Water resources management and Integrated Water Resources Management implementation in Malawi: Status and implications for lake basin management

Many countries, including Malawi, are implementing integrated approaches for the development, management and use of water and other natural resources. Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is, arguably, one approach considered helpful in addressing water issues effectively and sustainably. This study assesses the implementation of IWRM in Malawi to the present time, in relation to the five priority areas the country's Integrated Water Resources Management/Water Efficiency (IWRM/WE) Plan (2008–2012) sought to address, as well as the potential benefits of infusing Integrated Lake Basin Management (ILBM) in this approach. Document reviews, key informant interviews, questionnaire surveys and site visits were the employed methods in this analysis. Considering the significant importance of lakes in the country, this study, through application of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats framework, provides insight on how lake basin management issues can best be incorporated within the existing IWRM‐based framework to promote the management and utilization of lakes for sustainable use. While acknowledging the relevance of a holistic approach, the study highlights the importance for the country to ensure that its development agenda is not negatively affected in the course of implementing IWRM.     

Identifying Uncertainty Guidelines for Supporting Policy Making in Water Management Illustrated for Upper Guadiana and Rhine Basins

In recent years, guidelines have been developed for supporting water managers in dealing with uncertainty in integrated water resources management (IWRM). Usually such guidelines have concentrated on certain aspects of processes in IWRM, notably on uncertainty associated with the modelling process and monitoring data. While this is of undisputed importance for supporting water managers in making well balanced and informed decisions, less attention has been paid to guiding policy makers in where uncertainty may emerge when considering the whole water management process. In this paper it is assessed in what way the policy makers can benefit from support in accounting for uncertainty at various stages in the water management process. Point of departure is an analysis of a broad range of uncertainty guidelines and their categorization in the water management process using a recently developed framework. Emphasis is on linking sources of uncertainty to uncertainty guidelines from an applied point of view in water management by developing a way to assist water managers to deal with uncertainty in IWRM and make informed and robust decisions. To support this, the Upper Guadiana basin in Spain and three Rhine basins are used as cases for water management issues in which it is demonstrated how water managers potentially can benefit from uncertainty guidelines in support of policy making, for instance with respect to implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD).     

Multi-objective Optimal Design of Detention Tanks in the Urban Stormwater Drainage System: Uncertainty and Sensitivity Analysis

Design of detention tanks becomes important to the flooding control and drainage service management of an urban stormwater drainage system (USDS). While the hydrological and hydraulic models and methods have been widely developed in the literature for the optimal design and management of USDS, there is not yet a general methodological framework that is applicable for all practical systems. This is mainly because of various complexities in practical USDS, such as different design objectives (i.e., multi-objective design) and local design criteria and policies, as well as variety of inevitable uncertainties in the system. Previous work by the authors has focused on the first two aspects, in which a viable design framework has been developed and applied for multi-objective optimal design of detention tanks in the USDS under conditions of different local design criteria; and this paper deals with the third factor, aiming to explore and extend further the optimal design methodological framework to USDS with uncertainties. A real-life USDS in China is applied for this investigation. Uncertainty analysis is firstly conducted to characterize the importance of different uncertainty factors considered in the studied system. The uncertainty analysis result is thereafter incorporated into the previously developed multi-objective optimal design framework, in which the Monte-Carlo simulation method is adopted for the stochastic process investigation. The case application and analysis indicate different influences of uncertainty factors in the system to the multi-objective design results of detention tanks (total cost and flooding risk) in the studied USDS. The results and findings of this study are also discussed in the paper for their practical implications to the design and management of USDS.     

Mathematical Modelling for the Integrated Management of Water Resources in Hydrological Basins

Mathematical models are tools that can facilitate the instrumentation of the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). The first basin models to be developed were completely hydrological; today, due to the urgent need to plan the sustainable use of water resources, new models are needed that in addition to hydrology also incorporate social, economic, legal, environmental and other aspects. The objective of this work was to identify the characteristics that mathematical basin models must have in order to satisfy the requirements of IWRM. To achieve this, the conclusions of the main international conferences on water and the environment were analyzed; these were conferences in which IWRM was promoted as a strategy to face the challenges of both sectors. IWRM considers social participation as a key element in the decision-making process; consequently, the models must be accepted and applied, and their results interpreted, by those who participate in the process even if they are not modelling experts. This requires a change of perspective in the scientific community for the development of new IWRM models, in government institutions regarding their role as water administrators, and in water stakeholders regarding their role as decision-makers. The results of the analysis indicate that models for IWRM must be accessible to non-expert users, integrate different viewpoints, representing adequately the problem to be solved, in addition be flexible and have a structure focused on practical solutions.     

