Conflicts over Water Resource Management in Brazil: A Case Study of Inter-Basin Transfers

Developing countries such as Brazil, with limited track-records in dealing with environmental conflicts on a participatory basis, or whose legal frameworks establishing water resource management practices have been introduced only recently, need mechanisms that streamline and strengthen democratic negotiating and decision processes. Increasingly common worldwide, transferring water is developing into a specific source of disputes whose solutions are becoming significant, particularly in the developing countries. This paper analyzes the application of the strategic choice methodology in a dispute over transferring water between two river basins, which is a situation not covered by specific legislation in Brazil. This analysis leads to the conclusion that the application of this methodology is particularly relevant in cases such as this, where decisions are taken on an incremental basis over time, within a context of political, administrative and legal uncertainties.     

Incorporating Future Climatic and Socioeconomic Variables in Water Demand Forecasting: A Case Study in Bangkok

With concerns relating to climate change, and its impacts on water supply, there is an increasing emphasis on water utilities to prepare for the anticipated changes so as to ensure sustainability in supply. Forecasting the water demand, which is done through a variety of techniques using diverse explanatory variables, is the primary requirement for any planning and management measure. However, hitherto, the use of future climatic variables in forecasting the water demand has largely been unexplored. To plug this knowledge gap, this study endeavored to forecast the water demand for the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority (MWA) in Thailand using future climatic and socioeconomic data. Accordingly, downscaled climate data from HadCM3 and extrapolated data of socioeconomic variables was used in the model development, using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). The water demand was forecasted at two scales: annual and monthly, up to the year 2030, with good prediction accuracy (AAREs: 4.76 and 4.82 % respectively). Sensitivity analysis of the explanatory variables revealed that climatic variables have very little effect on the annual water demand. However, the monthly demand is significantly affected by climatic variables, and subsequently climate change, confirming the notion that climate change is a major constraint in ensuring water security for the future. Because the monthly water demand is used in designing storage components of the supply system, and planning inter-basin transfers if required, the results of this study provide the MWA with a useful reference for designing the water supply plan for the years ahead.     

Climate Change Water Resources Planning Impacts Incorporating Reservoir Surface Net Evaporation Fluxes: A Case Study

The majority of published studies on the impacts of climate change on reservoired water resources systems have concentrated on the influence of the climate- change-modified inflow series. However, for reservoirs the direct net evaporation (i.e. evaporation less rainfall) fluxes on the reservoir surface are also affected by climate change and, depending on the magnitude of the change, could have significant effects on the assessed impacts. In this study, we have performed reservoir storage-yield-reliability planning analyses on two multiple reservoir systems, one in England and the other in Iran, to investigate the possible effects of reservoir surface net evaporation flux for both baseline and climate-change conditions. The results showed that, under baseline conditions, consideration of net evaporation will require lower storages for the English systems and higher storages for the Iranian systems. The practical significance of this is that English systems analysed without consideration of surface fluxes represent an over-design which can provide a buffer against future shortages, whereas the under-design caused by ignoring surface fluxes in the Iranian systems will exacerbate the problem of such shortages. Perturbing the baseline inflow and climatological time-series data using a number of recently published climate-change scenarios produced different impacts at high and low yields for both systems. Possible explanations are offered for these impacts and suggestions are made for further studies.     

Inter-Basin Water Transfer Public Agreements: A Decision Approach to Quantity and Price

Water transfers from regions with high rainfall and large reservoirs toregions with scarcity are currently viewed as necessary projects to assure supply and increase efficiency. In countries where most surface water is controlled by public agencies, the transfer requires a politically feasible agreement between them. Among the multiple subjects of the agreement, the present study only deals with the commercial problem of deciding the water transferable quantity and price in an equitable rational way, the decision to be agreed by the public agencies being recommended by independent experts. Aimed at the work of such experts, the paper proposes a decision stochastic approach to determine quantity and price by simulating the recipient's demand curve and the donor's supply curve for transferable water. This approach can be easily implemented using numerical tables containing geographical and economic data on the basins, which appear generally published in government surveys. A case study on the Tajo-Segura aqueduct in Spain and the recipient area of Lorca is developed.     

