Article // Visualization of Water Services in Africa: Data Applications for Nexus Governance

By Theresa Mannschatz, Manfred F. Buchroithner, Stephan Hülsmann. — Africa receives the third largest amount of global annual precipitation, which builds up the African water resources. Still, at the continental level, Africa’s renewable water resources only represent around 9 % of the world’s total freshwater resources, making it the second driest continent. Moreover, in Africa the water resources are spatially unequally distributed. In combination with varying population density, this results in wide differences in water availability and poses challenges for water supply. (Semi)-arid regions have to deal with droughts, poor water quality, soil salinity, low agricultural production and limited water supply. Successfully coping with water-related problems and handling future water demands depends on effective water resources management. The management needs data about the actual and future state of the environment (including water resources) and socio-economics. The data assessment and management requires an integrated approach where spatial data is a key for further systems analysis and water management. The results of data assessment, complex systems analysis and predictions need to be visualized, making it understandable and useful for decision-makers and the public. Therefore, this chapter describes the whole workflow from the research question of interest to state-of-the-art visualization for decision-making. We give recommendations of data collection approaches for data-poor environments and provide some examples.