O&M SPENDING LEVELS IN THIRD WORLD IRRIGATION SYSTEMS: EXPLORING ECONOMIC ALTERNATIVES1

ABSTRACT: Third World irrigation and drainage systems have experienced major declines recently in both capability and performance. This is due initially to working them well beyond their design capaci-capacities; scouring, sedimentation, and overtopping result. Chronic O&M underfunding then adds heavily to this worsening malaise. International donors have assisted irrigation departments with rehabilitation projects and programs to improve O&M effectiveness on a grand (billions of dollars) scale. Despite their historical propensity to examine, almost fastidiously, program economic justifications (B/C, IRR, etc), the donors apparently have glossed over two basic analytic elements for (a) more spending on O&M as distinct from an equivalent spending on other means to provide farmers with an m³ of water; and (b) different levels of O&M spending on canals and drains. Surely those different levels provide differing benefits, in total, and at the margin. Which level is most economic? This paper identifies these latter analytical issues, posits methodologies key to an O&M spending level analysis, and discusses the information base. Particular attention is paid to identifying relevant costs and benefits, and to suggesting supplementary criteria for O&M spending level selection. The paper is an exercise in delineation of an imminently practical area of irrigation engineering economics.     

Effective Planning and Implementation of Ecological Rehabilitation Projects: A Case Study of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada)

The literature guides environmental planning and, specifically, how to use ecological rehabilitation projects to achieve long-term planning goals and landscape-scale environmental sustainability. There is, however, a perceived gap between principles in the literature and the use of them by practitioners involved in smaller-scale ecological rehabilitation projects. Using interviews with practitioners involved in 11 projects within the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, we tested whether practitioners used five principles for effective planning and implementation of ecological rehabilitation that we derived from the literature. These five principles were: establishing political and ecological context, using ecologically appropriate objectives and practices, using comparative multidisciplinary and cross-scale approaches, using adaptive planning and implementation, and establishing good communication within and external to projects. Few projects followed all five principles, and practitioners indicated that they used three more project-specific principles: obtaining political/social support, promoting projects and changing attitudes about projects, and securing sufficient and persistent funding to maintain a project's life. While the literature emphasizes that ecological rehabilitation is only effective if projects are coordinated on a watershed basis, most practitioners focused solely on the goals of their specific project. The gap between literature and practice may arise because most practitioners are new to the field of ecological rehabilitation and still are focused on the methods involved. Time pressures force practitioners to obviate the literature and get projects started quickly, lest support evaporate. Complicating these difficulties is decreased support from federal and provincial governments for large-scale environmental planning. It is unclear whether ecological rehabilitation projects in Waterloo Region (at least) will ever become effective at promoting landscape-scale ecological goals or remain smaller-scale stop-gaps.     

PLANNING FOR THE REHABILITATION OF GRAVEL PITS1

ABSTRACT: By field investigations and planning, it is profitable to rehabilitate gravel pits as recreational lakes in urban areas. Some of the important aspects to be considered are topography, soil, surface water and groundwater. A case study is presented and some general guidelines in the rehabilitation process are given. This kind of a use for derelict land is important at the present time as there is a growing demand for recreational lakes in urban areas.     

Rehabilitation of a lowland river: Reconciling flood defence with habitat diversity and geomorphological sustainability

Geomorphologically appropriate rehabilitation measures were proposed to enhance the in-stream environment of the lowland River Idle, north Nottinghamshire, UK. However, the River Idle has multi-functional management requirements including those of flood defence so environmental enhancement must be pursued without significantly increasing the flood risk. Hydraulic testing of rehabilitation proposals is complicated because of the stringent assumptions about flow and morphology in ‘traditional’ hydraulic models. While new generation two- and three-dimension hydraulic models may overcome some of these problems, they are extremely data intensive, require advanced modelling capabilities and are, therefore, very expensive to apply. Also, they do not yet predict morphology-flow interactions adequately. As an alternative, several simple hydraulic models were applied to test the rehabilitation proposals, based on a fitness-for-purpose criterion.BENDFLOW was applied to fine tune the optimal siting of measures and to estimate the additional near-bank scour generated by proposed bend re-profiling. HMODEL2 and the FCFA method were used to test the impact on local channel conveyance capacities and HECRAS was applied to simulate the impact of the proposals on regional flood defence. Indicative results from the testing suggested a maximum increase in near-bank scour of 0·15 m in re-profiled bends, a loss of approximately 10% in flood conveyance locally due to deflector installation or reed and tree planting, and a 0·12 m increase in flood stage within the reach for a 15 year flood. The modelling results were acceptable to the management authority as an indication of an acceptable compromise between flood defence and conservation interests, and construction of the measures followed in 1996. It is clearly that it will require the results of post-project monitoring to indicate whether compromises made to the rehabilitation initiatives in order to satisfy flood defence requirements have unduly reduced their environmental enhancement potential but, for assessing the proposed methods, the models are recommended for use other lowland river environments.     

