Measuring spatial variability of land use associated with hydrological impact in urbanised quaternary catchments using entropy Academic Article

abstract

• 2015,South African Water Research Commission. All rights reserved. Decision making for water resources is needed for land-use change due to urbanisation, which impacts hydrological variables such as mean annual runof (MAR) of catchments. Urbanisation introduces some degree of uncertainty (expressed as entropy) to this specific variable. This study uses Shannon or theoretic entropy as a tool for measuring land use variability/diversity of urbanised areas in South Africa. Positive correlations between entropy and increase in mean annual runoff (MAR) due to urbanisation are derived. Also, relationships between return period/risk of failure (flooding or water supply) and entropy are established. A case of Pieter Wright Dam of the Vaal drainage region is used to demonstrate these relationships. Consequently, the reliability of this dam is shown to be positively correlated with entropy. Data on surface water resources of South Africa 1990 (WR90) compiled by the Water Resource Commission (WRC) were used in this study.

authors

• Singh, Vijay

published proceedings

• WATER SA

author list (cited authors)

• Ilunga, M., & Singh, V. P.

citation count

• 2

complete list of authors

• Ilunga, M||Singh, VP

publication date

• January 2015

publisher

• Academy of Science of South Africa  Publisher

published in

• Water SA  Journal

keywords

• Decision-making
• Entropy
• Hydrological Impact
• Quaternary Catchments
• Risk
• Urbanisation

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.4314/wsa.v41i1.7

URI

• https://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/164634

start page

• 41

end page

• 53

volume

• 41

issue

• 1

URL

• http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.4314%2Fwsa.v41i1.7

user-defined tag

• 15 Life on Land