A GIS to Manage Resources from the Inner Delta
of the Niger River in Mali

DELMASIG is a GIS dedicated to managing and facilitating decisions regarding natural resources, farming, and livestock conflicts in the inner delta of the Niger River in Mali. As the largest tropical wetland (30,000 square kilometers) in west Africa, the inner delta has a fundamental impact on fishing, rice farming, livestock, and conservation.

DELMAGIS is able to model

• The 120 types of vegetation that cover the delta (plants, ecological conditions, and pasture production)
• The surface areas inundated by flooding at Mopti with the help of a three-dimensional model calculated from the depth of flooding of each type of vegetation
• The space strategies based on soil and flooding for areas used for rice farming since 1952
• The implications of property ownership and the conflicts between livestock owners and farmers for grazing; the network of trails; and “Bille,” or local shelters used by those tending herds

Subject to the limits on rural communities created by the law for decentralization in 1996, this information helps generate plans to manage the region.

This work was performed at the National Center for Scientific Research, France, Geosystemes Laboratory (Brest), under the direction of François Cuq (†) with the support of Françoise Pirot (SIS-CEIAS).