The Achievement of a Decentralized Water Management Through Stakeholder Participation: An Example from the Drôme River Catchment Area in France (1981–2008)

Different water Acts (e.g., the European Water Framework Directive) and stakeholders involved in aquatic affairs have promoted integrated river basin management over recent decades. However, few studies have provided feedback on these policies. The aim of the current article is to fill this gap by exploring how local newspapers reflect the implementation of a broad public participation within a catchment of France known for its innovation with regard to this domain. The media coverage of a water management strategy in the Drôme watershed from 1981 to 2008 was investigated using a content analysis and a geographic information system. We sought to determine what public participation and decentralized decision-making can be in practice. The results showed that this policy was integrated because of its social perspective, the high number of involved stakeholders, the willingness to handle water issues, and the local scale suitable for participation. We emphasized the prominence of the watershed scale guaranteed by the local water authority. This area was also characterized by compromise, arrangements, and power dynamics on a fine scale. We examined the most politically engaged writings regarding water management, which topics of each group emphasized, and how the groups agreed and disagreed on issues based on their values and context. The temporal pattern of participation implementation was progressive but worked by fits and starts.     

River Restoration in Spain: Theoretical and Practical Approach in the Context of the European Water Framework Directive

River restoration is becoming a priority in many countries because of increasing the awareness of environmental degradation. In Europe, the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) has significantly reinforced river restoration, encouraging the improvement of ecological status for water bodies. To fulfill the WFD requirements, the Spanish Ministry of the Environment developed in 2006 a National Strategy for River Restoration whose design and implementation are described in this paper. At the same time many restoration projects have been conducted, and sixty of them have been evaluated in terms of stated objectives and pressures and implemented restoration measures. Riparian vegetation enhancement, weir removal and fish passes were the most frequently implemented restoration measures, although the greatest pressures came from hydrologic alteration caused by flow regulation for irrigation purposes. Water deficits in quantity and quality associated with uncontrolled water demands seriously affect Mediterranean rivers and represent the main constraint to achieving good ecological status of Spanish rivers, most of them intensively regulated. Proper environmental allocation of in-stream flows would need deep restrictions in agricultural water use which seem to be of very difficult social acceptance. This situation highlights the need to integrate land-use and rural development policies with water resources and river management, and identifies additional difficulties in achieving the WFD objectives and good ecological status of rivers in Mediterranean countries.     

新安江流域生态补偿财政支出效率研究

在水环境保护长期受到高度重视的背景下,开展流域生态补偿试点是我国保护流域水环境的重要手段。目前我国多为政府主导型流域生态补偿,补偿资金全部来源于财政资金,提高财政支出效率可以让有限的财政资金发挥其最大效用。为明确流域生态补偿试点中的财政支出效率,本文以我国首个跨省界流域生态补偿试点——新安江流域生态补偿试点为案例对象,构建流域生态补偿财政支出效率评价模型,并建立评价指标体系。通过选取试点在2012—2017年的生态补偿财政支出进行效率测算与效率评价,结果显示,财政支出纯技术效率6年均值处在0.9以上的高水平,总体表现较好,但仍有改进空间;规模效率值较低是造成财政支出效率表现不佳的主要原因,生态补偿财政资金的配置规模急需完善。建议提高财政资金的管理水平,有针对性地实施生态补偿项目,建立流域和区域相结合的流域治理体系。     

Multicriteria Evaluation of Water Resources Sustainability in the Context of Watershed Management1

Kang, Min‐Goo and Gwang‐Man Lee, 2011. Multicriteria Evaluation of Water Resources Sustainability in the Context of Watershed Management. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 47(4):813‐827. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2011.00559.x Abstract: To evaluate water resources sustainability at the watershed scale within a river basin’s context, the Water Resources Sustainability Evaluation Model is developed. The model employs 4 criteria (economic efficiency, social equity, environmental conservation, and maintenance capacity) and has 16 indicators, integrating them using their relative weights. The model is applied to evaluate the water resources sustainability of watersheds in the Geum River basin, South Korea. A geographic information system is employed to efficiently build a database for the indicators, and the values of the indicators are normalized using the probability distribution functions fitted to the datasets of the indicators. The evaluation results show that, overall, the water resources sustainability of the watersheds in the upper basin is better than other areas due to the good environmental conditions and the dam management policies of South Korea. The analysis of the correlations among the model’s components and the comparison between the results of the model and the Water Poverty Index show that the model can provide reasonable evaluation results for the water resources sustainability of watersheds. Consequently, it is concluded that the model can be an effective tool for evaluating the states of water resource management from the perspective of sustainable development and provide a basis on which to create policies for improving any inadequacies in watersheds.     

