Natural Environment

What We Do - Natural Environment

We perform a wide range of ecological services in natural and semi-natural environments, including wetland, biodiversity, and riverine assessments (desktop, manual, and drone-based), delineations, specialist monitoring (including SASS5 and miniSASS which GroundTruth co-developed), research, system modelling (including advanced hydrological and hydraulic modelling and analysis), rehabilitation, conservation planning, water use licensing, and systems planning.

Services - at a glance

Reserve Determinations / Environmental Water Requirement (EWR) / Environmental Flows (e-flows)

Ecological Importance & Sensitivity (EIS) Assessments

Present Ecological State (PES) Assessments

Water Quality Monitoring

South African Scoring System (SASS5)

Mini Stream Assessment Scoring System (miniSASS)

Benthic Diatoms

Fish Surveys

Vegetation Surveys

Laboratory Water Analyses

River Health Assessments

River Rehabilitation

Riparian Vegetation Assessments

Spill Response Monitoring and Rehabilitation

GIS – Scientific Research

Desktop Assessments

UAV & Drone Surveying

LiDAR

SoNAR

Photogrammetry

Multispectral Imagery

Landscape and Vegetation Classification and Mapping

Biodiversity Assessments

Ecosystem Services Assessment

Offset Assessment and Planning

Ecosystem Modelling

Hydraulic and Hydrological Modelling

Catchment Management

Specialist Input for Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA)

Wetland Delineation & Rehabilitation

Wetland Creation & Inventory

Ecological Monitoring

Stakeholder Engagement

Spatial Development Plans (SDP) & Frameworks (SDF)

Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA)

Local Area Plans (LAP)

Projects in the Natural Environment

WRC PES and EIS

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WRC PES and EIS

Present Ecological Status and Ecological Importance and Sensitivity for north-eastern South Africa.

The National Water Act (NWA) (Act 36 of 1998) provides for the protection and sustainable management of South Africa’s water resources through Resource Directed Measures (RDM). These include the classification of water resources using the Water Resource Classification System (WRCS), determination of the Reserve, and setting of Resource Quality Objectives (RQOs). A key part of this framework is the classification of the Present Ecological State (PES) and Ecological Importance and Sensitivity (EIS) for rivers, wetlands, and estuaries.

GroundTruth, as a partner to project leaders Rivers of Life Aquatic Health Services, have been appointed by the Water Research Commission (WRC) on a South African Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) funded project to update the 2014 PESEIS database for rivers, wetlands, and estuaries across the north-eastern region of South Africa. This update relies on new, credible data from recent assessments and specialist consultations. This is part of larger project to update the PESEIS database for rivers, wetlands, and estuaries across South Africa. The main objectives of the project are to:

Update PESEIS data per subquaternary reach, focusing on PES metrics, instream and riparian fauna and flora, and providing comments on habitat diversity and impacts.
Facilitate capacity building with DWS and other stakeholders for the future update, use and management of the database.
Conduct field verifications and Rapid Reserve determinations in selected catchments where data gaps exist.

Overview of Approach

The methodology is tailored for rivers, wetlands, estuaries, and capacity development:

Rivers: Field assessments were conducted for reaches with limited data, including water quality monitoring, hydraulic measurements, and surveys of benthic diatoms, fish, and macroinvertebrate communities. For areas with up-to-date data, existing information on sensitive species and ecosystem threats was utilised.
Wetlands: Specialists and local experts provided updated data on key wetlands.
Estuaries: New literature and expert input were used to refine the ecological status of river-estuary ecotones.
Capacity Building: Workshops are being conducted to train DWS staff and other stakeholders on the updated database and its applications.

Project Progress

GroundTruth has:

Conducted a literature review and gap analysis to identify missing data.
Completed field verifications and Rapid Reserve determinations.
Organised and facilitated capacity-building workshops on database use and management.
Completed updates to the PESEIS data for half of the study area.

The project aims to deliver an integrated PESEIS database for the country by the end of 2025, providing critical support for sustainable water resource management in South Africa.

Mthinzima Wetland

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Mthinzima Wetland

Mthinzima Wetland Community Restoration.

The video summarising this project can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/jjMsNza1S-4

Summary

Midmar Dam in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, is a vital water source for millions of downstream users, making its water quality a critical concern for water resource management in the province. The water flowing into the dam from the upstream Mpophomeni township is heavily polluted, a fact illuminated by citizen scientist monitoring by a group of volunteers known as the Enviro-Champs. The Enviro-Champs, with the support of the Duzi-uMngeni Conservation Trust, the uMgungundlovu District Municipality, South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), and uMngeni-uThukela Water (UUW), monitor the water flowing through the township.

The Mthinzima wetland is situated between Mpophomeni township and Midmar Dam and functions as a pivotal water quality regulator for the outflows from Mpophomeni township. The wetland filters out pollutants, such as E. coli, nitrate, and phosphates before the water enters the dam. However, the wetland has become severely degraded by decades of mismanagement and exploitation, rendering it at a fraction of its potential ecosystem services operational capacity.

