African Groundwater - Returning to the Sources: BGS Makes 'Grey Data' Available
Many people in Africa depend on groundwater, but exploiting it effectively depends on accurate information about where to find it. Jude Cobbing and Jeff Davies describe a new initiative to make data from old studies more accessible to improve scientific cooperation and the availability of water in Africa. What do a faded report on borehole drilling in Nyasaland written in 1952, an unpublished 1973 study of groundwater levels in northern Zambia and the field notes of a British geologist seconded to the Botswana Geological Survey in the 1980s have in common? They're all part of a sizeable archive of so-called 'grey data' on African groundwater held by the British Geological Survey (BGS).