长江流域洪灾与生态破坏的关系浅析:Ⅲ生态重建与减灾对策

在分析长江流域１９９８ 年洪水灾害与生态环境破坏的关系的基础上，提出了生态重建规划应以可持续发展为指导思想，坚持经济建设、社会发展与生态环境保护相协调的基本原则；指出了生态保护、恢复、重建的要点与方略；提出了防灾、减灾的对策建议。     

应急修复耦合资源回收的实践-以一起化工企业突发环境事件为例

通过东莞市一起铜氨蚀刻液泄漏引致突发环境事件的应急处理过程,介绍了污染控制和应急修复技术的应用情况,通过将高浓含氨污水蒸发制取NH4Cl产品,以及将污水处理至优于《地表水环境质量标准》（GB3838-2002）之Ⅰ类水质要求,作为我国首例应急修复耦合资源回收制取化工产品的成功案例,为化工类企业突发环境事件的应急处理提供决策参考.     

SEVERAL SCIENTIFIC PROBLEMS ON ECOLOGICAL SAFETY AND AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN WEST CHINA

Ｓｉｎｃｅ 1997ｗｈｅｎＣｈｉｎｅｓｅＰｒｅｓｉｄｅｎｔＪｉａｎｇＺｅｍｉｎａｄｖｏｃａｔｅｄｔｈｅｒｅｃｏｎｓｔｒｕｃｔｉｏｎｏｆａｂｅａｕ ｔｉｆｕｌａｒｅａｏｆｔｈｅＮｏｒｔｈｗｅｓｔ,ａｈｅａｔｅｄｄｒｉｖｅｏｆｅｃｏ ｅｎｖｉｒｏｎｍｅｎｔａｌｃｏｎｓｔｒｕｃｔｉｏｎｗｉｔｈｔｈｅｔｈｅｍｅｓｏｆ“ｅｃｏｌｏｇｉｃａｌａｇｒｉｃｕｌｔｕｒｅ”ａｎｄ“ｅｃｏｌｏｇｉｃａｌｒｅｈａｂｉｌｉｔａｔｉｏｎ”ｈａｓｂｅｅｎｌａｕｎｃｈｅｄ .Ｈｏｗｉｓｔｈｅｗｅｓｔｅｒｎａｇｒｉｃｕｌｔｕｒｅｔｏｍｅ…     

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF TAILINGS DISPERSAL FROM A URANIUM MINE USING TOXICITY TESTING PROTOCOLS1

ABSTRACT: Toxicity testing is a means of establishing the environmental risk of a uranium tailings release. It is valuable in designing tailings containment structures because it assists in setting acceptable levels of risk for the design. This paper presents details of toxicity tests of the tailings from Ranger Uranium Mine, Northern Territory, Australia. The results suggest that the non-radiological toxicity of the tailings is low. The environmental risk of a tailings release is more likely to be related to the physical impacts of the tailings, including infilling of billabongs and changes in the sedimentology of riparian ecosystems rather than their biogeochemical impact. Two major results were: (1) water from treatment with washed tailing fines were not toxic to Hydra viridissima, and (2) mixtures of washed tailings fines and natural floodplain sediment (overlying water or elutriates) were not toxic to Hydra viridissima or Moinodaphnia macleayi.     

花江峡谷石漠化土地生态重建及其启示

尽管西南岩溶地区石漠化趋势严重,但真正做到生态、经济、社会三效益统一的岩溶石漠化生态重建模式的实践工作却做得很少。且对于这些实践活动还缺乏理论的总结和思考。花江峡谷顶坛片区,充分利用当地的适生植物资源和干热资源优势在石漠化土地上种植花椒、砂仁等喜热耐旱的经济作物,在恢复和治理生态的前提下成功调整了农业内部结构,形成以花椒规模种植为核心心的特色产业,利用雨水、坡面水、岩溶裂隙水,实行参与式社区管理,使环境、经济与社区文化得以可持续发展。“顶坛”模式是充分利用岩溶环境资源优势,高山地保护于特色农业开发之中的一个成功例子。它启示我们,岩溶石漠化土地恢复重建必须重新认识岩溶环境优势。因地制宜,对过去侧重于水土保持的传统治理模式进行创新。     

生态旅游:西南喀斯特山区摆脱"贫困陷阱"之路

西南喀斯特山区“贫困陷阱”的根本对策在于扭转人口生存领先掠夺土地的状况,生态旅游提供了这们的途径。西南喀斯特地区特有的自然风光和民俗风情等旅游资源优势,通过生态旅游开发,顺理成章地可转换成产品优势,“穷山恶水”就成为“青山绿水”,“穷乡僻壤”就成为“自然生态”和“特色民俗”。这不仅满足现代社会的需求,也使当地的资源潜力得到发挥。而且把资源利用的方式从掠夺、耗竭型转换为可持续型。另一方面,要真正和持续地实现这些资源的价值。必须保护原生态、原文化,这就引入了保护的经济机制．保护与开发的两难悖论可由此突破。本文还以贵州省绥阳县为例,阐述了西南喀斯特山区旅游资源特色和开发生态旅游的目标．为摆脱“贫困陷阱”提供一个示范。