Decision Making in Multi-jurisdictional River Basins

Abstract

In the Murray-Darling basin in Australia, a management framework has been adopted to permit the different states that control this basin to manage it cooperatively. This framework consists of joint bodies at both the political and technical level. Similar frameworks have been adopted in other multi-jurisdictional river basins, such as the Mekong in southeast Asia. Analysis of a number of case study decisions in the Murray-Darling Basin Initiative reveals a variety of bases upon which decisions may be made, with the process being led by those from both higher up and lower down the decision making hierarchy and that a semi-rational process is generally followed. By establishing a political body to title the co-operative framework, some sort of balance between political and technical considerations is achieved in an environment, which otherwise would risk being dominated by the individual political concerns of the different jurisdictions.     

The Yellow River: Managing the Unmanageable

Abstract

Hydrosolidarity in the Yellow River is a complex and difficult task, especially as this river has sediment problems that are unique in the world. The balancing of discharge needed for sediment management, relative to that needed for augmentation of water supply within and outside the basin, and for conservation of threatened ecosystems downstream presents a series of compromises that must rank as amongst the most challenging in basin-wide management of major world rivers. Until such time as south-to-north diversions are in place, the Yellow River is the only major water supply to the North China Plain, where water scarcity is now estimated to be some 40 km³ annually, representing 70 percent of the flow of the Yellow River. The hydrological management of Yellow River erosion involves three major factors: erosion and sediment transport, flooding, and river desiccation in the downstream reaches. This paper outlines several major development projects in the Yellow River basin that are attempting to achieve hydrosolidarity while, at the same time, providing needed water supplies to water-scarce parts of the basin.     

国外流域综合管理模式对我国河湖管理模式的借鉴

针对我国现阶段河湖管理采用流域管理和行政管理相结合的模式,管理实践中存在着流域管理机构与主导政府机构权责不清、公众有效参与不足的问题,以美国五大湖流域、英国东南流域、澳大利亚墨累-达令流域、法国卢瓦尔-布列塔尼流域等为例,对美国、英国、澳大利亚、法国、德国5个主要西方发达国家的各自最有特色的河湖管理模式中流域管理机构、主导政府机构、公众参与、流域管理特点进行了分析及归纳总结,以期对我国最近提出的流域综合管理提供参考。     

Asymmetry and Equity in Water Resources Management; Critical Institutional Issues for Southern Africa

Water users wish to achieve the highest benefits from water resources. Rules limit the manner in which water users may utilise the water resources occurring within their constituencies or territories. However an asymmetrical situation exists whereby downstream users may not affect upstream users but upstream users do cause downstream impacts. Because of this asymmetry the equitable sharing of water resources between upstream and downstream users will always imply that upstream users have to forego some potential water benefits. The general question that this paper addresses is: which institutional arrangements can be devised to (re-)establish an equilibrium between up- and downstream entities within a catchment area or river basin? The paper addresses this question by first focusing on some local and national water allocation arrangements. After briefly reviewing the different management regimes, customary and colonial, that co-evolved in Southern Africa, it assesses the water management principles that are currently being espoused. The focus then turns to the principles in international water law that deal with the allocation of water in transboundary river basins. It is concluded that it often proves difficult to reach agreement over how to share the scarce resource. The paper then discusses the current trend to look beyond water and beyond the river basin when seeking peaceful means to share a common water resource. The concept of “hydrosolidarity” emerges as a normative value that may help to recreate a balance between the various (asymmetrical) interests that exist within a river basin. The paper concludes that water resources can only be governed wisely is there is capacity to understand and monitor the water fluxes within a river basin. If such capacity is wanting, priority should be given to strengthen it.     

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.     

Effective Multi-Jurisdictional River Basin Management

Abstract

Hydrologic data collection is an important aspect of multi-jurisdictional river basin management. The Murray-Darling Basin Commission in Australia, and the Mekong River Commission in southeast Asia, are structured similarly and have established similarly structured monitoring networks. The efficiency and effectiveness of these two networks differ however. The reasons for the differences are examined, and it is concluded that contrasting socio-economic development provides only part of the explanation. The technical capacity of each organisations member states, the extent each organisation depends on its own databases and the developmental stage of each organisation itself are also critically important.     

