Abstract Cape Town was founded in 1652 and many of its historical buildings are constructed of local natural stone. Malmesbury Group slate was exploited from 1666 and used to build Cape Town Castle, which is the oldest building in Cape Town. Two other local stones, Cape granite and Table Mountain sandstone were utilized for buildings from 1850. A medium-grained granite named Paarl Grey was exploited from an area adjacent to the town of Paarl, 50 km east of Cape Town, from 1890. This granite is the most extensively-used natural stone in Cape Town. The resource fields of natural stone near Cape Town, namely Malmesbury Group slate, Cape granite and Table Mountain sandstone, lie within the Table Mountain National Park and Robben Island World Heritage Site and can no longer be exploited, but similar resource fields occur outside Cape Town. Paarl Grey granite is still extracted at one quarry and, despite part of the resource field lying within the Paarl Mountain Nature Reserve, there are still sufficient quantities of stone available. From an international perspective, the heritage stones of Cape Town, South Africa, are best considered as having national significance.

Abstract The Eastern Cape Karoo region is water stressed and will become increasingly so with further climate change. Effective and reliable groundwater management is crucial for a development such as the proposed hydraulic fracturing for shale gas. This is especially critical across this region of agriculture and protected ecosystem services. The research, as part of baseline data gathering, aims to characterize the hydrochemistry for both the shallow groundwater (<500 m) and saline groundwater closer to the c. 2–5 km deep shale gas. The classification will be used to determine possible vertical hydraulic connectivity between the shallow and deep aquifers, prior to anticipated hydraulic fracturing. This paper reports on the baseline framework that includes the sampling design and a hydrocensus with field-recorded parameters shown as interpolated maps. This includes electrical conductivity, groundwater level and borehole yield. Together with completed sampling results, these data provide a record against which the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing and the reinjection of production water can be determined. The research is a critical first step towards the successful governance of groundwater in light of proposed shale gas development in the Karoo. In its absence, effective regulation of the sector will not be effective.