scholarly journals Integrated water management tools supporting future water security and food production in West Africa

Author(s):  
H. Maléki Badjana ◽  
J. Helmschrot ◽  
W.-A. Flügel ◽  
K. Wala ◽  
A. Afouda ◽  
...  

2007 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 105-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Ravesteijn ◽  
O. Kroesen

Present-day worldwide water problems require new management tools and sustainable system innovations. At Delft University of Technology research is being carried out into water resources and management development aimed at forming such tools and innovations, focused on Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM). One of the case-studies deals with Dutch water management and technology in the context of European IRBM in the form of the 2000 Water Frame Directive. The Netherlands experience many water problems and European IRBM could bring help by offering a framework for both international cooperation and technological innovations. To work as an adequate management tool European IRBM should be tailored to the Dutch water tradition, which recently culminated in Integrated Water Management. Both approaches are in some respects contradicting. Europe pursues, for example, centralized control; while the Dutch have their strongly water boards based decentralized administration. The tensions between both approaches require mutual adaptation, for which the concept of subsidiarity might offer points of departure. This paper describes the first results of the case-research into Dutch water management and technology in the context of Europe as well as the backgrounds and the set-up of the research as a whole.


2014 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte De Fraiture ◽  
Aynur Fayrap ◽  
Olcay Unver ◽  
Ragab Ragab

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 1914
Author(s):  
Graziele Muniz Miranda ◽  
Emmanuel Reynard

International water institutions worldwide consider integrated water resources management (IWRM) to be the most sustainable way to manage water. Governments have modified their legal and institutional framework in order to apply integrated water management tools in the river basin. Institutional challenges are common in federations due to complex power sharing at national and subnational levels. This article discusses the implementation of the hegemonic model of IWRM in federations, based on a review of the literature for two different federal countries: Brazil and Switzerland. Due to the centralized character of Brazilian federalism, adjustments made in recent decades aimed to adapt the water management model through a hegemonic approach of participation and decentralization, shaped by international experiences and institutions. Some challenges concern vertical interplay, concerning coordination between levels and effective implementation of decentralization and participation. In contrast, Switzerland has a non-hegemonic model of water management, which is varied and fragmented throughout the country. As management is decided and applied locally, the main challenge concerns horizontal interplay, with regionalization and coordination of water uses.


Author(s):  
J. E. Nettles

Abstract. As climate variability endangers water security in many parts of the world, maximizing the carbon balance of plantation forestry is of global importance. High plant water use efficiency is generally associated with lower plant productivity, so an explicit balance in resources is necessary to optimize water yield and tree growth. This balance requires predicting plant water use under different soil, climate, and planting conditions, as well as a mechanism to account for trade-offs in ecosystem services. Several strategies for reducing the water use of forests have been published but there is little research tying these to operational forestry. Using data from silvicultural and biofuel feedstock research in pine plantation ownership in the southeastern USA, proposed water management tools were evaluated against known treatment responses to estimate water yield, forest productivity, and economic outcomes. Ecosystem impacts were considered qualitatively and related to water use metrics. This work is an attempt to measure and compare important variables to make sound decisions about plantations and water use.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marium Sara Minhas Bandeali

Water governance and management are important challenges for the River Indus Basin in Pakistan. Water governance refers to social, political and economic factors that influence water management. The water scarcity and water security are a major concern for the state to control its water resources. The study aims to give Sindh water policy by exploring the challenges to Indus Basin in managing water resources and to identify opportunities Indus Basin can look to improve water management. Interviews were conducted from water experts and analysts having 5 years’ experience or more in the water sector of Pakistan through a semi-structured self-developed questionnaire using purposive sampling technique and transcripts were analyzed using thematic content analysis. The findings show that increasing population, climatic change and rising demand of water are major challenges Indus is facing and Indus with time is getting water-scarce therefore need strong institutions, civil society and legislatures to ensure equitable distribution of water and maintain the ecosystem. The study emphasizes that water governance and management are necessary for sustainable use of water. Pakistan, the water stress country needs to address ‘governance’ at a wider scale to solve problems in the Indus Basin for the livelihood of people. The research will benefit the state, water experts, institutions as well as civil society to promote efficient use of water in Indus Basin.


2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 261-267
Author(s):  
J.L. De la Peña ◽  
M. De la Peña ◽  
M. Salgot ◽  
Ll. Torcal

The history and water-related features in the Poblet Cistercian Monastery, located in Tarragona province, Spain are described. The study is undertaken with the main purpose of obtaining data for the establishment of an integrated water management system inside the walls of the abbey, which is suffering water scarcity due to increasing demands and the prevalent semiarid conditions.


1995 ◽  
Vol 31 (8) ◽  
pp. 393-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joost de Jong ◽  
Peter T. J. C. van Rooy ◽  
S. Harry Hosper

Until the last two decades, the global perception of how to control our various water bodies was remarkably similar – water management was organised on a sectoral basis, as it always had been. It was only in the 1970s that the people actually responsible for implementing water management began to become aware of the serious implications of such an approach: water quality deterioration, desiccation and an alarming loss of the flora and fauna that characterised their local water environment. It was a growing awareness that led to the formation of the concept of integrated water management, a concept almost universally accepted today as the way forward. However, despite the fact that few dispute the validity of the concept, a number of obstacles remain before this theoretical agreement can be transformed into practical action. Three main bottlenecks stand in the way of implementation: institutional, communicational and socio-political. Whilst solutions to these are available, the key question still to be answered is whether society is really prepared to accept the consequent changes in the way we live that will result from putting the theory of integrated water management into practice. It was this issue that dominated the “Living with water” conference held in Amsterdam in September 1994. The following is a summary of the discussions held there and the various papers that were submitted.


1995 ◽  
Vol 31 (8) ◽  
pp. 301-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Govert D. Geldof

In integrated water management, the issues are often complex by nature, they are capable of subjective interpretation, are difficult to express in standards and exhibit many uncertainties. For such issues, an equilibrium approach is not appropriate. A non-equilibrium approach has to be applied. This implies that the processes to which the integrated issue pertains, are regarded as “alive”’. Instead of applying a control system as the model for tackling the issue, a network is used as the model. In this network, several “agents”’ are involved in the modification, revision and rearrangement of structures. It is therefore an on-going renewal process (perpetual novelty). In the planning process for the development of a groundwater policy for the municipality of Amsterdam, a non-equilibrium approach was adopted. In order to do justice to the integrated character of groundwater management, an approach was taken, containing the following features: (1) working from global to detailed, (2) taking account of the history of the system, (3) giving attention to communication, (4) building flexibility into the establishing of standards, and (5) combining reason and emotions. A middle course was sought, between static, rigid but reliable on the one hand; dynamic, flexible but vague on the other hand.


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