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36-547: The edges of the floodplain are a white sandy soil covered in thin forest. The main river channel grows from 50 m (160 ft) wide to 200 m (660 ft) wide near the Zambezi, and its floodplain suddenly broadens as it merges with the Zambezi, at the beginning of the Barotse Floodplain , which is 25 km (16 mi) wide at that point. While the river is a valuable resource to people living near it as

72-479: A 46-kilometre causeway across the centre of the floodplain to take a paved highway from Mongu to Kalabo , via the ferry across the main river channel at Sandaula, which would then be replaced by a 500-metre bridge. It is treated as an extension of the Lusaka-Mongu Road from Lusaka . Originally intended to be completed in 2006, it has been delayed by the difficulty of building on the floodplain. There

108-543: A bit like a dam. Behind it, the floodplain has formed. Below the falls, the river flows nearly twice as fast as it does on the plain and flows more swiftly in a narrower valley less prone to flooding. The floodplain stretches from the Zambezi's confluence with the Kabompo and Lungwebungu Rivers in the north, to a point about 230 km south, above the Ngonye falls and south of Senanga . Along most of its length its width

144-539: A lake is hu ( 湖 ), and a lagoon is xihu ( 潟湖 ). In the French Mediterranean several lagoons are called étang ("lake"). Contrariwise, several other languages have specific words for such bodies of water. In Spanish, coastal lagoons generically are laguna costera , but those on the Mediterranean coast are specifically called albufera . In Russian and Ukrainian, those on

180-452: A large permanent lake and swamps, and a much smaller area which dries out annually. The satellite photo was taken in April 2004 at the peak of the flood, Note that the northern part of the plain, near Lukulu, is less flooded, the land there varies a bit more in height and the water tends to keep to the many river channels. The peak of the flood occurs on the floodplain about 3 months after

216-422: A regular flow of fresh water an "estuary". Davis does state that the terms "lagoon" and "estuary" are "often loosely applied, even in scientific literature". Timothy M. Kusky characterizes lagoons as normally being elongated parallel to the coast, while estuaries are usually drowned river valleys, elongated perpendicular to the coast. Coastal lagoons are classified as inland bodies of water. When used within

252-515: A source of fish, its meanders make it unsuitable for water transport except in the wet season when canoes and small boats can navigate the floodwaters. 13°25′S 22°00′E  /  13.417°S 22.000°E  / -13.417; 22.000 This article related to a river in Angola is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to a river in Zambia

288-742: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Barotse Floodplain The Barotse Floodplain, also known as the Bulozi Plain , Lyondo or the Zambezi Floodplain, is one of Africa's great wetlands , on the Zambezi River in the Western Province of Zambia . It is a designated Ramsar site , regarded as being of high conservation value. The name recognises the floodplain as spawning

324-521: Is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform , such as reefs , barrier islands , barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses . Lagoons are commonly divided into coastal lagoons (or barrier lagoons ) and atoll lagoons . They have also been identified as occurring on mixed-sand and gravel coastlines. There is an overlap between bodies of water classified as coastal lagoons and bodies of water classified as estuaries . Lagoons are common coastal features around many parts of

360-458: Is actually the third-largest lake by area in the country. The brackish water lagoon may be thus explicitly identified as a "coastal lagoon" ( laguna costera ). In Portuguese, a similar usage is found: lagoa may be a body of shallow seawater, or a small freshwater lake not linked to the sea. Lagoon is derived from the Italian laguna , which refers to the waters around Venice ,

396-447: Is no rock in the region, and the causeway has been built from sand and gravel scooped out from shallow depressions next to it. Higher than usual floods washed away large sections. The contractor was a Kuwait -based company which acknowledged that conditions were difficult. The Times of Zambia reported that the company underestimated the floodplain environment, and abandoned the contract. Subsequent modifications have been made to raise

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432-572: Is over 30 km, reaching 50 km at the widest, just north of Mongu , principal town of the plain, situated at its edge. The main body of the plain covers about 5500 km , but the maximum flooded area is 10 750 km when the floodplains of several tributaries are taken into account, such as the Luena Flats . The Barotse Floodplain is the second largest wetland in Zambia after the Lake Bangweulu system, which differs in having

468-626: The Black Sea are liman ( лиман ), while the generic word is laguna ( Лагуна ). Similarly, in the Baltic , Danish has the specific Nor  [ da ] , and German the specifics Bodden and Haff , as well as generic terms derived from laguna . In Poland these lagoons are called zalew ("bay"), in Lithuania marios ("lagoon, reservoir"). In Jutland several lagoons are known as fjord . In New Zealand

