Djim M.L. Diongue

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Sustainable water management in semi-arid agriculture practices requires quantitative knowledge of water fluxes within the soil-vegetation-atmosphere system. Therefore, we used stable-isotope approaches to evaluate evaporation (Ea), transpiration (Ta), and groundwater recharge (R) at sites in Senegal's Groundnut basin and Ferlo Valley pasture region during the pre-monsoon, monsoon, and post-monsoon seasons of 2021. The approaches were based upon (i) the isothermal evaporation model (for quantifying Ea); (ii) water and isotope mass balances (to partition Ea and Ta for groundnut and pasture); and (iii) the piston displacement method (for estimating R). Ea losses derived from the isothermal evaporation model corresponded primarily to Stage II evaporation, and ranged from 0.02–0.09 mm d-1 in the Groundnut basin, versus 0.02–0.11 mm d-1 in Ferlo. At the groundnut site, Ea rates ranged from 0.01 to 0.69 mm d-1; Ta was in the range 0.55–2.29 mm d-1; and the Ta/ETa ratio was 74–90%. At the pasture site, the ranges were 0.02–0.39 mm d-1 for Ea; 0.9–1.69 mm d-1 for Ta; and 62–90 % for Ta/ETa.  The ETa value derived for the groundnut site via the isotope approach was similar to those from eddy covariance measurements, and also to the results from a previous validated HYDRUS-1D model. However, the HYDRUS-1D model gave a lower Ta/ETa ratio (23.2%). The computed groundwater recharge for the groundnut site amounted to less than 2% of the local annual precipitation. Recommendations are made regarding protocols for preventing changes to isotopic compositions of water in samples that are collected in remote arid regions, but must be analysed days later. The article ends with suggestions for studies to follow up on evidence that local aquifers are being recharged via preferential pathways
The rainfall reduction in the 1970s, less marked in Central Africa than in West Africa, still had a major impact on the hydrological regimes of the region’s large rivers. The study of the hydropluviometric behavior of the Ubangi at Mobaye has the advantage of studying a basin excluding anthropogenic impact. Forest cover and population density have not changed since at least 1970. Statistical analysis of the breaks in the long rainfall time series from Ubangi at Mobaye (1935-2015) confirms a long period of drought from 1969 to 2006 corresponding to a reduction of -8% in rainfall. And the study of the corresponding hydrological series indicates a second downward break in 1981, few years after the rainfall increase. This period points an exceptional hydrological drought period until 2013, which is the first year with an increase of flows. The statistical study of the annual rainfall/flow series of the upstream basins over the period 1951-1995 (the Kotto at Kembé and Bria, the Mbomu at Bangassou and Zémio, the Uélé + Bili hydrographic system) highlights different hydrological behaviors related to the vegetation cover. The savanna basins show a continuous hydrological deficit marked by a runoff coefficient (CE) that fell to 5% only from the 1990s. On the other hand, the basins under forest show a runoff increase since 1990 marked by CE above 10%. Under savannah, the part of the flow infiltrating to recharge the aquifer would have decreased faster than under forest, which results in a runoff coefficient CE very significantly negatively correlated with the savanna area present in the studied watershed.