Front Cover -- The Potential of Microbes for a Circular Economy -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- List of contributors -- 1 Introduction to circular economy-a unique approach -- 1.1 Introduction -- 1.2 History of circular economy -- 1.3 Principles of the circular economy concept -- 1.4 Conceptual differences between linear and circular economy -- 1.5 Benefits of circular economy -- 1.6 Need for circular economy in agriculture -- 1.7 The importance of circular economy in agriculture-food streams -- 1.8 Potential of microbes in circular economy -- 1.8.1 Promises of macrofungi in circular economy -- 1.9 Microorganisms are the key tool in agro waste bioconversion -- 1.10 Challenges and opportunities -- 1.11 Conclusions -- Acknowledgments -- References -- 2 Framework for implementing circular economy in agriculture -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 What is a circular economy? -- 2.3 Differences between a linear economy and a circular economy -- 2.3.1 Linear economy -- 2.3.1.1 Resource extraction (take) -- 2.3.1.2 Manufacturing (make) -- 2.3.1.3 Consumption (use) -- 2.3.1.4 Disposal (dispose) -- 2.4 Challenges of the linear economy -- 2.4.1 Circular economy -- 2.4.1.1 Reduce-reuse-recycle model -- 2.4.1.2 Resource efficiency -- 2.4.1.3 Sustainability and resilience -- 2.4.1.4 Long-term focus -- 2.4.1.5 Waste as a resource -- 2.5 Why do we need a circular economy? -- 2.6 The circular economy: a vital response to the global waste challenge -- 2.7 Importance of circular economy in agriculture -- 2.7.1 Environmental restoration -- 2.7.2 Resource optimization -- 2.7.3 Sustainable development -- 2.8 Definition and principle of circular agriculture -- 2.9 Benefits of circular agriculture -- 2.10 Framework for implementing circular economy in agriculture -- 2.11 Step 1: understand and assess -- 2.12 Step 2: identify opportunities and challenges.
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Tom Reid, Biodiversity Technical Specialist in the Environment Agency's Kent, South London and East Sussex Area, explains how the future of the Little Stour, a chalk stream in Kent, is being safeguarded through partnership working on an innovative restoration project.
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Today, as the Chalk Stream Restoration Strategy (CSRS) Implementation Plan, is officially launched, our Norfolk catchment coordinator Amy Prendergast tells us about some partnership projects she has worked on to help improve chalk streams in Norfolk. As a catchment coordinator …
Chapter 1. Ecological restoration: An Overview of Science & Policy Regime -- Chapter 2. Lifestyle for Environment: Life Mission and Synergies with Eco-restoration -- Chapter 3. Optimal Management of Potential Water and Sediment Yield from Urban Hilly Watershed -- Chapter 4. Mainstreaming Peri-Urban Ecosystems for Urban Resilience through Policy-Planning Framework: An Opportunity Analysis for Indian Cities -- Chapter 5. Urban Forest and Ecosystem Services Intercede Urban Habitat in Delhi -- Chapter 6. Restoration and rejuvenation of rivers, streams and wetlands: Challenges and way forward -- Chapter 7. Ecosystem services for Water Management: A review of global approaches and experiences -- Chapter 8. Rejuvenation of Rivers in India-A Case Study on efforts for Rejuvenation of River Ganga -- Chapter 9. Rejuvenation of Kukrail Drain -- Chapter 10. Hydrological modelling using HEC-HMS and estimation of the flood peak by Gumbel's method of Hasdeo Basin, Chhattisgarh, India -- Chapter 11. Comparing Runoff of NRCS-CN Method and Observed Runoff Data A Case Study -- Chapter 12. Artificial neural network models for rainfall-runoff modeling in India- studies from of Kolar and Kuttiyadi River watersheds -- Chapter 13. Analysis of urbanization and assessment of its impact on ground water & land use land cover using GIS techniques – Case study of Bhopal & Gurugram district -- Chapter 14. Application of Water Accounting Plus Framework for the assessment of the Water consumption pattern and Food security -- Chapter 15. Comparison of Probability Distributions for Extreme Value Analysis and Predicting Monthly Rainfall Pattern using Bayesian Regularized-ANN -- Chapter 16. An Indexing Method for Evaluating Managerial Effectiveness of a Watershed Project and Functional Involvement of Participant Organisations -- Chapter 17. Pathways to build resilience towards the impact of climate change on the Indian Sunderban -- Chapter 18. Eco-restoration for Climate Resilience and Disaster Risk Reduction -- Chapter 19. Ecosystems and Nature - Based Solutions (NbS) for Health Protection and Epidemic Resilience -- Chapter 20. Fresh Water Ecosystem Conservation for Social Protection, Business, and Local Economy.
