The Development of an Integrated (early warning) System for Adaptation and Mitigation to Hydrological Drought in South Africa

This project sought to develop an integrated assessment product that integrates meteorological and hydrological information into a single product for the purposes of detecting and tracking drought conditions. It brought together a team of researchers to develop a hydrological monitoring system that provided consistent and reliable near-real-time national information and develop hydrological drought indicators and thresholds for major water bodies such as dams, rivers, and aquifers for different drought phases, which will be linked to an operational early warning system for hydrological drought monitoring and prediction with the objective of providing catchment-based assessments of developing drought situations for southern Africa.

Time frames:  April 2017 – March 2020

Funder: Water Resource Commission (WRC)

Partners: IWR Water Resource (Pty) Ltd, Inkomati Catchment Management Agency, Institute for Water Research, Rhodes University

For further details: contact Dr Piotr Wolski