Eric J. Schiller

A comparison of commonly used hydrologic design methods for rainwater collectors

Rainwater collection as a possible water source in developing countries is introduced. The major parameters in calculating the size of the tank are defined. Six methods that have been used previously to relate demand, storage, reliability and the rainfall pattern are compared to the Ottawa Model over a wide range of demands.

Evidence of Climate Change in the Senegal River Basin

International development policy makers are recognizing climate change and desertification as fundamental obstacles to the social and economic development of the Third World. Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly the Sahel region, has been severely impacted by the compounding effects of drought, deforestation and desertification. The Senegal River Basin in the West Africa is a prime example of a region where development objectives are seriously undermined by the drought-induced desertification process. The basic hydrologic constraint on development is revealed in a time series decompositionof Senegal River annual flow volumes, which strongly suggests that water resources availability has been substantially curtailed since 1960. Two alternative time series mechanisms are hypothesized to account for the decreased flow volumes in recent decades. The first time series model suggests the presence of a long-term periodicity, while the second model hypothesizes an ARMA(1,1,) process. The second hypothesis provides a ...

Water Resources Planning for the Senegal River Basin

ABSTRACT The Senegal River Basin (SRB), located in the Sahel region of West Africa, is simultaneously undergoing fundamental environmental, hydrologic, and socioeconomic transitions. The trination (Senegal, Mauritania, and Mali) river basin development authority, the Organisation pour la Mise en Valeur du Fleuve Senegal (OMVS), is attempting to execute a shift to irrigated riceproduction for domestic consumption in the river basin in order to ease the severe foreign exchange shortfalls these riparian nations face. With the recent completion of the Manantali and Diama dams, year-round irrigated agriculture is now possible in the SRB. The full agricultural developmentpotential of the SRB is constrained, however, by the basins limited water resources. Significantly, a time series analysis of Senegal River hydrology has provided powerful evidence that the prolonged Sahelian drought may be permanent. The negative impact of the state-imposed rice production policy compounds the severe effects of the drought on...

A GENERALIZED METHOD FOR DESIGNING RAINWATER COLLECTORS

The collection of rainwater can provide clean water by using renewable solar energy. The parameters involved in the design of a rainwater collection system are explained and related by means of a Design Curve. A method of developing this curve is presented and it is shown that its storage estimates have a reliability between 99 and 100 per cent. Practical use of the Design Curve is briefly described.

Adaptation of food production to drought in the Senegal River Basin.

Neither the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) nor the Vienna (Ozone Layer) Convention seriously considers adaptation. Indeed, such a consideration may be unnecessary-especially with regard to food security. Agriculture has been and is one of the most adaptable of human production systems. Only an extremely adaptable system could have expanded world food production sufficiently to meet most of the needs engendered by world population growth in the last two centuries. Yet the persistence of drought and hunger in the developing world suggests otherwise. However, this failure is not principally due to climate. It is rooted in the separation of the producers from the means of production and the separation of the techniques of production from the local ecology. This is the perspective of ecological (eco)-political economy (Yapa, 1982).