504-575: The Kafue Flats , is potentially damaging to the environment. Development on the plain has been restricted until now to— Tight control over access to the floodplain by the Litunga and the homogeneity of the indigenous people have slowed commercial development by outsiders. A new project, the Mongu-Kalabo road , will have more far-reaching consequences. Around 2002 construction started of

540-523: The Māori word hapua refers to a coastal lagoon formed at the mouth of a braided river where there are mixed sand and gravel beaches, while waituna , an ephemeral coastal waterbody, is neither a true lagoon, lake nor estuary. Some languages differentiate between coastal and atoll lagoons. In French, lagon  [ fr ] refers specifically to an atoll lagoon, while coastal lagoons are described as étang  [ fr ] ,

576-610: The Venetian Lagoon . Laguna is attested in English by at least 1612, and had been Anglicized to "lagune" by 1673. In 1697 William Dampier referred to a "Lagune or Lake of Salt water" on the coast of Mexico. Captain James Cook described an island "of Oval form with a Lagoon in the middle" in 1769. Atoll lagoons form as coral reefs grow upwards while the islands that the reefs surround subside, until eventually only

612-458: The Wadden Sea , have strong tidal currents and mixing. Coastal lagoons tend to accumulate sediments from inflowing rivers, from runoff from the shores of the lagoon, and from sediment carried into the lagoon through inlets by the tide. Large quantities of sediment may be occasionally be deposited in a lagoon when storm waves overwash barrier islands. Mangroves and marsh plants can facilitate

648-566: The cattle grazed by the Lozi, but they have provided a large game reserve on the dry grassland to the west, the Liuwa Plain National Park , once the Litunga's hunting grounds, established as a game reserve by Lewanika in the 19th century. In addition the entire western of the Zambezi within the country is a Game Management Area. About 250,000 people live on the plain with a similar number of cattle, migrating to grasslands at

684-626: The context of a distinctive portion of coral reef ecosystems, the term "lagoon" is synonymous with the term "back reef" or "backreef", which is more commonly used by coral reef scientists to refer to the same area. Many lagoons do not include "lagoon" in their common names. Currituck , Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds in North Carolina , Great South Bay between Long Island and the barrier beaches of Fire Island in New York , Isle of Wight Bay , which separates Ocean City, Maryland from

720-551: The culture and way of life of the Lozi people , "Rotse" being a variant of Lozi , and "Ba" meaning "people". They became a powerful kingdom in Central / Southern Africa under their king or litunga Lewanika , whose realm extended up to 300 km from the plain and was called Barotseland . The region is a flat plateau at an elevation of about 1000 m, tilting very slightly to the south. The Zambezi and its headwaters rise on

756-510: The east and south, and patches of evergreen forest ( Cryptosepalum dry forests ) in the north and east. The flood provides aquatic habitats for fish such as tigerfish and bream , crocodiles , hippopotamus , waterbirds, fish-eating birds, and lechwe , the wading antelope . After the flood, the plain is a habitat for grazing animals such as wildebeest , zebra , tsessebe and small antelope such oribi and steenbok , and their predators. These herbivores have been displaced in most areas by

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792-405: The edge of the floodplain when the flood arrives. The floodplain is one of the most productive areas for raising cattle in the country. The Lozi also catch fish, eating about five times as much as the national average. At the height of the flood they use fish traps and spears for fishing, and they use gill nets in the lagoons left behind by the falling flood. Fish spawn just before the flood,

828-454: The first floodwaters are naturally hypoxic (low in oxygen) which kills most fish, while eggs survive. The Lozi cultivate crops on the floodplain such as maize , rice , sweet potato , and sugar cane . November to January are lean months. Stored produce from the previous growing season is almost used up and in any case would need to be transported during the migration, while the new season's crops and grasses are not yet productive, and at

864-604: The flood as well as humus from vegetation killed by the initial flood, and from decaying aquatic plants left to dry out in the mud. It provides a good soil, but in the late dry season it bakes hard in the heat of the sun. As the floods recede, water is left behind in lagoons, swamps, and oxbow lakes . The floodplain is in the Zambezian flooded grasslands ecoregion , and is bordered by slightly higher sandy ground on which grow dry grasslands ( Western Zambezian grasslands ) with woodland savanna ( Zambezian Baikiaea woodlands ) to

