A Participatory Process Approach to Development of a Comprehensive Water Resources Management Plan for Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT

A strategic framework and action plan for comprehensive water resources management in Sri Lanka were developed, using a “participatory process approach.” This approach incorporated a number of elements, including seminars of the steering committee of senior oficials, a series of technical workshops facilitated by international experts, numerous interviews of officials and stakeholders, field inspections, consultation and synthesis of documentation, and a final two-day workshop/retreat. The emphasis of the process was to draw on the widest possible range of skills and to obtain a consensus among all stakeholders. The intended project outputs, the strategic framework and action plan, were successfully achieved. In addition, less tangible but possibly more important outcomes that were achieved included agreement to the framework and plan by senior officials from virtually all water-sector organizations, a heightened level of interaction and understanding of others' perspectives among officials and stakeholders, and an enhanced level of knowledge of alternate approaches to water resources management.

A number of conclusions can be drawn from the exercise. Perhaps most significant is the crucial importance of negotiation and communication skills, in addition to the more familiar technical skills and knowledge required in water sector planning and management.     

博弈论模型在解决水资源冲突上的运用

水资源短缺和水质恶化是当今众多发展中国家所面临的两个严重问题。与这两个问题有关的水资源管理通常涉及众多的利益相关者。这些利益相关者因为不同的兴趣和利益常常发生冲突。在缺乏水市场和专有财产权利时, 冲突是不可避免的。博弈论是模仿和解决这类冲突的一种有效方法。以汉江流域水资源管理中所涉及的不同利益相关者的冲突为例，展示如何用非合作与合作博弈来模拟和解决水资源冲突。在本研究中，统计学和经济计量学的回归模型法用来构建博弈各方的效益函数，成本效益分析法来比较不同战略下的博弈结果。博弈模拟结果显示,非合作虽然可使某方赢利，但却使整体受损;相反，合作虽然可给某方带来损失，但是却给各方带来整体利益。所以，如果能够把合作所带来的部分净收益从赢利方转向损失方，以补足损失方的损失，博弈各方均能受益。此模拟方法及结果不仅可使水资源不同利益相关者受益，而且在水资源合理分配﹑水价制定﹑生态补偿等方面也可以为水资源管理部门提供决策支持。     

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).     

Hydro-economic Modeling in River Basin Management: Implications and Applications for the European Water Framework Directive

Economic ideas and processes are becoming increasingly integrated with more traditional engineering and hydrologic models of water management problems. Combining economic management concepts and performance indicators with an engineering-level of understanding of a hydrologic system can provide results and insights more directly relevant for water management decisions and policies. When such models are developed and used with involvement of stakeholders, they can become a basis for shared understanding of water problems as a foundation for negotiated management and policy solutions. When implemented with optimization software, integrated hydro-economic models also can suggest promising innovative solutions for policy-makers to consider. Their applications to river basin management problems are reviewed. Economic and integrated economic-engineering-hydrologic modeling is then discussed in the context of the evolving European Water Framework Directive. Relevant items are cost recovery and water pricing, cost-effectiveness of water management measures, and public participation in decision processes.     

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.     

Comprehensive Evaluation Method of Urban Water Resources Utilization Based on Dynamic Reduct

As a pre-requisite for optimal urban water resource management, the challenge of devising a comprehensive evaluation method of urban water resource utilization has for years caught the attention of researchers and stakeholders. Yet, even when dealing with the complicated water resource management system comprising of large amounts of vague and incomplete data, an accurate assessment or useful indicators obtained from such data can be of great assistance to municipal managers and policy makers. This article presents a DRAEW algorithm based on (F-??)-dynamic reduct method for generating evaluation rules from historical local water environmental data. The proposed method introduces a conditional probability classifier for equivalence class and (F-??)-dynamic reduct method for feature extraction and decision rules generation to classify ambiguous undecided objects. The approach is tested using data from Beijing whose water scarcity problem not only represents a microcosm of China but generally illustrates the value of the new approach. The result based on DRAEW algorithm brings the provisional conclusion that Beijing??s water status is likely to decline, a result which could greatly assist policy makers and water managers make better decisions.     

