Environmental Water Quality Management

The course focuses on understanding the three pillars of Environmental Water Quality (EWQ), water physicochemistry, biomonitoring, and ecotoxicology, as tools and approaches for managing the water quality of aquatic ecosystems. These three approaches provide complementary information necessary for understanding and managing water quality for all end-users. Water physicochemistry involves direct assessments of the amounts of specific compounds present in a system. This is the best-established means of assessing water quality. Biomonitoring is an approach that assesses the ecological health of biota in an aquatic system as a means of inferring water quality and environmental health, and it is a relatively recent development compared to physicochemical monitoring. Ecotoxicology is a conceptually similar approach that utilises controlled exposures to potential toxins, allowing for a more refined assessment of the toxicity levels of specific compounds. The course also covers the combined use of all three methods for holistic assessment and management of water quality, facilitating informed decision-making. There is an emphasis on working with and manipulating water quality data, as well as conducting field and laboratory experiments in the South African context.