The impacts of climate change on water resources in the Okavango basin

The need for coherent river basin management plans has become a driving force behind the use of models in understanding how basin hydrology will be affected by change. Of particular interest is how water availability will be affected by climate change and by growing demands for a finite resource. The Okavango basin, located in sub-Saharan Africa is a large, endorheic basin with the river terminating in the vast expanse of the ecologically important Okavango delta. It is also a transboundary basin transecting Angola, Namibia and terminating in Botswana. The end of the Angolan civil war has brought stability and development to the region. With increasing abstractions, due to human development, and possible reductions in available water, due to changing rainfall and evaporation patterns, flows entering the delta will be altered. Considering these possibilities a grid-based model has been used to examine current and future water availability and flows entering the delta system.