GroundTruth, in collaboration with UUW and SANBI, has devised and overseen the rehabilitation of the Mthinzima wetland, which is still in progress. This has included training of the (now called) Amanzi EnviroChamps to monitor the wetland as parallel ecological and engineering rehabilitation work is undertaken. This work also has the support of the Zenzeli Trust, to whom the wetland belongs, showcasing how science that is driven by, and carried out with, a community can truly bring about positive environmental change for the greater good.

IWMI UAV USV

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IWMI UAV USV

Unmanned Aerial and Surface Vehicles for River Surveying within the CGIAR Initiative on Digital Innovation.

GroundTruth, in partnership with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), led a research and development project concerning real-time natural resource monitoring and decision-support systems as per the CGIAR Initiative on Digital Innovation. The CGIAR Initiative on Digital Innovation seeks to harness digital technologies for timely decision-making across food, land and water systems.

Within this larger project, GroundTruth engaged in research and development regarding the use of unmanned aerial and surface vehicles (UAVs and USVs) for surveying rivers and generating data that could be used to inform modelling within the framework of environmental flows (e-flows) studies.

This intensive research and development took place over nearly three years and resulted in multiple published outputs, including a dataset, several publications, blogs, and a short video documentary.

The video documentary summarising the core of the project can be found here:

Video documentary (26 August 2024), “Drone technology: Modelling water flows in the Limpopo basin”: https://youtu.be/YZhyHppdo88

The first of the publications was a literature review on current technologies used in UAV-based surveys of rivers in the context of e-flows studies, which can be found here:

Singh, K. 2022. Current trends in River Bathymetry using UAV-borne technology to inform E-flow assessments in Southern Africa. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). CGIAR Initiative on Digital Innovation. 17p. Available at https://hdl.handle.net/10568/139494

Abstract

Freshwater, constituting a mere 2.5% of Earth’s total water, is a critical resource facing escalating competition due to an anticipated global population surge to 9.7 billion by 2050. Southern Africa is characterized by uneven water distribution and quality challenges which exacerbates these issues. Environmental flow (E-flow) management is a crucial approach that quantifies water requirements for maintaining ecological integrity, aiming to balance human and environmental water needs. Including E-flows in management helps to ensure sustainability of water resources River bathymetry is a core part of E-flow assessments.

This document reports on core research within a project that delves into management of E-flows in the Limpopo and neighbouring basins in Southern Africa. It covers a scientific investigation to determine optimal water quantities and qualities for river systems and to assist with their management. The report focuses particularly on the use of bathymetric surveys, specifically the need for high-resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) to inform hydraulic modelling. The spatial and temporal variability of bathymetry is crucial for applications ranging from flood risk mitigation to ecosystem studies and for long-term management of E-flow implementation. While traditional Total Station Theodolite (TST) surveys provide accurate ground control points and in the past were the basis for river hydraulic studies, they are limited in scale and efficiency. In situ measurements, despite their accuracy, may lack spatial representativeness and are resource intensive. Remote sensing techniques, particularly Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), offer an alternative for bathymetric data collection driven by their ability to access challenging areas of a river and provide high-resolution data at relatively low cost. To this end, this report focuses on direct methods for bathymetric data collection, exploring optical and acoustic approaches. The primary objective was to explore and investigate UAV-based water penetrating surveying techniques to create high-resolution DEMs for hydraulic modelling linked to E-flow studies. A review of recent, relevant literature indicated that airborne laser bathymetry appeared preferential in the context of E-flows, compared to spectrally derived bathymetry, multimedia photogrammetry, Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR), and Sound Navigation and Ranging (SONAR) techniques. Currently, the RIEGL VQ-840-GL green lidar sensor appears to be the forefront technology for use in E-flows UAV-borne bathymetric surveys. This research aims to contribute valuable insights into efficient and cost-effective methods for E-flow studies, addressing the growing challenges in water resource management.

The primary purpose of an E-flow study is to determine the amount of water required to maintain the ecological integrity of a water-dependent ecosystem, thereby protecting the function of that system. Traditionally, in situ measurements have been used to inform E-flows assessments. However, such measurements do not always provide adequate spatial representativeness, and information may not be readily available to stakeholders or policy makers. This has led to the exploration of remotely sensed data collection techniques. In this context, this report aimed to investigate options around UAV-based water penetrating surveying techniques for identifying the below water profiles of river channels to create a high-resolution DEM for the purpose of carrying out hydraulic modelling linked to Eflow studies. Airborne laser bathymetry techniques appear favourable compared to spectrally derived bathymetry, multimedia photogrammetry, GPR and SONAR techniques. A non-exhaustive list of the best current LiDAR sensors was reviewed, with several options highlighted that seem best suited to further study and implementation in a Southern African context.

The second publication from the project was a technical report on the use of UAV-derived data for complex hydrological and hydraulic modelling in the context of e-flows studies, which can be found here:
Maharaj U., Harvey T.A, Pike T., and Singh K. 2024. The use of UAV-derived bathymetric data for hydraulic modelling to inform E-flow assessments. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). CGIAR Initiative on Digital Innovation. 24p. Available at https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152492

Abstract

Environmental flows (E-flows) are crucial for maintaining healthy river ecosystems as an essential part of water resources management, but traditional E-flow assessments that include modelling of hydraulic habitats, often rely on limited, single cross-section data. This study presents a novel approach integrating Sound Navigation and Ranging (SoNAR) and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data collected using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to create a high-resolution Digital Terrain Model (DTM) and was carried out for a section of the Olifants River in Southern Africa. The integrated DTM enabled detailed 2-Dimensional (2D) hydraulic modelling using Hydraulic Engineering Centre River Analysis System (HEC-RAS), with the resulting depth and velocity outputs used to visualise the HABitat FLOw (HABFLO) fish and invertebrate habitat classes across the entire reach that was modelled. Additionally, a habitat distribution calculator was developed to determine habitat distributions based on river flows. The longitudinal analysis of habitat distributions for a section of the river revealed variations in habitat class distributions that a single cross-section-based analysis would not highlight, thus providing a more comprehensive understanding of habitat dynamics under varying flow conditions. The successful merging of SoNAR and LiDAR data demonstrates the power of combining UAV-derived remote sensing techniques for characterisation of riverine features. This workflow has the potential to further enhance E-flow assessments, aiding in the development of ecologically sound water management strategies. However, future work should include in-field validation of modelled habitat distributions and the expansion of the methodology to larger areas.

The dataset from the drone surveying within the Limpopo River basin can be found here:

Graham, P.M., Pike, T., Pattinson, N.B., Singh, K., and Harvey, T. 2024. UAV based survey on portions of the Crocodile, Sabie, and Olifants rivers at Kruger National Park, Limpopo, South Africa to obtain LiDAR, RGB and multispectral imagery. Harvard Dataverse, V4. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/GVR2BA

The final formal publication from this project covered the design, construction, and pilot testing of a UAV-USV coupled river survey system for gathering data to inform e-flows assessments, which can be found here:

Maharaj U., Singh, K., Pike T., and Pike, C. 2024. Design, construction and evaluation of a drone-tethered river survey vessel. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). CGIAR Initiative on Digital Innovation. 17p. Available at https://hdl.handle.net/10568/155372

Abstract

As part of the CGIAR Initiative on Digital Innovation, GroundTruth, in partnership with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), investigated the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to aid in performing bathymetric and water quality surveys. A key outcome of the research and development within this collaboration has been the design and construction of a low-cost survey system comprising a survey vessel equipped with multiple sensors that collect water quality and bathymetric data and can be connected to a UAV. Traditional point-sampling methods limit comprehensive assessments of river health over large spatial areas. This challenge was addressed by developing a drone-towed survey vessel for spatially extensive water quality and depth data collection. The aim of developing the survey vessel was to improve the data collection process which could be useful to further develop the linkages between river flow regimes and water quality parameters.

The vessel that was built was equipped with temperature sensors to capture thermal variations across a section of the river, a Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) sensor to monitor total dissolved solids, a Sound Navigation and Ranging (SoNAR) device to map variations in the riverbed profile, a turbidity sensor to provide a measure of water clarity and a Global Positioning System (GPS) module for precise geotagging of all sensor readings. The system was tested at the Lions River in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and the drone-tethered data collection vessel enabled a safe and efficient survey of a river segment. The system was used to collect high-resolution data related to water quality along a reach of the river. The depth data acquired from the vessel was integrated with Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data to generate detailed bathymetric maps for the site. This highlights the potential for expansion in terms of data collection capabilities compared to traditional point sampling methods.

Further reading on this work can be found here:

IWMI. How drones are used to model river flows on a regional scale. Eds. S. Storr & N.B. Pattinson, 26 August 2024. IWMI Blog. Available at https://www.cgiar.org/news-events/news/how-drones-are-used-to-model-river-flows-on-a-regional-scale/

O’Brien, G.C., Kaiser-Reichel, A., McNeil, T., van der Waal, B.W., Huchzermeyer, N., Singh, S., Pringle, J., Harvey, T.A., Maharaj, U., Singh, K., and Cronje, L. 2023. Development of an environmental flow implementation and monitoring approach: using digital technology to construct accurate 3D hydrodynamic models of a river reach to monitor the implementation of environmental flows. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). CGIAR Initiative on Digital Innovation. 25p. Available at https://hdl.handle.net/10568/139493

Upper Orange Reserve Study

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Upper Orange Reserve Study

Upper Orange River Reserve Study.

The protection of water resources in South Africa is safeguarded in the National Water Act (No. 36 of 1998) via the implementation of Resource Directed Measures, in which it is mandated that the Reserve (i.e., the water allocated for human use and reserved for the environment) must be determined for significant water resources. In sum, a Reserve aims to determine a balance between water needed to protect and sustain water resources and water needed to allow for reasonable human use and economic development.

The Upper Orange River catchment, including rivers, wetlands, and groundwater, is a vital water resource area in southern Africa, which required careful and comprehensive determination of the Reserve. GroundTruth were engaged to co-lead determination of the Reserve across the entire, transboundary catchment.

The Upper Orange River catchment is an internationally shared watercourse, forming part of the Orange-Senqu River Basin. The study area covered approximately 106,000 km2 and included two of the regions’ largest reservoirs, the Gariep and Vanderkloof Dams, large transfer schemes, including the Orange-Vaal Transfer that supplies the majority of Gauteng’s water, and several sites of significant conservation and cultural importance, including the Golden Gate National Park, Tussen-die-Riviere Nature Reserve, and Mokala National Park.

Within this large study, GroundTruth worked with a diverse team of experts and government personnel to i) review and analyse existing information, ii) identify and address ecological gaps, iii) identify the priority resource units for surface water, groundwater, and wetlands, iv) quantify Ecological Water Requirements and basic human needs for the priority resource units, v) assess and evaluate water use operational scenarios, vi) determine Ecological Specifications (Ecospecs) and protection measures to support the Reserve requirements, and vii) engage in continual communication and liaison for skills development and knowledge transfer within and across project teams and the government. The project approach and methodology followed the requisite 7 step process outlined by the South African government:

Step 1: Identify priority quaternary and sub-quaternary catchments that are potentially important due to their presence, extent or condition of water resources with a focus on rivers, wetlands and groundwater driven systems. Initiate the basic human needs and Ecological Water Requirement assessments.

Step 2: Determine eco-regions, delineate resource units select priority study sites and where appropriate, align with Step 1 of the water resource classification procedure.

Step 3: Determine the reference conditions, present ecological status, ecological importance and sensitivity, recommended ecological category and Ecological Water Requirement for the priority selected study sites.

Step 4: Determine the basic human needs and Ecological Water Requirement for each of the selected priority study sites.

Step 5: Determine the operational scenarios / rules and ecological consequences for meeting the Reserve (aligned with the classification procedure).

Step 6: Evaluate the scenarios with stakeholders.

Step 7: Design appropriate Reserve templates, eco-specifications and monitoring programme including monitoring requirements.

Eco-categorisation

Eco-categorisation refers to the determination and categorisation of the Present Ecological State of various biophysical attributes of rivers compared to the natural (or close to natural) reference conditions. To ascertain the Eco-categorisation, scientific data were collected on driver (i.e., geomorphology, hydraulics, and water quality) and the response (i.e., fish, aquatic macroinvertebrates, riparian vegetation, and instream-riparian habitat integrity) components, during two river surveys.

Ecological Water Requirements

Setting Ecological Water Requirements draws on the results of the Eco-categorisation assessment, using various approaches depending on the specific conditions and impacts at the EWR sites. Within this study the approaches used included i) Habitat Flow Stressor Response (HFSR) and Desktop Reserve Model (DRM) within Spatial and Time Series Information Modeling (SPATSIM) for the integration of data produced from the field surveys and Eco-categorisation, ii) a conceptual Flow Management Plan for the Orange River downstream of Gariep and Vanderkloof Dams, and iii) development of an initial approach for the integration of rivers, wetlands, and groundwater.

Basic Human Needs

A basic human needs determination aims to ensure that the essential water needs of individuals, specifically people not serviced by formal (municipal) water supply and directly dependent on surface and groundwater, are provided for. It was calculated that 13 271 people (1%) rely directly on river/stream sources and 102 755 (7%) on groundwater sources for household water use within the study area.

Socio-economic

The socio-economic assessment for the Reserve determination pertains specifically to human water use and socio-economic context within the study area. The socio-economic profile for the study area was assessed, providing the baseline for evaluating the socio-economic consequences of potential changes to operational river flow scenarios.

Wetlands

Though the Ecological Water Requirements for wetlands were not determined in this study, several key recommendations were made regarding the quantification of the Ecological Water Requirements for specific priority wetlands, and for where integration between groundwater and/ or rivers and wetlands is crucial.

Groundwater

Groundwater was assessed in terms of the present status based on existing data and assessment of the Reserve, though a Groundwater Quantification and Qualitative approach which established the contribution of groundwater to sustaining the Ecological Water Requirements and basic human needs. Ultimately, the study resulted in a determination of the quantity and quality of groundwater potentially available for allocation to users and potential users.

