Impact of climate variability on hydrology of Lake Hawassa, Ethiopia

One of the most signi¿cant and broadly impacting effects of climate variability on lakes is the changes in water level. Such changes re¿ect an alteration of the lake water balance, which can result from changes in: precipitation, surface runoff, groundwater ¿ow, and evaporation from the lake surface. The water in a lake is balanced by the basic hydrological relationship in which the change in water storage is governed by the water input and output to the system.In the 1960s, lakes throughout East Africa were rising resulting from a series of remarkably wet years. The spatial extent and the magnitude of fluctuations were considered as a signal to major global climate change. African lakes are known to be very sensitive to climate variations with special sensitivity of closed lakes. The impact of non-climatic factors on water level variability was also reported by different scholars. In this book, you will read about the effect of climate variability, specifically, ENSO phenomena on the hydrological status of Lake Hawassa, Ethiopia. The role of sedimentation is also addressed.