Institutional arrangements for watershed development programmes in Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh,India: an explorative study

This study explored institutional arrangements with regard to government-sponsored watershed development programmes in the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, India. The appraisal of structure and role of institutions at different levels revealed adequate representation of various social groups, but the associations among stakeholder institutions as well as various resource agencies were found to be weak. A glance at the component-wise expenditure pattern showed an unequal emphasis and funding support between land–water development and livelihood activities. Responses from beneficiary respondents revealed a strong adherence to socio-economic and political issues by non-governmental organizations as well as technical issues by government organizations during implementation of the watershed programmes.     

An Interval Fuzzy Multiobjective Watershed Management Model for the Lake Qionghai Watershed, China

Integrated watershed management is required to ensure the reasonable use of resources and reconcile interactions among natural and human systems. In the present study, an interval fuzzy multiobjective programming (IFMOP) method was used to solve an integrated watershed management problem. Based on system analysis, an IFMOP model suitable for a lake watershed system {IFMOPLWS} was developed and applied to the Lake Qionghai watershed in China. Scenario analysis and an interactive approach were used in the solution process. In this manner, various system components were incorporated into one framework for holistic consideration and optimization. Integrality and uncertainty, as well as the multiobjective and dynamic characteristics of the watershed system, were well addressed. Using two scenarios, two planning schemes were generated. Agriculture, tourism, macroeconomics, cropland use, water supply, forest coverage, soil erosion, and water pollution were fully interpreted and compared to identify a preferable planning alternative for local agencies. This study showed that the IFMOPLWS is a powerful tool for integrated watershed management planning and can provide a solid base for sustainable watershed management.     

基于利益相关者共生的跨界流域综合管理研究____以赤水河流域为例

为了研究跨界地区流域的综合管理问题，以云贵川3省交界处的赤水河流域为个案，运用利益相关者理论和共生理论的定性分析方法，对赤水河流域内的利益相关者作了界定，并分析了他们之间的共生关系和共生驱动力。结果表明：要实现流域的可持续发展，既需要政府、公众、社会组织的多方协力，也需要高效的合作机制和健全的法律法规。     

我国水土保持小流域综合治理模式研究

小流域综合治理是我国水土保持生态建设的基础和核心。通过治理,改善了农村的生产生活条件,促进了区域经济发展,提高了区域防洪能力,改善了生态环境。但在新时期,小流域综合治理同时面临发展机遇和挑战。应该找准定位,以人与自然和谐相处为工作核心,以重点工程建设为龙头,加快水土流失治理步伐,增强水土保持发展活力。     

国外跨界水污染治理的经验与启示

介绍莱茵河、五大湖、多瑙河等跨国界河流以及美国田纳西河、英国泰晤士河、意大利波河等跨省界河流的水污染治理机制,分析国外跨界水污染治理的发展趋势:从整体上把握水污染治理,建立一种跨界综合管理模式;进行以流域为单位的水资源综合规划,注重流域水环境容量与经济发展的相互关系;设立流域水资源管理协调与咨询机构,鼓励公众参与管理;水资源开发利用市场化。国外跨界水污染治理从4方面为我国的水污染治理提供借鉴:①水污染治理机构组成的多元化;②水资源管理体制的多层次;③消费者协会参与水资源管理;④公众参与水资源保护。建议中国的跨界水污染治理可从以下几方面着手:①建立统一管理、垂直领导的流域管理体制;②加快流域立法进程;③流域投资运行机制市场化;④建立流域企业化管理体制;⑤优化流域管理机构内部结构。     

Mitigating lake eutrophication through stakeholder-driven hydrologic modeling of agricultural conservation practices: A case study of Lake Macatawa,Michigan

