Integrating water management, habitat modelling and water quality at the basin scale and environmental flow assessment: case study of the Tormes River, Spain

Kangaroo Valley is a drinking water supply catchment for Kangaroo Valley village, parts of the Southern Highlands and Sydney. It is also a popular recreation area both for swimming and canoeing. Land use has traditionally been dominated by dairy farming but there has been significant and continuing development of land for hobby farms and rural residential subdivision. Dairy industry restructuring has affected the viability of some farms in the Valley and created additional pressure for subdivision. River health is a function of flows, water quality, riparian vegetation, geomorphology and aquatic habitat and riverine biota. River flows in the Kangaroo River are affected by water extraction and storage for urban water supply and extraction by commercial irrigators and riparian land holders which have a significant impact at low flows. Current water quality often does not meet ANZECC Guidelines for primary contact and recreation and the river is a poor source of raw drinking water. Key sources of contaminants are wastewater runoff from agriculture, and poorly performing on-site sewage management systems. Riparian vegetation, which is critical to the maintenance of in-stream ecosystems suffers from uncontrolled stock access and weed infestation. The management of land use and resulting diffuse pollution sources is critical to the long term health of the river. The Healthy Rivers Commission of New South Wales Independent Inquiry into the Shoalhaven River System Final Report July, 1999 found that the longer term protection of the health of the Kangaroo River is contingent upon achievement of patterns of land use that have regard to land capability and also to the capability of the river to withstand the impacts of inappropriate or poorly managed land uses. This micro case study of Kangaroo Valley examines the complex legal and administrative arrangements with particular reference to the management of diffuse pollution for river health. In the past, diffuse pollution has fallen through the gaps in legislation and its administration. Although water pollution legislation is broad enough to embrace diffuse pollution, in practice the Environment Protection Authority has focused on regulating point sources. Water legislation has traditionally been concerned with issues of water quantity rather than water quality. Legislation which allows agency intervention in relation to land degradation has grown from soil conservation roots, neglecting the flow-on effects upon water quality. Under the land use planning system existing land uses are protected from new regulatory requirements. A number of recent developments in NSW law and its administration have set the scene for addressing this past neglect. Water planning provisions in the Water Management Act 2000 have the potential to enable community based Water Management Committees to move away from a narrow focus on water quantity to the broader issues of river health, including water quality. Improved management of on-site sewage management systems is expected as a result of the Local Government (Approvals) Amendment (Sewage Management Regulation) 1998. A draft Regional Environmental Plan prepared for the Sydney Catchment Authority aims to improve the assessment of new development in terms of its impact on drinking water quality. It also moves away from an exclusive concern with controlling new development towards grappling with existing uses. Proposed amendments to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act, 1979 as detailed in the White Paper, Plan First (2001) include the integration of imperatives derived from catchment strategies and water management plans into local land use plans.

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Priorities and Preferences in Water Quality Management - a Case Study of the Alsterån River Basin

Water Resources Management ◽

10.1007/s11269-019-02430-5 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 34 (1) ◽

pp. 155-173

Author(s):

Kristina Ek ◽

Lars Persson

Keyword(s):

Water Management ◽

Water Quality ◽

Water Framework Directive ◽

River Basin ◽

Water Status ◽

Water Quality Management ◽

Quality Attributes ◽

Spatial Proximity ◽

The European Union

AbstractSweden is a decentralised country where local managers, who are key actors in water management, often deal with relatively difficult prioritisations, tradeoffs and conflicting goals. Many of these challenges relate to the effective implementation of the European Union Water Framework Directive. As an input to these challenges, the present paper elicits and analyses local and semi-local citizens’ preferences for water quality attributes related to the European Water Framework directive in a river basin located in southeast of Sweden. Based on a choice experiment tailored to the case study area, the paper analyses preferences for selected attributes based on real criteria for ecological water status in the implementation of the directive. The target population lives in the municipalities through which the river passes, or in municipalities neighbouring those. Despite this spatial proximity to the river, the analysis reveals limited knowledge and interest in matters related to the environmental quality of the river. There is no evidence that preferences differ between respondents with regard to experience or knowledge about the water basin, nor with regard to recreational habits in the area. These results offer input to local water management by providing information about preferences for explicit water quality attributes.

