Framing the state-of-the-art on the use of software for sustainable groundwater resource management in the African continent

Groundwater is a resource of increasing prominence in Africa whose potential has still to be developed in full capacity. While it is clear that data gathering is of outmost importance to achieve a certain level of knowledge for many African aquifer systems, Information and Communication Technology may support and boost efficient data management. This way, more technically sound and even community-based decisions may be made. In this context, we attempted to frame the state-of-the-art on the use of digital tools for supporting sustainable groundwater management in the African continent. By means of a comprehensive literature review and performing investigations via a structured questionnaire on ongoing practices at institutional/private sector level, the results allow a clear view on the present level of knowledge and on the diffusion of such tools.

At present the use of digital tools/groundwater numerical models is deemed to be an occasional activity, mostly applied for large engineering projects or basic modelling studies, rarely used for planning and management of the resource. All in all, their use in the period 2000-2020 can be considered low, with a clear difference between North Africa and Sub-Saharan African countries. Digital tools are recognised as needed tools by African institutions at national/regional level. However, skills and capacities are largely missing: the need for capacity building is (extremely) high. Commercial software solutions still dominate the market, while open source ones appear in increasing trend of usage in the last years.

Finally, main barriers in the use of digital tools are: i) scarcity of data, ii) inadequate resources (lack of computing resources), and iii) missing capacities (lack of computing skills). In addition to these, the lack of adequate and well-functioning Internet connection is considered one of the main bottleneck in favouring the spread of new technologies. Capacity building and knowledge transfer has then to be on top of the agenda for a digital groundwater governance in Africa. In particular, training should be directed to favour the use (and re-reuse) of open-source applications and the often huge amount of information and contents available. A generation of experts with a sounding interdisciplinary background should be able, in five to ten years, to properly manage ICT applications.