Decision-Support for Additive Repair Processes with a Multi-Agent System -- AI Education for Middle/ High School Level: A Proposal of a System that Supports Teachers to Design their AI Lessons -- Sensor Data Restoration in Internet of Things Systems Using Machine Learning Approach -- Potential of eXtended Intelligence (XI) for Extending Human Expression from Digitization of Analog Elements -- ML-Based System Failur Prediction Using Resource Utilization -- Audio Streams Synchronization for Music Performances -- Development of an Image Processing Application that Represents Onomatopoeia -- Design of a Memory Palace Memory Aid Application Based on Trajectory Mnemonics.
Part (I) Introduction to river hazards and their management: Chapter 1. Natural River Hazards: Their Impacts and Mitigation Techniques -- Chapter 2. Assessment of sediment hazard and associated measurement -- Chapter 3. Modelling approach to study the riverine flood hazard of lower Damodar river -- Chapter 4. Field measurement of accumulated surface water and infiltration depth in a flood-prone Langol catchment of Manipur valley region -- Chapter 5. Soil erosion analysis with respect to land use / land cover change in Godavari basin -- Part (II) Stability of Hydraulic Structures and Sediment Transport: Chapter 6. Stability of hydraulic structures against erosion and scour due to water jets -- Chapter 7. Stabilization of Manmade Embankments at Indian Sundarban Estuary through Turbulence Control at Flow-Sediment Interface: Field Survey and Flume Experimentation -- Chapter 8. A Review of Sedimentation on Different Types of Weirs -- Chapter 9. A Review on Parametric Studies of Piano Key Weir -- Chapter 10 Influence of boundary condition on the modified 2D shallow water model near the flow-structure interaction zone: a case study in Brahmaputra River -- Chapter 11. A Review on Estimation Methods of Scour Depth around Bridge Pier -- Chapter 12. Estimation of Shear force Distribution in Two-stage open channel using SVM and ANFIS -- Chapter 13. Sediment transport modelling through machine learning methods: Review of current challenges and strategies -- Chapter 14. Impact of Anthropocene on the fluvial sediment supply: The Mahanadi River basin perspective -- Chapter 15. Assessment of sediment hazards by bed level variations around the bridge pier -- Chapter 16. Equation development for equilibrium bed load -- Part (III) Hydrological hazards and ecological restoration: Chapter 17. Flood mitigation with river restoration using Porcupine systems -- Chapter 18. Flood prioritisation of basins based on geomorphometric properties using Morphometric analysis and Principal component analysis: A case study of the Maner River basin -- Chapter 19. Flood modelling of Krishna river at Sangli using HEC-RAS -- Chapter 20. Development of Machine Learning based Flood Prediction Model for Godavari River Basin -- Chapter 21. Field study on soil organic matter content in inundation areas of Langol catchment by loss- on-ignition" method -- Chapter 22. Agricultural Drought Assessment using Satellite based Surface Soil Moisture Estimate -- Chapter 23. A Review on Hydrodynamics of Vegetated Streams -- Chapter 24. Analysis of Stormwater Drainage Network of the Central Zone in the Surat City by Using SWMM 5.1 Software -- Chapter 25. Review of state-of-the-art research on river hydrological hazards, restoration and management -- Chapter 26. Erosion Susceptibility Mapping based on Hypsometric Analysis using Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System Techniques -- Part (IV) Climate change and Global warming issues: Chapter 27. Climate Change Implication and Adaptation for River systems -- Chapter 28. Non-parametric approaches to identify rainfall pattern in semi-arid regions: Ranipet, Vellore, and Tirupathur districts, Tamil Nadu, India -- Chapter 29. Decadal-based analysis of hydrological components in the Kesinga sub-catchment in Mahanadi Basin: An assessment of climate variability impact -- Chapter 30. Prediction of Future Rainfall in the Upper Godavari Basin Using Statistical Downscaling Model -- Chapter 31. Projecting Future Maximum Temperature Changes in River Ganges Basin using Observations and Statistical Downscaling Model (SDSM) -- Chapter 32. Trend Assessment of Rainfall over Mumbai and Pune Cities -- Chapter 33. Evaluation of Potential lakes Susceptible to GLOF using Multi-Criteria Assessment in Jhelum Sub-basin of Indus Basin.
