Lunch Seminar "The application of diffusion models of Fick’s Law and Fokker Planck Law, SWAT Model and Hydrological models in understanding non point source pollution in the Lake Victoria Basin"

Lake Victoria is a significantly important source of livelihood that is threatened by rising pollution. Although modeling non-point source pollution (NPS) in the Lake Victoria basin is a little studied topic, experiences from elsewhere point to the fact that it is a step in the right direction. Mathematical models capable of predicting the evolution of NPS parameters will be indispensable for the development of early warning and detection tools. In this study, NPS hot spots were identified and mapped; concentration of pollutants in runoff and their dispersion after they enter the lake were measured and profiled at different points in the study areas of Mwanza (Tanzania), Kampala city (Uganda) and Kagera (Rwanda). In a further step, different models (ecological and black-box) were introduced and investigated. The identification algorithms used in estimation were tuned to be beneficial for not only the identification quality but the extrapolability. Overall, the aim of this research was twofold: (i) to identify and characterize land-use activities and map NPS hot spots and, (ii) to investigate the potential of modeling techniques for simulating NPS characteristics in the Lake Victoria basin.