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Kuiseb River (Namibia)

The source of the Kuiseb River is located in Central Namibia. The middle reach of the river passes through a canyon, suitable for palaeoflood studies. Downstream of the canyon the river flows across a hyper-arid region with rainfall <50 mm yr^-1 (see catchment map, below) and marks the northerly limit of the Namib Desert dune sea. The TDR installation is at Gobabeb. 

General view of the Gobabeb study reach of the Kuiseb River

Buffels River (South Africa )

The Buffels River is an ungauged catchment in Namaqualand, Northern Cape Province. It is the largest river in Namaqualand draining an area of 9000 km². Mean annual rainfall in the catchment varies from 90 mm yr^-1 (mainly in the lower reaches) to 300 mm yr^-1 in the upper catchment, an area influenced by both summer and winter rainfall.

TDR monitoring equipment has been installed in the Buffels River near to the Rooifontein & Buffelsrivier villages. Upstream of both villages are narrow canyon reaches, sites of slackwater flood deposits suitable for obtaining flood discharge and frequency data.

Palaeoflood deposits of the Buffels River near Messelpad upstream of Buffelsrivier.

The Río Andarax drains a catchment area of 2200 km². At the study reach, the river bed has been highly modified and canalised. Surrounding the channel there are numerous orchards (mainly citrics) and some greenhouses to grow high value products (like cherry tomatoes). Along the channel there are a number of diversion channels, either permanent (concrete) or non-permanent (sand banks), for irrigating the orchards. The main water source for the greenhouses is groundwater. Mean annual rainfall in the region is 160 mm yr^-1, with the wet season falling in autumn.

Aerial photo illustrating the study reach, upstream of the Rambla Tabernas confluence (the major tributary top right of the photo). Note the orchards on either side of the cannalised Andarax.

Nahal Arava has a catchment area of 5500 km2 at the study reach. The largest tributary is the Nahal Pharan (3600 km²), which drains large areas in the Negev (Israel) and Sinai (Egypt) deserts. The river flows 100 km to the north into the southern Dead Sea basin at ~400 m below sea level. The Arava Valley is a hyper-arid region with rainfall <50 mm yr^-1.

The main Nahal Arava river channel