Thesis title: Dynamics of the Okavango rift system (Botswana): couplings between geodynamics, climate, and impact on the ecosystem.

Description of the research project: My research focuses on the ground deformation of the Okavango Rift Zone (northern Botswana) and its impact on the Okavango Delta system. The objective is to better understand the different processes at play in this region, such as tectonic activity due to the propagation of the East African Rift System, sedimentary processes and the flexural response of the crust to hydrological processes. To do so, I use a multidisciplinary approach combining geomorphological field studies, remote sensing (mainly based on topographic, InSAR and SAR data) and GPS data.

Framework: This research project results from the collaboration of four laboratories: Geosciences Rennes, LETG Rennes, the Okavango Research Institute (Botswana University) and ITES Strasbourg.

Tectonic, climate and biology of the Okavango Delta (Botswana).

The Okavango Delta is the world second largest internal delta after the Niger central delta. Situated within north Botswana, the natural resources of the Okavango Delta sustain a flourishing tourist industry and a major part of the local population. The Delta is one of the main intracontinental wetland zone in the world. In that respect it is strongly dependent on annual flood cycles in a huge drainage area encompassing three countries (Angola, Namibia and Botswana), itself impacted by climate change.

The Okavango project aims at building a new model of the long-term morpho-sedimentary evolution of the Delta. It should allow a better understanding of the hydrogeological systems both in terms of geometry, chemical pattern and sensibility to climate change.

This project is supported by a CNRS International Emerging Action, a PhD grand from University Rennes 1 and somme support from the INSU Tellus program. It continues from an initial mapping of the tectonic structure of the Okavango Rift and a GPS-based analysis of the active deformation financed by Tellus-Rift and coordinated by O. Dauteuil (Géosciences Rennes).

Christine Adongo is currently an early stage researcher doing PhD at l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS – Paris), and a member of Institut Interdisciplinaire d’Anthropologie du Contemporaire (IIAC). She attained both her bachelors and Masters degrees in Environmental science at Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya. Broadly, her research interests encompass environment, natural resources, local landscapes, pastoral socio-ecological transition and livelihoods. More specifically, she has worked on natural resources conservation and livelihoods, focusing on the Kenya coastal sacred Kaya forests, and pastoral futures in northern Kenya in so far as climate change adaptation and WASH management at the local level in concerned. Her most work focuses on ‘green’ projects’ implementation (geothermal energy project in Kenya) and their socio-ecological and livelihood implications on the resilience of local pastoral landscape. Christine will use the mobility funds from GDR as a post-doctoral undertaking, to advance her fieldwork and facilitate the dissemination of her work on the contested futures of geothermal in the greater Olkaria geothermal area in Kenya’s rift valley.