A pound of prevention,plus a pound of cure: Early detection and eradication of invasive species in the Laurentian Great Lakes

Ballast water regulations implemented in the early 1990s appear not to have slowed the rate of new aquatic invasive species (AIS) establishment in the Great Lakes. With more invasive species on the horizon, we examine the question of whether eradication of AIS is a viable management strategy for the Laurentian Great Lakes, and what a coordinated AIS early detection and eradication program would entail. In-lake monitoring would be conducted to assess the effectiveness of regulations aimed at stopping new AIS, and to maximize the likelihood of early detection of new invaders. Monitoring would be focused on detecting the most probable invaders, the most invasion-prone habitats, and the species most conducive to eradication. When a new non-native species is discovered, an eradication assessment would be conducted and used to guide the management response. In light of high uncertainty, management decisions must be robust to a range of impact and control scenarios. Though prevention should continue to be the cornerstone of management efforts, we believe that a coordinated early detection and eradication program is warranted if the Great Lakes management community and stakeholders are serious about reducing undesired impacts stemming from new AIS in the Great Lakes. Development of such a program is an opportunity for the Laurentian Great Lakes resource management community to demonstrate global leadership in invasive species management.     

Water Resources Allocation in Transboundary River Basins Based on a Game Model Considering Inflow Forecasting Errors

Dynamic transboundary water resources allocation based on inflow prediction results is an important task for water resources management in river basins. This paper takes the watershed management agency as the leader and the associated area as the follower, and proposes a two-level asymmetric Nash-Harsanyi Leader-Follower game model considering inflow forecasting errors. In the proposed model, the Monte Carlo method is used to analyze the uncertainty of various stakeholder allocation results and the response regularity to the total water resource uncertainty. The quantitative relationship between the allocation results of stakeholders and the mean and standard deviation of total water resource uncertainty is subsequently established. The Huaihe River basin in China is selected as a case study. The results show the following: (1) the water allocated to the watershed management agency and three provinces has a normal distribution when the inflow forecasting error obeys the normal distribution; (2) the sum of the mean of the water allocated to stakeholders equals the mean of the forecast water resource and the sum of the standard deviations of the water allocated to stakeholders equals the standard deviation of the forecast water resource; (3) the mean and standard deviation of the allocation results have a good linear relationship with the mean and standard deviation of forecast water resource; (4) the distribution parameters of the stakeholder allocation results can be directly derived from the distribution parameters of the forecast information, thus aiding the stakeholders in making decisions and improving the practical value of the method.

     

Synthesizing Environmental Flow Needs Data for Water Management in a Water‐Scarce State: The Arizona Environmental Water Demands Database

Water rights for environmental flows are not universal, and oftentimes, legal tools used to incorporate the environment into water management only require new users to consider their impact. It can be difficult to include the needs of riparian and aquatic ecosystems in new plans when relevant information is not always available, especially when other existing uses already outstrip available supplies. There is a need for easily accessible and understandable science on the water requirements for riparian and aquatic species, so managers can make informed decisions about whether or not to include riparian and aquatic species in their community's water management future. In this paper, we describe the current understanding of the link between hydrology and Arizona's riparian and aquatic ecosystems through the creation of a geospatial Environmental Water Demands database that can be used to determine the water needs to maintain habitat. Analysis of 121 studies reveals that there are very few analyses of the surface water and groundwater requirements for intermittent or ephemeral river systems, and there are only limited generalizable data for aquatic species. Except for a few species, such as Cottonwood (Populous fremontii) and Willow (Salix gooddingii), few data are available on the flow requirements for vegetation. The Environmental Water Demands database can be used to identify critical geographic and topical knowledge gaps where further research is needed, as well as serve as a single place for water and land managers to assess and use the most currently available information to make more informed management decisions and recommendations. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Crossing boundaries between science and policy: Two case studies illustrate the importance of boundary organizations in the Great Lakes Basin

