Discussion of the enabling environments for decentralised water systems

Decentralised water supply systems are becoming increasingly affordable and commonplace in Australia and have the potential to alleviate urban water shortages and reduce pollution into natural receiving marine and freshwater streams. Learning processes are necessary to support the efficient implementation of decentralised systems. These processes reveal the complex socio-technical and institutional factors to be considered when developing an enabling environment supporting decentralised water and wastewater servicing solutions. Critical to the technological transition towards established decentralised systems is the ability to create strategic and adaptive capacity to promote learning and dialogue. Learning processes require institutional mechanisms to ensure the lessons are incorporated into the formulation of policy and regulation, through constructive involvement of key government institutions. Engagement of stakeholders is essential to the enabling environment. Collaborative learning environments using systems analysis with communities (social learning) and adaptive management techniques are useful in refining and applying scientists' and managers' knowledge (knowledge management).     

Sustainable Urban Water System Transitions Through Management Reforms in Ghana

Despite decades of water reforms, Ghana’s struggle to achieve sustainable urban water system is deepened by complex interactions of multi-layered political, socio-economic and managerial characteristics, leaving a rationing system of water supply in major cities like Accra. Using a multi-level perspective framework, the paper examines the dynamics of urban water system transition through management reforms. The study showed how external pressure at the landscape level influenced policy direction within urban water regime through the implementation of neo-liberal economic policies, paving way for resistance and grassroots innovation at the niche level. The implementation of such policies in the reform process did little to help achieve the desired sustainable urban water system goals. The paper suggests a blend of public and private financing with support for grassroots to improve urban water system management. However, subsequent urban water policy reforms must be informed by knowledge of social, economic, and political realities rather than imported generic “best policies and practices” that often conflict with local realities.     

Outdoor Water Use as an Adaptation Problem: Insights from North American Cities

Recent efforts to influence the efficiency and timing of urban indoor water use through education, technology, conservation, reuse, economic incentives, and regulatory mechanisms have enabled many North American cities to accommodate population growth and buffer impacts of drought. It is unlikely that this approach will be equally successful into the future because the source of conservation will shift from indoor to outdoor use. Outdoor water is climate sensitive, difficult to measure, hard to predict, linked to other components of complex and dynamic urban resource systems, imbued with behavioral and cultural dimensions, and implicated in societal conflicts about climate risk, modern lifestyles, social justice, and future growth. Outdoor water conservation is not a traditional management problem focused on the water sector, assuming a stationary climate, and set aside from public debate. Instead, outdoor water is an adaptation problem, involving complex and uncertain system dynamics, the need for cross-sector coordination, strategies for dealing with climatic uncertainty, and mechanisms for engaging stakeholders with differing goals. This paper makes the case for treating outdoor water as an adaptation problem and offers a six-point strategy for how cities can better prepare their water systems for the uncertainties of climate and societal change.     

Parallelwelten – Informelle Arbeit in der Abfallwirtschaft

Rapid urbanization, increasing amounts of waste, and municipalities lacking in both financial and personal resources are characteristic of waste management in low-income countries. “Formal” waste management, represented by national and regional authorities and private companies, is not in a position to provide adequate waste collection and treatment for the local population. Burning waste in backyard fires or tossing it in roadside ditches or “wild dumps” are common practices. But in addition to the formal system, which is unable to cope with the current situation, there is a parallel and informal system that closes the gaps in the collection, processing, treatment and disposal of waste. Informal activities in waste management have become increasingly important in implementation projects and science in recent years. As informal workers are, by definition, not keeping records of their activities, their contribution is not recognized, and the workers remain invisible. The important contribution of the informal sector should not be underestimated, as a major share of waste recycling activities are carried out informally, providing secondary raw materials to local markets. In many cases the informal workers are not recognized as having a key role in waste management systems and run the risk of losing their livelihoods thanks to modernization processes. Informal sector activities take place not only in low-income countries but also in Central and Eastern European countries. However, these activities are carried out against the backdrop of a functioning waste management system and on a legal basis.     

