https://phys.org/news/2018-05-climate-impacts-fragile-river-ecosystems.html

Dr. David Milan, University of Hull, principal investigator for the project said, "We are primarily interested in trying to understand how these large bedrock-influenced river channels respond to large floods. From comparing our LiDAR models between 2012 and 2004, we have calculated that the 2012 event alone removed almost 1.25 million tonnes of sediment from the river bed. We also found that patches of mature riparian forest that survived larger floods in 2000 were removed by the 2012 floods. There is a suggestion that the frequency of large flood events is increasing due to climate change, and our analysis of river channel morphology for a 50 km length of the Sabie River shows us that these rivers need timespans longer than a decade to recover."

The UK group has concerns over the impacts of the geomorphological changes happening in the KNP rivers. Drylands are known to be some of the regions most vulnerable to climate change, and some climate model predictions suggest increased landfall for cyclones over South Africa.