Classification of Breede-Gouritz Water Management Area resources

The Water Resource Classification System classifies water resources according into Management Classes that determine the characteristics of a water resource (all significant rivers, wetlands and estuaries and groundwater resources) that are required by both DWS and society. For the Breede-Gouritz WMA, the process involved describing current water use and the value of aquatic ecosystems, describing the relationships between flows and ecosystem condition, developing predictive models and analyzing a range of possible classification scenarios in which different amounts of water are reserved for the environment. The results were analysed together with stakeholders in a structured multi-criteria decision process before settling on a final Class configuration for the WMA.