Latest update on the project in Botswana
The experience of the brilliant students from the Master's in Environmental Engineering at Delft University of Technology, whom we had the pleasure of supporting, has officially concluded. After two months of dedication and research at the Limpopo-Lipadi Nature Reserve, their project for sustainable water resource management has made a significant impact.
"We are sad to say that our incredible adventure at the Limpopo Lipadi Reserve has come to an end!
Over the past few weeks, we were fortunate enough to meet some of the Reserve's stakeholders, which was a truly interesting experience as some of them share the same passion for science and wildlife. Part of our team worked with them to conduct pumping tests on three different wells within the Reserve. These tests were primarily carried out to understand water availability and aquifer properties and to assess whether this resource was under pressure from human and animal consumption. Thanks to these tests, we were able to gather interesting data, which was later used to simulate different scenarios. This helped us identify some critical points in terms of water availability. We focused on analyzing the collected data, simulating possible scenarios related to vegetation management, and predicting climate change impacts to draw meaningful conclusions. These conclusions will help provide future recommendations to the Reserve, based on their current environmental practices and our findings. It is important to note that our research is only the beginning of further studies. We believe it is crucial to have a broader view of the analyzed situation, also considering the vast expanse of the Reserve."
"Even in the last few weeks, the fun never stopped, and we enjoyed our final sunsets, stargazing, delicious dinners, as well as safaris during which we spotted many different species of birds, hyenas, leopards, elephants, zebras, baby rhinos, and giraffes.
We are a little melancholic to have returned to the Netherlands after these extraordinary two months, but also deeply grateful for the opportunity to live and learn from the Limpopo Lipadi Reserve and its people, and we are happy to have contributed with our research. We look forward to sharing our results and final report with the Reserve, hoping they will be useful :) This has undoubtedly been a once-in-a-lifetime experience that will remain in our hearts forever!
We would like to thank CEN srl and the other sponsors who funded this project, making the execution of our experiments possible. We highly recommend that other students seize the opportunity to visit Botswana and continue our project."
