T |
| TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) | The amount of dissolved substances, such as salts or minerals, in water remaining after evaporating the water and weighing the residue. Used as a measure of physical water quality. |
| Tectonic | Refers to structures and features resulting from changes in the earth’s crust. |
| Temperate | A region in the mid-latitudes, typically subject to distinct seasonal weather patterns. |
| Temperature | Temperature is defined as the measure of the average speed of atoms and molecules. The higher the temperature the faster they move. |
| Temporal | Related to time. |
| Terracing | The creation of step-like, level surfaces along a slope in hilly agricultural areas. |
| Thunderstorm | Also known as an electrical storm, a lightning storm, or a storm is a form of weather characterized by the presence of lightning and its effect: thunder. |
| Tillage | Loosening of the soil in preparation for planting of crops. |
| Toll resource | A resource that is non-subtractable, and can thus be consumed jointly without reducing the benefit of each single user, and from which users can be easily excluded. An example of a toll resource is a nature reserve where people pay an entrance fee to access the reserve. Also known as a club resource. |
| Topography | The shape and configuration of the land surface as described by the position of physical features, elevation, slope, and orientation. |
| Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) | The amount of dissolved substances, such as salts or minerals, in water remaining after evaporating the water and weighing the residue. Used as a measure of physical water quality. |
| Total Suspended Solid (TSS) | A water quality measurement related to the amount of small solid particles which remain in suspension in the water. |
| Tourism | Travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. |
| Toxic | A substance that is harmful to health or lethal if consumed or otherwise entering into the body in sufficient quantities. |
| Trade winds | Surface winds that generally dominate air flow in the tropics, blowing from about 30° north and south latitude to the equator. |
| Traditional agriculture | Farming methods vary from one ethnic group or location to another, according to population density, climate, water supply, and soil. |
| Traditional knowledge | Generally refer to the matured long-standing traditions and practices of certain regional, indigenous, or local communities. |
| Transboundary resource | A resource that is not confined within existing administrative boundaries. |
| Transboundary Water Resources Management | Transboundary watercourses need to be managed to resolve issues before they develop into international conflicts, e. g. promotion of water demand management, conflict management, stakeholder-based decision-making to manage competing water demands, sanitation, institutional strengthening and capacity-building, training programs for monitoring, analysis, and planning of water resources management. |
| Transfer tunnel | A tunnel used to transfer water from one area to another. |
| Transfrontier conservation area | An area comprising two areas, which border each other across international boundaries and whose primary focus is wildlife conservation. Authorities responsible for the respective areas formally agree to manage the areas as one integrated unit according to a streamlined management plan. The authorities also undertake to remove all human barriers within the Transfrontier Park so that animals can roam freely (DEAT website 2009). |
| Transhumance | Transhumant pastoralism is a form of mobile pastoralism that involves more predictable patterns of cyclical seasonal movements of domestic animals and to varying degrees also people along specific routes. During the rainy season when water and grazing resources are relatively plentiful, animals usually remain at or close to the (semi-)permanent homesteads of the people. During the dry season, animals are moved to specific dry-season grazing areas where grazing resources tend to last throughout the dry season. |
| Transparency | An expectation on organisations by society to be open and willing in the acceptance of public scrutiny, thus diminishing the capacity for an organisation to practice or harbour deception or deceit . Transparency ensures that the decision-making process, as well as the implementation and enforcement of decisions, is done in a manner that follows the rule of law. |
| Transpiration | The evaporation of water from plants through stomata, tiny pores on the surface of plant leaves. |
| Treatment facility | A facility where water undergoes physical and chemical processes for making water suitable for human consumption and other purposes. |
| Treaty | A treaty is essentially a settlement or an agreement arrived at by treating or negotiation. In international law the word ‘treaty’ has been used to cover a variety of international agreements. The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969 is the codification of the practice of international treaty-making, which was previously regulated by the customary rules of international law. The Convention defines a treaty in the international context as an agreement whereby two or more nation states establish, or seek to establish, a relationship between themselves imposing binding obligations on themselves and governed by international law. |
| Trematoda | Parasitic flatworms. |
| Tributary | A stream or other watercourse that flows into a larger stream or river. |
| Trophic level | Artificial classification of organisms according to feeding relationships and the transfer of food-energy. The first trophic level includes primary producers (green plants); the second trophic level includes herbivores; the third includes animals which feed on herbivores. |
| TSS (Total Suspended Solid) | A water quality measurement related to the amount of small solid particles which remain in suspension in the water. |
| Tswana (Batswana) | The name of a Southern African people (speak Tswana language, also called Setswana). Ethnic Batswana make up a majority of the population of Botswana. |
| Tuberculosis | Tuberculosis, sometimes referred to as TB, is a disease caused by an organism called mycobacterium tuberculosis. These bacteria most commonly attack the lungs. People with weakened immune systems are most susceptible to TB. |
| Turbellaria | Free-living flatworms. |
| Turbid | Cloudy water, usually due to increased sediment load. |
| Typhoid | Infection usually associated with an intestinal inflammation and ulceration; caused by Salmonella typhosa ingested with food or water. |
