干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

The rains are the main consequence of monsoons on the oceans and on Earth. The rainwater is collected in streams or accumulated in lakes and ponds. In the dry and semi-arid zones of sahelian Africa marked by the endoreism, temporay ponds concentrate rainwater, as is the case in the valley of Ferlo. These water bodies play an important role in the socio-economic development of the zone. However, they constitute an essential link in the epidemiological chain of disease emergence in the water, e.g. malaria, bilharzia, and Rift Valley Fever (RVF), etc. RVF is a viral disease which affects animals and sometimes people, and is transmitted by mosquitoes and aerosols. The abundance of mosquitoes is associated with the dynamics of the ponds, which are their breeding sites. A better knowledge of the hydrological dynamics of these breeding sites can play an important role in combatting this disease and also in building an early warning system. The modelling of rain-flow is a standard approach for the control of the continental cycle of the water and for environmental protection. In this paper it is used to understand the dynamics of ponds. In our work, we modelled the hydrological functioning of three ponds in the Barkedji area using two models: the first is a water balance assessment and the second is based on the recession curve. The results obtained with these models are encouraging and can be used as an introduction to epidemiological models.