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SeeKaquA

Arid regions in Southern Africa experience severe challenges to supply clean water in times of continuously growing water demands and climate change. The SeeKaquA projects aims at exploring two deep aquifer systems in Namibia and Zambia with the semi-airborne electromagnetic methods to consider these water resources as alternatives to surface water resources for sustainable water management.

In the project SeeKaquA: Semi-airborne electromagnetic exploration of Kalhari's aquifers, Africa, we consider the environmental friendly semi-airborne electromagnetic (SAEM) method, which was developed in the DESMEX and DESMEX II projects, for the first time to explore deep groundwater resources. It can provide large-scale 3D models of the electrical conductivity in the subsurface, which will increase the hydrogeological understanding at two demonstration sites, the Cuvelai-Etosha Basin (CEB) in Namibia and the Machile-Zambesi Basin (MZB) in Zambia. Groundwater sampling from existing boreholes will further constrain the interpretation of the geophysical measurements. Integrating all collected data with existing geological, hydrochemical and borehole information in hydrogeological modeling will provide recommendations for drilling locations and an estimate of the potential value of groundwater in the pilot regions that can contribute to a sustainable water management plan. 

Team

Project scientist
Dr. Wiebke Mörbe

Project coordination
Dr. Raphael Rochlitz

 

 

 

Partners

BGR Hannover

terratec Geophysical Services GmbH

University of Namibia (UNAM)

University of Zambia (UNZA)

SADC - Groundwater Management Institute (SADC-GMI)

Funding

The project SeeKaquA (Semi-airborne electromagnetic exploration of Kalahari’s aquifers, Africa) is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in the frame of the program Water Security in Africa (WASA) under grant No. 02WAS1718A.

Duration: 05/2024 - 04/2028

Links

Previous projects:

Software: