Multi-criteria analysis via the VIKOR method for prioritizing land-use restraint strategies in the Tseng-Wen reservoir watershed

It is important to adopt proper water and soil conservation and land-use planning in a watershed for lowering adverse impacts on reservoir water quality. Although reservoir watersheds occupy a large amount of land in Taiwan, high population density has exerted development pressures on such land. Therefore, the priority ranking of land-use restrictions for the subdivisions with different degrees of environmental vulnerability is necessary in watershed management. Since there are several criteria for evaluating the potential environmental impact from the subdivisions, multi-criteria analysis was applied as a technique for solving these problems in this study. The VIKOR method was applied to determine the best feasible solution according to the selected criteria, including geographical and meteorological factors. The objective of this study was to establish the priority ranking of land-use restrictions in the Tseng-Wen reservoir wastershed in southern Taiwan. The results show that subdivisions close to the outlet or reservoir area should have the priority of land-use restrictions.     

Optimal Selection of Priority Development Areas Considering Tradeoffs Between Hydrology and Development Configuration

Mixed-integer linear programs are proposed for siting development and conservation areas in watersheds, addressing economic objectives (development perimeter and proximity) and ecological objectives. Links between watershed hydrology and ecology need not be well defined. Parameters for the linear programs are obtained from linearization of the SWAT hydrologic model.     

Ecological responses to reductions in freshwater supply and quality in South Africa’s estuaries: lessons for management and conservation

Fresh water, a fundamental element of all estuarine ecosystems, is South Africa’s most limited natural resource. Recent projections indicate that by the year 2020 the country will be utilizing all its exploitable freshwater sources. Steeply increasing demands by a rapidly growing population on this limited commodity have already resulted in a severe reduction of water supplies to natural users such as estuaries — this trend is predicted to increase in the future. Concurrent with excessive water abstraction, poor land husbandry (e.g. soil erosion) in many catchment basins and pollution (e.g. salinization) in return flows have led to a serious deterioration in water quality. In contrast, a review of estuarine responses to varying flow regimes stresses the strong dependence of local systems on riverine fresh water inputs of adequate quantity and quality. Freshwater dependence is i.a. expressed in: flooding events that scour accumulated sediments, riverine nutrient input to drive estuarine phyto- and zooplankton production, axial salinity gradients that increase habitat and species diversity, and maintenance of open tidal inlets that prevent salinity and temperature extremes and facilitate larval exchange, fish migrations and tidal flushing of salt marshes. Thus, estuarine conservation will have to encompass management of rivers and watersheds and play an increasingly political role in decision processes concerning water allocations among ‘human’ and ‘natural’ users.     

美国地表水水源的流域管理

对地表水水源有效的流域管理,是保持水源良好水质的关键最近美国自来水协会(AWWA)发表了地表水水源流域管理的研究报告,强调重视和统一规划,控制流域内土地及水源利用的重要性,并列举了流域管理中各种措施的实施及其效果.     

甘肃白龙江流域水源涵养服务时空格局及其影响因素

白龙江流域是长江上游的主要生态屏障和水源涵养区,对维系流域生态和可持续发展至关重要。以甘肃白龙江流域为例,基于参数本地化的InVEST模型对1990—2016年水源涵养时空变化及其影响因素进行分析。结果表明:流域多年平均水源涵养深度为47.50 mm,呈现先减少后回升的趋势。空间上,其高值区主要集中于迭部、文县和舟曲的中高山阴陡坡林区（平均涵养深度在该三县2500~3500 m海拔段、阴坡和半阴坡、25°以上坡段和林地高于流域的平均涵养深度）;低值区主要位于宕昌和武都的中低山阳缓坡农牧区（平均涵养深度在该两县 2500 m以下海拔段、阳坡和半阳坡、25°以下坡段和耕、草地低于流域的平均涵养深度）。气候背景下,人类活动驱动的土地利用/覆被格局空间差异是影响水源涵养时空变化的重要因素,退耕还林对减缓气候变暖背景下水源涵养深度的下降具有重要意义。     

基于L-THIA模型的四川省濑溪河流域非点源污染负荷分析

非点源污染是造成流域水环境恶化的重要原因之一,掌握非点源污染的时空分布特征是流域水环境污染防治和流域综合管理的基础性工作.为落实国家《水污染防治行动计划》,四川省启动了濑溪河等流域综合治理达标方案编制工作,探明濑溪河流域非点源污染负荷及其分布特征是该方案编制的前提.以四川省境内濑溪河流域为研究区域,基于GIS（地理信息系统）,利用L-THIA（long-term hydrologic impact assessment,长期水文影响评价）模型,基于2015年土地利用地图数据、土壤水文数据以及长时间序列（2009—2014年）逐日降雨数据,调整模型参数,使模型模拟径流量符合水文站监测数据,进而模拟2014—2015年流域内的非点源污染负荷空间分布.L-THIA模型模拟得到濑溪河流域径流量约为5.10×108 m3,和控制水文站实测径流量相比,模型模拟相对误差为5%,表明模型模拟质量较好,模拟结果可信度较高.结果表明,流域内TP、NH₃-N、COD_Cr非点源污染负荷分别为204.10、353.12、5 162.53 t;农业用地对研究区的非点源污染影响最大,林地最小;根据濑溪河水系分布特点将研究区划分为16个控制单元,各控制单元TP、NH₃-N、COD_Cr的空间分布特征及比例相似,研究区非点源污染平均负荷强度为3.72 t/km2,TP、NH₃-N、COD_Cr的输出范围分别为（0.08~0.15）（0.14~0.27）（2.19~3.89）t/km2.研究显示,流域非点源污染产生量的估算和空间分布特征的揭示为编制濑溪河流域水污染治理方案提供了科学参考.      