Lake Macatawa is a hypereutrophic water body that connects with Lake Michigan via a navigation channel. Excess phosphorus (P) concentrations have resulted in a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for total phosphorus (TP) in the lake, which has not been met. To guide land management and water pollution control in the Macatawa watershed, a Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model and scenarios of agricultural best management practices (BMPs) were developed in consultation with stakeholders. Modelling emphasized incorporating practices representative of local agricultural conditions. Approaches to initializing high legacy soil P levels in SWAT were tested. The validated model was used to evaluate the influence of BMPs on lake water quality and identify which practices are necessary for meeting the TMDL. The model showed that eliminating manure applications would have small effect on curbing TP loading, but continuous no-till and high residue combined with already used subsurface manure application would yield notable TP reductions. Achieving TMDL-mandated TP reduction of 72% is possible through a widespread adoption of multiple BMPs (continuous no-till with high residue, cover crops, filter strips, and conversion of some marginal croplands to perennial grasses) across all the watershed’s row croplands. The study highlights how guidance from a local community interested in watershed improvement was integrated with modeling towards addressing eutrophication with informed watershed management. The Lake Macatawa case study presents a tractable system from which management solutions could be transferred to similar small agricultural tile-drained watersheds with high legacy soil P levels in the Great Lakes basin.     

Payments for watershed services: Directing incentives for improving lake basin governance

This study introduces the emerging integrated ecosystem management approach known as Payments for Watershed Services (PWS) as utilized for lake and reservoir basin governance. PWS is built on the central concept of providing economic incentives to watershed stakeholders to assist in management efforts. It channels conservation payments from downstream payers to finance conservation activities conducted by upstream payees. The upstream conservation activities are expected to enhance ecosystem functions, thereby improving water‐related ecosystem services desired by downstream stakeholders. Information on 163 PWS projects in 34 developing countries through the year 2008 was collected and analysed, including their common goals, processes, outcomes, scientific assumptions and socioeconomic rationales. This study recognized one unique PWS characteristic, namely the role of intermediary organizations (i.e. brokers) in integrating the economic incentives of upstream payees and downstream payers in order to facilitate their transactions by means of contracts. Although 75% of the reviewed PWS projects have focused on rivers, and only 10% have considered lakes and reservoirs, the similarity of the intermediary functions performed by lake management organizations and PWS intermediary organizations suggests a greater potential for the future application of PWS designs in lake basins. Drawing on components in the field of New Institutional Economics to interpret the intermediary function within the PWS framework, a three‐part PWS design with 15 steps is proposed in this study for lake basin governance, with a Costa Rican PWS scheme serving as an illustration. This study seeks to communicate the scientific and socioeconomic frontiers for developing locally suitable and integrated watershed governance structures to lake management organizations and other watershed stakeholder groups.     

Stakeholder participation as a tool for sustainable development in the Em River Basin

The Em river watershed in south‐east Sweden is an example of involving local organizations and people in river basin management that implements practically integrated water resources management and the philosophy underlying the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)/Swedish International Hydrological Programme (IHP) Hydrology, Environment, Life and Policy (HELP) programme. The Em River Stakeholder Association has applied a bottom‐up perspective. Stakeholders have been participating in several river basin projects over several years. Stakeholder participation was of special importance when working with issues of local importance, such as water economizing, fish migration, storm‐water characterization and nutrient reduction. Eight task groups have carried out projects within different fields of expertise. The river basin cooperation started as a project in 1992. In 2004, the permanent Em River Union will be formed to work towards sustainable development integrated water management, good ecological conditions and economic growth in the Em River basin.     

Planning for integrated lake management in Uganda: Lessons for sustainable and effective planning processes

The international consensus on the need for integrated approaches for managing water resources has led to a plethora of integrated frameworks and strategies. The development of management plans for lakes and their drainage basins is part of the ‘integrated management’ agenda. Challenging questions, however, arise in regard to what integration actually means within the context of planning processes and systems, and for the management plans themselves. The limited literature on lake management planning emphasizes the need for a lead agency for planning and implementation. A relevant question is how does lake management planning relate to planning by local governments, national government departments and other stakeholder groups. The integrated lake management efforts in Uganda have led to the development of lake management plans that build on, and complement, existing local government processes and plans. Lessons from early lake management experiences indicate that establishing clear linkages in the planning processes, and within the plans themselves between lake management structures and local government, is essential for sustainability, coordination and resource mobilization. The development of lake management plans also strengthens existing local government planning systems, by providing a forum for sharing information, ideas and lessons. The lake management planning also supports the introduction of local governments to participatory, community‐based planning, as well as promoting intersectoral coordination.     

