A preliminary assessment of the effects of a small south african inter-basin water transfer on discharge and invertebrate community structure

Natural variation in macroinvertebrate assemblages and the development of a biological banding system for interpreting bioassessment data—a preliminary evaluation using data from upland sites in the south-western Cape, South Africa

“…< 79 < 6.6 the upper Berg River, which is subjected to an inter-basin water transfer (IBT) scheme that operates during summer, the naturally low-flow period (Snaddon & Davies, 1998). When these sites were sampled in winter or spring they resembled sites above the IBT, when it is not operational.…”

“…The distribution of many species has also been shown to be spatially distinct leading King & Schael (2001) to coin the phrase ''catchment signatures'' when referring to macroinvertebrate assemblages. Upland areas are subjected to various impacts, including afforestation, aquaculture (Brown, 1997), agricultural activities and inter-basin water transfers (Snaddon & Davies, 1998) as well as structural alteration of the channel and bank. Whilst upland areas are relatively less disturbed than lowland ones, it is nonetheless important to derive benchmarks from which to gauge the degree of impairment of these sites when exposed to damaging anthropogenic activities.…”

The potential impact of an inter-basin water transfer project on nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorous) and chlorophyll a of the receiving water system

“…The Lesotho Highland Water Project improves the water quality of the Vaal River although it may increase algal growth (Davies et al, 1992). Most of the research focused on the potential threat to biodiversity conservation (Drinkwater and Frank, 1994;Gibbins et al, 2001;Snaddon and Davies, 1998). Only a few studies have concentrated on the effects of water transfers on the physical and chemical changes to water quality.…”

“…How the N&P concentrations and eutrophication state of the receiving water system would change after a long-distance, interbasin water transfer project containing a large amount of transferred water was unknown. Except for the original physical and biological differences between the originating and receiving water systems, the magnitude, frequency and duration of water transfers (Snaddon and Davies, 1998) would contribute greatly to the effect caused by the water transfer project (Fornarelli and Antenucci, 2011). An environmental fluid dynamics code (EFDC) model was applied in this study for the analysis and prediction of the impact of the middle route of the SNWTP on the Miyun reservoir in given scenarios.…”

Fundamentals of Watershed Hydrology

“…Diverted water also has other uses including hydropower production and agricultural irrigation. There are many social and environmental considerations associated with inter‐basin transfers of water that are beyond the scope of this paper, but a plethora of scholarly papers can be found on these topics (e.g., Snaddon and Davies ; Gibbins et al ).…”