Abstract
The Building Block Methodology was one of the earliest holistic methods globally for assessing environmental flows and remains one of the few that has a detailed users’ manual. It was developed in real water-development projects in South Africa, starting in the late 1980s when the government and water scientists became concerned at the condition of the nation’s rivers. It is a prescriptive approach that describes the flows required to maintain a chosen ecological condition in the river. It does not provide detailed predictions of ecological change or the social implications of river change and was not designed to address the requirement for larger (>1:2 yr) floods although this is now sometimes included.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Ferrar AA, ed. Ecological flow requirements of South African rivers. South African national scientific programmes report 162. Pretoria: Council for Scientific and Industrial Research; 1989. 118p.
King JM, Brown CA. Integrated basin flow assessments: concepts and method development in Africa and South-east Asia. Special Issue of Freshw Biol. 2010; 55(1):127–46.
King JM, Louw D. Instream flow assessments for regulated rivers in South Africa using the building block methodology. Aquat Ecosyst Health Manag. 1998;1:109–24.
King J, Pienaar H, eds. Sustainable use of South Africa’s inland waters: a situation assessment of resource directed measures 12 years after the 1998 national water act. Water Research Commission report no. TT 491/11. Pretoria: Water Research Commission; 2011. 259pp.
King JM, Tharme RE. Assessment of the instream flow incremental methodology and initial development of alternative instream flow methodologies for South Africa. Pretoria: Water Research Commission; 1994. 590p.
King JM, Tharme RE, De Villiers M, eds. Environmental flow assessments for rivers: manual for the building block methodology. Technology transfer report TT131/00. Pretoria: Water Research Commission; 2000. 340p.
Tharme R, King JM. Development of the building block methodology for instream flow assessments and supporting research on the effects of different magnitude flows on riverine ecosystem. WRC report no. 576/1/98. Pretoriae: Water Research Commission; 1998. 452 p.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this entry
Cite this entry
King, J.M. (2016). Environmental Flows: Building Block Methodology. In: Finlayson, C., et al. The Wetland Book. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6172-8_346-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6172-8_346-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6172-8
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences