Institutional aspects of lake management

The major barriers to successful lake management are institutional. However, in contrast to the technical and limnological dimensions of lake management, the institutional aspects of managing lakes have received little attention. The institutional factors that are important for successful lake management outcomes are: overlapping areal jurisdiction among governmental units, fragmented functional program responsibilities, ineffective coordination, limited authority, financial constraints, private sector roles, and inadequate public awareness and consensus. The range of typical institutional problems confronting lake management are well illustrated through experiences from the state of Wisconsin, USA. Because lake management programs with institutional shortcomings rarely realize their goals, it is critical to assimilate, evaluate, and apply our experience to date with the institutional arrangements necessary to effectively manage lake resources.     

Environmental management aspects for TBT antifouling wastes from the shipyards

Tributyltin (TBT)-based antifouling paints have been successfully used for over 40 years to protect a ship's hull from biofouling. However, due to its high toxicity to marine organisms, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), in 1990, adopted a resolution recommending governments to adopt measures to eliminate antifouling paints containing TBT. High concentrations of TBT are detected in the vicinity of ports and shipyards. TBT is also usually detected in the sediment, in which it accumulates. This study reviews recent literature for the best management practices (BMPs) in order to minimize the environmental effects of TBT. The paper focuses on the evaluation of the available techniques for the removal of TBT from shipyard wastes and from the sediment. The most effective treatment methods are highlighted. BMPs include recycling of abrasive materials, use of cleaner abrasive materials, reuse of spent abrasive materials, substitution of hydroblasting by vacuum blasting or containment or ultra-high-pressure water blasting and confinement of pollution by enclosure and containment systems. The treatment of the TBT wastes by conventional biological wastewater treatment processes is probably not suitable, because the concentrations of TBT found in shipyards' wastewaters are toxic to microorganisms. Advanced technologies such as activated carbon adsorption and dissolved air flotation, in combination with filtration and coagulation-clarification, photodegradation and electrochemical treatment, are required to remove TBT. However, advanced methods should be further optimized to meet the regulatory limit of 200 ng/L. To date, only one published work examines the efficiency of incineration for the treatment of solid sandblast wastes. Regarding the treatment of sediment, land deposition of the less polluted fraction of sediment is a feasible option. Such treatment must take into account the risk of contamination of groundwater and the surroundings, and it requires extended areas of land. Other treatment methods, such as thermal and electrochemical treatment, are promising options but due to the large amounts of dredged material, they have high capital and operational costs.     

Policy for management of water resources in Greece

The quantities of water are not distributed uniformly in space and time. Greece compared to some other Mediterranean countries is found in advantageous position regarding the availability of water resources. However, there are regions with great in quantity water reserves and others with intense deficiencies. The management of water resources in Greece is concentrated in the systematic spatiotemporal monitoring and forecast of two basic multidimensional parameters, the availability of water resources and the water demand, as well as, in the implementation of necessary measures for the satisfaction of needs, regarding the fields of economy and environment. This work describes and analyses the existing status of water resources in Greece, as well as, the framework of applied policy. Furthermore, measures and actions for the management of water resources are proposed.     

New consumer roles in waste water management

Network‐bound systems such as water and energy systems are increasingly confronted with environmental problems that cannot be solved without changing their modes of provision. More than any other flow provided through a network‐bound system, the waste water flow comes very close to intimate personal and social life, complicating the introduction of environmental innovations in this sector. Using the concepts of trust and identity, questions concerning changing consumer roles in two cases of Decentralised Sanitation and Reuse Systems in the Netherlands are addressed. In both cases the building of trust within provider networks and between consumers and providers, as well as the possibility for consumers and providers to identify themselves with the aims of the project were key factors determining the success or failure of environmental innovations in waste water flows.     

Reconceptualizing water management in Khorezm,Uzbekistan

The Khorezm region is located in the northwest of Uzbekistan, approximately 350 km from the current shore of the Aral Sea. It comprises a large‐scale irrigation system that conveys water from the river Amu Darya to agricultural land cropped mainly with cotton, wheat, and rice. Khorezm's water resources are vulnerable as they depend on upstream developments and are indispensable to rural livelihoods and state budgets. Since water scarcity is expected to increase in the future, sustainable water management is a necessity. Hence, the objectives of the paper are to: (1) conceptualize the distinctive features of water management in Khorezm; (2) provide an integrated analysis of water management by establishing linkages between society, technical infrastructure, and the bio‐physical environment; and (3) make policy and technology recommendations for improved water management. To conceptualize water management in Khorezm, the paper distinguishes three types of practices: formal practices, strategic practices, and discursive practices. Based on these, it presents an analysis of water management on the state water management level, the water user association level, and the farmer and field level. For each level, recommendations are given. The paper concludes that elements of integrated water resources management (IWRM) such as transparency, accountability, participation, and technical efficiency are relevant to improve water management in Khorezm, as elsewhere. In addition, it underlines the need to create legal space for agency and innovation. Technical tools such as models are increasingly important for facilitating transparency and enabling agents to access and make use of information across the management hierarchy.     