Second World Congress on Engineering and Environment

ABSTRACT

Mexico's development has been tightly linked with water From the 1917 Political Constitution, where water was declared to be of national proprietorship, several federal laws have been enacted to promote development and regulate water use. Changes provoked by urban and industrial growth have influenced water quality and availability, making today's water management a task beyond government, where all actors in society must play a role.

In this framework River Basin Councils are an open and plural forum, in which f ederal, state, and municipal governments, water users, and society participate in water management. The first River Basin Council created in Mexico as an answer to water scarcity and pollution was Lerma-Chapala, in a populated, urban-rural river basin. To this day, this river basin organism is a successful venture with considerable advances in water allocation and treatment facilities, made possible by means of a regional spirit of responsibility and solidarity to solve a complex water agenda of priorities.

Mexico has assumed a commitment to implement at least thirteen River Basin Councils throughout the country. They will form a valuable asset to successfully cope with future challenges in the water sector     

太湖流域管理体制机制评析

实施流域综合管理被认为是解决水问题的出路,《太湖流域管理条例》明确了太湖流域实行流域管理与行政区域管理相结合的管理体制。通过对我国有关流域管理法律法规体系框架、协调机制、流域和区域关系分析,对太湖流域管理体制的制订和实施作出了详细的评析,认为《太湖流域管理条例》所确定的太湖流域管理体制既体现了流域综合管理的理念,又符合我国的国情和太湖流域的实际情况。在这一体制框架下实现流域综合管理,需要正确认识和处理流域管理与行政区域管理的关系,建立常设的流域管理协调机构,制订和完善流域管理的专项协调机制。     

Towards a rights-based approach in EU international river basin governance? Lessons from the Scheldt and Ems Basins

ABSTRACT

This article finds that the introduction of a rights-based approach in EU transboundary river basin management to remedy observed systemic difficulties and to better achieve legal water quality standards could be a next step in achieving integrated river basin management. However, its effectiveness largely depends on the willingness of member states to share river basin districts to subordinate their separate socio-economic interests to ecological needs, as well as to grant a clear mandate and partly transfer responsibilities and powers to a competent supranational authority.     

The Challenges of Inclusive Cross-Scale Collective Action in Watersheds

Abstract

Increasing attention to watershed management is part of an international policy trend toward integrated water resource management. Integration is multidimensional—across sectors, administrative regions, ministerial portfolios and levels of hydrologic structure and socioeconomic organization. Collective action is key. Individuals need to work effectively together to share common water points; upstream land users and downstream water consumers need to manage and resolve potential conflicts over water quantity and quality, while all the industries, farming communities, urban residents and public agencies that have interests in resource use and environmental quality need to agree on development and conservation objectives and approaches at the basin level. Initiatives that seek to foster collective action in watersheds need to account for the very different interests in water and watershed management. While there may be relatively straightforward ways to foster collective action at a local scale, some forms of collective action may, in fact, be detrimental to other stakeholders. In the developing world in particular, there are often geographic pockets and social groups that are chronically disadvantaged in collective and public processes. Water-users' associations and basin authorities may exacerbate these disparities and further marginalize already poor people. New statutory institutions may intentionally or inadvertently disempower effective customary local institutions. To enable project and program designers to address these challenges better, this paper lays out a framework for assessing the potential for, and implications of, individual and collective decisions in a watershed context. The framework integrates concepts drawn from the biophysical and social sciences, including new perspectives on watershed components, poverty, and collective action. Collective action is seen as a fractal process: collective action for water management at one level of social-spatial organization can have spillover effects at lower and higher levels of social-spatial resolution. To be pro-poor, watershed-management institutions must be genuinely inclusive, deliberately recognizing the interests, perspectives and knowledge of groups that may be systematically excluded from other political and social processes. Researchers, evaluators, watershed-management practitioners and others who apply the framework should be better placed to lay the foundations for that illusive goal: pro-poor, inclusive and resource-conserving development.     

