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O Attribution — You Must Give Appropriate Credit, Provide a Link to the License, and Indicate If Changes Were Made COPYRIGHT AND CITATION CONSIDERATIONS FOR THIS THESIS/ DISSERTATION o Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. o NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. o ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. How to cite this thesis Surname, Initial(s). (2012). Title of the thesis or dissertation (Doctoral Thesis / Master’s Dissertation). Johannesburg: University of Johannesburg. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/102000/0002 (Accessed: 22 August 2017). Aquatic Health Assessment of the Upper Olifants River Catchment, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. By Arinao Ramudzuli A minor dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree Masters of Science In Aquatic Health In the Faculty of Science UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG Supervisor: Prof Richard Greenfield 2019 Table of content ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................. iii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ iv LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................. v ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................. vi SUMMARY ...................................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 1 1.1 BACKROUND OF THE STUDY ................................................................................... 7 1.2 MOTIVATION OF STUDY ........................................................................................... 9 1.3 HYPOTHESIS, AIM AND OBJECTIVES .................................................................... 11 1.3.1 HYPOTHESIS ........................................................................................................ 11 1.3.2 AIM ......................................................................................................................... 11 1.3.3 OBJECTIVES ......................................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................. 12 2.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 12 2.2. River Health Programme (RHP)/ River Ecostatus Monitoring Program (REMP) ....... 13 2.3. Biomonitoring ........................................................................................................... 13 2.3.1. Macroinvertebrates ................................................................................................ 14 2.3.2. Water Quality ......................................................................................................... 14 2.4. Study Area ................................................................................................................ 15 2.4.1 Description of the Study Area ................................................................................. 15 Table 1: The Upper Olifants sub-catchment areas ........................................................... 17 2.4.2 Climate ................................................................................................................... 17 2.4.3 Topography ............................................................................................................ 17 2.4.4 Vegetation .............................................................................................................. 17 2.4.5 Geology .................................................................................................................. 18 2.4.6 Land use activities .................................................................................................. 19 2.4.7 Ecological Classification ......................................................................................... 20 2.5 Site Selection ............................................................................................................ 20 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................... 23 3.1 Materials and Methods .............................................................................................. 23 3.1.1 Macroinvertebrates and SASS5 .............................................................................. 23 3.1.2 Geomorphology and GI .......................................................................................... 23 3.1.3 Flow and HI ............................................................................................................ 24 3.1.4 Water quality and WQI ............................................................................................ 24 i 3.2 Sampling ................................................................................................................... 25 3.2.1 Macroinvertebrates ................................................................................................. 25 3.3 Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 26 3.3.1 Index of Habitat Integrity (IHI) ................................................................................. 27 3.3.2 In-situ Water quality Parameters ............................................................................. 28 3.3 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................ 29 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION................................................................... 30 4.1 Water Quality Results ................................................................................................ 30 4.1.1 Variables ................................................................................................................ 32 Temperature .................................................................................................................... 32 pH ................................................................................................................................... 33 Electrical Conductivity (EC) ............................................................................................. 34 Dissolved Oxygen (DO) ................................................................................................... 35 4.2 Index of Habitat Integrity (IHI) .................................................................................... 36 4.2.1 Instream zone impacts ............................................................................................ 37 4.2.2 Riparian zone impacts ............................................................................................ 37 4.2.3 Sources of Pollution ................................................................................................ 38 4.3 Macroinvertebrates Assessment ................................................................................ 38 4.3.1 The South African Scoring System Version 5 (SASS5) ........................................... 38 4.3.2 The Macroinvertebrates Response Assessment Index (MIRAI) .............................. 42 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUTION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................. 44 RECCOMENDATIONS .................................................................................................... 45 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 47 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................. 54 APPENDIX A: SASS VERSION 5 SCORE SHEETS ....................................................... 55 APPENDIX B: MIRAI SUMMARY .................................................................................... 71 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the following people and institutions: My supervisor Prof Richard Greenfield for his leadership, support, guidance, insight and most importantly his patience during this study. The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) for financial support. Christa Thirion (Department of Water and Sanitation RQIS) for her assistance with the reference conditions of the study area. Colleagues at the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) (Mpumalanga Regional Office and Gauteng Regional Office) and Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD) for their assistance with fieldwork as well as running the MIRAI model. Barbara Kalembo (DWS) and Mpfareleni Mashau (GDARD) for going an extra mile by assisting me with analysing data and running the MIRAI model and IHI. My loving family and friends for their prayers, love, support, belief in me. And above all, I would like to thank GOD for giving me strength and making this possible. iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Olifants Water Management Area ........................................................................ 16
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