The aim of the present study was to experimentally examine soil moisture Dynamics in the alluvial fill and the aquifer response to a flood in the Kuiseb River in Namibia. With a length of 560 km, the ephemeral Kuiseb river drains a catchment of approximately 14,700 km2 in west-central Namibia. The rainfall in the catchment declines from a mean annual rainfall of ~350 mm in the headwaters at ~2000 m asl, to near zero at the coast (JACOBSON 1997). Keywords: climate, water sampling, vegetation, temperature, flood water, groundwater.