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Last month, CEGA held its ninth annual Measuring Development (MeasureDev) conference on "Mitigating the Risks and Impacts of Climate Change," in partnership with the World Bank's Development Impact Evaluation (DIME) Department, Data Analytics and Tools Unit (DECAT), and the University of Chicago's Development Innovation Lab (DIL). Speakers showcased innovative approaches for measuring and tracking climate-related risk, developing effective responses, and evaluating outcomes in data-sparse environments. Sean Luna McAdams, CEGA's Data Science for Development Program Manager, shares key insights from the event here.Climate change is disrupting weather patterns around the world. Look no further than the unhealthy levels of smoke in the Northeast's skies last week. The impacts on human activity require urgent investments in mitigation and resilience for those most vulnerable. Last month, CEGA, DIL, and the World Bank brought together some of the most innovative social and natural scientists working on this existential challenge to share how they are pushing the frontiers of data collection, for example by using remote sensing technologies, engaging in participatory data collection, and effectively (and meaningfully) integrating different data streams.University of Chicago's Rachel Glennester emphasized the importance of measurement to help diagnose, mitigate, and adapt to climate change, particularly to incentivize green investments in LMICs. Credit: World Bank.A Call for Better Measurement"Mitigation is one of the true global public goods," noted the University of Chicago's Rachel Glennester in her keynote address. Indeed, the efforts by one country or group of countries to reduce carbon emissions will have benefits that are felt worldwide. Recognizing that low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) — who have historically contributed little to climate change — nevertheless face growing opportunities to mitigate emissions for the whole planet, Rachel suggested high-income countries could fund highly costeffective mitigation efforts in LMICs. These payments should not be considered aid as they benefit the world and offset high income countries' damage to the atmosphere. To do this effectively we need scalable approaches to measuring emissions, among many other critical indicators.Cost-Effective Measurement with Remote SensingMany speakers addressed the challenge of cost-effective measurement through the use of remote sensing. CEGA Affiliate Tamma Carleton highlighted the promise of satellite imagery and machine learning (SIML) to improve climate management. Her own work on MOSAIKS demonstrates the potential for these data and predictive models to increase the spatial coverage and resolution of survey and administrative georeferenced data, while lowering barriers to access for decision-makers in low-resource settings. Similarly, Dieter Wang showcased how higher resolution and frequency satellite imagery alongside cloud-penetrating sensors can improve estimates of how well conservation policies in the Brazilian Amazon are preventing deforestation. Better measurement in this case makes it possible to reward governments through bonds whose rates are tied to mitigation performance. Kangogo Sogomo discussed a novel approach that leverages satellite imagery to predict maize yields at a finer scale with less computational resources.Since 2010, new satellites have come online that increase both sensor resolution and cloud-free revisit rate. These advances provide researchers with more granular and frequent imagery data to incorporate into their analyses. Credit: Burke et al, Science 2021.Of course, remote sensing is not just limited to satellites and can inform adaptation and resilience alongside mitigation. Samuel Seo, for example, compared measurement strategies for methane emissions from a large, unmanaged landfill in Dakar, Senegal by collecting data using human enumerators, drones, and satellites. Across the board, these measurements suggest that current approaches used by the IPCC underestimate total emissions from these sites by more than half. Bridget Hoffman instead used low-cost air pollution sensors along bus routes and within buses in Dakar to understand the effects of an infrastructure project on air quality. Drones, stationary sensors, and other instruments can all provide rich data at scale to improve the evaluation and monitoring of climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.The Role of Participatory Data CollectionResearchers and climate practitioners not only think creatively about the sensors they use to collect data, they also innovate data collection and its infrastructure to make it more participatory. Kangogo Sogomo noted increasing mobile phone use and internet penetration across the global South suggesting, "climate action is urgent… there is still an opportunity for having participatory methods [for data collection]." Tom Bewick, for example, has trained indigenous communities in Africa and Latin America how to collect georeferenced data on planted trees to improve the monitoring of their growth and local collective governance. Similarly, Kenneth Mubea, who works to conserve mangrove forests, discussed how his research assembled teams of students to work with local communities to collect georeferenced data. Participatory approaches can extend to model validation, as with the case of Alejandra Mortarini. She worked with organizations that have long-standing relationships with communities living in informal settlements in Honduras to help validate the outputs of the predictive model and calibrate it to improve its performance. By incorporating local actors into data collection efforts, we can increase its frequency, provide greater access, and contribute to a local culture of