Candidates for the next IWRA Executive Board, 2013–2015

Abstract

The international cooperation to control the water quality of the Rhine river is widely rated as successful. By the turn of the century the cooperation has resulted in a well-elaborated international regime. This article reviews the development of the Rhine regime. Explanations for this development are found in the policies of the downstream Dutch government, the activities of NGOs, the efforts of upstream riparian states, and in the activities of the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine. The gradual improvement of the water quality also helped the progressive regime development along.     

Why the Ganga should not claim a right of the river

ABSTRACT

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

Longitudinal Plankton Dynamics in the Rivers Rhine and Elbe

We compared the longitudinal plankton development in the two large rivers Rhine and Elbe by means of four Lagrangian sampling campaigns performed within the time span 2009–2011. The campaigns revealed low chlorophyll concentrations in the Rhine along a long river stretch (Rhine‐km 170 to 854) with maximum values below 5 µg L^?1 in 2010. In contrast, the Elbe (Elbe‐km 4 to 582) showed high and longitudinally increasing chlorophyll concentrations with maximal values of 174 µg L^?1 in 2009 and 123 µg L^?1 in 2011. Additional samples of the benthic bivalves along the river stretches revealed high densities of the filter feeders in the Rhine that could potentially explain losses of plankton production. Their densities in the Elbe were significantly lower, making important losses to benthic filter feeders unlikely. However, strong phytoplankton growth was observed during the sampling campaign in 2011 in the Rhine coinciding with a low discharge event. This resulted in an exceptionally high chlorophyll value of up to 244 µg L^?1 in the lower river sections, a value that was not reached in the last two decades of continuous water quality monitoring in the Rhine. Even though we cannot fully explain this phenomenon, it shows that phytoplankton has a high growth potential in the Rhine but is usually controlled by other mechanisms. Tributaries represented an additional and important source of plankton biomass and suspended substances in the Rhine, whereas they primarily diluted the plankton concentrations in the Elbe. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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

ABSTRACT

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

The evolution of water governance in France from the 1960s: disputes as major drivers for radical changes within a consensual framework

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a synthetic presentation of French water governance and its evolution since the 1960s. Through this French experience, it discusses the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) water governance cycle showing disputes as the main drivers of change. France has been a pioneer in introducing water river basin management some 50 years ago. It is also noted for its water services management by local authorities, leaving a significant role to private and public companies. But French water governance has not been frozen since the 1960s and continues to change radically within a framework based upon its unique history.     

On the problem of the justification of river rights

ABSTRACT

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

Spatial Imbalance And Institutional Issues Of Water Resources Management In Okinawa,Japan

ABSTRACT

A growing problem of spatial imbalance in the water economy of Okinawa has evolved with the rapid increase in population and income of the island This problem is compounded by the conflict between water institutions and actual practices that have evolved over its history of changing governance. This historical perspective involves the post-World War II reconstruction and water development impacts of the U.S. military during the occupation years (1945–1972) under the U.S. Civil Administration of the Ryukyus (USCAR), and the subsequent reversion of Okinawa to Japan in 1972 followed by thefurtherpromotion of economic development andgrowth under the national laws of Japan. The resulting institutional issues and uncertainties seriously constrain decision making at the planning and operating levels as illustrated in the case of the Hija River Comprehensive Development Plan. The practical value andfeasibility of enforcing water rights based on national level concepts (one-tenth probability drought year discharge and minimum river maintenance flow) must be rationalized with the insular conditions in Okinawa. This is a challengefor water policy in Japan.     

Basin Planning for the Sula Valley in Honduras

ABSTRACT

Pathogenic microorganisms were studied in river waters, ground water and recreational hot baths. Free-living amoebae and bacteria were located in their natural sites, and the influence of physical and chemical variations on their ecology was studied. Microbiological contamination increases from ground water to the rivers and depends on human and animal activities. Rhine waters are heavily contaminated with Enterobacteriaceae, pathogenic Naegleria and Legionella. Amoebae are likely to be natural hosts for Legionella. Intra-cellular replication and inclusion in resistant cysts of amoebae give them a possibility of survival in unfavorable conditions. The heavy amoebical and bacteriological contamination of recreational hot baths poses a potential risk for swimmers. Cleaning and chlor-ination of the pools is a good preventive against waterborne infections.     

Protection through property: from private to river-held rights

ABSTRACT

This article explores how private owners can protect bodies of water through private property rights. It compares the use of conventional property rights in the Netherlands and New Zealand with a novel approach whereby a New Zealand river owns itself.     

A Conceptual Model For River Bank Erosion

ABSRTACT

A conceptual model was developed to predict bank migration in a single river or a system of streams. The model is based on dividing the river into stream links. The methodology for estimating the volume of bank materials that would be entrained in the river flow, as well as the sediment sources and deposition of materials detached by river flow, have been described and incorporated into the model. The model considers the mechnanics of the river bank erosion processes and can serve as a tool, among others, in conservation and land management.     

Institutional factors affecting fish passage in the Columbia River Treaty renegotiation

ABSTRACT

The United States and Canada have begun renegotiating the Columbia River Treaty, which is an international model for transboundary water governance. This paper identifies six institutional factors that will affect negotiations pertaining to fish passage during the renegotiation of the treaty: geographical advantage, issue linkage, a basin commission, the duration of agreements, negotiating autonomy and side payments. These factors and the methods used to determine them can be applied to other transboundary river basins where basin states have a history of transboundary resource governance. This analysis also serves as a policy-relevant resource for Columbia River Treaty negotiators and stakeholders.     

