Hydrological modelling for assessing spatio‐temporal groundwater recharge variations in the water‐stressed Amathole Water Supply System, Eastern Cape, South Africa

Nolte, Annika; Eley, Malte; Schöniger, Matthias; Gwapedza, David; Tanner, Jane; Mantel, Sukhmani; Scheihing, Konstantin W.

doi:10.1002/hyp.14264

Cited by 14 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Hydrological modeling is a tool for predicting the effect of soil water balance components on ecosystem services (Decsi et al., 2022), agricultural crop growth (Siad et al., 2019), groundwater recharge and pollution (Amin et al., 2017; Nolte et al., 2021), erosion, and soil loss (Shojaei et al., 2020), among other practical applications. Hydrological models based on the Richards equation require the quantitative description of fundamental soil hydraulic properties, namely, water retention and hydraulic conductivity functions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stochastic analysis of plant available water estimates and soil water balance components simulated by a hydrological model

de Jong van Lier,

de Melo,

Pinheiro

2024

Vadose Zone Journal

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The uncertainty in soil hydraulic parameters is often not taken into account in process‐based hydrological modeling. Performing runs with 104 stochastic parameter realizations, we evaluated the propagation of uncertainty in the Van Genuchten–Mualem (VGM) parameters into estimates of the threshold values of soil water content used to calculate the total and readily available water, and on the long‐term (30 years) simulations of evaporation, transpiration, bottom flux, and runoff by the SWAP hydrological model. The simulated scenarios included weather data from a location in southeast Brazil and seven soils from the same region cropped with maize, comprising a wide range of texture classes. The results showed that uncertainties in VGM parameters affect the estimates of total and readily available water. Water balance components obtained by a deterministic simulation with average VGM parameters did not always agree with the average or median of stochastic simulations, and stochastic simulations including parameter uncertainties should be preferred. Variations in yearly rainfall characteristics were more important for bottom flux and evaporation, while transpiration and runoff were more strongly influenced by the variations in soil hydraulic properties.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stochastic analysis of plant available water estimates and soil water balance components simulated by a hydrological model

de Jong van Lier,

de Melo,

Pinheiro

2024

Vadose Zone Journal

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“…Rapid population growth, urbanization, industrialization, and the severe aridity of water resources in South Africa, further exacerbated by climate change, water scarcity may last longer [9]. The Eastern Cape Province in South Africa suffers from critical water scarcity [10][11][12]. Following severe water shortages in numerous urban and rural areas, the Eastern Cape Province was classified Land 2023, 12, 1877 2 of 20 as a drought disaster province in October 2019 [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCMM) residents are supplied with piped water by the Amatole Water Supply System (AWSS) [11]. The abstraction of water resources for various purposes occurs at the municipality's dam sites [55].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Groundwater Potential Zones Assessment Using Geospatial Models in Semi-Arid Areas of South Africa

Adesola,

Thamaga,

Gwavava

et al. 2023

Land

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Water resources are under tremendous pressure as a result of the growing demand for water to meet human needs. Hence, it is necessary to delineate groundwater potential zones (GWPZs) to sustainably develop and manage groundwater resources. In this study, the geospatial-based analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and frequency ratio (FR) techniques were used to identify the GWPZs. Seven factors (geology, rainfall, slope, lineament density, soil, drainage density, and land use/land cover), which partially or entirely influence the groundwater potentiality of an area, were accessed separately and later combined to create GWPZ maps. Weights and ranks were assigned to the factors to perform the AHP model using existing knowledge. The FR was performed by calculating the percentage ratio between the dependent variable (boreholes) and the independent variable (factors). The preparation of the contributing factors and the creation of the resulting models was done using ArcGIS 10.8. The final GWPZ maps were classified into five zones: very low, low, moderate, high, and very high. About 80 boreholes in the study area were randomly subset into training and testing datasets; 58% were used for model training, and the remaining 42% were used for validation purposes. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for the GWPZs models were generated, and the areas under the curves (AUC) were calculated. Validation of the models shows that the FR model is more efficient (85.3% accuracy) than the AHP model (83.2% accuracy). The findings show that the AHP and FR models are reliable and can be adopted to characterize GWPZs in arid or semi-arid environments.

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“…These have dire consequences on the quantity and quality of water that humans have access to. In many regions, especially water-stressed areas, water availability is becoming less predictable and unsustainable due to increased flooding, drought, and contamination of water sources (Dasgupta and Sen, 2021;Nolte et al, 2021). Hence, in this paper, we define water sustainability as when a water resource is readily available and useful for an intended purpose.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policy interventions to address water security impacted by climate change: Adaptation strategies of three case studies across different geographic regions

et al. 2022

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Water shortage in terms of both physical and economic water scarcity is still a major issue globally. The looming climate change threat has increased the adverse threats to water security in different regions. However, policy solutions to water security vary in different geographical regions and at different scales (local, regional, national, etc.). Understanding the successes and challenges of different policy solutions is critical to scaling-up successful policies and addressing water security holistically. This paper aims to explore the effects of implementing policies at different scales in three different case study contexts: 1. two Counties in California in the USA, 2. the City of Cape Town in South Africa and 3. the Country of Bangladesh. These case studies highlight various implemented policies and their effectiveness in each context. We reviewed relevant research papers consisting of peer-reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings and gray literature using a content analysis approach based on keywords such as water scarcity, water shortage, climate change, policies, interventions and solutions. Based on this cross-case analysis, we present key strategies moving forward, including: reallocation of water based on different community and sector needs, the importance of stakeholders engagement and public awareness, and a need to implement both short and long-term management plans. There is no one-size fits all policy solution to water scarcity. Understanding the context, scale, and cultural environment will be a key to future water security-focused interventions and policies.

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Hydrological modelling for assessing spatio‐temporal groundwater recharge variations in the water‐stressed Amathole Water Supply System, Eastern Cape, South Africa

Cited by 14 publications

References 28 publications

Stochastic analysis of plant available water estimates and soil water balance components simulated by a hydrological model

Stochastic analysis of plant available water estimates and soil water balance components simulated by a hydrological model

Groundwater Potential Zones Assessment Using Geospatial Models in Semi-Arid Areas of South Africa

Policy interventions to address water security impacted by climate change: Adaptation strategies of three case studies across different geographic regions

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