Feasibility versus sustainability in urban water management

Decision making in urban water management is exemplified by the case of Austria: Although researchers define a comprehensible concept of sustainability, practitioners emphasize feasibility and accept limitations in sustainability. Could the specification of particular methods, chosen from some decision support methodology, remedy this situation? While an integrative assessment of sustainability should not be based on prescribed or standardized criteria, or even a certain assessment method, it should force the decision makers to make their chosen premise more visible. To this end a change of the decision making process is proposed, which will allow the decision makers to adapt the decision making process to the circumstances of a specific project in a way that is accepted by the stakeholders.     

New consumer roles in waste water management

Network-bound systems such as water and energy systems are increasingly confronted with environmental problems that cannot be solved without changing their modes of provision. More than any other flow provided through a network-bound system, the waste water flow comes very close to intimate personal and social life, complicating the introduction of environmental innovations in this sector. Using the concepts of trust and identity, questions concerning changing consumer roles in two cases of Decentralised Sanitation and Reuse Systems in the Netherlands are addressed. In both cases the building of trust within provider networks and between consumers and providers, as well as the possibility for consumers and providers to identify themselves with the aims of the project were key factors determining the success or failure of environmental innovations in waste water flows.     

Integrated urban water resources management

The paper focuses on the organizational and institutional issues of water resources management strategies. It considers both as cross-sectoral issues, and in terms of the communication and coordination of activities among all levels of sector agencies. It concentrates heavily on the economic aspects of planning for urban and other water use. Over the past few decades tremendous progress has been made in providing basic water supply and sanitation to the people of the world. Nevertheless, much remains to be accomplished. The only way of resolving this problem appears to be to make the current utilities more effective economically. The single most important policy improvement would be to ensure that each utility covers its operating costs as well as its capital costs by the economic pricing of water use.     

Assessing the value of information for water quality management in the North Sea

Global Earth Observation (GEO) is one of the most important sources of information for environmental resource management and disaster prevention. With budgets for GEO increasingly under pressure, it is becoming important to be able to quantify the returns to informational investments. For this, a clear analytical framework is lacking. By combining Bayesian decision theory with an empirical, stakeholder-oriented approach, this paper attempts to develop such a framework. The analysis focuses on the use of satellite observations for Dutch water quality management in the North Sea. Dutch water quality management currently relies on information from 'in situ' measurements but is considering extending and deepening its information base with satellite observations. To estimate returns to additional investments in satellite observation, we analyze the added value of an extended monitoring system for the management of eutrophication, potentially harmful algal blooms and suspended sediment and turbidity in the North Sea. First, we develop a model to make the potential contribution of information to welfare explicit. Second, we use this model to develop a questionnaire and interpret the results. The results indicate that the expected welfare impact of investing in satellite observation is positive, but that outcomes strongly depend on the accuracy of the information system and the range of informational benefits perceived.     

Enhanced water resource base for sustainable integrated water resource management

The article states the case for greatly enhanced reliance on desalination in the provision of freshwater. It argues that the concept of integrated water resource management (IWRM), should be expanded to routinely include desalination, and that sea water and brackish water should be listed among available sources of freshwater. In recent years, the price per m3 of freshwater obtained from desalination has steadily declined, and is now within competitive range of conventional sources, especially as extracting water from surface sources (rivers, lakes) is becoming increasingly expensive as well as ecologically harmful, and groundwater in many locations is saline or depleted. With the expectation that by 2020, five billion people will reside in megacities, today's conventional water resources are likely to become insufficient. As many of these megacities are located near ocean coasts, sea water seems a logical solution.     