evidence-use.New Approaches to Data IntegrationA third strategy to make data collection cheaper and more effective relies on exploiting efficiencies generated by integrating different data streams. The World Bank's Stéphane Hallegatte stressed the opportunity of integrating different data sources in his remarks."We have all this fantastic progress in measurement with remote sensing and big data, we have these household surveys that are playing an absolutely critical role to measure what we are doing and to prioritize," said Hallegatte. "One of the big challenges is to make them completely interlinked and to flow smoothly from the spatial to household surveys, and have household surveys that can be more flexible when there is a shock that can use data coming from satellites to maybe focus and do dedicated surveys in places that have been affected by a shock."In particular, Hallegatte stressed that traditional measures of vulnerability may lead us to miss some individuals who may be critically underprepared to face the "long tails" of climate shocks. Adaptive research designs can help us understand which interventions work best in particular contexts and communities, improving our understanding of how climate systems affect those who are socioeconomically and environmentally most vulnerable and how we may build resilience together.Hallegatte stressed how different metrics of climate vulnerability can lead policy makers to prioritize different areas. Here we see how four different risk indicators — annual asset risk, annual consumption poverty increase, socioeconomic resilience, and annual well-being risk — map onto the Philippines. Source: Hallegatte 2023.Paola Agostini, Mohammed Basheer, and Erwin Knippenberg simulated physical and social systems in their research designs. These simulations enabled each of them to estimate new quantities of interest, like the decision-space of negotiations for potential dam designs in the Nile River Basin, the cost-per-benefit of different land restoration interventions in Tajikistan, or the percentage of the population at risk of falling into poverty due to weather shocks in Afghanistan. Ben Brunckhorst showed how the incorporation of weather predictions unlocks the possibility of anticipatory cash transfers with demonstrable effects on household resilience to flooding in Bangladesh.Through better measurement we can improve our collective efforts to meet the challenge of climate change. As Hallegatte reminded us in his keynote remarks, how we construct these measures of impact fundamentally affects what regions, communities, and interventions we prioritize. A critical part of this effort will be to leverage measurement strategies highlighted during MeasureDev 2023 to channel resources to the places and communities where interventions to mitigate and adapt to climate change will have the greatest impact. In so doing, measurement can contribute to a more equitable future by incentivizing green investments in LMICs.How does Measurement Contribute to a Habitable Planet for All? was originally published in CEGA on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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Mickey Levy's excellent WSJ oped leaves some thoughts. Inflation has fallen, though I still suspect it may get stuck around 3-4%. But prices "are 18.9% higher than its [their] pre-pandemic level." And some important prices have risen even more. "Rental costs continue to rise in lagged response to the 46.1% surge in home prices." Those who are taking a victory lap about the end of inflation (the rate of change of prices) are befuddled by continuing consumer (and voter) anger. Well, prices are not the same thing as inflation. Our current monetary policy has, for decades, forgotten past mistakes. If inflation surges to 10%, and prices rise 10%, it is considered a victory, and battle over when inflation gets back to 2%, though prices are still 12% higher than they were. It wasn't always this way. Under the gold standard, prices were stable for long periods, which means that bouts of inflation were quickly followed by bouts of deflation. I'm absolutely not advocating for the gold standard, but it's worth remembering that price stability rather than inflation stability is possible. Why the fuss? As Mickey points out, not all prices rose the same amount. In particular, "Increases in wage and salaries ... haven't kept pace with the CPI and have resulted in a decline in real wages." No wonder "the public isn't pleased." This offers an interesting moment to rethink the basic idea of bygones will be bygones in monetary policy. Wages are, by common agreement, a lot more sticky than prices. Eventually wages will catch up, but it will be a long and contentious process. Wouldn't it be better, after a bout of inflation, for prices to come down quickly, to match the current level of nominal wages? "Real wage restoration" has a nice ring to it that even Fed doves and inequality worriers might appreciate. MortgagesMickey also points to a fascinating puzzle of our mortgage markets: Tens of millions of homeowners who locked in mortgages at rates below 3% between 2020 and 2021 are now unwilling to sell. The result is a shortage of homes on the market and higher prices. ..That in turn has impaired labor mobility, historically an important factor for production and labor-market efficiencies.In the US, if you wish to protect yourself against rising mortgage interest rates by buying a fixed rate mortgage, you can only do it bundled with one particular house. You cannot easily say, "I don't want to get hit by interest rate rises, but I might want to move and still be able to afford a big house." So we are stuck with this interesting puzzle, that higher interest rates to combat inflation lead to people staying parked in houses they really don't want, unwilling to move