Conjunctive Use of Surface and Groundwater with Inter-Basin Transfer Approach: Case Study Piranshahr

Disregarding water as a key sustainable development has led to the water crisis in Iran. This problem is the biggest factor for marginalizing the planning and long-term management of water. The sustainable development policies in water resources management of IRAN require consideration of the different aspects of management that each of them demands the scientific integrated programs. Optimal use of inter-basin surface and groundwater resources and transfer of surplus water to adjacent basins are important from different aspects. The purpose of this study is to develop an efficient optimization model based on inter-basin water resources and restoration of outer-basin water resources. In the proposed model the three different objectives are as follow supplying inter-basin water demand, reducing the amount of water output of the boundary of IRAN and increasing water transfer to adjacent basins (Urmia Lake basin) are considered. In this model, water allocation is done based on consumption and resources priorities and groundwater table level constraints. In this research, the non-dominate sorting genetic algorithm is used for performing the developed model regarding the complexity and nonlinearity of the objectives and the decision variables. The optimal allocation of each water resources and water transfer to adjacent basin can be determined by using of proposed model. Optimal allocation policy presented based on optimal value and planning horizon. The results show that we can transfer considerable volume of water resources within the basin for restoration the outside basin and prevent the great flow of water by the border rivers applying the optimal operation policy.     

跨流域向黄河调水措施综合研究

黄河水资源总量严重不足,供需矛盾突出,靠黄河自身水资源难以协调生活、生产、生态用水之间的矛盾,必须研究跨流域调水方案,缓解黄河水资源供需矛盾,为保障流域及邻近地区的供水安全、能源安全、粮食安全、生态安全提供条件。在分析黄河流域水资源形势的基础上,研究了南水北调东、中、西线,引汉济渭,小江调水等跨流域调水工程,综合比较了各方案向黄河补水的可能性,提出了必须加快南水北调西线工程前期工作,争取早日建成生效。考虑黄河水资源衰减变化和未来的刚性用水需求,还应寻求其他跨流域调水方案,以最大限度缓解黄河水资源供需矛盾。     

浅谈跨流域调水规划的基本思路与方法

跨流域调水是解决水资源时空分布不均衡、缓解区域资源性缺水的一条重要途径.根据跨流域调水规划的特点,归纳提出跨流域调水规划应遵循的原则;分析拟定跨流域调水规划的技术路线;提出跨流域调水的主要工作内容,阐述主要工作方法及需要关注的问题;提出对跨流域调水规划的认识.     

Inter-Basin Water Transfer Supply Chain Equilibrium and Coordination: A Social Welfare Maximization Perspective

Water Resources Management - The dynamic interactions among the multiple stakeholders in an inter-basin water transfer (IBWT) supply chain from a social welfare maximization (SWM) perspective is...     

Incorporating Non-market Benefits of Reclaimed Water into Cost-Benefit Analysis: A Case Study of Irrigated Mandarin Crops in southern Spain

Maintaining a river system’s minimum water flow is a pre-condition for achieving the “good ecological status” prescribed by the European Water Framework Directive (WFD). In areas of water scarcity the reuse of treated water for agricultural irrigation is seen as a promising option to reduce the quantitative pressure on the resource. As part of assessing the viability of reclaimed water use in agriculture, and in accordance with the economic principles underpinning the WFD, a comprehensive economic analysis of this irrigation option is needed. This paper contributes to fill this knowledge gap by producing a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of the use of reclaimed water in agriculture. The costs and benefits of reclaimed water use on an experimental mandarin farm in the south-east of Spain are compared with those of using surface water and a mixture of water sources. The novelty of this study is that non-market benefits are incorporated in the CBA. We thereby account for the increase in welfare that the environmental services of this supply option provide to society at large. These kind of “intangible” benefits are often ignored, but only the combination of market and non-market costs and benefits can produce a balanced assessment of water management options and lead to an efficient and sustainable allocation of the resource. Our results suggest that at the private and social level, when environmental benefits are included, the use of a mixture of water sources, including reclaimed water, seems the best option. However, at low mandarin prices (lower than 0.23 €/kg) the exclusive use of reclaimed water seems the most beneficial option.     

