A Decision Support System to Improve Water Resources Management in the Conchos Basin

The Conchos basin is the largest tributary to the lower part of the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo basin. During recent years a severe drought has affected México’s ability to deliver water from the Conchos basin as required by the 1944 Treaty. In addition, it has generated not only economic problems in the USA and México but also political frictions between these two countries. The Mexican Conchos river has historically contributed with the highest amount of water to USA as established on the water treaty. A Decision Support System (DSS) was developed for the Conchos basin in order to gain a better understanding of the water resources management process in the basin, and to identify the alternatives to improve the cited process. The DSS is a semi-distributed model, based on System Dynamics, and developed using Powersim software. The DSS has been used to evaluate 25 long and short tem water resources allocation alternatives for the two main basin’s users: Irrigation Districts and Water Treaty. Some of the most important factors being tested on the 25 water management alternatives include National Commission of Water’s yearly water allocation policy, reservoir operation rules, improvement on water distribution efficiencies, etc. The DSS model shows that the historic water resources allocation implemented by the Federal government produces adequate results as compared with the other tested water management alternatives. However, for short term drought scenarios, it is showed that there could be other management alternatives that could perform better than the current water management allocation. In general, the DSS shows what we already expect of dynamic models of systems to provide that understanding the effects of multiple interacting variables in necessary to develop good natural resource management policies.     

Harmonised Principles for Public Participation in Quality Assurance of Integrated Water Resources Modelling

The main purpose of public participation in integrated water resources modelling is to improve decision-making by ensuring that decisions are soundly based on shared knowledge, experience and scientific evidence. The present paper describes stakeholder involvement in the modelling process. The point of departure is the guidelines for quality assurance for ‘scientific‘ water resources modelling developed under the EU research project HarmoniQuA, which has developed a computer based Modelling Support Tool (MoST) to provide a user-friendly guidance and a quality assurance framework that aim for enhancing the credibility of river basin modelling. MoST prescribes interaction, which is a form of participation above consultation but below engagement of stakeholders and the public in the early phases of the modelling cycle and under review tasks throughout the process. MoST is a flexible tool which supports different types of users and facilitates interaction between modeller, manager and stakeholders. The perspective of using MoST for engagement of stakeholders e.g. higher level participation throughout the modelling process as part of integrated water resource management is evaluated.     

Learning from Collaborative Research in Water Management Practice

In order to deal with complex water management problems, it is increasingly claimed that researchers should collaborate with authorities and other stakeholders. According to the literature, such collaboration can enhance cognitive learning about the issues at stake, but there is little empirical evidence for this. In this paper, we assess whether collaborative research leads to more cognitive learning, and which factors may influence this. We first develop a structured methodology for assessing cognitive learning and identifying potential factors. Next, we apply this methodology in a case study on groundwater management in Delft (The Netherlands) and one on long-term flood management in the Lower Rhine area (Germany and The Netherlands). Contrary to some of the literature, our findings indicate that only intensive collaboration enhances cognitive learning. Therefore, we recommend organizing collaborative research only when all intended participants are sufficiently motivated to collaborate and learn. For these cases, we recommend to organise 1) many meetings, 2) intensive discussion of perspectives, 3) active participation in the research, and 4) an equal input in and influence on the research process by all involved actors.     

流域管理中公众参与的探讨与思考

流域综合管理已成为水资源管理的有效模式.有效的公众参与成为流域综合管理成功的关键因素.对公众参与流域管理内涵、流域管理中相关利益群体分析及有效的公众参与方式三方面进行总结与探讨,提出随着流域良治理念的深入,有效的流域管理公众参与需要对相关利益群体进行界定,应用多学科方法与工具吸引尽可能全面的参与者与群体,并在参与过程中加深公众对管理行为的理解,提升公众的参与能力,从而引导公众对环境做出科学决策,同时认为,尽可能全面而广泛的流域管理公众参与将是实现流域良治的有效途径.     

Socio‐economic and institutional assessment of Malaysia's first biosphere reserve: Chini Lake

Despite being designated the first UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in Malaysia, the Chini Lake Basin experiences continuing management challenges attributable to existing sectoral management practices and differences in demands of multiple stakeholders. Accordingly, a socio‐economic survey and stakeholder consultative process were undertaken, involving relevant stakeholders in the lake basin. The consultative process involved: (a) identification and prioritization of relevant stakeholders; (b) assessment of their socio‐economic activities and perceptions; (c) organization of focus group discussions between basin stakeholders; and (d) development of management recommendations in collaboration with stakeholders. The results of this study indicated the local community's way of living has changed from traditional occupations to a wage economy. Overlapping functions and lack of communication were among the major identified challenges facing by Chini Lake. Multiple strategies were proposed to promote environmental protection and good governance of Chini Lake, including formation of special area plans and strengthening institutional arrangements to sustainably manage the Chini Lake catchment. An effective authority also is necessary to improve communication and coordination of programmes by the various basin agencies and communities.     

