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PDF
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Type:
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Working Paper |
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Author:
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McCartney, Matthew; Cai, Xueliang; Smakhtin, Vladimir |
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Date:
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2013 |
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Agency:
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International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Colombo, Sri Lanka |
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Series:
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IWMI Research Report no. 148 |
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URI:
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https://hdl.handle.net/10535/9087
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Sector:
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Water Resource & Irrigation |
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Region:
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Africa |
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Subject(s):
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ecosystems
river basins
water management
forests
woodlands
wetlands
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Abstract:
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"This report summarizes the findings of a literature review conducted to find evidence of the flow
regulating functions of the major ecosystems
in the Zambezi River Basin. It also describes
a pragmatic approach for quantifying the flow
regulating functions of floodplains, headwater
wetlands and miombo forests in the basin. The
method utilizes observed streamflow records and
flow duration curves to derive a simulated time
series of flow in the absence of the ecosystem.
This can then be compared with an observed time
series to evaluate the impact of the ecosystem on
the flow regime. The method has been applied
to 14 locations in the basin. Results indicate that
the different ecosystems affect flows in different
ways. Broadly: i) floodplains decrease flood flows
and increase low flows; ii) headwater wetlands
increase flood flows and decrease low flows; iii)
miombo forest, when covering more than 70%
of the catchment, decreases flood flows and
decreases low flows. However, in all cases there
are examples which produce contrary results
and simple correlations between the extent of
an ecosystem type within a catchment and the
impact on the flow regime were not found."
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