Water Transfer Triggering Mechanism for Multi-Reservoir Operation in Inter-Basin Water Transfer-Supply Project

This paper proposes a new water transfer triggering mechanism for multi-reservoir system to divert water from abundant to scarce regions with a constant diversion flow in an inter-basin water transfer-supply project. Taking into account of the uncertain nature of inflow, the storage of reservoir is taken as a signal for decision-making to indicate water abundance or water scarcity. In this study, a set of rule curves based on storage of donor reservoir and storage of recipient reservoir are used together to determine when to start water transfer. To initiate water diversion to each recipient reservoir effectively, several water transfer rule curves of the donor reservoir are set for each recipient reservoir respectively in the multi-reservoir system with one donor reservoir and several recipient reservoirs, which is the main difference in comparison with other water transfer triggering mechanisms. In addition, a systematic framework is developed to integrate the water transfer rule curves with hedging rule curves to simultaneously solve the water transfer and water supply problems, since they interact with each other during the operation process. In order to verify the utility of the new water transfer triggering mechanism, an inter-basin water transfer-supply project in China is used as a case study and an improved particle swarm optimization algorithm (IPSO) with a simulation model is adopted for optimizing the decision variables. The results show that the proposed water transfer triggering mechanism can improve the operation performances of the inter-basin system.     

An Innovative Option Contract for Allocating Water in Inter-Basin Transfers: the Case of the Tagus-Segura Transfer in Spain

The Tagus-Segura Transfer (TST), the largest water infrastructure in Spain, connects the Tagus basin’s headwaters and the Segura basin, one of the most water-stressed areas in Europe. The need to increase the minimum environmental flows in the Tagus River and to meet new urban demands has lead to the redefinition of the TST’s management rules, what will cause a reduction of transferable volumes to the Segura basin. After evaluating the effects of this change in the whole Tagus-Segura system, focusing on the availability of irrigation water in the Segura, the environmental flows in the Tagus and the economic impacts on both basins; we propose an innovative two-tranche option contract that could reduce the negative impacts of the modification of the Transfer’s management rule, and represents an institutional innovation with respect to previous inter-basin water trading. We evaluate this contract with respect to spot and non-market scenarios. Results show that the proposed contract would reduce the impact of a change in the transfer’s management rule on water availability in the recipient area.     

国内跨流域调水配置方法研究现状与展望

跨流域调水的水量配置涉及到工程调度运行、水价体制、政策调控措施等多方面因素,以及同本地不同水源的联合调配问题.现从技术、管理和理念等不同角度总结了已有的跨流域调水配置相关研究方法和进展并作了相关评述,提出了跨流域调水水量配置和工程运行管理中必须考虑的若干技术问题,指出了未来研究的发展趋势.     

