Abstract
In the Congo Basin, the elevated vulnerability of food security and the water supply implies that sustainable development strategies must incorporate the effects of climate change on hydrological regimes. However, the lack of observational hydro-climatic data over the past decades strongly limits the number of studies investigating the effects of climate change in the Congo Basin. We present the largest altimetry-based dataset of water levels ever constituted over the entire Congo Basin. This dataset of water levels illuminates the hydrological regimes of various tributaries of the Congo River. A total of 140 water level time series are extracted using ENVISAT altimetry over the period of 2003 to 2009. To improve the understanding of the physical phenomena dominating the region, we perform a K-means cluster analysis of the altimeter-derived river level height variations to identify groups of hydrologically similar catchments. This analysis reveals nine distinct hydrological regions. The proposed regionalization scheme is validated and therefore considered reliable for estimating monthly water level variations in the Congo Basin. This result confirms the potential of satellite altimetry in monitoring spatio-temporal water level variations as a promising and unprecedented means for improved representation of the hydrologic characteristics in large ungauged river basins.
Highlights
IntroductionDespite the global importance of the Congo Basin, which is the second largest river basin in the world, only a small number of studies to date have focused on the potential impact of climate change on the hydro-climatic variability over the Congo Basin using in situ data and/or hydrological models
Despite the global importance of the Congo Basin, which is the second largest river basin in the world, only a small number of studies to date have focused on the potential impact of climate change on the hydro-climatic variability over the Congo Basin using in situ data and/or hydrological models.The limited understanding of climate dynamics in the Congo Basin is in part due to the lack of the in situ monitoring of climate variables in that area
This study is developed for the river water level anomaly (RWLA) is hereafter defined as the difference between the water level value and the temporal mean of the time series
Summary
Despite the global importance of the Congo Basin, which is the second largest river basin in the world, only a small number of studies to date have focused on the potential impact of climate change on the hydro-climatic variability over the Congo Basin using in situ data and/or hydrological models. Eltahir et al [11] inferred an anti-correlation in runoff anomalies between the Amazon Basin and the Congo Basin using two in situ time series of river flow from records at Manaus and Kinshasa, respectively, coupled with satellite-derived estimates of rainfall from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). These authors argued for a climatic “see-saw oscillation” from one side of the Atlantic to the other.
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