900-649: The flood is celebrated in the Kuomboka ceremony held at Mongu, capital of Barotseland and its successor, the Western Province. In the occasional very wet year such as 2005, lives and property are lost in floods on the Barotse Plain. More often, however, it is a very good example of the principle that natural annual flooding by rivers is valuable and productive for wildlife and human populations, while damming rivers to control floods, as has happened with

936-597: The generic word for a still lake or pond. In Vietnamese, Đầm san hô refers to an atoll lagoon, whilst Đầm phá is coastal. In Latin America, the term laguna in Spanish, which lagoon translates to, may be used for a small fresh water lake in a similar way a creek is considered a small river. However, sometimes it is popularly used to describe a full-sized lake , such as Laguna Catemaco in Mexico, which

972-462: The higher ground to the north, which enjoys good rainfall (1400 mm annually) in a rainy season from October to May. A flood moves down the river, reaching a flat region formed from Kalahari sands, about five hundred kilometres across. To the south, around the Ngonye Falls , harder rock is found at the surface and has resisted the river's tendency to cut a channel down into it, and so acts

1008-630: The lagoon. Lagoons with little or no interchange with the open ocean, little or no inflow of fresh water, and high evaporation rates, such as Lake St. Lucia , in South Africa , may become highly saline. Lagoons with no connection to the open ocean and significant inflow of fresh water, such as the Lake Worth Lagoon in Florida in the middle of the 19th century, may be entirely fresh. On the other hand, lagoons with many wide inlets, such as

1044-556: The land along the coast). Coastal lagoons do not form along steep or rocky coasts, or if the range of tides is more than 4 metres (13 ft). Due to the gentle slope of the coast, coastal lagoons are shallow. A relative drop in sea level may leave a lagoon largely dry, while a rise in sea level may let the sea breach or destroy barrier islands, and leave reefs too deep underwater to protect the lagoon. Coastal lagoons are young and dynamic, and may be short-lived in geological terms. Coastal lagoons are common, occurring along nearly 15 percent of

1080-622: The peak of the rainy season in January–February. The flood usually peaks in April, and recedes in May to July, when grasses quickly grow on the exposed plain. At the river's lowest water in November the floodplain still contains about 537 km of lagoons , swamps and channels. The flood leaves behind a fertile grey to black soil overlaying the Kalahari sands, enriched by silt deposited by

1116-407: The reefs remain above sea level. Unlike the lagoons that form shoreward of fringing reefs, atoll lagoons often contain some deep (>20 m (66 ft)) portions. Coastal lagoons form along gently sloping coasts where barrier islands or reefs can develop offshore, and the sea-level is rising relative to the land along the shore (either because of an intrinsic rise in sea-level, or subsidence of

Lungwebungu River - Misplaced Pages Continue

1152-627: The rest of Worcester County, Maryland , Banana River in Florida , US, Lake Illawarra in New South Wales , Australia, Montrose Basin in Scotland , and Broad Water in Wales have all been classified as lagoons, despite their names. In England, The Fleet at Chesil Beach has also been described as a lagoon. In some languages the word for a lagoon is simply a type of lake: In Chinese

1188-630: The road height and to increase the number and size of culverts , and this in turn led to funding problems. The road has been completed in 2016. A Chinese contractor, the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC International), finished the 286.9 million US dollars project. The road stretches 34 Kilometres in the Baroste plains with 26 bridges across it. 15°2′S 22°53′E  /  15.033°S 22.883°E  / -15.033; 22.883 Lagoon A lagoon

1224-408: The same time fishing stops for the spawning season. Hunting and trapping animals, which might have filled the gap, is no longer available to most people, and trapping waterbirds is one of the few alternatives to buying flour. The floodplain determines and dominates the way of life, economy, society and culture of the Lozi, who are skilled boat-builders, paddlers and swimmers. The annual migration with

1260-522: The world's shorelines. In the United States, lagoons are found along more than 75 percent of the Eastern and Gulf Coasts . Coastal lagoons can be classified as leaky, restricted, or choked. Coastal lagoons are usually connected to the open ocean by inlets between barrier islands. The number and size of the inlets, precipitation, evaporation, and inflow of fresh water all affect the nature of

1296-582: The world. Lagoons are shallow, often elongated bodies of water separated from a larger body of water by a shallow or exposed shoal , coral reef , or similar feature. Some authorities include fresh water bodies in the definition of "lagoon", while others explicitly restrict "lagoon" to bodies of water with some degree of salinity . The distinction between "lagoon" and "estuary" also varies between authorities. Richard A. Davis Jr. restricts "lagoon" to bodies of water with little or no fresh water inflow, and little or no tidal flow, and calls any bay that receives

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