1. Impacts of climate change and pumping on groundwater resources in the Kou River basin, Burkina Faso
- Author
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Tirogo, Justine, Jost, Anne, Biaou, Angelbert, Koussoubé, Youssouf, Ribstein, Pierre, and Dakouré, Denis
- Subjects
Groundwater pumping ,Groundwater modelling ,Climate change ,Sudanian region ,Sedimentary aquifer ,West Africa ,Geophysics. Cosmic physics ,QC801-809 ,Chemistry ,QD1-999 ,Geology ,QE1-996.5 - Abstract
West Africa is subject to climatic variability with a long period of drought during the 1970s–1990s whose impact on groundwater remains poorly studied. This work focuses on the Kou basin in Burkina Faso, which holds a large groundwater resource resulting in exceptional springs. This resource shows signs of depletion that raise a critical question: What is the share of climate and that of withdrawals in the depletion of the resource? To answer this question, we used a hydrogeological model calibrated in steady state and in transient regime (monthly time step 1995–2014; annual time step 1961–2014). The results showed that pumping has a significant impact on the resource, especially in the vicinity of the pumping areas, and caused approximately 30% of the observed decrease in spring discharge. Drought periods and consecutive years without recharge also led to a decrease in groundwater levels. Thus, precipitation deficits and variability, combined with increasing pumping, have endangered the resource.
- Published
- 2023
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