Water quality information system for integrated water resource management

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The processes of monitoring, modelling and managing the water quality of a catchmeritsystem including all its unique complexities and interrelationships requires an innovative toolor set of tools to help water managers with their decision making.Numerous methods and tools have been developed to analyse and model the real world.However, many of these tools require a fair degree of technical expertise and training tooperate correctly and their output may have to be translated or converted to meaningfulinformation for decision-making using a further set of analytical and graphical display tools.A more appropriate technique for management would be to combine all these functions into asingle system. The objective of this research was to develop one such tool, an integrated waterquality information system (WQIS).A review of the literature revealed that there has been extensive research and development oftools for the management of individual aspects of water resource distribution, augmentationand quality. However, these tools have rarely been integrated into a comprehensiveinformation system offering decision support to a wide variety of river users and managers.Many of the literature sources also noted that a process of interactive development andintegration (i.e. including the intended users in the decision of which components to include,the interface design and the graphical display and output) was vital to ensuring theinformation system becomes an integral part of the users routine work and decision-making.The WQIS was developed using the recommendations from numerous knowledgeable personsin response to questionnaires, interviews and a prototype demonstration. It includes the resultsof hydrodynamic river and reservoir simulations and the ability to perform operational riverscenario testing. However, the development process is continual and always evolving basedon the current or local requirements of water managers. These further developments andresearch needs are discussed in more detail in the conclusion.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University