Mountain Ice and Water Investigations of the Hydrologic Cycle in Alpine Environments PDF
Preview Mountain Ice and Water Investigations of the Hydrologic Cycle in Alpine Environments
Developments in Earth Surface Processes, 21 Series Editor e J.F. Shroder, Jr. For previous volumes refer http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/bookseries/09282025 Developments in Earth Surface Processes Volume 21 Mountain Ice and Water Investigationsof theHydrologicCycle inAlpine Environments Edited by Gregory B. Greenwood Mountain Research Initiative, Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Switzerland J.F. Shroder, Jr. Center for Afghanistan Studies and Geography and Geology, University of Nebraska, Omaha AMSTERDAMlBOSTONlHEIDELBERGlLONDONlNEWYORKlOXFORD PARISlSANDIEGOlSANFRANCISCOlSINGAPORElSYDNEYlTOKYO Elsevier Radarweg29,POBox211,1000AEAmsterdam,Netherlands TheBoulevard,LangfordLane,Kidlington,OxfordOX51GB,UnitedKingdom 50HampshireStreet,5thFloor,Cambridge,MA02139,UnitedStates Copyright©2016ElsevierB.V.Allrightsreserved. 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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData AcatalogrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress BritishLibraryCataloguing-in-PublicationData AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary ISBN:978-0-444-63787-1 ISSN:0928-2025 ForinformationonallElsevierpublications visitourwebsiteathttps://www.elsevier.com/ Publisher:CandiceJanco AcquisitionEditor:AmyShapiro EditorialProjectManager:TashaFrank ProductionProjectManager:AnithaSivaraj Designer:GregHarris TypesetbyTNQBooksandJournals List of Contributors N.Barker,SchoolofPlantSciences, UniversityofPretoria,SouthAfrica L.Chernova,InstituteofGeographyRussianAcademyofSciences, Moscow,Russia G. Choudhury,UniversityofNorthBengal,Siliguri,West Bengal,India V.R.Clark,BotanyDepartment,RhodesUniversity,South Africa A. Claustres, Universite´ de Toulouse; INP, UPS, EcoLab/ENSAT, Castanet Tolosan, France; CNRS,EcoLab,CastanetTolosan,France F.A. Engelbrecht, Climate Studies, Modelling and Environmental Health, Natural Resources and the Environment, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR),South Africa J.W.H.Ferguson,CentreforEnvironmentalStudies,UniversityofPretoria,SouthAfrica A.Fischer,InstituteforInterdisciplinary MountainResearch,Innsbruck,Austria S.V. Hansson, Universite´ de Toulouse; INP, UPS, EcoLab/ENSAT, Castanet Tolosan, France; CNRS,EcoLab,CastanetTolosan,France L. Hartl,InstituteforInterdisciplinary MountainResearch,Innsbruck,Austria K. Helfricht,InstituteforInterdisciplinary MountainResearch,Innsbruck,Austria M.T.Hicks,CityUniversityofNewYork,NewYork,UnitedStates V.Hreinsson,ReykjavikAcademy,Reykjavik,Iceland A´.D. Ju´l´ıusson, Reykjavik Academy and National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland T.Khromova,InstituteofGeographyRussianAcademyofSciences,Moscow,Russia G. Le Roux, Universite´ de Toulouse; INP, UPS, EcoLab/ENSAT, Castanet Tolosan, France; CNRS,EcoLab,CastanetTolosan,France A.Muraviev,InstituteofGeographyRussianAcademyofSciences, Moscow,Russia S.Nikitin,InstituteofGeography RussianAcademyofSciences,Moscow,Russia G. Nosenko,InstituteofGeographyRussianAcademyofSciences, Moscow,Russia A.E.J. Ogilvie, Stefansson Arctic Institute, Akureyri, Iceland and Institute of Arctic and AlpineResearch,Boulder,Colorado,UnitedStates F.O.Sarmiento,UniversityofGeorgia,NeotropicalMontologyCollaboratory,Athens, Georgia,UnitedStates R.Seidler,UniversityofMassachusettsBoston,Boston,MA, UnitedStates B. Seiser,InstituteforInterdisciplinaryMountain Research,Innsbruck,Austria xi xii ListofContributors G.Sharma,TheMountainInstitute-India,Gangtok,Sikkim,India R.Sigurðardo´ttir,ReykjavikAcademy,Reykjavik,Iceland M.Stocker-Waldhuber,InstituteforInterdisciplinaryMountainResearch,Innsbruck, Austria