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Supporting social learning and knowledge management withing the ecological infrastructure for water security project

- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Cockburn, Jessica J, Rosenberg, Eureta, le Roux, Liesl, Zwinkels, Marijn, Mbaniwa, Wenzile, Ward, Mike, Brownell, Faye, Sithole, Nkosigithandile, Makhaya, Zanele, Mponwana, Maletje, du Plessis, Pienaar

Using Citizen Science to Protect Natural Untreated Drinking Water Sources: Natural Springs in Rural Catchments and B3 Municipalities in the Eastern Cape

- Mtati, Nosi, Chetty, Preven, Norman, Yondela, Mvulane, Paulose, Libala, Notiswa, Weaver, Matthew J T, Wolff, Margaret M, Cockburn, Jessica J, Mazibuko, Thembalani

  • Authors: Mtati, Nosi , Chetty, Preven , Norman, Yondela , Mvulane, Paulose , Libala, Notiswa , Weaver, Matthew J T , Wolff, Margaret M , Cockburn, Jessica J , Mazibuko, Thembalani
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , book
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/425732 , vital:72279 , ISBN 978-0-6392-0550-2 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/3097 final.pdf
  • Description: Citizen science is a well-known mechanism used by researchers to col-lect scientific data working together with citizens. It can also be used by interested and concerned citizens (social activists regarding environ-mental threats) to protect natural occurring things like biodiversity, rare species that are threatened extension and much more. It can be a natu-ral occurring process that evolves with time but it can also have some guidelines of how to monitor, collect, analyse and disseminate data. In this project we used participatory action research processes to co-develop tools (co-create being one of the types of citizen science) with local communities, using their knowledge of their area to monitor and protect natural springs. Springs are useful for providing drinking water for people but also for livestock. In rural areas and small towns where service delivery is not reliable, natural occurring water sources become the reliable supply for these communities. Springs also provide ecosys-tem services as they are a keystone ecological infrastructure. These natural water sources can be threatened by pollution, especially that of livestock which is mostly unattended, because they are sometimes shared by people and animals. This poses health risks to the users. This study co-developed the “spring protection and sustainable use” tool/s that can be used to guide communities and local government on how to protect these important water sources. Citizen science also cre-ates opportunities for learning to take place among the participants as well as the researchers involved.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Alignment, scaling and resourcing of citizen-based water quality monitoring Initiatives

- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Ward, Mike, Taylor, Jim, Vallabh, Priya, Madiba, Morakane, Graham, P Mark, Louw, Adrienne J, Brownell, Faye

  • Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Ward, Mike , Taylor, Jim , Vallabh, Priya , Madiba, Morakane , Graham, P Mark , Louw, Adrienne J , Brownell, Faye
  • Date: 2022
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , report
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/435729 , vital:73195 , ISBN 978-0-6392-0344-7 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/2854%20final.pdf
  • Description: This action-oriented research project seeks to address the policy-practice contradiction that exists between commit-ments and requirements for citizen engagement and in-volvement in Integrated Water Quality Management (IWQM) and a lack of sustainable support for scaling high quality Citi-zen-based Water Quality Monitoring (CBWQM) practices that exist in South Africa.
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  • Date Issued: 2022

AMANZI For Food

- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Pesanayi, Tichaona, Sisitka, Lawrence, Metelerkamp, Luke, Chakona, Gamuchirai, van Staden, Wilma, Durr, Sarah, Matiwane, Mandelive, Maqwelane, Lwanda, Conde-Aller, Laura, Shawarire, Patience

Case Study For Linking Water Quality License Conditions With Resource Quality Objectives For The Leeutaaiboschspruit Industrial Complex Situated Within The Vaal Barrage Catchment Volume 1

