scholarly journals Stakeholders Reach Consensus in Troubled Waters

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Rugel
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
United States ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Southeastern United States ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Management Plan ◽  
Freshwater Biodiversity ◽  
Transboundary Waters ◽  
Water Users ◽  
Basin Water

Surface water and groundwater catchments rarely align with the boundaries of cities, states, or nations. More often, water runs through, over, and under man-made sociopolitical divisions, making the governance of transboundary waters a formidable task. Although much of the public conversation regarding the availability and management of shared waters may appear to be dire (e.g., reports of “water wars”), there are transboundary basin water management strategies across the globe which offer hope. These include the efforts of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Stakeholders (ACFS) in the southeastern United States, which may serve as a useful template for future conversations around the water sharing table. The Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Basin (ACF Basin) is a vital economic engine in the southeastern United States. The waters of the ACF are shared between three states—Alabama, Florida, and Georgia—and harbor some of the richest freshwater biodiversity in North America, including sturgeon, rock bass, madtom, sculpin, bass, darters, and the highest densities of freshwater mussels in the world. Many of these are species of concern or threatened or endangered species; therefore, water management strategies in multiple portions of the ACF must comply with habitat protection plans under the U.S. Environmental Protection Act of 1970 (https://www.enr.gov.nt.ca/en/environmental-protection-act). The ACFS was organized in 2009 in the hopes of overcoming a decades-long stalemate between Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, regarding the use of shared waters in the ACF Basin. Despite years of litigious relationships among these three states, the ACFS managed to bring a diverse and previously contentious set of water users to the table and build consensus on a shared water management plan for the entire ACF Basin. While the ACFS holds no regulatory power, they made more progress in breaking through existing distrust and deadlock than any previous efforts in this basin to date. In the end, they developed cooperation, respect, and a sustainable and adaptive water management plan which included input and buy-in from all identified water sectors in the ACF Basin. It is, therefore, a valuable exercise to examine the ACFS model and contemplate whether it contains exportable methodologies for other catchments challenged with managing transboundary waters.

Geographic Information System for Pigweed Distribution in the US Southeast

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reginald S. Fletcher ◽  
Krishna N. Reddy
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Precision Agriculture ◽  
Weed Management ◽  
Southeastern United States ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Geographic Information ◽  
County Level ◽  
Support Tool

AbstractIn the southeastern United States, Amaranthus, or pigweed species, have become troublesome weeds in agricultural systems. To implement management strategies for the control of these species, agriculturalists need information on areas affected by pigweeds. Geographic information systems (GIS) afford users the ability to evaluate agricultural issues at local, county, state, national, and global levels. Also, they allow users to combine different layers of geographic information to help them develop strategic plans to solve problems. Furthermore, there is a growing interest in testing free and open-source GIS software for weed surveys. In this study, the free and open-source software QGIS was used to develop a geographic information database showing the distribution of pigweeds at the county level in the southeastern United States. The maps focused on the following pigweeds: Palmer amaranth, redroot pigweed, and tall waterhemp. Cultivated areas and glyphosate-resistant (GR) pigweed data were added to the GIS database. Database queries were used to demonstrate applications of the GIS for precision agriculture applications at the county level, such as tallying the number of counties affected by the pigweeds, identifying counties reporting GR pigweed, and identifying cultivated areas located in counties with GR pigweeds. This research demonstrated that free and open-source software such as QGIS has strong potential as a decision support tool, with implications for precision weed management at the county scale.

scholarly journals The GEFS-Based Daily Reference Evapotranspiration (ETo) Forecast and Its Implication for Water Management in the Southeastern United States

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 1152-1165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Di Tian ◽  
Christopher J. Martinez
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
United States ◽  
Reference Evapotranspiration ◽  
Southeastern United States ◽  
Demand Forecasting ◽  
Skill Score ◽  
Irrigation Scheduling ◽  
Forecast Skill ◽  
Ensemble Forecasts ◽  
Relative Operating Characteristic

