This award supports a three-year cooperative research project between Professor Fred K. Boadu, with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Duke University, and Mr. Emmanuel A. Owusu, with the Department of Geological Engineering at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, in Kumasi, Ghana. The investigators will conduct a study to investigate and assess the potential vulnerability of groundwater in a fractured terrain that is subject to indiscriminate use of pesticides. The study area is located in a farming community in the Nsawam district.
In many developing countries the heavy and routine use of pesticides is a common practice, but for many areas the impact on groundwater resources is unknown. Fractures in crystalline rock serve as the main hydraulic conduits for flow of groundwater and transport of contaminants in the earth's subsurface. In Ghana farmers routinely use pesticides such as DDT, and these can easily end up in the groundwater that is used for domestic purposes, thus posing potential health risks to inhabitants in surrounding communities. The investigators will use an innovative approach that combines artificial neural networks with standard field mapping techniques and geophysical survey methods to map subsurface fractures in order to predict and map the potential flow directions of contaminated groundwater. The project will utilize Dr. Boadu's expertise in the development and use of geophysical models to predict subsurface transport properties of fractured terrain and Mr. Owusu's background in field structural mapping. Both will collaborate on the analysis and interpretation of the structural information obtained from the field. Results of this project are expected to advance current theoretical knowledge in environmental and engineering geophysics, as will as provide new information on variations in fracture parameters and orientations during past tectonic deformation. Additionally, the project will result in a valuable database of geological and geophysical information for this part of Ghana and similar environments.
This project is being jointly supported by the Division of International Programs and the Division of Earth Sciences.
