Blue Nile Research Articles

‘Standing still … in a moving place’ – reassessing lyrics and the spaces they construct through the musical landscapes of The Blue Nile

ABSTRACT This paper calls for a recalibration of how cultural geography engages with music, lyrics, motion, and emotion. Within existing geographical work on music, research on the music itself remains scarce, with reflection on lyrics rarer still. This paper addresses this via a close reading of the work of the Glaswegian group, The Blue Nile. It examines how the trio – and especially their principal songwriter, Paul Buchanan – used lyrics as a means for articulating distinctive conceptions of movement and stillness. The significance of song-words themselves is considered, but so too is their mode of delivery, and their relationship to the enveloping musical settings they are embedded in. The importance of time, space and place in The Blue Nile’s work is analysed and the methods by which they are evoked is investigated. The paper moves discussion on from well-covered terrain regarding music as a conduit for expressing youth focussed tropes, such as rebellion and speed, focusing instead on music’s facility for voicing ideas of slowness and immobility, particularly in urban settings. In doing so, it demonstrates popular music’s value for articulating sensations that are now being encountered with ever greater frequency, including those of stasis, drift, and disconnection.

Overseas imports on the Blue Nile: Chemical compositional analysis of glass beads from Soba, Nubia

AbstractArchaeological evidence as well as textual sources leave no doubt about Alwa's (Alodia's) intense transcultural connections, further corroborated by understudied overseas glass bead imports found there. This paper presents results of an analysis of 23 glass beads from Soba, the most prosperous capital of medieval Nubia. Compositional analyses using laser ablation‐inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry (LA‐ICP‐MS) have identified glass belonging to a number of broad compositional groups. Three samples were made of soda lime low‐alumina glass produced in the Middle East (v‐Na‐Ca) and Egypt (m/v‐Na‐Ca). The remaining beads were made of two types of mineral–soda high‐alumina glass (m‐Na‐Al) North Indian in origin. The results of this study provide new evidence for the provenance and chronology of glass beads available in medieval Soba and Northeast Africa, and contribute new data to research on trade contacts of that time.

Vulnerability of local farmers’ livelihood to climate variability across different agro ecology zone in Suha watershed, Upper Blue Nile basin, Ethiopia

ABSTRACT Ethiopia is frequently mentioned as highly vulnerable to climate variability due to its climate-sensitive agricultural sector. As a result, this study aimed to examine farmers’ vulnerability across the various agroecological zones (AEZs) in the Suha watershed based on survey data from 384 respondents. A considerable difference in the two-measurement index, livelihood vulnerability index and IPCC vulnerability index, was seen across the selected agro-ecological zones. The lowland AEZ was more exposed, had a lower adaptive capacity, and was more vulnerable than the mid/high AEZ. This was confirmed by the LVI-IPCC analysis result, which was found as −0.07, 0.03 and 0.18 for midland, highland and lowland AEZs, respectively. The variation is associated with the difference in agro-ecological and socio-economic factors of the respondents. The results suggested that building well firmed adaptation strategies based on agro-ecological scenarios are vital to reduce the vulnerability of smallholder farmers. Further, understanding the physical and climatic diversity of each agro-ecological zone enables us to identify the appropriate requirements to adapt and minimize the vulnerability of smallholders’ livelihood. In the meantime, adaptation measure based on the above index can be applicable at local area since the appraisal takes farmers’ perception about climate variability into consideration.

Estimation of shallow groundwater abstraction for irrigation and its impact on groundwater availability in the Lake Tana sub-basin, Ethiopia

Study regionLake Tana sub-basin of the Upper Blue Nile River Basin, Ethiopia Study focusGroundwater use for small-scale irrigation is increasing in the Lake Tana sub-basin. However, the abstraction amount and its impact are not well understood. In this study, a new methodological approach was utilized to estimate the irrigation water abstraction amount, which is based on groundwater level monitoring before, during, and at the end of the irrigation season (2021/2022). The monitoring was conducted on 361 hand-dug wells distributed throughout the sub-basin, which is subdivided into East, Southwest, and North zones. New hydrological insights for the regionGroundwater abstraction for irrigation and associated groundwater level decline estimates are 10.6 × 106 m3 and 2.43 m in the East, 4.2 × 106 m3 and 3.23 m in the Southwest, and 0.6 × 106 m3 and 1.32 m in the North. These abstractions account for 103%, 97%, and 62% of the mean annual groundwater recharge in the East, Southwest, and North zones, respectively. Groundwater is overexploited in the East and Southwest zones although, at the sub-basin scale, the amount of groundwater used for irrigation is small compared to the renewable groundwater resource. However, if groundwater-based irrigation continues to expand especially in the East and Southwest zones, groundwater scarcity at the local scales will worsen. Adaptive management strategies are required to minimize the potential adverse effects on groundwater resources.

