Interns are needed to process remote sensing data and build a rainfall/runoff model.
Kenya and Ethiopia were suffering through a drought emergency (and adjoining Somalia and South Sudan declared a famine) earlier this year and the situation remains precarious. These humanitarian disasters are caused, in part, by climate-change-driven increase in drought frequency and severity and by a lack of access to water.
The USGS is collaborating with U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to 1) identify areas where groundwater resources are suitable for drilling of water-supply wells in a defined study area and 2) train Kenyan and Ethiopian hydrogeologists on the skills and techniques needed to continue the work beyond the initial study area.
One study area is Marsabit County, Kenya (about the size of Minnesota), the other is in the Somali region of Ethiopia. We need to characterize the hydrogeology, estimate the water budget, and build a simplistic groundwater-flow model. Integral to the water budget and model are estimates of recharge. One method for estimating recharge involves using remotely sensed estimates of precipitation and evapotranspiration. However, this method will not account for surface runoff channeled into streams that recharge alluvial aquifers. Therefore, we are considering building a rainfall-runoff model using GeoSFM.
Although interns are welcome to work here in NJ, the work can be done remotely. Some of the tasks will involve using ArcGIS to process rasters of precipitation and ET. Additional work will involve downloading the USGS GeoSFM model and publicly available input datasets. The GeoSFM modeling is not within the scope of the current budget but would provide useful information, hence I am seeking volunteer assistance from someone interested in doing this work as a comps project or similar. This will take more than a couple of hours of work. If a student or group of students are able to get a functioning model (note: not a calibrated model, that can come later), the results will be published and the student(s) will be co-authors. In addition to learning a little about the geology and water resources of Kenya and/or Ethiopia, students will get a line item for their resume that’s not too shabby.
Please contact Glen Carleton at carleton@usgs.gov if interested.
