Water farms and transfer conflicts in Arizona,USA: A proposed resolution process

Water is a relatively scarce resource in Arizona, especially since the recent urban growth booms of Phoenix and Tucson. Arizona's 1980 Groundwater Management Act was the precursor to current water-transfer conflicts between urban buyers, rural farmers, and third parties. Water farms are bought with the intention to transfer their appurtenant groundwater to the two major metropolitan areas. As water markets have emerged, differing values and public interest issues have become apparent, while the state legislature attempts to resolve inequities. Site-specific transfer disputes, as well as policy-making conflicts, offer suitable situations for a mediation process. Equity- and efficiency-based criteria are suggested as the basis for resolving water-transfer conflicts, and a mediation process is proposed. However, third parties must develop an agenda, and a balance of power should be attained before mediation can effectively forge an agreement on water-transfer policies. The attainment of statewide policies generated through a mediated process has the potential to expand long-range regional water planning and management.     

AN ANTIDEGRADATION POLICY FOR PRESERVING SURFACE WATER QUALITY IN FLORIDA1

ABSTRACT: As part of its overall system for protecting aquatic systems from unnecessary degradation, the State of Florida provides special protection for water bodies of unusual importance. Such water bodies are designated as “Outstanding Florida Waters” (OFW5). New discharges to OFWs are possible only if certain stringent criteria are met. A new point source direct discharge to an OFW is usually not allowed if it would cause any lowering of ambient water quality. A new indirect discharge (upstream from an OFW boundary) may be allowed only if it would not significantly degrade the OFW. To date, the advantages of the OFW system have clearly outweighed the disadvantages, and OFW designations are helping to protect Florida's most valuable waters from additional degradation. Florida's system could be a useful model for other jurisdictions wanting to provide special protection to special water bodies.     

Culture and the environment in Ghana

The traditional culture of Ghana stressed a strong relationship with the environment, and a culturally acceptable environmental management resulted from strictures and taboos related to the land. Following its independence in 1957, Ghana has enacted laws that reflect an enlightened environmental policy. These are especially important because of the difficulties Ghana has had in its economic development using Western technology that has damaged the fragile tropical ecosystem. A key aspect of Ghana's policy is the attempt to marry scientific knowledge and traditional beliefs for environmentally sound management of Ghana's resources.     

Japan's develop-for-import policy

Much of the world's remaining mineral resources lie within the underdeveloped nations of the Third World. The current crisis of confidence characterized in international investment and trade in extractive resources has become detrimental to both the resource-rich developing countries and the resource-hungry industrialized countries. Japan is one nation that has developed a strategy to foster mutual trust and to restore confidence in the international extractive industries. This paper examines Japan's develop-for-import policy, ‘kaihatsu yunso’, and its design, implementation and effects on securing foreign resources supplies.     

Land development and employment creation on landed estates in the Northern Highlands

The landed estates may be divided into four groups according to land use and use intensity: crofting, sheep, sporting, mixed use. While sheep and mixed use estates have held sheep numbers constant, other estates have shown dramatic declines. All estates, and in particular sporting estates, have increased deer culls. Many sporting estates are supported by external private finance which makes land development unnecessary. Private enjoyment is an important ownership motivation on many estates. This, rather than lack of profitability or lack of finance, prevents development. However, significant employment creation can come only through extensive land developments beyond those on even the more productive estates. Such a strategy would require a development plan and a challenge to existing property rights.     

Public opinion and interest group positions on open-space issues in Albuquerque,New Mexico,USA: Implications for resource management

The purpose of this research was to elicit and compare the open-space preferences of citizens and openspace experts in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. A randomly selected sample of 492 citizens and 35 open-space experts participated in a telephone survey during May 5–18, 1986. The following hypothesis was tested and used as a guideline for the study:HO1: There is no significant difference between respondents' status and preference for open space in Albuquerque, New Mexico.The hypothesis was rejected. Findings confirmed respondents' status affected preference for open space. Of the eight issues on which the citizen and expert groups were compared, five recorded significant differences in response profiles. The open-space expert group was significantly more supportive of using open space to accommodate offroad vehicle facilities, wildlife preserves, a citywide recreational trail, and a trail system along the arroyos and city ditches. The citizen sample was significantly more supportive of using open space to accommodate overnight camping facilities. Both groups equally supported using open space to accommodate an outdoor amphitheater, outdoor education facilities, and rafting, kayaking, and canoeing facilities.The finding indicated that expert preferences did not represent an aggregate of citizen preferences for managing open-space resources. Understanding both expert and citizen positions will facilitate decision-making processes and help resolve environmental disputes.     

