Ecological infrastructure planning of large river basin to promote nature conservation and ecosystem functions

2022 ◽  
Vol 306 ◽  
pp. 114482
Author(s):  
Longyang Huang ◽  
Jing Wang ◽  
Xiaojie Chen
2020 ◽  
Vol 726 ◽  
pp. 138600 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Gusain ◽  
M.P. Mohanty ◽  
S. Ghosh ◽  
C. Chatterjee ◽  
S. Karmakar

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Jewitt ◽  
Catherine Sutherland ◽  
Sabine Stuart-Hill ◽  
Jim Taylor ◽  
Susan Risko ◽  
...  

<p>The uMngeni River Basin supports over six million people, providing water to South Africa’s third largest regional economy. A critical question facing stakeholders is how to sustain and enhance water security in the catchment for its inhabitants. The role of Ecological Infrastructure (EI) (the South African term for a suite of Nature Based Solutions and Green Infrastructure projects) in enhancing and sustaining water and sanitation delivery in the catchment has been the focus of a project that has explored the conceptual and philosophical basis for investing in EI over the past five years.</p><p>The overall aim of this project was to identify where and how investment into the protection and/or restoration of EI can be made to produce long-term and sustainable returns in terms of water security assurance. In short, the project aimed to guide catchment managers when deciding “what to do” in the catchment to secure a more sustainable water supply, and where it should be done. This seemingly simple question encompasses complexity in time and space, and reveals the connections between different biophysical, social, political, economic and governance systems in the catchment.</p><p>Through the study, we highlight that there is an interdependent and co-constitutive relationship between EI, society, and water security. In particular, by working in spaces where EI investment is taking place, it is evident that socio-economic, environmental and political relations in the catchment play a critical role in making EI investment possible, or not possible.</p><p>The study inherently addresses aspects of water quantity and quality, economics, societal interactions, and the governance of natural resources. It highlights that ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water resources requires both transdisciplinary and detailed biophysical, economic, social and development studies of both formal and informal socio-ecological systems, and that investing in human resources capacity to support these studies, is critical. In contrast to many projects which have identified this complexity, here, we move beyond identification and actively explore and explain these interactions and have synthesised these into ten lessons based on these experiences and analyses.</p><ul><li>1 - People (human capital), the societies in which they live (societal capital), the constructed environment (built capital), and natural capital interact with, and shape each other</li> <li>2 - Investing in Ecological Infrastructure enhances catchment water security</li> <li>3 - Investing in Ecological Infrastructure or BuiIt/Grey infrastructure is not a binary choice</li> <li>4 - Investing in Ecological Infrastructure is financially beneficial</li> <li>5 - Understanding history, legacy and path dependencies is critical to shift thinking</li> <li>6 - Understanding the governance system is fundamental</li> <li>7 - Meaningful participatory processes are the key to transformation</li> <li>8 - To be sustainable, investments in infrastructure need a concomitant investment in social and human capital</li> <li>9 - Social learning, building transdisciplinarity and transformation takes time and effort</li> <li>10 - Students provide new insights, bring energy and are multipliers</li> </ul>


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 6755-6797 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Zuliziana ◽  
K. Tanuma ◽  
C. Yoshimura ◽  
O. C. Saavedra

Abstract. Soil erosion and sediment transport have been modeled at several spatial and temporal scales, yet few models have been reported for large river basins (e.g., drainage areas > 100 000 km2). In this study, we propose a process-based distributed model for assessment of sediment transport at a large basin scale. A distributed hydrological model was coupled with a process-based distributed sediment transport model describing soil erosion and sedimentary processes at hillslope units and channels. The model was tested on two large river basins: the Chao Phraya River Basin (drainage area: 160 000 km2) and the Mekong River Basin (795 000 km2). The simulation over 10 years showed good agreement with the observed suspended sediment load in both basins. The average Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) and average correlation coefficient (r) between the simulated and observed suspended sediment loads were 0.62 and 0.61, respectively, in the Chao Phraya River Basin except the lowland section. In the Mekong River Basin, the overall average NSE and r were 0.60 and 0.78, respectively. Sensitivity analysis indicated that suspended sediment load is sensitive to detachability by raindrop (k) in the Chao Phraya River Basin and to soil detachability over land (Kf) in the Mekong River Basin. Overall, the results suggest that the present model can be used to understand and simulate erosion and sediment transport in large river basins.


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 2392
Author(s):  
Nikolay Kasimov ◽  
Galina Shinkareva ◽  
Mikhail Lychagin ◽  
Sergey Chalov ◽  
Margarita Pashkina ◽  
...  

