Deriving a policy document towards an early warning system for estuaries in South Africa: case study Great Brak estuary, Eden District, Southern Cape

dc.contributor.advisorAnsorge, Isabel
dc.contributor.advisorHermes, Juliet
dc.contributor.authorStander, Johan
dc.date.accessioned2020-11-11T11:39:46Z
dc.date.available2020-11-11T11:39:46Z
dc.date.issued2020
dc.date.updated2020-11-11T11:38:32Z
dc.description.abstractSouth Africa's estuaries and their surrounding communities are becoming increasingly vulnerable to storm surges and accompanied estuary flooding. These events are largely due to increasing severity of storm surges combined with growing housing and commercial developments. A particularly severe weather event in 2007/2008 highlighted the pressing need to understand the processes involved and the urgency to develop proactive response and management actions to mitigate the effects of future storm events on these coastal areas. Scientific research on estuarine flooding is limited not only for South Africa but within the international community as well and only recently has received committed attention from policy makers. It is clear that our current knowledge of South African estuary flooding events remains rudimentary; while necessary action to mitigate such events are poorly understood and planned. The aim of this PhD thesis is to devise and implement an Estuary Early Warning – Emergency Preparedness and Response Guide for stakeholders and government policymakers. This guide will target South Africa's coastal region by analysing past information on storm surges and estuary flooding, particularly in the low-lying southern coast region of the Western Cape, South Africa. The key objective of this thesis is to assess the best processesfor the issuing of estuary alerts and to better standardise them so that the response remains in line with multi-hazard early warning standard procedures and practices within South Africa. A further aim is to provide a comprehensive national guideline on how best to effectively disseminate and communicate such information and to establish an Estuary Early Warning (EEW) – Emergency Preparedness and Response Guide (EPRG), which forms part of the South African Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (MHEWS). It is critical that this EEW meets general principles accepted internationally for an effective Early Warning System. This thesis addresses the following key elements namely: (1) Risk identification, (2) Key drivers and contributions to estuary flooding, (3) Monitoring and alert early warning system, (4) Alert dissemination and (5) Response actions. Such pioneering work is an essential tool to translate science into policy, a crossover field, which remains poorly implemented.
dc.identifier.apacitationStander, J. (2020). <i>Deriving a policy document towards an early warning system for estuaries in South Africa: case study Great Brak estuary, Eden District, Southern Cape</i>. (). ,Faculty of Science ,Department of Oceanography. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32381en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationStander, Johan. <i>"Deriving a policy document towards an early warning system for estuaries in South Africa: case study Great Brak estuary, Eden District, Southern Cape."</i> ., ,Faculty of Science ,Department of Oceanography, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32381en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationStander, J. 2020. Deriving a policy document towards an early warning system for estuaries in South Africa: case study Great Brak estuary, Eden District, Southern Cape. . ,Faculty of Science ,Department of Oceanography. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32381en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Doctoral Thesis AU - Stander, Johan AB - South Africa's estuaries and their surrounding communities are becoming increasingly vulnerable to storm surges and accompanied estuary flooding. These events are largely due to increasing severity of storm surges combined with growing housing and commercial developments. A particularly severe weather event in 2007/2008 highlighted the pressing need to understand the processes involved and the urgency to develop proactive response and management actions to mitigate the effects of future storm events on these coastal areas. Scientific research on estuarine flooding is limited not only for South Africa but within the international community as well and only recently has received committed attention from policy makers. It is clear that our current knowledge of South African estuary flooding events remains rudimentary; while necessary action to mitigate such events are poorly understood and planned. The aim of this PhD thesis is to devise and implement an Estuary Early Warning – Emergency Preparedness and Response Guide for stakeholders and government policymakers. This guide will target South Africa's coastal region by analysing past information on storm surges and estuary flooding, particularly in the low-lying southern coast region of the Western Cape, South Africa. The key objective of this thesis is to assess the best processesfor the issuing of estuary alerts and to better standardise them so that the response remains in line with multi-hazard early warning standard procedures and practices within South Africa. A further aim is to provide a comprehensive national guideline on how best to effectively disseminate and communicate such information and to establish an Estuary Early Warning (EEW) – Emergency Preparedness and Response Guide (EPRG), which forms part of the South African Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (MHEWS). It is critical that this EEW meets general principles accepted internationally for an effective Early Warning System. This thesis addresses the following key elements namely: (1) Risk identification, (2) Key drivers and contributions to estuary flooding, (3) Monitoring and alert early warning system, (4) Alert dissemination and (5) Response actions. Such pioneering work is an essential tool to translate science into policy, a crossover field, which remains poorly implemented. DA - 2020_ DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town KW - oceanography LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PY - 2020 T1 - Deriving a policy document towards an early warning system for estuaries in South Africa: case study Great Brak estuary, Eden District, Southern Cape TI - Deriving a policy document towards an early warning system for estuaries in South Africa: case study Great Brak estuary, Eden District, Southern Cape UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32381 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/32381
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationStander J. Deriving a policy document towards an early warning system for estuaries in South Africa: case study Great Brak estuary, Eden District, Southern Cape. []. ,Faculty of Science ,Department of Oceanography, 2020 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32381en_ZA
dc.language.rfc3066eng
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Oceanography
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Science
dc.subjectoceanography
dc.titleDeriving a policy document towards an early warning system for estuaries in South Africa: case study Great Brak estuary, Eden District, Southern Cape
dc.typeDoctoral Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoral
dc.type.qualificationlevelPhD
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