scholarly journals Rivers as political borders: a new subnational geospatial dataset

Water Policy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah J. Popelka ◽  
Laurence C. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Water Policy ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Large Rivers ◽  
Transboundary Rivers ◽  
Basin Management ◽  
Global Study ◽  
Management Regimes ◽  
Geospatial Analyses ◽  
Political Borders

Abstract Rivers are commonly used to define political borders, but no global study has quantified the importance of rivers on territorial delimitation at subnational scales. This paper presents Global Subnational River-Borders (GSRB), a first comprehensive geospatial dataset of subnational, as well as national, political borders set by large rivers. GSRB incorporates three previous vector datasets (GAUL, GRWL + +, and WDBII) to map and quantify the use of large rivers as political borders at local, state, and national scales. GSRB conservatively finds that at least 58,588 km (23%) of the world's interior (non-coastal) national borders, 199,922 km (17%) of the world's interior state/province borders, and 459,459 km (12%) of the world's interior local-level political borders are set by large rivers. GSRB finds 222, 2,350, and 14,808 dyads sharing river-borders at these three administrative scales, respectively. While previous studies have emphasized transboundary rivers separating nations, GSRB highlights the abundance of river-borders at subnational scales, where numerous domestic stakeholders share jurisdiction in water resource management. These participants, identified with GSRB, ought not to be ignored when crafting water policy and instituting whole-basin management regimes. GSRB should prove useful for global, geospatial analyses of riparian stakeholders across administrative scales. The GSRB dataset (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3906566) can be found via the following link https://zenodo.org/record/3906567#.XvN-GGhKjIU.

scholarly journals Social Aspects of Transnational Corporations’ Activities in the New EU Member States

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 143-156
Author(s):  
Janina Witkowska
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Integrated Management ◽  
Local Level ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
European Water

Water resources are among the most valuable resources of the natural environment. The sustainable and integrated management of these resources is the basis of European water policy. Pursuant to the Water Framework Directive, all waters in the European Union should achieve a state considered at least good by the year 2015. Just how this objective can be met continues to be a topic of discussions in some of the Member States. There exist serious problems and delays in performing and implementing the provisions of the Directive in most EU countries. What is more, the state of the water economy in several countries, including Poland, has been criticized by the European Commission. Many challenges stand before European water policy. They require solutions on a global and local level. This article presents current key problems and planned directions for EU water policy development, subjected to analysis and assessment. Note is taken on the newest initiative of the European Commission in the area of water policy, especially the plan for protecting Europe’s water resources—the Blueprint to Safeguard Europe’s Water Resources

scholarly journals Scenario Analysis of Initial Water-Rights Allocation to Improve Regional Water Productivities

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tienan Li ◽  
Xueting Zeng ◽  
Cong Chen ◽  
Xiangmin Kong ◽  
Junlong Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Policy ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Probability Distributions ◽  
Water Productivity ◽  
Water Rights ◽  
Risk Attitude ◽  
Risk Attitudes ◽  
Practical Case ◽  
Initial Water ◽  
Model Based

In this study, an initial water-rights allocation (IWRA) model is proposed for adjusting the traditional initial water-rights empowerment model based on previous water intake permits, with the aim of improving the productivity of water resources under population growth and economic development. A stochastic scenario with Laplace criterion mixed fuzzy programming (SSLF) is developed into an IWRA model to deal with multiple uncertainties and complexities, which includes dynamic water demand, changing water policy, adjusted tradable water rights, the precise risk attitude of policymakers, development of the economy, and their interactions. SSLF not only deals with fuzziness in probability distributions with high satisfaction degrees, but also reflects the risk attitudes of policymakers with the Laplace criterion, which can handle the probability of scenario occurrence under the supposition of no data available. The developed IWRA model with the SSLF method is applied to a practical case in an alpine region of China. The results of adjusted initial water rights, optimal water-right allocation, changed industrial structure, and system benefits under various scenarios associated with risk attitudes and water productivity improvement were obtained and analyzed. It was found that the current initial water-rights allocation scheme based on previous intake water permits is not efficient, and this can be modified by the IWRA model. Based on the strategies of drinking safety and ecological security, the main tradeoff between agricultural and industrial water rights can facilitate optimization of the current initial water-rights allocation. This can assist policymakers in producing an effective plan to promote water productivity and water resource management in a robust and reliable manner.

scholarly journals Assessment framework of actor strategies in international river basin management, the case of Deltarhine

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Renner ◽  
Sander Meijerink ◽  
Pieter van der Zaag ◽  
Toine Smits
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Local Level ◽  
River Basin Management ◽  
Assessment Framework ◽  
Basin Management ◽  
International Rivers ◽  
Cooperative Strategies ◽  
International River Basin ◽  
International River