“Evaluations of regional climate models for simulating precipitation and temperature over the Guder sub-basin of Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia”

“Evaluations of regional climate models for simulating precipitation and temperature over the Guder sub-basin of Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia”

Effect of integrated sustainable land management technologies on households’ food security in the North Gojjam sub-basin, Blue Nile River

Integrated Sustainable Land Management (ISLM) is progressively viewed as a key strategy to boost food security in Ethiopia and feed its growing population. By understanding this logical ground, this paper examines the effect of ISLM technologies adoption on household food security. The study relies on cross-sectional household-level data collected from 414 randomly selected household heads across three districts to analyze this issue. An Endogenous Switching Regression (ESR) model coupled with the Full Information Maximum Likelihood (FIML) technique was applied to analyze the required data. The finding shows that the adoption of ISLM technologies has significantly increased food security. It specifically increases food consumption expenditure in households by ETB (national currency in Ethiopia; as of August 2021, 1 ETB is equal to approximately USD $0.02) 38.3 (27%) when compared to households that do not adopt groups. Similarly, it increases the adopter households’ dietary diversity by 14.5%. Furthermore, it plays a significant role in reducing the food gap period by one and a half months per year and the food insecurity access scale by 46% points in the north Gojjam sub-basin for those who adopted versus those who did not adopt. The policy implication is that the adoption of ISLM technologies can improve rural household food security and may be used as a means of reducing rural poverty. As a result, the adoption of ISLM technologies should have been promoted in the study area and elsewhere by inspiring land users by accessing external agricultural inputs at the right time and place to increase small-scale land productivity.

Anthropogenic amplification of geomorphic processes on fluvial channel morphology, case study in Gilgel Abay river mouth; lake Tana Sub Basin, Ethiopia

As a result of ongoing human induced or natural factors acting on river channels, banks, and within a catchment, alluvial river systems change their course and morphology over time. The base level changes and the backwater effects affect rivers entering a static water body. For coastal rivers, the planform changes are highly pronounced at the fluvial deltas and flood plains. Aggradation, degradation, progradation, meandering, and formation of islands and distributary channels are common processes on coastal rivers. This study investigates planform changes and landscape responses of Gilgel Abay river about 36 km stretch starting from the bridge, near Chimba, to its entrance to Lake Tana by using historical images for the last 60 years (1957–2020) and field observation. The study reach was divided in to three parts based on feature characteristics. For data preparation and analysis, image analysis software's; ENVI, ERDAS IMAGINE, and ArcGIS were used. From land use land cover classification, the land use pattern near the river flood plain and delta area changed significantly. The overall planform results (sinuosity, width, and island) show that, Gilgel Abay River within the study reach has shown little change in its planform for the last 60 years. However, the landscape of alluvial delta formed at the mouth of the river has shown huge change. Accretion-erosion result map shows, a maximum of 18.73 ± 1.97 m/y accretion and −12.48 ± 1.44 m/y erosion at the right side (eastward) and a maximum of 50.06 ± 1.44 m/y accretion and lost only 3.95 ± 1.97 m/y westward. The delta area analysis shows in the last five decades, 17.13 ha/yr of land has formed disproportionally out of which over 56% is added at the right shore of the river. In general, for the planform changes that occurred in Gilgel Abay river channel and fluvial delta, human-induced factors have a great contribution. Increasing interest for new settlements inside delta flood plain, productive agricultural land and artificial lake level rise changes the river planform and the delta appearance. Quantitative and qualitative mapping of river and delta coupling with feeding basins and floodplains is important to enhance and understand the socioeconomic influences on river morphology and needs an integrated management framework.

