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Bangweulu — 'where the water sky meets the sky' — is one of the world's great wetland systems, comprising ''Lake Bangweulu'', the ''Bangweulu Swamps'' and the ''Bangweulu Flats'' or floodplain.〔Camerapix: ''Spectrum Guide to Zambia.'' Camerapix International Publishing, Nairobi, 1996.〕 Situated in the upper Congo River basin in Zambia, the Bangweulu system covers an almost completely flat area roughly the size of Connecticut or East Anglia, at an elevation of 1,140 m straddling Zambia's Luapula Province and Northern Province. It is crucial to the economy and biodiversity of northern Zambia, and to the birdlife of a much larger region, and faces environmental stress and conservation issues.〔Halls, A.J. (ed.), 1997. "Wetlands, Biodiversity and the Ramsar Convention: The Role of the Convention on Wetlands in the Conservation and Wise Use of Biodiversity". Ramsar Convention Bureau, Gland, Switzerland〕 With a long axis of 75 km and a width of up to 40 km, Lake Bangweulu's permanent open water surface is about 3,000 km², which expands when its swamps and floodplains are in flood at the end of the rainy season in May. The combined area of the lake and wetlands reaches 15,000 km². The lake has an average depth of only 4 m.〔Google Earth (http://earth.google.com) accessed 31 January 2007.〕〔(ILEC Data Summary: Lake Bangweulu. ) Website accessed 30 January 2007〕 The Bangweulu system is fed by about seventeen rivers of which the Chambeshi (the source of the Congo River) is the largest, and is drained by the Luapula River.〔 ==Sections of Lake Bangweulu== :''Numbers in round brackets like so — (12) — refer to locations on the satellite image''. A notable feature of the Bangweulu system is a series of parallel sandy ridges running south-west to north-east. These are particularly striking in satellite photographs and are easily seen along the north-western shore, the Lifunge Peninsula ''(2)'', Mbalala Island ''(3)'', Chilubi Island ''(6)'', and the Kapata Peninsula ''(10)''. They divide the lake into three sections parallel to its main axis. One divides off a section called Lake Chifunabuli ''(1)'', 50 km long but only 5 km wide. Its entrance through a gap in the sand spits (at the end of Lifunge Peninsula) is only 250 m wide. Another sandy ridge, Mbabala Island, divides off a section called Lake Walilupe ''(4)'', 30 km long by 13 km wide. The main, middle section of the lake between Ifunge and Mbabala is known only as Bangweulu.〔(NRZAM.org website: Directorate of Colonial Surveys: ''Map of Bangweulu Swamps'' (1952). ) Accessed 24 April 2007.〕 There are numerous bays, inlets, smaller lakes and lagoons around Lake Bangweulu, connected by open water, narrow channels or swamps. The largest is Lake Kampolombo ''(9)'', 30 km by 5 km, south of Lake Walilupe and connected to it by a 7 km channel. The 32 km long Kapata Peninsula lies between Lake Kampolombo and the swamps; at its tip on the eastern side is the 15 km long Lake Kangwena ''(11)''.〔 Only the western side of the lake and some of the islands have a well defined shore, with sandy beaches in places especially around Samfya, though even there, some of the bays and inlets are swampy.〔〔Terracarta/International Travel Maps, Vancouver Canada: "Zambia, 2nd edition", 2000〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lake Bangweulu」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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