Abstract
Surface water resources (the Vaal River and its tributaries) in the Vredefort Dome World Heritage Site (VDWHS), South Africa, have been over extended and future development will rely solely on groundwater. Hence, being at a critical point in the water balance, groundwater resources in the VDWHS require careful management and protection to ensure sustainability and equitable access. An assessment of the geohydrological character of the VDWHS was therefore done in order to develop a groundwater resource management plan. Five groundwater resource management units were delineated and resource measures for each management unit were developed based on physical and anthropogenic attributes. Due to the importance of groundwater in the VDWHS, it was determined that geohydrology should play a major role in the alignment of the environmental, spatial and statutory development frameworks, in order to ensure good governance. A geohydrological-based land use management guideline and spatial development framework was developed to optimize the integration between the water sector, the environmental sector and land use and spatial planning sector. It was concluded that a geohydrological assessment needs to form the basis of all future land use management and spatial planning activities in the VDWHS.
Highlights
The Vredefort Dome is the most clearly defined, largest and oldest meteorite impact structure on earth, and was listed in 2005 as a World Heritage Site to protect a portion of this astrobleme for future generations [1,2]
The region is drained by the perennial Vaal River which flows from east to west through the southern and central portions of the study area, most activities in the Vredefort Dome World Heritage Site (VDWHS) rely exclusively on groundwater resources for the provision of water due to the mainly rural setting as well as the fact that the Vaal River has been over extended by industrial and mining activities upstream of the VDWHS [3]
A literature review on delineation of groundwater management units, the results from the groundwater geohydrological investigation as well as regional geological, geomorphological and geohydrological information augmented by aerial photograph interpretations was used to delineate the different groundwater resource management units in the VDWHS
Summary
The Vredefort Dome is the most clearly defined, largest and oldest meteorite impact structure on earth, and was listed in 2005 as a World Heritage Site to protect a portion of this astrobleme for future generations [1,2]. It currently still awaits formal proclamation by UNESCO. This Act changed the status of groundwater from a private to a public resource, indicating a greater recognition of the importance and role of groundwater as a water resource [7,8]
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