Zonal management of arsenic contaminated ground water in Northwestern Bangladesh

This paper used ordinary kriging to spatially map arsenic contamination in shallow aquifers of Northwestern Bangladesh (total area  35,000 km²). The Northwestern region was selected because it represents a relatively safer source of large-scale and affordable water supply for the rest of Bangladesh currently faced with extensive arsenic contamination in drinking water (such as the Southern regions). Hence, the work appropriately explored sustainability issues by building upon a previously published study (Hossain et al., 2007; Water Resources Management, vol. 21: 1245–1261) where a more general nation-wide assessment afforded by kriging was identified. The arsenic database for reference comprised the nation-wide survey (of 3534 drinking wells) completed in 1999 by the British Geological Survey (BGS) in collaboration with the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) of Bangladesh. Randomly sampled networks of zones from this reference database were used to develop an empirical variogram and develop maps of zonal arsenic concentration for the Northwestern region. The remaining non-sampled zones from the reference database were used to assess the accuracy of the kriged maps. Two additional criteria were explored: (1) the ability of geostatistical interpolators such as kriging to extrapolate information on spatial structure of arsenic contamination beyond small-scale exploratory domains; (2) the impact of a priori knowledge of anisotropic variability on the effectiveness of geostatistically based management. On the average, the kriging method was found to have a 90% probability of successful prediction of safe zones according to the WHO safe limit of 10 ppb while for the Bangladesh safe limit of 50 ppb, the safe zone prediction probability was 97%. Compared to the previous study by Hossain et al. (2007) over the rest of the contaminated country side, the probability of successful detection of safe zones in the Northwest is observed to be about 25% higher. An a priori knowledge of anisotropy was found to have inconclusive impact on the effectiveness of kriging. It was, however, hypothesized that a preferential sampling strategy that honored anisotropy could be necessary to reach a more definitive conclusion in regards to this issue.     

The application of charging schemes for the management of water pollution

This paper examines lessons from the experience in the use of charges for water resource management, considers how charges have been used in Europe, and how a new charging system could be developed. It focuses particularly on the case for pollution charges, or charges for using a river for the disposal of waste. The paper falls into four sections. The first reviews briefly the case for pollution charges, both theoretical and practical, and shows how they can complement regulatory systems. The experience of pollution charging schemes in the Netherlands, Germany and France, where charges have been used as a major mechanism for environmental and water resource management for upwards of 10 years are examined. The basis for charge schemes, their effectiveness as policy instruments and the institutional framework within which they operate are discussed. The paper addresses some questions which are central to the definition and development of charge schemes- the objectives, the problems and constraints. A case study is used to establish the feasibility of introducing emission charges for water resource management. How the charge could be designed and administered and how the charge level could be set is also described. Finally, some broad recommendations on the effectiveness and issues associated with charge schemes are presented.     

Governance of water supply systems in the Palestinian Territories: A data envelopment analysis approach to the management of water resources

This study demonstrates that data envelopment analysis (DEA) can be a useful tool to assess the relative efficiencies of water supply systems and to establish benchmarks with which to measure progress in the management of water resources. Frontier efficiency models measure the efficiency of water use in the Palestinian Territories (West Bank and the Gaza Strip). At the municipality level, sufficient data for the years 1999-2002 were available to estimate efficiency and stability scores. The Gaza Strip efficiency scores were considerably lower than those of the West Bank. Water losses were the major source of the inefficiency as indicated by the large slacks of this input. The relative sizes of the municipalities affect efficiency scores little. Palestinian policy makers should focus on rebuilding the infrastructure of the water networks, beginning with the most DEA inefficient municipalities in order to minimize water losses.     

The use of economic measures for water management in France

The aim of this paper is to show some aspects of the practical use of economic measures in the fight against water pollution in France. Twenty years ago, these economic measures were first implemented, and it may be interesting to draw some lessons from the experience. First, the paper presents the principles of water quality management in France established by the Law on Water of 16 December 1964. Second, some examples of factories and local communities facing the problem of fighting water pollution are discussed. Finally, general results and some reflections conclude the paper.     

New strategy in urban water management in Mexico: the case of Mexico's Federal District

This paper focuses on the strategy of Mexico's Federal District to achieve better water management. It highlights some of the main aspects of the current institutional framework. The article starts by providing a general overview of the current state of the water sector in Mexico. An analysis of the new strategies for the provision of water services in Mexico's Federal District is presented as a case study. It exemplifies the type of private sector participation that has recently been adopted in the water sector in Mexico. The article analyzes the functions of agencies involved in water distribution in the Federal District, and discusses the performance of private firms as well as some of the main difficulties encountered. Lessons have been learned from this application. It can be concluded that long-term commitment on the part of both public and private entities is one of the key factors in achieving a more efficient urban water management. The article reflects plans implemented and approved as of January 1998.     

The role of satellite and decentralized strategies in water resources management

Existing and projected water shortages and related factors have helped focus attention on the need for water reuse. With recent technological advances in wastewater treatment, it is now possible to produce reclaimed water of any quality. Thus, the use of reclaimed water will depend on the reuse opportunities and the cost of the required infrastructure. Historically, centralized wastewater treatment facilities have served the needs of organized societies since the mid 1800s. However, as there are limited options for expansion of most existing centralized facilities, the use of satellite and decentralized wastewater management systems offers significant advantages including being close both to the source of wastewater generation and to potential water reuse applications. The comparative advantages of satellite and decentralized wastewater management systems for a number of water reuse applications are presented and discussed in this paper. Selected case studies are presented to demonstrate the utility of satellite and decentralized wastewater management. Specific issues associated with the application of such systems in existing and in new developments are examined and discussed.