Surface irrigation potential assessment of Chacha River Watershed, Jemma subbasin of upper Blue Nile, Ethiopia

Introduction: Evaluation of water availability and land suitability for surface irrigation practice is crucial for a country like Ethiopia whose livelihood is highly dependent on seasonal rainfed agriculture, which is susceptible to climate change and has a large population suffering from food insecurity.Methods: In this study, several factors, such as slope, land use land cover, rainfall, proximities to (market centers, roads, and rivers), and soil factors (i.e., pH, organic carbon, cation exchange capacity, electrical conductivity, available water storage capacity, drainage, depth, texture, and soil type) were considered. The data were entered and analyzed using the GIS tool and multicriteria analysis of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to determine the suitable area for surface irrigation in the Chacha Watershed. Subsequently, a CROPWAT tool was used to check the water requirement of the dominant crops grown in the study watershed, while a flow duration curve of 90-percentile exceedance frequency of monthly average streamflow was carried out to identify the minimum available water flow in the Chacha River.Results and Discussion: The findings of the suitability assessment revealed that 13336.5 ha (11.8%), 58357.4 ha (51.6%), 37588.1 ha (33.2 %), and 3887.9 ha (3.4 %) of lands found in the study watershed are highly suitable, moderately suitable, marginally suitable, and unsuitable for surface irrigation, respectively. The crop water requirement was estimated to be 7 l/s per hectare, and the minimum available water flow was estimated at 87 l/s which can potentially irrigate about 9280 ha of land with an average of 10 days of the watering interval using surface irrigation. However, the currently irrigated land in the study watershed was found to be 2159.8 ha implying that the existing surface irrigation practice is quite limited in the watershed though water availability is not a limiting factor. Hence, the government and other concerned bodies should exhaustively work to develop irrigation projects and practices to maximally utilize the available water and suitable land resources to enhance agricultural productivity. In return, it ameliorates the livelihoods of the communities and thereby helps ensure food security in the study watershed.

Industrial properties and uses of silica sand from Blue Nile Basin, Central Ethiopia

Industrial properties and uses of silica sand from Blue Nile Basin, Central Ethiopia

Spatiotemporal trends of NDVI and its response to climate variability in the Abbay River Basin, Ethiopia

Woody vegetation plays a vital role in regulating the water budget and energy exchange in the Earth's system. This study aimed at analyzing the spatiotemporal variability of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and its response to Potential Evapotranspiration (PET), rainfall (RF), soil moisture (SM), and temperature (TEM) in the study area. The trends, correlations, and relationships between NDVI and climate variables were executed using Mann-Kendall monotonic trend (MKMT), partial correlation coefficients (PCC), and multiple linear regression (MLR) methods, respectively. Over the last 26 years, the interannual NDVI increased by 0.0065 yr−1 (R2 = 0.159, p = 0.157). The spatiotemporal MKMT and Theil-Sen slope analysis showed that interannual NDVI increased significantly in 78% of the basin's total area. Of the 78% of the basin, 31%, and 47%, of the total area showed extremely significant increasing (Zmk = 4.706, p ≤ 0.01), and significant increasing trends (Zmk = 2.378, p ≤ 0.05) respectively. The interannual variation of NDVI was well explained (R2 = 0.88, Adjusted R2 = 0.84) by the climate variables in the eastern, southeastern, and central sub-basins where agriculture, grass, sparse vegetation and barelands are the predominant land use land cover (LULC) classes. The main climatic factors that control vegetation growth and greenness during the rainy season were found to be PET, SM, and RF with 0.91, 0.99, and 0.86 PCC with NDVI respectively. The current study broadens the scientific community's understanding of the relationship between climate variables and vegetation growth in highland ecosystems. Understanding the seasonal and long-term relationship between climate and NDVI contributes to the scientific knowledge of highland ecosystems, which are extremely vulnerable to climate change.

Effect of Climate Smart Agriculture Innovations on Climate Resilience among Smallholder Farmers: Empirical Evidence from the Choke Mountain Watershed of the Blue Nile Highlands of Ethiopia

