ISSN:
1662-8985
Source:
Scientific.Net: Materials Science & Technology / Trans Tech Publications Archiv 1984-2008
Topics:
Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Production Engineering, Mining and Metallurgy, Traffic Engineering, Precision Mechanics
Notes:
The water sector in the last 20 years has undergone radical paradigm shifts arisingfrom the crisis of global proportions that have characterized the sector, prompting manyinternational fora, including the Dublin conference in January 1992. One of the responses fromacademic institutions to this crisis is the development of computer-based predictive tools forbetter and more accurate prediction of the variables that affect water use and management. In theSchool of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand, attemptshave been made to develop software to aid planning, management, and decision making in thewater sector. Two of such software are Wadessy - a water distribution network design software,and a groundwater flow modelling software GEMFLOW that is based on the Green elementmethod (GEM). Although their engines are quite robust and have been applied in field studies inBotswana and Zimbabwe, and compare favourably with published models, their elegance interms of graphical user interface (GUI) is still rudimentary. The cost for their development hasbeen mainly in the training of postgraduate students who have assisted in their development.Industry uptake has been very limited, which is one of the reasons why their GUIs are stillrudimentary. With greater investment into the development and marketing of these and manyother software, the potential exists to have “made-in-Africa” software with capabilitiescomparable, if not better than, those developed in more advanced countries. This paper reportson these software, compares these with similar initiatives in more advanced countries, anddiscusses the challenges in development, funding, and uptake by industry. The experiencesdescribed herein are most likely to be similar with other software development initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://www.tib-hannover.de/fulltexts/2011/0528/01/39/transtech_doi~10.4028%252Fwww.scientific.net%252FAMR.18-19.543.pdf
