Sectoral Reports
Several sectoral state of the environment reports have been completed
in South Africa. These include:
State of the Coasts:
Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism: Marine and Coastal
Management (DEAT MCM) has initiated a State of the Coasts reporting
programme for the marine and coastal environment in South Africa. The
aim of this initiative is to compile the first State of the Coasts
Report for South Africa. The report will address numerous issues facing
the marine and coastal environment, and will use environmental indicators
to track changes in these issues over time. The State of the Coasts
Report will form part of the long-term monitoring and reporting process
initiated by DEAT MCM, and contributes to evaluating the interactions
between biophysical, social, economic and institutional systems in
terms of:
- The current condition of the marine and coastal environment;
- Trends of changes in the marine and coastal environment;
- The key driving forces of these changes;
- The implications of these trends; and
- What societal response to these changes should be.
More detail on this project can be found at http://soc.csir.co.za/
State of rivers:
Between
1996 and 1999, the River Health Programme (RHP) conducted surveys
on the three major river systems of Mpumalanga, including some of
their tributaries. The RHP collected and assessed a substantial body
of data on the ecological health of these river during the surveys.
The State of the Rivers Report for the Crocodile, Sabie-Sand & Olifants
River Systems was released by the Water Research Commission in March
2001. This report makes information available in a state-of-environment
reporting framework.
The publication is obtainable from:
Water Research Commission
PO Box 824
Pretoria
0001
More
information is available at http://www.csir.co.za/rhp
State of estuaries:
 The
South African 3 000 km coastline has approximately 370 outlets to the
sea ranging from small coastal streams to large permanently open tidal
estuaries. The current state of scientific information on the vast
majority of these systems, however, is virtually nil. As part of a
national program to assess the state of South Africa’s estuarine
environment, basic surveys were conducted on these systems during the
period 1992 to 1999. This included ichthyofauna (fish), water quality,
and geomorphological and aesthetic observations. Some 67% of South
Africa’s ‘estuaries’ have been surveyed to date.
This baseline data has been analysed and synthesised to render it understandable
to the non-specialist but at a sufficiently high level to inform potential
end users of the state of South Africa’s estuaries.
The full report is now available on the Internet in Acrobat PDF format.
Click on the links below to open the relevant section of the report.
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To view the executive summary of the report, click
the Summary button below.To see the key findings, click the Findings
button below.
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The publication is obtainable from:
Directorate Environmental Monitoring and Reporting
Private Bag X447
Pretoria
0001
South Africa
E-mail: State of Environment Section |