Boundary organizations are institutions that interface between science and policy by facilitating interactions between scientists, policy specialists, and other stakeholders to inform collaborative decision-making. Natural resource management in the Great Lakes Basin is complex and a shared exercise among two federal governments, eight states, two provinces, and over 200 sovereign Tribes, First Nations, and Métis. Many governmental agencies have recognized a need to effectively engage with other jurisdictions in order to bridge the gaps between scientific knowledge and policy decisions. As a result, boundary organizations have emerged to facilitate planning and implementation of collaborative governance frameworks. This commentary highlights how decades of shared governance of the world’s largest freshwater surface water system is augmented and assisted by boundary organizations in addressing two key Great Lakes management issues – Western Lake Erie Basin nutrient levels and Lake Michigan fisheries – which are complex, broad in scale, and pose challenges that must be addressed collaboratively across jurisdictions. While there are many governmental and non-governmental entities that engage in boundary organization-like behaviors, this commentary will be centered on three key institutions: The Great Lakes Executive Committee’s Annex 4 (Nutrients) Subcommittee, the Great Lakes Commission, and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. We illustrate how each organization procedurally engages stakeholders, especially within state and provincial jurisdictions, to produce information and products that add breadth and capacity to manage the ecosystems of the Great Lakes. We also highlight areas of success and opportunities for improvement in collaborative governance frameworks now and into the future.     

Nutrient management in Lake Erie: Evaluating stakeholder values,attitudes, and policy preferences

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) have impaired Lake Erie’s western basin water quality since the 1960s. Though scientists agree that eutrophication is a key driver of HABs in Lake Erie, the role of nitrogen is still the subject of debate. The problem is twofold: (1) uncertainty in the specific causes of HABs can lead to inappropriate management solutions, and (2) managing a cross-boundary watershed requires collaboration and agreement on apt solutions from multiple stakeholders as well as many U.S. states and Canadian provinces. In our study, we interviewed 29 stakeholders actively involved in western Lake Erie’s watershed. We analyzed the stakeholders’ values, attitudes, and policy preferences to understand their differences, similarities, and their effects on management decisions. We found that stakeholders agree on the urgency of the problem and the necessity for increased nutrient management in Lake Erie’s western basin. Furthermore, we found that stakeholders can be represented as distinct clusters based on their values, and these value-based clusters are associated with different policy preferences. The different opinions and preferences of these value clusters span across stakeholder sectors and may affect efforts toward policy change. Stakeholders often question the feasibility and effectiveness of existing policies and policy plans. The findings shed new light on the relationship between stakeholder type and environmental values, attitudes, and policy preferences. Collaboration on HABs in Lake Erie will require open lines of communication both to improve policy and to cultivate trust among the multiple parties in this diverse watershed.     

Possibilities and problems with the use of models as a communication tool in water resource management

Politicians and policy-makers, as well as modellers, often nurses an expectation that model derived results is an objective source of information that can be used to support decisions. However, several prerequisites have to be dealt with in order to ensure that models can be used as legitimate and efficient tools in water resource management. Based on empirical material from recent studies on the use of models in stakeholder dialogues, mainly focusing on catchment nutrient transport, two central problems are identified: (a) Models are laden with choices and thus depend on assumptions and priorities of modellers. (b) There are several factors that influence ability and willingness of stakeholders (as information recovers) to criticize or accept results of the modelling exercise. Recognized factors likely to influence stakeholders' acceptance of model derived results include issues at stake, stakeholders' ability to criticize model derived information, and their trust in the institutions that have developed or applied the used models. Identified prerequisites for successful use of models in integrated water resource management include: consideration of user relevance, awareness of and preparedness to handle constraints linked to communication of model-based results, transparency of used models and data and of involved uncertainties, mutual respect between experts and stakeholders and between involved stakeholder groups, a robust institutional network, and sufficient time for dialogues. Development and use of strategies for participatory modelling, based on a continuous dialogue between experts and stakeholders is recommended as a way to facilitate that the prerequisites for a successful use of models in water resource management are fulfilled.     

