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Availability of the current and future water resources in Equatorial Central Africa: case of the Nyong forest catchment in Cameroon

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Abstract

To anticipate disasters (drought, floods, etc.) caused by environmental forcing and reduce their impacts on its fragile economy, sub-Saharan Africa needs a good knowledge of the availability of current water resources and reliable hydroclimatic forecasts. This study has an objective to quantify the availability of water resources in the Nyong basin and predict its future evolution (2024–2050). For this, the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model was used. The performance of this model is satisfactory in calibration (2001–2005) and validation (2006–2010), with R2, NSE, and KGE greater than 0.64. Biases of − 11.8% and − 13.9% in calibration and validation also attest to this good performance. In the investigated basin, infiltration (GW_RCH), evapotranspiration (ETP), surface runoff (SURQ), and water yield (WYLD) are greater in the East, probably due to more abundant rainfall in this part. The flows and sediment load (SED) are greater in the middle zone and in the Southwest of the basin, certainly because of the flat topography of this part, which corresponds to the valley floor. Two climate models (CCCma and REMO) predict a decline in water resources in this basin, and two others (HIRHAM5 and RCA4) are the opposite. However, based on a statistical study carried out over the historical period (2001–2005), the CCCma model seems the most reliable. It forecasts a drop in precipitation and runoff, which do not exceed − 19% and − 18%, respectively, whatever the emission scenario (RCP4.5 or RCP8.5). Climate variability (CV) is the only forcing whose impact is visible in the dynamics of current and future flows, due to the modest current (increase of + 102 km2 in builds and roads) and future (increase of + 114 km2 in builds and roads) changes observed in the evolution of land use and land cover (LULC). The results of this study could contribute to improving water resource management in the basin studied and the region.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Joint Laboratory DYCOFAC, IRGM-UY1-IRD, P.O. Box 1857, Yaounde, Cameroon

    Valentin Brice Ebodé & Jean Yannick Ngono Onana

  2. Department of Geography, University of Yaounde 1, P.O. Box 755, Yaounde, Cameroon

    Valentin Brice Ebodé, Jean Guy Dzana & Joseph Armathé Amougou

  3. National Observatory On Climate Change, P.O. Box 1793, Yaounde, Cameroon

    Joseph Armathé Amougou, Romain Armand Soleil Batha, Thomas Magloire Souga Boyomo & Gaston Evarice Ndjela Mbeih

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  1. Valentin Brice Ebodé
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Contributions

Valentin Brice Ebodé: Software, Validation, Methodology, Investigation, Resources, Data Curation, Writing—Original Draft, Visualization; Jean Yannick Ngono Onana: Conceptualization, Project administration, Supervision, Methodology, Software, Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing—Review & Editing; Jean Guy Dzana.: Conceptualization, Resources, Writing—Review & Editing; Joseph Armathé Amougou: Writing—Review & Editing; Romain Armand Soleil Batha.: Writing—Review & Editing; Thomas Boyomo: Writing—Review & Editing; Gaston Evarice Ndjela Mbeih.: Writing—Review & Editing.

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Ebodé, V.B., Onana, J.Y.N., Dzana, J.G. et al. Availability of the current and future water resources in Equatorial Central Africa: case of the Nyong forest catchment in Cameroon. Environ Monit Assess 196, 298 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-024-12471-y

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