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• Is one of South Africa’s largest, and least impacted floodplain systems, 70 km in length, 7 km at widest and, when wholly inundated, about 16 000 ha in extent
• Is located in South Africa’s Limpopo Province; it forms the headwaters of the Mogkalakwena River, one of the Limpopo River’s larger tributaries
• The floodplain stretches from south-west to north-east across the western edge of the Springbok Flats, lying alongside the eastern foothills of the Waterberg plateau - this plateau is the source-area for the floodplain’s water
• There are about a dozen streams and rivers that bring water from the Waterberg onto the floodplain; the largest of these are the Klein Nyl, the Groot Nyl and the Olifantsspruit; the last named is the most consistent and reliable in this respect.
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• Run-off from the Waterberg is determined by how much rain falls in the catchment - usually an above-average amount of rain is required to produce a significant flood event and, in below-average rainfall years, there may be no flooding at all
• When flooding occurs, it usually happens in the second half of summer, the water typically reaching the floodplain in late January or February - but no two years are the same as to when it floods, or how large an area is flooded; in some years the first floodwater arrives in December, in other years it may be as late as March
• On average, there is a complete inundation (of 16 000 ha) about once every ten years; no flooding, on average, three times in ten years and some flooding occurs in six out of ten years; the last big flood was in the 1995/96 summer; there is also a longer-term cyclic pattern - the 1960s and 1980s, for example, had more dry summers and fewer flood years than the 1970s and 1990s
• Nylsvley Nature Reserve, which covers an area of 3975 ha, straddles the floodplain and provides statuary protection for about 700 ha of the wetland; the remainder of the floodplain, and all of its catchment in the adjacent hills is on privately-owned farmland
• Nylsvley is a proclaimed Ramsar Site, a wetland designated as being of international importance for wildfowl; it was the research site for the acclaimed Savanna Biome Programme (1974-1990); and it is designated as an Important Bird Area by Birdlife South Africa
•The areas fringing the floodplain in the Reserve consist of a mosaic of acacia savanna and broad-leaved woodlands |
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