Integrated Water Resource Management Centre (UNZA IWRM)

Research

1. Applied IWRM Research projects: This will involve carrying out a number of applied research projects, relevant for improved planning, regulation and allocation of Zambia’s water resources as well as for improved water services delivery. To build human capacity, each project will be encouraged to include at least one Zambian graduate student working on her/his degree.
2. Institute for Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics, ETH-Zürich; Surface Waters – Research and Management, Eawag, Switzerland; UNZA IWRM Centre, University of Zambia collaborative research on African Dams Project: ADAPT – An Integrated Water Resources Management Study in the Zambezi River Basin carried out by Masters and PhD students from Switzerland and Zambia.
   1. ADAPT Goals and Approach:
   2. Strengthen the interdisciplinary science of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) by creating new models for the real-time control and multi-objective optimization of large hydraulic structures in the Zambezi River Basin (ZRB).
   3. Enhance the data resources and conceptual frameworks to drive and integrate these hydrologic, biogeochemical, ecological, and socioeconomic models.
   4. Engage in IWRM capacity building through collaboration and exchange with partner institutions in the Zambezi River Basin.
   5. Current studies under ADAPT are focused on Kafue Flat’s large dams – Itezhi-tezhi and Kafue Gorge; and Lake Kariba on Zambezi including the prime wetland of Barotse Basin in western Zambia.
3. The Competing for water: Conflict and Cooperation project – a comparative research programme to establish the nature, extent and intensity of local water conflicts and cooperation and of their social, economic and political impacts through qualitative inventories and studies by three Danish partners Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) as the lead, Nordeco and DHI Water and Environment jointly in the five countries Bolivia Denmark, Mali, Nicaragua, Vietnam, and Zambia. In Zambia, the collaborative partner is UNZA IWRM Centre and the study is carried out in Namwala District of the Kafue Flats. IWMI, Southern Africa is also participating in the Zambian part of the project.
4. (a) ACP- EU Cooperation programme in Higher Education (EDU-LINK): a capacity building collaborative programme among University of Siegen, Germany Kenyatta University Nairobi, Kenya; University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Makerere University, Kampala Uganda and UNZA IWRM Centre on “University Capacity Development for Integrated Sanitation Management in Eastern and Southern Africa”. The project develops curricula and university cooperation in “Integrated Sanitation Management”.
   1.  Establishment of Master Programme ‘Environmental Engineering, Monitoring and Management (E²M²) in Zambia supported by the German Academic Exchange Service DAAD and co-financed by Universität Siegen; project period is from 1st January, 2009 to 31st December, 2012. Other collaborator is Copperbelt University.
5. Signed Memorandum of Understanding with University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA, Boise State University, Boise, USA, Central State University, Ohio, USA. The initial focus for Boise State will be on “Partnership for Higher Education Development in Zambia Supporting Sustainable Use and Management of Water Resources, with Emphasis on Groundwater Resources”. Michigan would like to focus on research on the Zambezi River Basin and sharing of knowledge from their studies on the Great Lakes Region of North America.