Towards a systems approach for river basin management—Lessons from Australia's largest river

Globally, large river systems have been extensively modified and are increasingly managed for a range of purposes including ecosystem services and ecological values. Key to managing rivers effectively are developing approaches that deal with uncertainty, are adaptive in nature, and can incorporate multiple stakeholders with dynamic feedbacks. Australia's largest river system, the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB), has been extensively developed for shipping passage, irrigation, hydroelectric development, and water supply. Water development in the MDB over the last century resulted in overallocation of water resources and large‐scale environmental degradation throughout the Basin. Under the pressure of a significant drought, there was insufficient water to supply critical human, environmental, and agricultural needs. In response, a massive programme of water reform was enacted that resulted in considerable institutional, social, and economic change. The underlying policy was required to be enacted in an absence of certainty around the scientific basis, with an adaptive management focus to incorporate new knowledge. The resulting institutional arrangements were challenged by a need to generate new governance arrangements within the constraints of existing state and national structures. The ongoing reform and management of the MDB continues to challenge all parties to achieve optimization for multiple outcomes, and to communicate that effectively. As large‐scale water reform gains pace globally, the MDB provides a window of insight into the types of systems that may emerge and the challenges in working within them. Most particularly, it illustrates the need for much more sophisticated systems thinking that runs counter to the much more linear approaches often adopted in government.     

A Sustainable Decision Support Framework for Urban Water Management

This paper develops a decision support framework that assists managers in the urban water industry to analyse a mix of water service options, at the whole-of-city scale. The decision support framework moves decision-making in urban water systems from traditional command and control approaches that tend to focus on an outcome at a point in time to a more sustainable, inclusive and dynamic decision-making process driven by social learning and engagement. While available models and evaluation techniques provide valuable input to decision-making, the complex nature of urban water systems requires more than just social and economic criteria to be considered as part of decision support frameworks. The authors believe that current decision support frameworks need to be presented in a way that incorporates adaptive management and integrated urban water management strengths at the strategic and operational level. The inclusion of social learning and engagement is necessary to achieving this end.     

Upper San Pedro Basin: fostering collaborative binational watershed management

Successful binational planning and management of water resources is a complex process dependent on informed decision‐making across diverse economic, social and political sectors. Additional technical and scientific information is often required as a part of this process. A critical factor in this process is how effectively social and physical scientists can help build collaboration and trust among stakeholders, water and land managers, and policy‐makers. Within the international San Pedro River Basin, disparities between Mexico and the USA regarding economic development and political orientation, combined with a highly variable and complex physical setting, suggest that the successful engagement of scientists with communities and stakeholders will be essential for addressing challenges in water management. Based upon concepts associated with collective action theory, adaptive management and conflict resolution, the present paper proposes a process for fostering collaborative binational water management in basins such as the San Pedro that span international borders.     

“幸福河湖”背景下城市内涝防治系统的运行调度优化——以江西南昌市青山湖排涝片为例

“幸福河湖”的提出,进一步诠释了“统筹兼顾、综合治水”的内涵,也对城市河湖的管理提出更加明确的要求。然而,在城市水安全、水景观、水生态等诸多目标之间,往往存在冲突,在发挥城市水体调洪功能的同时,难免在水景观与水生态方面产生不利影响。“城市看海”与“逢雨必污”频现、矛盾交织是我国城市面临的普遍难题。以南昌市青山湖排涝片为研究区域,分析内涝防治系统运行调度面临的形势、存在的问题及原因,进而结合相关城市雨洪数值模拟成果,提出其优化原则与路径。主要结论有:“暴雨全程动态控制”有助于内涝防治系统运行过程中的“多目标”协调;通过城市雨洪数值模拟,能够更加科学地预判不同雨洪情景对城市水系的影响,有助于按照“分时分级”的原则划定阶段性的重点目标,进而合理确定关键水位的控制时机与阈值。     

Water and democracy: new roles for civil society in water governance

In most democratic countries, government officials make water-allocation decisions. Citizens depend on these officials and their technical advisors to take account of both technical and political considerations in determining which water uses get priority, what infrastructure investments to make and what water quality standards to apply. In many parts of the world, water users and stakeholders have additional opportunities to comment on such decisions before they are implemented. Under some circumstances, citizens can challenge water management decisions in court. This is not enough. More direct democracy, involving stakeholders before such decisions are made, can produce fairer and increasingly sustainable results. The steps in collaborative adaptive management – a form of stakeholder engagement particularly appropriate to managing complex water networks – are described in this article along with the reasons that traditional forms of representative democracy are inadequate when it comes to water policy.     

