Water and sustainable development

In this paper, it is proposed that water resources should be managed as an integral part of a nation's social and economic development. Water resources managers should broaden their scope of work to include an integrated management approach. Instead of the traditional 'supply oriented approach' in which they act in response to ever-increasing demands for water from different sectors of the economy, water resources management agencies should play a more active role in guiding and stimulating socioeconomic development through more efficient water use. Demand management should be an important tool which should go beyond the improvement of technical efficiencies. Most important is to develop economic and institutional approaches that accept charging for the full costs of the utilization and management of water resources. Implementation of such an approach will require more sectoral integration than is currently the case and will have considerable implications for organizations, staffing, institutional arrangements and corresponding capacity building.     

Die Hochwasserkatastrophen im Sommer 2002

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Was wissen wir über Neutronensterne?

There are 10^9±0.5 neutron stars in the Galaxy. They are born in supernova explosions. Isolated neutron stars are observed as (radio-)pulsars, in some cases also as γ-ray pulsars and as IR-, optical and X-ray pulsars. Binary neutron stars, when accreting mass from their companion, become flickering, periodic and/or bursting X-ray sources, and probably also γ-ray bursters. They may all derive from binary star systems. The masses of population-I-neutron stars are compatible with (1.4 ±0.2)M _⊙; their surface magnetic fields fall almost exclusively within 10^12.2 and 10^13.2 Gauss (at birth). The radii of population-II-neutron stars are (10 _-3 ⁺⁶ )km. Even in exotic sources like SS 433 and Cyg X-1, the compact core may well be a neutron star.