A STOCHASTIC DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING BASED APPROACH TO THE OPERATION OF A MULTI-RESERVOIR SYSTEM1

ABSTRACT: An heuristic iterative technique based upon stochastic dynamic programming is presented for the analysis of the operation of a three reservoir ‘Y’ shaped hydroelectric system. The technique is initiated using historical inflow data for the downstream reservoir. At each iteration the optimal policies for the downstream hydroelectric generating unit are used to provide relative weightings or targets for operation of upstream reservoirs. New input inflows to the downstream reservoir are then obtained by running the historical streamflow record through the optimal policies for the upstream reservoirs. These flows are then used to develop a new operating policy for the downstream reservoir and hence new targets for the upstream reservoirs. The process is continued until the operating policies for each reservoir provide the same overall system benefit for two successive iterations. Results obtained from the procedure are compared to the results obtained by historical operation of the system. The procedure is shown to develop operating policies which give benefits which are as close to the historical benefits as can be expected given the choice of the number of storage state variables.     

A review of methods of public land ownership and allocation for housing in Iran

In the aftermath of the 1979 revolution, the new administration adopted a number of policies to address the question of land ownership, supply and allocation in order to tackle the acute shortage of housing in the urban areas. In 1982, the Five‐Year Urban Land Act was passed by the Parliament. Subsequently a body called the Urban Land Organisation (ULO) was set up to co‐ordinate the process of land preparation and allocation. The 1982 Urban Land act empowered the government to: (a) expropriate certain categories of abandoned urban land, and (b) to set a temporary time schedule of five years during which the act's work will be monitored.

This paper sets out to examine the policies related to urban land which have been introduced and implemented in the 1980s in Iran.     

The Environmental Implications of Soil Erosion in the United States

Soil erosion has both on-farm and off-farm impacts. Reductionof soil depth can impair the lands productivity, and thetransport of sediments can degrade streams, lakes, and estuaries. Since 1933, soil conservation policies have existedin the United States. Originally they focused on the on-farmbenefits of keeping soil on the land and increasing net farmincome. Beginning in the 1980s, however, policy goalsincreasingly included reductions in off-site impacts of erosion.As a consequence of conservation efforts associated withexplicit U.S. government policies, total soil erosion between1982 and 1992 was reduced by 32% and the sheet and rillerosion rate fell from an average of 4.1 tons per acre per yearin 1982 to 3.1 tons per acre in 1992 while the wind erosion ratefell from an average of 3.3 tons per acre per year to 2.4 tonsper acre per year over the same period. Still, soil erosion isimposing substantial social costs. These costs are estimated tobe about $37.6 billion annually. To further reduce soil erosionand thereby mitigate its social costs, there are a number ofpolicy options available to induce farmers to adopt conservationpractices including education and technical assistance, financial assistance, research and development, land retirement, andregulation and taxes.     

Environmental Monitoring in The Netherlands: Past Developments and Future Challenges

During the past three decades environmental monitoringsystems covering an immense variety of environmentalproblems emerged rapidly throughout the world. In The Netherlands the entire spectrum of monitoring systemsis present. Their development is especially interesting because of the Dutch complex environmental landscape: a result of the combination of a natural setting with a high small-scale variation and an intense use of the available space by both industry and agriculture. This necessitates a well balanced environmental policy wherein monitoring ofboth environmental compartments and environmental policy itself plays an important role. In this article we focus on abiotic systems, whereby the development of monitoring will be related to that of environmental policy in general. Some general lines emerge: from quantity towards quality, from single pollutants towards environmentally harmful processes as a whole, and from a focus on human health and safety towards integrated environmental management. Because The Netherlands is a highly organized and highly educatedsociety, reacting fast and flexible to new problems, this progression has happened quickly. However, still much remains to be desired and flexibility not necessarily guarantees optimal routes of development. Paramount is the development of sophisticated and robust monitoring systems that truly support integrated environmental management. This asks forclear objectives based on solid scientific insights.