河南省典型枯水年水资源脆弱性评价及贡献因子识别

水资源脆弱性评价是水安全的重要度量方式,水资源安全是区域可持续发展的基础。以河南省18个市区为研究单元,从自然条件、社会经济、供用耗水等3个子系统选取指标建立评价体系,运用熵权法、线性加权法求解其典型枯水年水资源脆弱性,从城市、区域、全省角度分析水资源子系统指数、脆弱性指数,并采用贡献度模型识别了水资源脆弱性主要贡献因子,以期为河南省水资源管理提供科学依据。结果表明:（1）整体上看,3个子系统水资源脆弱性指数大小排序为自然条件>供用耗水>社会经济;城市和区域的水资源子系统指数、脆弱性指数存在一定的差异,且有自西南向东北逐渐增大的趋势;全省水资源为Ⅲ级中等脆弱性。（2）18个市区及全省水资源脆弱性3个子系统贡献度排序为自然条件>供用耗水>社会经济;水资源脆弱性的主要贡献因子集中在自然条件子系统的4个指标。此外,社会经济子系统中的亩均化肥折纯量和供用耗水子系统中的人均综合用水量、亩均灌溉用水量也是主要贡献因子。最后,提出“多渠道供水,提高供水侧能力”“合理扩张城镇、优化人口经济结构,提高城市水平”“提高用水效率,节约用水”的差异化“降脆”策略,以实现水资源可持续发展。     

莱茵河水资源国际合作治理困境与突破

为探索莱茵河流域沿岸国家如何突破水资源合作治理的集体行动难题,分析了合作过程中存在的治理困境和关键性因素。莱茵河流域水污染问题从普通环境问题上升为国际政治议题进而成为沿岸国家的政治承诺,经历了利益相关者相互抗衡与博弈的漫长过程,经济发展与环境保护之间的权衡、外部性问题和不确定性带来的高成本成为实现合作难以突破的困境,问题压力程度、非政府行动者参与程度、制度弹性、社会政治经济同质性、社会资本存量等是突破合作困境的关键性要素。我国在跨界流域水资源的利用、开发和治理中应注重建立对话沟通机制,提供合作平台,培养互信关系;提倡多中心的制度安排,保持制度弹性;加强水质监控和预警网络建设;引导公众参与,发挥公众监督作用。     

Informal water vendors and the urban poor: evidence from a Nairobi slum

ABSTRACT

In Kenya, informal urban water markets serve the poor in areas where public utilities have failed to deliver. They often charge high prices, sell low-quality water and perform water transactions in a way that is unfair to the buyers. They still remain one of the most popular alternatives for water provision, as they can offer flexibility of supply arrangements and payment systems which are beyond the scope of large-scale water providers. In the major restructuring of Kenya’s urban water delivery system towards commercialization and privatization, these private vendors are being regularized for better service delivery in terms of regulation of prices and quality of water.     

水利工程管理考核工作的实践与思考——以无锡城市防洪工程管理为例

无锡市城市防洪工程管理处自2013年起确立了创建"江苏省一级水利工程管理单位"的目标,通过3年的努力,于2015年12月顺利通过省一级水利工程管理单位的考核。笔者主要谈论了管理单位开展达标创建工作的实践及通过考核后的思考。     

Impediments to the adoption of alternative sewerage in South African urban informal settlements

In recent decades South Africa has witnessed a substantial growth in its urban population. This growth has been accompanied by the mushrooming of informal settlements (shantytowns) flanking more formal development. The lack of adequate urban drainage in many of these informal settlements has resulted in extremely polluted environments which add to the disease burden of the poor people who live there. In many instances, informal settlements in South Africa are established on marginal land that is inherently difficult to service using conventional gravity sewerage. International experience has shown that various alternative wastewater collection systems may present more appropriate ways of providing water-borne sewerage in areas that are difficult to service by conventional means. Alternative sewerage schemes have however had a poor record of success in South African informal settlements - primarily stemming from the implementing agencies' failure to adequately address various social and institutional factors. In this paper, a review of South African experiences with simplified sewerage, settled sewerage and vacuum sewerage in urban informal settlements is used to highlight the key constraints that currently impede the application of these technologies.     

水电开发条件下自然保护区管理的实践创新——以长江上游珍稀特有鱼类国家级自然保护区为例

为协调金沙江下游的水电开发与鱼类生态保护,国家设立了长江上游珍稀特有鱼类国家级自然保护区。系统介绍了自2005年以来,各级政府主管部门、相关科研设计机构和中国长江三峡集团有限公司在金沙江下游共同开展的保护区管理工作,工作内容包括保护区机构与基础设施建设、渔民安置、鱼类增殖放流、水生态监测与生态保护相关科研等多个方面。在保护区建设与管理中,参与各方首次构建了规划策划-实施运行-监测评估-管理改进(Plan-Do-Check-Act,PDCA)的适应性管理机制,开创了“企-政-地-研”多方共同参与的保护区工作格局。该管理机制的实践创新有效协调了水电开发与鱼类生态保护,秉持“生态优先”原则,贯彻“自然恢复”理念,为自然保护区管理中各方良好协作、高效实时调整提供了新的思路。     

Analysis of scenarios for wastewater and urban drainage systems in Brazil based on an integrated modeling approach.

