Title: Water resources management in South Africa: Should the focus be on land use change, climate change or both?
Abstract: Through multiple forces of change human activities have extensively altered land cover and land use, and these alterations impact upon the hydrological system at both regional and basin scales. Thus, to effectively manage water resources, the interdependence between land use and the hydrological system must be recognized as “any land management decision becomes a water management decision” (Falkenmark et al., 1999, pg 58). Over and above land use, the hydrological response of a catchment is impacted by the water engineered system, viz. dams, irrigation, inter-basin transfers, off-takes and return flows. A further layer in the complexity of water resources management is introduced with climate change. Water resources worldwide, but particularly in semi-arid regions of Africa, are highly sensitive to, and strongly coupled to changes in the climate and climate variability. Changes in the climate, viz. increasing temperature, changing precipitation and enhanced carbon dioxide levels (CO2), may alter the hydrological response of a catchment. The hydrological response to the impacts of changing land use and changing climate will be the result of complex interactions, where anthropogenic climate and/or land use change will moderate or exacerbate the effects of the other, a further difficulty in assessing these interactions will be that dominant driver may vary at different spatial and temporal scales.
Publication Year: 2010
Publication Date: 2010-05-01
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot