West Africa, particularly the Sudano-Sahelian zone, has experienced unprecedented climate variability in recent decades. Despite some periods of respite, the statistics do not really plead for a return to better climatic conditions, precisely rainfall. Beyond the structural aspect of this climate variability, many effects have been observed on socio-economic activities and also on socio-cultural practices. This situation has a dramatic impact on water resources and inparticular on the hydrology of West African transboundary basins such as those of Senegal and Gambia. The overall objective of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of climate variability and risks and their impacts on the water resources availability in transboundary watersheds in West Africa. It aims to create up-to-date knowledge bases for climate variability analysis and risk assessment as well as the search for sustainable solutions to overcome the environmental and societal vulnerability. In this perspective, the updating of the West African climate database and its extension to shared basins (Senegal and Gambia) should make it possible to carry out relevant analyses of climate variability and its impact on the environment and more particularly on the water resources availability. The Senegal and Gambia River basins are selected as sites for this study, which focuses on analyzing the climate vulnerability and its effects on water resource variability in West Africa. These two transboundary tropical basins cover respectively an area of about 300,000 km2 and 77,054 km2. The Senegal River is 1,800 km long and its basin is shared between Guinea (7%), Senegal (8%), Mali (35%) and Mauritania (50%). About 3.5 million people live in this basin, 85% of whom live near watercourses. The Gambia River basin is divided between Senegal (70.9%), Guinea (15.4%), Gambia (13.7%) and Guinea Bissau (0.021%). The Gambia River is 1,150 km long, 205 km of which are in Guinea, 485 km in Senegal and 490 km in Gambia. Theproject's objectives include the following:
- To update the climate database and cover all the two basins of Senegal and Gambia;
- To analyze the climate variability and trends across West Africa with a focus on the
Senegal and Gambia river basins;
- To identify climate impacts on hydrology in West Africa based on data from
monitoring stations, metadata, existing modelling tools and assessments and even
climate re-analyses if necessary;
- To build materials for tailor-made training sessions.
- Annex 33: Niang Fall A., 2020. Inception Report Climate vulnerability and water resources variability in Wet Africa, Senegal and Gambia river basin case studies. ACEWATER2 report JRC122697 (Component of deliverable)
- Annex 34: Niang Fall A., 2020. Climate vulnerability and water resources variability in Wet Africa, Senegal and Gambia river basin case studies: Progress Report. ACEWATER2 report JRC122697 (Component of deliverable)
- Annex 35: Niang Fall A., 2020. Climate vulnerability and water resources variability in Wet Africa, Senegal and Gambia river basin case studies: Final Report. ACEWATER2 report JRC122697 (Main deliverable)
- Annex 36: Niang Fall A., 2020. Database (meteo-climate data on Senegal and Gambia river basins). ACEWATER2 report JRC122697 (Component of deliverable)