The water supply of the City of Cape Town, South Africa, is highly dependent on surface water and therefore highly sensitive to drought. Since the 2015-2018 drought period, there has been a significant drive to identify and operationalize alternative water sources for the City of Cape Town (including groundwater). A new tool named MeteEAU Nappes developed by the French Geological Survey (BRGM) was implemented for the Steenbras Aquifers (Table Mountain Group) and is showcased in Hydrogeology Journal article http://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-025-02969-1. Model calibration was based on more than 10 years of water cycle observation. Provided that rainfall, evapotranspiration, groundwater level and water abstraction are fed through application programming interface (API) and webservices or the internal SCADA system, the model provides a short-term prediction of groundwater level for the upcoming several months in real time, allowing water managers to anticipate high or low water levels and make appropriate decisions.
Please see https://meteeaunappes.brgm.fr/en for more details of the MeteEAU Nappes tool.
- Photograph 1 – Monitoring borehole in the Steenbras site (photo credit: BRGM)
- Photograph 2 – Monitoring borehole (190 m deep) equipped with sensors and teletransmission devices (photo credit: BRGM)
- Photograph 3 – Monitoring borehole in the Steenbras site (photo credit: BRGM)
- Figure 1 – Screenshot of the MeteEAU Nappes website showing the dynamic sheet of a monitoring station (06 September 2023) (figure credit: BRGM)
