Landuse impacts on the water quality of the Zwartkops catchement

Abstract

The process of environmental improvement is one which should begin with an assessment of the current situation. Such an assessment, an environmental impact assessment (EIA), provides a broad picture of the impact of activities on the surrounding environment and furnishes management with the information required for planning of a detailed environmental management strategy for the future. Historically, EIA's have been used to assess the impact of a single planned development project, however, the merits of extending EIA from projects to plan-making have been recognised. Despite this recognition, EIA's in plan-making have not been well tested and an obvious requirement for the further development of the EIA process is through the development of case studies relating to EIA1s in plan making. An example of where EIA could be used in this context, is in the making of catchment management plans. The Zwartkops Catchment has been subject to a deterioration in water quality over recent years. Landuse in the upper reaches is predominantly farming, while in the lower catchment, increasingly intensive urban development occurs. The impacts from these developments on water use in the catchment and on the aquatic ecosystem necessitated an assessment of the impact of landuse activities on the water quality in the catchment to allow for the development of the Zwartkops Catchment Water Resources Management Plan. This dissertation is an application of the environmental impact assessment process to assess the impact of activities in the Zwartkops Catchment on the quality of its water resources, where an understanding of the impact that catchment characteristics and activities have on the water quality underlies the success of the assessment, as well as the management the water resource. In line with any environmental impact assessment, it is also imperative that the concerns of the interested and affected parties be addressed. The environment impact assessment process and techniques have therefore been made use of where appropriate and assessed according to their usefulness in providing relevant information to the water quality manager.