Long-term groundwater-level anomalies across Sub-Saharan Africa (NERC grant NE/M008932/1)

Multi-decadal time series of groundwater levels were compiled by the authors from records of observation wells initiated and maintained by government departments and research institutions in nine countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The pan-African collation of these hydrographs was initiated at the 41st Congress of the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH) in Marrakech (Morocco) on 14th September 2014. All records were subjected to a rigorous review by the authors during which the integrity, continuity, duration and interpretability of records were evaluated. This process included dedicated workshops in Benin, Tanzania, and Uganda, and records failing these tests were discarded from the analysis. Procedures included taking of the first time derivative to identify anomalous spikes in records commonly associated with errors of data-entry. Where multiple records in same geographic and climate zone were available (e.g. Benin, South Africa) we prioritized records remote from potential areas of intensive abstraction. Statistical clustering of records was also used in the Limpopo Basin of South Africa to identify the representativity of employed records at Modderfontein and Sterkloop.

Date (Creation): 2019-05-21

Citation identifier: http://data.bgs.ac.uk/id/dataHolding/13607465

Point of contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
University College London	Professor Richard Taylor	not available	Point of contact
University College London	Professor Richard Taylor	not available	Principal investigator

Maintenance and update frequency: notApplicable

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

Geology

BGS Thesaurus of Geosciences

NGDC Deposited Data
Ground water level

dataCentre

NGDC Deposited Data

Keywords

NERC_DDC

Access constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: no limitations

Other constraints: The dataset is made freely available for access, e.g. via the Internet. Either no third party data / information is contained in the dataset or BGS has secured written permission from the owner(s) of any third party data / information contained in the dataset to make the dataset freely accessible.

Use constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: The copyright of materials derived from the British Geological Survey's work is vested in the Natural Environment Research Council [NERC]. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a retrieval system of any nature, without the prior permission of the copyright holder, via the BGS Intellectual Property Rights Manager. Use by customers of information provided by the BGS, is at the customer's own risk. In view of the disparate sources of information at BGS's disposal, including such material donated to BGS, that BGS accepts in good faith as being accurate, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) gives no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the quality or accuracy of the information supplied, or to the information's suitability for any use. NERC/BGS accepts no liability whatever in respect of loss, damage, injury or other occurence however caused.

Other constraints: Available under the Open Government Licence subject to the following acknowledgement accompanying the reproduced NERC materials "Contains NERC materials ©NERC [year]"

Language: English

Topic category

Geoscientific information

Geographic identifier: BEN
ISO 3166_1 alpha-3 2009 revision

Geographic identifier: BENIN [id=630000]
British Geological Survey Gazetteer: Geographical hierarchy from Geosaurus 1979 creation

Geographic identifier: BF
ISO 3166_1 alpha-2 2009 revision

Geographic identifier: BFA
ISO 3166_1 alpha-3 2009 revision

Geographic identifier: BJ
ISO 3166_1 alpha-2 2009 revision

Geographic identifier: BURKINA FASO [id=626000]
British Geological Survey Gazetteer: Geographical hierarchy from Geosaurus 1979 creation

Geographic identifier: GH
ISO 3166_1 alpha-2 2009 revision

Geographic identifier: GHA
ISO 3166_1 alpha-3 2009 revision

Geographic identifier: GHANA [id=632000]
British Geological Survey Gazetteer: Geographical hierarchy from Geosaurus 1979 creation

Geographic identifier: NA
ISO 3166_1 alpha-2 2009 revision

Geographic identifier: NAM
ISO 3166_1 alpha-3 2009 revision

Geographic identifier: NAMIBIA [id=665000]
British Geological Survey Gazetteer: Geographical hierarchy from Geosaurus 1979 creation

Geographic identifier: NE
ISO 3166_1 alpha-2 2009 revision

Geographic identifier: NER
ISO 3166_1 alpha-3 2009 revision

Geographic identifier: NIGER [id=627000]
British Geological Survey Gazetteer: Geographical hierarchy from Geosaurus 1979 creation

Geographic identifier: SOUTH AFRICA [id=670000]
British Geological Survey Gazetteer: Geographical hierarchy from Geosaurus 1979 creation

Geographic identifier: TANZANIA [id=685000]
British Geological Survey Gazetteer: Geographical hierarchy from Geosaurus 1979 creation

Geographic identifier: UG
ISO 3166_1 alpha-2 2009 revision

Geographic identifier: UGA
ISO 3166_1 alpha-3 2009 revision

Geographic identifier: UGANDA [id=689000]
British Geological Survey Gazetteer: Geographical hierarchy from Geosaurus 1979 creation

Geographic identifier: ZA
ISO 3166_1 alpha-2 2009 revision

Geographic identifier: ZAF
ISO 3166_1 alpha-3 2009 revision

Geographic identifier: ZIMBABWE [id=677000]
British Geological Survey Gazetteer: Geographical hierarchy from Geosaurus 1979 creation

Geographic identifier: ZW
ISO 3166_1 alpha-2 2009 revision

Geographic identifier: ZWE
ISO 3166_1 alpha-3 2009 revision

Begin date: 1955-01-01

End date: 2017-12-31

Reference System Information

No information provided.

Distribution format

Name	Version
Text File

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://www.bgs.ac.uk/services/ngdc/accessions/index.html#item127973

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://www.bgs.ac.uk/services/ngdc/citedData/catalogue/a6d78c2e-3420-4346-9182-4fd437672412.html

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1441-7

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Other: dataset

Conformance result

Title: INSPIRE Implementing rules laying down technical arrangements for the interoperability and harmonisation of Geology

Date (Publication): 2011

Explanation: See the referenced specification

Pass: No

Conformance result

Title: Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

Date (Publication): 2010-12-08

Explanation: See http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:323:0011:0102:EN:PDF

Pass: No

Statement: Infilling of occasional gaps of less than a week in daily groundwater-level records was achieved by linear interpolation. Because permission to enable access to absolute values of groundwater levels and precipitation at all locations in this dataset has not been granted, both datasets are provided as anomalies with respect to the long-term value for the period of observation.