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Trend analysis of hydrological and water quality variables to detect anthropogenic effects and climate variability on a river basin scale: A case study of Iran

Journal of Hydro-environment Research ◽

10.1016/j.jher.2021.01.001 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 34 ◽

pp. 11-23

Author(s):

Mahmood Fooladi ◽

Mohammad H. Golmohammadi ◽

Hamid R. Safavi ◽

Rasoul Mirghafari ◽

Hassan Akbari

Keyword(s):

Water Quality ◽

Climate Variability ◽

Trend Analysis ◽

River Basin ◽

Anthropogenic Effects ◽

River Basin Scale ◽

Water Quality Variables ◽

Basin Scale

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Study of The Quality and Status of Water Quality on Reservoir Water Management Efforts Using a Dynamic System Approach (Case Study: Bozem Morokrembangan)

IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science ◽

10.1088/1755-1315/799/1/012010 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 799 (1) ◽

pp. 012010

Author(s):

Nieke Karnaningroem ◽

Emelya Eka Safitri Paitaha

Keyword(s):

Water Management ◽

Water Quality ◽

Dynamic System ◽

System Approach ◽

Reservoir Water

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Catchment Residents-Based SWOT Analysis of a Reservoir Ecosystem for Sustainable Water Management: A Case Study From the Region of Alentejo, Portugal

Water Quality Research Journal ◽

10.2166/wqrj.2010.032 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 45 (3) ◽

pp. 295-306

Author(s):

Nuno-Gonçalo Matias

Keyword(s):

Water Management ◽

Water Quality ◽

Water Resources ◽

Swot Analysis ◽

Multiple Correspondence Analysis ◽

Public Perceptions ◽

The European Union ◽

Reservoir Water ◽

Sustainable Water Management

Abstract The European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD, 2000/60/EC) makes public participation a requirement in managing water resources and maintaining water quality in a watershed. Whilst participatory approaches to sustainable water management are supported by a growing body of research, actively involving people affected by water resources is far from straightforward. This paper investigates the use of the Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) analysis framework as a consultation tool to support catchment populations participation in water resources management by a case study developed in a reservoir ecosystem. The application of a multiple correspondence analysis helped identify underlying structures of respondents SWOT stated issues and their associations with socio-demographic characteristics and type of reservoir ecosystem uses. In particular, five clusters of responses were suggested by this analysis, focusing on: the use and importance of the reservoir ecosystem for agriculture, existing qualities/amenities at the study area for recreation, socioeconomic issues, concerns about littering and litter management of the area, and issues about reservoir water quality and management. Overall, the issues raised information about public perceptions and understandings of the reservoir ecosystem, which may enable decision makers and water managers to perform fair and sustainable management of water resources.

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Nature-based solutions for water resource management in the urban fringe

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-10553 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Amy Oen ◽

Sarah Hale

Keyword(s):

Water Management ◽

South Africa ◽

Water Quality ◽

Water Scarcity ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Water Cycle ◽

Urban Fringe ◽

Case Study Site ◽

Study Sites

A research project called "Nature based solutions for water management in the peri-urban: linking ecological, social and economic dimensions (NATWIP)" started in 2019 and has the overall goal of: contributing to closing the water cycle gap by exploring the potential that nature-based solutions (NBS) offer to address water management challenges in landscape areas that have been neglected because they lie in the transition zones between the urban and the rural. Since NBS have most commonly been applied in urban areas, it is interesting to broaden the focus to assess the application of NBS on the outskirts of urban areas or the urban fringe as such areas are often affected by expansion processes of the city. Furthermore, these areas have historically played important roles in development and sustenance of urban centres, provision of water-related ecosystem services, particularly water supply, wastewater management and flood control.Key NATWIP activities include the establishment of a methodological framework to analyse the social, economic and ecological sustainability dimensions of NBS and subsequently to apply the framework at case study sites in Norway, Sweden, Brazil, India, South Africa and Spain. These case study sites present very diverse water management problems as well as NBS. As more emphasis is placed on the use of NBS in the Nordic countries it is important to identify successful mechanisms for their implementation and monitoring. The case study site in Norway, Skien, represents a highly relevant urban challenge to balance water quality and the increases of water quantity as a result of climate change. This site focuses on the opening of a buried river using blue-green infrastructure as a catalyst for city development. In Sweden rain water harvesting in Gotland has been used in order to address water shortages caused by drought as well as water excess.The other case studies sites present interesting examples where the framework is used to explore potential management practices that Nordic countries could learn from. In Spain, the Barcelona Metropolitan backbone is home to green-blue infrastructure and a variety of NBS that aim to improve environmental quality and water cycle management. The Brazilian case study focuses on the most advanced Payment for Environmental Service initiative in Latin America. Through this project, fees collected from water users pay farmers to conserve and restore riparian forests on their lands. In India rainwater harvesting is used to combat water scarcity and compromised water quality in new peri-urban areas. Two case studies in South Africa show how NBS can address the problems of water scarcity in combination with increasingly variable rainfall, frequent drought and floods as well as growing water demand.Results from the first assessment of these case study sites will be presented to highlight similarities, differences, challenges, as well as potential synergies for learning from the different case study site contexts.

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