Sedimentation in New Zealand Hydroelectric Schemes

ABSTRACT

Geologically young New Zealand catchments can produce large quantities of relatively coarse sediment which has caused problems in the design and operation of some hydroelectric schemes.

The general sediment producing characteristics of New Zealand catchments are described and are related to the measured sedimentation rates of four reservoirs.

A number of examples of sediment management problems and methods of dealing with them are given to illustrate some of the principles and practice in the design and operation of sediment handling facilities.

Generally sedimentation in New Zealand hydroelectric reservoirs has not been a problem mainly because development has concentrated on rivers where a large proportion of the sediment has been trapped by natural lakes upstream. Usually catchments of major schemes have had less than 200 t/km² sediment yield annually and this has caused no problems. However some smaller schemes in catchments where the annual sediment yield has exceeded 2000 t/km² have encountered problems and the cost of dealing with this has usually been less than 5% of the scheme income.

It is concluded that planning and management of sediment in New Zealand is a long-term problem which can be handled using the existing database and engineering techniques providing the problem is recognised.     

The changing face of river management in Victoria: The Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung murron) Act 2017 (Vic)

ABSTRACT

This article outlines the Yarra River Protection Act and the establishment of a statutory independent voice for the Yarra River, the Birrarung Council, in light of the historical legislative neglect of indigenous water management rights in the Australian state of Victoria. It then seeks to clarify the distinction between the Yarra River’s independent voice and the granting of legal personhood to the Whanganui River in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Te Awa Tupua Act. It concludes that the grant of legal personhood to a river, represented by a river guardian, will not necessarily meet the river management aspirations of Victoria’s Indigenous people.     

Legal personality and economic livelihood of the Whanganui River: a call for community entrepreneurship

ABSTRACT

Legislation in New Zealand dictates that the Whanganui River is a living entity and a legal person. Guardians uphold the river’s environmental, social, cultural and economic well-being. We provide a conceptual discussion of the river’s economic well-being, understood as the mutual enhancement of natural and human elements through community entrepreneurship that is based on human and non-human capabilities. We discuss human economic activity that preserves the right of the river to be free from pollution and form an integral part of the Māori culture and tradition, the improvement of Māori living conditions, and their rights to self-determination and prior consent.     

The water footprint challenge for water resources management in Chilean arid zones

ABSTRACT

The water footprint concept is difficult to apply to water-shortage conditions because of private management and variability in the water balance. Chilean water law stipulates that water allocation depends on water rights and private organization criteria, according to the basin water supply and not necessarily crop irrigation demand, crop yield or irrigation technology. This paper explores the resultant complications.     

Evaluating spatial and seasonal determinants of residential water demand across different housing types through data integration

ABSTRACT

This study used a new approach in data integration to fully evaluate water consumption across different housing types, income groups and seasons in Auckland, New Zealand. Using urban GIS-based databases, we developed a sample of 60,000 dwellings through integration of water consumption, land use and census microdata. We find that household size is the major determinant of water use across all housing types in Auckland. But household water consumption, and its seasonal and spatial variations, is significantly higher in detached houses than in apartments due to greater outdoor water use.     

我国资源产权制度反思

分析了产权的制度功能及其与资源环境问题的相互关系,认为要解决我国资源利用低效及相关环境问题,必须进行资源产权结构的调整,即建立以重要资源国家所有为基础的包括一定范围资源个人所有在内的多元资源产权体系,文章还对一些相关具体问题进行了探讨。     

Management of Water Resources

Abstract

Recent reforms in water resources management in the Murray-Darling Basin are discussed from the perspective of water allocation, water rights, irrigation, and the environment, with particular reference to differences between details in the states of Victoria and New South Wales. A similar review of water resources management is made for Vietnam with some further discussion of the new water law of 1998. Contextual differences are discussed and the opportunities for Vietnam to make use of Australian experience are briefly analysed.     

