Decision support for integrated river basin management—Scientific research challenges

Integrated River Basin Management(IRBM)has been a long discussed way to sustainably manage water and land resources;yet,very few examples of effective IRBM are found because there is a lack of sufficient scientific support,as well as institutional accommodation,to successfully implement it.This paper overviews the major challenges with IRBM,the promising scientific approaches for the implementation of IRBM,and the areas of needed research,with considerable issues and experiences from China.It is expected that novel research will draw together disparate disciplines into an integrated scientific framework,upon which better modeling tools,stakeholder involvement,and decision-making support can be built.Cutting-edge new technologies will bring ideas of IRBM forward to theory and finally to practice.The paper will prompt scientists to undertake research to fill in the gaps in the current IRBM knowledge base and provide practitioners guidance on how to incorporate scientifically based information within the IRBM decision process.     

Institutional conditions for IWRM: the Israeli case

Many places in the world are experiencing a water crisis. This water crisis is attributed to a governance crisis, whereas often fragmented institutional and physical water structures are used to explain a policy of overexploitation. The Israeli water system, which adopted integrated water resource management (IWRM), is often cited as a model for other countries struggling with fragmented water systems. Yet, despite the exceptional degree of integration, Israel in the past two decades has adopted an unsustainable water policy. The aim of this study is to understand this failure and thereby to postulate on the institutional conditions required for successful implementation of IWRM. The study focuses on the politics of water allocation during the drought of 1999 to 2002. It was found that the failure originates in setting administrative divisions in the decision-making process and in differential checks, with no balances implicitly instituted within the integrated water system. These two factors have resulted in a water system that is physically integrated but is not coupled by a balanced institutional structure. This case study teaches us that when reforming the water sector along IWRM lines, measures must be taken to ensure that the physical integration coincides with a balanced institutional integration-otherwise the results may be worse than if there were no integration at all.     

Performance evaluation of River Basin Organizations to implement integrated water resources management using composite indexes

In the Southern African Development Community region, Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) principles and tools are being implemented through the existing regional framework for water resources development and management. The IWRM approach is applied at river basin level seeking a balance between the economic efficiency, social equity and environmental sustainability in water resources management and development. This paper uses composite indexes to analyze the performance of River Basin Organizations (RBOs) as key implementing agents of the IWRM framework. The assessment focuses on three RBOs that fall under the Regional Water Administration for Southern Mozambique (ARA-Sul) jurisdiction, namely: Umbeluzi, Incomati and Limpopo River Basin Management Units. The analysis focus on the computation of a set of multidimensional key performance indicators developed by Hooper (2010) but adapted to the Mozambican context. This research used 24 out of 115 proposed universal key performance indicators. The indicators for this case study were selected based on their suitability to evaluate performance in line with the legal and institutional framework context that guides the operations of RBOs in Mozambique. Finally these indicators were integrated in a composite index, using an additive and multiplicative aggregation method coupled with the Analytic Hierarchy Process technique employed to differentiate the relative importance of the various indicators considered. The results demonstrate the potential usefulness of the methodology developed to analyze the RBOs performance and proved useful in identifying the main performance areas in need of improvement for better implementation of IWRM at river basin level in Mozambique. This information should support both the IWRM framework adaptation to local context and the implementation at river basin level in order to improve water governance.     

Implementing environmental flows in integrated water resources management and the ecosystem approach

Abstract

In many of the world’s river basins, the water resources are over-allocated and/or highly modified, access to good quality water is limited or competitive and aquatic ecosystems are degraded. The decline in aquatic ecosystems can impact on human well-being by reducing the ecosystem services provided by healthy rivers, wetlands and floodplains. Basin water resources management requires the determination of water allocation among competing stakeholders including the environment, social needs and economic development. Traditionally, this determination occurred on a volumetric basis to meet basin productivity goals. However, it is difficult to address environmental goals in such a framework, because environmental condition is rarely considered in productivity goals, and short-term variations in river flow may be the most important driver of aquatic ecosystem health. Manipulation of flows to achieve desired outcomes for public supply, food and energy has been implemented for many years. More recently, manipulating flows to achieve ecological outcomes has been proposed. However, the complexity of determining the required flow regimes and the interdependencies between stakeholder outcomes has restricted the implementation of environmental flows as a core component of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). We demonstrate through case studies of the Rhône and Thames river basins in Europe, the Colorado River basin in North America and the Murray-Darling basin in Australia the limitations of traditional environmental flow strategies in integrated water resources management. An alternative ecosystem approach can provide a framework for implementation of environmental flows in basin water resources management, as demonstrated by management of the Pangani River basin in Africa. An ecosystem approach in IWRM leads to management for agreed triple-bottom-line outcomes, rather than productivity or ecological outcomes alone. We recommend that environmental flow management should take on the principles of an ecosystem approach and form an integral part of IWRM.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis

Citation Overton, I.C., Smith, D.M., Dalton J., Barchiesi S., Acreman M.C., Stromberg, J.C., and Kirby, J.M., 2014. Implementing environmental flows in integrated water resources management and the ecosystem approach. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 59 (3–4), 860–877.     

Watershed science: Linking hydrological science with sustainable management of river basins

Over the past decades, a number of water sciences and management programs have been developed to better understand and manage the water cycles at multiple temporal and spatial scales for various purposes, such as ecohydrology,global hydrology, sociohydrology, supply management, demand management, and integrated water resources management(IWRM). At the same time, rapid advancements have also been taking place in tracing, mapping, remote sensing, machine learning, and modelling technologies in hydrological research. Despite those programs and advancements, a water crisis is intensifying globally. The missing link is effective interactions between the hydrological research and water resource management to support implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) at multiple spatial scales. Since the watershed is the natural unit for water resources management, watershed science offers the potential to bridge this missing link.This study first reviews the advances in hydrological research and water resources management, and then discusses issues and challenges facing the global water community. Subsequently, it describes the core components of watershed science:(1)hydrological analysis;(2) water-operation policies;(3) governance;(4) management and feedback. The framework takes into account water availability, water uses, and water quality; explicitly focuses on the storage, fluxes, and quality of the hydrological cycle; defines appropriate local water resource thresholds through incorporating the planetary boundary framework; and identifies specific actionable measures for water resources management. It provides a complementary approach to the existing water management programs in addressing the current global water crisis and achieving the UN SDGs.     

Decentralising Zimbabwe’s water management: The case of Guyu-Chelesa irrigation scheme

Smallholder irrigation schemes are largely supply driven such that they exclude the beneficiaries on the management decisions and the choice of the irrigation schemes that would best suit their local needs. It is against this background that the decentralisation framework and the Dublin Principles on Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) emphasise the need for a participatory approach to water management. The Zimbabwean government has gone a step further in decentralising the management of irrigation schemes, that is promoting farmer managed irrigation schemes so as to ensure effective management of scarce community based land and water resources. The study set to investigate the way in which the Guyu-Chelesa irrigation scheme is managed with specific emphasis on the role of the Irrigation Management Committee (IMC), the level of accountability and the powers devolved to the IMC. Merrey’s 2008 critique of IWRM also informs this study which views irrigation as going beyond infrastructure by looking at how institutions and decision making processes play out at various levels including at the irrigation scheme level. The study was positioned on the hypothesis that ‘decentralised or autonomous irrigation management enhances the sustainability and effectiveness of irrigation schemes’. To validate or falsify the stated hypothesis, data was gathered using desk research in the form of reviewing articles, documents from within the scheme and field research in the form of questionnaire surveys, key informant interviews and field observation. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used to analyse data quantitatively, whilst content analysis was utilised to analyse qualitative data whereby data was analysed thematically. Comparative analysis was carried out as Guyu-Chelesa irrigation scheme was compared with other smallholder irrigation scheme’s experiences within Zimbabwe and the Sub Saharan African region at large. The findings were that whilst the scheme is a model of a decentralised entity whose importance lies at improving food security and employment creation within the community, it falls short in representing a downwardly accountable decentralised irrigation scheme. The scheme is faced with various challenges which include its operation which is below capacity utilisation, absence of specialised technical human personnel to address infrastructural breakdowns, uneven distribution of water pressure, incapacitated Irrigation Management Committee (IMC), absence of a locally legitimate constitution, compromised beneficiary participation and unclear lines of communication between various institutions involved in water management. Understanding decentralization is important since one of the key tenets of IWRM is stakeholder participation which the decentralization framework interrogates.     

Scenario-based water resources planning for utilities in the Lake Victoria region

Urban areas in the Lake Victoria (LV) region are experiencing the highest growth rates in Africa. As efforts to meet increasing demand accelerate, integrated water resources management (IWRM) tools provide opportunities for utilities and other stakeholders to develop a planning framework comprehensive enough to include short term (e.g. landuse change), as well as longer term (e.g. climate change) scenarios. This paper presents IWRM models built using the Water Evaluation And Planning (WEAP) decision support system, for three towns in the LV region – Bukoba (Tanzania), Masaka (Uganda), and Kisii (Kenya). Each model was calibrated under current system performance based on site visits, utility reporting and interviews. Projected water supply, demand, revenues and costs were then evaluated against a combination of climate, demographic and infrastructure scenarios up to 2050. Our results show that water supply in all three towns is currently infrastructure limited; achieving existing design capacity could meet most projected demand until 2020s in Masaka beyond which new supply and conservation strategies would be needed. In Bukoba, reducing leakages would provide little performance improvement in the short-term, but doubling capacity would meet all demands until 2050. In Kisii, major infrastructure investment is urgently needed. In Masaka, streamflow simulations show that wetland sources could satisfy all demand until 2050, but at the cost of almost no water downstream of the intake. These models demonstrate the value of IWRM tools for developing water management plans that integrate hydroclimatology-driven supply to demand projections on a single platform.     

“Playing the game”, identity and perception-of-the-other in water cooperation in the Jordan River Basin

ABSTRACT

The concept of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has enjoyed immense popularity and thus has been the preferred approach for river basin management. IWRM generally has a strong focus on rational choice, based on a technocratic conceptual interpretation of the conventional hydrological cycle. However, uncritical acceptance of IWRM runs the risk of blinding policy makers and academics for the defining impact of context, socio-cultural, political, historical and cognitive dimensions in water cooperation. Human behaviour in water cooperation was tested and observed during eight experiments with the Jordan River Basin Boardgame Exercise (JRBBE) played with respondent groups from inside and outside the Jordan River Basin. The experiments consisted of one control group outside the basin and seven respondent groups both outside and inside the basin. This article argues that the role of identities, beliefs and perception-of-the-other, should be taken more into account in order to develop successful and socio-political sustainable river basin management.

EDITOR D. Koutsoyiannis; ASSOCIATE EDITOR not assigned     

Integrated water resources management: Concepts and issues

After the describing the historical developments that led the development of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), the paper defines this important concept. It subsequently deals with the thorny issue of water security as well as water conflict, after which the major issues over which thus far no consensus has been achieved are briefly reviewed. The paper concludes with an analysis of the role of the IAHS International Commission on Water Resources Systems (ICWRS) in promoting IWRM.     

Lessons learned from the change from supply to demand water management in irrigated agriculture: a case study from Pakistan

Scarcity of good quality water has led many countries to introduce demand-based water management in the irrigated agriculture section in place of the existing supply-based water management. This transition requires institutional changes, including the formation of Water User Associations (WUAs). The paper reviews the constraints of irrigated agriculture in Pakistan and discusses the conditions for success in the formation of farmers’ organizations. This paper seeks to show that the development of WUAs is a vital step in the development of integrated water resource management. It is argued that IWRM is a prerequisite for a sustainable society in water-dependent countries that are increasingly water-scarce—like the paternalistic and bureaucratic societies of South Asia.     

