Articles

Soil erosion control in tree plantations on steep slopes: Runoff water andsediment trapping efficiency of riparian grass buffer in mountainoushumid tropics

Riparian grass buffers reduce the velocity of water flowing over the soil surface during storms, capturing surface runoff (SR) and trapping soil particles eroded from cultivated slopes. Rarely quantified under steep slope conditions (>45 %), this phenomenon probably occurs in many mountain agroecosystems in the humid tropics. In Southeast Asia, teak plantations are often established on […]

Village settlements in mountainous tropical areas, hotspots of fecal contamination as evidenced by Escherichia coli and stanol concentrations in storm water pulses

Little is known about the contribution of villages to the fecal contamination of surface water in tropical rural areas. This study, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, documents E. coli and stanol concentration levels in surface runoff, and tracks the origin of the fecal contamination during flood events.

Effects of climate and anthropogenic changes on current and future variability in flows in the So’o River Basin (south of Cameroon)

Due to climate and environmental changes, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has experienced several drought and flood events in recent decades with serious consequences on the economy of the sub-region. In this context, the region needs to enhance its capacity in water resources management, based on both good knowledge of contemporary variations in river flows and reliable […]

Escherichia coli concentration, multiscale monitoring over the decade 2011–2021 in the Mekong River basin, Lao PDR

Bacterial pathogens in surface waters may threaten human health, especially in developing countries, where untreated surface water is often used for domestic needs. The objective of the long-term multiscale monitoring of Escherichia coli concentration in stream water, and that of associated variables (temperature, electrical conductance, dissolved oxygen concentration and saturation, pH, oxidation-reduction potential, turbidity, and […]

Groundwater irrigation reduces overall poverty but increases socioeconomic vulnerability in a semiarid region of southern India

The development of irrigation is generally considered an efficient way to reduce poverty in rural areas, although its impact on the inequality between farmers is more debated. In fact, assessing the impact of water management on different categories of farmers requires resituating it within the different dimensions of the local socio-technical context. This study, led […]

Distribution of Burkholderia pseudomallei within a 300‑cm deep soil profile: implications for environmental sampling

The environmental distribution of Burkholderia pseudomallei, the causative agent of melioidosis, remains poorly understood. This study performed in Lao PDR and supervised by Alain Pierret (IRD-iEES Paris) and Olivier Ribolzi (IRD-GET), in the frame of the PhD of Khemngeun Pongmala, provides novel information about a putative association of soil biogeochemical heterogeneity and the vertical distribution […]

AI4Water v1.0: an open-source python package for modeling hydrological time series using data-driven methods

Machine learning has shown great promise for simulating hydrological phenomena. However, the development of machine-learning-based hydrological models requires advanced skills from diverse fields, such as programming and hydrological modeling. Additionally, data pre-processing and post-processing when training and testing machine-learning models are a time-intensive process. In this study led by Ather Abbas, PhD student at UNIST, […]

Impact of Rainfall Variability and Land Use Change on River Discharge in South Cameroon

Climate change, climate variability, and anthropogenic forcings such as land use change are the main drivers of river discharge variability. However, an understanding of their simultaneous impacts on river discharge remained limited in some parts of the world. The objective of this article led by Valentin Brice Ebodé from the University of Youndé, Cameroon, was […]

Tailor-made biochar systems: Interdisciplinary evaluations of ecosystem services and farmer livelihoods in tropical agro-ecosystems

Organic matter management is key to sustain ecosystem services provided by soils. However, it is rarely considered in a holistic view, considering local resources, agro-environmental effects and harmonization with farmers’ needs. Organic inputs, like compost and biochar, could represent a sustainable solution to massive current challenges associated to the intensification of agriculture, in particular for […]