WATER SUPPLY OPTIONS IN A NEW MEXICO WATER PLANNING REGION1

ABSTRACT: The population in the Jemez y Sangre Water Planning Region of New Mexico has reached the point at which the demand for water exceeds available supplies, particularly when precipitation is below average, as has frequently occurred in recent years. The desire to develop a sustainable water supply that relies on renewable supplies in wet years and preserves the water in storage for times of drought motivated a diverse set of stakeholders in the region to participate in regional water planning. The planning effort culminated in development of the Jemez y Sangre Regional Water Plan, which was adopted by municipal and county governments in the region. The plan assesses and compares water supply and demand in the region and recommends alternatives for protecting and restoring the existing water supply and addressing the pending gap between supply and demand anticipated by the year 2060. To convey to decision makers the alternatives available to solve the future water shortage, option charts were developed to portray the amount of water that could be obtained or conserved through their implementation. The option charts show that the projected gap between supply and demand cannot be met through one alternative only, but will require a combination of alternatives.     

关于危险废物处置项目投资营运模式的探讨

探讨了我国危险废物处置项目投资及营运模式，提出政府、企业共同出资建设，采用现代企业制度和市场化营运模式符合我国现阶段的国情。     

ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT OF LARGE RIVERS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE MISSOURI RIVER1

ABSTRACT: The technocratic approach for managing the Missouri River and other large rivers is not effective in resolving conflicts among competing uses of water and dealing with uncertainty about how river ecosystems respond to alternative management actions. Adaptive management offers an alternative way to address these and other issues. It has the potential to alleviate management gridlock and provide lasting solutions to management of the Missouri River and other large river ecosystems. In passive adaptive management, simulation models and expert judgment are combined to select a preferred management action. While passive adaptive management is relatively simple and inexpensive to use, it does not necessarily provide reliable information for making management decisions. Active adaptive management uses statistically designed experiments to test assumptions or hypotheses about ecosystem responses to management actions. It is best carried out by a collaborative working group. Active adaptive management has several advantages, but the inability to satisfy certain prerequisites for successful application makes it more difficult to implement in large river ecosystems. A second‐best approach is proposed here to select, implement, monitor, and evaluate a preferred management action and retain that action provided ecological conditions improve and socioeconomic indicators do not fall below established acceptability limits.     

Investigation of geothermal energy utilization for thermal regulation of aquaculture raceway

ABSTRACT

Aquaculture raceway temperature has a direct impact on the aquatic specie being reared. In regions that undergo significant seasonal temperature variations, the thermal management of the raceway temperature becomes a challenge, directly impacting the production yield. This study investigates a novel approach to regulate the raceway temperature in a sustainable way by utilizing geothermal energy. A numerical energy model was developed to simulate heat transfer in a geothermal system encompassing both the individual borehole heat exchangers and their thermal interactions. Simulations were conducted for different configurations of the geothermal system over a complete seasonal cycle. Results show that flow rate, number of boreholes and the borehole spacing influence the temperature of the fluid at the raceway inlet. An increase in the number of boreholes provided better thermal regulation but an increase in the flow rate through the boreholes provided less thermal regulation. A borehole spacing of 6 m was found to be appropriate to reduce thermal interference. It was also observed that an increase in the fraction of the fluid passed through the geothermal system enhances the overall thermal regulation, with higher thermal regulation at lower flow rates. Results show that when 100% of the fluid passed through a 64 boreholes geothermal system, the average regulated raceway inlet temperature was 23% higher in winter months and 16% lower in summer months at the flow rate of 21.5 L/s compared to than at 43 L/s.     

AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO VALUING WATER FROM BRUSH CONTROL1

ABSTRACT: An analytic methodology utilizing models from three disciplines is developed to assess the viability of brush control for water yield in the Frio River basin, Texas. Ecological, hydrologic, and economic models are used to portray changes in forage production and water supply resulting from brush control, and to value supplemental water produced through brush control. Site‐specific biophysical characteristics are used to simulate water yields from brush control across the watershed. Economic benefits from increased animal production for ranchers undertaking brush control are assessed. Benefits to Corpus Christi residential water consumers from ranchers' brush control activities are evaluated using the change in consumer surplus resulting from supplemental water produced through brush control. Results indicate an increase in water yield with brush control on 35 percent of the land area in the basin. However, the cost of brush control is more than the increase in returns it fosters on most range sites. Consumer surplus change for Corpus Christi residents over 25 years is zero under baseline conditions, implying subsidies for brush control in the Frio basin are not worthwhile at this time.     