A comparative study and unification of two methods for controlling dynamically substructured systems

This paper addresses the problem of advanced testing of systems via the principle of dynamic substructuring. Use is made of the hybrid simulation (HS) scheme framework to develop a new method of synthesis for the dynamically substructured system (DSS) scheme of Stoten and Hyde. Principal reasons for doing this are (i) to improve upon the original method of DSS synthesis by adopting the more intuitive framework of HS and (ii) to enable the amalgamation of HS and DSS into a unified substructured system (USS) scheme, so that the significant advantages of DSS can be incorporated into an existing HS scheme as a straightforward retrofit. Having established the common framework for HS/DSS, the paper also illustrates, by way of an example, compensator/controller synthesis for the two schemes, together with their advantages and disadvantages. In doing this, both schemes are retained in their basic forms, that is, there are no additional control embellishments used in this work, such as delay compensation, adaptive control, or other advanced control methods. In order to maintain as much transparency as possible, use is made of well‐known classical control techniques. Common problems associated with the substructure testing technique are also investigated, including the effects of physical parameter uncertainty, pure delays in signals, and a ‘split‐mass’ in the substructure formulation. It is shown that, although the new formulation of controlled DSS requires more design effort than compensated‐HS, the advantages of DSS in terms of stability and robustness significantly outweigh this small disadvantage at the design stage. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Water in Kazakhstan,a key in Central Asian water management

Central Asia is one of the regions with the highest probability of conflicts over water. Kazakhstan is the main Central Asian economic power and therefore it is important to understand how the country’s water management policy is influencing water availability in the other Central Asian states. Already, the Central Asian economies are developing under increasing water deficiency, resulting in developmental problems. The main reasons for this are increasing political tensions and worsening ecological and socio-economic conditions. Kazakhstan was the first country in Central Asia to develop the pre-requisites for a transition towards integrated water resources management (IWRM). Therefore, Kazakhstan has potential to lead the development of transboundary water integration between all Central Asian states. A scenario for successful regional cooperation on water management in Central Asia involves establishing legal mechanisms for water management following international water law, assistance by international agencies and donors, and integrated social, economic and environmental methodology.     

Optimal Decision Making Algorithm for Managed Aquifer Recharge and Recovery Operation Using Near Real‐Time Data: Benchtop Scale Laboratory Demonstration

Aquifers show troubling signs of irreversible depletion as climate change, population growth, and urbanization lead to reduced natural recharge rates and overuse. One strategy to sustain the groundwater supply is to recharge aquifers artificially with reclaimed water or stormwater via managed aquifer recharge and recovery (MAR) systems. Unfortunately, MAR systems remain wrought with operational challenges related to the quality and quantity of recharged and recovered water stemming from a lack of data‐driven, real‐time control. This paper presents a laboratory scale proof‐of‐concept study that demonstrates the capability of a real‐time, simulation‐based control optimization algorithm to ease the operational challenges of MAR systems. Central to the algorithm is a model that simulates water flow and transport of dissolved chemical constituents in the aquifer. The algorithm compensates for model parameter uncertainty by continually collecting data from a network of sensors embedded within the aquifer. At regular intervals the sensor data is fed into an inversion algorithm, which calibrates the uncertain parameters and generates the initial conditions required to model the system behavior. The calibrated model is then incorporated into a genetic algorithm that executes simulations and determines the best management action, for example, the optimal pumping policy for current aquifer management goals. Experiments to calibrate and validate the simulation‐optimization algorithm were conducted in a small two‐dimensional synthetic aquifer under both homogeneous and heterogeneous packing configurations. Results from initial experiments validated the feasibility of the approach and suggested that our system could improve the operation of full‐scale MAR facilities.     

Challenges in operationalizing the water–energy–food nexus

Concerns about the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus have motivated many discussions regarding new approaches for managing water, energy and food resources. Despite the progress in recent years, there remain many challenges in scientific research on the WEF nexus, while implementation as a management tool is just beginning. The scientific challenges are primarily related to data, information and knowledge gaps in our understanding of the WEF inter-linkages. Our ability to untangle the WEF nexus is also limited by the lack of systematic tools that could address all the trade-offs involved in the nexus. Future research needs to strengthen the pool of information. It is also important to develop integrated software platforms and tools for systematic analysis of the WEF nexus. The experience made in integrated water resources management in the hydrological community, especially in the framework of Panta Rhei, is particularly well suited to take a lead in these advances.     

