Comprehensive EFlows Assessment for the Lower Kafue Sub-Basin

Year: 2019 – 2021 | Client: GIZ | Location: Zambia

A ‘high resolution’ EFlows Assessment of the Kafue River downstream of Ithezi-Thezi, including the Kafue Flats, which consolidates available information and uses it to predict ecosystem responses and the linked social implications to a changes in a range of aspects linked to water-resource development and climate change, such as the flow regime, hydropeaking; sediment dynamics and consideration of the confounding influence of non-flow related issues, such as invasive plants and crayfish, encroachment of human settlements, and; erosion.

Mekong River Environmental Flow project (Phases 2 and 3)

Year:  2005 – 2007 | Client:  Mekong River Commission | Location: South East Asia

Knowledge management, including:  Information and data management and process design for the Environmental Flow Assessments.  Including database design, population and presentation of results for Phases 2 and 3 of the MRC’s IBFM Programme. Also a review of Decision Support Systems/Models (DSS) designed to show the social, environmental and economic costs and benefits of various kinds of basin development.

MRC Hydro Sustainability Project

Year: 2017 – 2018 | Client: Mekong River Commission | Location: Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam

Scenarios (pathways) of progressive HP development in the Lower Mekong River were analysed using the DRIFT Database set up for the MRC Council (see below). The pathways considered under the SHDS2018 have a more nuanced approach. The “Design Mitigation”, “Prioritised” and “Preservation” (different forms of mitigation) pathways involve re-design, re-location or deferment to beyond 2040 of certain projects, either in response to regional power demand or to the need to balance trade-offs. An important aspect of the SHDS analysis was to ‘quantify’ the environmental impacts of the alternative pathways in a manner that was consistent with the Council Study analyses. The only way to do this was to the DRIFT (BioRA) model that was established and used for assessing environmental impacts in the Council Study. Using DRIFT allowed the team to directly compare the alternative SHDS pathways with the 2020 (M2) and 2040 (M3) Council Study scenarios.

Okavango Technical Diagnostic Analysis/EF component

Year: 2008 – 2009 | Client: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Location: Botswana, Namibia, Angola

The objectives of the Okavango Technical Diagnostic Analysis/EF component are to collate biophysical and social information for the basin into a integrated flow assessment tool, which will allow for the generation of future scenarios of water use and the implications for the rivers, delta and local people for use in water-related decision-making

Rapid EFlows assessment for the lower reaches of the Kafue River, in particular the Kafue Flats and Kafue Gorge

Year: 2018 | Client: GFA Consulting Group GmbH | Location: Zambia

The proposed approach was to make use of and build on work from the Zambezi Basin on behalf of ZAMCOM as part of the Zambezi Water Resources Information System (ZAMWIS) Enhancement 3 Project.The ZAMWIS approach to EFlows is to use existing DRIFT EFlows databases for the basin to establish relationships between driving hydrological and sediment indicators and responding ecosystem indicators.The idea is to use these to deliver a rapid EFlows assessment for the Kafue Flats and Kafue Gorge for use in ongoing planning initiatives by GFA in Zambia.

Services for an integrated flows assessment to facilitate the development and agreement of “Objective flows” at key sites in the Pungwe Basin

Year: 2022 – 2024 | Client: GWPSA | Location: Zimbabwe, Mozambique

The objective of the assignment was to support the Mozambique and Zimbabwe governments to facilitate the consultation process of determining ‘objective’ EFlows at strategic points in the transboundary Pungwe Basin that will, among other considerations, inform specifications on EFlows in the Pungwe Basin Agreement. The EFlows Assessment for the Pungwe Basin used the DRIFT method for 10 locations in the Basin including river and estuarine sites.

The Elephant Marsh

Year: 2014 – 2016 | Client: MRag, Malawi Government | Location: Malawi

Generating a thorough understanding of the functional ecology of the Elephant Marshes incorporating hydromorphology, ecosystem services, biodiversity, and livelihoods; and model past, present, and future possible management strategies. The assignment will also assess the feasibility for designating the marshes as a community-managed protected area and as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar convention using information from the surveys to assess whether the Elephant Marshes meet the Ramsar Criteria.

Zambezi Water Resources Information System (ZAMWIS)

Year: 2017 – 2019 | Client: ZAMCOM/DHI | Location: Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania

In line with the ZAMCOM Agreement, the overall objective of the assignment is to support the promotion and coordination of the cooperative management and development of the water resources of the Zambezi Watercourse in a sustainable and climate resilient manner. This will be achieved through the development and implementation of a comprehensive Decision Support System for general decision-making, planning, management, utilisation, development, protection and conservation of the water resources of the Zambezi Basin.
The main components of the assignment are: 

1. Upgrading of the existing ZAMWIS Database to be able to serve the DSS purpose.
2. Design and development of the ZAMWIS-Decision Support System.
3. Capacity building at the ZAMCOM Secretariat as well as in the Riparian States. This includes the preparation of a human resource development plan and a proposal for how to fund such a plan.