TY - JOUR AU - Brown, Cate AU - Joubert, Alison AU - Tlou, Toriso AU - Birkhead, Andrew AU - Marneweck, Gary AU - Paxton, Bruce AU - Singh, Adhishri PY - 2018/10/31 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - The Pongola Floodplain, South Africa – Part 2: Holistic environmental flows assessment JF - Water SA JA - WSA VL - 44 IS - 4 October SE - Research paper DO - 10.4314/wsa.v44i4.22 UR - https://watersa.net/article/view/6681 SP - AB - <p>A holistic environmental flows (EFlows) assessment, undertaken as part of Ecological Reserve determination studies for selected&nbsp;surface water, groundwater, estuaries and wetlands in the Usuthu/Mhlatuze Water Management Area, South Africa, led to&nbsp;recommendations for modified releases from the Jozini Dam to support the socially, economically and ecologically important&nbsp;Pongola Floodplain situated downstream of the dam. The EFlows study analysed various permutations of flow releases from&nbsp;the dam based on the recommendations of pre-dam studies, and augmented by more recent observations, inputs from farmers&nbsp;and fishermen who live adjacent to the floodplain and discussion with the operators of Jozini Dam. The EFlows method used,&nbsp;DRIFT, allowed for the incorporation of detailed information, data and recommendations from a decades-old research project&nbsp;on the Pongola Floodplain that was undertaken prior to the construction of the Jozini Dam into a modern-day decision-making&nbsp;framework. This was used to assess the impact of a series of different flow releases on nature and society downstream of the&nbsp;dam. It was concluded that, within historic volumetric allocations to the floodplain, a release regime could be designed that&nbsp;considerably aided traditional fishing and grazing without necessarily prejudicing other uses, such as agriculture.</p> ER -