S.Strachan,UniversityofNevada,Reno,NV,UnitedStates S.J.Taylor,Centre forEnvironmentalStudies,UniversityofPretoria,SouthAfrica Y.Telwala,GlobalMechanism,UNCCD, Rome,Italy S. Van Rensburg, South African Environmental Observation Network, Pretoria, SouthAfrica H. Wiesenegger, Hydrographical Survey of the Federal Government of Salzburg, Salzburg,Austria N.Zverkova,InstituteofGeography RussianAcademyofSciences,Moscow,Russia Editorial Foreword Mountain Ice and Water is a new volume of papers reviewed and edited by John (Jack) Shroder, Emeritus Professor of Geography and Geology at the UniversityofNebraskaatOmaha,USA,andGregGreenwood,Directorofthe Mountain Research Initiative from Geneva, Switzerland. The chapters were derivedfromresearchpapersthatweredeliveredatthePerthIIIConferenceon Mountains of our Future Earth in Scotland in October 1915. The conference was established to help develop the knowledge necessary for responding effectively in the coming decades to the risks and opportunities of global environmental change and supporting transformations toward global sustain- ability. To this end, the conference and the book have investigated the future situation in mountains from three points of view: (1) Dynamic Planet: Observing, explaining, understanding, and projecting Earth, environmental, and societal system trends, drivers, and processes and their interactions to anticipate global thresholds and risks; (2) Global Sustainable Development: Increasing knowledge for sustainable, secure, and fair stewardship of biodi- versity, food, water, health, energy, materials, and other ecosystem services; (3) Transformations Toward Sustainability: Understanding transformation processes and options, assessing how these relate to humanvalues, emerging technologies and social and economic development pathways, and evaluating strategies for governing and managing the global environment across sectors and scales. Thisthree-foldstructurehaspermittedtheresearchcommunityworkingon global change in mountains to align itself more easily with the broader framework established by the Future Earth initiative (http://www.futureearth. org/) to provide knowledge and support to accelerate transformations to a sustainable world. Thus this book has a number of chapters from topics all over our planet in terms of major water and ice issues pertaining to planetary dynamics, sustainable development, and ideas about possible transformations toward sustainability. For example, among the diversity of presentations are glacier changes throughout the whole of Russia, water from the highlands in South Africa, water and ice in northern Iceland, hydropower in the Eastern Himalaya and downstream impacts in the same region, ice, water, and mummies in the Andes and other tropical mountains, along with environ- mental issues in these regions, public policy and governance in mountains, mountain snows and droughts, and changes in natural alpine riverine xiii xiv EditorialForeword landscapes.Theresultingvolumeisanumberofthemesthatpresentsomenew thinkingonmountainiceandwaterthatwillhelpinplanningforanuncertain but somewhat threatening future in the face of the climate change that is threatening ever more people and ecosystems. Because of the need to accelerate production of papers after the confer- ence,andasaresultofourdesiretomaintainreasonablyhighquality,wehad tomaintainpressureonthechapterauthorstogettheirpapersfinishedquickly. We also reviewed all papers and requested revisions on a basis offairly rapid turnaround,thuseliminatingmoresubmissionsthanwewouldhavecaredfor, butwetrustthatwehaveachievedsomemeasureofdiversityandinterestthat can further at least some of the objectives of the conference on Mountains of OurFutureEarth.Certainlythedynamicsoftheplanet,sometransformations