Sediment yield in Africa

Spatial variation in SY at the continental scale is mainly explained by differences in seismic activity, topography, vegetation cover and annual runoff depth. Other factors such as lithology, catchment area or reservoir impacts showed less clear correlations. The results of these analyses are discussed and compared with findings from other studies. Based on our results, we propose a simple regression model to simulate SY in Africa. Although this model has a relatively low predictive accuracy (40%), it simulates the overall patterns of the observed SY values well. Potential explanations for the unexplained variance are discussed and suggestions for further research that may contribute to a better understanding of SY in Africa are made.