RIVER BASIN SIMULATION MODELS: GUIDELINES FOR THEIR USE IN WATER RESOURCES PLANNING1

ABSTRACT: Simulation models constructed to estimate the physical and economic performance of alternative river basin development configurations have been widely used since the start of the Harvard Water Program in the early 1960's. These models have proved useful in choosing from among several potential river basin configurations, since they can rapidly evaluate each configuration's expected performance. However, when dealing with large scale river basin development projects, in which over 50 or 100 alternative reservoirs, irrigation areas, and other components must be considered, it is sometimes quite difficult to effectively use a simulation model to rapidly identify those combinations of projects which best satisfy the development objectives. The purpose of this paper is to describe how a simulation model was used in the analysis of a complex river basin development project in Eastern Europe, and how the problems of scale were confronted and solved. The author's experience on this projet is used to derive a set of general guidelines which may be helpful in other simulation studies.     

Stakeholder participation and the water framework directive: The case of the Ribble Pilot

The Water Framework Directive is the most significant piece of European water legislation to date. This paper looks at the Directive's stakeholder participation requirements, which are crucial to its successful implementation, and represent one of its most novel and potentially far-reaching elements. The Ribble catchment in northwest England is part of a European pilot river basin network tasked by the European Commission with testing the Directive's common implementation strategy guidance, which is designed to aid member states in meeting its requirements. The Ribble pilot, managed by the Environment Agency, is responsible for testing the stakeholder participation element of this guidance. This paper provides an overview of the early stages of the Ribble pilot'sapproach, and discusses stakeholder participation in the context of the Water Framework Directive more broadly.     

Water Prism: A Tool to Assess Water Availability Risk and Investigate Water Management Strategies

Water availability risk is a local issue best understood with watershed‐scale quantification of both withdrawal and consumptive demands in the context of available supply. Collectively, all water use sectors must identify, understand, and respond to this risk. A highly visual and computationally robust decision support tool, Water Prism, quantitatively explores mitigation responses to water risk on both a facility‐level and basin‐aggregated basis. Water Prism examines a basin water balance for a 40‐ to 60‐year planning horizon, distinguishes among water use sectors, and accounts for ecosystem water needs. The 2012 Texas State Water Plan was used to apply Water Prism to the Big Cypress‐Sulphur Basin (Texas). The case study showed Water Prism to be an accurate and convenient tool to provide fine‐scale understanding of water use in the context of available supply, evaluate multi‐sector combinations of conservation strategies, and quantify the effects of future demands and water availability. Analyses demonstrated water availability risks for rivers and reservoirs can vary within a basin and must be calculated independently, simulation of water balance conditions can help illuminate potential impacts of increasing demands, and scenario simulations can be used to evaluate relative conservation efficacy of different water resource management strategies for each sector. Based on case study findings, Water Prism can serve as a useful assessment tool for regional water planners.     

Ecoregions in the Southern Balkans: Should Their Boundaries Be Revised?

Ecoregion delineations have gained increased attention in Europe, especially following the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC (WFD), which provides the European Union’s first policy-relevant ecoregion map. However, the WFD’s ecoregions were created through a minor adaptation of Illies’ (Limnofauna Europaea. Gustav Fisher Verlag, Stuttgart, 1967/1978) freshwater zoogeographic regions, and the map’s specific boundaries have not been widely evaluated with respect to the WFD’s uses or their biogeographic accuracy. We examined the WFD ecoregion boundaries in Greece and its neighboring Balkan states by comparing them with the most prominent freshwater biogeographic boundaries as shown by riverine freshwater fish assemblages. Classification and ordination analyses of 23 river basin fish assemblages helped delineate natural faunal break boundaries in freshwater species assemblage distributions depicting major biogeographic barriers to aquatic biota dispersal. However, these biogeographic boundaries differ from those delineated in the WFD map, suggesting boundary errors and inconsistencies in the delineation method of the WFD ecoregions. We reviewed specific boundary disagreements and produced a map showing the region’s most prominent freshwater biogeographic boundaries by charting them on watershed borders among the four biotically dissimilar river basin groups in the southern Balkans. This regional evaluation reveals both a need to reconcile disparate approaches to ecoregion mapping and to promote the development of a new policy-relevant inland waters ecoregion framework that would support broad-scale water management and aquatic conservation.     

