ABSTRACT
The landscape of central and southern Africa is dominated by two basins: the low lying Congo Basin and the elevated Kalahari Basin (consisting of the Cubango and Zambezi basins). A remarkable feature of south-central Africa is that headwaters of these two large rivers, which flow in opposite directions, do not originate in a mountain range. Rather the Congo-Kalahari Watershed is a composite landscape feature that includes mountainous, wetland, plateau and flat land with the headwaters of the rivers being interleaved. This study makes use of Landsat 7 ETM+ imagery and SRTM data to investigate the geomorphology of the sub-continental region of the Congo-Kalahari Watershed. We present a series of longitudinal profiles of selected rivers, some for the first time, from the Congo-Kalahari Watershed as well as the topographic profile of the watershed itself. The topographic evidence suggest that the both the Congo and Kalahari Basins are multistage landscapes having zones of late Neogene modification and rejuvenation adjacent to landforms that appear to be highly stable and of likely Early Cenozoic in origin. This is evidenced both in the river profiles themselves as well as the topographic cross-section of the watershed.
