Research Interests

1. the impact of climate change and rapid development on freshwater resources with a particular focus on basin stores of freshwater; and
2. the role of groundwater in improving food security and access to safe water.

• speaking with Al Jazeera on 20th April 2012

1. climate change and freshwater stores (groundwater) and fluxes

Current research is focused on the impact of climate variability and change on freshwater resources and water scarcity at the basin scale. Improving the analysis of climate-related impacts on natural freshwater stores including principally groundwater but also soil moisture and ice, is a key component of on-going research. Although the use of models (analytical, statistical, numerical) plays a critical role in this research, a central aspect of this research is the use of observations, preferably in situ but also spaceborne (e.g. GRACE), as observations enable the development and testing of our conceptual understanding of the relationship between climate variability and change and terrestrial freshwater stores. This research contributes directly to international scientific programmes including UNESCO-GRAPHIC (Expert Advisory Panel) and IAH Commission on Groundwater and Climate Change (Co-Chair). Through both of these fora, I currently advocate for the establishment of an international programme for the collation and sharing of groundwater data similar to that which exists for precipitation (WMO) and river discharge (GRDC). Current research in this area includes: Groundwater resilience to climate change in Africa and QUEST-GSI: Global-scale impacts of climate change. Recently completed research includes: Hydrological and climatological impacts of deglaciation in the Rwenzori Mountains of East Africa and projected changes in water resources in Uganda (e.g. Climate and Water in Uganda, Impact of climate change on the terrestrial hydrology of a humid, equatorial catchment in Uganda).

2. groundwater - food security & access to safe water

My research is also focused on the role of groundwater in enabling communities in low-income communities to adapt to the pressures of rapid development and climate variability. To date, research has focused primarily on the hydrogeology of weathered crystalline rock (saprolite-saprock) aquifer systems that underlie much of the tropics including 40% of sub-Saharan Africa and the entire Great Lakes Region of Africa (GLRA). More recently, research has been extended to include shallow alluvial aquifers in the Bengal Basin - the largest of the Asian Mega-Deltas. Research is both pragmatic - seeking to resolve the capacity of both aquifer systems to sustain groundwater abstraction for irrigation and urban water supplies (e.g. Enhancing Water for Food: poverty reduction through improved management of ecosystem services for sustainable food production in sub-Saharan Africa) - and fundamental (evolutionary hydrogeology) - seeking to understand how the long-term geomorphological evolution of aquifers in both environments determines their characteristics and interactions between groundwater and surface water:

• Groundwater resilience to climate change in Africa;
• Shallow groundwater dynamics in the Bengal Basin and their implications for arsenic mobilisation and sustainable irrigation; and
• Groundwater/surface water interactions on deeply weathered surfaces of low relief in the Upper Nile Basin of Uganda).