UP’s dam project receives international recognition
Repairs have also been made to the retaining walls of the waterway to prevent future erosion.
The University of Pretoria‘s Hartbeestspruit restoration project is on track.
The dam basin has been reshaped to encourage diverse ecology and repairs have been made to the retaining walls of the waterway to prevent erosion.
Recently the project was awarded the ecological category three bioregional status by Ecocert, an international certification body for sustainable development.
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Ecocert is an inspection and certification body for sustainable development and has a number of offices and subsidiaries worldwide, and operates and offers its services in more than 130 countries.
“Ecocert is regarded as the world’s authority in organic certification and is responsible for the creation and issuing of many international certification standards that address sustainable maintenance practices in outdoor spaces,” said the university.
The restoration project is run by the university’s department of facilities management and it is the only university in the world to have part of its grounds named an Ecocert biodiversity area, UP said in a statement.
The biodiversity area standard comprises five distinct biodiversity categories which include the national native and non-invasive exotics, national native and biome, bioregion, plant unit and local biodiversity.
“The first two focus mainly on impact mitigation and sustainable horticultural practices, while the latter three are ecologically targeted towards biodiversity conservation and ecological sustainability,” said the university.
The Hartbeestspruit runs through the university’s Hillcrest campus, which is home to university residences, the UP sports campus and the high-performance centre.
In the past few decades, the university has made significant capital investments towards controlling the flow of the waterway and repairing the damage – particularly after flood events – to protect its sports infrastructure.
A number of storm water issues related to the Hartbeestspruit, such as the outflanking of the farm dam, security of access at the inflow and outflow points, and the erosion of channel protection works, necessitated a holistic approach for the problem through the development of a storm water management plan, said the university.
The restoration project, which is still in its first year, involves the hydraulic modelling of the waterway and includes the construction of a new 13m wide spillway at the original farm dam.
“While the restoration of the farm dam has so far been the main focus of the project, the team from the department of facilities management also had to deal with existing erosion issues caused by the fast-flowing river,” UP said.
“These include two scour holes, each about 1.5m deep, which were repaired and filled to prevent further erosion and to slow the flow downstream.”
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