Participation: Rhetoric and Reality. The Importance of Understanding Stakeholders Based on a Case Study in Upper East Ghana

Based on the views of a number of stakeholders involved in the development of small reservoir systems in the Upper East Region of Ghana in West Africa, this paper examines the importance of understanding the stakeholders whom the international development community wants to include in its participatory approaches. The paper also aims to show that terms such as ‘participation’, ‘participatory approach’ and ‘participatory planning’ are often used in project proposals, but that in reality the extent to which stakeholders are actually able to participate in projects is limited. This limitation is often due to a lack of understanding by the project organization of the interests and views of the stakeholders, which are then not incorporated in the project process. A stakeholder analysis could provide more insight in the interests, goals and views of all stakeholders involved in a project, as well as in the differences between the stakeholders. In the development of water resources, the long-term sustainability of a project's work is dependent on the manner in which relevant (often local) stakeholders continue the process after the official time of the project has ended. Thus, since the project is dependent on the involvement of relevant stakeholders, the formulation of adequate and appropriate forms of stakeholder engagement that will ensure information exchange and participation is essential. However, as the case study shows, such analyses were not always carried out, thus leading to a number of problems with project implementation and also with transplantation from one region, district or community to another.     

Contemporary legal analysis of China’s transboundary water regimes: international law in practice

China’s rapid development places growing pressure on its water resources, including its considerable transboundary waters. This paper analyses the current situation of China’s transboundary water regimes through a legal analytical framework. The evaluation of treaty and state practice reveals that while China adheres to and follows some fundamental rules of international water law, gaps remain. New trends in China’s state practice and in the field of international law offer interesting opportunities for addressing these shortcomings.     

Can England Learn Lessons from Bangladesh in Introducing Participatory Floodplain Management?

Public or stakeholder participation in planning and management of natural resources is now widely practiced, but means different things in different contexts. Examples of recent participation in floodplain management in Bangladesh and England are reviewed in the national policy context. Participation in floodplain planning in England is influenced by a centralised state and European Union directives. The Ribble process tried to involve a wide range of stakeholders, but is limited to the development of plans through consultations structured and managed by the Environment Agency. By comparison in Bangladesh local participatory planning with different stakeholders has articulated their separate needs and suggestions, and brought them together to search for consensus. Decision making and responsibilities over flood management infrastructure and floodplain resources have been devolved to community organisations and co-management committees formed through the participation process. The Bangladesh examples show how participation can be made more accessible to people through events that have real local meaning since representatives gain power to raise funds and implement decisions for the benefit of their stakeholder constituencies. In Bangladesh rural populations dependent on floodplain resources have an incentive to participate in implementation and oversight of management decisions and actions that is lacking for most urban people in England. However, the merits of building up from local participation to catchment planning and of linking floodplain specific participatory institutions with existing local government are lessons that could be adapted from Bangladesh to England.     

Participatory dam systems modelling: a case study of the transboundary Guadiana River in the Iberian Peninsula.

Modelling tools have been widely used to investigate best management practices. But in contrast to the plethora of modelling studies, the practical implementation of outcomes is comparatively small. There is an urgent need to implement results and to show the practical validation of the concept developed, especially against the context of water stress mitigation. The participative development of modelling studies as a joint effort of stakeholders and modellers is seen as a key to achieve a wider identification, acceptance, trust and applicability of results. Participatory planning in the water sector is also increasingly requested in water management, where tasks have been for clarified decades through different institutional arrangements and national laws. Stakeholder involvement in water resources management have been limited to what was long time seen as participation, merely information on action to be taken. In the last decade the need for participation has been reflected in different ways. In Europe, the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) under Art. 14, requires all the European countries to involve stakeholders in decision making processes on water resource management. The aim of this paper is to present and discuss the research framework and possible results of investigating dam modelling through participatory systems modelling. We introduce a structured approach to use participatory modelling (PM) for stimulating the integration of modelling and decision making, also as a way of implementation of some articles of the WFD. The results and the framing of this paper are part of the AQUASTRESS Project. The conceptual modelling has been developed by a multidisciplinary research team, local stakeholders and local experts. Some results are discussed and recommendations made.     

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.     

Integrating Stakeholders’ Preferences into Water Resources Management Planning in the Incomati River Basin

Stakeholder participation is a key principle of the integrated water resources management. It is a central issue in planning and decision making processes for the development of suitable water resources management strategies at the river basin level. This study tests a methodology for identifying stakeholders’ preferences regarding water resources management objectives, to incorporate them in the design of water resources management plans at the river basin level. The empirical application of this study focused in Mozambique, on the Incomati river basin. This research applies the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method to evaluate stakeholders’ involvement and participation in the selection of water resources management plans. This research revealed that there are heterogeneities in stakeholders’ individual groups preferences regarding water resources management objectives and the management options of their satisfaction. Furthermore it revealed the potential utility of the AHP methodological framework in facilitating stakeholders’ participation and involvement in planning and decision-making processes for the development of water resources management plans. The application of this approach may improve water governance at the river basin level through higher commitments of stakeholders to the proposed objectives.     