to take a better job somewhere else, to downsize, to cash out of a house-poor expensive area (Palo Alto), to upsize for more children or elderly parents, and so on. 30 year fixed rate non-transferrable mortgages with a complex option to prepay and refinance when interest rates go down, and little consequence for default (whew) are not a law of nature. It is not this way around the world, and I've been fascinated to talk to economists at other central banks about their very different worries. In many countries almost all mortgages have floating rates, that quickly catch up to any rise in short term interest rates. In many of these countries, it is not easy to default. If interest rates rise from 2% to 6% and you can't afford to triple your monthly payment, you can't just give the bank the keys as you typically can in the US. In Sweden, I was told, if you default on a mortgage, the bank will grab all your other assets, and also garnish your wages for several years. You will live on their minimum social assistance income, about $15,000 at the time of this conversation, for several years. As a result, central banks in these countries have a completely different set of worries about raising interest rates. Rather than worry about defaults that will imperil banks, they worry that people will stop spending on everything else before defaulting on their mortgage. So monetary policy (raising interest rates), surprisingly ineffective right now in the US, can be dramatically more "effective" with that sort of mortgage market. (Yes, inducing a fall in consumption is the point of raising interest rates.) I don't know of mainstream models that include this distinction but it seems first order for the effect of interest rates on the economy. Central bankers also worry a lot more about public backlash when mortgage costs for the whole population can swiftly double or more. Back to the US. Why can you not keep your mortgage when you change houses? Why must protection against interest rate rises -- a form of insurance, really -- be tied to staying in one house? Put that way, you can come up with a dozen legal, regulatory, and perhaps even economic reasons. The 30 year fixed rate itself is an invention of 1930s federal housing policy. Banks hold very few mortgages. Pretty much the whole mortgage market gets securitized with a credit guarantee by federal housing agencies (Fannie, Freddy, etc.). So if their rules for acceptable mortgage says you can't change houses, well, you can't change houses, no matter what demand. Subsidies for a particular version of a product kill product innovation. One real estate economist I asked this of suggested that the mortgage originators like it this way, as it forces you to pay fees to move. And one can speculate that lenders don't want you to substitute a worse house as collateral. I don't think that holds, because acceptability of the house follows simple rules, but it's possible. So, today's bright idea: Why don't banks also routinely sell retail fixed for floating swaps? These are standard financial contracts that have been around for decades. Here's how it works: You take out a floating rate mortgage, at say 2%. Fixed rate mortgages are, say, 3%. So along with your mortgage, you agree with the bank that you will pay the bank 3% a year, fixed for 30 years, and the bank will pay the floating mortgage rate. That's 2% now, but if interest rates rise, the bank has to pay 5% and you keep paying 3%. Now you can sell the house. When you get a new house, you use the floating rate (5%) to pay the new higher mortgage on the house, while you keep paying 3% out of pocket. We have synthesized a portable mortgage. Why doesn't this happen? I await your speculation in the comments. Banks trade fixed for floating swaps among themselves all the time, so laying off the risk is not hard. As usual, I am drawn to wonder what tax or regulation is in the way. I can think of a few. First, you will get the mortgage interest tax deduction only on the actual mortgage. The actual 3% fixed mortgage lets you deduct the whole 3%. You will pay income tax on fixed for floating payments. This is really an insurance payment, like fire insurance, which shouldn't be taxable, but the IRS will likely treat it as such. Perhaps if insurance companies sold the product they could lobby Washington for rules to extend the tax exemption, but then you lose some of the efficiency of banks doing what is properly the business of banks. Heaven knows how bank regulators and consumer financial protection regulators will do to tangle up a perfectly sensible product. The Fed finally caved in to political pressure to put climate in financial regulation: banks must manage their balance sheets for physical risks from climate change, such as flooding or drought, as well as the "stresses to institutions or sectors arising from the shifts in policy, consumer and business sentiment, or technologies associated with the changes that would be part of a transition to a lower carbon economy."