Water Resources Management and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in Cameroon

Cameroon is blessed with abundant water resources. Rapid population increase, unplanned urbanisation, intensive industrial and socio-economic development have led to poor and unsustainable management of these resources. Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is a promising approach in ensuring sustainable management of Cameroon’s water resources. It entails management of water for various purposes and not for a single purpose which therefore involves different stake holders aiming at achieving sustainable water resources management. This paper seeks to evaluate recent efforts to implement in IWRM in Cameroon by examining the institutional framework for IWRM in Cameroon, conditions for the implementation of IWRM and proposes reforms for improving IWRM in Cameroon. The paper concludes that reforms such as public participation at local council levels, recognition of water as both an economic and a social good, putting IWRM within the larger context of Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM) and the exploitation of mathematical models within hydrological basins will improve IWRM in Cameroon.     

流域水资源一体化管理及其理论框架

概述了水资源一体化管理的发展历程,在综合国内外机构和学者对水资源统一管理看法的基础上,对流域水资源一体化管理的定义进行了探讨,分析了流域水资源一体化管理与传统水资源管理的区别,提出了流域水资源一体化管理的理论框架。最后,应用理论框架,对国外2个典型流域的水资源一体化管理实践与经验进行了分析与评述。     

Bayesian Neural Networks for Uncertainty Analysis of Hydrologic Modeling: A Comparison of Two Schemes

Bayesian Neural Networks (BNNs) have been shown as useful tools to analyze modeling uncertainty of Neural Networks (NNs). This research focuses on the comparison of two BNNs. The first BNNs (BNN-I) use statistical methods to describe the characteristics of different uncertainty sources (input, parameter, and model structure) and integrate these uncertainties into a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) framework to estimate total uncertainty. The second BNNs (BNN-II) lump all uncertainties into a single error term (i.e. the residual between model prediction and measurement). In this study, we propose a simple BNN-II, which uses Genetic Algorithms (GA) and Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) to calibrate Neural Networks with different structures (number of hidden units) and combine the predictions from different NNs to derive predictions and uncertainty estimation. We tested these two BNNs in two watersheds for daily and monthly hydrologic simulations. The BMA based BNNs (BNN-II) developed here outperforms BNN-I in the two watersheds in terms of both accurate prediction and uncertainty estimation. These results indicate that, given incomplete understanding of the characteristics associated with each uncertainty source and their interactions, the simple lumped error approach may yield better prediction and uncertainty estimation.     

Integrated river basin planning and management: a case study of the Zayandehrud River basin,Iran

This study applies the concept of integrated water resources management (IWRM) to a river basin in Iran, and in so doing, proposes a framework for implementing IWRM principles. Issues such as stakeholder participation, sustainability in several subdomains, scenario analysis, dispute resolution, climate change and well-designed models have been considered. Through a river basin simulation model (RIBASIM) and sustainability criteria, stakeholders made decisions for improving the level of sustainability in the basin. The result of decision making for the future was tested under climate change impacts, and the outputs showed serious challenges, so a strategy is proposed for overcoming these impact effects.     

An alternative framework for analysing and managing conflicts in integrated water resources management (IWRM): linking theory and practice

Research on water resource conflicts needs to be better aligned with practitioner approaches to water resources development, chiefly integrated water resources management (IWRM). This paper bridges the gap between research and practice through a novel application of the social–ecological systems framework to a set of 10 conflict cases from an IWRM initiative in rural Central America. The conflicts in the empirical cases are found to be primarily the result of socio-political variables, particularly low levels of trust and social capital, and peacebuilding is suggested as a promising approach to address this suite of conflicts. The paper concludes with a proposed course of research designed to further both theoretical and applied knowledge of water resource conflicts.     

对流域综合管理和水资源综合管理概念的探讨

流域综合管理是系统解决流域性问题的重要手段．但是目前国内外对流域综合管理的概念和内涵尚未达成共识。流域综合管理和水资源综合管理是两个容易让人混淆的概念,通过这两个术语的提出背景和国内外学者对其认识的分析,可以得出它们之间既有区别,又有联系,都为解决流域问题提供了有效的方法和手段。当前,应结合我国流域实际,探索适合我国国情的流域综合管理模式,推进我国流域综合管理的进程,促进流域的可持续发展。     

Towards Adaptive Integrated Water Resources Management in Southern Africa: The Role of Self-organisation and Multi-scale Feedbacks for Learning and Responsiveness in the Letaba and Crocodile Catchments

