River
Luangwa River
770 km from source to mouth · Zambia.
ZambiaFlows into Zambezi River2nd longest in Zambia
In numbers
Length
770km
Average flow
720m³/s
Basin
145,700km²
Drop
800m
from 1,127 m to 327 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
770 km of river and 2 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,127 m
- 656 kmLuangwa Bridge
- 723 kmLuangwa9,187 people
- 770 kmZambezi Riverat 327 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Zambia
At the mouth it carries 716 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 3.5 seconds. It drops from 1,127 m to 327 m, 1.0 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 145,700 km², about the size of BD. 2.4 million people live in it. Highest water: from February to March; lowest: from July to October. Its dams hold back little of its water (6.9% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- LuangwaLargest city on its banks · 9,187 people
- Kariba Airport (KAB)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 192 km from the cityCar hire at LUN airport (Lusaka)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water3 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Luangwa River, month by month
Highest water: from February to March
Lowest water: from July to October. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 97 m³/s in the lowest month to 2,000 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
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The basin
Luangwa River: the basin in numbers
149,540 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 2.4millionpeople live in the basin
- 16/km²people per km²
- 951maverage altitude of the basin
- 932mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 21.9°Caverage air temperature
- 47%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
- 1.6km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 48% Forest
- 8% Cropland
- 41% Pasture
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Luangwa River: what you find on the way
- 1Boat ramps
- 2Ferry piersMwanja Pontoon
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.5 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Luangwa River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
5mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (5)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Mafinga Central2.2 km away2,339m
- Chisitu Hill15 km away
- Kaumbe Hill5.3 km away
- Mafinga South5.3 km away
- Namitowa4.0 km away
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Luangwa River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Zambezi River
Mozambique2,574 km7,000 m³/sTributaries (2)
Also: Lunsemfwa River, Mansha
Namibia
MalawiWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1321671) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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