Who counts,what counts: representation and accountability in water governance in the Upper Comoé sub‐basin,Burkina Faso

This article examines the unfolding of integrated water resource management (IWRM) reforms in southwest Burkina Faso, where water resources are subject to conflicting claims by a diversity of users. We first describe the establishment a local water user committee, showing how choices regarding composition and operations grant varying levels of recognition to different stakeholders. We then discuss the implications for key dimensions of decentralized governance, namely representation and accountability. In particular we focus on: (a) how the interplay of political agendas and policy disconnects shapes the committee's viability and credibility and (b) how tensions between techno‐scientific and local knowledge affect participation and transparency. We argue that in contexts defined by contentious politics and neo‐patrimonial practices, representativeness is better ensured by the direct inclusion of user groups rather than elected officials. Though limited discretionary power, information access, and technical capabilities of committee members inhibit accountability, rural producers uphold their claims through social mobilization and reliance on local knowledge. Recognizing the opportunities offered by the country's recent democratic turn, we formulate recommendations aimed at addressing structural drivers and enabling citizen agency in decentralized water governance. At the same time, further research is needed on local people's understandings of representation and accountability, to ensure that they are involved in institutional design and practices in ways that affirm what they value and what they know.     

INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT WHO SHOULD LEAD,WHO SHOULD PAY?1

ABSTRACT: Improving water management to meet future global needs will certainly require technical advances, but the main challenge is to integrate the viewpoints of diverse societal interests into decisions about allocation of water resources. The integration cannot be done solely by the market because it requires a balancing among interests which do not respond well to market forces, nor by the state alone because of institutional problems. The concept of “integrated water resources management” has been developed to provide the framework for the required balancing of interests, and, like similar concepts in industries other than water, it has a dual purpose - to link stakeholders and apply best practices to management actions. To clarify the process of integrated water management, the paper focuses on two questions: who should lead integrated water resources management and who should pay for it? Several examples are given to illustrate a range of situations. The paper concludes with a call to improve paradigms of integrated water management, a proposition that water organizations should accept and budget for their external responsibilities as well as their direct missions, affirmation of the need for state and federal agencies to be involved with local interests, a call for better scientific and public information, and identification of the need for continued work to improve the process of integrated water management.     

Policy Frameworks Influencing Outdoor Water‐use Restrictions

Water‐use efficiency in the United States (U.S.) has improved in recent years. Yet continued population growth coupled with increasingly conservation‐oriented regulatory frameworks suggest that residential water suppliers will have to realize additional efficiency gains in coming decades. Outdoor water‐use restrictions (OWRs) appear to be an increasingly prevalent demand‐side management policy tool. To date little research has investigated the policy mechanisms that govern OWR adoption and influence the prevalence of OWRs. This article fills this gap with an assessment of state‐level policies influencing local‐level restrictions on residential outdoor water use in each of the 48 contiguous U.S. states, and with a detailed illustration of the cross‐scalar dynamic of one state's policy framework in practice. An examination of the implementation of OWRs in 24 neighboring towns in Massachusetts across the 2003‐2012 period indicates the interplay between state‐level and local‐level policies leads to OWRs implementation over extended time‐periods, even when drought conditions are not present. This finding suggests OWRs are being used as a tool for general‐purpose water conservation rather than as a stopgap measure justified by temporary water shortage conditions. Future research should investigate how local‐level water savings vary with differing state‐level approaches.     

RURAL NONPOINT SOURCE POLLUTION CONTROL IN WISCONSIN: THE LIMITS OF A VOLUNTARY PROGRAM?1

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the relationship between best-management practices, institutional needs, and improved water quality within the watersheds of Wisconsin's program for controlling rural nonpoint source pollution. The first section describes the federal requirements for state nonpoint source programs and the legislative and management methods the state of Wisconsin uses to put those requirements into practice. The emphasis of the paper, described in the second section, is the institutional difficulty in evaluating the success of a large, integrated water quality program. Measurements which are investigated include (1) watershed water quality before and after implementation of BMPs; (2) program participation as measured by eligible vs. participating landowners, BMPs considered necessary vs. BMPs implemented, or dollars allocated to the NPS program vs. dollars expended; and (3) institutional goal coordination and management effectiveness. It is found that, despite the size and sophistication of Wisconsin's NPS program, there is little if any improvement in ambient water quality in these watersheds, probably because of a general lack of adequate participation in this voluntary program.     