An Approach to Support Learning from International Experience with Water Policy

International experiences with water policy and governance arrangements are shared through various international meetings and reports. The underlying assumption is that these experiences provide useful information to policy makers who are looking for ways to improve water resources management in their home country or region. However, little has been written about analytical support for these potentially interested policy makers. They have to reach informed decisions about whether or not to initiate a process of policy transfer, about which foreign experiences to consider and about what parts of those experiences to copy, adapt, or reject. Providing such analytical support is complicated by the involvement of multiple actors in water resources management, who do not necessarily agree on these decisions. This paper outlines an approach to offer analytical support to these multiple actors in the initial phase of a policy transfer process. The approach is applied to the case of the Büyük Menderes river basin in Turkey, where local policy makers were engaged in a policy transfer process related to the EU Water Framework Directive. It is concluded that the outlined approach can be used to inform local policy makers, as it yielded new and valid information in the case. In the absence of overriding political concerns, such information would lead to different decisions in various phases of policy transfer, when compared to a process that lacks this analytical support.     

Interaction between Stakeholders and Research for Integrated River Basin Management

Integrated Water Management calls for basin-wide coordination of activities related to land and water use. The need for multi-stakeholder involvement, the necessity to integrate scientific approaches and local information, the process of mutual communication, the results of discussions on integrated water and river management at the basin scale and decisions for further action are reviewed and illustrated. In the Pantanal, Brazil, stakeholders have had an essential role in developing knowledge for decision-making in river management. Integrated knowledge was generated by combining different types of scientific knowledge with visions, information and solutions developed in cooperation with local, regional and national stakeholders. The process showed that this integrated knowledge was essential for involvement of stakeholders in problem formulation, identification of solutions and decision-making on preferred developments. Stakeholders have helped to direct the research process by bringing in ideas about causes and solutions and adding local and regional knowledge to the research process. Once involved in the process, stakeholders took on board new ideas and visions, and were critical about solutions. Research is important in gaining insight in complex processes (climate, hydrology, geology, ecosystems and politics); stakeholders display a wide knowledge of the regional history that generally is not documented and inaccessible to scientists. The conclusion is that cooperation between stakeholders and researchers in this case has started a chain of actions that is still continuing.     

Technical challenges with BOD/DO modeling of rivers in Taiwan

Many rivers and streams in Taiwan receive significant BOD and ammonia loads from domestic and industrial wastewaters. These loads are characterized by excessive strength (high concentrations and wastewater flows) – often with great spatial intensity. In many cases, an additional significant load enters the stream before the upstream input is fully stabilized in the receiving water. The classic DO sag and recovery curve in rivers associated with single point source BOD loads (as found in most textbooks) are therefore rare in Taiwan’s rivers. As a result, a different modeling approach must be adopted to address technical challenges associated with modeling for water quality management in Taiwan. In this paper, the modeling results of two rivers in Taiwan are presented to demonstrate the associated technical issues and difficulties, as well as recommend further effort to meet these challenges.     

Decision Making and Social Learning: the Case of Watershed Committee of the State of Rio Grande do Sul,Brazil

Water is an essential element to life, and must be available to meet the basic needs of human beings. One of these needs is the production of food, emphasizing the relevance of agribusiness agents in the management of this natural resource. This study discusses how the management of water resources is being conducted by Committees of Watersheds in the State Rio Grande do Sul, focusing on decision making and in social learning. This is an exploratory study, supported by predominantly qualitative analysis. The results showed that the formation of the Committees of Watersheds in the State of Rio Grande do Sul depends on local decisions that are distinct in each region of the State. Evolution in the learning process of the members of the Committees occurs from the existence of conflicts. The conflicts emerge from issues concerning the use of water due to the multiple interests involved and provide discussions and solutions that lead to learning. Decisions taken in the Basin Committees are generally operating and relating to the quantity or quality of water. Social learning is promoted by actions of technical and relational nature offered by the exchange of knowledge and experience among stakeholders and other agents involved.     

An Agent-based Modeling Framework for Assessing the Public Health Protection of Water Advisories

In the event that pathogens or toxins are introduced to a water distribution system, a utility manager may identify a threat through water quality data or alerts from public health officials. The utility manager may issue water advisories to warn consumers to reduce water use activities. As consumers react and change water demands, dynamic feedbacks among the community, utility managers, and the engineering infrastructure can create unexpected public health consequences and network hydraulics. A Complex Adaptive System (CAS)-based methodology is developed to couple an engineering model of a water distribution system with agent-based models (ABM) of consumers, public health officials, and utility managers to simulate feedback among management decisions, system hydraulics, and public behavior. A utility manager and a public health official are represented as agents, who respond to the event using a set of rules and equations that are based on a statistical analysis of a set of recorded water events. Consumers are represented as agents who update their water activities based on exposure to the contaminant and warnings from a utility agent and family members. A model of consumer compliance is developed using results from two surveys that report data to characterize consumer perceptions toward information sources during a water contamination event. The ABM framework is applied for an illustrative mid-sized virtual city to quantify the significance of interactions and advisories on public health consequences.     

