Zambezi River Basin

Land Cover and Land Use

Almost 75 per cent of the land area in the basin is forest and bush. Cropped land with mostly rain-fed agriculture covers 13 per cent of the land area, and grassland covers about 8 per cent of the land area.

Land cover and land use have great impacts on water resources, as they affect how precipitation translates into runoff, infiltration, evaporation, and the quality of the water (Hirji et al. 2002).

©Angel Herrero de Frutos/iStockphoto.com

Zambezi River Basin vegetation

TANZANIA

ANGOLA

MALAWI

ZAMBIA

ZIMBABWE

Dry evergreen forest Miombo woodland Mopane woodland Mosaic of deciduous forest and grassland Swamp/floodplain vegetation Coastal vegetation

MOZAMBIQUE

BOTSWANA

Moist evergreen forest and grassland Source: adapted from Timberlake, J. 2000. Biodiversity in the Zambezi Basin. Biodiversity Foundation for Africa. Bulawayo

Figure 1.4

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