towardsustainability,andmoresustainabledevelopmentonaglobalbasisare inevidenceinthesechapterssothatwecanrecommendthemtothescientific community. J.F. Shroder, Jr. Gregory B. Greenwood 1 September 2016 Chapter 1 The Drakensberg Escarpment as the Great Supplier of Water to South Africa S.J. Taylor,*,1 J.W.H. Ferguson,* F.A. Engelbrecht,x V.R. Clark,{ jj S. Van Rensburg and N. Barker** *CentreforEnvironmentalStudies,UniversityofPretoria,SouthAfrica;xClimateStudies, ModellingandEnvironmentalHealth,NaturalResourcesandtheEnvironment,Councilfor ScientificandIndustrialResearch(CSIR),SouthAfrica;{BotanyDepartment,RhodesUniversity, SouthAfrica;jjSouthAfricanEnvironmentalObservationNetwork,Pretoria,SouthAfrica; **SchoolofPlantSciences,UniversityofPretoria,SouthAfrica 1Correspondingauthor:E-mail:[email protected] Chapter Outline Introduction 2 Mist 18 TheGreatEscarpmentofSouthern Snow 18 AfricaandtheDrakensberg 4 Evapotranspiration 19 TheMpumalangaDrakensberg 5 WaterDischarge 20 TheeKangalaDrakensberg 5 Long-TermChangesinRiver TheMaloti-Drakensberg 6 Discharge 23 TheCapeMidlands Human WaterDemandFromthe Escarpment 7 Drakensberg 23 TheDrakensbergAsa Sourceof WaterRequirementsofthe Water 10 SouthAfricanEconomy 23 WeatherSystemsBringingRain TheEconomicValueofWater totheDrakensberg 10 FromtheDrakensberg 23 ImportantWaterResource Utilization ofWaterFromthe Areas intheDrakensberg 10 Drakensberg 26 Rainfall 11 ProjectionsofSectoralWater HeavyRainsandtheEffectof UseFromtheDrakensberg 28 LandManagementon SouthAfricanWaterGovernance DischargeandSiltation 13 andManagement 29 Long-TermChangein SouthAfricanWater MountainRainfall 15 GovernanceandLegislation 29 MountainIceandWater.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-63787-1.00001-9 Copyright©2016ElsevierB.V.Allrightsreserved. 1 2 MountainIceandWater LesothoWaterGovernance HumanPopulation Growth 37 andCatchmentManagement 30 WaterGovernance 37 PotentialConstraintsonWater ImprovingtheSecurityof Supply 31 MountainWaterCatchmentsina EffectsofHumanActivities 31 Semi-aridRegion 37 EffectsofClimateChange 32 ImprovedKnowledgeofthe TheMpumalanga FactorsAffectingMountain Drakensberg 33 WaterCatchments 37 TheeKangalaDrakensberg 33 AnApproachforImproved TheMaloti-Drakensberg 35 MountainEcosystem TheCapeMidlands Governance 38 Escarpment 35 Conclusion 39 SynthesisFromResearchtoDate 36 Acknowledgments 40 ClimateChange 36 References 41 INTRODUCTION The world’s freshwater supplies are increasingly constrained by population growth,urbanization,pollution,eutrophication,changingrainfallpatterns,and shrinking cryospheric storage, a situation that could cause conflicts (Jury and Vaux, 2007; Rijsberman, 2006; Ohlsson, 2000). Water security, along with food and energy security, has become a global issue (Ludwig and Roson, 2015). Mountains are vital sources of freshwater for rural and commercial agriculture as well as cities, for national and local economies, and for eco- systems and ecosystem services, often with a trans-boundary dimension. Mountains induce precipitation and are able to store large amounts of water either as snow or ice, or in soil, wetlands, or peat areas, for slow release throughout theyear. TheIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned in 2007 that mountain regions around the world will be particularly affected by climate change and that hydrological changes can already be observed (Christensen et al., 2007). South Africa is a water-deficient country with mean annual precipitation (MAP)rangingfromaround1250mmintheeastto50mminthewestwitha mean value of around 500mm (Tyson, 1991). Half of the country has an annual precipitation less than 400mm. In addition, potential evaporation in- creasesstronglyfromaround1200mmannuallyintheeastto2750mminthe west (de Villiers, 1996). For this reason, water