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Geomorphological consequences of land use and climate change in a sahelian rural catchment basin Volume 20, issue 1, janvier-février-mars 2009

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Authors
Département de géographie Faculté des lettres et sciences humaines Université Abdou-Moumouni BP 418 Niamey Niger, Département de géographie faculté des lettres et sciences humaines Université Abdou Moumouni de Niamey BP 418 Niamey Niger, Département des sciences du sol Faculté d’agronomie Université Abdou Moumouni de Niamey BP 10960 Niamey Niger, Département de génie rural, eaux et forêts Faculté d’agronomie Université Abdou Moumouni de Niamey BP 10960 Niamey Niger, Centre régional AGRHYMET BP 11011 Niamey Niger, Laboratoire d’étude des transferts en hydrologie et environnement BP 53 38041 Grenoble France

Since 1994, the Mountseka valley in the Adar Doutchi area (south central Niger) has had 70 km of flowing water. Before this time, water flow was hindered by wind blown sand deposits and dejection cones. For this reason, particularly in its upstream section the valley had only ponds. The middle and downstream sections were used as fields for growing millet. Direct investigation has shown that this catchment basin is subject to an intensive process of water erosion due to the fragility of the soil and the weakness of ground vegetation. The processing of rainfall records shows the extent of rainfall extremes. Finally, maps showing the spatial layout of water erosion in relation to land occupation between 1986 and 2000 confirm our observations.