Eco-specification

Ecospecs are intended to provide the quantifiable and enforceable descriptors of the quantity, quality habitat and biotic integrity as they pertain to the ecological objectives for a particular water resource. They can be incorporated into Water Use License conditions to allow for monitoring and auditing of the condition of the wetland resources. Ecospecs are generally reported as the values of parameters (usually maximum concentrations) required to meet the Recommended Ecological Category for a water resource. Ecospecs were determined for the study area, covering all key zones and sites with essential recommendations for monitoring and management.

In short

The results from the study aim to guide the South African government with data, methods, and best practice recommendations to meet national objectives for monitoring, managing, maintaining, preserving, and if possible, improving the state of the water resources within this catchment for the benefit of people and the environment.

Joint Basin Surveys

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Joint Basin Surveys

The ORASECOM Joint Basin Surveys (JBS) Project Summary.

Background

The Orange-Senqu River Basin is a multinational river system that is both ecologically and economically critical to the southern Africa region. It spans four countries: Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa. The Orange-Senqu Commission (ORASECOM), which was established under the Revised Southern African Development Community (SADC) Shared Watercourses Protocol in 2000, manages the water resources in the basin.

Water quality and quantity in the basin is degraded by a range of drivers, including poorly managed wastewater, erosion and poor rangeland practices, sand mining, agriculture, industry, mining, domestic pressure and waste, and large impoundments.

Given that appropriate management to mitigate the ongoing freshwater crisis in Southern Africa requires monitoring water quality and freshwater ecosystem health, ORASECOM developed a monitoring programme in 2009 to address the need for basin-wide surveys of aquatic ecosystem health, called the Joint Basin Survey (JBS), which is carried out every five years.

JBS 2

GroundTruth was the project lead on JBS2 (2015). JBS 2 aimed to determine the aquatic ecosystem health of the Orange Senqu River system. This large project involved collaboration with various specialist local and international partners to undertake detailed sampling, analysis, and reporting of various aquatic ecosystem health parameters. The project involved specialist surveys of diatoms, water quality, aquatic invertebrates (SASS5 and MIRAI), vegetation (VEGRAI), fish (FRAI), instream and riparian habitat integrity (IHI), groundwater sampling, and heavy metals. Field sampling involved coordination of teams comprising over 50 experts across four countries within a tight time frame.

A key output of JBS 2 was the development of a Stakeholder Engagement Toolkit (SET) on the Orange-Senqu Basin for educators and other interested parties to download, personalise (if required) and use. Please download the four zipped files (SET Part 1, SET Part 2, SET Part 3 and SET Part 4) and ensure that you extract them all to the same folder in order for the links to work. You can also download an editable version of the entire presentation in 3 parts (Resources 1, Resources 2 and Resources 3) if you wish to personalise any of the documents.

JBS3

GroundTruth co-lead and carried out the third JBS (JBS3) in 2021. The principle objective was to provide a comprehensive assessment of the chemical, physical, and ecological condition of the entire Orange-Senqu River Basin. Compared to JBS2, GroundTruth pioneered that JBS3 included new avenues of monitoring including new toxic organic compounds, radioactivity, macroplastics, microplastics and solid waste pollution, and environmental DNA (eDNA). For JBS3, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), inter-laboratory benchmarking (ILB), groundwater sampling, and stakeholder engagement were also incorporated within the aquatic ecosystem health (AEH) assessment.

Overview of Aquatic Ecosystem Health (AEH) within the Basin

GroundTruth co-lead sampling over three weeks across the entire basin, as well as analysis and reporting of the results. The basin was largely found to be in a fair to poor state (Ecostatus C/D), with relatively little evidence of sites in good condition and virtually no evidence of pristine or natural systems. The Upper Orange-Senqu and Vaal sub-catchments were the most impacted, while the Lower Orange was marginally better. The situation had deteriorated from JBS2 to JBS3. The primary impacts varied somewhat depending on region. The biggest concern was that there was a noticeable increase in the number of sites in very poor condition in JBS3 compared to JBS2.

Recommendations

After the sampling, GroundTruth co-led compilation and analysis of the results, and developed a series of key recommendations for the Commission to improve water and natural resource monitoring and management. These recommendations included:

Monitoring at significantly higher spatial and temporal resolutions,
Urgently addressing the growing wastewater crisis across the country,
Beginning the slow process of improving rangeland and agricultural practices to mitigate severe runoff and erosion impacts,
Designing and implementing improved, ideally close to natural, flow management regimes throughout the basin,
Restoring riparian zones to improve ecological health and reduce flood impacts,
Recommendations for establishing robust and consistent data collection, preparation, analysis, and reporting to ensure all future JBS acquire reliable and comparable data,
Intervening urgently at critically impacted sites to avoid ecological collapse, and
Targeted assessment of specific taxa of high health or conservation importance.

Other outputs

The project also included a detailed report on the groundwater within the basin, creation of a ‘coffee-table’ book detailing the project, as well as a video documentary!

E-flows Training Jordan

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E-flows Training Jordan

Environmental flows for the Mujib River, Jordan.

Environmental flows (e-flows) assessments are a powerful mechanism for enhancing and conserving the ecosystem goods and services rivers provide while allocating water to essential human use. There is a paucity of e-flows assessments and implementation in water scarce regions such as the Middle East, where limited freshwater resources are under extreme pressure.

GroundTruth, in conjunction with Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) members, undertook a research and training project in Jordan that aimed, 1) to provide in-person capacity building within RSCN members for e-flows in-field surveys, and 2) to conduct a first e-flows assessment of the Mujib River, a vitally important freshwater resource for biodiversity and people in Jordan.

The e-flows assessment aimed to contribute towards monitoring the status of water resources, reviewing the ecological state of the river system, developing a vision for the resource, setting resource objectives, and ultimately informing a water allocation and management plan.

We employed a holistic approach based on the building block method, using expert knowledge, assessment and integration of the hydrology, hydraulics, fish, macroinvertebrates, vegetation, habitat integrity, and benthic diatoms of the Mujib River to undertake an e-flows determination.

Several significant threats to the ecology and fresh water supply in the Mujib River catchment were identified. The most significant were the absence of flooding and abstraction associated with upstream impoundments, as well as reliance on over-exploited and severely pressured groundwater-maintained flows.

This project developed a set of recommendations for management of the Mujib River that are designed to protect the water resources, and the associated ecosystem, but still allow for human-related use.

Overall, this project resulted in upskilled local researchers in Jordan and the first e-flows assessment for the Mujib River in Jordan, a vital step towards improved water resource monitoring and management in water scarce regions. Critically, it served to highlight the urgent global need for e-flows to preserve our critical freshwater systems.

After the project was completed, the research was published as a scientific paper in the international journal Ecohydrology:

Graham, P.M., Pattinson, N.B., Stassen, R., Pike, T., and Hamidan, N.A.F. 2024. Using environmental flows to inform integrated water resource management in critically water scarce regions. Ecoydrology, e2705. https://doi.org/10.1002/eco.2705

The Practitioner Points from this paper were:

Freshwater systems in water-scarce regions require attention regarding monitoring and management via environmental flows (e-flows) for ecosystem health and human use.
The Mujib River in Jordan is a critical freshwater resource that is currently in a largely natural to moderately modified ecological status and under threat from a variety of anthropogenic sources.
This e-flows assessment of the Mujib River illustrates the socio-economic and environmental importance of freshwater systems in water scarce areas where relatively minor impacts can have large consequences.

Willowton Oil Spill Impact Assessment

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Willowton Oil Spill Impact Assessment

Willowton Oil Spill Summary.

An unfortunate accident occurred on Tuesday 13th of August 2019 at the Willowton Group Facility in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Above ground storage tanks containing vegetable oil, sunflower oil, and diluted caustic soda collapsed or were damaged, spilling approximately 110 tonnes of contaminant into the Baynespruit River, a tributary of the uMsunduzi and uMngeni Rivers. Of these 110 tonnes, approximately 70 tonnes were recovered by emergency spill response crews, with the rest running into and contaminating the system.

GroundTruth were contracted to complete a baseline aquatic impact assessment as part of the short-term remedial actions. This assessment was conducted through sampling and analysis of both biological and physico-chemical parameters, as well as aerial surveys. The assessments were conducted along Baynespruit, Msundusi, and uMgeni Rivers, as well as on major tributaries that represented potential refugia from the spill impacts.

After the spill, GroundTruth found that there was extensive fish die-off, as well as low benthic diatom and South African Scoring System (SASS) version 5 scores, all evidence of severe impacts of the spill on instream biota. There were also elevated Escherichia coli, chemical oxygen demand, and phosphate levels across the catchment, showing mixed pollution impacts.

Overall, the assessment clearly indicated that the spill had severely degraded the downstream river ecosystem. However, monitoring at sites unimpacted by the spill also showed significantly degraded ecosystems, suggesting that the system was already stressed by other pollution sources independent of the spill.

Rehabilitation of the fish community

Following the assessments of the spill impacts, GroundTruth, with support from freshwater researchers from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) Department of School of Life Sciences, were appointed to undertaken rehabilitation interventions. The primary rehabilitation action was to re-introduce native fish.

Rehabilitation efforts focused on the KwaZulu-Natal Yellowfish (Labeobarbus natalensis), as the spill had a severe impact on the population abundance and structure of this endemic species. Yellowfish were translocated from within the uMsunduzi River Catchment, with real-time water quality monitoring, chemical water quality analyses, and aquatic biomonitoring maintained to track the recovery of the fish and broader ecosystem. A total of 138 fish were translocated. Of these, 87 fish were tagged with passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags.