Water Governance and Water Use Efficiency: The Five Principles of WUA Management and Performance in China1

Wang, Jinxia, Jikun Huang, Lijuan Zhang, Qiuqiong Huang, and Scott Rozelle, 2010. Water Governance and Water Use Efficiency: The Five Principles of WUA Management and Performance in China. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 46(4): 665-685. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2010.00439.x Abstract: In recent years China has attempted to reform water management by decentralizing water management responsibilities. The overall goal of our paper is to better understand the emergence of water user associations (WUAs) in China and assess if they are adhering to the practices spelled out by the Five Principles, a set of recommended practices that are supposed to lead to successful WUA operation. Using four sets of different types of villages to examine implementation and performance, we find that World Bank-supported WUA villages (“Bank villages”) can be thought of as operating mostly according to the Five Principles. For example, the Bank villages were endowed with a more reliable water supply; were set up and were operating with a relatively high degree of farmer participation; and leaders were more consultative and the process more formal. When WUAs are run according to the Five Principals, we show that WUAs increase water use efficiency. The study also provides evidence that there is a perception in the Bank villages that water management is improving in general and that there is less conflict both within the village and among villages. Perhaps more importantly, we find that the Bank’s effort to promote WUAs extended beyond their own project villages. The openness, consultative nature, and transparency found in the Bank WUAs are also found (albeit at a somewhat lower level) in the non-Bank WUA villages.     

Institutions for Interstate Water Resources Management1

Abstract:  This paper evaluates alternative approaches to management of interstate water resources in the United States (U.S.), including interstate compacts, interstate associations, federal‐state partnerships, and federal‐interstate compacts. These governance structures provide alternatives to traditional federalism or U.S. Supreme Court litigation for addressing problems that transcend political boundaries and functional responsibilities. Interstate compacts can provide a forum for ongoing collaboration and are popular mechanisms for allocating water rights among the states. Federal‐interstate compacts, such as the Delaware River Basin Compact and federal‐state partnerships, such as the National Estuary Program, are also effective and complementary approaches to managing water resources. However, all of these approaches can only make modest improvements in managing water resources given the complicated and fragmented nature of our federalist system of government.     

德国水法发展对我国治水的借鉴意义

本文从深受欧盟水政策影响的德国水治理的历史发展和基础理念出发,对德国《水平衡管理法》的法规框架和总则进行了阐述、分析与比较。德国经验表明,在法治框架下,依可根据持续性原则,对水事进行综合治理。只有根据可持续性原则和通过法治,才能长期确保水安全,维护人与自然的和谐,保持水体清洁和维护生态平衡,确保当代及后代人的环境与发展权。水事综合治理原则不仅要通过协调水体使用与保护之间的关系,来调整环保在相对于经济和社会的传统不平衡地位,更要遵循自然水循环的本质特征。建议我国在《水污染防治法》的修订中,需要基于我国现实技术支撑的易操作制度,来实践可持续性原则和水事综合治理原则,强化法律间的协调。同时,还在立法技术上提出了若干建议。     

Achieving SDG 6: water resources sustainability in Caribbean Small Island Developing States through improved water governance

Scientific findings confirm that Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Caribbean are experiencing droughts and sea level rises that are contributing to saline intrusion of underground aquifers and surface water sources. This paper, using Trinidad as a case study, analyses water governance challenges in meeting Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, which addresses the sustainability of water resources. Interviews were conducted with professionals from multi‐disciplinary backgrounds. Also, data provided by the water agency were analysed to evaluate water governance practices. The main contribution of this paper is the generation of a blend of policies, good practices and tools to confront growing threats to water security and to attain sustainable development in Caribbean SIDS in an era of climate change and increasing non‐climatic stressors. The paper concludes that economic, environmental and human resources, reformed administrative and legislative systems, and technological tools are fundamental to achieving good water governance. Moreover, an array of complementary policies and technologies is needed to resolve water governance issues. However, political will to implement sustainable water resources management is the greatest challenge in attaining SDG 6.     

