10.07.2015 Views

African Water Development Report 2006 - United Nations Economic ...

African Water Development Report 2006 - United Nations Economic ...

African Water Development Report 2006 - United Nations Economic ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

cipitation monitoring; determination of surfacewater extent; monitoring surface water balances,soil moisture status; monitoring sediment loadin rivers and lakes; groundwater exploration; soilerosion; estimation of evapotranspiration; andthe extraction of physiographic and basin characteristicsfor hydrological and water resourcespurposes.Geographical Information Systems in<strong>Water</strong> and Land use PlanningIn the last few decades, the development ofearth science disciplines such as geology, geography,hydrology and soil sciences, and the everincreasingdemand for a rational use of naturalresources such as water, land and mineral deposits,have greatly enhanced both the collection ofspatial data, and the production of a variety ofgeneral-purpose or special-purpose maps. Mapsare, indeed, the best method for reducing verylarge-scale spatial relations so they can be easilyperceived and analysed. Thus maps can be veryuseful in obtaining geo-environmental data (suchas geology, geomorphology, hydrography, landuse/cover data) and social data (such as populationdensity, distribution, transportation facilitiesand water works) based on ground surveys, aerialphotography, and possibly high-resolution opticalsatellite imagery.Professionally oriented water software technologiesare available in such areas as:(a) Urban storm-water management: In which apackage of sub-programmes is usually usedto determine:(i) Urban runoff quantity (some kind ofrainfall-runoff analysis, for example, usinghydrographs);(ii) Transportation through drainage networks(flood routing);(iii) Storage and treatment; and(iv) <strong>Water</strong> quality effects on receiving waters.(b) Rainfall-runoff analysis: In which sub-programmesare used to simulate the responseof watersheds and stream networks to givenrainfall and, sometimes, snowmelt conditions.A methodology followed in some ofthe packages is the standard <strong>United</strong> StatesSoil Conservation methodology;(c)<strong>Water</strong> supply network design: For loopedpipeline networks, flows and pressures inthe network which can be calculated in aniterative manner. The method of Hardy-Cross is used to solve the resistance equations,which can be the Hazen-Williams,Darcy-Weisbach, or Manning formulation;ENSURING THE KNOWLEDGE BASEFrom Knowledge to Technology: <strong>Water</strong>Resources Systems Design and ManagementGenerally, the mode of development of softwaretechnologies also determines their transfer modality.Those developed by mainly professionalfirms are normally covered by patent and authorlicenses and can therefore be acquired throughpurchases, which make them less affordable to<strong>African</strong> practitioners. In contrast, those technologiesdeveloped by academic and researchinstitutions are transferred through research anddevelopment processes.(d) Flood frequency analysis: In which packagesare set up for flood frequency analysis usinga distribution such as the log-Pearson Type111 or the Gumbel, or sometimes givingthe user a choice of distributions;(e)Flood routine: whereby an inflow hydrographalready calculated using rainfall-runoffanalysis can be routed through a hydraulicchannel and/or a reservoir (detentionpond) to obtain the outflow hydrograph.The methodology is generally that of quasisteadyflow, using the Chezy equation witheither the Manning or Darcy-Weisbachformulation for friction coefficients; and307

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!