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Institute of Hydrology, Maclean Building, Wallingford, Oxon, OX10 8BB, UK
Basement complex rocks occur extensively throughout Africa and experience a wide range of climatic conditions. Over much of the continent, potential evaporation exceeds rainfall and runoff is consequently limited. Much of the continent is short of reliable water supplies, and hence understanding the hydrological behaviour of river basins throughout this important region of Africa is of vital importance to the development of the area.
There is a considerable body of rainfall and river flow data throughout the continent of Africa, but whilst climatic data has been collated and analysed on the regional or continental scale, river flow data has been analysed only at the national or sub-regional scale.
An attempt is made here to summarize the hydrological characteristics of those regions of Africa having outcrops of basement complex rocks, illustrating general observations with the results of detailed analyses of available data from Malawi and Zimbabwe. It is suggested that the results of studies in these two countries may be of wider benefit to workers in southern and eastern Africa in particular.