- Odume, Oghenekaro N, Slaughter, Andrew R, Griffin, Neil J, Chili, Asanda

  • Authors: Odume, Oghenekaro N , Slaughter, Andrew R , Griffin, Neil J , Chili, Asanda
  • Date: 2021
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , report
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/438074 , vital:73433 , ISBN 978-0-6392-0224-2 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/TT 838-1 final web.pdf
  • Description: In South Africa, the resource-directed measures (RDM) and the source-directed con-trols (SDC) are the two complementary strategies designed to ensure that water resources are used and protected. The RDM are directed at water resources to en-sure their protection, and include the Water Resource Classification System (WRCS), the classification of every significant water resource, the determination of the re-serve and the setting of resource quality objectives (RQOs). On the other hand, the SDC are measures imposed to restrict and control the use of water resources, not only in terms of ensuring water resource protection, but also in terms of ensuring that water resources are equitably allocated and are used efficiently. Water use li-cencing (WUL) is an example of an SDC instrument.
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  • Date Issued: 2021

The Role of Ecological Infrastructure (EI) in Mitigating the Impacts of Droughts

- Mantel, Sukhmani K, Xoxo, Sinetemba, Mahlaba, Bawinile, Tanner, Jane L, Le Maître, David

  • Authors: Mantel, Sukhmani K , Xoxo, Sinetemba , Mahlaba, Bawinile , Tanner, Jane L , Le Maître, David
  • Date: 2021
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , report
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/438209 , vital:73443 , ISBN 978-0-6392-0304-1 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/2928_web.pdf
  • Description: To explain how well-managed ecological infrastructure can help to miti-gate the impacts of droughts on human livelihoods and well-being and to propose strategic responses that will maintain and enhance the value of this service that people will embrace and implement.
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  • Date Issued: 2021

Towards The Quantification Of The Historical And Future Water Resources Of The Limpopo River

- Kapangaziwiri, Evison, Kahinda, Jean-Marc M, Oosthuizen, Nadia, Mvandaba, Vuyelwa, Hobbs, Philip, Hughes, Denis A

  • Authors: Kapangaziwiri, Evison , Kahinda, Jean-Marc M , Oosthuizen, Nadia , Mvandaba, Vuyelwa , Hobbs, Philip , Hughes, Denis A
  • Date: 2021
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , report
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/438349 , vital:73453 , ISBN 978-0-6392-0303-4 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/2439_final.pdf
  • Description: The complexity of current water resource management poses many challenges. Wa-ter managers must solve a range of interrelated dilemmas – such as balancing quan-tity and quality, mitigating the effects of flooding and drought, and maintaining bio-diversity, ecological functions, and services. Sustainable water resource manage-ment, planning, and development requires reliable quantification of the amount, distribution, and quality of water within river basins. With the demand for water resources rapidly growing across the globe, there is also an urgent need for accu-rate monitoring, forecasting and simulation of hydrologic variables – especially in major (often transboundary) river basins such as the Limpopo – not only for optimal water resources management but more compellingly, also for water security, food security, power generation, and economic development. However, the available data are frequently far from sufficient – in terms of availability, accuracy, and spa-tial/temporal resolution – for the understanding of both natural and anthropogenic processes (and their complex linkages) in a river basin. Such challenges also make it very difficult to use the data for the practical application of estimation of water resources availability.
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  • Date Issued: 2021

Impacts of Climate Change in Determining the Ecological Reserve

- Tanner, Jane L, Griffin, Neil J, Slaughter, Andrew R, Mantel, Sukhmani K, Dabula, Pumza, Hughes, Denis A, Wolff, Margaret G

  • Authors: Tanner, Jane L , Griffin, Neil J , Slaughter, Andrew R , Mantel, Sukhmani K , Dabula, Pumza , Hughes, Denis A , Wolff, Margaret G
  • Date: 2020
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , report
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/438128 , vital:73437 , ISBN 978-0-6392-0124-5 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/2834 final.pdf
  • Description: The intermediate and long-term impacts of climate change require evaluation of the adaptive capacity of the riverine ecosystems to pro-mote sustainability. The predicted climate change impacts are the moti-vation behind the current research which targets the knowledge gap of the impacts of climate change on the ecological Reserve (or Ecological Water Requirements [EWR]). In order for the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) to meet their mandate to protect aquatic ecosystems, given the constraints of climate change, it is necessary to take cogni-sance of the implications of climate change and to make the necessary adjustments and changes to the ecological Reserve determination methodology. These adjustments will help ensure that sufficient water, at the right time, distributed in the right flow pattern and of adequate quality is provided, so that key ecological processes are sustained, and that biotic communities maintain their health and integrity.
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  • Date Issued: 2020

