Abstract
Globally, the changes exerted on the land cover have shown greater impacts on the quality and quantity of water resources and thus affecting catchment’s hydrological response (i.e., runoff, evapotranspiration, infiltration, amongst others). South Africa is a water-scarce country faced with domestic water supply challenges. A systematic review was conducted on the overview impacts of land use/land cover changes on water resources. Despite the country’s best efforts in ensuring the protection and sustainable use of water resources, the review indicated that water quality has been compromised in most parts of the country thus affecting water availability. The increase in water demand with development presents the need for better integrated strategic approaches and a change in behaviour towards water resource and land management. Thus, the review suggested a few possible solutions that will promote sustainable development, while protecting and preserving the integrity of South African water resources.
Highlights
Demographic, economic, and technological trends have led to the modification of the natural environment throughout the world
Water Quantity In South Africa, about one-third of the precipitation becomes runoff, and two-thirds is evaporated, transpires, or infiltrates, as further indicated by Muller et al [32], approximately 66% of the Mean Annual Runoff (MAR) in the country is found in the rivers
From the total MAR of 49,040 million m3 p.a., total requirements make up only 20% while 8% is lost through evaporation from storage and conveyance along rivers, and 6% is lost through land use [32,41]
Summary
Demographic, economic, and technological trends have led to the modification of the natural environment throughout the world. Cosgrove et al [1] reported that humans have become the primary drivers of environmental modifications that have significant impacts on the temporal distribution of precipitation in catchments and timing of runoff. These changes coupled with landscape changes due to increased food demand, energy production, and urbanisation, have compromised the quantity and quality of freshwater resources [1,2,3]. Human settlement patterns, and population distribution are linked to water sources, increasing the vulnerability of freshwater resources as development progresses [4]. Studies have linked population growth with changes in Land use/ Land cover (LU/LC) and estimated modification of about 39 to 50% around the world [8,9,10,11]
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