...Shifts in policy? OK Citi, what will happen to your balance sheet if a Republican gets elected and cancels electric vehicle mandates? Oh, maybe that's not the "change in policy" banks are supposed to anticipate. Banks will also have to conduct a "climate-related scenario analysis"—don't call them stress tests—that extend "beyond the financial institution's typical strategic planning horizon" and account for potential losses in "extreme but plausible scenarios." Well, if anvils fall from the sky... But I digress. With this sort of thing coming from regulators, who has the time to create and get approval for a new product that might actually serve homeowners and help to unlock housing supply in places where it's scarce? If you can think of other regulatory (or economic) barriers, comment away. Or maybe, just maybe, we're waiting for a sharp fintech company to figure out that floating + swap is a product consumers would want. (Swaps also require counterparties to post collateral, i.e. put in enough cash that the other side can be sure the payment stream keeps going, and in the event of default come out even. On the household side, equity in the house should serve as it does for mortgages; it would be like a second mortgage claim on home equity. That's a reason to bundle retail swaps with the mortgage issuance. One could have banks post collateral too, though enough priority in bankruptcy should do the trick as these are retail contracts. ) (The madness of refinancing fixed mortgages is also puzzling. I know a lot of very good financial economists, and not one can figure out the optimal time to refinance a fixed rate mortgage. Why not just sell mortgages that adjust down but not up? Sure, you'll pay a few basis points extra, but we save a lot of complexity and the costs of getting that option wrong. The same answers as above may apply.) Update:I long ago proposed "health status insurance," which is insurance against health insurance premium increases. If you get sick and your health insurance increases, the premium insurance pays the higher health insurance, or a lump sum so you can do it. What I'm suggesting here is also "mortgage rate rise insurance." Get a floating rate mortgage and separate mortgage rate insurance. If the mortgage rate rises, the insurance pays the higher rate, or a lump sum so you can do it. While we're at it, the major difference between buying and renting is that buying allows you to stay in the house no matter if rents go up, where renters bear the risk of higher rents. It's puzzling that you can get long-term commercial leases, but residential leases allow the rent to rise each year. Rent increase insurance could work the same way. Rent for a year, buy rent increase insurance, and if the rent goes up, rent increase insurance pays the difference or pays a lump sum so you can do it. (Renters synthesize this somewhat by renting and then voting in rent control!) Update 2:As many commenters point out, another way to handle the problem is for borrowers to be able to buy their own mortgage back, as is done in Denmark.
"River restoration has expanded exponentially in the last three decades, with increased investment by government agencies, private developers, and NGOs. The available literature -- both scholarly works and government guidance manuals -- has grown proportionately, but has been almost entirely about ecological, hydrological, and geomorphological aspects of restoration. Yet the primary issues faced by many restoration programs have more to do with legal, economic, and institutional barriers and public perception and acceptance, than with physical and ecological constraints (though these can be formidable as well). Diverse issues such as the installation of habitat structures and replanting along a small creek by a local group, or a major program to restore complex habitat, a more natural flow regime, and sediment supply to a river below a dam, require an understanding of the social dimensions of river restoration projects. For anyone funding, permitting, planning, designing, or building river restoration projects, a concise, up-to-date, clearly organized treatment of the critical socio-economic issues relevant to river restoration will be a very useful asset. Most people involved in restoration projects (ecologists, engineers, landscape architects, hydrologists) lack a strong background in the social sciences. Increasingly however, these professionals understand that they must consider social dimensions. This book will fill a critical gap in their libraries summarizing how social approaches can contribute to river restoration projects and policies. The aim of this book is to present and synthesize understanding from recent advances in social sciences related to river restoration. It will cover not only supposedly "intangible" social phenomena -- such as ethics, culture and justice -- but also very tangible practical aspects -- including policy, governance, project management, decision making and stakeholder interactions -- to give a complete picture of the sometimes complex interaction of issues in river restoration."--
Watersheds are often degraded by human activities, reducing their ability to provide ecosystem functions and services. While governmental agencies have put forward plans for improving watershed health, resources are limited, and choices must be made as to which watersheds to prioritize and what actions to take. Prioritization tools with sufficient specificity, resolution, and automation are needed to guide decisions on restoration and management actions across large scales. To address this need, we developed a set of tools to support the protection of streams and associated riparian habitats across the state of California. We developed and tested watershed condition estimation models based on bioassessment data, used the EPA's StreamCat dataset to identify stressors, incorporated environmental justice factors and developed reach-specific models to prioritize actions. We applied the prioritization tools statewide and were able to identify 18% of stream reaches that are in good condition but that are most vulnerable to existing stressors and an additional 19% of stream reaches that are degraded and are highest priority for restoration and management. The remaining 63% of stream reaches were prioritized for protection and periodic monitoring or minor remedial actions. The results of this project can help regional stakeholders and agencies prioritize hundreds of millions of dollars being spent to protect, acquire, and restore stream and riparian habitats. The methods are directly transferable by using any regional condition and stress data that can be readily obtained.
