GROFUTURES FOCUSED ON:

Reducing uncertainty in the renewability and quantity of accessible groundwater to meet future demands for food, water and environmental services.

Promoting inclusion of poor people’s voices in decision-making processes on grountwater development pathways.

Intensified groundwater dependency as demand for food and water rises and variability in rainfall and river flow increases due to climate change.

OUR OBJECTIVES

Inclusive groundwater governance:

GroFutures will develop an inclusive, participatory framework for groundwater governance in which the views of poor women and men are considered together with the trade-offs associated with groundwater development pathways.

Sustainable groundwater:

GroFutures will apply new geophysical techniques and compile long-term observations of groundwater levels from our Network of African Groundwater Observatories to substantially improve knowledge of the renewability and volume of groundwater in Sub-Saharan Africa.

GroFutures Deliverables include:

New knowledge & data

  • Quantitative understanding of groundwater development pathways
  • Improved estimation of groundwater storage and recharge
  • Compilation of multi-decadal groundwater-level observations across Africa to assess climate-groundwater relationships
  • High-frequency monitoring records to assess recharge processes and groundwater – surface water interactions
  • Quantification of future groundwater recharge and storage under projected changes in climate and land-use

New tools & partnerships

  • Capacity-strengthening, pan-African research partnerships
  • Network of African Groundwater Observatories (NAGO)
  • Groundwater Game to aid decision makers assessing trade-offs associated with development pathways
  • Pathways Framework to enable inclusive groundwater governance
  • Groundwater recharge-storage models to evaluate long-term sustainability of groundwater use and groundwater-dependent ecosystems