Advances in Geosciences www.adv-geosci.net 1680-7340 1680-7359 11 Large-scale hydrological modelling and the European Union water policies 2007 10.5194/adgeo-11-113-2007 http://www.adv-geosci.net/11/113/2007/ http://www.adv-geosci.net/11/113/2007/adgeo-11-113-2007.html http://www.adv-geosci.net/11/113/2007/adgeo-11-113-2007.pdf 113 116 2007-06-20 Spatio-temporal water body and vegetation changes in the Nile swamps of southern Sudan G. Petersen g.petersen@hrwallingford.co.uk J. A. Abeya N. Fohrer HR Wallingford Ltd, Howbery Park, Wallingford, Oxon, OX10 8BA, UK World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), United Nations Avenue, Gigiri, P.O. Box 30677-00100 GPO, Nairobi, Kenya Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Ecology Centre, Department of Hydrology and Water Resources Management, Olshausenstr. 75, 24118 Kiel, Germany An assessment to describe and quantify the extent of changes in the channel and lagoon system of the Sudd was carried out using Landsat satellite images of 1973, 1979, 1997 and 2002. Using supervised classification and visual interpretation after referencing the images, the water bodies for a representative area between Bor and Shambe (a stretch of 150 km) were delineated. The resulting files were compared to establish and quantify changes in-between the years and as well compared to Lake Victoria outflow data to assess a likely correlation which was found for the largely water level dependent lagoon system. Changes in the channel system were interpreted to happen in a certain pattern but the extent of changes could not be correlated to the outflow data as they are influenced by other, here not considered factors like wind drift and channel blockages by vegetation. Butcher, A. D.: The Sadd Hydraulics, Government Press, Cairo, 1938. Euroconsult: Kongor Flood Protection Surveys, Draft Final Report, Arnhem, 1981. Hurst, H. E.: The Nile Basin, Volume IV and Supplements 1-13, Ten Day Mean and Monthly Mean Discharges of the Nile and its Tributaries, Cairo, 1933. Hurst, H. E. and Phillips, P.: The Nile Basin, Volume V, The Hydrology of the Lake Plateau and the Bahr el Jebel, Schindler Press, Cairo, 1938. JIT: The Equatorial Nile Project and its Effects on the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Volumes I–IV, Sudan Government, Khartoum, 1954. Koponen, J. and Kummu, M.: Support to the Management of Sudd Blockage on Lake Kyoga, ILM-EIAC, Finland, 2004. Mefit-Babtie Srl: Development Studies of the Jonglei Canal Area, Range Ecology Survey, Final Report, Volume 2, Background, Khartoum, 1983. Migahid, A. M.: Report on a Botanical Excursion to the Sudd Region, University Press, Cairo, 1948. Mohamed, Y. A.: The Nile Hydroclimatology: Impact of the Sudd Wetland, PhD Dissertation, Delft University of Technology, Netherland, 2005. NASA: The Landsat Program, http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov, 2007. Sutcliffe, J. V.: The Hydrology of the Sudd Region of the Upper Nile, PhD Thesis, Cambridge University, Cambridge, 1957. Sutcliffe, J. V.: A Hydrological Study of the Southern Sudd Region of the Upper Nile, Hydrol. Sci. Bulletin XIX, 2, 6/1974, 237–255, 1974. Sutcliffe, J. V. and Parks, Y. P.: The Hydrology of the Nile, IAHS Special Publication No 5, Wallingford, 1999.