Water and Land in the Sahel

Mapping the Flow
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-032-55122-7
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 418 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 930 g

Reihe: Routledge Studies in African Geography

Drawing on over thirty years of research, this book investigates the intermingling of land and water in the Sahel, analysing landscapes defined by the ebb and flow of rainfall, flooding and population movements, as well as environmental, political and social crises.

Exploring both the seasonal flooding of rivers around the Nile, Chari-Logone, Niger and Senegal, as well as agricultural irrigation projects such as dams, canals and pumping stations, the book examines the different narratives related to water and land in the Sahel. It combines fieldwork research with remote sensing, big data and GIS mapping to outline the ever-changing interplay between land and water in the region. Beyond this, the book also reinterprets the colonial and post-colonial legacies of large-scale irrigation projects and the geopolitical interests which defined them.

Supported by an Open Access website with a WebGIS and further maps and analysis, this book is an essential read for policy makers and development practitioners in the region, as well as for researchers and scholars across the fields of geography, history, political science, sustainable development and African studies.

Zielgruppe

Academic and Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Pase, Andrea

Kronenburg Garcia, Angela

Kronenburg García, Angela

Braga, Carla

Pepa, Mariasole

Gianoli, Federico

Bertoncin, Marina

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Studien zu einzelnen Ländern und Gebieten
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften, Biologie: Sachbuch, Naturführer
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Afrikanische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Historische & Regionale Volkskunde

Inhaltsverzeichnis

INTRODUCTION: Perspectives on water and land in the Sahel: facing polycrisis  1: Setting the scene. Unfulfilled futures. One hundred years of large-scale irrigation projects in the Sahel  PART I: Contextual issues  2: Environmental crisis narratives in the Sahel and the solutions they call for: The case of Lake Chad  3: Layered crises: climate change, water insecurity and irrigation in the Sahel  4: The “glocal” nature of jihadist insurgencies? Conflict, space, land, and resources in the Sahel  PART II: Cartographic sketches of the Sahel  5: Defining the Sahel. B-ordering an area study  6: Land degradation and the Convergence of Evidence in the Sahel  7: Troubled waters  8: Shapes of the water: the rectangle and the circle. A tentative survey on irrigation in the Sahel  9: Interlude. The Sahel in historical atlases (1493–1789)  Interlude: Sahel in historical cartography  PART III: Complicated muddles of water and land  10: Sudan: a 'picture' of irrigation spaces before April 15th 2023  11: Traces of irrigation: Some recent developments in the Chadian region  12: The production of land insecurity and conflict in the Sourou valley (Burkina Faso)  PART IV: Connections, rights and conflicts  13: Land and water rights in the Niger Inner Delta: between negotiation and conflict  14: Ségou(s), the Niger and the other side of the river: how water tells the city in the Sahel  15: Changing patterns of resource conflicts in the Logone floodplains (Cameroon/Chad). Between actors’ practices and development narratives  PART V: Towards a fluid research agenda  16: COVID-19, polycrisis and metamorphosis: A reflection on doing collaborative research in, on and with the Sahel  17: Ways of being-knowing and doing with water and land in Africa

Über Autor(innen)

Andrea Pase is a full professor of geography at the University of Padua. In the Sahel, his research interests concern territorial processes linked to water seen both as common resource and as the basis for the modernization of agriculture.

Angela Kronenburg García holds postdoctoral fellowships at UCLouvain (F.R.S.-FNRS) and the University of Padua. She is also affiliated with the University Eduardo Mondlane. As an anthropologist, she conducts research on the intersection of religious and land-tenure change, and on pastoralism, milk and social change in Kenya as well as on energy transition, anticipation and graphite.

Mariasole Pepa is a postdoc researcher at the University of Padua and an affiliate researcher at CEDEJ-Khartoum. She is interested in the transformation in the Sahel through the lenses of water and land as well as exploring alternative methodologies to research approaches, ethics, and practices.

Federico Gianoli is a geographer specialized in GIS and Geoinformatics, focusing on open-source data in spatial analysis. As a consultant for the Joint Research Centre (JRC-EC), he conducts research on land degradation and productivity dynamics. He’s also pursuing a PhD on these topics at the University of Seville, Spain.

Marina Bertoncin is an honorary professor of geography at the University of Padua. In Sahelo-Sudanese Africa her research interests concern the geography of the hydraulic territorialisation with a focus on the role of the irrigation projects for the local development (Lake Chad basin, Nile, Niger and Senegal River regions).

Carla Braga is associate professor of Anthropology at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of University Eduardo Mondlane in Mozambique. Her research interests cover decolonial readings of knowledge production about Africa, onto-epistemic dimensions of the current planetary crisis, nature governance and health.