D.C. Kotze, C.M. Breen, J. Klug, J. C. Hughes 1
Although wetlands are recognized as being important and threatened habitats, very few guidelines are available for the management of wetlands in South Africa. WETLAND-USE was developed for the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, South Africa, to assist in rationalizing management and land-use allocation decisions within wetlands. Construction of the system involved incorporating information from the literature, experts, case study wetlands and other wetland assessment systems. WETLAND-USE comprises three components: (1) INFO-COLLECT, which prompts the user to collect appropriate information regarding the wetland and surrounding landscape; (2) LAND USE-ASSESS, which assists in selecting the most appropriate land-use by assessing the likely impact of the proposed land-use/s on the hydrological and ecological values of the wetland; and (3) LAND USE-RECOMMEND, which provides management recommendations appropriate to the chosen land-use (e.g. stocking rate for the grazing of a particular wetland type by domestic stock). With the objective of identifying the key management issues and characterizing the decision making process in wetlands, WETLAND-USE will assist in focusing on the most important knowledge gaps, thereby assisting in designing relevant research programmes. This paper describes WETLAND-USE, focusing particularly on the three class water regime classification system, which is based on soil morphological features and was developed as the primary hydrological parameter for the system. Work which is currently under-way on the system is also described.