稳步推进长江流域综合管理的思考

在分析国外流域管理发展历程与现状的基础上,介绍了流域综合管理的概念、内涵、目标和任务。针对长江流域涉水事务管理现状和存在问题,从健全管理法规、创新管理体制、建立管理机制、完善管理制度、加强执法监督、提升管理能力等六个方面提出了推进长江流域综合管理的对策和措施。     

Simplified Monthly Hydrology and Irrigation Water Use Model to Explore Sustainable Water Management Options in the Murray-Darling Basin

We aimed to provide whole-of-basin simulations of flows and diversions in the Murray-Darling Basin for economic and policy analysis. We describe a model based on a subdivision of the basin into 58 catchments. In each catchment, the monthly runoff, river flow and irrigation demand are modelled as lumped processes. This is the first single model of the whole of the Murray-Darling Basin. The model was calibrated using monthly flow and annual diversion records, both by trial and error and using an automated method. We use the model to examine the impact on the flow and diversions in the Murray-Darling Basin of proposed diversion reductions and climate change. The diversion reductions return water to the environment, increasing river flows below the main irrigation areas. However, a middle-of-the-range climate change projection may result in a 13 % decrease in total flows in 2030, which offsets the enhancement to flows gained by diversion reductions.     

统筹流域管理与区域管理 实行最严格水资源管理制度

2011年11月1日起施行的《太湖流域管理条例》将流域管理与行政区域管理相结合的水资源管理体制在太湖流域进行了细化,为流域性立法提供了借鉴。以海河流域为例,分析流域立法及实行最严格水资源管理制度对流域管理和行政区域管理的需求,提出促进海河流域水资源流域管理与区域管理有机结合的建议。     

Establishing Environmental Water Requirements for the Murray–Darling Basin,Australia's Largest Developed River System

There is a global need for management of river flows to be informed by science to protect and restore biodiversity and ecological function while maintaining water supply for human needs. However, a lack of data at large scales presents a substantial challenge to developing a scientifically robust approach to flow management that can be applied at a basin and valley scale. In most large systems, only a small number of aquatic ecosystems have been well enough studied to reliably describe their environmental water requirements. The umbrella environmental asset (UEA) approach uses environmental water requirements developed for information‐rich areas to represent the water requirements of a broader river reach or valley. We illustrate this approach in the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB) in eastern Australia, which was recently subject to a substantial revision of water management arrangements. The MDB is more than 1 million km² with 18 main river valleys and many thousands of aquatic ecosystems. Detailed eco‐hydrologic assessments of environmental water requirements that focused on the overbank, bankfull and fresh components of the flow regime were undertaken at a total of 24 UEA sites across the MDB. Flow needs (e.g. flow magnitude, duration, frequency and timing) were established for each UEA to meet the needs of key ecosystem components (e.g. vegetation, birds and fish). Those flow needs were then combined with other analyses to determine sustainable diversion limits across the basin. The UEA approach to identifying environmental water requirements is a robust, science‐based and fit‐for‐purpose approach to determining water requirements for large river basins in the absence of complete ecological knowledge. © 2015 The Authors. River Research and Applications published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

京津冀三地水资源协同保护现状及对策建议

京津冀协同发展是中央在新的历史时期提出的重大国家战略。2014年初和2017年初,习近平总书记先后两次在北京考察工作时就京津冀协同发展做出重要指示。近年来,京津冀三省市为京津冀水环境的共同改善,在跨省市水资源调配、水污染防治联动机制、跨省市流域综合治理等方面开展了大量工作,但是同时也面临着流域治理缺乏统一规划和综合治理理念、跨省市补偿机制尚未建立、流域管理机制不健全等制约三地持续健康发展的共同难题。针对上述问题,从制定统一水资源保护规划和空间管控规划,联手建设京津冀水资源保护区、建立省际生态水量水质补偿机制、完善流域机构职能、加强依法管理以及加强三地水环境科技协同等方面展开了分析研究,随之提出了一些政策性建议,可为今后京津冀三地水环境逐步改善,营造出人水和谐、生态友好、繁荣发展的美丽的京津冀提供技术支持。     