Ongoing assessment of this system shows that the integrity of the Baynespruit and uMsunduzi Rivers, including regions both unimpacted and impacted by the spill, remains seriously impaired. Degraded water quality demonstrates ongoing inputs and negative impacts emanating from the urban-industrial area of Pietermaritzburg, unrelated to the spill event. The degraded state of the Baynespruit and uMsunduzi Rivers continues to hinder the recovery of fish communities following the spill.

Based on ongoing monitoring, GroundTruth developed several remediation actions, including urgently addressing the multitude of other sources of pollution in the catchment (primarily overhauling sewage reticulation and treatment infrastructure) and the establishment of a Baynespruit Conservancy to enable continued engagement with the broader community and stakeholders who are either dependent on, or affected by, the goods and services emanating from this catchment.

Kenya Road Upgrade Biodiversity Action Plan

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Kenya Road Upgrade Biodiversity Action Plan

Kenya Road Upgrade Biodiversity Action Plan.

GroundTruth was requested to develop a Biodiversity Action Plan for the prosed upgrade of the Illasit-Taveta road, in south-central Kenya. Biodiversity Action Plans are required for development projects in critical habitats and recommended for high-risk projects in natural areas.

The primary purpose of developing this Biodiversity Action Plan for the Illasit-Taveta Road Upgrade project was to achieve a ‘no net loss’ of biodiversity and a ‘net gain’ for critical habitat. This was achieved by identifying a set of management actions for maintaining or enhancing biodiversity patterns and processes in the area.

The total length of the Illasit-Taveta road is ~65km, originally a dirt road that had become degraded over time, without proper stormwater systems in place to control runoff into the environment.

The following steps were followed to formalise the Biodiversity Action Plan process:

Step 1: Available reports and databases covering biodiversity, applicable legislative and policy frameworks, and the road and stormwater designs were reviewed to establish construction and operation drivers and pressures.

Step 2: Vegetation and ecosystems (and species information where available) were mapped during a desktop study phase.

Step 3: An in-field assessment was conducted to identify natural vegetation, available habitats, and biodiversity sensitivities.

Step 4: A baseline was determined that defined the biodiversity features within the road corridor and highlighted key knowledge gaps.

Step 5: Key biodiversity impacts from the project were identified, accompanied by measures to mitigate those impacts.

Step 6: A complete Biodiversity Action Plan was finalised through consultation with key stakeholders.

Ultimately, the Biodiversity Action Plan outlined a number of priority actions for biodiversity conservation and enhancement, including options to avoid, reduce (or minimise), remedy (or rehabilitate/restore), and/or offset and significant impacts of the development. This included:

Action Plan for Priority Terrestrial Biodiversity Features: Reduce wildlife mortality and disturbance and improve management and control of invasive alien plants.
Action Plan for Aquatic Biodiversity Features: Minimise stormwater impacts and erosion within drainage systems, protect and maintain aquatic habitats and associated biodiversity, and avoid negative water quality impacts to aquatic habitats.
Action Plan for Critical Biodiversity Features: Enhance conservation stewardship and protection of critical habitats.
Biodiversity Offset Strategy: The goal of biodiversity offsets is to achieve ‘no net loss’, and preferably a ‘net gain’ of biodiversity. Ultimately, a biodiversity offset is a commitment by the developer to compensate for residual impacts on biodiversity.
Monitoring and Evaluation Plan: For this project a monitoring and evaluation plan was designed to assess whether any unexpected impacts on biodiversity were occurring, allowing for an adaptive feedback approach, as well as confirm that the responsible parties were implementing the Biodiversity Action Plan and that the desired conservation outcomes were being achieved.

Lake Chala

A notable component of this project was that the southern section of the existing road passed the eastern side of Lake Chala. Lake Chala and its immediate surrounds for an Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) site that is the only known location where the Endangered freshwater crab Potamonautes platycentron and the Critically Endangered cichlid fish Oreochromis hunteri occur. The AZE aims to prevent extinction by identifying and safeguarding key sites that are the last remaining refuge for Endangered species.

In an effort to limit the risks to the Lake Chala AZE site and its biodiversity, the plan for the proposed road upgrade included a realignment to bypass the eastern boundary of the AZE site.

In Sum

Biodiversity Action Plans are designed to be living documents that should include agreed on timelines for regular review and update as new information arises and becomes available, the project progresses, and conservation context changes over time. The monitoring and evaluation protocols put in place allowed for adaptive management and accountability to the Biodiversity Action Plan recommendations from this project.

Overall, this project enabled the careful management of risk during the construction and operation phases of the road upgrade, thereby ensuring the best possible outcome for the development for people and biodiversity.

Water Research Commission

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Water Research Commission

WRC Research Project K5 2351 – Periphyton Project.

GroundTruth engaged in a three year research project funded by the WRC of South Africa. The project was titled: “The development and application of Periphyton as Indicators of flow and nutrient alterations for the management of water resources in South Africa”.