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.     

More Sustainable Participation? Multi-Stakeholder Platforms for Integrated Catchment Management

This paper argues for realistic expectations of Multi-Stakeholder Platforms (MSPs). MSPs are currently a hot topic in the water policy community, despite voices of disillusionment with participation in development work. Research carried out in Peru, Argentina, India, South Africa and Belgium suggests that platforms certainly can prove helpful networks in communication on and management of competing claims to water, managing coordination problems, coalition-building and/ or visioning. However, experience has put paid to implicit and explicit expectations from platforms, especially with a view to the integration of knowledge and actors. It makes no sense to separate distributive negotiation and politics (‘bad’) from integrative negotiation and social learning (‘good’). Platforms mix both modalities of negotiation, and actors may strategically withhold or contribute their knowledge. Second, no significant power sharing (vertical inclusion) takes place. A typology of MSPs ranked by influence finds no platform with a significant mandate. It is suggested that MSPs are an institutional bargaining space that is especially useful for visioning and information exchange, but cautioned not to insist that ‘water MSPs’ confine themselves to water issues only, and to institutionalized groups only. For some stakeholders, the communication and information process itself is good enough, but others will want results: ‘food on the table’. Some stakeholders will never join as they do not see how it benefits them and/or because they find it more advantageous to work around the platform. Initiators of platforms for stakeholder involvement in water management should therefore be very clear on what the participatory process aims at and can realistically achieve.     

国际水条约对我国西南国际河流开发保护的影响

为了分析国际水条约对我国西南地区国际河流开发与保护的影响,对我国与西南国际河流相关国家签订的主要法律、条约以及下湄公河流域主要管理机构进行了系统的梳理,分析了各条约对我国水能开发可能产生的影响,明确了我国享有的权力和利益以及相关限制和所需承担的义务。在此基础上,提出了对相关影响可采取的对策,可供我国与相关国家进行磋商和谈判作为参考。     

非公有制经济进入公共水利服务领域的对策与思考

在现阶段公共水利服务已难以满足经济社会全面发展需要的形势下,非公有制经济进入公共水利服务领域既有有利条件,又有来自主客观方面的障碍.对非公有制经济进入公共水利服务领域,要采取实行科学规划、规范准入程序,转变政府职能、优化发展环境,拓宽投入渠道、实行重点扶持,组建行业协会、聚集民间合力等措施,大力发展和积极引导.     

Public Participation in European Water Management: from Theory to Practice

Public and stakeholder participation in water management is a crucial element in the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). Theoretically, the WFD identifies several advantages of public participation, such as the better use of knowledge and experiences from different stakeholders, increases in public acceptance and reduced litigation, delays, and inefficiencies in implementation. However, few studies have gone as deep, in practical terms, as the existing difficulty to introduce public participation in water management. The aim of this study was to cover this issue. It aims to conduct a literature review on public participation looking for successful social innovation experiences by the EU member states and also for the main limitations and difficulties of implementation detailing the study of the Spanish case.     

Hungarian Experiences with Public Participation in Water Management

Abstract

The paper reviews the experience of public participation in water management decisions since the political transition in Hungary. Ongoing practices of public participation are examined through the critical analysis of three cases: (i) the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros dam project which has been known as the source of Europe's longest and most complex transboundary environmental conflict; (ii) the development of water quality legislation by the national government; and (iii) an integrated land use planning project in the region of the Szentendrei-island. Based on the above cases, factors promoting and hindering effective public participation are identified. Key promoting factors include the activity and professionalism of civil society organizations, the financial support provided by international funding agencies and other foreign sponsors, the methodological support provided by professional organizations, and the social learning process taking place in the society. Factors hindering effective public participation include the resistance to public participation on the part of several public officials and planners, the lack of methodological knowledge to manage public participation procedures effectively, the lack of interest and passivity on the part of the public, the lack of trust between various stakeholders, and some recent negative trends in the development of civil society. It is concluded that although the existence of a legal framework, which allows for the possibility of public involvement, is a necessary precondition for comprehensive public participation, but it must be supplemented by other elements that facilitate public participation.     

Stakeholder preferences for water management alternatives in the Red River Basin

Water management in multijurisdictional river basins requires participation and cooperation across stakeholder groups. This research estimates stakeholder preferences for Red River Basin management alternatives. Issues that basin residents and experts considered relevant were identified and preferences for implementing change were assessed. The choice experiments method was used for estimations. An analysis of different stakeholder groups was employed because of an expectation that informed stakeholders and decision-makers would be more engaged with basin management issues, particularly water quality goals and institutional arrangements. However, this analysis demonstrates that the three different samples did not have significantly different preference orderings.     

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.