Transforming River Basin Management in South Africa

Abstract

This paper analyzes the transformation of river basin management in South Africa by focusing on the political processes involved in the creation of new water management bodies and irrigation infrastructure in the Lower Komati sub-basin. Institutional reform is described and analyzed in terms of the collaboration theory of Gray (1985). Attention is paid to the absence of mutual collaboration in the water domain through the analysis of three phases that are characteristic of collaborative management: problem setting, direction setting, and structuring. The perceptions and strategies of stakeholders in the change process are informed by the skewed access to land and water, the protracted struggle for redress of historical inequities, the quest for autonomy in water management by commercial farmers, and large political power differentials. This has resulted in differential access to decision making and political influence and in the materialization of these skewed relations in water control technology. The reluctance of stakeholders to explicitly recognize their interdependence and the role of the state as the convener of the change process has hampered the emergence of a shared appreciation of the problems in the water domain. Despite efforts by government to move towards equitable and inclusive water management, little redress of past inequities has taken place, and the majority of small farmers are uninformed and excluded from the change process. This suggests that the proposed Catchment Management Agency will not be representative nor attain equitable water management unless a well-conceived redistribution of water entitlements and land rights is carried out as part of an encompassing program to strengthen political democracy.     

Mitigating Socio-Economic-Environmental Impacts During Drought Periods by Optimizing the Conjunctive Management of Water Resources

Multi-period optimization of conjunctive water management can utilize reservoirs and aquifer carry-over to alleviate drought impacts. Stakeholders’ socio-economic and environmental indices can be used to minimize the socio-economic and environmental costs associated with water shortages in drought periods. The knowledge gap here is the evaluation and inclusion of the socio-economic and environmental value of conjunctive water management in terms of its drought mitigation capability. In this paper, an integrated water quantity-quality optimization model that considers socio-economic and environmental indices is developed. The model considers and integrates reservoir and aquifer carry-over, river-aquifer interaction and water quality with stakeholders’ socio-economic indices of production, net income and labor force employment to evaluate the socio-economic and environmental value of conjunctive water management. Total dissolved solid (TDS) is used as the water quality index for environmental assessments. The model is formulated as a multi-period nonlinear optimization model, with analysis determining the optimal decisions for reservoir release and withdrawal from the river and aquifer in different months to maximize the socio-economic indices of stakeholders within the environmental constraints. The proposed model is used in Zayandehrood water resource system in Iran, which suffers from water supply and pollution problems. Model analysis results show that conjunctive water use in the Zayandehrood water basin reduces salinity by 50 % in the wetland and keeps water supply reduction during a drought under 10 % of irrigation demand.     

A Modelling Solution for Developing and Evaluating Agricultural Land-Use Scenarios in Water Scarcity Contexts

To meet sustainability challenges, regional water management and planning require approaches that assess the land-use visions of various stakeholders using their own evaluation criteria. Models and information systems are keystones in such integrated assessment activities. SPACSS (the SPAtial Cropping System Scenarios builder and evaluator) is a modelling solution that aims to help decision-makers evaluate normative land-use scenarios. A prototype of SPACSS was developed to explore concerns raised by a dam-building project in south-western France, specifically the relation between cropping system distribution and water uptake. This paper presents the initial steps of SPACSS development by scientists and agricultural experts and its evaluation by users through alternative scenarios of maize cropping (altering either its precocity or management to reduce irrigation). SPACSS can represent a wide range of land-use scenarios and aggregate impact indicators at several spatial and temporal scales. Although SPACSS served as a solid support for discussions with stakeholders and decision-makers, it needs modifications to represent more realistic, and thus more complex, land-use scenarios. These modifications will make SPACSS potentially valuable for dealing with a variety of issues concerning agricultural landscapes, far beyond the single question of quantitative water management.