Hydrologic classification of Tanzanian rivers to support national water resource policy

Classifying rivers into homogeneous categories based on hydrological and/or environmental attributes supports the implementation of flows to sustain aquatic ecosystems and support resource needs society. Hydrological classifications provide decision-makers with a pragmatic number water management units by grouping individual or river segments expected exhibit similar biophysical responses flow alteration. Such are particularly useful across broad geographies in data-limited contexts, such as Tanzania, where legal requirement implement for all major waterbodies remains constrained scant data. We present two-level classification Tanzanian basins Rufiji River Basin. For Basin, largest basin country, we performed an inductive availability long-term time series daily average discharge. clustered 28 gauging stations seven classes according ecologically relevant metrics used boosted trees predict class 95,909 that influence regimes. In absence consistent, readily-available gauged data, conducted deductive whereby were directly grouped multivariate similarity using same attributes. This analysis revealed 10 reflecting diversity ecohydrological conditions characterizing 486,681 draining out Tanzania. The new presented here foundation guide practices within policy framework