Abstract The combined effects of socio-economic growth as well as climate change exert increasing pressure on international river basins and require dedicated cooperative efforts to jointly manage international rivers. Cooperative strategies drawn from scientific literature, empirical research and practitioner’s handbooks are explored and clustered into six key dimensions of goals, instruments, structures, actors, leadership and resources to provide an assessment tool of actor strategies for both scientists and practitioners. The exploratory framework is applied to Dutch–German cooperation in the delta of the Rhine catchment, testing its conceptual validity and applicability in international river basin management as well as providing policy recommendations for the study area. The assessment framework can serve as an instrument to inventory, map and evaluate the importance of specific actor strategies and to facilitate dialogue and cross-border cooperation between riparian countries. Alternatively, the framework can be put to use, for example by downstream countries, to assess and coordinate their range of strategies on the national, regional and local level in order to engage and influence their counterparts.

scholarly journals Agenda Setting in Water and IWRM: Discourse Analysis of Water Policy Debate in Pakistan

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1656 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Arfan ◽  
Kamran Ansari ◽  
Asmat Ullah ◽  
Daniyal Hassan ◽  
Altaf Siyal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Irrigation Management ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Developmental Needs ◽  
Global Agenda ◽  
The Impact

This article explores the water policy narrative in Pakistan, and identifies its historical trajectories and influences, as well as the impact of the global agenda setting of water for 2030. For this purpose, water sector reforms in Pakistan are examined as a case study. The National Water Policy (NWP) 2018 and Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) reforms are critically evaluated and loopholes identified, in terms of both theoretical aspects and constraints in their practical implementation. The overall analysis reveals that the engineering narrative is dominant in policy circles and large-scale infrastructure construction is seen as an exceptional measure to overcome the current loss of storage potential due to sedimentation. On the other hand, the adoption of the Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) framework reflects the desire of state institutions to imbue water policy reform with international credibility. The IWRM framework has been adopted as isomorphic mimicry to appease international financing institutions and donors. PIM reform is thus far from delivering the desired results due to ideological battles among new (i.e., the Participatory Farmers Institution) and traditional bureaucratic irrigation institutions. As adopted, the global agenda setting of water, in the shape of IWRM, is a repackaging of existing activities, and prevents alternative thinking in the setting of water priorities according to developmental needs.

scholarly journals Technical Note: Seasonality in alpine water resources management – a regional assessment

2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Vanham ◽  
E. Fleischhacker ◽  
W. Rauch
Keyword(s):  
Water Availability ◽  
Water Demand ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Winter Season ◽  
High Water ◽  
Technical Note ◽  
Winter Period ◽  
Winter Tourism ◽  
Alpine Regions

Abstract. Alpine regions are particularly affected by seasonal variations in water demand and water availability. Especially the winter period is critical from an operational point of view, as being characterised by high water demands due to tourism and low water availability due to the temporal storage of precipitation as snow and ice. The clear definition of summer and winter periods is thus an essential prerequisite for water resource management in alpine regions. This paper presents a GIS-based multi criteria method to determine the winter season. A snow cover duration dataset serves as basis for this analysis. Different water demand stakeholders, the alpine hydrology and the present day water supply infrastructure are taken into account. Technical snow-making and (winter) tourism were identified as the two major seasonal water demand stakeholders in the study area, which is the Kitzbueheler region in the Austrian Alps. Based upon different geographical datasets winter was defined as the period from December to March, and summer as the period from April to November. By determining potential regional water balance deficits or surpluses in the present day situation and in future, important management decisions such as water storage and allocation can be made and transposed to the local level.

scholarly journals Re-Interpreting Cooperation in Transboundary Waters: Bringing Experiences from the Brahmaputra Basin

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 2589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anamika Barua ◽  
Arundhati Deka ◽  
Vishaka Gulati ◽  
Sumit Vij ◽  
Xiawei Liao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Entry Point ◽  
Transboundary Rivers ◽  
International Rivers ◽  
Transboundary Waters ◽  
Feasible Option ◽  
Dialogue Process ◽  
Brahmaputra Basin ◽  
The Government ◽  
Definition Of

Several studies have demonstrated the continuum of cooperation on transboundary rivers, but have largely focused on government to government (Track 1) cooperation and formal diplomacy. Formal arrangements like treaties, agreements, joint mechanisms, joint bodies, joint commissions (e.g., river basin organizations), etc., fall within the scope of transboundary waters cooperation. However, in some transboundary rivers, often due to political constraints, Track 1 cooperation might not be a feasible option. When governmental cooperation is a non-starter, effort and progress made outside the government domain through informal dialogues can play a significant role. It is therefore important to re-examine the definition of cooperation as it applies to international rivers, and potentially to broaden its scope. Such an examination raises important questions: What does international cooperation in this context actually mean? Is it formal (Track 1) cooperation related to sharing of water, data, and information only, or does it have a broader meaning? What, precisely, can be the entry point for such cooperation? Are informal transboundary dialogues and water diplomacy itself an entry point for cooperation on international rivers? This paper aimed to answer these critical questions drawing from the “Brahmaputra Dialogue” project initiated in 2013 under the South Asia Water Initiative (SAWI), which involved the four riparian countries of the Brahmaputra Basin. Several important focal points of cooperation emerged through this sustained dialogue, which went beyond sharing hydrological data or signing a basin-level treaty, broadening the definition of “cooperation”. The paper, bringing evidence from the dialogue, argues that the Brahmaputra Dialogue process has led to a broader understanding of cooperation among basin stakeholders, which could influence water resource management of the basin in the future.