Smallholder farmers’ capacities need to be strengthened to enable them to better withstand the upcoming impacts of climate change; these capacities not only include the responsive capacity, but also consider innovation, learning, and anticipation to be prepared for the projected impacts of a changing climate on the agriculture system. The objective of this paper is to examine the impact of climate smart agriculture (CSA) innovations on building climate resilience capacity in smallholder agriculture systems. A cross-sectional household survey was conducted among a multi-stage sample of 424 smallholder farmers selected from five agroecosystems of the Upper Blue Nile Highlands in Ethiopia. The study used an endogenous switching regression (ESR) model to examine the impact of CSA innovations on building climate resilience capacity among smallholder farmers. The true average adoption effects of climate resilience capacity under actual and counterfactual conditions showed that different CSA innovations have different effects on the climate resilience capacity of households. Except for SWC adopters, all CSA innovations significantly increased the climate resilience capacity of households. However, improved variety, crop residue management, and SWC have more profound effects on the non-adopters than adopters, =if non-adopters had adopted these CSA innovations. Strong absorptive, adaptive, and transformative capacities through strong disaster and early warning systems, climate-resilient infrastructure, a strong public agricultural extension system, a strong informal safety net, and social networks build a climate-resilient agriculture system among smallholder farmers. Thus, scaling up of CSA innovations may expand the benefit of CSA innovation on building the climate resilience capacities of households. Thus, strong risk management, disaster mitigation and early warning systems, adaptive strategies, information and training, informal safety nets, social networks, and infrastructure use may build the climate resilience capacity of smallholder farmers by facilitating the adoption of CSA innovation. Therefore, policies that strengthen good governance, social cohesion, disaster communication and early warning systems, input supply of drought-resistant varieties, climate smart extension service, and climate-resilient infrastructure are necessary.

Impacts of Best Management Practices on Runoff, Soil Loss, and Sediment Yield in the Megech Watershed, Ethiopia

This study evaluated the best management practices on how to manage soil losses from catchment and reduce sediment load into a dam reservoir. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship of runoff, soil loss, and sediment yield with best management practice (BMP) scenarios in the GeoWEPP environment for the selected three micro-watersheds (hot spot areas) in the Megech watershed, upper Blue Nile Basin. The impacts of four agricultural BMP scenarios, including forest five years old, corn, soybean; wheat, alfalfa (4 yr) no till; corn, soybean, wheat, alfalfa (4 yr) conservation till; and winter wheat mulch till, on soil loss, runoff, and sediment yield were quantified. The results revealed that soil loss ranges between 41.45–66.11 t/ha/year and sediment yield rates ranges between 36.5–54.8 t/ha/year with the baseline situation (conventional tillage condition) were found to be higher than the tolerable soil loss (10 t/ha/year) in the region. Implementing BMPs on the crop land of the micro-watersheds has positive impacts on all variables’ runoff, soil loss, and sediment yield reductions. Among the implemented BMPs, forests with a five-year perennial (agroforestry) option showed the highest rate of reduction for all runoff, soil loss, and sediment yield, but no cost benefit analysis was included in this study to choose among the BMPs. This study also identified that agricultural BMPs play a great role in reducing runoff, soil loss, and sediment yield in the Megech watershed to minimize on- and off-site impacts. In general, it is important to consider how cost benefit analysis will change throughout project’s implementation among the selected BMP scenarios at the watershed level in the future.

RS and GIS analysis of the groundwater potential zones in the Upper Blue Nile River Basin, Ethiopia

Study Region: Tributary of Abay basin, Upper Blue Nile River Basin, Ethiopia.Study focus: The study is aimed to assess and classify groundwater potential zones (GWPZ) of Guder watershed, the Upper Blue Nile (UBN) River Basin using remote sensing (RS) and GIS techniques. Geomorphology, land use/cover, Lithology, soil type, drainage density, soil texture, slope, lineament, rainfall, and elevation are all used to create groundwater potential zones. Based on Saaty's AHP method, expert judgment, and their relative influence on groundwater occurrence, the attributes of these influencing factors were given appropriate weightage according to quantile classification.New hydrological insights for the region: The GWPZ was classified as a very poor, poor, moderate, good, and very good class. This study found that approximately 33.58% of the Guder River basin falls into the good and very good GWPZ classes, with a similar value of 16.79%, whereas values of 23.3%, 20.2%, and 22.9% were represented by very poor, poor, and moderate GWPZ respectively. Field data like borehole test data was used to validate GWPZ. R2 and kappa statistics estimated values of 73% and 76.7%, respectively, confirmed the study's findings. This study confirms GIS and RS techniques as a successful model of GWPZ delineation that can be applied to other Ethiopian basins.

