Climate change collaboration among natural resource management agencies: lessons learned from two US regions

It has been argued that regional collaboration can facilitate adaptation to climate change impacts through integrated planning and management. In an attempt to understand the underlying institutional factors that either support or contest this assumption, this paper explores the institutional factors influencing adaptation to climate change at the regional scale, where multiple public land and natural resource management jurisdictions are involved. Insights from two mid-western US case studies reveal that several challenges to collaboration persist and prevent fully integrative multi-jurisdictional adaptation planning at a regional scale. We propose that some of these challenges, such as lack of adequate time, funding and communication channels, be reframed as opportunities to build interdependence, identify issue-linkages and collaboratively explore the nature and extent of organisational trade-offs with respect to regional climate change adaptation efforts. Such a reframing can better facilitate multi-jurisdictional adaptation planning and management of shared biophysical resources generally while simultaneously enhancing organisational capacity to mitigate negative effects and take advantage of potentially favourable future conditions in an era characterised by rapid climate change.     

全球跨境水资源合作时空演变及生成机制

跨境水资源合作对人类社会的可持续发展和国家水权益保障意义重大。以166个国家为研究样本,选择1948—2008年全球跨境水资源合作事件为基础数据,提取合作关系并构建全球跨境水资源合作网络。基于社会网络分析、层次分析等方法,探讨了跨境水合作事件及其网络的时空复杂性,阐述了跨境水合作生成机制与合作类型。研究发现：水合作事件数量与频次呈波动增长,阶段特征显著;水合作网络结构的去中心化、多极化和区域化趋势明显,东西方阵营在冷战时代主导了全球水合作,后冷战时代的热点合作广泛产生在非洲、东欧地区和亚洲水塔周边地区;水合作对地理距离表现为高敏感性,同一流域内国家互动频繁,域外大国在不同时期介入热点流域水合作事务;国家行为体、区域合作关系和国际合作体系三个层次综合影响水合作关系的生成,各层次内部有着复杂的多因素互动,强制型、功利型、规范型和意识形态型水合作是四种主要跨境水合作类型。     

Water Appropriation Systems for Adapting to Water Shortages in Iraq

Climate variability and population growth have intensified the search internationally for measures to adapt to fluctuations in water supplies. An example can be found in the lower part of the transboundary Tigris‐Euphrates Basin where water shortages in 2008‐2009 resulted in high economic costs to irrigation farmers. Losses to irrigators in the lower basin have made a compelling case to identify flexible methods to adapt to water shortage. Few published studies have systematically examined ways to enhance the flexibility of water appropriation systems to adapt to water shortage. This article addresses an ongoing challenge in water governance by examining how profitability at both the farm and basin levels is affected by various water appropriation systems. Four water appropriation systems are compared for impacts on farm income under each of three water supply scenarios. Results show that a (1) proportional sharing of water shortages among provinces and (2) unrestricted water trading rank as the top two appropriation systems. The shadow price of water for irrigation rises from zero at a full water supply level to US$93/1,000 m³ when supply falls to 20% of full levels. Similar methods could be used to analyze challenges facing the design or implementation of water appropriation systems in the world's irrigated regions.     

跨边界区域水资源冲突与协调模型与应用(Ⅱ)案例研究

以官厅水库为例 ,建立了跨边界区域之间水量短缺及水质污染的冲突非合作模型、张家口市合作模型和全区域合作模型 ;通过比较设定的延续发展和协调发展两种冲突情景方案 ,协调发展方案排污少且经济净效益更高 ,被确定为推荐方案 ;5 0 %水文年协调发展方案下 ,合作模型与非合作模型比较 ,张家口市合作经济净效益增加了 1 18亿元 年 ,全区域合作经济净效益增加了 8 5 7亿元 年 ,对合作利益进行分配需对张家口市各断面补偿 3 89亿元 年 ,根据模型结果制定出断面控制指标和区域控制指标     

Impacts of Variable Climate and Effluent Flows on the Transboundary Santa Cruz Aquifer

Assessing groundwater resources in the arid and semiarid borderlands of the United States and Mexico represents a challenge for land and water managers, particularly in the Transboundary Santa Cruz Aquifer (TSCA). Population growth, residential construction, and industrial activities have increased groundwater demand in the TSCA, in addition to wastewater treatment and sanitation demands. These activities, coupled with climate variability, influence the hydrology of the TSCA and emphasize the need for groundwater assessment tools for decision‐making purposes. This study assesses the impacts of changes in groundwater demand, effluent discharge, and climate uncertainties within the TSCA from downstream of the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant to the northern boundary of the Santa Cruz Active Management Area. We use a conceptual water budget model to analyze the long‐term impact of the different components of potential recharge and water losses within the aquifer. Modeling results project a future that ranges from severe long‐term drying to positive wetting. This research improves the understanding of the impact of natural and anthropogenic variables on water sustainability, with an accessible methodology that can be globally applied.     

