Sarata Darboe

I am Sarata Darboe from The Gambia. I completed an Erasmus Mundus Master’s in Water Science and Environmental Engineering, specialising in groundwater studies. I later joined the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of the United Nations as a Research Fellow, focusing on stable isotope analysis to assess intrinsic water-use efficiency in cropping systems. As a PhD student, I now examine the link between groundwater recharge and climate change in Karst environments.

Supervised by: Andy Baker, Fiona Johnson, Andrea Hartmann

Project Title: Karst Groundwater recharge modelling to investigate relationships between climate and groundwater recharge in NSW

Project Description: Accurate simulation of karst groundwater recharge and its relationship with climate indices remains a challenge for state-of-the-art groundwater recharge models. Major climate drivers modulate water availability in New South Wales. Karst landscapes are important observatories for groundwater recharge studies because of their heterogeneous processes and direct rainfall recharge. My research aims to use cave stalagmites as archives to reconstruct past recharge frequencies, analyse current recharge using cave drip data, and apply this information to project future recharge events under various climate scenarios in Australia, thereby improving understanding of the climate-groundwater recharge relationship and reducing uncertainties in groundwater recharge estimation.