Water in Africa: Climate
Change, Agriculture, and
Water Use in Central Kenya
Jonathan Choi
Eliza Harkins
Central Kenya
 Mt. Kenya as water source
 A latitude of 0 degrees, on the equator!
 Runs on tourism, agriculture, grain farming, and
ranching
Water Solutions
 According to WWF,
deep water
temperatures have risen
0.2-0.7 degrees C since
early 1900s
 Map shows the
predicted increase in
agricultural land use by
2050, from IFPRI
Mpala Research Center
 200 square km of reserve land; associated property
in the town of Nanyuki
 Students, professors, and researchers from around
the globe
 “Mpala is strongly committed to using [its] research
to benefit the surrounding communities, the nation
of Kenya, and global conservation efforts as a
whole.”
Part 1: Soil Respiration
Jonathan Choi
Results: Grazing
Results: Burning
Part 2: Irrigation Analysis
Eliza Harkins
Rural Water
Systems in
Kenya
 River  Pipes  House
 River
 Streamflow gauges
 Construction of sensor
 Government involved
 Pipes
 2 kinds of sensors:
mechanical and electronic
 Locations unknown
 Households
 Surveys of household
water use
 Streamflow at site –
bucket and stopwatch
Responsibilities in Kenya
 Creating 1 page leave behind
 GPS mapping of pipe systems
 Recording and cataloguing work done
 Putting together and installing of “gadgets”
 GPS of water tower gulley
 Creating manuals/documents for equipment use
 Assisted in obtaining streamflow data from WRMA
Responsibilities at
Princeton
 Program for predicting streamflow based on depth
of the river
 Using GIS software to create maps of the pipes
 Data examination
Challenges
Different fields working on
same project
Meter malfunction, changing
measurement technique
Community differences in
water allocation
Ill – timed experimentation
length