Meteorological and hydrological data monitored at stations in the Limpopo Basin in southern Africa. Most data are recorded every 15-minutes.

The transboundary Limpopo River Basin crosses Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. At over 400,000 km2, the Limpopo River Basin is home to 18 million people living in both rural and urban areas. Industries in the Basin include businesses in the urban areas and water-intensive uses such as agriculture and mining; industrial water use is growing rapidly (LBPTC, 2010). In addition to the human residents, the Basin contains some of the most biodiverse natural areas on the planet (Kahinda et al., 2016).

The rainfall in the Basin is heterogeneous with some sub-basins receiving less than 400 mm on average and other downstream sub-basins in Mozambique receiving over 750 mm annually (LBPTC, 2010). Even meteorological stations located in close proximity demonstrate substantial spatial variation within sub-basins. The Basin has experienced severe droughts in the last decade (LBPTC, 2010). In addition to the variation in the amount of rainfall, the timing, especially the start of the growing season, has varied significantly (Edokpayi et al., 2018). However, there remain many questions about the reliability of rainfall data and other water measurements due in part to the infrequent calibration and validation of field site measurements. The limited confidence in these data, combined with the substantial variation through time and space necessitates an integrated approach to improve data collection, validation, and overall Basin water resource management in the Basin.

The goal of this project is to build resilience through the support of Basin stakeholders, including The Limpopo Watercourse Commission (LIMCOM), to improve governance around water resources management and water security in the Basin. A systems approach, such as integrated water resources management (IWRM) is needed to address such complex, large, and interrelated components of water resources. IRWM is recommended by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Water and Development Strategy Implementation Guide (2014). This context will be combined with data collection and validation, data sharing, and continuous evaluation of the interrelations that affect water resources. For example, surface water quality will affect ecosystem biodiversity and those who depend on those ecosystems for drinking water or fish as a food protein source. Another example is groundwater; Petrie et al. (2014) found that groundwater in the Limpopo Basin holds great potential for increased water access; however, groundwater measurement data are currently insufficient to calculate sustainable total withdrawal rates. With improved data collection, validation, and sharing of these data, managers will have a basis for scientifically-based decisions and may be able to utilize groundwater resources more effectively to increase (e.g., agricultural) productivity. These same resource managers need monitoring and surveillance tools to measure water consumption by users within the basin, how demand and use changes through time, and to understand if historic and current sparse monitoring is accurate. Since rural users withdraw water in informal schemes, measurements of water use currently do not exist. This project will support water resources monitoring, and the development of methods for water quality and quantity measurement based on in situ sensors and satellite measurements. These measurements will enable characterization of water resource dynamics at the whole Basin scale and form the foundation for hydrologic modeling that can help estimate hard-to-measure parameters and also provide holistic assessments of Basin scale stocks and flows. To support data sharing, the project will use cloud-based, automated data collection and web-based data sharing. All sensors and data will be shared. Increased monitoring and