Abstract
Driven by population growth, increased urbanization and greater focus on economic growth, water is becoming a scarce resource in many parts of the world. With limited opportunities for further water infrastructure construction in many water-scarce countries, optimized water allocation is becoming increasingly important to balance the growing demand for water with the limited supply of accessible clean water. Although being successful in meeting the country’s water needs for many years, South Africa has faced increased pressures on its water resources since democratization in the 1990s. These increased water demands, along with changes in the water sector’s governing legislation after democratization, warrant an evaluation of current water allocation practices in South Africa.
An integrative literature review of international publications highlighted a rich body of knowledge on water allocation schemes and decision support systems. Decision support systems have seen extensive development over the past three to four decades, mainly resulting from the availability of increasing computing power. Limited guidelines, however, are available on how to select the most appropriate water allocation schemes and decision support systems for given water management situations.
This study contributes to the scientific body of knowledge by proposing a framework (the selection-framework) to support the selection of an appropriate water allocation scheme, along with its associated decision support system, linked to the priorities, drivers and characteristics of a water management situation. The selection-framework can be used by researchers and water management practitioners to define a first-order water allocation decision support scheme for their specific water management situation. Existing decision-making systems can be adapted to include the relevant features and decision criteria, or a new water allocation and decision support system can be developed.
The selection-framework was applied to the South African water management situation, with the aim to develop a generic water allocation decision support framework (the decision-support-framework) applicable to typical South African water or catchment management areas. Stakeholder engagement in the Integrated Vaal River System as a case study area was used to evaluate the implications of applying the decision-support-framework to a typical South African water management situation. Structured interviewing, together with Q-methodology, was used to gather the research data from water management specialists, followed by a factor analysis of the collected data. After implementing some framework refinements, the decision-support-framework is ready to be used as a basis to evaluate existing water allocation systems currently applied in South African water management areas, or as a basis to develop a new water allocation decision support system for a given water management area.
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Application of the framework in the Integrated Vaal River System as case-study area, identified four main areas of enhancement to improve water allocation practices. Firstly, the inclusion of a multi-criteria decision-making support technique into the overarching water allocation part of the process, will facilitate the process when competing priorities have to be dealt with. Furthermore, a formal feedback loop between the seasonal operational management cycle and the overarching water allocation process, will help to remove any misalignments that may occur due to opposing priorities between short-term and medium-term allocation objectives. A third area of enhancement focuses on target management through incentives and disincentives to induce the desired behaviour of water users, especially with regard to water conservation and the introduction of improved water efficiency. The last area of improvement is aimed at long-term water supply-demand balancing as more focus has to be placed on ensuring that alternative water source targets are met on time. A continuous and more formal target date achievement feedback loop will help to focus attention continuously on this critical aspect of the process. These enhancements can be implemented independently of each other and without a large impact on the existing allocation management process; reducing the implementation risk substantially.
The decision-support-framework contributes to practical water management practices as it provides water management practitioners with a basis which they can use or refine further when developing water allocation and decision support systems to apply in their water management areas. The selection-framework also provides some additional information to incorporate historical, social, economic, political, environmental, legal, stakeholder, technological and other realities that may be important for water allocation in a specific region.