Flood Vulnerability to Climate Change through Hydrological Modeling

Abstract

Determination of flood vulnerability to climate change is one of the most critical issues for regional water management. Most of the previous studies related to system vulnerabilities to climate change were either a qualitative assessment without the support of hydrological modeling or too complex to apply them to real-world systems. In this study, a modeling and assessment system is proposed to tackle flood vulnerability to the climate change through the incorporation of future climate change scenarios, rainfall-runoff simulation, and vulnerability estimation within an integrated frame. The developed approach is applied to provide decision support for flood management of the Swift Current Creek watershed in Western Canada. The approach not only is useful to determine relative flood vulnerabilities to climate change for supporting flood control planning in the watershed, but also can be extended to estimate vulnerabilities of water quality and water supply to climate change.     

Integrated assessment of water resources: Australian experiences

It is widely accepted that water resource management demands an integrated assessment of resource use options, including local and regional impacts on the environment and stakeholders. Multiple issues, stakeholders and scales of system behaviour must be considered, as well as the key disciplines within and between the human and natural sciences. Modelling is a critical tool in integrated assessment. It enables effects of policy interventions, climate forcing and demographics to be predicted (although with some uncertainty), and provides a means of expanding understanding of river basin behaviour. It also acts as a vehicle for social learning among various interest groups. This paper discusses the various frameworks and methods being used for integrated modelling, and their suitability and unfulfilled potential for these purposes. The frameworks include coupled component models, systems dynamics models, metamodels, risk-assessment approaches, Bayesian decision networks, agent-based methods, expert systems and other heuristic knowledge-based techniques. Specific software platforms are not considered but the lessons from software development and implementation are clearly spelt out. The paper presents three Australian case studies in integrated assessment. They vary in their range of catchment/watershed sizes, hydroclimatology, issues of concern and stakeholders engaged. Two of them utilise a coupled component modelling framework and the third a Bayesian decision network approach. The paper illustrates the value, problems and lessons of integrated assessment and modelling. In particular it proposes some ways to address the challenges of assessing options to obtain more sustainable basin-wide outcomes.     

An Operational Model for Support of Integrated Watershed Management

This paper presents a computer simulation-based methodology for operational support of integrated water resources management. The methodology is based on the systems approach, and use of feedback to capture physical and socio-economic processes occurring within a watershed. The approach integrates well established simulation models of physical processes with simulation models that describe socio-economic processes. The proposed methodology is illustrated by the evaluation of risk and vulnerability to changing climatic and socio-economic conditions in the Upper Thames watershed (south-western Ontario, Canada).The model results indicate that flooding in the watershed will be more severe as a result of climate change, while low flows are expected to remain at their current level. The most significant socio-economic factor in the Upper Thames watershed is water availability, shown to become under climate change a limiting factor for future growth and development.     

"数字黄河"工程建设的目标、任务及原则

“数字黄河”工程建设,是应用IT、3S等现代数据采集、传输、存储和服务技术,构建黄委统一的基础平台,实现信息整合和资源共享;以科学计算和数学模拟技术为核心,建设防洪减灾、水资源管理与调度、水土保持、水资源保护、工程建设管理和电子政务等六大应用系统;以人工智能技术和会商环境为支持,构建综合会商和宏观决策平台。“数字黄河”工程是一项规模庞大、结构复杂、技术难度大、功能众多、涉及面广、建设周期长的系统工程,因此,建设时应遵循“统一规划,分步实施;需求主导,共建共享;先进实用,开放扩展;统一标准,保障安全”的原则。     

Institutional Characteristics for International Cooperation in Water Resources

Agenda 21 calls for integrated management of water resources with catchments or sub-basins as the unit of management. There has been a steady evolution in the arrangements for cooperation in the man agement of international river basins over the last two centuries. Rather than aiming at a standardized set-up for all the international river basins, basin organizations can best be allowed to grow in phases according to the emerging needs of the respective basins. For healthy working of international basin organizations negotiations between the participating countries will be the principal thrust. Nevertheless, provision for arbitration for resolution of disputes will be desirable. The internation al non-governmental professional organizations have also steadily grown in different subject areas. They will be able to provide expert inputs into the workin g of the basin organizations. The river basin organizations and regional water m anagement bodies will need a global common platform for exchanging their experiences and for developing common global strategies. A World Water Council can provide such an umbrella set-up with its General Assembly comprising international basin entities, regional bodies, international professional associations and the UN agencies dealing with water .     

