Sustainable development and climate resilience in the Cubango-Okavango River Basin
Overview
The project, commissioned by the World Bank, supports sustainable development and climate resilience in one of the most ecologically important transboundary basins in southern Africa, shared by Angola, Namibia, and Botswana.
The programme seeks to identify strategies that strengthen local livelihoods while safeguarding the basin’s water resources and ecosystems, including the Okavango Delta.
To achieve this, the project combines hydrological, ecological, and socio-economic analyses to understand how climate change, water use, and development pressures may affect the basin.
The project also develops scenarios and investment options that help decision-makers prioritize interventions that enhance resilience, protect ecosystem services, and support sustainable economic opportunities for local communities.
Case Study Area
Cubango Okavango River Basin (CORB)
The Cubango-Okavango River Basin (CORB) is a transboundary basin with a network of river systems traversing through Angola, Botswana and Namibia.
The CORB is approximately 700,000 square kilometers in size, but derives its principal flow from 120,000 square kilometers of sub-humid and semi-arid rangeland in the Cuando Cubango Province of Angola.
The Cubango-Okavango stretches for approximately 1,100 kms and is drained by the Cubango (referred to as Kavango in Namibia and Okavango in Botswana).
The Cubango-Okavango River forms the boundary of Namibia and Angola, before flowing into Botswana and spilling into the Okavango Delta.
The CORB is internationally important for its biodiversity and biological productivity.
The Okavango Delta is the best-known feature of the CORB. It is one of the largest Ramsar Sites in the world.
The Delta was declared a World Heritage site under the UNESCO convention in 2014. With its high variety of habitat types which supports high diversity of biological life forms, it remains one of the most important areas for biodiversity conservation in the world.
IIASA Team
Carla Catania
Researcher (WAT)
Taher Kahil
Research Group Leader and Senior Research Scholar (WAT)
Within the project, IIASA contributes primarily to the technical analysis of the basin’s water system and natural capital.
In collaboration with the other project teams, we will apply hydrological modelling, water-economic analysis, and scenario-based stress testing to evaluate how the basin’s water resources and ecosystem services may respond to future climate and socio-economic changes.
The results feed into the prioritization of adaptation strategies and investment options that can strengthen climate resilience while sustaining water-dependent livelihoods across the basin.
The work will include:
- a valuation of the water-dependent Natural Capital Estimate in the CORB
- estimating the the present and future value of natural capital (water dependant) and determining the dynamics of the water-ecosystem relationship
- carbon sink potential analysis for the CORB under different scenarios and the primary channels of carbon capture.
- exploring opportunities for Payments for Ecosystem Services
- Vulnerability Assessment of the CORB Water System (ecologic-hydrologic-socioeconomic)
Partners
The work is carried out in collaboration with OKACOM (Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission), the basin’s transboundary river basin organization representing Angola, Namibia, and Botswana. OKACOM is a key stakeholder in the project and supports the work through coordination with national institutions and the provision of basin data.
IIASA models, tools or data being used on this project
Funding
The project is funded by the World Bank.