Effective Transboundary Aquifer Areas: An Approach for Transboundary Groundwater Management

The natural complexity, heterogeneity, and extent of transboundary aquifers around the world, have led to controversy over which method or criteria should be used to identify and delineate their boundaries. Currently, there is no standard methodology that aquifer‐sharing countries can use to delineate the area of a transboundary aquifer. In the case of Mexico and Texas, Mexico uses administrative boundaries, whereas Texas uses geological boundaries. This paper proposes a method for delineation and prioritization of aquifers (or aquifer areas) called effective transboundary aquifer areas (ETAAs), which uses a combination of physical criteria (geological boundaries, topography, and hydrography) and the location and density of active water wells in the borderland between Mexico and Texas. This method identifies the area of priority (productivity area) in the aquifer using pumping patterns or hot spots regardless of the aquifer’s surficial geological limits, therefore offering a more effective, local and practical management option at the transboundary level. Different geological features or pumping patterns will have different sizes and locations of ETAAs within the same aquifer. In West Texas, which is dominated by bolsons, the method produces limited options for ETAAs, whereas in South Texas in the easternmost border the identified ETAAs are more significant.     

大气PM10跨界输送的自组织动力机制——以舟山市为例

我国城市间大气污染物的相互输送作用非常显著.舟山市大气污染物主要来源于长三角地区,本地源影响较小.因此,本文将以舟山市为例,应用频度统计分析方法,研究舟山市大气PM10污染演化宏观动态的统计分布规律.结果发现,舟山市大气PM10小时平均浓度的波动并非随机,而是在0.065~0.324 mg·m-3范围内具有标度不变特征,统计上服从典型的分形幂律分布.同时,为了阐明该分形幂律分布的产生动力机制,基于自组织临界理论,建立了大气PM10跨界输送模型.该模型以污染输送机制、二次颗粒物生成机制、城市内污染迁移扩散机制、大气自净机制这4个主导动力机制为核心,组建了非线性关联迭代算法.新的自组织动力模型的模拟结果定量地解释了舟山市大气PM10污染浓度的分形幂律统计分布规律的产生根源.同时,本研究结合区域风场等气象因素,深入讨论了大气PM10跨界输送的自组织行为机制.     

Transboundary marine spatial planning: a reflexive marine governance experiment?

Because seas and coastlines are shared between states, the formulation and implementation of marine spatial planning (MSP) should be transboundary by nature. The main argument of this paper is that MSP should be organized as a transboundary policy-making process, but this is hampered by the conceptual and institutional fragmentation MSP is facing. Based on an analysis of four transboundary planning processes in different European seas, the paper gives insight into the possibilities to develop and implement transboundary marine spatial planning (TMSP). To overcome the conceptual and institutional challenges, TMSP should be developed as a reflexive governance arrangement, in which the actors involved are able to change the rules of the game and to challenge the existing (national-oriented) MSP discourses. The paper develops four forms of reflexivity (unreflectiveness; performative reflectiveness; structural reflectiveness; and reflexivity) to assess TMSP processes and to formulate conditions which are crucial to develop TMSP as a reflexive marine governance arrangement.     

Transboundary Groundwater Policy: Developing Approaches in the Western and Southwestern United States1

Hathaway, Deborah L., 2011. Transboundary Groundwater Policy: Developing Approaches in the Western and Southwestern United States. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 47(1):103‐113. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2010.00494.x Abstract: The western and southwestern United States include dozens of groundwater basins that cross political boundaries. Common among these shared groundwater basins is an overlay of differing legal structures and water development priorities, typically, with insufficient water supply for competing human uses, and often, a degraded ecosystem. Resolution of conflicts over ambiguously regulated groundwater has clarified transboundary groundwater policy in some interstate basins, while transboundary groundwater policy in international basins is less evolved. This paper identifies and contrasts approaches to transboundary groundwater policy, drawing from recent conflicts and cooperative efforts, including those associated with the interstate compacts on the Arkansas and Pecos Rivers; the Hueco and Lower Rio Grande Basins shared by New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico; and the Mexicali Basin in California and Mexico. Some efforts seek to fit groundwater policy into existing surface water allocation procedures; some strive for a better fit – incorporating scientific understanding of key differences between groundwater and surface water into policy frameworks. In some cases, neither policy nor precedent exists. The collective experience of these and other cases sets the stage for improved management of transboundary groundwater; as such, challenges and successes of these approaches, and those contemplated in several hypothetical model agreements, are examined.     

Transboundary River Floods and Institutional Capacity1

Abstract: While transboundary flood events have become more frequent on a global scale the past two decades, they appear to be overlooked in the international river basin (IRB) cooperation and management arena. The present study therefore combined geopolitical measures with biophysical and socioeconomic variables in an attempt to identify the IRBs with adequate institutional capacity for management of transboundary floods. It also classified basins that would possibly benefit from enlarging the institutional capacity related to transboundary floods. Of the 279 known IRBs, only 78 were represented by a transboundary rivers institution. A mere eight of the 153 identified institutions had transboundary flooding listed as an issue in their mandate. Overall, 43 basins, where transboundary floods were frequent during the period 1985‐2005, had no institutional capacity for IRBs. The average death and displacement tolls were found to be lower in the 37 basins with institutional capacity, even though these basins experienced twice as much transboundary floods with significant higher magnitudes than those in basins without institutional capacity. Overall, the results suggested that institutional capacity plays a role in the reduction of flood‐related casualties and affected individuals. River basins such as the Juba‐Shibeli, Han, Kura‐Araks, Ma, Maritsa, Po, Coco/Segovia, Grijalva, Artibonite, Changuinola, Coatan Achute, and Orinoco experienced more than one transboundary river flood, but have not yet set up any institutions for such events, or signed any appropriate treaties focused on floods. These basins were therefore recommended to consider focusing attention on this apparent lack of institutional capacity when it comes to managing transboundary flood events.