法国流域水管理特点及其对中国现有体制的借鉴

基于对法国Adour-Garonne流域管理机构的考察和学习,在参考相关文献和国内外研究基础上,得出法国民选政府二元体制下的流域管理机构经济与行政手段并重,中央与市镇协商管水的体制特点。在此基础上,结合中国现有涉水管理体制框架,提出强化中央与地方责权一致,水质水量统一管理,涉水服务公开透明的政策建议。     

Local Markets for Payments for Environmental Services: Can Small Rural Communities Self-Finance Watershed Protection?

Payment for environmental service (PES) programs are innovative approaches for watershed and natural resources management that increasingly are being used around the world. Most well-studied PES examples rely predominately, if not entirely, on large governmental and outside non-governmental organizations for financial and management assistance. We examine the potential for using a locally-financed PES scheme in a small, agricultural community in a developing country as a means to preserve environmental services of watersheds, namely clean drinking water. A dichotomous choice, contingent valuation survey is used to examine the community??s demand for protection of the headwaters of the nearby river, the source of their drinking water. The survey results demonstrate local water users?? substantial willingness to pay for increased protection of the watershed environmental services. We find that a local-market PES scheme for watershed services, even in a relatively low-income context, may be sufficient to protect ecosystem services independent of external financial resources.     

Application of integrated environmental management through the preparation of an environmental action programme: Case study from the Songkhla Lake Basin in southern Thailand

The concepts and principles for integrated environmental management (IEM), which is based on a strategic and participatory approach to environmental and regional planning, has been successfully applied to a large lake system in the southern region of Thailand. The application was achieved through the Danish Cooperation for Environment and Development funded project ‘Environmental Management in the Songkhla Lake Basin’ (EmSong Project) in the Office of Environmental Policy and Planning within the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment. Through the application of the methods and tools for IEM, including the use of a participatory and strategic planning approach, and the establishment of a comprehensive database and an integrated surface water model for the lake system, an environmental action programme (EAP) has been developed. This action programme, which is based on a broad consensus at the local and regional level, includes vision and mission statements, resource objectives and strategies for management from an economically and ecologically important lake system in Thailand. The operational part of the EAP is a project catalogue, which contains immediately needed projects described to an international pre‐feasibility level. The former is the tangible output of the EmSong Project. A more intangible output from the EmSong Project is committed and informed local and regional government and community‐based organizations.     

Reviewer's response: the beginning of an important dialogue

This article examines the historical evolution of participatory water management in coastal Bangladesh. Three major shifts are identified: first, from indigenous local systems managed by landlords to centralized government agencies in the 1960s; second, from top-down engineering solutions to small-scale projects and people’s participation in the 1970s and 1980s; and third, towards depoliticized community-based water management since the 1990s. While donor requirements for community participation in water projects have resulted in the creation of ‘depoliticized’ water management organizations, there are now increasing demands for involvement of politically elected local government institutions in water management by local communities.     

我国水资源管理模式探讨

新《水法》的颁布改变了原来以区域管理为主的旧有管理模式,确立了流域管理与区域管理相结合的新型模式,因此也形成了我国所特有的水资源管理体制。通过阐述流域管理与行政区域管理相结合的水资源管理模式,协调流域环境公益和区域利益之间关系,从生态区域管理的特征出发,站在全区域资源保护的高度,讨论确立新型水资源管理的原因。     

Prioritizing Long-term Watershed Management Strategies Using Group Decision Analysis

There is a growing consensus that an effective way of enhancing long-term water resources management and environmental sustainability is through locally based planning at the watershed scale. Managing watershed resources for particular uses requires interactive dialogue among all stakeholders who have different objectives. Therefore, the resolution of inter-group conflict should be an acknowledged task of the planning process. In this paper, an integrated framework for prioritizing watershed management strategies is proposed. A case study is employed to highlight the challenges of using group decision analysis in strategic planning and to illustrate the interaction between different stakeholders on watershed issues. In particular, two group decision-making approaches are used to assess and analyse different stakeholders' preferences for various strategies and alternatives. Professional experts, government agencies and community leaders constitute the different parties included in the framework. The main focus is on the application of group decision analysis in the long-term watershed planning process. The results of the overall preference analysis show that water resources development is the most important strategy followed by agricultural and range management.