Journal of Intelligent and Multidisciplinary Computing

Prof Ditiro Benson Moalafhi is a hydrologist and water resources management professional with over 21 years of experience. He holds a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering (Hydro-climatology) from The University of New South Wales in Australia, MPhil in Environmental Science, Post Graduate Diploma in Education and Bachelor of Science all from University of Botswana. Professor Moalafhi is currently an Associate Professor of water resources management at Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, where he is acting Dean Faculty of Research and Graduate Studies. He is the SASSCAL Research Chair in Water Resource Quantity and Availability, and a member of the SASSCAL Graduate Studies Programme in Integrated Resources Management (SGSP-IWRM) Academic and Scientific Advisory Committee (ASAC). Prof Moalafhi is also a member of the Botswana Water Apportionment Board, and WaterNet Board of Trustees.

1. Conducts research in hydrology, water resources management, climate variability and change, drought and flood analysis, hydrological and climate modeling, land-use/land-cover impacts on water systems, dynamical downscaling of global reanalysis datasets, integrated water resources management, and application of artificial intelligence and Earth observation data in hydrological studies.
2. Has led and participated in numerous nationally and internationally funded research projects, including the Botswana National Ecosystems Assessment (2022-2026), USAID-funded water security projects on land-use dynamics and surface water quality, University of Botswana research grants on climate variability and reservoir modeling, and SASSCAL regional climate and hydrology projects.
3. Authored and co-authored 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, 3 book chapters with Springer and CRC Press, and multiple peer-reviewed conference papers and abstracts in international scientific forums.
4. Actively supervises postgraduate research, having successfully supervised 8 Master’s dissertations and 2 PhD theses, with additional Master’s and PhD candidates currently under supervision, covering topics such as drought characterization, groundwater-surface water interactions, flood vulnerability assessment, irrigation optimization, and climate-land use modeling.
5. Has examined postgraduate theses at both Master's and PhD levels and contributes regularly as an external academic assessor.
6. Regularly presents research findings at international and regional conferences, including MODSIM, ISPRS Congress, WaterNet Symposia, and SASSCAL scientific meetings, through oral presentations, posters, invited talks, and panel discussions.
7. Serves as a reviewer for international peer-reviewed journals and technical reports, including UNDP-GEF climate adaptation guidance documents, and contributes to edited scientific volumes on climate change, biodiversity conservation, and water resources.
8. Provides scientific leadership through academic administration, research coordination, and capacity building, including roles as Acting Dean and Head of Department, Research Chair in Integrated Water Resources Management, and coordinator of academic programme development.
9. Contributes to science-policy interfaces through advisory roles to government ministries, FAO, World Bank, UN-Habitat, and national committees on water security, climate adaptation, flood management, and integrated water resources planning.
10. Engages in community-based scientific outreach, including establishment of community-managed automated weather stations, flood early warning awareness initiatives, climate adaptation workshops, and environmental capacity-building programmes.