Vessel traffic patterns in the Port of Kaohsiung and the management implications for preventing the introduction of non-indigenous aquatic species

Data on shipping traffic in one of the busiest seaports in the world, the Port of Kaohsiung, were analyzed to evaluate the implications for ballast water management. Results show that 67% of the arriving vessels were registered to a flag of convenience, which typically have a lower degree of environmental records. The top five donor countries historically suffer from harmful algal bloom problems. The short journey and busy trading between these countries and Taiwan lead to a higher risk of inoculation. In addition, only 1.4% of all vessels visited more than once every year during the 9-year span, indicating that the port authority encounters many new vessels each year. These findings could influence the design and application of ballast water management strategies as well as highlight the challenges in their implementation. We suggest that an analysis of vessel traffic patterns should be coupled with other useful vessel information to make risk assessment successful.     

太湖与长三角区域一体化发展:地位、挑战与对策

太湖及太湖流域在长三角自然和经济地理空间具有举足轻重的地位,更是长三角区域一体化发展国家战略实施的关键地区.在当前区域一体化高质量发展背景下,太湖治理面临新的形势和任务,也面临一系列新的挑战,着重体现在水环境治理形势更加复杂严峻和水资源供给压力不断提升两方面.传统水陆分割治理难以解决湖泊问题,行政区治理难以适应区域一体...     

iSERVO: Implementing the International Solid Earth Research Virtual Observatory by Integrating Computational Grid and Geographical Information Web Services

We describe the goals and initial implementation of the International Solid Earth Virtual Observatory (iSERVO). This system is built using a Web Services approach to Grid computing infrastructure and is accessed via a component-based Web portal user interface. We describe our implementations of services used by this system, including Geographical Information System (GIS)-based data grid services for accessing remote data repositories and job management services for controlling multiple execution steps. iSERVO is an example of a larger trend to build globally scalable scientific computing infrastructures using the Service Oriented Architecture approach. Adoption of this approach raises a number of research challenges in millisecond-latency message systems suitable for internet-enabled scientific applications. We review our research in these areas.     

Hydrologic processes that govern stormwater infrastructure behaviour

Using water budget data from published literature, we demonstrate how hydrologic processes govern the function of various stormwater infrastructure technologies. Hydrologic observations are displayed on a Water Budget Triangle, a ternary plot tool developed to visualize simplified water budgets, enabling side‐by‐side comparison of green and grey approaches to stormwater management. The tool indicates ranges of hydrologic function for green roofs, constructed wetlands, cisterns, bioretention, and other stormwater control management structures. Water budgets are plotted for several example systems to provide insight on structural and environmental design factors, and seasonal variation in hydrologic processes of stormwater management systems. Previously published water budgets and models are used to suggest appropriate operational standards for several green and grey stormwater control structures and compare between conventional and low‐impact development approaches. We compare models, characterize and quantify water budgets and expected ranges for green and grey infrastructure systems, and demonstrate how the Water Budget Triangle tool may help users to develop a data‐driven approach for understanding design and retrofit of green stormwater infrastructure.     

Challenges in operationalizing the water–energy–food nexus

ABSTRACT

Concerns about the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus have motivated many discussions regarding new approaches for managing water, energy and food resources. Despite the progress in recent years, there remain many challenges in scientific research on the WEF nexus, while implementation as a management tool is just beginning. The scientific challenges are primarily related to data, information and knowledge gaps in our understanding of the WEF inter-linkages. Our ability to untangle the WEF nexus is also limited by the lack of systematic tools that could address all the trade-offs involved in the nexus. Future research needs to strengthen the pool of information. It is also important to develop integrated software platforms and tools for systematic analysis of the WEF nexus. The experience made in integrated water resources management in the hydrological community, especially in the framework of Panta Rhei, is particularly well suited to take a lead in these advances.     

Water resources management in Lebanon: institutional capacity and policy options

Worldwide water resources are not uniformly distributed and generally scarce in arid and semi-arid zones such as the Middle East. Lebanon, which is located along the Mediterranean shores of the Middle East, remains blessed with relatively more water in comparison to its neighboring countries. Increased pressure on its water resources requires the formulation and implementation of a comprehensive management plan and strategic policies to pre-empt potential future water shortages. This paper examines existing water laws and regulations under the current institutional framework in Lebanon. Developmental policies and management strategies to address the potential water supply demand imbalance and meet future challenges are presented in the light of existing legal and regulatory constraints and institutional capacities.