AbstractBiological communities in freshwater streams are often impaired by multiple stressors (e.g., flow or water quality) originating from anthropogenic activities such as urbanization, agriculture, or energy extraction. Restoration efforts in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, USA seek to improve biological conditions in 10% of freshwater tributaries and to protect the biological integrity of existing healthy watersheds. To achieve these goals, resource managers need to better understand which stressors are most likely driving biological impairment. Our study addressed this knowledge gap through two approaches: 1) reviewing and synthesizing published multi-stressor studies, and 2) examining 303(d) listed impairments linked to biological impairment as identified by jurisdiction regulatory agencies (the states within the watershed and the District of Columbia). Results identified geomorphology (i.e., physical habitat), salinity, and toxic contaminants as important for explaining variability in benthic community metrics in the literature review. Geomorphology (i.e., physical habitat and sediment), salinity, and nutrients were the most reported stressors in the jurisdictional impairment analysis. Salinity is likely a major stressor in urban and mining settings, whereas geomorphology was commonly reported in agricultural settings. Toxic contaminants, such as pesticides, were rarely measured; more research is needed to quantify the extent of their effects in the region. Flow alteration was also highlighted as an important urban stressor in the literature review but was rarely measured in the literature or reported by jurisdictions as a cause of impairment. These results can be used to prioritize stressor monitoring by managers, and to improve stressor identification methods for identifying causes of biological impairment.
Intro -- Preface -- Contents -- Part I: Hydrology -- Chapter 1: Environmental Flows and Their Assessment -- INTRODUCTION -- IMPORTANCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL FLOWS IN ECOSYSTEM -- METHODS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL FLOWS ASSESSMENT -- CASE STUDIES -- The EF in Upper Ganga Basin -- Streamflow Variability -- Environmental Flow (EF) Assessment Using Modified Empirical Method -- Gazette Notification for EF Assessment in Upper Ganga Basin -- The EF in Yamuna Basin -- Integrated Modeling for Assessment of e-flows -- IMPLEMENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL FLOWS -- SUMMARY -- References -- Chapter 2: Story of the Ganga River: Its Pollution and Rejuvenation -- INTRODUCTION -- STATUS AND IMPACT OF POLLUTION -- Municipal Sewage and Open Defecation -- Inadequate and sub-optimal functioning of sewage treatment plants (STPs) -- Open defecation and unsatisfactory sanitation -- Industrial Wastewater Discharge -- Agricultural Runoff and Soil Erosion -- Religious Activities and Inefficient Solid Waste Management -- Religious Activities -- Ineffective solid waste disposal and management -- Flow Obstructions and Water Abstractions -- OVERVIEW OF EFFORTS UNDERTAKEN FOR THE REJUVENATION FOR RIVER GANGA -- Source Control of Pollution -- Channelization, treatment, utilization and disposal of treated domestic sewage -- Industrial Pollution Control -- Solid Waste Management -- River Catchment/Basin Management -- Maintenances of environmental flows (e-flow) -- Water quality monitoring -- Controlled groundwater extraction -- Other Restoration Measures -- Variety of Riverfront Development Projects on Ganga and its Tributaries -- Afforestation and Biodiversity Conservation (BC) -- Protection of Flood Plains -- In-situ Bioremediation -- Public Awareness -- LESSONS FROM FEW GLOBAL RIVER REJUVENATION ATTEMPTS -- CHALLENGES CONCERNING TO REJUVENATION STRATEGIES -- INTERVENTIONS RECOMMENDED.