Building resilience to drought in desertification-prone savannas in Sub-Saharan Africa: The water perspective

Securing sustainable livelihood conditions and reducing the risk of outmigration in savanna ecosystems hosted in the tropical semiarid regions is of fundamental importance for the future of humanity in general. Although precipitation in tropical drylands, or savannas, is generally more significant than one might expect, these regions are subject to considerable rainfall variability which causes frequent periods of water deficiency. This paper addresses the twin problems of “drought and desertification” from a water perspective, focusing on the soil moisture (green water) and plant water uptake deficiencies. It makes a clear distinction between long‐term climate change, meteorological drought, and agricultural droughts and dry spells caused by rainfall variability and land degradation. It then formulates recommendations to better cope with and to build resilience to droughts and dry spells. Coping with desertification requires a new conceptual framework based on green‐blue water resources to identify hydrological opportunities in a sea of constraints. This paper proposes an integrated land/water approach to desertification where ecosystem management supports agricultural development to build social‐ecological resilience to droughts and dry spells. This approach is based on the premise that to combat desertification, focus should shift from reducing trends of land degradation in agricultural systems to water resource management in savannas and to landscape‐wide ecosystem management.     

Assessment OF SURFACE WATER QUALITY at Large Watershed Scale: Land‐Use,Anthropogenic, and Administrative Impacts

Understanding the impacts that influence water quality is critical to the development of best management practices at the large watershed scale. This study describes the spatiotemporal variation in surface water quality and identifies their main impact in the Haihe River basin, China. Multivariate statistical techniques are applied to analyze the similarities among the sampling sites and to identify the main pollution sources in surface water. Results show that: (1) the basin can be clustered into two regions, water quality being better in the mountainous vs. plain regions; (2) water quality improves due to implementation of a strict state policy on environmental pollution control, prodded by the hosting of the Olympic games in the cities of Beijing and Tianjin; and (3) agricultural and residential land uses as well as livestock‐breeding are the main sources affecting water quality in the mountainous regions, whereas rural waste discharge — including domestic waste sewage, human and animal feces, and solid waste — significantly influences water quality in the plain regions. The waste discharge of industrial factories may be a significant source of water pollution in the plain regions. Results indicate that the environmental management from pollution sinks and sources, long‐lasting legal framework, and adequate economic incentives should be improved to optimize the large‐scale watershed management under the background of the rapid development of countries like China.     

Trophic State in Voyageurs National Park Lakes before and after Implementation of a Revised Water‐Level Management Plan

We compiled Secchi depth, total phosphorus, and chlorophyll a (Chla) data from Voyageurs National Park lakes and compared datasets before and after a new water‐level management plan was implemented in January 2000. Average Secchi depth transparency improved (from 1.9 to 2.1 m, p = 0.020) between 1977‐1999 and 2000‐2011 in Kabetogama Lake for August samples only and remained unchanged in Rainy, Namakan, and Sand Point Lakes, and Black Bay in Rainy Lake. Average open‐water season Chla concentration decreased in Black Bay (from an average of 13 to 6.0 μg/l, p = 0.001) and Kabetogama Lake (from 9.9 to 6.2 μg/l, p = 0.006) between 1977‐1999 and 2000‐2011. Trophic state index decreased significantly in Black Bay from 59 to 51 (p = 0.006) and in Kabetogama Lake from 57 to 50 (p = 0.006) between 1977‐1999 and 2000‐2011. Trophic state indices based on Chla indicated that after 2000, Sand Point, Namakan, and Rainy Lakes remained oligotrophic, whereas eutrophication has decreased in Kabetogama Lake and Black Bay. Although nutrient inputs from inflows and internal sources are still sufficient to produce annual cyanobacterial blooms and may inhibit designated water uses, trophic state has decreased for Kabetogama Lake and Black Bay and there has been no decline in lake ecosystem health since the implementation of the revised water‐level management plan.     

A CRITIQUE OF WATERSHED MANAGEMENT EFFORTS IN THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI ALLUVIAL PLAIN1

ABSTRACT: Integrated watershed management in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Plain (Delta) requires blending federal, state, and local authority. The federal government has preeminent authority over interstate navigable waters. Conversely, state and local governments have authority vital for comprehensive watershed management. In the Delta, integrating three broad legal and administrative regimes: (1) flood control, (2) agricultural watershed management, and (3) natural resources and environmental management, is vital for comprehensive intrastate watershed, and interstate river basin management. Federal Mississippi River flood control projects incorporated previous state and local efforts. Similarly, federal agricultural programs in the River's tributary headwaters adopted watershed management and were integrated into flood control efforts. These legal and administrative regimes implement national policy largely in cooperation with and through technical and financial assistance to local agencies such as levee commissions and soil and water conservation districts. This administrative infrastructure could address new national concerns such as nonpoint source pollution which require a watershed scale management approach. However, the natural resources and environmental management regime lacks a local administrative infrastructure. Many governmental and non governmental coordinating organizations have recently formed to address this shortcoming in the Delta. With federal and state leadership and support, these organizations could provide mechanisms to better integrate natural resources and environmental issues into the Delta's existing local administrative infrastructure.     

INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT OF IN‐FIELD,EDGE‐OF‐FIELD,AND AFTER‐FIELD BUFFERS1

This review summarizes how conservation benefits are maximized when in‐field and edge‐of‐field buffers are integrated with each other and with other conservation practices such as residue management and grade control structures. Buffers improve both surface and subsurface water quality. Soils under permanent buffer vegetation generally have higher organic carbon concentrations, higher infiltration capacities, and more active microbial populations than similar soils under annual cropping. Sediment can be trapped with rather narrow buffers, but extensive buffers are better at transforming dissolved pollutants. Buffers improve surface runoff water quality most efficiently when flows through them are slow, shallow, and diffuse. Vegetative barriers ‐ narrow strips of dense, erect grass ‐ can slow and spread concentrated runoff. Subsurface processing is best on shallow soils that provide increased hydrologic contact between the ground water plume and buffer vegetation. Vegetated ditches and constructed wetlands can act as “after‐field” conservation buffers, processing pollutants that escape from fields. For these buffers to function efficiently, it is critical that in‐field and edge‐of‐field practices limit peak runoff rate and sediment yield in order to maximize contact time with buffer vegetation and minimize the need for cleanout excavation that destroys vegetation and its processing capacity.     

INTERFACING GIS WITH WATER RESOURCE MODELS: A STATE‐OF‐THE‐ART REVIEW1

Two distinctive, independently developed technologies, geographic information systems (GIS) and predictive water resource models, are being interfaced with varying degrees of sophistication in efforts to simultaneously examine spatial and temporal phenomena. Neither technology was initially developed to interact with the other, and as a result, multiple approaches to interface GIS with water resource models exist. Additionally, continued model enhancements and the development of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) have encouraged the development of application “suites” for evaluation and visualization of engineering problems. Currently, disparities in spatial scales, data accessibility, modeling software preferences, and computer resources availability prevent application of a universal interfacing approach. This paper provides a state‐of‐the‐art critical review of current trends in interfacing GIS with predictive water resource models. Emphasis is placed on discussing limitations to efficient interfacing and potential future directions, including recommendations for overcoming many current challenges.     

Implementing Innovative Drainage Management Practices in the Mississippi River Basin to Enhance Nutrient Reductions

In the Mississippi River Basin (MRB), practices that enhance drainage (e.g., channelization, tile drainage) are necessary management tools in order to maintain optimal agricultural production in modern farming systems. However, these practices facilitate, and may speed the delivery of excess nutrients and sediments to downstream water bodies via agricultural streams and ditches. These nonpoint sources contribute to elevated nutrient loading in the Gulf of Mexico, which has been linked to widespread hypoxia and associated ecological and economic problems. Research suggests agricultural drainage ditches are important links between farm fields and downstream ecosystems, and application of new management practices may play an important role in the mitigation of water quality impairments from agricultural watersheds. In this article, we describe how researchers and producers in the MRB are implementing and validating novel best management practices (BMPs) that if used in tandem could provide producers with continued cropping success combined with improved environmental protection. We discuss three BMPs — low‐grade weirs, slotted inlet pipes, and the two‐stage ditch. While these new BMPs have improved the quality of water leaving agricultural landscapes, they have been validated solely in isolation, at opposite ends of the MRB. These BMPs have similar function and would greatly benefit from stacked incorporation across the MRB to the benefit of the basin as a whole.     

OPTIMIZING WELL PLACEMENT IN A COASTAL AQUIFER: OUTER CAPE COD,MASSACHUSETTS1

ABSTRACT: An inverse‐simulation approach is used to determine optimal strategies for developing public water‐supply systems in a shallow, coastal aquifer on the outermost arm of the Cape Cod peninsula in Massachusetts. Typically a forward simulation (or “trial and error”) approach is used to find best pumping strategies, but the chances of finding success with this tact diminish as the number of potential options grows large. Well locations and pumping rates are optimized with respect to: (1) providing sufficient water to areas of water‐quality impairment, (2) minimizing impacts to nearby surface waters, (3) preventing saltwater contamination due to overpumping, and (4) minimizing financial cost of well development. Potential well sites and water‐supply scenarios are separated into “politically‐based” and “resource‐based” categories to gain insight into the degree that pre‐existing political boundaries hinder best management practices. The approach provides a promising tool in transboundary water‐resources settings because it allows stakeholders to find solutions that best meet everyone's goals, as opposed to pursuing options that will create conflict, or are less than optimal.     