Phosphorus losses from agricultural areas in river basins: effects and uncertainties of targeted mitigation measures

In this paper we show the quantitative and relative importance of phosphorus (P) losses from agricultural areas within European river basins and demonstrate the importance of P pathways, linking agricultural source areas to surface water at different scales. Agricultural P losses are increasingly important for the P concentration in most European rivers, lakes, and estuaries, even though the quantity of P lost from agricultural areas in European catchments varies at least one order of magnitude (<0.2 kg P ha(-1) to >2.1 kg P ha(-1)). We focus on the importance of P for the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive and discuss the benefits, uncertainties, and side effects of the different targeted mitigation measures that can be adopted to combat P losses from agricultural areas in river basins. Experimental evidence of the effects of some of the main targeted mitigation measures hitherto implemented is demonstrated, including: (i) soil tillage changes, (ii) treatment of soils near ditches and streams with iron to reduce P transport from source areas to surface waters, (iii) establishment of buffer zones for retaining P from surface runoff, (iv) restoration of river-floodplain systems to allow natural inundation of riparian areas and deposition of P, and (v) inundation of riparian areas with tile drainage water for P retention. Furthermore, we show how river basin managers can map and analyze the extent and importance of P risk areas, exemplified by four catchments differing in size in Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands. Finally, we discuss the factors and mechanisms that may delay and/or counteract the responses of mitigation measures for combating P losses from agricultural areas when monitored at the catchment scale.     

WATER ALLOCATION POLICY MODELING FOR THE DONG NAI RIVER BASIN: AN INTEGRATED PERSPECTIVE1

Abstract: Recent water sector reforms and increased scarcity and vulnerability of water resources, combined with declining public funding available for large scale infrastructure investment in the sector, have led to a greater awareness by the Government of Vietnam for the need to analyze water resource allocation and use in an integrated fashion, at the basin scale, and from a perspective of economic efficiency. In this study we focus on the development, application, and selected policy analyses using an integrated economic hydrologic river basin model for the Dong Nai River Basin in southern Vietnam. The model framework depicts the sectoral structure and location of water users (agriculture, industry, hydropower, domestic, and the environment) and the institutions for water allocation in the basin. Water benefit functions are developed for the major water uses subject to physical limitations and to constraints of system control and policy. Based on this modeling framework, we will analyze policies that can affect water allocation and use at the basin level, including both basin-specific and general macroeconomic policies.     

基于流域视角的水环境综合治理规划研究——以江苏省淀山湖为例

以流域为单元进行水资源综合规划和管理是实现水环境改善的重要途径。本文以太湖流域第二大省界湖泊—淀山湖为例,在综合分析流域水环境质量基础上,利用GIS 分析工具划分流域治理片区并制定分区管控策略。根据流域所含骨干河流流向、骨干河流与淀山湖交汇特点、上中下游不同河段及镇域行政边界,将淀山湖流域分为吴淞江流域、千灯浦- 淀山湖流域、昆南湖荡流域、元荡湖荡流域、太浦河流域五大片区138 个子评价单元。通过水环境容量与压力两类空间叠加分析,构建形成污染重点减排区、污染综合治理区、产业绿色化提升区、生态环境保育区等四个类型区域,并提出差异化的产业准入和环境治理措施。本研究不仅为以流域为治理单元的水环境治理规划提供了较为可行的技术体系,而且为太湖流域水环境综合整治思路创新提供了可借鉴的案例。     

THE ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY OF DUAL PURPOSE NUCLEAR DESALINATION OF GROUND WATER1

ABSTRACT: The economic feasibility of a large scale dual purpose (desalting water and power production) facility were evaluated. Although a site in the Tularosa basin of southern New Mexico was chosen as a case study for this analysis, it is believed that the approach and consequential results would be applicable to alternative sites in the Southwest. The basic project evaluated included: a) a ground water well field; b) a dual purpose, nuclear, desalination plant; c) a mineral recovery plant; and d) a reservoir for recreation and irrigation storage. Principle project outputs included electrical power, minerals, recreation, and water for either irrigated agricultural production or export to an adjoining river basin. Two alternative project designs were developed for detailed analysis. The first alternative encompassed all major project components. The results, in discounted net values used to assess the feasibility of the project, were essentially negative; that is, values were less than zero for full scale development. The net benefits ranged from $-986.57 million at a 5 percent discount rate, to $-1,137.528 million at a discount rate of 10 percent. In the second alternative, exportation of the desalted water from the Tularosa basin to two adjacent rivers was analyzed with somewhat better net benefits, ranging from $-382,527 million to $-478,612 million at the 5 and 10 percent discount rates.     