Brazil is currently facing widespread problems in the urban environment associated with inadequate wastewater and urban drainage systems, particularly for low-income communities. These problems are promoted by the rapid and often unplanned urbanization process in developing cities and are compounded by a lack of funding, absence of planning, ineffective institutional arrangements, and inappropriate policies to provide the framework for integrated wastewater and stormwater management. Because planning for the provision of wastewater and urban drainage systems is a complex task, an integrated-modeling approach is proposed to provide a practical methodology for sanitation and urban drainage planning in Brazilian cities. In the model development, as well as technical aspects, other aspects related to institutional, financial, socio-economic, environmental and public health issues were also taken into account.     

Characterizing local water governance structure in the Philippines: results of the water managers’ 2013 survey

This paper provides an empirical basis for local water-governance reforms in the Philippines using primary data from 299 water managers representing water districts, community-based water organizations, irrigators’ associations and local government water providers. Survey results showed that local water organizations are subject to various forms of laws and regulations; there are no set bases for water price determination; and water administration set-up varies from the formal to the loosely informal structures. Recommendations are offered towards responsive local water governance arrangements.     

Simulated Annealing in Optimization of Energy Production in a Water Supply Network

In water supply systems, the potential exists for micro-hydropower that uses the pressure excess in the networks to produce electricity. However, because urban drinking water networks are complex systems in which flows and pressure vary constantly, identification of the ideal locations for turbines is not straightforward, and assessment implies the need for simulation. In this paper, an optimization algorithm is proposed to provide a selection of optimal locations for the installation of a given number of turbines in a distribution network. A simulated annealing process was developed to optimize the location of the turbines by taking into account the hourly variation of flows throughout an average year and the consequent impact of this variation on the turbine efficiency. The optimization is achieved by considering the characteristic and efficiency curves of a turbine model for different impeller diameters as well as simulations of the annual energy production in a coupled hydraulic model. The developed algorithm was applied to the water supply system of the city Lausanne (Switzerland). This work focuses on the definition of the neighborhood of the simulated annealing process and the analysis of convergence towards the optimal solution for different restrictions and numbers of installed turbines.     

Towards integrated catchment management: increasing the dialogue between scientists,policy‐makers and stakeholders

The aim of the Hydrology for the Environment, Life and Policy (HELP) project is to strengthen the role and inputs of the scientific community in the integrated catchment management process. Water resources management in the 21st century requires a radical reorientation and an effective dialogue between decision‐makers, stakeholders and the scientific water community. This paper offers a skeleton worldview as a starting point for that dialogue by bringing together key issues as identified by water resource experts from different disciplines. Experiences from all over the world demonstrate the need for multistakeholder advocacy and the importance of compromise‐building mechanisms. Water law defines the rules of the game and provides a necessary framework for policy and its execution. However, there must be adequate social acceptance and active compliance, otherwise the formal rules and administrative regulation will not be perceived as legitimate and ultimately could prove ineffective. The challenge now is to create management systems where the formal decision‐makers interact with relevant members of the scientific community, users and other stakeholders for a coordinated approach that successfully orchestrates water uses towards internal compatibility. Integrated water resources management is essential for securing a proper overview of all the activities that depend on the same resource—the precipitation over the basin—and which are internally linked by the mobility of water from the water divide to the river mouth.     

Is It Possible to Shift to Hydrological Boundaries? The Ferghana Valley Meshed System

The management of water resources according to hydrological boundaries at different implementation levels (river basin, irrigation system, or water user association) is promoted internationally. This approach to water management, especially for the basin, is starting to be challenged from different perspectives: representation within basins, appropriateness for basins in the south, and the challenges of merging boundaries for surface and groundwater sources. It has been challenged only recently in relation to its appropriateness for indigenously constructed (informal) irrigation systems. To these critiques, this paper adds the historical development and originally intended purpose of engineered irrigation systems and therefore calls into question whether it is always possible to introduce hydrological boundary management in the formal systems in Central Asia.