历史维度下的河西走廊水利问题研究

社会建设和生态文明建设中,历史维度是不可或缺的一环,流域管理亦然。通过对河西走廊近代水资源开发利用历史的回顾,分析了甘肃省河西走廊地区石羊河、疏勒河及讨赖河流域的水资源开发利用、社会经济发展和流域管理的演变,重点探讨了河西走廊地区历史上形成的"以时分水"的时间水权制度的运行情况、人类活动影响下流域水循环特征变化导致时间水权制度失效的机理,以及讨赖河流域传统分水模式与现代水利制度衔接的现实需求与可能方式。研究认为,在历史维度下进行流域管理问题研究,对于深入认识河西走廊水环境演化规律、深刻理解水资源开发利用管理问题的现实内涵、科学制定传统水资源管理与现实发展要求衔接的可行方案具有重要意义。     

The Participatory Regime of Water Governance in the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

Transparency and public participation are important ingredients to achieve effective water governance. Since the Rio Conference, diverse international instruments advocate access to information and public participation in river basin management. At the European Union level, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) establishes specific obligations for member states to include the public in the planning and management of river basins processes. In addition, the WFD Guideline on Public Participation includes three forms of public participation: active involvement, consultation, and provision of information. At the present moment, Spain has a legal and institutional framework that allows a very limited participatory process: only water users holding an economic stake can participate in the management of Spanish river basins. Concerning transparency, the law establishes the right to accede to information but this right has two different levels: for the general public and for water users. In the Iberian shared river basins regulated by the 1998 Luso-Spanish Convention, mechanisms allowing public participation in the terms of the WFD are not in place yet. It is necessary to reform the legal and institutional framework to facilitate real participation and to achieve effective water governance.     

Hydrological simulations in the Rhine basin.

Simulations with regional climate models (RCMs), carried out for the Rhine basin, have been analyzed in the context of implications of the possible future discharge of the Rhine river. In a first analysis, the runoff generated by the RCMs is compared to observations, in order to detect the way the RCMs treat anomalies in precipitation in their land surface component. A second analysis is devoted to the frequency distribution of area averaged precipitation, and the impact of selection of various driving global climate models.     

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

ABSTRACT

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

Smooth flows? Hydrosocial communities,water governance and infrastructural discord in Peru’s southern highlands

ABSTRACT

The article examines how the design and governance of Peru’s water infrastructure shape the social practices and cultural values stakeholders engage in and draw on when negotiating water rights in a year of drought. Reviewing ethnographic data on a large irrigation project in south-western Peru, we discuss how the project both perpetuates power relations between water experts, authorities and users and creates room to challenge its hierarchical organization. The project’s infrastructural assemblage of state and community canals offers an interesting case to explore how the stakeholder cooperation encouraged by Peru’s water law produces hydrosocial communities.     

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.     

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

ABSTRACT

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

Storage reservoirs — A first barrier for pathogenic micro-organisms in the Netherlands

Production of drinking water from river water, abstracted either directly from the river or from storage reservoirs, requires the application of barriers for pathogenic micro-organisms. About one third of the total production of drinking water in the Netherlands is derived from surface water, mainly the River Meuse and branches of the River Rhine. The results of extensive monitoring programmes show that the microbiological water quality of the River Rhine and River Meuse is strongly influenced by domestic and agricultural waste water discharges, with respect to the River Meuse mainly in the Liège-region to Belgium. Densities of Cryptosporidium and Giardia in both rivers are comparable; the highest density was found in the Belgian Meuse basin. Elimination rates of 1.7- to 3.1 ¹⁰log-units for pathogenic micro-organisms were found in Dutch storage reservoirs, which can thus be considered as an important first barrier for pathogenic microorganisms. The elimination capacity of reservoirs is influenced by retention time and contamination by waterfowl. To meet the proposed quality criteria for pathogens in drinking water, however, additional barriers are required.     

Environmental factors associated with the occurrence of the Ponto–Caspian gobies in a lowland river belonging to the central European invasion corridor

Ponto–Caspian goby fish belong to the most successful invaders in freshwater ecosystems of Europe and North America. So far, three alien goby species have been present in the Polish section of the Dnieper–Rhine River corridor: the monkey goby Neogobius fluviatilis, the racer goby Babka gymnotrachelus, and the western tubenose goby Proterorhinus semilunaris. Their assemblages in this region are unique because, in contrast to their native region or the Danube–Rhine corridor, they are unaffected by other gobiid species. We conducted electrofishing and habitat quality surveys to gather information on key environmental factors associated with the distribution of these fish in the lower river Vistula, which constitutes a vast middle part of the corridor used by the Ponto–Caspian species to migrate westward in Europe. We showed that the sandy bottom was beneficial for the monkey goby allowing the species to attain the highest abundance among the gobies in the river. Habitat complexity generated by artificial bank structures, as well as dense macrophyte coverage in the main channel, favoured mostly the expansion of the racer goby. Off‐channel areas with vegetation and a muddy bottom (old river beds and pools) were the most suitable habitats for the western tubenose goby. We did not find any negative spatial relationships among gobies of various species and sizes except the avoidance of the monkey goby by small western tubenose goby. Thus, our study demonstrates substantial habitat partitioning, suggesting a low level of interspecific competition among the three species in a lowland river.