| Abstract |
The Okavango Basin is a catchment area that transcends large parts of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, and even into western Zimbabwe. Undoubtedly its key feature and namesake is the Okavango River, which arises in the Angolan highlands as the Rio Cubango and flows along the borders of Angola and Namibia and ends in the Okavango Delta of Botswana. It runs in a southeasterly direction from Angola for around 1 600 km and it the fourth longest river system in southern Africa. Notably, the Okavango Basin does not end as an outlet into the sea.
The Okavango Delta is an endorheic basin in the Kalahari Desert and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is estimated that about 1 million people rely on the Basin’s water resource and it supports the world’s largest elephant population (National Geographic 2018).It moreover offers a habitat for a uniquely high concentration of wildlife.
The Okavango Basin further includes the Makgadikgadi Pans wetlands, that receive their water from the Boteti River, and the Lake Ngami wetlands.
The Okavango River flows from the Miombo woodlands in Angola through Zambezian Baikiaea woodlands into the Zambezian flooded grasslands of the Okavango Delta. The majority of the Okavango Basin is Kalahari Acacia-Baikiaea woodlands and Kalahari xeric savanna.
The rainfall in the Okavango Basin decreases from around 900 to 1 000 mm per year in the northern part of the Basin, to around 300 to 400 mm in the southern part of the Basin.
|
? |