Nested hydrological modeling for flood prediction using CMIP6 inputs around Lake Tana, Ethiopia

Study regionTana basin is the origin of the Blue Nile Basin located in Ethiopia. The Lake Tana’s mean annual precipitation is approximately 1400 mm/yr and its outflow drains an area of about 15,096 km2. There is limited effort to apply nested hydrological models for flood prediction due to being poorly gauged for validation. Study focusThe objective of this study is to show how climate simulations can be used to generate reliable local predictions of flood and runoff for the Blue Nile in the Ethiopian highlands.In this study, outputs from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) were used to initialize a nested hydrological model to reveal long-term trends of runoff in flood-prone areas of the Lake Tana basin, Ethiopia. Available satellite and reanalysis datasets were used for selection of CMIP6 products and the five models with best validation were used to force a nested hydrological model: Known as Wflow_sbm. A model-independent multi-algorithm optimization estimation tool was implemented for calibration of Wflow with insitu observations. New hydrological insights for the regionIn terms of simulating runoff and flood events, application of Wflow_sbm to the Lake Tana basin gave promising results. This study serves as a major step towards the development and implementation of global model-driven nested hydrological assessments of flood risk in future projections for Lake Tana basin.

GIS ​– ​based flood susceptibility mapping using frequency ratio and information value models in upper Abay river basin, ​Ethiopia

In this study, flood susceptibility mapping was carried out for Chemoga watershed upper Abay River basin, Ethiopia. The main objective of this study is to identify the flood susceptibility areas using Frequency ratio and Information Values models. Based on Google Earth imagery and filed survey, about 168 flooding locations were identified and classified randomly into training flood locations datasets 70% (118) and the remaining 30% (50) of flooding locations datasets were used for validation purpose. Identified 12, flood conditioning factors such as slope, elevation, aspect, curvature, TWI, NDVI, distance from road, distance from river, soil texture, lithology, land use and rainfall were integrated with training flood locations datasets to determine the weights of each flood location conditioning factor and factor classes using both frequency ratio and information value models. The flood susceptibility maps were produced by overlay the weights of all the flood conditioning factors using raster calculator of the spatial analyst tool in ArcGIS 10.4. The final flood susceptibility maps were reclassified as very low, low, moderate, high and very high susceptibility classes both FR and IV models. This susceptibility maps were validated using flood location area under the curve (AUC). The results of AUC accuracy models showed that the success rates of the FR and IV models were 82.90% and 82.10%, while the prediction rates were 80.70% and 80.00% respectively. Past flood events are compared with the flood vulnerable database to validate the modeled output in the present study. This type of study will be very useful to the local government for future planning and decision on flood mitigation plans.

Development of a multi-metric index based on macroinvertebrates for wetland ecosystem health assessment in predominantly agricultural landscapes, Upper Blue Nile basin, northwestern Ethiopia

Developing multi-metric indices (MMIs) as a tool for inland water ecosystem assessment has attracted the attention of the global scientific community. The number of studies, which developed macroinvertebrate-based multi-metric indices for wetlands, however, was very limited. Thus, more work is needed to refine and implement it depending on the ecological contexts of wetlands. On top of this, we developed multi-metric indices based on macroinvertebrate assemblages that could be used for the ecological health assessment of wetlands that are impacted by agricultural activities in North-western Ethiopia. About 20 sampling sites were established in four wetlands along the disturbance gradient to take water and macroinvertebrates samples. The reference sites, which were least disturbed by human intervention, were established for the construction of multi-metric indices. Six core metrics were selected for the development of the final multi-metric indices from fifty-six potential metrics of macroinvertebrate assemblages after passing through sensitivity and statistical tests. The findings demonstrated all reference sites had good or high ecological conditions. On the contrary, the ecological statuses of nearly 70% of the impaired sites were found to be in bad to poor conditions. A significant distinction between reference and impaired sites suggested our index ability to identify the gradient variation in the ecological condition of wetlands. A strong negative relationship of the multi-metric indices model with most of the physicochemical variables and all human disturbance factors also suggested the appropriateness of the developed index in informing the ecological status of wetlands. Thus, we believe that our multi-metric indices could be a useful biomonitoring tool for the assessment and monitoring of wetland ecological conditions in predominantly agricultural landscapes in the Upper Blue Nile basin and beyond.

