Enhancing Groundwater Monitoring for Climate-Resilient Agriculture and Pastoral Livelihoods in Somalia
ESA GDA Water Resources collaborated with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to provide EO-based groundwater monitoring and drought assessments in Somalia.
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Description
Surface water in Somalia is extremely limited. The country’s only two perennial rivers, the Juba and the Shabelle, both originate in the Ethiopian highlands and are transboundary in nature.
Communities in Somalia’s northern and central areas rely nearly entirely on groundwater because seasonal rivers emerge only briefly after heavy rains. In contrast, rainfall is higher in the southern and south-central regions. This hydrological difference underpins Somalia’s vulnerability to droughts and flash floods, both of which are becoming more severe and frequent as a result of climate change.
The GDA Water Resources activity supported IFAD in monitoring groundwater and drought conditions to strengthen resilience in Somalia. They developed a spatial and temporal assessment of groundwater status and availability across monthly, seasonal, annual, and multiannual scales, complemented by precipitation data from 2003–2024. This combined analysis provided a comprehensive and reliable view of groundwater variability and droughts conditions in Somalia, capturing key groundwater dynamics such as the delayed response of aquifers to drought, the spatial heterogeneity of groundwater, and the influence of seasonality on groundwater availability.
You can read more about this Case Study on the GDA Impact Sphere: The power of using EO-based groundwater resources to support pastoral ecosystems in Somalia