The partitioning of metals and metalloids between their dissolved and suspended forms in river systems largely governs their mobility and bioavailability. However, most of the existing knowledge about catchment-scale metal partitioning in river systems is based on a limited number of observation points, which is not sufficient to characterize the complexity of large river systems. Here we present an extensive field-based dataset, composed of multi-year data from over 100 monitoring locations distributed over the large, transboundary Selenga River basin (of Russia and Mongolia), sampled during different hydrological seasons. The aim is to investigate on the basin scale, the influence of different hydroclimatic conditions on metal partitioning and transport. Our results showed that the investigated metals exhibited a wide range of different behaviors. Some metals were mostly found in the dissolved form (84–96% of Mo, U, B, and Sb on an average), whereas many others predominantly existed in suspension (66–87% of Al, Fe, Mn, Pb, Co, and Bi). Nevertheless, our results also showed a consistently increasing share of metals in dissolved form as the metals were transported to the downstream parts of the basin, closer to the Lake Baikal. Under high discharge conditions (including floods), metal transport by suspended particulate matter was significantly greater (about 2–6 times). However, since high and low water conditions could prevail simultaneously at a given point of time within the large river basin, e.g., as a result of on-going flood propagation, snap-shot observations of metal partitioning demonstrated contrasting patterns with domination of both particulate and dissolved phases in different parts of the basin. Such heterogeneity of metal partitioning is likely to be found in many large river systems. These results point out the importance of looking into different hydroclimatic conditions across space and time, both for management purposes and contaminant modeling efforts at the basin scale.


2020 ◽  
Vol 587 ◽  
pp. 125012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanfeng Wu ◽  
Guangxin Zhang ◽  
Alain N. Rousseau ◽  
Y. Jun Xu ◽  
Étienne Foulon

Author(s):  
Leon C. Braat

The concept of ecosystem services considers the usefulness of nature for human society. The economic importance of nature was described and analyzed in the 18th century, but the term ecosystem services was introduced only in 1981. Since then it has spurred an increasing number of academic publications, international research projects, and policy studies. Now a subject of intense debate in the global scientific community, from the natural to social science domains, it is also used, developed, and customized in policy arenas and considered, if in a still somewhat skeptical and apprehensive way, in the “practice” domain—by nature management agencies, farmers, foresters, and corporate business. This process of bridging evident gaps between ecology and economics, and between nature conservation and economic development, has also been felt in the political arena, including in the United Nations and the European Union (which have placed it at the center of their nature conservation and sustainable use strategies). The concept involves the utilitarian framing of those functions of nature that are used by humans and considered beneficial to society as economic and social services. In this light, for example, the disappearance of biodiversity directly affects ecosystem functions that underpin critical services for human well-being. More generally, the concept can be defined in this manner: Ecosystem services are the direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems, in interaction with contributions from human society, to human well-being. The concept underpins four major discussions: (1) Academic: the ecological versus the economic dimensions of the goods and services that flow from ecosystems to the human economy; the challenge of integrating concepts and models across this paradigmatic divide; (2) Social: the risks versus benefits of bringing the utilitarian argument into political debates about nature conservation (Are ecosystem services good or bad for biodiversity and vice versa?); (3) Policy and planning: how to value the benefits from natural capital and ecosystem services (Will this improve decision-making on topics ranging from poverty alleviation via subsidies to farmers to planning of grey with green infrastructure to combining economic growth with nature conservation?); and (4) Practice: Can revenue come from smart management and sustainable use of ecosystems? Are there markets to be discovered and can businesses be created? How do taxes figure in an ecosystem-based economy? The outcomes of these discussions will both help to shape policy and planning of economies at global, national, and regional scales and contribute to the long-term survival and well-being of humanity.


2003 ◽  
Vol 48 (7) ◽  
pp. 57-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.C. Sekhar ◽  
Ch. Indira

Chloride discharge relationships at several monitoring stations on the River Krishna in South India are investigated, both qualitatively and quantitatively, to identify probable source contributions. The chloride behaviour along the waterway is studied in detail to assess the source contributions at various monitoring stations falling within the study area. Seasonal variations in the intensity of rainfall cause wide variations in the quality of the River Krishna. As there is strong seasonal dependence between the flow in the river and chlorides, seasonal models are developed for prediction of concentrations and loads. Linear regression analysis is carried out to determine the model parameters. The predicted concentrations and loads are in agreement with the observed values within the uncertainty of data. As the area is characterized by distinct dry and wet seasons (based on rainfall distribution over the year), mass balances are used to differentiate between point and non-point source contributions to the river. In large river basins, monitoring all individual sources is difficult and/or impossible and expensive; hence the presented approach based on receiving water quality and flow serves as an alternative for modeling chlorides in the river basin. Results of the study can be used to emphasise water pollution control strategies.


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