RATES,RIGHTS, AND REGIONAL PLANNING IN THE METROPOLITAN WATER DISTRICT OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA1

ABSTRACT: The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has for more than 70 years shaped the development of an immense urban region. The district's current strategic planning process therefore could have substantial effects on regional water planning and management. The rate restructuring phase of the planning process has produced a multiple component, cost of service based framework. This paper describes that framework as well as some criticisms that have been directed toward it. The rate restructuring was shaped, and for a while stalled, by old disputes among member agencies over rights to water supplied by Metropolitan. That controversy has diverted attention from the resource management implications of the rate structure. This paper presents an alternative future focused approach to regional integrated water resource planning for Southern California based on projections of current trends and anticipation of future events. This discussion raises the question of how regional integrated water resources planning of this sort may proceed, and what role Metropolitan will play in that process.     

ESTIMATING THE BENEFITS OF PHOSPHORUS POLLUTION REDUCTIONS: AN APPLICATION IN THE MINNESOTA RIVER1

ABSTRACT: In order to make economically efficient decisions about water quality improvements, data on both the costs and benefits of these improvements is needed. However, there has been little research on the benefits of reducing phosphorus pollution which implies that policy decisions are not able to make the comparison of costs and benefits that is essential for economic efficiency. This research attempts to ameliorate this situation by providing an estimate of the benefits of a 40 percent reduction in phosphorus pollution in the Minnesota River. A 1997 mail survey gathered information on Minnesota residents'use of a recreational site on the Minnesota River, the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, and their willingness to pay for phosphorus reductions in the Minnesota River. The random effects probit model used in this research to investigate household willingness to pay for phosphorus pollution reductions in the Minnesota River incorporates recent innovations in nonmarket valuation methodology by using both revealed and stated preference data. This model estimated annual household willingness to pay for phosphorus reductions in the Minnesota River at $140. These results may be used in combination with cost estimates to determine the economic efficiency of phosphorus clean up.     

INVOLVING WATERSHED STAKEHOLDERS: AN ISSUE ATTRIBUTE APPROACH TO DETERMINE WILLINGNESS AND NEED1

ABSTRACT: The development of effective solutions for addressing nonpoint source pollution on a watershed basis often involves watershed stakeholders. However, success in engaging stakeholders in collaborative decision making processes varies, as watershed managers are faced with the challenges inherent to finding the right process for the decisions needed and in successfully engaging stakeholders in that process. Two characteristics that may provide guidance for determining the appropriateness of applying a collaborative process to a watershed problem are the need to collaborate and the willingness of stakeholders to engage in a collaborative decision making process. By examining seven attributes of the issues confronted by stakeholders in a collaborative process, the consequences of these attributes on the need for collaboration and stakeholders' willingness to engage can be estimated. The issue attributes include: level of uncertainty, balance of information, risk, time horizon of effects, urgency of decision, distribution of effects, and clarity of problem. The issue attribute model was applied to two collaborative decision making processes conducted by the same watershed stakeholder group in a North Carolina coastal watershed. Need and willingness to engage did not coincide for either issue; that is, stakeholders were more willing to engage on the issue that required less need for their involvement.     

Environmental Racism in the Sunbelt? A Cross-Cultural Analysis

/ Sociologist Robert Bullard challenged the prevailing paradigm of environmentalism as a consensual issue in the United States by developing the concept of environmental racism. As he claims, ethnic minorities have been put "at greater environmental risk" than has the Caucasian majority in most areas of the country. This study of the Tucson metropolitan area examines this proposition by utilizing data from several sources: interviews with elected officials and other opinion leaders, GIS-generated socioeconomic data, articles in the press, and a literature review. We conclude that Bullard's concept has validity for this metropolitan area but that there also exist widely divergent differences of opinion on the subject. We explain why this is so. We further conclude that the allegation of "environmental racism" made by the Hispanic community in the 1980s and 1990s has had a transformative effect on local politics.KEY WORDS: Environment; Racism; Tucson; Garbage dumps; County government; Pollution; Equity; Justice     

新疆博尔塔拉蒙古族自治州水资源开发利用中的若干问题探讨

本文从宏观角度对博州水资源的开发利用作了详细的研究。通过分析博州现行的水资源利用状况,找出以往开发利用中存在的问题及原因,运用结构分析方法,借助系统动力学(SD)建模手段,构造了博州水资源系统的宏观调控结构分析模型。通过观察和比较模型的输出结果,最后提出以从农业生产中挖潜节水为主攻方向,来解决博州水资源开发利用中现存的各种问题和作为今后制定各种水资源政策的参考。本研究将区域水资源开发利用问题归结为系统宏观控制问题,并在方法上作了一些探索。