Geohydrological studies of the Western Shores of lake St Lucia
type: CreativeWork
description: Lake St Lucia is a sensitive estuarine system of international importance which is threatened with over-development within its catchment area by afforestation, overgrazing, proposed dredge mining on the eastern shores and other exploitations. These disturbances and proposed developments have invoked considerable public concern for the sustainability of the Lake St Lucia system. This study looks at the contribution of the groundwater from the western shores area to the lake system in order to evaluate its importance to sustaining the ecology of the system. Under severe drought conditions, the lake experiences considerable lowering of water levels which are accompanied by high rises in salinity levels because of the low freshwater recharge. While the western shores catchment of Lake St Lucia has a number of rivers that contribute freshwater to regulate the salinity of St Lucia, most of these rivers are non-perennial and have been exploited by developments within their catchments. In this study the aquifer system of the southern portion of the western shores area of Lake St Lucia is delineated with the specific intention of defining the coastal geohydrology of the western shores in order to determine its contribution to the water balance of Lake St Lucia. The geological succession of the Zululand coastal plain is described using geophysical information and borehole data which have been compared with field observations and findings in adjacent areas. The general stratigraphic succession, constructed from a number of electrical resistivity soundings and a few boreholes drilled around the western shores area of Lake St Lucia, is described as the first step in defining a conceptual model of the present system for numerical simulation studies. The resistivity soundings have shown that the permeable succession is restricted to post-Cretaceous sediments. The low permeable Cretaceous siltstones, the Lebombo volcanics and the Karoo sediments were all selected to coincide with t…
abstract: Lake St Lucia is a sensitive estuarine system of international importance which is threatened with over-development within its catchment area by afforestation, overgrazing, proposed dredge mining on the eastern shores and other exploitations. These disturbances and proposed developments have invoked considerable public concern for the sustainability of the Lake St Lucia system. This study looks at the contribution of the groundwater from the western shores area to the lake system in order to evaluate its importance to sustaining the ecology of the system. Under severe drought conditions, the lake experiences considerable lowering of water levels which are accompanied by high rises in salinity levels because of the low freshwater recharge. While the western shores catchment of Lake St Lucia has a number of rivers that contribute freshwater to regulate the salinity of St Lucia, most of these rivers are non-perennial and have been exploited by developments within their catchments. In this study the aquifer system of the southern portion of the western shores area of Lake St Lucia is delineated with the specific intention of defining the coastal geohydrology of the western shores in order to determine its contribution to the water balance of Lake St Lucia. The geological succession of the Zululand coastal plain is described using geophysical information and borehole data which have been compared with field observations and findings in adjacent areas. The general stratigraphic succession, constructed from a number of electrical resistivity soundings and a few boreholes drilled around the western shores area of Lake St Lucia, is described as the first step in defining a conceptual model of the present system for numerical simulation studies. The resistivity soundings have shown that the permeable succession is restricted to post-Cretaceous sediments. The low permeable Cretaceous siltstones, the Lebombo volcanics and the Karoo sediments were all selected to coincide with t…
author: Nomquphu, Vaward wandile
keywords: Hydrology--Thesis and dissertations, Hydrology, Hydrology--Kwa-zulu natal--Lake st lucia
license: https://devspace.unizulu.ac.za/bitstreams/7fc5b746-d8b2-4cd8-b855-d4399c146e8f/download
date published: 1998
date modified: 2026-07-24T06:16:58Z
provider: University of Zululand
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Zululand