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19 December 2018 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Leonie Bolleurs
Water management reseachers
Marinda Avenant, Dirk Jungman and Niels Schütze are working on a project proposal for a decision support system that will assist local authorities with sustainable water resources management. Both Dirk and Niels are from the Technical University Dresden in Germany.

Climate change has a strong effect on the water cycle and is likely to lead to a multitude of hazardous weather events such as droughts, heavy rainfall and floods in Southern Africa.

The Technical University of Dresden, in Germany, in collaboration with the Centre for Environmental Management at the University of the Free State (UFS), earlier this year received seed funding to develop a project proposal for a study on the risks of climate change.

At a recent workshop, universities (including the Central University of Technology, University of KwaZulu-Natal, University of Pretoria, Cape Peninsula University of Technology and the Namibia University of Science and Technology), Weather SA and the Global Water Partnership of Southern Africa) as well as companies from the public and private sectors and universities in Germany (Technical University Dresden, United Nations University Flores, Büro für Angewandte Hydrologie, and WISUTEC Chemnitz), collaborated to discuss the project proposal.

The proposal to obtain funding for the study will be submitted in May 2019.

 

Managing water resources

Once funding is obtained, the combined team will study a series of sites in the upper (Qwaqwa), middle (Free State Goldfields) and lower Vaal catchment areas. The aim of this three-year project is to prepare climatic, hydrological and ecological models as a basis for the development of a decision support system (DSS). This simple-to-use DSS is intended to assist local authorities with sustainable water resources management, as well as to address the risks associated with future climate change in their regions.

The study is titled: Threats of droughts and floods: investigating resilience to the multiple risks of climate change in Southern Africa and the study area was chosen for its suitability in terms of non-perenniality of rivers, residual impacts of mining, climate change, urbanisation, the poor quality of water, major modification of natural ecosystems, as well as poverty and joblessness.

According to Marinda Avenant, lecturer in the Centre for Environmental Management, increasing hazards can result in additional ecological, social and economic impacts and risks such as asset damage, yield reduction and decrease of livelihoods for the region. “We intend to produce a tool to support decision-making and risk-management by means of easily understandable guidelines to consider threats of droughts and floods under climate-change conditions of mining-contaminated, non-perennial river systems,” said Avenant.

 

Reliable forecasts

 

A web-based data platform to provide reliable forecasts of disaster risk and effective warnings of multiple hazardous weather events will also be developed to support resilient management strategies and to trigger risk reduction behaviour.

News Archive

Little ‘Devil’s Worm’ on Top 10 New Species list
2012-05-29

 

Halicephalobus mephisto (Devil’s Worm)
Photo: Supplied
29 May 2012

A minuscule little worm found and researched with the assistance of researchers at the university has made it onto the list of Top 10 New Species of the world. The list was published by the International Institute for Species Exploration (IISE) at Arizona State University and a committee of scientists from around the world. It lists the top ten new species described in 2011.

An article on the new worm species appeared in the authoritative journal Nature in June 2011.
 
Prof. Esta van Heerden, leader of the university’s research team, says, “In our wildest dreams, we could not have imagined that we would get so much reaction from the worm’s discovery. We had to do so many checks and balances to convince Nature that the worm could survive in the old and warm water. We were very excited when the article was accepted but the media reaction was unbelievable.”
 
The tiny nematode, Halicephalobus mephisto (Devil’s Worm) of about 0,5 mm in length, is the deepest-living terrestrial multi-cellular organism on earth. It was discovered in the Beatrix gold mine near Welkom at a depth of 1,3 km.
 
The IISE says in a statement the species is remarkable for surviving immense underground pressure as well as high temperatures. The borehole water where this species lives has not been in contact with the earth’s atmosphere for the last 4 000 to 6 000 years.  
 
This top-10 list includes a sneezing monkey; a beautiful, but venomous jellyfish; a fungus named after a popular TV cartoon character; a night-blooming orchid; an ancient walking cactus creature; and a tiny wasp. A vibrant poppy, a giant millipede and a blue tarantula also made it onto the list.
 
The international selection committee made its choice from more than 200 nominations. They looked for species that captured the attention because they were unusual or because they had bizarre traits. Some of the new species have interesting names.
 
Prof. Van Heerden says, “We are very thankful for the exposure that the university gets as a result of the inclusion on the list and we enjoy the international cooperation immensely.”

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