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Thrust 2: Management of Natural and Human-induced Impacts on Water Resources
Research in this thrust focuses on developing
appropriate quantitative understanding, tools and
strategies for managing the impacts of climate
variability and change as well as human interventions on
the hydrological cycle and related water resources, with
the aim of supporting the development of policy
responses, at regional, national or catchment scale, to
existing and emerging problems. This includes
development of systems (e.g. river flow and inundation
forecast models, drought impact monitoring systems) for
managing floods and droughts. The focus in this thrust
is on the prediction of climate change consequences, the
mitigation of floods and droughts and the effects of
those on the resources and the people who rely on these
resources, with special emphasis on the health impacts
from microbial contaminants.
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Programme 1: Developing
predictive tools and adaptive measures to global
climate change |
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The need to prepare the country to cope with global climate change is of paramount and strategic importance. Taking the view that water is South Africa’s key resource implies the need to adapt water resource management progressively as global climate change progresses, in order to maintain optimal levels of both resource protection and beneficial use of water for society. The development of coping strategies will require the development of informed, quantitative scenarios of potential impacts at regional and catchment level on rainfall regimes and rainfall variability, hydrological and geohydrological regimes, water availability and reliability, water quality, ecosystem structure and functions and ecological processes. The following key questions thus need to be considered and addressed in this programme: What confidence can be placed in current GCM-generated scenarios of global climate change? How reliable are current techniques for downscaling of scenarios from global to regional and catchment scales? At which point will anthropogenic climate change in the Southern Africa context become detectable and distinguishable from natural climate variability and which monitoring systems need to be in place in this regard? How will the frequency and magnitude of extreme rainfall and flow events be affected? Can existing conceptual and numerical models utilise global change-related, downscaled, hydro-climatic information effectively, to provide information regarding likely inter-related land-use, ecosystem, hydrological (including geohydrological), water yield and water quality changes at regional/catchment level? How will existing management strategies and tools need to be adapted? What are the main socio-economic impacts likely to be, given the structure of society in Southern Africa, and what are appropriate technological, social and political coping strategies? |
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Programme 2: Human-induced
impacts |
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Various kinds of human activities can influence the quantity, quality, reliability and ecological health of water resources, including activities which take place in other environmental compartments within the hydrological cycle. This programme includes research to improve our ability to assess, evaluate and predict the effects on surface and groundwater resources of human activities and human-induced impacts, with a view to developing strategies for management and mitigation of health impacts. |
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Programme 3: Integrated
flood and drought management |
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Flooding and drought are major natural hazards to human society and have important influences on social and economic development. This programme focuses on research that will result in the development and implementation of integrated institutional frameworks and technological tools to reduce and combat floods and their negative effects while enhancing positive flooding patterns that are important to the natural ecosystem. Research related to drought management will focus on integrated tools and strategies for early identification and mitigation of the social and economic impacts of drought, with the aim of supporting collaborative, multi-institutional processes and programmes. |
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KSA 1: Water Resource Management