Managing Basin Interdependencies in a Heterogeneous, Highly Utilized and Data Scarce River Basin in Semi-Arid Africa: The Case of the Pangani River Ba

For integrated water resources management both blue and green water resources in a river basin and their spatial and temporal distribution have to be considered. This is because green and blue water uses are interdependent. In sub-Saharan Africa, the upper landscapes are often dominated by rainfed and supplementary irrigated agriculture that rely on green water resources. Downstream, most blue water uses are confined to the river channels, mainly for hydropower and the environment.

Over time and due to population growth and increased demands for food and energy, water use of both green and blue water has increased. This book provides a quantitative assessment of green-blue water use and their interactions. The book makes a novel contribution by developing a hydrological model that can quantify not only green but also blue water use by many smallholder farmers scattered throughout the landscape.

The book provides an innovative framework for mapping ecological productivity where gross returns from water consumed in agricultural and natural vegetation are quantified. The book provides a multi-objective optimization analysis involving green and blue water users, including the environment. The book also assesses the uncertainty levels of using remote sensing data in water resource management at river basin scale.

Jeremiah Kipkulei Kiptala is a lecturer of water resources engineering at the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya. He has a bachelor degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Nairobi, Kenya and a Master of Science in Water Management from UNESCO-IHE, the Netherlands. He is a professional civil engineer with the Engineers Board of Kenya and a corporate member of the Institute of Engineers of Kenya. For his PhD, Jeremiah conducted research on managing basin interdependencies in the Pangani River basin, Eastern Africa. His research interests include hydrological and river system modeling, multi-objective optimization, water valuation and ecosystem services valuation.