scarcity in South Africa is considered apotentially significantconstraintfor economicdevelopment,and itispredictedthedemandwilloutstripsupplyinthenearfuture(Blignautand van Heerden, 2009). In addition to this, the impacts of climate change on regional water resources are uncertain. While there is high confidence in the projectionsofdrasticincreasesintemperatureoversouthernAfricaunderlow mitigation(Engelbrechtetal.,2015),andwhiletheregionislikelytobecome generally drier (Niang et al., 2014), the rainfall features of eastern South TheDrakensbergEscarpmentastheGreatSupplierofWater Chapter j1 3 Africa are uncertain. Some models project drier scenarios while others sug- gestedwetterfutures(DEA,2013,p.3e10;Niangetal.,2014).Eveninwetter scenarios, the increase in temperature may still result in reduced water availability (DEA, 2013, pp. 3e10; Engelbrecht et al., 2015). In 2000, surface water resources were already over-allocated in 5 of 19 Water Management Areas (WMAs) (DEA, 2013, p. 77). The Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) estimates that South Africa faces shortages of between 2% and 13% of total water requirements by 2025, but if climate changeprojectionsandotheruncertaintiesareincluded,theseshortagescould be as high as 19e33% by 2025 (DEA, 2013, p. 21). While not in the group of the world’s 30 most water-stressed countries (Maddocksetal.,2015),SouthAfrica’swaterresourcesareconsideredstressed, bordering on water scarce, with a current water availability of 1100m3 per personperannum(StatsSA,2010, p.7). The United Nationsconsiders awater availability of less than 1700m3 per person per annum as “water stress,” with values below 1000m3 per person per annum considered as “water scarcity” (StatsSA,2010,p.7).TheIntergovernmentalPanelonClimateChange(IPCC) projectedthatwateravailabilityinSouthAfricacoulddeclineintimetobelow the1000m3percapitaperannumthresholddeemedtobeaglobalstandardfor human“well-being”becauseofclimatechangeimpacts(Batesetal.,2008).As elsewhereintheworld,thisdeclineinSouthAfricawillbedrivenbyincreased demand by people, farms, cities, and business rather than by the potential for modified precipitation patterns (Beniston, 2003). During the past century, South Africa focused on engineered systems (dams, inter-basin transfers, tunnels, and pipelines) to safeguard its water supply.NationalwatersecurityinSouthAfricainthefutureisnowexpectedto dependonanabilitytoplandevelopmentcompatiblewithmountaincatchment ecologicalinfrastructure(Neletal.,2013).Usingexistinginfrastructure,since 1994, the South African state has provided access to basic water services for 9millionpeople,mostlythoseconcentratedintheurbanareas.TheFreeBasic Water policy of 2001 aimed to provide the first 6kL of water free to all households. In 2013, DEA reported that during 2006, 3.3million people still lacked access to adequate, clean water supplies, with another 15.3million being without access to sanitation services at that time (DEA, 2013, p. 21). In terms of the Great Southern Africa Escarpment (Fig. 1.1), key water resource areas include the Eastern Cape Drakensberg (also called the Cape Midlands Escarpment (CME)), the southern Maloti-Drakensberg, and North- ern Drakensberg [including the eKangala Drakensberg and the Mpumalanga Drakensberg (MD)] (Nel et al., 2013). In South Africa and Lesotho, these mountain catchments have now been designated as strategic water areas (Nel et al., 2013). These strategic water source areas together contribute 50% of the region’s water supply, captured from less than 8% of the land surface area. The Drakensberg/Maloti escarp- ment segment of the Great Escarpment of Southern Africa forms a major catchment that supplies water to large parts of southern Africa including
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