The Falling Lake Victoria Water Level: GRACE, TRIMM and CHAMP Satellite Analysis of the Lake Basin

Awange, Joseph; Sharifi, Mohammad Ali; Ogonda, Godfrey; Wickert, Jens; Grafarend, Erik W.; Omulo, Monica A.

doi:10.1007/s11269-007-9191-y

Cited by 157 publications

(128 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Due to the fact that the lake is supplied both by rainfall and stream inflow, a reduction in basin water storage causes a lake level decrease [16]. Lake morphometric influences a lake's water balance by affecting the evaporating surface area for a given lake volume and the portion of the lake bed that transmits ground water flow in and out of the lake [60].…”

Section: Lake Water Balance and Comparisonmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Over recent years, several studies have both applied remote sensing observations and gravimetry recovery and climate experiment (GRACE) measurements to study the hydrological cycles of lakes, rivers and associated basins in the East African Rift and elsewhere [10][11][12][13][14][15]. Changes in a basin's water budget are directly linked to local gravity variations [16]. GRACE derived terrestrial water storage (TWS) variation can be considered as a proxy of the global water cycle as it reflects changes soil water storage, snow over land, and groundwater reservoirs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Water Balance Modeling in a Semi-Arid Environment with Limited in situ Data Using Remote Sensing in Lake Manyara, East African Rift, Tanzania

2013

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Abstract:The purpose of this paper is to estimate the water balance in a semi-arid environment with limited in situ data using a remote sensing approach. We focus on the Lake Manyara catchment, located within the East African Rift of northern Tanzania. We use a distributed conceptual hydrological model driven by remote sensing data to study the spatial and temporal variability of water balance parameters within the catchment. Satellite gravimetry GRACE data is used to verify the trends of the inferred lake level changes. The results show that the lake undergoes high spatial and temporal variations, characteristic of a semi-arid climate with high evaporation and low rainfall. We observe that the Lake Manyara water balance and GRACE equivalent water depth show comparable trends; a 1652Despite the small size of Lake Manyara, GRACE data showed great potential for hydrological research on smaller un-gauged lakes and catchments in similar semi-arid environments worldwide. The water balance information can be used for further analysis of lake variations in relation to soil erosion, climate and land cover/land use change as well as different lake management and conservation scenarios.

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Section: Lake Water Balance and Comparisonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water Balance Modeling in a Semi-Arid Environment with Limited in situ Data Using Remote Sensing in Lake Manyara, East African Rift, Tanzania

2013

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“…Onshore rain gauges are not capable to fully capture the lake precipitation, as precipitation on the lake is 10 enhanced compared to the surrounding land by the presence of the lake itself (Thiery et al, 2015;Sene et al, 2018). Previous 3 Hydrol.…”

Section: Precipitation On the Lakementioning

confidence: 99%

“…More recent studies use satellite data for estimating precipitation on the lake, providing temporally and spatially homogeneous observations. In the Lake Victoria Basin, Awange et al (2007b) ;Swenson 5 and Wahr (2009); Hassan and Jin (2014) used products of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), which provides monthly precipitation rates.…”

Section: Precipitation On the Lakementioning

confidence: 99%

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Modelling the water balance of Lake Victoria (East Africa) – Part 1: Observational analysis

Vanderkelen¹,

Lipzig²,

Thiery³

2018

Preprint

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Abstract. Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa and one of the two major sources of the Nile River. The water level of Lake Victoria is determined by its water balance, consisting of precipitation on the lake, evaporation from the lake, inflow from tributary rivers and lake outflow, controlled by two hydropower dams. Due to scarcity of in-situ observations, previous estimates of individual water balance terms are characterised by substantial uncertainties, which makes that the water balance is often not closed independently. Here we present a water balance model for Lake Victoria, using state-of-the-art remote sensing Precipitation is the main cause of seasonal and inter-annual lake level fluctuations, and on average causes the lake level to rise from May to July and to fall from August to December. Finally, our results indicate that the 2004-2005 drop in lake level can be attributed about half to a drought in the Lake Victoria Basin and about half to an enhanced outflow, highlighting the sensitivity 10 of the lake level to human operations at the outflow dam.

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Potential impacts of climate and environmental change on the stored water of Lake Victoria Basin and economic implications

Awange¹,

Anyah

Agola

et al. 2013

Water Resour. Res.

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[1] The changing climatic patterns and increasing human population within the Lake Victoria Basin (LVB), together with overexploitation of water for economic activities call for assessment of water management for the entire basin. This study focused on the analysis of a combination of available in situ climate data, Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE), Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) observations, and high resolution Regional Climate simulations during recent decade(s) to assess the water storage changes within LVB that may be linked to recent climatic variability/changes and anomalies. We employed trend analysis, principal component analysis (PCA), and temporal/spatial correlations to explore the associations and covariability among LVB stored water, rainfall variability, and large-scale forcings associated with El-Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). Potential economic impacts of human and climate-induced changes in LVB stored water are also explored. Overall, observed in situ rainfall from lake-shore stations showed a modest increasing trend during the recent decades. The dominant patterns of rainfall data from the TRMM satellite estimates suggest that the spatial and temporal distribution of precipitation have not changed much during the period of 1998-2012 over the basin consistent with in situ observations. However, GRACEderived water storage changes over LVB indicate an average decline of 38.2 mm/yr for [2003][2004][2005][2006], likely due to the extension of the Owen Fall/Nalubale dam, and an increase of 4.5 mm/yr over 2007-2013, likely due to two massive rainfalls in 2006-2007 and 2010-2011. The temporal correlations between rainfall and ENSO/IOD indices during the study period, based on TRMM and model simulations, suggest significant influence of large-scale forcing on LVB rainfall, and thus stored water. The contributions of ENSO and IOD on the amplitude of TRMM-rainfall and GRACE-derived water storage changes, for the period of [2003][2004][2005][2006][2007][2008][2009][2010][2011][2012][2013], are estimated to be 2.5 cm and 1.5 cm, respectively.

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The Falling Lake Victoria Water Level: GRACE, TRIMM and CHAMP Satellite Analysis of the Lake Basin

Cited by 157 publications

References 35 publications

Water Balance Modeling in a Semi-Arid Environment with Limited in situ Data Using Remote Sensing in Lake Manyara, East African Rift, Tanzania

Water Balance Modeling in a Semi-Arid Environment with Limited in situ Data Using Remote Sensing in Lake Manyara, East African Rift, Tanzania

Modelling the water balance of Lake Victoria (East Africa) – Part 1: Observational analysis

Potential impacts of climate and environmental change on the stored water of Lake Victoria Basin and economic implications

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