HYDROLOGICAL RESEARCH IN SOUTH AFRICAN FORESTRY.

Abstract

This paper was presented to the Fifth British Empire Forestry Conference in London, 1947, and is reprinted here with the kind permission of the Director of Forestry. Progress made at the Jonkershoek Forest Influences Research Station in the Cape Province, the establishment of which was recommended by the Empire Forestry Conference in 1935, is described. A second research station, being established at Cathedral Peak in Natal, is briefly referred to. Surveys of site factors, technique of observations on rainfall, streamflow, net rainfall under forest canopies, infiltration, evaporation and transpiration, treatments being investigated, and design and interpretation of streamflow experiments, are discussed. The importance of streamflow investigations is specially stressed, and it is recommended that such research should be greatly extended, not only to test the effects of various forms of land management, but also to provide essential data on water supplies.