Benchmarking a Decision Support System for Aquatic Toxicity Testing

- Griffin, Neil J, Odume, Oghenekaro N, Mensah, Paul K, Palmer, Carolyn G

  • Authors: Griffin, Neil J , Odume, Oghenekaro N , Mensah, Paul K , Palmer, Carolyn G
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , report
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437798 , vital:73413 , ISBN 978-0-6392-0108-5 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/2445_final1.pdf
  • Description: This book was written for the catchment management forum (CMF) in the Upper Komati Forum (UKF), and they share their experience in order to help other CMFs understand the damage coal mining does to our water resources. This booklet should be used with How to think and act in ways that make Adaptive IWRM practi-cally possible and How to establish and run a Catchment Management Forum.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

How to engage with challenges facing Water and Sanitation Services (WSS) in small municipalities

- Clifford-Holmes, Jai K, Carnohan, Shane, Slinger, Jill W, Palmer, Carolyn G

  • Authors: Clifford-Holmes, Jai K , Carnohan, Shane , Slinger, Jill W , Palmer, Carolyn G
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , report
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437869 , vital:73418 , ISBN 978-1 4312-0988-0 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/SP 120-18 web.pdf
  • Description: Smaller South African municipalities have many urgent calls on their resources AT THE SAME TIME. • The need to pay salaries is sometimes more important than other concerns. • It is not always clear how different problems affect each other. • It is difficult to decide what to do each day. • There are always urgent crises to attend to. • There are many meetings to attend. • Operational and political priorities can be different. Thinking of, and talking about your municipality as a SYSTEM will help you to ACT in ways that reduce the impact of these issues. This handbook relates specifically to water and sanitation issues.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

How to engage with coal mines through Catchment Management Forums

- Munnik, Victor, Holleman, Helen, Wolff, Margaret G, Palmer, Carolyn G

  • Authors: Munnik, Victor , Holleman, Helen , Wolff, Margaret G , Palmer, Carolyn G
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , report
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437882 , vital:73419 , ISBN 978-1 4312-0990-3 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/SP 122-18 web.pdf
  • Description: This book was written for the catchment management forum (CMF) in the Upper Komati Forum (UKF), and they share their experience in order to help other CMFs understand the damage coal mining does to our water resources. This booklet should be used with How to think and act in ways that make Adaptive IWRM practically possible and How to establish and run a Catchment Management Forum.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

How to manage water quantity and water quality together

- Retief, Hugo, Holleman, Helen, Palmer, Carolyn G

  • Authors: Retief, Hugo , Holleman, Helen , Palmer, Carolyn G
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , report
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437907 , vital:73421 , ISBN 978-1 4312-0987-3 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/SP%20119-18%20web.pdf
  • Description: All over the world water resources are under pressure due to over-use and pollution, and finding ways to meet the need for water is becoming increasingly difficult. Nat-ural variation in rainfall also contributes to making planning and management of flow and water quality, and especially these together, complex and difficult. People have realised that it is important to consider many factors when managing water – they call this Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). Integrating many factors is in line with the ideas that all the “How to” handbooks are based on. Please do read the foundation handbook: “How to think and act in ways that make Adap-tive IWRM practically possible”. In this handbook we consider how to integrate flow and water quality. Although some writers think taking account of all the many fac-tors is too difficult, others – including the authors of this handbook – believe it is essential to try if we want to find the balance between use and protection. IWRM also recognises that it is vital to involve stakeholders in decision-making if protec-tion of our water resources is going to be successful.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

How to think and act in ways that make Adaptive IWRM practically possible

- Palmer, Carolyn G, Biggs, Harry, Rogers, Kevin H, du Toit, Derick, Pollard, Sharon

