Benchmarking a Decision Support System for Aquatic Toxicity Testing
- 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.
- Full Text:
- 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
- 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.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Generation of New Ecotoxicity Data for Salts Using Indigenous South African Freshwater Macroinvertebrate: Updating the National Salts Toxicity Database
- Authors: Mensah, Paul K , Mgaba, Ntombekhaya , Griffin, Neil J , Odume, Oghenekaro N , Palmer, Carolyn G
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , report
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437854 , vital:73417 , ISBN 978-1-4312-0747-3 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/KV%20353.pdf
- Description: Scherman and Palmer (2013) reviewed the historical and current trends of Environmental Water Quality (EWQ) in South Africa. Based on the review, they identified research gaps for which they proposed a co-ordinated set of projects that need to be commissioned and executed to fill these gaps. These co-ordinated set of projects include update of TEACHA (Tool for Ecological Aquatic Chemical Habitat Assessment); update of the national salt toxicity database; integration of Resource Directed Measures (RDM) components (ie Ecological Reserve, Re-source Quality Objectives (RQOs) and Classification); integrating water quality and quantity; evaluation of the RDM participatory process based on research and current understandings of complex social-ecological systems and ecosystem services; and integrating RDM and SDC (Source Direct Control) to ensure coherent link between the two. The overarching aim of the above set of projects is to support implementa-tion of the National Water Resource Strategy 2 (NWRS2). Therefore, the main objective of this project to contribute to addressing the second research gap listed above (ie updating the national salt toxicity data-base). Noting that the database contains only data on single salts with nothing on salt mixtures, the project also generated binary salt mixtures data for the database, in addition to generating data for single salts.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016