Abstract NOAA’s second-generation retrospective forecast (reforecast) dataset was created using the currently operational Global Ensemble Forecast System (GEFS). It has the potential to accurately forecast daily reference evapotranspiration ETo and can be useful for water management. This study was conducted to evaluate daily ETo forecasts using the GEFS reforecasts in the southeastern United States (SEUS) and to incorporate the ETo forecasts into irrigation scheduling to explore the usefulness of the forecasts for water management. ETo was estimated using the Penman–Monteith equation, and ensemble forecasts were downscaled and bias corrected using a forecast analog approach. The overall forecast skill was evaluated using the linear error in probability space skill score, and the forecast in five categories (terciles and 10th and 90th percentiles) was evaluated using the Brier skill score, relative operating characteristic, and reliability diagrams. Irrigation scheduling was evaluated by water deficit WD forecasts, which were determined based on the agricultural reference index for drought (ARID) model driven by the GEFS-based ETo forecasts. All forecast skill was generally positive up to lead day 7 throughout the year, with higher skill in cooler months compared to warmer months. The GEFS reforecast improved ETo forecast skill for all lead days over the SEUS compared to the first-generation reforecast. The WD forecasts driven by the ETo forecasts showed higher accuracy and less uncertainty than the forecasts driven by climatology, indicating their usefulness for irrigation scheduling, hydrological forecasting, and water demand forecasting in the SEUS.

Ephemeral wetlands as significant habitat for threatened crayfish in Alabama, USA

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-152
Author(s):  
Michael R. Kendrick ◽  
Alexander D. Huryn
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Southeastern United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Large Rivers ◽  
Undescribed Species ◽  
Freshwater Biodiversity ◽  
Ephemeral Wetlands ◽  
Crayfish Species ◽  
Wetland Habitats ◽  
Imperiled Species

Abstract While ephemeral wetlands contribute significantly to regional freshwater biodiversity, their role in supporting threatened and imperiled species of crayfish is not widely recognized. As the center of global crayfish biodiversity, the southeastern United States (US), and the state of Alabama (AL) in particular, are important focal areas where information is needed to develop understanding of habitat constraints determining the distributions of crayfish species. To this end, we documented crayfish species associated with ephemeral wetlands and associated wetland habitats that have been traditionally under sampled. Fifteen species of crayfish were documented among 96 survey sites. This assemblage included three Alabama state-listed Priority 1 species [Cambarellus diminutus Hobbs, Fallicambarus burrisi Fitzpatrick, Procambarus viaeviridis (Faxon)] and five Priority 2 species [Hobbseus prominens (Hobbs), Orconectes lancifer (Hagan), Procambarus evermanni (Faxon), P. leconti (Hagan), P. marthae Hobbs]. An undescribed species of Cambarellus (“sp. A”) was also documented, and will presumably be eventually designated a Priority 1 species in Alabama due to its restricted distribution and apparent endemism. Ten species of crayfish were documented from ephemeral wetlands, including four Priority 1 and 2 species [Cambarellus sp. A (presumed Priority 1 species), H. prominens, P. marthae, P. viaeviridis]. Most populations of Priority 1 and 2 species we documented are within the 100-year floodplain of the Black Warrior River. Ephemeral wetlands and associated wetland habitats within the floodplains of large rivers thus appear to be vital habitat for threatened and imperiled crayfish in Alabama. Our results suggest that future crayfish surveys should include sampling of these important but often overlooked habitats.

EXPERIENCE OF THE BASIN WATER MANAGEMENT ASSOCOATION OF THE SYRDARYA TO CREATE A DATABASE PERIOD

2018 ◽  
pp. 31-33
Author(s):  
N.R. Rakhmatov
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Hydraulic Structures ◽  
Transboundary Waters ◽  
Basin Water ◽  
Operating Organization ◽  
Collection And Management ◽  
Syr Darya

The Syrdarya water basin association is an intergovernmental coordinating organization which is part of the interstate commission (ICWC) on Aral Sea rescue in the role of "Executor". Transboundary waters are distributed to Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan with the help of hydraulic structures within the association. In order to avoid disagreements between "water consumers" in distributing the transboundary waters of the Syr Darya, the operating organization should have up-to-date information on the amount of water flowing into Syr Darya River and on consumption of water distributed among users. This article describes the experience of the BWO "Syr Darya" in improving data collection and management of hydrosystems within its balance.

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