Surface-derived groundwater contamination in Gulu District, Uganda: Chemical and microbial tracers.

Groundwater is consumed by over 2 billion people globally, though it can be impacted by microbial and chemical contamination in both rural and (peri-)urban areas. This issue is particularly pertinent in regions like East Africa, where rapid urbanisation has strained local infrastructure, including water and sanitation systems. We use selected tracers of human and animal waste to assess the quality of community drinking sources with regards to surface-derived groundwater inputs and to compare urban versus rural water quality, under the rapidly developing urban area of Gulu, Northern Uganda.

Paper2GIS: improving accessibility without limiting analytical potential in Participatory Mapping.

Participatory Mapping encompasses a broad spectrum of methods, each with advantages and limitations that can influence the degree to which the target audience is able to participate and the veracity of the data collected. Whilst being an efficient means to gather spatial data, the accessibility of online methods is limited by digital divides. Conversely, whilst non-digital approaches are more accessible to participants, data collected in this way are typically more challenging to analyse and often necessitate researcher interpretation, limiting their use in decision-making.