This book is a social-ecological system description and feedback analysis of the Lake Tana
Basin the headwater catchment of the Upper Blue Nile River. This basin is an important local
national and international resource and concern about its sustainable development is growing
at many levels. Lake Tana Basin outflows of water sediments nutrients and contaminants
affect water that flows downstream in the Blue Nile across international boundaries into the
Nile River the lake and surrounding land have recently been proposed as a UNESCO Biosphere
Reserve the basin has been designated as a key national economic growth corridor in the
Ethiopian Growth and Transformation Plan. In spite of the Lake Tana Basin's importance there
is no comprehensive integrated system-wide description of its characteristics and dynamics
that can serve as a basis for its sustainable development. This book presents both the social
and ecological characteristics of the region and an integrated system-wide perspective of the
feedback links that shape social and ecological change in the basin. Finally it summarizes key
research needs for sustainable development.