  • Authors: Palmer, Carolyn G , Biggs, Harry , Rogers, Kevin H , du Toit, Derick , Pollard, Sharon
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , report
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437937 , vital:73423 , ISBN 978-1 4312-0984-2 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/SP 116-18 web.pdf
  • Description: “We cross the river by feeling the stones with our feet” (Chinese proverb). Most of the ideas in this handbook you already know from living your life. Here we put your everyday experience and knowledge into the language of managing water. In the last twenty years, there has been a lot of talk about new ways to make Integrated Water Resource Management or “IWRM” work, but not nearly as much useful knowledge about how to put those ideas into practice. We now know how to use a set of ideas and ways of understanding that help us to make IWRM really work prac-tically. We call this practical way of working: Adaptive IWRM. This is the first in a series of handbooks to come out of a WRC project Practising Adaptive IWRM (Inte-grated Water Resource Management (IWRM) in South Africa: towards practising a new paradigm* [TPNP]). The TPNP project researchers have had experience with many different situations in southern Africa, where people have grappled* with put-ting the ideas of complexity* and integration into practice.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

How to use Strategic Adaptive Management (SAM) and the Adaptive Planning Process (APP) to build a shared catchment future

- Palmer, Carolyn G, Rogers, Kevin H, Holleman, Helen, Wolff, Margaret G

  • Authors: Palmer, Carolyn G , Rogers, Kevin H , Holleman, Helen , Wolff, Margaret G
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , report
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437965 , vital:73425 , ISBN 978-1 4312-0991-0 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/SP 123-18 web.pdf
  • Description: For members of Catchment Management Forums (CMFs) and Catchment Manage-ment Agencies (CMAs). CMFs are made up of people who represent all the stake-holders in a catchment. They are the people who know the catchment best, and therefore are in the best position to alert CMAs to local issues and to help develop the strategic plans for their local catchment. However, catchments are dynamic*, complex* systems that need a special planning approach – and that is what this handbook is about. If one part of a catchment is neglected and damaged, it affects the whole system and everyone living in it. We use and recommend a flexible, adap-tive approach in which everyone involved in the planning is both a teacher and a learner, and where everyone contributes their special wisdom to developing a sustainable plan for the catchment.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

Measuring and modelling evapotranspiration in a South African grassland: Comparison of two improved Penman-Monteith formulations

- Gwate, Onalenna, Mantel, Sukhmani K, Palmer, Anthony R, Gibson, Lesley A, Munch, Zahn

  • Authors: Gwate, Onalenna , Mantel, Sukhmani K , Palmer, Anthony R , Gibson, Lesley A , Munch, Zahn
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , report
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/438167 , vital:73440 , ISBN 1816-7950 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/44_03_16_3530.pdf
  • Description: Accurately measuring evapotranspiration (ET) is important in the con-text of global atmospheric changes and for use with climate models. Direct ET measurement is costly to apply widely and local calibration and validation of ET models developed elsewhere improves confidence in ET derived from such models. is study sought to compare the per-formance of the Penman-Monteith-Leuning (PML) and Penman-Monteith-Palmer (PMP) ET models, over mesic grasslands in two study sites in South Africa. The study used routine meteorological data from a scientific-grade automatic weather station (AWS) to apply the PML and PMP models. The PML model was calibrated at one site and validated in both sites. On the other hand, the PMP model does not require cali-bration and hence it was validated in both sites.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

Rehabilitation of grasslands after eradication of alien invasive trees

- Palmer, Anthony R, Gwate, Onalenna, Gushaa, Bukho, Gibson, Lesley A, Münch, Zahn, Mantel, Sukhmani K, Murata, Chenai, de Wet, Chris, Zondani, Thantaswa, Perry, Adam

  • Authors: Palmer, Anthony R , Gwate, Onalenna , Gushaa, Bukho , Gibson, Lesley A , Münch, Zahn , Mantel, Sukhmani K , Murata, Chenai , de Wet, Chris , Zondani, Thantaswa , Perry, Adam
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , report
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/438195 , vital:73442 , ISBN 978-0-6392-0098-9 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/TT 786_final web.pdf
  • Description: Invasive alien plants (IAPs) remain a serious threat to the water supply and to stor-age reservoirs throughout South Africa. IAPs are known to use a large quantity of water through evapotranspiration, and the clearing and control of IAPs has been a major activity of the Working for Water (WfW) programme. Successful clearing of these often aggressive woody trees and shrubs requires careful regeneration of ef-fective indigenous vegetation cover after the physical clear-felling and removal of the IAPs. Application of effective post-clearing management regimes is required in order to improve the grass cover within catchments and this can ensure that there is controlled runoff and groundwater re-charge. South Africa's water catchment areas receive insufficient rainfall (Blignaut and De Wit 2004). In addition, limited options for the construction of new reservoirs and water schemes has stimulated the need to explore other options for increasing and conserving water supplies (Ashton and Seetal 2002) and improved demand management.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

