BGS and African Groundwater: 1) Making 'Grey Data' Available; 2) GW Resilience to CC Study

The British Geological Survey is beginning a project to make African hydrogeological 'grey data' - unpublished reports, notes, etc. - available to all via the WWW.

From  a news article (thanks to colleague Stuart Smith):

The Grey Data Project will catalogue and describe at least 2000 important grey items on groundwater in the southern African region held at BGS, in the process compiling a digital 'metadatabase' or catalogue describing what has been produced over the years. The project will also digitise at least 500 of these items and make them available, together with the metadatabase, via a web portal to interested researchers, service providers and policy-makers.

Those of us who have worked in developing regions know the value of these 'grey data' and how difficult it is to track them down, assuming you know they even exist.

Through a cursory search I could not find a link to this project on the BGS WWW site,but the story does provide the names and email addresses of two hydrogeologists, Jude Cobbing and Jeff Davies, who can provide more information.

While cruising the BGS site, I encountered a project to study Groundwater resilience to climate change in Africa.

A brief description:

This one year DFID -funded Research Programme aims to improve understanding of the resilience of African groundwater to climate change and links to livelihoods. The project will develop policy recommendations for assessing how groundwater can support adaptation and build resilience to climate change.

Kudos to the BGS!

"We grow too soon old and too late smart." -- Unknown (German proverb?)

Comments

[Michael]

Hi, Alan.

Thanks for commenting. I suspect most of the grey data are from South(ern) Africa and some surrounding areas. Jude Cobbing, one of the contacts, is based in S.A. You might want to contact him or Jeff Davies.

[Alan McKay]

This is indeed good news. Any idea why they're limiting this to "southern Africa",and what, exactly, that means? Ghanaian water and sanitation agencies are filled with data from the days when the Brits were there, and getting it can be like pulling teeth sometimes.