Good water governance and IWRM in Zambia: challenges and chances

Water Policy ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 845-862 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Uhlendahl ◽  
Pritam Salian ◽  
Claudia Casarotto ◽  
Jakob Doetsch
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Resources Management ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Integrated Water Resources Management ◽  
Water Sector ◽  
Resources Management ◽  
Hydropower Production

The implementation of principles for water governance is widely accepted but challenging for the whole water sector of a developing country like Zambia, because of the legal and administrative changes and organizational requirements involved. In February 2010, a revised water policy for Zambia was approved by the Cabinet. The revised National Water Policy 2010 aims to improve water resources management by establishing institutional coordination and by defining roles as well as responsibilities for various ministries. Taking into account the previous political and administration changes, this paper points out the problems and challenges of the implementation of good water governance mechanisms in Zambia. Focusing on the Kafue River Basin, from which water is abstracted for a variety of conflicting purposes (like municipal supplies, industrial use, mining, irrigation of agricultural land, fishery activities, wetland reserves and hydropower production), the gaps in implementing good water governance and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in Zambia are identified, as well as the factors causing these gaps in the Zambian water sector. The paper finishes with a overview of the opportunities given by the new water policy through Water User Associations (WUAs) at a local level.

scholarly journals Developing a dynamic framework to examine the interplay between environmental stress, stakeholder participation processes and hydrological systems

2014 ◽  
Vol 364 ◽  
pp. 326-332
Author(s):  
G. Carr ◽  
G. Blöschl ◽  
D. P. Loucks
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Resource Management ◽  
Environmental Stress ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Stakeholder Participation ◽  
Institutional Conditions ◽  
Dynamic Framework ◽  
Environmental Events

Abstract. Stakeholder participation is increasingly discussed as essential for sustainable water resource management. Yet detailed understanding of the factors driving its use, the processes by which it is employed, and the outcomes or achievements it can realise remains highly limited, and often contested. This understanding is essential to enable water policy to be shaped for efficient and effective water management. This research proposes and applies a dynamic framework that can explore in which circumstances environmental stress events, such as floods, droughts or pollution, drive changes in water governance towards a more participatory approach, and how this shapes the processes by which participation or stakeholder engagement takes place, and the subsequent water management outcomes that emerge. The framework is able to assess the extent to which environmental events in combination with favourable contextual factors (e.g. institutional support for participatory activities) lead to good participatory processes (e.g. well facilitated and representative) that then lead to good outcomes (e.g. improved ecological conditions). Through applying the framework to case studies from the literature it becomes clear that environmental stress events can stimulate participatory governance changes, when existing institutional conditions promote participatory approaches. The work also suggests that intermediary outcomes, which may be tangible (such as reaching an agreement) or non-tangible (such as developing shared knowledge and understanding among participants, or creating trust), may provide a crucial link between processes and resource management outcomes. If this relationship can be more strongly confirmed, the presence or absence of intermediary outcomes may even be used as a valuable proxy to predict future resource management outcomes.

Hydrological information system based on on-line monitoring - from strategy to implementation in the Brantas River Basin, East Java, Indonesia

2003 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.W. Marini ◽  
H. Weilguni
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Management Strategy ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Monitoring Network ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Water Quantity ◽  
Basin Management ◽  
On Line ◽  
Pollutant Propagation

The worsening environmental situation of the Brantas River, East Java, is addressed by a comprehensive basin management strategy which relies on accurate water quantity and quality data retrieved from a newly installed online monitoring network. Integrated into a Hydrological Information System, the continuously measured indicative parameters allow early warning, control and polluter identification. Additionally, long-term analyses have been initiated for improving modelling applications like flood forecasting, water resource management and pollutant propagation. Preliminary results illustrate the efficiency of the installed system.

EU policy on nutrients emissions: legislation and implementation

2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Blöch
Keyword(s):  
Water Framework Directive ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Waste Water Treatment ◽  
River Basin Management ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Basin Management ◽  
Limit Values ◽  
Water Legislation ◽  
Emission Limit

After 25 years of EU water legislation the European Union has just thoroughly restructured its water policy. The European Parliament and the Council, following a tough conciliation procedure between the two legislators, have in summer 2000 agreed a proposal by the European Commission for a Water Framework Directive. This legislation will have the following main objectives:integrated river basin management across borders, with coordinated programmes of measuresprotection of all waters, surface waters and groundwater, in quality and quantity with a proper ecological dimensionemissions and discharges controlled by a “combined approach” of emission limit values and quality standards, plus the phasing out of particularly hazardous substancesintroducing water pricing policiesstrengthening public participation This new Water Framework Directive adopted in September 2000 will complement existing EU water legislation on nutrients reduction - the 1991 Directive on nitrates pollution from agricultural sources and the 1991 Directive on urban waste water treatment. These Directives will remain main pillars of EU water policy whilst at the same time being integrated into the river basin management in a coherent way.

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