小流域水质评价方法对比研究

为分析小流域水质评价方法的准确度和适应度,以小安溪流域2017年和2018年的监测数据为基础,利用单因子评价法、综合指数评价法、内梅罗污染指数法和加拿大水质指数法进行水质评价,利用等标水质分析的思想对比了四种方法的评价准确度。评价结果显示:单因子评价法更适合评价水质分布较均匀的流域,内梅罗污染指数法要更为客观一些,加拿大水质指数法更适合较大的、评价指标较多的流域。综合指数评价法是最适合小流域水质评价的。其结果为小流域水质评价方法选择提供了借鉴。     

Application of Two Quality Indices as Monitoring and Management Tools of Rivers. Case Study: The Imera Meridionale River, Italy

On the basis of the European Water Framework Directive (2000/60), the water resources of the member states of the European Community should reach good quality standards by 2015. Although such regulations illustrate the basic points for a comprehensive and effective policy of water monitoring and management, no practical tools are provided to face and solve the issues concerning freshwater ecosystems such as rivers. The Italian government has developed a set of regulations as adoption of the European Directive but failed to indicate feasible procedures for river monitoring and management. On a local scale, Sicilian authorities have implemented monitoring networks of watersheds, aiming at describing the general conditions of rivers. However, such monitoring programs have provided a relatively fragmentary picture of the ecological conditions of the rivers. In this study, the integrated use of environmental quality indices is proposed as a methodology able to provide a practical approach to river monitoring and management. As a case study, the Imera Meridionale River, Sicily’s largest river, was chosen. The water quality index developed by the U.S. National Sanitation Foundation and the floristic quality index based on the Wilhelm method were applied. The former enabled us to describe the water quality according to a spatial–temporal gradient, whereas the latter focused on the ecological quality of riparian vegetation. This study proposes a holistic view of river ecosystems by considering biotic and abiotic factors in agreement with the current European regulations. How the combined use of such indices can guide sustainable management efforts is also discussed.     

Assessing Ecological Water Quality with Macroinvertebrates and Fish: A Case Study from a Small Mediterranean River

Biological elements, such as benthic macroinvertebrates and fish, have been used in assessing the ecological quality of rivers according to the requirements of the Water Framework Directive. However, the concurrent use of multiple organism groups provides a broader perspective for such evaluations, since each biological element may respond differently to certain environmental variables. In the present study, we assessed the ecological quality of a Greek river (RM4 type), during autumn 2003 and spring 2004 at 10 sites, with benthic macroinvertebrates and fish. Hydromorphological and physicochemical parameters, habitat structure, and riparian vegetation were also considered. Pollution sensitive macroinvertebrate taxa were more abundant at headwaters, which had good/excellent water quality according to the Hellenic Evaluation System (HES). The main river reaches possessed moderate water quality, while downstream sites were mainly characterised as having bad or poor water quality, dominated by pollution-tolerant macroinvertebrate taxa. Macroinvertebrates related strongly to local stressors as chemical degradation (ordination analysis CCA) and riparian quality impairment (bivariate analysis) while fish did not. Fish were absent from the severely impacted lower river reaches. Furthermore, external pathological signs were observed in fish caught at certain sites. A combined use of both macroinvertebrates and fish in biomonitoring programs is proposed for providing a safer assessment of local and regional habitat impairment.     

The application of information entropy in basin level water waste permits allocation in China

The water waste discharge permits allocation among great river basins in national level is the firs step of national wide water waste management strategy and a key point of total mass control as well. The challenge is coming from the conflict between equality and efficiency. In this research, a new allocation method based on the conception of information entropy and maximum entropy method is introduced into the basin level wastewater permits allocation. Four indexes are chosen to compose a multi-criterion system in information entropy method (IEM) including, GDP, population, water environmental capacity and water resource quantity. The allocation of chemical oxygen demand (COD) in national basin level among the seven great river basins in China is illustrated as a case study.     

吐曼河近5a水质变化浅析

通过单因子评价法对吐曼河水质现状及近期变化趋势进行了分析,揭示了近几年来吐曼河水质年内及年际变化的特点,以期对吐曼河水污染治理提供参考。     

The use of terrestrial ecoregions as a regional-scale screen for selecting representative reference sites for water quality monitoring

A process has been developed to select watersheds that are representative of terrestrial ecoregions and that are relatively undisturbed by human activity. Using an existing land classification system at two hierarchical levels of resolution, representative subsets (ecodistricts) of large-scale ecoregions were selected, on the basis of their physiographic, biological, and climatological attributes, to represent the ecoregions. This was achieved using a frequency distribution analysis of existing attribute data and choosing the ecodistrict most closely resembling the most common set of conditions for that ecoregion. Within each ecodistrict, river basins were selected through a best-judgement evaluation of land use, coupled with an assessment of the size and location of each river basin, in order to meet the condition of minimal human impact. Preliminary assessment of water quality data collected from six watersheds selected in this way suggests that the process is effective in targeting regional scale river basins exhibiting the desired characteristics.