MANAGING THE COLORADO RIVER IN A SEVERE SUSTAINED DROUGHT AN EVALUATION OF INSTITUTIONAL OPTIONS1

ABSTRACT: This paper presents a summary of the findings and recommendations of the studies of severe, sustained drought reported in this special issue. The management facilities and institutions were found to be effective in protecting consumptive water users against drought, but much less effective in protecting nonconsumptive uses. Changes in intrastate water management were found to be effective in reducing the monetary value of damages, through reallocating shortages to low-valued uses, while only water banking and water marketing, among the possible interstate rule changes, were similarly effective. Players representing the basin states and the federal government in three gaming experiments were unable to agree upon and effect major changes in operating rules. The conclusions are (1) that nonconsumptive water uses are highly vulnerable to drought, (2) that consumptive uses are well-protected, (3) that drought risk is greatest in the Upper Basin, (4) that the Lower Basin suffers from chronic water shortage but bears little drought risk, (5) that opportunities exist for win-win rule changes, (6) that such rule changes are extremely difficult to make, and (7) that intrastate drought management is very effective ^m in reducing potential damages.     

Delving into the “Institutional Black Box”: Revealing the Attributes of Sustainable Urban Water Management Regimes1

van de Meene, Susan J. and Rebekah R. Brown, 2009. Delving into the “Institutional Black Box”: Revealing the Attributes of Sustainable Urban Water Management Regimes. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 45(6):1448‐1464. Abstract: This paper is based on the proposition that the transition to sustainable urban water management has been hampered by the lack of insight into attributes of a sustainable urban water regime. Significant progress has been made in developing technical solutions to advance urban water practice, however it is the co‐evolution of the socio‐institutional and technical systems that enable a system‐wide transition. A systematic analysis of 81 empirical studies across a range of practice areas was undertaken to construct a schema of the sustainable urban water regime attributes. Attributes were identified and analyzed using a framework of nested management regime spheres: the administrative and regulatory system, inter‐organizational, intra‐organizational, and human resources spheres. The regime is likely to involve significant stakeholder involvement, collaborative inter‐organizational relationships, flexible and adaptive organizational cultures, and motivated and engaging employees. Comparison of the constructed sustainable and traditional regime attributes reveals that to realize sustainable urban water management in practice a substantial shift in governance is required. This difference emphasizes the critical need for explicitly supported strategies targeted at developing each management regime sphere to further enable change toward sustainable urban water management.     

WATERSHED MANAGEMENT AND POLICY IN HAWAII: COMING FULL CIRCLE1

ABSTRACT: Changes in watershed management and policy in Hawaii are an instructive case study on the evolution of resource management from a traditional vertically integrated system, to a segmented central government‐based system, and now towards a community and watershed focus. The rise of European social and economic influences coupled with the precipitous decline in the Hawaiian population in the years following European contact led to the destruction of traditional management structures. Subsequently, the dominance of outside interests in Hawaii society and politics, culminating with the sugar industry, facilitated the unrestricted use and privatization of land and water resources. The post‐World War II era ushered in fundamental changes in Hawaii society and politics including renewed appreciation of traditional management practices. Government policies, increased community interest in resource management, and a renaissance in Hawaiian culture have converged in recent years to facilitate the development of new management structures that draw on both traditional and contemporary management. These structures hold great promise for improving Hawaiian watershed management. Our observations suggest that other jurisdictions may find it productive to examine traditional management and policy structures and try to relate them to contemporary community‐based resource management policies and activities.     

COMBINED SURFACE WATER-GROUNDWATER ANALYSIS OF HYDROLOGICAL SYSTEMS WITH THE AID OF THE HYBRID COMPUTER1

The solution with the aid of the hybrid computer of the partial and total differential equations for an integrated surface water groundwater system is described. A versatile computing technique has been developed to make a rapid and accurate study of the groundwater response due to varying inputs (deep percolation) or outputs (evapotranspiration) from the groundwater system. Spatial variations in basic vegetation phenomena, such as pattern, and hydrological parameters, are represented by means of a grid network which also allows the input of variable boundary conditions. The model is applied to an area in Columbia, South America which is subject to high water-table conditions. Various reclamation schemes and management practices under conditions of irrigated agriculture are assessed.