The objectives of the research were to a) expand the existing knowledge on temporal patterns in periphyton community structure in a winter rainfall region, and b) provide the information necessary for setting preliminary thresholds of trophic status for these periphyton. Overall, this research aimed to understand the key drivers of periphyton community structure and establish a guideline for future evaluations and monitoring of river condition using periphyton throughout South Africa.

The project involved the collection of field samples of algae and periphyton, in addition to water quality and temperature data, from sites in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal of South Africa. The project involved data analysis, statistical modelling, GIS mapping, interpretation and the dissemination of information in the form of published WRC report and several steering committee meeting presentations.

The Forgotten African Islands

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The Forgotten African Islands

The Forgotten African Islands GBIF-BID Project.

Freshwater biodiversity remains relatively understudied in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially across the Indian Ocean Islands. These islands are characterised by unique biodiversity and high levels of endemism that are threatened by invasive alien species, and anthropogenic impacts such as climate change and land use change.

GroundTruth worked with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) Biodiversity Information for Development (BID) project to address the gap in freshwater biodiversity knowledge for the Indian Ocean Islands. The project had many local and international research and implementation partners, with the majority of the funding coming from the European Union.

The project initially addressed the need to collate, digitise, and curate existing Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera (EPT), and diatom (single celled algae) data from the Indian Ocean Islands and get those data onto the GBIF international database. This was accomplished in collaboration with many amazing international partners, with a special mention to Dr Lyndall Pereira da Conceicoa and Dr Benjamin Price from the Natural History Museum, London and Dr Astrid Schmidt-Kloiber form the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna for their pivotal roles.

The project then undertook focused sampling effort on the islands to gather updated biodiversity information. GroundTruth oversaw the use of citizen science tools (with a focus on the mini stream assessment scoring system miniSASS) to create awareness and obtain new distribution records where possible.

By focusing on both capacity development and the delivery of integrated data to end-users, this project, aligned with the GBIF and Freshwater Information Platform (FIP) platforms, created the means to improve knowledge of Indian Ocean Islands freshwater biodiversity and assist freshwater conservationists and policy makers.

GroundTruth also facilitated collaboration between stakeholders and project partners both locally and internationally through several dedicated engagement sessions, including a Knowledge Dissemination Session and a specialist AFRESH.IO (African Freshwater Entomology Workshop, Indian Ocean) workshop.

This work supports International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) efforts, and fosters broad international collaboration between many partners for the recording and conservation of vital biodiversity in traditionally underrepresented regions in sub-Saharan Africa.

What We Do - Natural Environment

Services - at a glance

Reserve Determinations / Environmental Water Requirement (EWR) / Environmental Flows (e-flows)

Ecological Importance & Sensitivity (EIS) Assessments

Present Ecological State (PES) Assessments

Water Quality Monitoring

South African Scoring System (SASS5)

Mini Stream Assessment Scoring System (miniSASS)

Benthic Diatoms

Fish Surveys

Vegetation Surveys

Laboratory Water Analyses

River Health Assessments

River Rehabilitation

Riparian Vegetation Assessments

Spill Response Monitoring and Rehabilitation

GIS – Scientific Research

Desktop Assessments

UAV & Drone Surveying

LiDAR

SoNAR

Photogrammetry

Multispectral Imagery

Landscape and Vegetation Classification and Mapping

Biodiversity Assessments

Ecosystem Services Assessment

Offset Assessment and Planning

Ecosystem Modelling

Hydraulic and Hydrological Modelling

Catchment Management

Specialist Input for Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA)

Wetland Delineation & Rehabilitation

Wetland Creation & Inventory

Ecological Monitoring

Stakeholder Engagement

Spatial Development Plans (SDP) & Frameworks (SDF)

Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA)

Local Area Plans (LAP)

Projects in the Natural Environment

WRC PES and EIS

WRC PES and EIS

Present Ecological Status and Ecological Importance and Sensitivity for north-eastern South Africa.

Mthinzima Wetland

Mthinzima Wetland

Mthinzima Wetland Community Restoration.

IWMI UAV USV

IWMI UAV USV

Unmanned Aerial and Surface Vehicles for River Surveying within the CGIAR Initiative on Digital Innovation.

Upper Orange Reserve Study

Upper Orange Reserve Study

Upper Orange River Reserve Study.

Joint Basin Surveys

Joint Basin Surveys

The ORASECOM Joint Basin Surveys (JBS) Project Summary.

E-flows Training Jordan

E-flows Training Jordan

Environmental flows for the Mujib River, Jordan.

Willowton Oil Spill Impact Assessment

Willowton Oil Spill Impact Assessment

Willowton Oil Spill Summary.

Kenya Road Upgrade Biodiversity Action Plan

Kenya Road Upgrade Biodiversity Action Plan

Kenya Road Upgrade Biodiversity Action Plan.

Water Research Commission

Water Research Commission

WRC Research Project K5 2351 – Periphyton Project.

The Forgotten African Islands

The Forgotten African Islands

The Forgotten African Islands GBIF-BID Project.

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