Legislating for Adequate Public Participation in Allocating Water in Australia

Abstract

In the mid-1990s Australia embarked on a program of reforms including the introduction of private property rights in water, the allocation of water for the environment, and increased public participation where new initiatives are proposed. Many of the water allocation and management practices adopted in the country have originated from states in the Murray-Darling Basin. This article considers the different approaches taken in NSW, Queensland; and Victoria. In each of these states, public participation has been an evolving process, giving rise to difficulties of a slightly different nature. The article outlines the policy and theory behind public participation and sets out the legal provisions for its inclusion in water planning. It explores the main issues in the implementation of the legislation. The Australian experience suggests that policy makers and legislators did not initially draw upon the extensive research that was in existence on effective public participation. However, changes were made to make the processes more inclusive. Capacity building of participants, independent scientific support, and access to data were some of the most critical factors in effective public participation. Because the public had the opportunity to participate and influence decision making in water allocation, some potential legal conflict was avoided. Of the states examined, Queensland had the best legislative template for public participation although improvements could be made in many areas.     

Interstate Water Conflicts and Individual Rights

Abstract

This study addresses the right of individuals to participate in equitable apportionment actions in the United States Supreme Court involving the allocation of interstate water resources. Given the scope of the parens patriae doctrine, the state represents the interests of all of the state's citizens. This limits the role of individuals to that of amicus curiae (“friend of the court”). Furthermore, any allocation of interstate water resources is likely to be a mass allocation to the state parties to the litigation. Such an allocation may not be sufficient to fulfill all of the demands for water in the respective states. Finally, after noting that individual water rights are “incomplete” forms of property rights that derive from the rights of the state, the study concludes that it may be in the best interest of individual water users to attempt to resolve interstate water conflicts by means other than litigation in the Supreme Court.     

Management gaps analysis: a case study of groundwater resource management in New Zealand

The primary objective of this project is to identify gaps, whether real or perceived, that hinder effective groundwater management in New Zealand. These gaps show as gaps in information, gaps in implementation, gaps in technological and management tools, and gaps in understanding of fundamental processes. The secondary objective is to propose a management strategy to close the identified gaps. Several methods are used to meet these objectives: surveys distributed to selected staff in each regional council; the review of various written reports; the analysis of land-use databases; and private consultation within each regional council. Results show that groundwater management in New Zealand is generally reactionary with the main gaps being in strategic planning and national guidelines. Most gaps appear to be predominantly information and implementation issues. In some cases there are gaps in the understanding of fundamental processes within an aquifer system, including the long-term effects of land-use on groundwater quality. An adaptive management approach is suggested as a means of closing these gaps.     

Trade in Virtual Water: Do Property Rights Matter?

This paper examines the determinants of virtual water trade – embodied in agricultural products – and tests the relationship between property rights and the export of water-intensive products. Using two different measures of property rights protection, I show that countries with weaker property rights have an apparent comparative advantage in the export of water-intensive products. After controlling for economic size, natural resource endowments and bilateral trade determinants, the trade flow of virtual water is negatively and significantly correlated with the property rights index of the exporting country. The results are robust across different estimation methods.     

Water Rights

Abstract

Water is becoming increasingly scarce in many parts of the world. In most such areas, definition and enforcement of water rights have yet to be put in place, while experience shows that these steps are fundamentally important to ensure productive and efficient use of water. Often, as competition intensifies, the data required to assess appropriate allocations and rules become more contentious and difficult to access. New technologies are available, primarily based on remotely sensed satellite data used in conjunction with a minimum set of ground measurements, to generate hydrological data. Such data can readily be correlated with streamflow measurements and also can be used for “what if” analyses of specific climate situations or changes in ground cover. The satellite data are freely available over the Internet, as are other data required.     

Comparing 20th Century Trends in U.S. and Global Agricultural Water and Land Use

Abstract

Globally and in the United States, agriculture is the major user not only of water but also of land. This paper compares trends in aggregate and per capita water and land use by the agricultural sector in the United States and the world during the 20^th century. It finds that although cropland use per capita has been declining in both areas since the early 1900s, agricultural water use per capita only began declining in the latter half of that century. That the increases in efficiencies of agricultural water use lagged behind the increases in the efficiency of cropland use is consistent with the fact that farmers (and farming communities) have traditionally had stronger property rights to their land than to their water. As a result, through much of the 20^th century, farmers had a greater incentive to improve the efficiency of land use than that of water use and to substitute water for land (or irrigated land for dryland) in producing crops.     

