Thesis 2015
Author: BADJANA Hèou Maléki
Title: RIVER BASINS ASSESSMENT AND HYDROLOGIC PROCESSES MODELING FOR INTEGRATED LAND AND WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (ILWRM) IN WEST AFRICA
Summary: The integrated assessment of river basins based on a holistic system analysis approach is of high relevance for sustainable water resources management. This is the background of the thesis which analyzed climate variability and land use changes in two river basins in West Africa and modeled hydrologic processes in the selected Kara River basin using the IHACRES and J2000 hydrological models respectively. The results provide consistent evidence of trend in rainfall patterns as well as important changes in land use and land cover in the study area. Both models provide insights into the basin hydrology and offer the potential to assess the impacts of climate and land management impacts on water resources. The study provides good baseline information for integrated land and water resources management in the basin and the region.
Author: BIAO Eliezer Iboukoun
Title: IMPROVING RAINFALL – RUNOFF MODELLING THROUGH UNCERTAINTIES’ CONTROL UNDER INCREASING CLIMATE VARIABILITY IN THE OUEME RIVER BASIN
Summary: The objective of this work is to understand how the natural dynamics of a time-varying catchment, i.e. the rainfall pattern, transforms the random component of rainfall and how this transformation influences the river discharge. To this end, this paper develops a rainfall–runoff modelling approach that aims to capture the multiple sources and types of uncertainty in a single framework. The main assumption is that hydrological systems are nonlinear dynamical systems which can be described by stochastic differential equations (SDE). The dynamics of the system is based on the least action principle (LAP) as derived from Noether’s theorem. The inflow process is considered as a sum of deterministic and random components.
Keywords: Least action principle (LAP), stochastic differential equation (SDE), system dynamics, uncertainty.
Author: GABA Olayèmi Ursula Charlène
Title: IMPROVEMENT AND COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF A NEW HYDROLOGICAL MODELLING APPROACH TO CATCHMENTS IN AFRICA AND THE USA
Summary: The objective of this work is to understand how the natural dynamics of a time-varying catchment, i.e. the rainfall pattern, transforms the random component of rainfall and how this transformation influences the river discharge. The thesis presents new hypotheses to go further in the development of the model based on the Physics Principle of Least Action with a view of widening its application in Africa and in the USA. Its performance was compared to two well-known lumped conceptual models, the GR4J and HBV models. The analysis revealed that the three models have similar performance and timing errors. But in contrary to other models used in this study, MODHYMA is subject to a less loss of performance from calibration to validation. In order to explore the possible transferability of our model for ungauged basins studies, we then intended to investigate how model parameters could be estimated from the physical catchments characteristics.
Author: KABORE/BONTOGHO Tog-Noma Patricia Emma
Title: MODELING A SAHELIAN WATER RESOURCE ALLOCATION UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE AND HUMAN PRESSURE: CASE OF LOUMBILA DAM IN BURKINA FASO
Summary: The aim of this study was to model water allocation under climate change and human pressure in an ungauged basin. The key findings of this study are that in general the intensity and frequency of extreme precipitation and temperature events are increasing. The assessment of water needs under RCP_8.5 and RCP_4.5 scenarios shows an upward trend of water supply meaning that this site will experience great challenges in the future. The unmet demand for different demand site will increase in the future due to the decrease in water availability and increase in water demand.
Author: MBAYE Mamadou Lamine
Title: ASSESSMENT OF CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ON WATER RESOURCES IN THE SENEGAL RIVER BASIN AT BAKEL
Summary: In this study we assess the impact of climate change on water resources by using uncorrected and bias corrected data from the regional climate model REMO simulations over the Senegal River Basin. Both simulations were used as input of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology – Hydrological Model over the Upper Senegal Basin. Applying the bias correction simulations of present day climate, substantially improved for both temporal and spatial variations of the basin’s climate and hydrology. The bias correction does not impact significantly the climate change signals over the Senegal River Basin. Furthermore, the basin will likely to experience a decrease a water resources in the coming decades.