Chapter 5 - Influence of global climate change on water resources in South Africa: toward an adaptive management approach

Abstract

Understanding exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacities of a country is important for resilience building and policy discourses especially the pursuit of water security objectives. South Africa is characterized by a semi-arid climate and highly variable spatiotemporal precipitation patterns and high evapotranspiration rates. These constrain water resources availability negatively and impact economic development, livelihoods, and progress toward attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This chapter presents a global overview of climate change scenarios in South Africa and their impact on water resources, water security, and governance, and offers suggestions for transitioning toward adaptive management in the water sector. We explore how South Africa can attain water security, the sector-wide challenges and opportunities and innovations in resilience building to climate change risks in the water sector. This chapter indicates both increase and reduction in water resource availability associated with climate change–related extreme events (floods and droughts) in different parts of South Africa. To reduce water insecurity appropriate legal and regulatory water resources framework of management are recommended. Adaptive water management strategies, such as use of smart water technologies, have the potential to increase the coping capacities to climate change related impacts.