Groundwater Information Portal Enhancement

Background

Access to hydrogeological data has been one of the major challenges in management of groundwater resources in the SADC region. The Groundwater Information Portal was developed with the sole aim of managing this challenge. The first upgrade of the SADC Groundwater Information Portal (SADC-GIP) was implemented by the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre in 2019.

This came after Member States indicated that access to hydrogeological maps was one of their priorities and critical for information accessibility. The main objective of reviving the SADC Groundwater Information Portal was to harmonize groundwater data across the SADC region, and it went live in 2019.

In 2021 when SADC-GMI commenced the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management in SADC Member States Phase 2 Project, funded by the Cooperation in International Waters in Africa (CIWA) and Global Environment Facility (GEF) through the World Bank Group, a need to further enhance the SADC groundwater Information Portal was identified.

Click here to access the project brochure.

SADC-GIP Website

What is SADC-GIP

The SADC Groundwater Information Portal (SADC-GIP) is a state-of-the-art on-line data and information system, which contains all the results from the SADC Hydrogeological Mapping Project. The system is designed to provide easy access to this information for all those who are involved in groundwater management, groundwater development and research in groundwater or related fields.

The core of the SADC-GIP is a map-based public viewer which is available to anyone with access to internet using a standard web-browser. The user-interface is intuitive, allowing users to browse through all available thematic maps and associated data and documents without the need for training. Users can create new insights by making overlays of maps and the data behind the maps (feature information) is available at the push of a button; on request. The maps and data can also be made available in digital format (GIS shapefiles and excel) for further off-line analysis.

The Objective of the SADC-GIP Project

SADC-GIP enhancement project is aimed at augmenting the SADC Groundwater information Portal that was first revived in 2019/2020 with more features, for example incorporating time series data, ability to generate graphs, maps and where data is missing, apply big data analytics and machine learning to generate useful information for stakeholders. The project is a follow up to the (SADC-GW-Data-CoM project) and is in line with SADC-GMI’s mandate of developing and maintaining an ICT platform for knowledge sharing.

SADC-GMI intends to improve the SADC-GIP by linking it to National Groundwater Databases, groundwater databases held by River Basin Organisations (RBOs) and databases held by other Stakeholders, with the objective of making the SADC-GIP a one stop platform for groundwater data in the SADC region.

Project Execution

The project is executed in three phases, each phase has milestones to accomplish.

Phase 1 is the inception phase which includes the development of the inception report and the development of the Terms of References to onboard Young Professionals, conduct a consultation workshop for framework/tools for data collection and conceptualisation of approaches to integrate a time series functionality into the SADC-GIP with Member States.

Phase 2 focuses on the identification of strategic aquifers and piloting big data analytics and machine learning in those identified strategic aquifers. The consultant will engage with River Basin Organizations and other key stakeholders to identify strategic national and Transboundary Aquifers and submit a report detailing the methodology used to identify aquifers, including the stakeholder engagement processes.

It is important that the project is sustainable beyond the implementation. Phase 3 focuses on the sustainability of data collection and reporting beyond the project implementation.

Project Implementation Partners

The first revival of the SADC-GIP was developed and maintained by the SADC Groundwater Management Institute (SADC-GMI), with assistance from the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC).

The enhancement phase is conducted by Pegasys Consulting on behalf of the SADC-GMI.