The application of ecotoxicity and activity system analysis of salt management to water resource protection and use sector-specific guidelines for agriculture, mining and municipal wastewater

- Mensah, Paul K, Mgaba, N

  • Authors: Mensah, Paul K , Mgaba, N
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , report
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437745 , vital:73406 , ISBN 978-0-6392-0052-1 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/2462final.pdf
  • Description: Freshwater salinisation in South Africa is on an increasing trajectory with elevated levels of sulphate, sodium and chloride ions in many of the country’s rivers, causing increased electrical conductivity and changes in ion composition. The problem of freshwater salinisation is intractable and desalinisation, though an effective treatment technique, it is expensive in terms of cost and energy consumption. Therefore, preventative or precautionary management options through the applica-tion of appropriate workable and innovative researched methods are not only desirable but also necessary. Again, there is a call for a new paradigm in water research in South Africa whereby science and social science methods are effectively combined to ensure proper manage-ment of water resources. The notion of combining the know-how of sci-ence and technology with knowledge from all stakeholders is one of the surest ways of managing the threat of freshwater salinisation. In this regard, this project investigated ways of effectively managing salinity risk to water resources by combining traditional science methods with those of social sciences in order to develop water quality guidelines (WQGs) and management practices for salinity. The project combined ecotoxicological and Cultural History Activity Theory (CHAT) research techniques in the light of new trends in water research.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

Developing a multi-sectoral integrative licensing and monitoring framework to align and integrate biodiversity and environmental water quality in the coal mining development life-cycle

- Munnik, Victor, Humby, T, Van der Waals, J, Houdet, J, Thompson, Gareth, Keighley, Tia-Kristi, Cobbing, Ben, Palmer, Carolyn G

  • Authors: Munnik, Victor , Humby, T , Van der Waals, J , Houdet, J , Thompson, Gareth , Keighley, Tia-Kristi , Cobbing, Ben , Palmer, Carolyn G
  • Date: 2018
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , report
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437825 , vital:73415 , ISBN 978-0-6392-0001-9 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/2355_final.pdf
  • Description: This research report emanates from a fine, which was paid and then transferred to the Water Research Commission for purposes of re-search. As a result of a plea bargain, an agreement was reached in the Ermelo regional court (Mpumalanga) in 2009 (Case no ESH 82/11: Ermelo CAS 462/07/2009), the summary outcome of which is described below.
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  • Date Issued: 2018

Extending functionality and knowledge transfer of the Water Quality Systems Assessment Model

- Slaughter, Andrew R, Gwapedza, David, Mantel, Sukhmani K, Hughes, Denis A, Griffin, Neil J

  • Authors: Slaughter, Andrew R , Gwapedza, David , Mantel, Sukhmani K , Hughes, Denis A , Griffin, Neil J
  • Date: 2018
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , report
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/438115 , vital:73436 , ISBN 978-0-6392-0059-0 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/2448_final.pdf
  • Description: This report has been generated by the Water Research Commission (WRC) funded project Developing Climate Change Adaptation Measures and Decision-Support System for Selected South African Water Boards (Project No. K5/2018).
  • Full Text:
  • Date Issued: 2018

How to establish and run a catchment management forum

- Palmer, Carolyn G, Holleman, Helen, Wolff, Margaret G

  • Authors: Palmer, Carolyn G , Holleman, Helen , Wolff, Margaret G
  • Date: 2018
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , report
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437894 , vital:73420 , ISBN 978-1 4312-0986-6 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/SP 118-18 web.pdf
  • Description: The user-friendly series of “How to….” handbooks are aimed at staff and stakehold-ers in catchment management forums (CMFs), catchment management agencies (CMAs) and municipalities. The handbooks are not all written at exactly the same level of “user-friendliness”, it depends on the topic, and target users.
  • Full Text:
  • Date Issued: 2018
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