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The need for innovative systemic approaches for managing water resources that integrate natural and human dimensions is well established. Although systemic, participatory modelling has been shown to support stakeholder involvement and integrated analysis, the uptake within acrimonious, data-scarce contexts – especially in the developing world – is limited. This study details a process designed to address challenges facing the lower Olifants River Catchment in South Africa, including deteriorating water quality, data paucity and stakeholder conflict. Narratives and quantitative data were used to build a system dynamics (SD) model, ResiMod, within a participatory process. The paper demonstrates how narratives can inform, and be informed by, iterative model development whilst integrating scientific data. The approach facilitated an exploration of perceptions of causality, connections between stakeholder sectors, and mitigatory actions for responding to climate-change impacts on biodiversity. This offers a promising approach to support improved communication and learning in disputed, data-scarce contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the strong emphasis on public participation in the National Water Act (NWA), South Africa has yet to implement a comprehensive and functional approach to public engagement at the level of Water Management Areas. Part of the problem is that actual requirements are not explicitly articulated anywhere. This has led to the situation where public participatory processes are poorly conceptualised, misdirected and often perceived as confusing by stakeholders. 'Participation fatigue' is the consequence of this accompanied by a growing frustration with the implementation of the content of the Act. The intention for decentralised democratic water resources management is consequently seriously jeopardised if the public participation processes are not clearly presented in the public domain. In this paper we draw on a number of sources, namely a national pilot integrated catchment management programme called the Save the Sand Project initiated in the north-eastern part of SA, a Water Research Commission project on public participation and a DWAF project that funded the exploration of public participation in the Sand River Catchment. The latter (2005 -2007) supported a better understanding of public participation processes and dynamics in a high-density rural catchment, the findings from which are reported here. Additionally this paper is referenced against the current discourse on public participation in water resources aimed at elucidating public participation in integrated water resource management (IWRM) in South Africa. The focus of the work reported in this paper is specifically on the development and implementation of catchment management strategies as the locus of decentralised, democratised, participatory water resource management. In this paper we start out by discussing how complexities surrounding public engagement might present newly established catchment management agencies (CMAs) with serious challenges and then move on to a proposed framework for focusing public engagement on specific IWRM tasks. The framework outlines tasks where multi-stakeholder platforms collaboratively design strategic water management actions that are assembled as the catchment management strategy (CMS), a statutory obligation for CMAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is increasingly evident amongst practitioners and academics alike that the management approaches of the past have failed to deal adequately with the challenges posed by complex and rapidly changing systems. Indeed the call for integrated approaches such as those embodied in integrated water resource management (IWRM) reflects such concerns. This is because these systems are characterised by complexity in which an understanding of linkages, multiple drivers and unpredictable outcomes is critical. It is also widely recognised that the management of such systems requires an iterative, 'learning-by-doing' approach that is reflexive in nature and builds learning into the next management cycle. We suggest that any attempt to define and implement viable and effective governance of water resources, as well as rehabilitation measures, requires understanding that catchments are complex systems showing the aforementioned characteristics. As a corollary, an adaptive management approach appears best suited to such conditions. In this paper we argue that South Africa's highly-acclaimed National Water Act and associated policy documents such as the National Water Resource Strategy is an example of a policy document that reflects this thinking, as is evident in the guidelines for the development of catchment management strategies which are introduced and described. These offer a framework for the development of a holistic, systems understanding which is strategic and adaptive. In particular, under such a framework, we select the two cornerstones of the Act -- sustainability and equity -- to explore this theme. We show that under such a framework ensuring that both these principles are achieved is not through one simplistic management action but through an integrated, systems approach. The development of strategies is driven by principles which help one to navigate issues that emerge in complex systems in a flexible way. Visioning and scenarios offer important management tools for establishing a hierarchy of actions that can achieve the overarching principles and that can accommodating change. In complex systems, the users must be part of deriving management solutions since this is where and how they learn. Self-organisation, identity and embeddedness are all essential characteristics of building resilience in a catchment system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Save the Sand Project is a national pilot project for Integrated Catchment Management and Land Care. Catalysed by the 1992 drought, this initiative arose out of a precarious water security situation in the Sand River Catchment in South Africa. In a fundamental departure form the previous water act, the new Water Act (1998) provided the foundation and framework for adopting a new, integrated approach to water resource management. In keeping with the main themes of the act, namely water resource protection, equity amongst users and catchment management, an ecosystems approach has been adopted towards land and water management within the catchment. These include awareness raising, developmental activities, resource protection measures and rehabilitation initiatives. This paper aims to provide an overview of the key elements of the initiative, as well as to provide a critique of integration as the cornerstone of ICM, in order to provide lessons for the future. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]