部和之间的连通性，以提高撒哈拉以南干旱地区对洪水和干旱灾害的社会准备和复原力。LRB是一个干旱、缺水的盆地，但极易受到洪水的影响。它包括分布在四个国家（博茨瓦纳、南非、津巴布韦和莫桑比克）的各种自然和社会经济特征。洪水和干旱已被证明会加剧水的供应和质量问题，预计其频率和程度将会增加。当含水层和社区已经面临压力，而适当的洪水管理可以改善短期应对机制和对未来干旱季节的长期抵御能力时，我们将重点关注LRB在干旱后洪水期间的挑战和机遇。我们将探讨分区域之间的地理差异在多大程度上影响水资源如何应对，以及人们如何应对洪水和干旱，以便为各种规模（地方到跨国）的适当水管理战略提供信息。该研究将围绕三个集成工作包（WP）进行阐述。WP1将评估流域尺度的水文连通性，即在不同的物理条件下（水文气象学、地理、地质、地下水-地表水相互作用），干旱和洪水如何在空间和时间上传播，重点是特定子区域的水文响应如何影响或受其他区域的影响。这将通过实施盆地尺度的地下水-地表水建模方法和基于现有数据集（部分由项目团队收集）来实现。产出将有助于改善跨国水旱监测网络和更新易感性地图。WP2将评估流域尺度的社会连通性，即当地社区如何理解、预测和处理旱涝周期，以及这些社区如何与治理机构互动。这将通过与不同社区团体和主要社区政府中介机构（如推广官员和集水区管理论坛）进行访谈来实现。产出将有助于了解社区对干旱/洪水风险的看法，并有助于发展更好的沟通。WP3将整合WP1和WP2，并致力于社会系统和水文系统之间的连通性。它将把我们对干旱和洪水交替背后的多尺度水文过程的理解与水资源和风险管理以及社会准备途径联系起来。其目的是共同创造管理解决方案，以减少整个LRB旱涝周期的影响并增加效益。它将使用一个迭代的合作生产过程，在适当的规模上加强科学家和水管理利益相关者之间的关键桥梁。研究成果将通过提高对洪涝和干旱的认识和准备，提高抗灾能力，对低海拔地区和干旱地区的人民产生影响；(2)通过改进水文监测网络和加强地方与跨国治理之间的联系，加强地方和区域当局的管理；(3)公众参与活动；(4)通过出版物和公共数据库上的社会水文数据集、非洲本科生和研究生的培训以及早期职业研究人员的发展，开展国际学术研究。

The 'CONNECT4 water resilience' project brings together a multidisciplinary team of hydrologists and sociologists from academia, policy and practice in the UK, Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique to investigate the physical and societal factors affecting vulnerability and resilience to drought and floods in 4 countries of the Limpopo River Basin (LRB). The research will provide a better understanding of the connectivity within and between physical and social aspects of vulnerability to improve societal preparedness and resilience to flood and drought hazards in arid Sub-Saharan regions. The LRB is an arid, water-stressed basin, yet with high susceptibility to floods. It encompasses a large diversity of physical and socio-economical characteristics spread across four countries (Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique). Floods and droughts have been shown to exacerbate water availability and quality problems and are predicted to increase in frequency and magnitude.We will focus on the challenges and opportunities during floods following droughts in the LRB, when aquifers and communities are already under stress, and when appropriate flood management could improve short term coping mechanisms and long-term resilience for future dry seasons. We will explore to what extent geographical differences between sub-regions influence how water resources respond to, and how people cope with floods and droughts in order to inform appropriate water management strategies at various scales (local to transnational).The research will articulate around three integrated workpackages (WP). WP1 will assess basin-scale hydrological connectivity, i.e. how droughts and floods propagate in space and time under varying physical conditions (hydrometeorology, physiography, geology, groundwater-surface water interactions), with a focus on how the hydrological response of a specific sub-region influences or is influenced by other regions. This will be achieved though implementation of a basin-scale groundwater-surface water modelling approach and based on existing datasets, in part collected by the project team. Outputs will aid to improve transnational flood and drought monitoring networks and update susceptibility mapping.WP2 will assess the basin-scale social connectivity, i.e. how drought-flood cycles are understood, anticipated and worked with by local communities and how these communities interact with governance institutions. This will be achieved by carrying out interviews with diverse community groups and with key community-government intermediaries such as extension officers and catchment management fora. Outputs will contribute to understanding how drought/flood risk is perceived by communities and to develop better communication.WP3 will integrate WP1 and WP2 and will work on the connectivity between social and hydrological systems. It will connect our understanding of multiscale hydrological processes underlying alternating droughts and floods with water resource and risk management, and societal preparedness pathways. This aims to co-create management solutions to reduce impacts and increase benefits of drought-flood cycles throughout the LRB. It will use an iterative, co-production process to strengthen crucial bridges between scientists and water management stakeholders on the appropriate scale(s).Research outputs will impact (1) people in the LRB and arid regions through enhanced awareness and preparedness to flood and droughts, leading to increased resilience; (2) local and regional authorities via improved hydrological monitoring networks and a strengthened connection from local to transnational levels of governance; (3) general public through public engagement activities; (4) international academics via publications and socio-hydrological datasets on public databases, training of African under- and postgraduate students and development of early career researchers.