Congo, Democratic Republic of

Alpha 3
COD

Related Content

Article

Monitoring hydrological changes from space in a sparse gauged basin

Monitoring hydrological changes from space in a sparse gauged basin

Satellites that measure water related parameters and orbit around the Earth

Africa is endowed with abundant freshwater resources. It has sufficient rainfall and relatively low levels of water withdrawals for three major uses: domestic, agricultural and industrial uses. Changes in Africa’s water resources has been noticed transpiring in changes in water flow and variability, falling groundwater levels, changes in rainfall levels and timing, strongly influenced under climate change. The continent has a huge potential for energy production through hydropower.

Read More

Seguimiento de los cambios hidrológicos desde el espacio en una cuenca escasamente medida

Interview with Benjamin Kitambo, PhD student at the Laboratory for Space Geophysics and Oceanography

Interview with Benjamin Kitambo, PhD student at the Laboratory for Space Geophysics and Oceanography

Interview banner

Describe your professional (and/or personal) experience relating to water and space technologies.

My interest in water is a result of my background in Geology. I come from a region (Katanga Province, Congo DR) where mining is the main source of livelihood. So, I had my bachelor's degree in Geology intending to work in the mining sector after graduation. However, towards the end of the bachelor’s programme, I was exposed to the deployment of geophysical equipment for water prospecting in my department.

Read More

Interview with Dr. Ayan Santos Fleischmann, Lead, Research Group in Geospatial Analysis of the Amazonian Environment and Territory

Interview with Dr. Ayan Santos Fleischmann, Lead, Research Group in Geospatial Analysis of the Amazonian Environment and Territory

Canu on water
Ayan Santos Fleischmann is a hydrologist with a particular interest in wetlands and large-scale basins, mainly in South America and Africa, and in the context of human impacts on water resources. His main study approaches involve remote sensing techniques and hydrologic-hydrodynamic modeling, as well as interdisciplinary collaborations with other disciplines such as ecology and social sciences. Currently, he is a researcher at the Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development (Tefé, Amazonas, Brazil), where he leads the Research Group in Geospatial Analysis of the Amazonian Environment and Territory. He also leads the Conexões Amazônicas initiative for science communication about the Amazon Basin. Ayan holds a PhD degree from UFRGS, with a collaborative period at Université Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier (France). His Ph. D. thesis focused on the hydrology of the South American wetlands. Ayan holds an Environmental Engineering degree from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), with a research stay at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom. In this interview, we talked to him about his career path, the work he has been developing in Brazil with wetlands and floods, and his work in the Amazon River basin.
Read More

Interview with Dr. Ayan Santos Fleischmann, Lead, Research Group in Geospatial Analysis of the Amazonian Environment and Territory

Interview with Dr. Ayan Santos Fleischmann, Lead, Research Group in Geospatial Analysis of the Amazonian Environment and Territory

Canu on water
Ayan Santos Fleischmann is a hydrologist with a particular interest in wetlands and large-scale basins, mainly in South America and Africa, and in the context of human impacts on water resources. His main study approaches involve remote sensing techniques and hydrologic-hydrodynamic modeling, as well as interdisciplinary collaborations with other disciplines such as ecology and social sciences. Currently, he is a researcher at the Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development (Tefé, Amazonas, Brazil), where he leads the Research Group in Geospatial Analysis of the Amazonian Environment and Territory. He also leads the Conexões Amazônicas initiative for science communication about the Amazon Basin. Ayan holds a PhD degree from UFRGS, with a collaborative period at Université Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier (France). His Ph. D. thesis focused on the hydrology of the South American wetlands. Ayan holds an Environmental Engineering degree from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), with a research stay at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom. In this interview, we talked to him about his career path, the work he has been developing in Brazil with wetlands and floods, and his work in the Amazon River basin.
Read More

Interview with Benjamin Kitambo, PhD student at the Laboratory for Space Geophysics and Oceanography

Interview with Benjamin Kitambo, PhD student at the Laboratory for Space Geophysics and Oceanography

Interview banner

Describe your professional (and/or personal) experience relating to water and space technologies.

My interest in water is a result of my background in Geology. I come from a region (Katanga Province, Congo DR) where mining is the main source of livelihood. So, I had my bachelor's degree in Geology intending to work in the mining sector after graduation. However, towards the end of the bachelor’s programme, I was exposed to the deployment of geophysical equipment for water prospecting in my department.

Read More

Local Perspectives Case Studies

Lack of continuous qualitative and quantitative groundwater data for groundwater management within the Congo Basin

Lack of continuous qualitative and quantitative groundwater data for groundwater management within the Congo Basin

The Congo Basin
The Congo Basin (CB), home to the world’s second-largest river basin and tropical rainforest (Laraque et al., 2020), holds significant groundwater resources (Kasongo-Numbi, 2008; MacDonald et al., 2012; Tourian et al., 2023). Despite the abundance of surface water within the region, groundwater is a crucial source of freshwater for the vast majority of the CB’s population. It plays a vital role in sustaining human consumption, particularly for the rural population, also, for ecosystems and agriculture even though the latter is still rainfed. Domestic water use constitutes the first sector that withdraw the large amount of groundwater in the basin. The water withdrawal is projected to grow significantly due to the human population that is expected to double by 2050 in Africa (Partow, 2011, United Nations, 2019). Additionally, considering the emerging importance of the global change due to climate change and environmental alterations that have already affected surface water within the basin (Reed and Miranda, 2007; Wongchuig et al., 2023), groundwater is likely to become a critical resource for future development in the region. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a sustainable groundwater management. However, groundwater management in the CB faces numerous challenges.
Read More

Map

Regional Focus

Click on any of the highlighted countries to retrieve further information.

Stakeholder

The United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS)

The United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS)

The United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS) is a research and training institute of the United Nations University. UNU is a global network of institutes and programs engaged in research and capacity development to support the universal goals of the UN. It brings together leading scholars from around the world with a view to generate strong and innovative knowledge on how to tackle pressing global problems. UNU-CRIS focuses on the study of processes of global cooperation and regional integration and their implications.

Read More

Southern African Research and Documentation Centre

Southern African Research and Documentation Centre

SARDC Logo

SARDC is an independent regional knowledge resource centre that seek to enhance the effectiveness of key developmental processes in the region Southern African Development Community (SADC) region through the collection, analysis, production and dissemination of information and enabling the capacity to generate and use knowledge.

Read More

Congo Basin Water Resources Research Center

Congo Basin Water Resources Research Center

CRREBaC Logo

The Congo Basin Water Resources Research Center, CRREBaC's mission is to contribute to the sustainable management and development of water resources in the Congo basin, through research to provide scientifically acceptable information and viable solutions to emerging water resource problems.

 

Read More

University of Zimbabwe: Department of Construction and Civil Engineering

University of Zimbabwe: Department of Construction and Civil Engineering

The Department of Construction and Civil Engineering at the University of Zimbabwe is one of the 8 departments in the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment.The department is already a major center for water and sanitation engineering through its MSc programmes which have produced graduates from eastern and southern Africa. The department also boasts of soil and material and timber research facilities which can be used to benefit the country at large.

Read More

Person

Kitambo