River Health and Water Quality

  • Water quality monitoring programmes
  • Water quality testing
  • River health assessments
  • Buffer zone determination
  • Importance and sensitivity assessments
  • Fish surveys
  • Riparian vegetation assessments
  • River rehabilitation
  • Spill contamination impact assessment
  • Mitigation and management recommendations
  • Monitoring and management of habitat recovery following spill incidents

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Wetlands

  • Wetland delineation and inventories
  • Wetland functional assessments (ecological importance and sensitivity)
  • Wetland health assessments (present ecological state)
  • Wetland rehabilitation planning and implementation
  • Wetland offset planning and recommendations
  • Wetland rehabilitation construction and design
  • Determination of wetland goods and services
  • Wetland Reserve determination studies

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Environmental Engineering

  • Freshwater ecosystem rehabilitation planning, design and implementation
  • Monitor and evaluation - specifically wetland rehabilitation intervention outputs and incomes
  • Soil conservation planning, design and implementation
  • Best management practices and recommendations to manage the impact of construction activities on freshwater ecosystems
  • Recommendations informing stormwater planning to reduce impacts on the receiving environment
  • Low volume gravel road planning, design and upgrades
  • Forestry road network optimising planning
  • Quarry management plans

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Mining

  • Baseline assessments of freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems prior to mining activities
  • Monitoring, mitigation and management of impacts on freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems
  • Mitigation and management plans to reduce impacts and manage pollutants
  • Freshwater and terrestrial ecosystem rehabilitation plans and mine closure plans

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Biodiversity

  • Terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity assessments
  • Deskop assessments and reviews
  • In-field fauna and flora surveys
  • Assessment of conservation important species (Red data, rare and endemic species)
  • Classification, mapping and verification of vegetation, land cover and habitats
  • Ecosystem services assessments

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GIS and Biophysical Spatial Planning

  • Mapping and modelling the biological and physical environment
  • Habitat/species sensitivity mapping
  • Spatial Development Plans (SDP) and Frameworks (SDF)
  • Biodiversity conservation plans and sector plans
  • Biophysical constraints and limitations studies
  • Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA)
  • Local Area Plans (LAP)

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Ecological Water Requirements and Reserve Determination Studies

  • Determination of the aquatic environmental Reserve
  • Environmental flow requirements to maintain ecological condition

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Water Use Licensing

  • Water use licensing applications (WULAs)
  • Advice on requirements for WULAs
  • Facilitate efficient WULA applications from start to finish, saving time and money

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Hydrology

  • Hydrological modelling
  • Catchment management plans (CMP)
  • Land use change impacts on water resources and mitigation thereof
  • Development impacts on river hydrology
  • Stormwater management plans and mitigation of stormflow impacts on receiving watercourses
  • Water conservation and water demand management plans

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Advanced Ecosystem Modelling

  • Bayesian Network modelling to predict environmental risk
  • Ecological cost-benefit analyses to optimise resource allocation and project success rates
  • Integrating multiple source-stressor-recetor-response modelling

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Aquatic and Terrestrial Biodiversity Assessments

  • Specialist studies on the presence and health of wetland, river and terrestrial habitats and species on the site
  • Environmental management plans
  • Biophysical constraints and limitations studies to inform development planning and basic assessment or EIA process

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Training

  • miniSASS Training Course
  • Introduction to Aquatic Ecology
  • South African Scoring System version 5 (SASS5)
  • Advanced EcoClassification Modelling Courses (e.g. MIRAI, FRAI, VEGRAI, IHI)
  • Advanced EcoStatus and EIS determination Courses
  • QGIS Courses

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Spill Management and Landfill Site Monitoring

  • Spill contamination and impact assessments
  • Mitigation and management recommendations
  • Monitoring and habitat recovery following spill incidents
  • Hazardous land fill site monitoring
  • Water quality monitoring
  • Aquatic biomonitoring

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Environmental Impact Assessments (Specialist Input)

  • Aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity assessments
  • Environmental management plans
  • Scoping phase site biophysical constraints and limitations studies to inform development planning and basic assessment or EIA process

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Environmental Data Management

  • Environmental monitoring data gaps and needs analyses
  • Development of environmental databases, inlcuding spatial data management
  • Development of on-line data management, spatial display and data interpretation systems

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Corporate Social Investment

  • Facilitation of river care initiatives
  • Environmental-based community development programmes
  • Training to provide skills for sustainable livelihoods
  • Assist communities to build resilience into their landscapes

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Research

  • Lead researchers on numerous long-term research projects within government and non-government sectors including the Water Research Commission, government departments, municipalities, mining, forestry and agriculture
  • Collaborative research with national / international specialists
  • Collaborative research with universities and other entities

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Development and Sale of Industry Tools

  • Research and development of new tools
  • Adaptation of international tools for local use
  • Developed and refined through research and applied use within the industry
  • Available tools and products

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