Regional cooperation and benefit sharing for sustainable water resources management in the Lower Mekong Basin

Benefit sharing is a concept associated with regional cooperation for sustainable water resources management. To this end, the present study analyses how implementation of this concept may contribute to economic growth and the promotion of sustainable livelihoods in the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB). It focuses on the balance between economic and human development, national interests, and the procedures used to manage water resources in the basin. It was found that: (a) Benefits obtained from the Mekong River are not equally shared between riparian countries because of inadequate regional cooperation, with economic and social development in the LMB being uneven, with Thailand and Vietnam achieving better human development, poverty reduction and food security outcomes than Laos and Cambodia; (b) Lack of shared national interests, or a common development agenda, has resulted in unsustainable water resource management outcomes; and (c) Procedures for water resources management agreed by the four LMB countries are well‐aligned with the conceptual framework for benefit sharing defined by Sadoff and Grey (2002, Water Policy, 4, 389), although while these procedures have the potential to facilitate a more cooperative agenda for equitable sharing of social, economic and environmental benefits from the water resources of the Mekong River, implementation of the 1995 Mekong Agreement currently remains controversial. The five procedures for water resource management developed by the Mekong River Commission have not resulted in satisfactory outcomes, due in part to the institution lacking regulatory authority.     

Towards better water security in North China

Water shortages and related environmental degradation in North China are major issues facing the country. As runoff from the mountainous parts of the region steadily decrease and water resources become overcommitted, serious water and environmental problems have resulted. These include drying-up of rivers, decline in groundwater levels, degradation of lakes and wetlands, and water pollution. Thus, 4000,km of the lower reaches of the Hai River – some 40% of its length – has experienced zero flows and, as result, parts of this river have become an ephemeral stream. The area of wetland within the Basin has decreased from 10,000,km² at the beginning of 1950s to 1,000km² at present. Over-extraction of groundwater occurs beneath 70% of the North China Plain, with the total groundwater over-extraction estimated at 90,billion m³. Thus, problems of water shortage and related environmental issues in North China have become the most significant limiting factors affecting sustainable development in this important region of China. This paper addresses the water security issues facing North China in the 21st Century using the Hai River basin as an example. We describe hydrologic cycles under changing environments, water-saving agriculture, assessment of water resource security, and efforts towards achieving integrated catchment management.     

塔里木河流域治水思路探析

在分析研究塔里木河的历史变迁、现实危机和未来治水目标的基础上。提出了塔里木河流域治理新思路。围绕治水新思路,必须树立先进的治水理念和科学的治水思路,制定科学系统的水资源开发利用与保护模式,改革水资源管理体制,解决发展与保护中遇到的重大水问题,将“维持河流健康生命”和“构建和谐流域”作为流域治理目标,以效率一效益-可持续引领流域战略目标的实现。     

Catchment Flood Management

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing concern worldwide about climate change and the corresponding apparent increase in the risk and frequency of flooding and about the implications for a wide range of river basin management issues. This paper describes the United Kingdom government's approach to implementing Catchment Flood Management Plans (CFMPs), which will provide a large-scale strategic planning framework for the integrated management of flood risk to people and the development of the natural environment in a sustainable manner. This unified approach is to be adopted across England and Wales, with a view to establishing a unified framework to study flood management in each major catchment. Following on from this introduction to the U.K. approach to high-level flood management, details are given of a study where better water quality management during flood flow conditions has been shown to require a catchment-wide approach to reducing diffuse source pollution from agricultural regions. This study also shows that without this holistic approach to water management, a major cause of non-compliance with an EU Directive would not have been established for this river basin.     

黑河流域水资源管理模式研究

水资源管理模式是提高水资源动态管理的有效方式,为水资源高效配置和合理利用提供技术支撑。针对黑河流域水资源利用现状与存在的问题,分析和探讨了基于生态需水、水权框架、模拟模型和水资源信息系统的黑河流域水资源管理模式,展望了未来流域水资源发展方向。指出在未来应加强人类活动影响下流域水资源污染研究,流域地表水与地下水联合调度管理和水资源合理配置与流域集成管理研究。