Investigating epistemic justice in an adaptive planning process: towards developing a local catchment management strategy
- Authors: Ralekhetla, Mateboho Mary
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Watershed management -- South Africa , Watershed management -- South Africa -- Moral and ethical aspects , Water resources development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Water-supply -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Makana Water Forum (Makhanda, South Africa) , Makana Municipality (Makhanda, South Africa)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/95980 , vital:31220
- Description: In South Africa, Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) is being put into practice in a way that incorporates the belief that all stakeholders should be given a voice in decisions that affect them. Catchment Management Forums (CMFs) are the first place for stakeholder participation, supported by Catchment Management Agencies (CMAs). A key first task of a CMA is to develop of their Catchment Management Strategy (CMS). In this research, I consulted and worked with stakeholders in the Makana Water Forum (Makana Local Municipality, Eastern Cape, South Africa) throughout the process as they worked towards formulating their local CMS. Importantly, this study used insights from the community to focus on the inter- and intra-group interactions among the stakeholders who participated in the first step of Strategic Adaptive Planning. In the process, I explored epistemic contestations that occurred between different epistemic agents (participants) who may have held identity prejudices. The research aimed to allow voices, which could otherwise have been marginalised, to come out in ways that were not stigmatised through the written and personal reflective process. In doing this, the study tried to hear the voice of the oppressed speaker whose knowledge and lived experiences have been overlooked by the hearer’s prejudice. Findings show that participants who were part of the CMS development process experienced epistemic justice. These findings further established that the addition of participant reflections enhanced the level of epistemic justice promoted by the Adaptive Planning Process (APP).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Ralekhetla, Mateboho Mary
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Watershed management -- South Africa , Watershed management -- South Africa -- Moral and ethical aspects , Water resources development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Water-supply -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Makana Water Forum (Makhanda, South Africa) , Makana Municipality (Makhanda, South Africa)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/95980 , vital:31220
- Description: In South Africa, Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) is being put into practice in a way that incorporates the belief that all stakeholders should be given a voice in decisions that affect them. Catchment Management Forums (CMFs) are the first place for stakeholder participation, supported by Catchment Management Agencies (CMAs). A key first task of a CMA is to develop of their Catchment Management Strategy (CMS). In this research, I consulted and worked with stakeholders in the Makana Water Forum (Makana Local Municipality, Eastern Cape, South Africa) throughout the process as they worked towards formulating their local CMS. Importantly, this study used insights from the community to focus on the inter- and intra-group interactions among the stakeholders who participated in the first step of Strategic Adaptive Planning. In the process, I explored epistemic contestations that occurred between different epistemic agents (participants) who may have held identity prejudices. The research aimed to allow voices, which could otherwise have been marginalised, to come out in ways that were not stigmatised through the written and personal reflective process. In doing this, the study tried to hear the voice of the oppressed speaker whose knowledge and lived experiences have been overlooked by the hearer’s prejudice. Findings show that participants who were part of the CMS development process experienced epistemic justice. These findings further established that the addition of participant reflections enhanced the level of epistemic justice promoted by the Adaptive Planning Process (APP).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
An erosion and sediment delivery model for semi-arid catchments
- Authors: Bryson, Louise Kay
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Sedimentation and deposition , Erosion , Watershed management -- South Africa , Water-supply -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:6056 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020331
- Description: Sedimentation has become a significant environmental threat in South Africa as it intensifies water management problems in the water-scarce semi-arid regions of the country. As South Africa already allocates 98% of available water, the loss of storage capacity in reservoirs and degraded water quality has meant that a reliable water supply is compromised. The overall aim of this thesis was to develop a catchment scale model that represents the sediment dynamics of semi-arid regions of South Africa as a simple and practically applicable tool for water resource managers. Development of a conceptual framework for the model relied on an understanding of both the sediment dynamics of South African catchments and applicable modelling techniques. Scale was an issue in both cases as most of our understanding of the physical processes of runoff generation and sediment transport has been derived from plot scale studies. By identifying defining properties of semi-arid catchments it was possible to consider how temporal and spatial properties at higher levels emerged from properties at lower levels. These properties were effectively represented by using the Pitman rainfall-runoff model disaggregated to a daily timescale, the Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation (MUSLE) model incorporating probability function theory and through the representation of sediment storages across a semi-distributed catchment. The model was tested on two small and one large study catchment in the Karoo, South Africa, with limited observed data. Limitations to the model were found to be the large parameter data set and the dominance of structural constraints with an increase in catchment size. The next steps in model development will require a reduction of the parameter data set and an inclusion of an in-stream component for sub-catchments at a larger spatial scale. The model is applicable in areas such as South Africa where water resource managers need a simple model at the catchment scale in order to make decisions. This type of model provides a simple representation of the stochastic nature of erosion and sediment delivery over large spatial and temporal scales.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Bryson, Louise Kay
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Sedimentation and deposition , Erosion , Watershed management -- South Africa , Water-supply -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:6056 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020331
- Description: Sedimentation has become a significant environmental threat in South Africa as it intensifies water management problems in the water-scarce semi-arid regions of the country. As South Africa already allocates 98% of available water, the loss of storage capacity in reservoirs and degraded water quality has meant that a reliable water supply is compromised. The overall aim of this thesis was to develop a catchment scale model that represents the sediment dynamics of semi-arid regions of South Africa as a simple and practically applicable tool for water resource managers. Development of a conceptual framework for the model relied on an understanding of both the sediment dynamics of South African catchments and applicable modelling techniques. Scale was an issue in both cases as most of our understanding of the physical processes of runoff generation and sediment transport has been derived from plot scale studies. By identifying defining properties of semi-arid catchments it was possible to consider how temporal and spatial properties at higher levels emerged from properties at lower levels. These properties were effectively represented by using the Pitman rainfall-runoff model disaggregated to a daily timescale, the Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation (MUSLE) model incorporating probability function theory and through the representation of sediment storages across a semi-distributed catchment. The model was tested on two small and one large study catchment in the Karoo, South Africa, with limited observed data. Limitations to the model were found to be the large parameter data set and the dominance of structural constraints with an increase in catchment size. The next steps in model development will require a reduction of the parameter data set and an inclusion of an in-stream component for sub-catchments at a larger spatial scale. The model is applicable in areas such as South Africa where water resource managers need a simple model at the catchment scale in order to make decisions. This type of model provides a simple representation of the stochastic nature of erosion and sediment delivery over large spatial and temporal scales.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
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