Landscapes in motion
The African Waterscapes Lab studies how water and sediment shape rivers, wetlands and watersheds in African landscapes, strengthening the evidence base for water management, ecosystem restoration and flood-risk planning.
Understanding Africa’s changing rivers and wetlands
Rivers and wetlands help purify water, reduce flooding, support biodiversity and sustain communities. Geomorphic processes, including how water and sediment move through and settle within landscapes, shape their ability to provide these benefits.
These systems are under growing pressure. Climate change is altering rainfall patterns and increasing the effects of droughts and floods, while degradation further affects how rivers and wetlands function and recover.
Much of the available geomorphological evidence comes from temperate environments with more predictable waterscapes. African climates and landscapes are diverse and highly variable, yet limited data and resources often constrain research. The Lab is helping to build a broader evidence base that reflects African landscapes and priorities, using locally grounded methods to understand change, assess ecosystem resilience and guide restoration and management.
The African Waterscapes Lab is based in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Stellenbosch University and led by Associate Professor Suzanne Grenfell. Its vision is an Africa where communities prosper through connection to their rivers and wetlands.
OUR APPROACH
Research, capacity, and science translation
The Lab connects research, capacity development and science translation through three areas of work:
01
Research grounded in African landscapes
Develop locally relevant methods and evidence for understanding interconnected rivers, wetlands and watersheds in variable climates.
02
Strengthening African geomorphology expertise
Train postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows while expanding access to field, laboratory and analytical methods.
03
Partnerships for water and landscape decisions
Build partnerships with research institutions, government agencies, municipalities, practitioners and landowners to connect geomorphology research with water and landscape planning, river and wetland restoration, and flood-risk management.
FIELD ARCHIVE
Evidence across scale
OUR RESEARCH
Understanding connected rivers, wetlands and watersheds.
The Lab’s mission is to advance geomorphology research to understand the interrelationships of rivers, wetlands and watershed, creating nature-based solutions for thriving aquatic ecosystems and communities.
Its research programme focuses on three areas:
01 / Climate change
River and wetland responses to climate change
Investigate how drought, changing rainfall and flooding affect water and sediment movement, river and wetland behaviour, and ecosystem services.
02 / Recovery
Resilience, degradation and restoration
Identify the factors that influence resilience and natural recovery across different river and wetland systems.
03 / Methods
Measuring and predicting change
Adapt field, laboratory and remote-sensing methods to measure rates of change, predict system behaviour and estimate recovery times in African waterscapes.
Ten thousand years,
three days
When the Overberg flooded
Between 23 and 25 September 2023, a cut-off low brought 100 to 250 mm of rain to the Overberg. Rivers flooded, hundreds of landslides came down in the mountains and 154 roads were closed. Damage to roads, bridges, water supply and communication infrastructure was initially estimated at R595 million.
8
metres of peat
10 200
years of peat at Onrus
1.8 million m³
of sediment moved down the Bot River
The Onrus wetland has an 8 metre peat profile, up to 11 700 years old. The 2023 flood damaged it beyond repair. A wetland at Boskloof near Elim, up to 6 100 years old, suffered the same fate in a 2005 flood.
Across the region, the floods cut deep into valley floors in almost every drainage line. On the Bot River, an estimated 1.8 million cubic metres of sediment moved downstream. Most of it settled on farmland around the N2 bridge, where clearing it is costly and difficult.
Why would valleys that held steady for millennia give way now?
Why now?
These valleys had been filling with sediment for thousands of years. Researchers want to know why they are eroding now, and whether the region’s rivers have moved beyond patterns that held for millennia into a new, human-shaped era: the Anthropocene.
Working against the clock
The erosion has exposed sediment buried for 6 000 to 10 000 years, and future floods are likely to wash it away. The Lab is one of four university teams studying it before that happens. Stellenbosch and Wits are sampling exposed banks and coring intact wetlands to reconstruct the climate and environmental conditions associated with valley infilling. UWC is modelling valley floors to establish how they respond to changes in land cover and connectivity. The University of the Free State is flying repeat drone surveys to track the process of valley and wetland recovery.
Reading the past, preparing for the next flood
These valley bottoms concentrate the region’s water and biodiversity. By tracing how people, climate and landscapes have shaped them, from thousands of years ago to future climate scenarios, the project aims to identify tipping points. It also follows how changes in land cover and infrastructure cascade into costs for communities and the environment.
The findings will help farmers, municipalities and planners predict change, manage these rivers and wetlands, and support their natural recovery.
This story is part of South African Riverscapes at the Holocene–Anthropocene Transition (2025 to 2027), supported by the NRF Earth Systems Science Research Programme (Grant reference: ESS240317209534). Read More
THE LAB
“Water is key for all life — understanding and protecting our rivers and wetlands is key to the future of clean, safe water.”
Associate Professor Suzanne Grenfell
Director, African Waterscapes Lab
Department of Geography and Environmental Studies
Stellenbosch University
PARTNER WITH US
Research shaped through collaboration
The African Waterscapes Lab welcomes partnerships with research funders, philanthropic foundations, corporate partners, universities, government agencies and organisations working in water, wetlands, climate resilience and landscape management.