Why the Ganga should not claim a right of the river

ABSTRACT

This article examines the global history of a rights-based approach to nature and then focuses in on whether conferring legal rights on the River Ganga (Ganges) in India would help in its management or on the contrary produce a conflict between human rights and the right of nature. Finally, it considers the legal perils of articulating a universal right of a river by comparing the Ganga and Whanganui cases.     

Moving Water to Move People

Abstract

This paper examines economic aspects of the large-scale irrigation project that is currently under construction in the southern desert of Egypt. Lonergan and Wolf (2001) suggest that success of the Toshka project will be determined largely by the degree to which private firms invest in agricultural enterprises in the region. That perspective does not account for the public costs of attracting private firms or the opportunity costs of capital and other scarce resources invested in the project. This note presents a conceptual framework that addresses those issues and an empirical example that provides a preliminary indication of the potential costs and benefits of the Toshka project. The role of government subsidies in attracting private sector investments also is discussed.     

A geomorphic perspective on the rights of the river in Aotearoa New Zealand

The granting of rights to the Whanganui River in 2017 emerged as an outcome of Tribunal hearings relating to breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi, signed between Māori chiefs and the British Crown in 1840. As this expression of a river as having legal personhood with rights reflects a distinctively Māori perspective upon river systems, it offers the prospect for a new era of sociocultural approaches to river management in Aotearoa New Zealand. Using the Whanganui River as a case study, this paper explores prospective geomorphic meanings of river rights. The paper asks, “What role can geomorphology play in identifying, articulating and protecting the rights of a river?” Ancestral Māori relations to the river based upon mutual codependence (reciprocity) are juxtaposed against geomorphic understandings of a river's agency as expressed through self‐adjustment, diversity of form, evolution, and catchment‐scale connectivities. Relations between river science and indigenous concepts of rivers, framed under the auspices of river rights, present opportunities for different approaches to river management.     

The European Community Approach to the Protection of Water

ABSTRACT

The integrated management of a natural resources system such as a river basin requires a through understanding of the system and its people. The development and implementation of such a plan of integrated management are not simple or straightforward. This article shows that such a plan should consist of at least several basic premises. These are; conceptual framework consisting of a vision; an analysis of the state of the environment including various trends; regional quantification; and information needs. Other factors that must be enumerated under these broader headings are; key concepts that must be adhered to; trend analysis of the environment; local partnerships; water rights; and how all these factors and concepts are brought together in the development and implementation of a basin-wide framework to manage a river basin. Two case examples are presented, one on the main stem of the Mississippi River showing that it will be extremely difficult to have a unified management concept that could be implemented on this entire basin. The other case example is on the Illinois River with a drainage area of about 29,000 square miles where such an integrated approach has been developed by a broad coalition of private citizens, local, state, and federal agencies; it shows why such an approach could be successful eventually.     

On the problem of the justification of river rights

ABSTRACT

This article aims to work out the social conditions that determine whether the communication of river rights finds success in society. Employing the context of hydropower development in the Mekong region, the article finds that an essentialist strategy which claims that river rights have unlimited ‘moral’ validity regardless of any of the decision consequences is unlikely to succeed. Instead, it is proposed that moral conflicts over river rights may ultimately only be resolvable ‘unmorally’, that is, by procedural legitimacy – and this is best captured by employing a methodological framework composed of thematic, social and temporal dimensions.     

An ecological perspective on a river’s rights: a recipe for more effective water quality governance?

ABSTRACT

In several countries, the transfer of legal rights to rivers is being discussed as an approach for more effective water resources management. But what could this transfer mean in terms of a healthy river? We address this question by identifying the ecological requirements for naturally functioning rivers and then explore the demands which these requirements impose on society, the current policy responses to these requirements and whether the transfer of rights to the river could facilitate the preservation of healthy freshwater ecosystems.     

Economics of Changes in Irrigation Management in Pakistan: An Integrative Modeling Approach

ABSTRACT

Using a computer model, alternative irrigation management systems are simulated for the Punjab, the largest state in Pakistan. Economic results indicate that canal closure in February to April, rather than December and January, would increase per hectare returns by US $15–35. Due to the limited capacity of the present canals, changing from a continuous flow to a demand system does not appear to be economically feasible. However, if present allocation can be supplemented by private wells operated on demand, higher economic returns and more flexibility would be possible.