Managing agricultural phosphorus for water quality: Lessons from the USA and China

The accelerated eutrophication of freshwaters and to a lesser extent some coastal waters is primarily driven by phosphorus （P） inputs. While efforts to identify and limit point source inputs of P to surface waters have seen some success, nonpoint sources remain difficult to identify, target, and remediate. As further improvements in wastewater treatment technologies becomes increasingly costly, attention has focused more on nonpoint source reduction, particularly the role of agriculture. This attention was heightened over the last 10 to 20 years by a number of highly visible cases of nutrient-related water quality degradation; including the Lake Taihu, Baltic Sea, Chesapeake Bay, and Gulf of Mexico. Thus, there has been a shift to targeted management of critical sources of P loss. In both the U.S. and China, there has been an intensification of agricultural production systems in certain areas concentrate large amounts of nutrients in excess of local crop and forage needs, which has increased the potential for P loss from these areas. To address this, innovative technologies are emerging that recycle water P back to land as fertilizer. For example, in the watershed of Lake Taihu, China one of the largest surface fresh waters for drinking water supply in China, local governments have encouraged innovation and various technical trials to harvest harmful algal blooms and use them for bio-gas, agricultural fertilizers, and biofuel production. In any country, however, the economics of remediation will remain a key limitation to substantial changes in agricultural production.     

Stakeholder Perceptions of Scientists: Lake Tahoe Environmental Policy from 1984 to 2001

What factors explain stakeholders’ perceptions of scientists in environmental politics? Questionnaire data are used to examine stakeholders’ views of scientific experts in the context of Lake Tahoe environmental policy from 1984 to 2001. Stakeholders’ perceptions of scientists have remained the same over time – despite a shift from adversarial to collaborative policymaking and after decades of mounting scientific evidence showing water quality declines. On average, stakeholders perceive scientists with limited influence on Lake Tahoe environmental policy and view them with mixed levels of skepticism. Stakeholders’ evaluation of scientists is best explained by their beliefs about development versus the environment. Stakeholders in favor of more land development express distrust of scientists and negatively evaluate university researchers and consultants. Stakeholders in favor of environmental protection are more likely to trust scientists and positively evaluate university researchers and consultants.     

Pesticides in the groundwater of a spring draining a sandy aquifer: temporal variability of concentrations and fluxes

A 250 ha agricultural catchment has been characterized with respect to its hydrogeology and groundwater contamination by pesticides from October 1999 to August 2004. Five years after the ending of atrazine (At) application, used since the sixties, At and deethylatrazine (DEA) are still systematically quantified at the outlet of the watershed with concentrations from 0.07 to 0.43 microg l(-1) for At, and between 0.14 and 1.16 microg l(-1) for DEA. Isoproturon and chlortoluron are detected in only one (0.3 microg l(-1)) and two (0.7 and 2.0 microg l(-1)) of the 124 semi-monthly samples, respectively. DEA concentrations can be very different between two samples with a 15-day time step. The annual mean exported fluxes of cumulated At and DEA are stable, which indicates a long time transfer in the unsaturated or saturated zone with a progressive leaching of the stock of At and DEA probably accumulated in the soil and the vadose zone. These fluxes, between 0.90% and 2.82% of the annual mean dose of At applied before 1999, similar to those calculated in several studies at the bottom of the root zone, could be explained by low adsorption and degradation properties of At and DEA in the unsaturated and saturated zone.     

Complementary safeguards for robust regional watershed governance in a federation: New York City and its municipal water supply

In federations such as the United States, governments at various levels are experimenting with new watershed governance arrangements to protect water quality for both ecosystem health and human consumption. Such arrangements may bring previously uncooperative governments together to credibly commit to resource protection under the auspices of new and intricate formal institutions. Given the risks of cooperation, theory indicates that a robust arrangement will contain means of holding governing actors accountable to each other. This paper examines a purportedly successful case, the New York City watershed governance arrangement, to identify how safeguards against intergovernmental opportunism promote lasting cooperation. Using the qualitative method of process tracing, this paper finds that the New York City watershed governance arrangement uses structural, judicial, and popular safeguards against opportunistic behaviors by governing actors that might threaten the resource or the arrangement. The results indicate that such safeguards are present and interact with other safeguards and rule institutions at the state and federal level to maintain compliance.