A Review of Techniques of Low Stream Flow Analysis for the Yobe River Basin, North-Eastern Nigeria

Alkali A.N1 and Dan’Azumi S2

1Department of Civil and Water Resources Engineering, University of Maiduguri
2Department of Civil Engineering, Bayero University, Kano

*Corresponding author’s Email: abdulhamidalkali.aa@unimaid.edu.ng doi.org/10.55639/607.02010059


ABSTRACT

The Yobe River Basin, situated in the semi-arid region of Africa, has
experienced low river flows attributed to climate variability, high infiltration rates and obstruction of river channel capacity by weeds such as Typha Australis. These low stream flows have reduced the volumes of water from rivers, directly affecting water availability, distribution, ecosystem and crop failures, leading to significant food security concerns and financial losses. Particularly in the Yobe River Basin, mitigatory interventions have been hampered by insecurity challenges prevalent in the region for almost two decades, leading to inconsistencies in available data for policy making and management. Several techniques are available depending upon purpose, data requirement and hydrological characteristics. The climatic variability, data insufficiency and the need for water supply planning and management of the Yobe River Basin stress the need for the combination of two or more methods of analysis. The PRMS and PREMHYCE application packages have shown promise in their applications for watersheds of varying locations, coupled with the threshold level method. Data inconsistencies are recommended to be treated using climatic/hydrological indices such as the TSI, which integrates both Precipitation and Streamflow, making it more predictive.

Keywords:

Low flows,
Yobe River,
Hydrological,
Streamflow,
Index.