Introduction
The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has initiated a project to review
and optimise the water resources monitoring networks for which the organisation
is responsible. There are currently 10 main national monitoring networks which
includes hydrological, geo-hydrological, chemical, microbial, eutrophication,
radioactivity, toxicity, aquatic health, estuarine and wetland networks. All
these networks will be reviewed during this projects in terms of user needs and
performance against benchmarks. The outcome of the project will be an optimised
network and a strategy how to address the future requirements for Water Resources Monitoring
for South Africa.
Project Aims
To:
- undertake an evaluation of each monitoring network in its present condition,
- redesign and realign (where necessary) the network with the strategic and management requirements of the DWS and South Africa,
- optimised the networks as far as possible, and
- ensure sustainable, relevant and up-to-date data of an acceptable quality.
Project Objectives
- Evaluating the national requirements based on the needs of the clients.
- Evaluating the distribution and quality (integrity) of data collected as well as the spatial extent of the 10 national monitoring programmes.
- Design an critical and optimal monitoring network and assess its efficacy to meet the current and future user requirements.
- Evaluate the designed networks against the current networks and optimise and integrate taking into account operational issues and new technologies.
- Assessing the requirements and implementation mechanisms of specialised monitoring programmes.
- Developing an Integrated Water Resource Monitoring Strategy.
Tasks
- User Requirements Assessment
- Network Inventory
- Data Integrity Assessment
- Scientific Review
- Development of Strategy
Contact details
Project Manager: Mr. Zacharia Maswuma
E-mail: maswumaz@dws.gov.za
Project Coordinator: Mr. Musariri Musariri
E-mail: musaririm@dws.gov.za
Stakeholder Involvements: Mr Jeremy Naidoo
E-mail: naidooj@dws.gov.za
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