Gobabeb
The Gobabeb Training and Research Center is a research and training station in Namibia . It is located in the Namib , about 120 kilometers southeast of the city of Walvis Bay .
Gobabeb was founded in 1962 with the Austrian entomologist Charles Koch as the station manager. The station has been a joint venture between the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) and the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia (DRFN) since 1998. Gobabeb conducts research in the fields of climate , ecology and geomorphology and promotes the development of the adapted technologies . In addition, the station tries to promote public environmental awareness and general knowledge through courses in desert ecology, among others. Researchers, students and interns live permanently in the station, as well as short-term visitors such as tourists and school and university groups. In addition, Gobabeb is visited by film groups, journalists, radio stations and artists.
The station
The station is located around 120 kilometers southeast of the city of Walvis Bay in Namibia's largest nature reserve , the Namib-Naukluft Park . Gobabeb is located at a meeting point of the Kuiseb River, the sandy desert (stretches south) and the gravel desert (stretches north). The diversity of the accessible ecosystems makes Gobabeb an ideal research area. The climate in the Namib is hyperarid . In the summer months, November to March, the average rainfall is around 25 mm per year. In 2010/2011 an extreme amount of rain of 165 mm was measured.
The station consists of the community resource center, a library, several laboratories, an office block, a meeting hall, the striking water tower, the houses of the employees and the accommodations for the visitors. The latter were expanded significantly in 2015 and now correspond to the standard of a hotel .
history
Gobabeb is a former Topnaar settlement called ! Nomabeb , in English Platz des Feigenbaums . In 1958 Charles Koch undertook a research trip in which he dealt extensively with the species-rich beetle populations of the Namib. A year later, the South African Transvaal Museum decided to establish a research station in what was then South West Africa (now called Namibia ). In 1962 the Namib Desert Research Station (NDSR) was founded, with Charles Koch as the first station manager. The South African government, which controlled South West Africa at the time, supported Gobabeb with a 50-year lease of the building site and an annual subsidy of 2,000 rand.
A year later, the construction of the staff houses, the laboratories, the offices, the workshop and a small water tower was completed. The partnership between Gobabeb and the South African Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) led to the establishment of the Desert Ecological Research Unit (DERU) in 1965 . This partnership earned the station 25,000 rand, which was used to build additional buildings. In 1970, Gobabeb's first station manager Koch died and the biologist Mary Seely took over his position. In 1983 Gobabeb held its first open house . This event has taken place every year since then.
In 1989 the first course in ecological methods for Namibian students was held at Gobabeb. With Namibia's independence in 1990, DERU became the DRFN , the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia . The headquarters of the new organization was moved to Windhoek , but the research unit remained in Gobabeb. In May 1998, the now existing Gobabeb Training and Research Center (GTRC) was founded as a joint venture between the DRFN and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism . The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has supported Gobabeb for many years.
Since the establishment of the joint venture, the station has acted as a research, training and education center for the whole of southern Africa . Scientists from all over the world investigate topics that include desertification , water abstraction and the adaptation of animals and plants to the needs of the desert. In 2002, after 32 years as station manager, Mary Seely handed over her position to Joh Henschel. The new station manager initiated the construction of several guest accommodations and the Gobabeb Community Resource Center.
Between 2002 and 2004, Gobabeb's energy system was overhauled according to the principles of adapted energies as part of the Demonstration Project at Gobabeb of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (DeGREEE). In May 2005, the Gobabeb Training and Research Center was inaugurated by Prime Minister Nahas Angula .
In March 2011, Joh Henschel resigned from his position as station manager. The subsequent transition period was overseen by a management committee and a temporary overseer on the ward.
research
The main aim of the research work on Gobabeb is to expand knowledge about arid ecosystems and especially their diversity and to pass this on to specialists and decision-makers in southern Africa and the world. Research into the organisms of the Namib, as well as research into the ecology of the deserts in southern Africa, took place mainly in Gobabeb. Gobabeb is visited annually by more than 100 scientists for research purposes and so more than 1900 publications have been produced in the last 50 years. Thanks to the research on Gobabeb, the worldwide knowledge about desert animals and plants and their adaptation to the extreme conditions has been expanded.
In Gobabeb research is carried out in the following areas:
- Organisms of the desert and their biodiversity
- Ecosystems of arid areas and their geo-processes
- Prevention of Devastation
- Climate and climate change
- Adapted technologies
- Alternative ways of livelihood in arid areas
The research results are used as a source of information for many other projects. Long-term measurements and observation of the climate and biodiversity, some of which have been recorded continuously for 50 years, are particularly valuable contributions to global scientific knowledge. The Kuiseb Basin Management Committee , for example, uses the research results of Gobabeb to carry out the Integrated Land and Water Management Program ("Integrated Land and Water Management Program ").
