资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

In this paper, the hydrological dynamics of the Congo River Basin (CRB) have been analyzed. This is achieved using multi‐angular and dual polarization passive L‐band microwave signal from the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite to estimate water surface extent dynamics from 2010 to 2017. The results provide new insights into the poorly characterized wetlands, peatlands and floodplains dynamics of the CRB. We found that the mean flooded area for the entire CRB is equal to 89,408 ± 20,623 km² corresponding to 2.39% of the entire basin. The results were compared with three land cover maps (ESA‐CCI, IGBP and GSWO) and the SWAMPS global dynamic water surfaces product. More inland waters were detected than the four previous products, except along the rivers. Floods and droughts during the last ten years were also depicted. The knowledge about the CRB hydrological behavior was improved by analyzing the date of maximum floods, the time lag in days between precipitation, water surface extent and river water height at the outlet of the nine major Congo sub‐basin. A lag of 67 days +/‐ 3 days between rainfall and inundated areas was found in the Upper Congo (r=0.89). In the Kasai sub‐basin, no time lag between rainfall and inundation was found (r=0.86). The contribution of each floodplain to the Congo discharge was also evaluated. In the future, the fusion of the current surface waters with water heights from the SWOT mission can provide further information to the water volumes of the CRB floodplains.