Economic and Social Adaptations to Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources: A Case Study of Egypt

Literature is em erging on the adaptation of water resource systems to climate change (Stakhiv, 1995; Strzepek & Sm ith, 1995). These adaptations are generally discussed at either the sectoral or at the micro-economic level. However, little has been said about the macro-economic adaptation to shifts in water resources due to climate change. This lack of discussion is primarily due to the fact that very few countries have been able to make a com prehensive national assessment of climate change im pacts on water resources at the same scale as a macro-economic modelling analysis. W here macro-economic m odelling has been done, the water resource systems are highly regional and difficult to aggregate to a single national im pact. W here homogenous water resources systems exist, m acro-econom ic impact modelling has not incorporated water resources. This paper examines the macro-economic adaptations to climate change im pacts on national water resources. Because of the problems listed above, a 'laboratory' country was chosen. Egypt has a single water resource- the Nile- and a substantial portion of Egypt's economic activity is related to this river. Changes in Nile discharges can be directly linked to macro-economic accoun ts, yet obviously more strongly linked to the agricultural sector. For this reason, a macro-economic m odel has been used which contains a disaggregated agricultural sector and a highly aggregated non-agricultural sector. A discussion of technical adaptations to climate change-induced reductions in Nile flows is presented. W hile these technical adaptations of the N ile are important, the macro-economic impacts of decreases or increases in Nile River discharge are shown to be minor compared with fu ture socioeconomic development and domestic policy strategies. The paper concludes with a discussion of anticipatory econom ic and policy adaptations that appear to be more significant than technical adaptations for Egypt.     

Evaluating the Relative Power of Water Users in Inter-Basin Water Transfer Systems

One of the challenging issues in designing and operation of inter-basin water transfer systems is quantifying the relative power of water users. In this paper, a comprehensive set of criteria including regional gross income, water efficiency, presence of alternative water resources, self-sufficiency, existence of agricultural and industrial infrastructures, receiving political support of the government and parliament, and preference-based power is proposed to determine the power of water users in a quantitative way. Then, some well-known Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods, namely Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Analytical Network Process (ANP), Evidential Reasoning (ER), Method for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Situation (TOPSIS) and Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluations (PROMETHEE II), are utilized to evaluate the power of water users in inter-basin water allocation systems. In this paper, the Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient and Kendall’s coefficient of concordance are applied to compare the ranking outputs resulting from different MCDM methods. At last, the proposed approach is applied to a large-scale case study of water transfer from the Karoon River basin to the Rafsanjan plain in the central part of Iran.     

Simulation and Optimization of Multi-Reservoir Operation in Inter-Basin Water Transfer System

Inter-basin water transfer projects are usually considered as one of the most effective facilities to balance the non-uniform temporal and spatial distribution of water resources and water demands by diverting water from surplus to deficient area. However, the operation of these projects are always daunting, especially for projects with multi-donor reservoirs but only one recipient reservoir. In this study, a set of water transfer rule curves are firstly proposed to determine when, where and how much water should be diverted from each donor reservoir. In addition, a simulation-optimization model with the objective to minimize both water shortage risk and vulnerability is established to derive the optimal operation rule curves. Following that, the new transfer rules are applied to provide guidelines for the operation of a water transfer-supply project with two donor reservoirs in central China. The effects of water diversion on each reservoir are evaluated under different scenarios including no diversion, diversion from the donor reservoir with relatively sufficient water, diversion from the donor reservoir with relatively limited water, and diversion from both donor reservoirs. The results show the advantages of improving the performance of whole water diversion system and demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach.     

Incorporating Virtual Water into Water Management: A British Columbia Example

Virtual water is the water required to produce food or a commodity, and includes rainwater in addition to irrigation and the water required to grow feed in livestock systems. Measuring virtual water is a useful concept in assessing water management as it permits the comparison of crops and livestock from the perspective of embedded water. To evaluate trade-offs in water allocation in countries like Canada with large regional variability in climate, virtual water should be calculated on a watershed scale. Two watersheds in Canada were selected representing wet and dry regions, and virtual water requirements for crop and livestock products were evaluated. For both the Lower Fraser Valley and the Okanagan basins, the results indicate that the most water demanding agricultural activities are livestock and fodder production. In the Lower Fraser basin, berry crops require 32 Mm³ of virtual water per year and have a potential value of $95 million. In contrast, the major fruit crops in the Okanagan require 63 Mm³ of virtual water per year and have a potential value of $95 million. In contrast, the major fruit crops in the Okanagan require 63 Mm³ of virtual water per year and have a potential value of 68 million. Blueberries and grapes which have moderately high virtual water contents have been expanding in the Lower Fraser and Okanagan basins respectively. Water to grow feed dominates overall animal virtual water requirements. Livestock requires nearly 4.5 times more virtual water per year than crops in the Lower Fraser, poultry and dairy having the largest virtual water requirements. In the dry Okanagan basin the total virtual water requirements for crops and livestock are similar. To accommodate future growth, decisions on water management will need to be made, particularly in dry basins such as the Okanagan. Virtual water calculations provide information that can assist decision makers in the strategic choices of reallocation and conservation water use.     

