A New Statistical Approach to Assess Climate Variability in the White Bandama Watershed,Northern Cote d’Ivoire

The population of northern C&#244te d’Ivoire, especially in the white Bandama watershed, lives for majority in rural areas and depends on farming, which is mainly linked to climate variability. This study evaluates the trends within watershed’s hydro-climatic variables and their level of significance over the period 1950-2000. The methodological approach consists in applying successively standardized indexes to detect trends and breaks in hydro-climatic long-term data. The Mann-Kendall statistical test lets us know the trends significance and the Kendall-Theil Robust Line test reveals their magnitude. The Student’s t test underlines break years. Results show that although rainfall has decreased, this decline is not statistically significant. However, temperature and potential evapotranspiration have strongly rised and discharge was submitted to high decline. These changes in hydrometeorological variables appeared from 1970 to 1980. This study is different from others conducted on climate variability in the northern C&#244te d’Ivoire by the methodological statistical framework implemented and the understanding of significance level of climate trends. Until now, authors used the standardized index to detect trends in hydro-climatic parameters. For this work, we added the Mann-Kendall statistical test to assess the significance level of these trends at α = 5% and 10%. Then, the Kendall-Theil statistical test was used to highlight the trends magnitude and the student’s t test to know the break years.

Mapping of Pollution Risk of Surface Waters by Runoff from Watershed: Case of Aghien Lagoon (South of Côte d’Ivoire)

The operating capacity of the Abidjan’s groundwater became insufficient. The deficit in drinking water resources in the District of Abidjan remains the major concern of the decision maker. The Aghien lagoon stands as one of the most interesting alternatives. However, studies show the levels of pollutions of this resource without lighting out on the causes and sources of these pollutions. The present study extends over the entire catchment of the Aghien lagoon which reveals the presence of urban areas and agricultural activity areas. This raises real concerns for the Ivorian authorities. This study suggests making cartography of the risk levels of pollution on the Aghien lagoon by the surface runoff on the watershed to enlighten the decision-makers on the possible measures to be taken for the protection of this resource. It emerges from it that the risk of contamination of the lagoon is very likely. Agricultural and domestic best practices inside the pouring pond are compulsory to fight against the pollutions of this resource.

Spatial and Temporal Evolution of Low Water Flows in the Sassandra River Catchment Area in Cote d’Ivoire

In a context of climate change and declining water resources, knowledge of low flow is essential. Present study deals with the spatial and temporal evolution of the streams low flow in Sassandra river. In the study, 12 stations of the Sassandra sub-basins (Sassandra, N’zo, Lobo, and Davo) were selected according to the availability and quality of long-term data. Annual, monthly and daily low flow data from twelve hydrological stations of the Sassandra watershed were used and cover the period from 1970 to 2015. The methodology used is concerned with extracting the low flow data and analyzing and evaluating the trends (Mann-Kendall) and change-point (cumulate sum) of low flow data. Statistical tests are applied to the mean and variance of the low-flow series. The results of the statistical tests show more trends and change points on the mean than on the variance. Significant trends show an increase in low flow waters. The significant change point detected by the cumulative sums test generally occurs between 1990-2007. In addition, tributaries are more affected by significant trends and change point detection than Sassandra river.