In 2010 the Namib Ecological Restoration and Monitoring Unit NERMU (“Association for the restoration and monitoring of the ecology of the Namib”) was founded in Gobabeb. The topic of the association is the increasing uranium mining and the previously required soil sampling in the Namib. The association investigates the related influence on the organisms. There are, for example, studies with the Hartmann mountain zebra ( Equus zebra hartmannae ), the Husab Lizard ( Pedioplanis husabensis ) and hypolithic (under stones living) cyanobacteria performed.
education
Education is a primary function of the Gobabeb Training and Research Center . Every year around 1,000 participants receive courses in various specialist areas. The majority of the participants are pupils and students, but farmers, individuals, representatives of communities and interested groups are also taught. The training is practically oriented and offers many opportunities to collaborate. The courses are given by Gobabeb staff, visiting instructors and local, regional and international experts. Courses are offered in the fields of management of natural resources , management of arid areas, devastation, ecology and adapted technologies.
Gobabeb also offers long-term courses that have already been used by 1,800 students. The Summer Desertification Program (SDP), which took place from 1993 to 2005, included the practical confrontation with topics such as soil degradation and its bio-physical and socio-economic effects.
With the help of the remaining funds from the SDP program, Gobabeb In-Service Training (GIST) was founded in 2005 as a joint project of the Polytechnic of Namibia (University of Applied Sciences of Namibia) and Gobabeb. The GIST research project ran for one semester (about 3 months) and dealt with a variety of topics related to the ecology of the Namib.
In 2009 the GIST program was developed into the GTRIP program ( Gobabeb Training and Research Internship Program ) and was now open to all Namibian students and also to those who have recently graduated. Since 2011, the focus of the GTRIP courses has been on the restoration ecology of the Namib Desert, thus contributing to the main objective of the NERMU .
National and international interns and volunteers also live on Gobabeb.
Adapted technologies
The Gobabeb Research Center is structured according to the principles of sustainability and adapted technologies. It is a demonstration model of how these technologies can be used in everyday life on commercial and industrial levels.
The following systems are built on Gobabeb according to the principles of adapted technologies:
- A solar-diesel hybrid energy system. It consists of 370 solar panels , 60 lead-acid batteries and 2 diesel generators. Thanks to this system, over 90% of the energy used on Gobabeb (mainly for electricity and heating of water) is provided by the sun.
- A water treatment plant. The station's used water is cleaned and reused using a trickle filter .
- Collecting fog water. With the help of special nets, water is extracted from fog. On a foggy night, a net can catch up to 3.3 liters of water per square meter. This method is intended to be used by the local Topnaar communities along the Kuiseb River.
- Environmentally friendly building construction. The new buildings of the station are made of adobe bricks made from the mud of the Kuiseb River. The walls of the buildings are thermally ideal for the desert. They cool in summer and warm in winter.
- Recycling of garbage. The organic waste from Gobabeb is fed to the goats of the Topnaar community. Recyclable waste (such as glass, metal, plastic and paper) is brought to Walvis Bay to recycling companies affiliated with Walvis Bay City Council.
- Cooking with solar energy . Gobabeb uses two different solar cooker models that run independently of electricity: the "Box Cooker" and the "Parabolic Cooker".
Library
The Gobabeb Center Library was built for researchers, pupils, students, Gobabeb employees and interested visitors. The station is visited by around 100 scientists and 2,000 schoolchildren / students each year, many of whom make use of the library. The library contains information on work done in and around Gobabeb and in the Namib Desert.
Dr. Charles Koch founded the library in 1963 with his first Gobabeb publication, Scientific Papers of the Namib Desert Research Station . Since then, the library has developed into the largest collection of information on arid regions in the fields of ecology and biology in all of Sub-Saharan Africa. It is the leading information center on the Namib Desert, but also contains information on deserts around the world. The information is contained in 1,780 books, 18,790 published publications, and 30 journals. The information is currently being digitized to make it easier for users to access it. With the help of the D-LIB, it will soon be possible to access information from the Gobabeb Center Library via the Internet.
Web links
- Gobabeb website (English)
- DRFN website (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Gobabeb Accommodation & Campsite. ( Memento of the original from October 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
Coordinates: 23 ° 34 ′ 0 ″ S , 15 ° 3 ′ 0 ″ E