New radiocarbon dates for postglacial reoccupation of the Sudanese Nile

Radiocarbon dates from secure cultural contexts along the Sudanese Nile are crucial for understanding the potential role of the Nile as a corridor for postglacial human dispersal across northern Africa. Dates from this region show reoccupation of the Sudanese Nile south of the Second Nile Cataract was delayed by 0.4–0.7 ka compared with the Sahara, where a dramatic increase in the number of radiocarbon dates suggests a massive colonisation of the previously hyper-arid region as early as 10.9–10.6 ka. We present a series of 44 radiocarbon dates from the site of Sphinx at the Sixth Nile Cataract in central Sudan that moves the beginnings of postglacial reoccupation of the Sudanese Nile from 10.2 to 10.7 ka and synchronizes occupation here with the first wave of early Holocene human expansion across northern Africa. These new dates support the role of the Nile as a corridor for expansion from sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to radiocarbon dates, this study also presents evidence for expansion from material culture. Our data show that the early Holocene Early Khartoum culture, which includes one of the earliest pottery traditions in Africa, appears in central Sudan as a “package” and may have been brought into the region from unknown settlement enclaves located further to the south, possibly in the upper White Nile or Blue Nile. The four-millennia-long and nearly continuous sequence of dates from Sphinx attests to stability of hunter-gatherer settlement around the Sixth Nile Cataract. It also suggests adaptability and resilience of local hunter-gatherers in the face of climatic and environmental fluctuations that affected northern Africa during the early to middle Holocene.

Determination of GERR lifespan using RUSLE method and GIS integration

Soil erosion is a grave and ongoing matter that poses an intimidation to the ecosystem all around the world. On basins with enormous surface areas, sedimentation has a significant impact. The Blue Nile basin is considered one of these basins that would be exposed to erosion and sedimentation after construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which will retain a large amount of sediments. The goal of this study is to calculate the lifespan of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Reservoir (GERR). In this research, the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) method, with the help of remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS), was utilized in order to determine soil erosion and sediment yield from the Blue Nile basin. Accordingly, lifespan of GERR could be estimated. The findings revealed that the total annual soil loss computed for Blue Nile basin is about 4.06*108 t. y−1, the total annual sediment yield equals about 1.21*108 t. y−1 and life span of GERR is estimated about 611 years. The approach presented in this study can be benefited from and applied in other basins that have the same conditions. Decision makers are able to use this approach to get reasonable results and control the problem of soil erosion and sedimentation.

Modifying the water table fluctuation method for calculating recharge in sloping aquifers

Study regionRobit Bata and Dengeshita watersheds, Upper Blue Nile basin, Ethiopia Study focusSustainable development of groundwater in the Ethiopian Highlands requires recharge measurements. The Water Table Fluctuation (WTF) method has been used to measure recharge. Lateral flow in sloping hillside aquifers violates the assumptions on which the original WTF method is based. We modified the original WTF method to include lateral flow controlled by gravity. New hydrological insightsPreviously it was shown that the sum of recharge over the travel time in a sloping aquifer is equal to the base flow. Since recharge cannot be measured directly, the recharge calculated with the modified WTF method was tested using baseflow measurement in two contrasting highland watersheds, Robit Bata and Dengeshita, where groundwater depth and streamflow data were monitored from 2015 to 2018. Baseflow was determined with the one-parameter digital filter technique. Predicted and observed monthly baseflow agreed well with R2 > 0.9 and RMSE < 20 mm during calibration and validation. Recharge in Robit Bata, in which the aquifer underlays 55% of the watershed, was 293 mm a−1 of 1378 mm a−1 precipitation. In Dengeshita, where the entire watershed has an aquifer, the average annual recharge was 525 mm a−1 of 1550 mm a−1. Our findings indicate that the modified WTF method is simple and practical for determining aquifer recharge for highlands and other sloping aquifers.

Characteristics of leather produced by using Acacia nilotica ssp tomentosa pods as tanning materials from Blue Nile State-Sudan

Chrome salt utilization in tanning industry become spread over the world owing to its preferred quality in leather industry. However, Environmental concerns of chromium have shifted the interest of current research to metal-free and friendly processing options. Vegetable tanning, have been proven to be environmentally safe and manageable, while producing good quality leather with similar characteristics as that of chromium tanned leather. So, the objective of this research work is to determine the properties of leather using vegetable tanning materials from the pods of Acacia nilotica ssp tomentosa in the form of powdered pods and extract. Results indicated a significant difference in the properties of the tanned skin. Chemical properties of the tanned leathers by extracts of Acacia nilotica ssp tomentosa pods are found to be quite normal. Tensile strength values of tanned skin with pods extracts are higher than that tanned with powdered pods. On the other hand, tanned skin with tannin extract produced greater skin elongation 44.39% compared to tanned with pods powder which was 34.94%. This work provides useful information on the potential leather production by using vegetable tannin materials for leather industries in Sudan and beyond.