A Survey near Tambara along the Lower Zambezi River

Francesco Pasanisi,Francesco Zarlenga,Carlo Tebano

doi:10.3390/environments3010006

Abstract

The paper reports a field investigation on a reach of the lower Zambezi River about 230–240 km downstream of the Cahora Bassa dam in the Republic of Mozambique. In the framework of a wider research program, bathymetric measures of the riverbed were performed on a 10 km stretch of the river using an echo sounder, a GPS receiver, and an integrated navigation-acquisition system. Field observations and measures revealed a general agreement with macro-features of river morphology reported in early literature, dealing with the morphological response of the river to the construction of large dams, in the second half of the 20th century. Results hereby reported are some of the few examples of direct field measures in the lower Zambezi reported in literature, and could be used by researchers and practitioners either as a knowledge base for further surveys or as input data for validation and calibration of mathematical models and remote sensing observations.

Highlights

A Survey near Tambara along the LowerENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Sustainable Territorial and Production Systems Department, Models and Technologies for Mitigation of
The Zambezi River is one of the main rivers in southern Africa and the longest African river flowing into the Indian Ocean
18–36 ̋ East, covers an area about 1.4 million km2 wide, and is the fourth-largest catchment area in Africa after the Congo, Nile, and Niger watersheds. It is shared by eight countries (Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe), and has an estimated population of 30 million people

Summary

A Survey near Tambara along the Lower

ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Sustainable Territorial and Production Systems Department, Models and Technologies for Mitigation of. Human Impacts and Natural Hazards Division, Seismic Engineering and Prevention of Natural Hazards. Received: 27 October 2015; Accepted: 16 February 2016; Published: 25 February 2016

Introduction

Impacts

The Field Activities

Results and Discussion

Conclusions