Optimal Inter-Basin Water Allocation Using Crisp and Fuzzy Shapley Games

In recent years, uneven distribution of available water resources as well as increasing water demands and overexploiting the water resources have brought severe need for transferring water from basins having sufficient water to basins facing water shortages. Therefore, optimal allocation of shared water resources in water transfer projects, considering the utilities of different stakeholders, physical limitations of the system and socioeconomic criteria is an important task. In this paper, a new methodology based on crisp and fuzzy Shapley games is developed for optimal allocation of inter-basin water resources. In the proposed methodology, initial water allocations are obtained using an optimization model considering an equity criterion. In the second step, the stakeholders form crisp coalitions to increase the total net benefit of the system as well as their own benefits and a crisp Shapley Value game is used to reallocate the benefits produced in the crisp coalitions. Lastly, to provide maximum total net benefit, fuzzy coalitions are constituted and the participation rates of water users to fuzzy coalitions are optimized. Then, the total net benefit is reallocated to water users in a rational and equitable way using Fuzzy Shapley Value game. The effectiveness of this method is examined by applying it to a large scale case study of water transfer from the Karoon river basin in southern Iran to the Rafsanjan plain in central Iran.     

优化引调水规则的跨流域水库联合调度研究

为解决跨流域水库群最优供水调度问题,以忻定盆地-阳泉跨流域供水系统为例,结合该地区的水库群及供水区特点,优化引调水规则和供水规则,设置引水控制线和减少引水控制线将受水水库库容分为3个区间,设置调水控制线将水源水库库容划分为2个区间,以此建立跨流域水库联合调度模型进行合理调度.结合实例对优化后的引调水规则和优化模型的可行...     

Water Pricing for Multi-sectoral Allocation: A Case Study

This paper presents a case study for the allocation pattern of available water resources within and among competing sectors that would achieve the highest economic return from water use. For this purpose, an optimization model using linear programming was developed. Considering constraints on greenhouse area, crop production and seasonal per capita water requirements along with the area-specific conditions and potential growth, the optimal water allocation pattern between the prevailing and future consuming sectors was determined. The results indicated that, at present, water resources are misallocated as well as under-priced; current municipal and agricultural water prices represent 61% and 69%, respectively, of the actual water cost. With the development of tourism in the area, the agricultural sector is expected to diminish as more profitable uses of water evolve.     

A Negotiation-Based Multi-Objective, Multi-Party Decision-Making Model for Inter-Basin Water Transfer Scheme Optimization

The planning and management decisions often involve multiple objectives and multiple parties with conflicting interests due to the complexity of inter-basin water transfer systems. In this paper, the objectives, the groups involved and the corresponding conflicting interests that characterize water transfer decisions are analyzed. A multi-party, multi-objective decision/bargaining model based on the ??satisfaction principle?? is developed for inter-basin water transfer system decision-making. In order to obtain an ideal multi-party decision, bargaining is first broken down into two stages, and then decision alternatives are chosen using fuzzy pattern recognition. This model is simple, and it is more adaptable for solving practical multi-objective and multi-party decision problems. Finally, an inter-basin water transfer scheme optimization example is demonstrated by using the developed model.