1. Moalafhi, D.B., Parida, B.P., Kenabatho, P.K. (2014). Hybrid stochastic-ANN approach for flow partitioning in the Okavango Delta.
2. Parida, B.P., Moalafhi, D.B. (2008). Regional rainfall frequency analysis using RBF networks.
3. Moalafhi, D.B., Parida, B.P. (2003). Effect of urbanization on runoff coefficient in Notwane catchment.
4. Byakatonda, J., Parida, B.P., Kenabatho, P.K., Moalafhi, D.B. (2016). Modeling dryness severity using artificial neural networks in the Okavango Delta. Global NEST Journal, 18(3), 463–481.
5. Moalafhi, D.B., Evans, J.P., Sharma, A. (2016). Evaluating global reanalysis datasets for regional climate modelling. Climate Dynamics, 47(9), 2727–2745.
6. Moalafhi, D.B., Sharma, A., Evans, J.P., Mehrotra, R., Rocheta, E. (2017). Impact of bias-corrected reanalysis-derived boundary conditions on WRF simulations. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 9(4), 1828–1846.
7. Moalafhi, D.B., Evans, J.P., Sharma, A. (2017). Influence of reanalysis datasets on dynamically downscaling the recent past. Climate Dynamics, 49(4), 1239–1255.
8. Moalafhi, D.B., Sharma, A., Evans, J.P. (2017). Reconstructing hydro-climatological data in data-sparse regions. Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, 12, 378–395.
9. Moalafhi, D.B., Kenabatho, P.K., Byakatonda, J., Parida, B.P. (2018). Rainfall and temperature trend analysis over semi-arid Botswana. Indian Academy of Sciences.
10. Kenabatho, P.K., Parida, B.P., Matlhodi, B., Moalafhi, D.B. (2018). Linking scientific research to development agenda in Botswana. Handbook of Research on Geospatial Science and Technologies, 374–391.
11. Iwadra, M., Odirile, P.T., Parida, B.P., Moalafhi, D.B. (2019). Evaluation of future climate using SDSM and secondary data for poorly gauged catchments in Uganda. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 137(3–4), 2029–2048.
12. Hambira, W.L., Moalafhi, D.B., Mulale, K. (2019). Water demand management in Botswana. University of Botswana, 1–9.
13. Byakatonda, J., Parida, B.P., Moalafhi, D.B., Kenabatho, P.K., Lesolle, D. (2020). Investigating relationship between drought severity in Botswana and ENSO. Natural Hazards, 100(1), 255–278.
14. Parida, B.P., Kgaodi, D., Moalafhi, D.B., Dube, O.P. (2020). Effect of climate variability and land use/cover on runoff characteristics of Limpopo Basin. IASTED Conference Proceedings.
15. Tafila, O., Ranganai, R.T., Moalafhi, D.B., Moreri, K.K., Maphanyane, J.G. (2022). Investigating groundwater recharge potential of Notwane catchment using geophysical and geospatial tools. Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, 40, 101011.
16. Samuel, G., Mulalu, M.I., Moalafhi, D.B., Stephens, M. (2022). Evaluation of national disaster management strategy and flood risk reduction in Gaborone, Botswana. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 74, 102939.
17. Tafila, O., Moalafhi, D.B., Ranganai, R.T., Moreri, K.K. (2023). Spatiotemporal trend analysis of groundwater level changes, rainfall, and runoff over the Notwane Catchment, Botswana. Modeling Earth Systems and Environment, 9(4), 4405–4423.
18. Byakatonda, J., Parida, B.P., Kenabatho, P.K., Moalafhi, D.B. (2023). Construction of 3D drought structures of meteorological drought events and their spatio-temporal evolution characteristics. Journal of Earth System Science.
19. Mmopelwa, G., Moalafhi, D.B., Hambira, W.L., Dhliwayo, M., Motau, A. (2023). The impact of flooding on communities: A case of Gweta and Zoroga villages, Botswana. African Journal of Climate Change and Resource Sustainability, 2(1), 132–152.
20. Ouma, Y.O., Odirile, P., Nkwae, B., Moalafhi, D.B., Anderson, G., Parida, B.P., Qi, J. (2024). Land-use change prediction in dam catchment using Logistic Regression-CA, ANN-CA and Random Forest Regression and implications for sustainable land–water nexus. Sustainability, 16(4), 1699.
21. Tshireletso, T., Ouma, Y., Moalafhi, D.B., Anderson, G. (2024). Enhancing water level prediction through a hybrid feature selection approach. Journal of Civil Engineering and Urbanism, 14(3S), 278–282.
22. Ouma, Y.O., Odirile, P., Nkwae, B., Moalafhi, D.B., Anderson, G., Parida, B.P., Qi, J. (2024). Prediction of turbidity and TDS in dam reservoir from multispectral UAV-drone and Sentinel-2 image sensors using machine learning models. GISTAM, 97–104.
23. Bell, W., Nadarajah, S., Moalafhi, D.B. (2024). Assessing the occurrence of annual maximum daily discharge for five of the longest rivers in Africa. Environmental and Ecological Statistics, 31(3), 841–863.
24. Tafila, O., Jomaa, S., Labat, D., Kumar, R., Moalafhi, D.B., Yankson, E., Rode, M. (2025). Multi-scale wavelet analysis of Okavango River discharge patterns at the Mohembo station upstream the Okavango Delta, Botswana. EGU General Assembly 2025.
25. Hambira, W.L., Abdeta, A.A., Moalafhi, D.B., Muposhi, V.K., Mosepele, K. (2025). Environmental Change and Biodiversity Conservation in Sub-Saharan Africa. Springer.