South Africa is acclaimed for its water reform and the adoption of integrated water resources management (IWRM) as the framework for managing catchment water resources to achieve equity and sustainability. The proposed process is inherently adaptive, allowing for reflection and learning in complex, uncertain environments such as catchments. A decade on, attention has now turned to implementation. In this paper we present some key findings drawn from a three-year study in six major catchments in the water-stressed north-east of South Africa which examined factors constraining or enabling implementation. Factors critical for the evolution of tenable and appropriate IWRM include a practice-based understanding of policy, the role of leadership and communication, governance, collective action and regulation, and self-organisation and feedbacks. This paper concerns self-organisation, leadership and feedbacks. Their origins, drivers, development and role in building resilience are examined in two of the six catchments: the Letaba and Crocodile catchments. Self-organisation, leadership and feedback loops exist in both but are highly variable in terms of their contribution to IWRM. The underlying factors contributing to their functionality are identified. Despite good efforts to self-organise and functional feedbacks there is evidence of either vulnerability or of limited impact when processes are confined to a local scale, which constrains learning and transformation at a wider scale. In other instances, encouraging evidence is emerging in which leadership, governance and the ability to self-organise are central to effectiveness. We conclude that self-organisation and responsive multi-scale feedback loops are essential for management in catchments understood as complex systems as they provide the basis for learning and response to an evolving context.     

Reviewing uncertainty in bioenergetics and food web models to project invasion impacts: Four major Chinese carps in the Great Lakes

Bioenergetics and food web models are tools available for understanding and projecting the impacts of aquatic species invasions on food web structure and energy allocation of an ecosystem. However, uncertainty is inherent in modeling the impact of invasive species in novel ecosystems as assumptions must be made about physiological responses to novel environments and interactions with existing (native and non-native) species. Here we use the four major Chinese carps (FMCC) in the Laurentian Great Lakes as a case study to categorize and describe the suite of uncertainties inherent in projecting the impact of invasive species with bioenergetics and food web models. We approach this case study in a decision analytic framework, describing structural uncertainties, environmental variation, partial observability, partial controllability, and linguistic uncertainty. Finally, we review and give suggestions for how the use of methods including adaptive management, scenario planning, sensitivity analyses, and value of information as well as efforts to ensure clarity in language and model structure can enable modelers and managers to reduce and account for key uncertainties and make better decisions for the control of invasive species.     

Roles and perspectives of the policy‐maker,affected water sector and scientist in integrated water resources management: a case study from South Africa

Following a definition of integrated water resources management (IWRM) and who the various stakeholders are in IWRM, the roles and views of three different stakeholders are discussed from a South African perspective. The role of national policy‐maker is that of enabling/facilitating IWRM in light of principles and provisions enshrined in South Africa's National Water Act of 1998. Commercial agriculture is selected as one sector markedly affected by new legislation related to IWRM. Positives of the legislation are first outlined, but perceived ‘threats’ by the commercial agriculture sector of legislation then come under the spotlight. These are categorized into questions on water allocation, water conservation and water management. The role of the scientist, more specifically the hydrologist, in enabling/facilitating IWRM is viewed from perspectives of the scientist's being the ‘objective broker’ between stakeholders with their own agendas, to information provider, of being model developer, of pre‐empting future questions on IWRM, as communicator and as a capacity builder.     

Model uncertainty--parameter uncertainty versus conceptual models.

Uncertainties in model structures have been recognised often to be the main source of uncertainty in predictive model simulations. Despite this knowledge, uncertainty studies are traditionally limited to a single deterministic model and the uncertainty addressed by a parameter uncertainty study. The extent to which a parameter uncertainty study may encompass model structure errors in a groundwater model is studied in a case study. Three groundwater models were constructed on the basis of three different hydrogeological interpretations. Each of the models was calibrated inversely against groundwater heads and streamflows. A parameter uncertainty analysis was carried out for each of the three conceptual models by Monte Carlo simulations. A comparison of the predictive uncertainties for the three conceptual models showed large differences between the uncertainty intervals. Most discrepancies were observed for data types not used in the model calibration. Thus uncertainties in the conceptual models become of increasing importance when predictive simulations consider data types that are extrapolates from the data types used for calibration.     

The Impact of Uncertainty Factors on Optimal Sizing and Costs of Low-Impact Development: a Case Study from Beijing,China

The facility allocation optimization of Low-impact development (LID) optimization has been used widely to prevent and tackle urban storm water pollution. However, uncertainties existing in nature and human society would influence the size and total cost of LID. To study the influence of the uncertainties on LID optimization allocation, the research develops the model of LID optimization allocation under uncertainty. The principle of the model is establishing primarily the LID optimization model based on certain numbers and identifying the uncertainties. Hence, the model integrates the uncertainty programming, including interval programming, fuzzy programming, stochastic programming, chance constraint programming (CCP) and scenario programming. The model of LID optimization allocation under uncertainty is established with the conditions. The developed uncertainty model tackles multiple types of uncertainties, and the results of the model are in the interval form in multiple scenarios. The model analyses the effects of uncertainties on the size and total cost of LID in this way. The study shows that the uncertainties in rainfall, infiltration rate, release coefficient, funds and unit price all have a significant influence on the size and total cost of LID when these uncertainty factors overlay. A higher violation probability of CCP corresponding to LID sizing results to a wider interval number of the corresponding uncertainty. The developed method of the study is universal, and the method could be extended to other cases of LID optimization allocation to speculate the influence of uncertainties.     

Water governance, resilience and global environmental change - a reassessment of integrated water resources management (IWRM).

Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) is gaining increased acceptance among water policy makers and researchers as a way to create more effective governance institutions, leading towards integrated water development solutions for poverty alleviation, while addressing social, economic and environmental aspects of water challenges. However, global environmental change poses fundamental challenges to water policy makers as it implies vast scientific, and hence, policy uncertainty; its implications for international water governance initiatives remain unspecified, effectively hindering dialogue on how current IWRM initiatives should be modified. This paper addresses the lag between our growing understanding of resilient interconnected freshwater resources (and their governance) and the reforms being promoted by policy makers. In particular, there is a need to rethink some of IWRM's key components to better tackle the challenges posed by the complex behaviour of interconnected social-ecological systems and global environmental change.     

Optimal Operation of Soil Aquifer Treatment Systems Considering Parameter Uncertainty

This paper presents a new methodology for determining optimal operation of soil aquifer treatment (SAT) systems considering parameter uncertainty. The problem of optimal operation of SAT systems is formulated and solved in a discrete-time optimal control framework by interfacing the SALQR (Successive Approximation Linear Quadratic Regulator) optimizer with the MSTS (Multiphase Subsurface Transport Simulator) model. Both deterministic and stochastic programming formulations have been solved. Through the use of first-order analysis of uncertainties, the uncertainty of the water content due to the uncertainties of the simulation parameters are evaluated. A chance constrained formulation of the optimization is utilized to account for the uncertainties of water content in the SAT operation. This approach enables one to quantify the uncertainty of the parameter estimates, and automatically account for the parameter uncertainty in the decision-making process through the SAT management model.     

How do we move from ideas to action? The role of the HELP programme

An overview of the integrated water resources management (IWRM) process is provided as well as an outline of the Hydrology, Environment, Life, and Policy (HELP) programme's actions over the next 5 years as a follow‐up to the recommendations of the Kalmar Symposium of 2002. Most of HELP's implementation, however, will be within the HELP basins themselves, which is consistent with the ‘bottom‐up’ approach of the programme. HELP's niche in contributing to the IWRM process is by defining knowledge gaps and acting via a global network of basins. Through the involvement and support of stakeholders, longer‐term visionary values of research with subsequent benefits to society may be more quickly realized.     

Pushing the Governance Boundaries: Making Transparent the Role of Water Utilities in Managing Urban Waterways

Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) requires simultaneous consideration of the multiple benefits that attend water. IWRM can also be more challenging in regulatory environments where the resource manager must justify choices and elements of each intervention. This is particularly challenging in the context of urban waterways that have many uses including an ecological function and a source of human amenity. To justify expenditure on maintaining and improving urban waterways for ecological and/or amenity changes regulated utilities must be able to articulate and measure these types of values with at least some degree of precision. This paper presents a generic and systematic framework for understanding the ecological and amenity values of urban waterways. We illustrate deployment of the framework in the case of Melbourne, one of Australia’s fastest growing cities and a location ranked as amongst the most liveable since 2011. We also explore how the results could improve the way we measure benefits in dollar terms.     

Fractional Stochastic Interval Programming for Optimal Low Impact Development Facility Category Selection under Uncertainty

Uncertainties in nature and human society influence low impact development (LID) facility category selection during LID facility optimization distribution, however the investigation of this area is seldom. There are still two problems with uncertainty which influence LID facility distribution 1) how uncertainty factors affect LID facility selection and 2) in the case of a number of LID facilities of multiple categories are to be set, how to construct the LID facility optimization distribution model for LID facility category selection under uncertainty. To handle the problems, this study develops a fractional stochastic interval programming model to process LID facility category selection under the influence of uncertainty. The model can either process multiple objectives via objective maximization and minimization or process the stochastic uncertainty and interval uncertainty. The study shows that the uncertainties which influence LID facility category selection exist in rainfall, infiltration rate, release coefficient, unit price and budget. and the study reveal that the key constraint of LID facility category selection is the uncertainty parameter characteristic of the LID facility, in which different parameters lead to various LID facility optimization schemes. Results of the model include a series of LID facility optimization distribution schemes in multiple scenarios.Results also provide a series of feasible schemes for decision makers, and the manager can select the most appropriate scheme according to water processing level or budget. The developed model could 1) identifying the uncertainty which impact the LID facility distribution. 2) processing the LID facility category selection under interval uncertainty and stochastic uncertainty during LID facility optimization distribution. The method can also be used to estimate the rationality of the LID facility optimization scheme. Moreover, the proposed method is universal and could be extended to other cases of LID facility category selection under uncertainty.