Suchergebnisse

A collaborative effort of the Agricultural/Urban/Environmental Water Sharing Work Group. ; Includes bibliographical references.

Abstract
Obtaining water for environmental purposes, such as habitat restoration or water quality improvements, has become an important objective in many parts of the world. Such water acquisitions are likely to become more challenging as regional water demand and supply patterns are altered by climate change. In regions where water supplies are already fully claimed, voluntary negotiated transactions have become a key means to obtain water for the environment. The cost of acquiring water in such transactions is hypothesized to vary with regional weather and climate conditions due to both the actual effects of temperature and precipitation on water supply and demand and the perceptions water users may hold about these effects.
This article develops econometric models to examine the effect of temperature and precipitation on water lease prices in four U.S. states located in the desert southwest. Water leases for environmental and nonenvironmental purposes are contrasted to understand the differing nature of these lease markets and the role of weather and climate variables. The authors' analysis finds that temperature, precipitation, regional income, and population changes are variables that have differing effects in the two lease markets. Overall, analysis of over 20 yr of data shows the need to consider climate and weather factors given the growing importance of water leases as a tool to secure water for the environment.

Water allocations for the environment and demand management of environmental water in the context of growing water scarcity are examined in this article. The consumptive use of water is increasing with growing populations and wealth, and water scarcity is being further exacerbated by climate change. In the context of conflicting global and national government policy decisions, water availability to sustain environmental values and benefits is threatened. Freshwater conservation proponents are calling for allocation of environmental flows, requiring societies to make value judgements between socio-economic benefits from consumptive water use versus benefits from instream ecosystem services. Because there will always be trade-offs made in situations of water scarcity, and because many water management systems are adopting finer scale and more flexible management approaches, we argue that environmental flows alone will not adequately conserve many key freshwater ecosystem attributes. Building on Lankford (Lankford BA. 2003. Environmental water requirements: a demand management perspective. J Chart Inst Water Environ Manage. 17:19-22), this article argues that an increased emphasis on demand management for water allocations within the environment is required to manage the growing water scarcity and conserve key freshwater ecosystem attributes. This article outlines options for environmental water demand management, arguing that these freshwater conservation methods are required alongside the provision of environmental flows.

This book highlights the concept of environmental water footprint in the energy (bioenergy & hydropower) sector and the building/construction sector, focusing on a case study in Iran. It argues and demonstrates that water conservation is one of the most essential elements every industry has to take into account in its sustainability strategy.

Water allocations for the environment and demand management of environmental water in the context of growing water scarcity are examined in this article. The consumptive use of water is increasing with growing populations and wealth, and water scarcity is being further exacerbated by climate change. In the context of conflicting global and national government policy decisions, water availability to sustain environmental values and benefits is threatened. Freshwater conservation proponents are calling for allocation of environmental flows, requiring societies to make value judgements between socio-economic benefits from consumptive water use versus benefits from instream ecosystem services. Because there will always be trade-offs made in situations of water scarcity, and because many water management systems are adopting finer scale and more flexible management approaches, we argue that environmental flows alone will not adequately conserve many key freshwater ecosystem attributes. Building on Lankford (Lankford BA. 2003. Environmental water requirements: a demand management perspective. J Chart Inst Water Environ Manage. 17:19-22), this article argues that an increased emphasis on demand management for water allocations within the environment is required to manage the growing water scarcity and conserve key freshwater ecosystem attributes. This article outlines options for environmental water demand management, arguing that these freshwater conservation methods are required alongside the provision of environmental flows.

ABSTRACTThis paper examines water management within the environment. It argues that discussion of, and decision‐making governing, the allocation of water for the environment should be expanded to consider the application of demand management to the environment. The paper examines the technical feasibility of this aspect and proposes some principles which address parity across water‐use sectors in terms of their water rights, responsibilities and performance objectives. It concludes that a more equitable policy framework encourages better resource analysis and promotes better informed trade‐offs and management concerning water allocation, particularly in times of low water availability.

Environmental water pollution affects human health and reduces the quality of our natural water ecosystems and resources. As a result, there is great interest in monitoring water quality and ensuring that all areas are compliant with legislation. Ubiquitous water quality monitoring places considerable demands upon existing sensing technology. The combined challenges of system longevity, autonomous operation, robustness, large-scale sensor networks, operationally difficult deployments and unpredictable and lossy environments collectively represents a technological barrier that has yet to be overcome[1]. Ubiquitous sensing envisages many aspects of our environment being routinely sensed. This will result in data streams from a large variety of heterogeneous sources, which will often vary in their volume and accuracy. The challenge is to develop a networked sensing infrastructure that can support the effective capture, filtering, aggregation and analysis of such data. This will ultimately enable us to dynamically monitor and track the quality of our environment at multiple locations. Microfluidic technology provides a route to the development of miniaturised analytical instruments that could be deployed remotely, and operate autonomously over relatively long periods of time (months–years). An example of such a system is the autonomous phosphate sensor[2] which has been developed at the CLARITY Centre, in Dublin City University. This technology, in combination with the availability of low power, reliable wireless communications platforms that can link sensors and analytical devices to online databases and servers, form the basis for extensive networks of autonomous analytical 'stations' or 'nodes' that will provide high quality information about key chemical parameters that determine the quality of our aquatic environment. The system must also have sufficient intelligence to enable adaptive sampling regimes as well as accurate and efficient decision-making responses. A particularly exciting area of development is ...

Significant progress in environmental flow management has occurred in recent years due to several factors. These include governments committing to environmental flow programs, significant progress in scientific understanding, and environmental flow assessment methods that are cognizant of stakeholder participation and co-design. However, there remain key challenges facing environmental water management. In this paper, we report on a horizon scanning exercise that identified the questions, which, if answered, would deliver much needed progress in the field of environmental water management. We distributed an online survey to ask researchers and practitioners in the field of environmental water management to identify the key questions. The authors then consolidated 268 submitted questions and organized them into key themes. The consolidated list was presented to a workshop of environmental water researchers and practitioners, where attendees were asked to review the questions, vote on the most important, and provide feedback on gaps, issues, or overlaps. The breadth of issues facing environmental water management is captured by the six key themes into which questions were classified: (1) Ecological knowledge and environmental flow assessment methods, (2) Adaptive management, (3) Integrated management and river objectives, (4) Knowledge transfer: applying best practice in a global context, (5) Community knowledge and engagement, and (6) Active management. These questions provide a roadmap for research and management innovations that will improve the effectiveness of environmental flows programs. ; Full Text

Significant progress in environmental flow management has occurred in recent years due to several factors. These include governments committing to environmental flow programs, significant progress in scientific understanding, and environmental flow assessment methods that are cognizant of stakeholder participation and co-design. However, there remain key challenges facing environmental water management. In this paper, we report on a horizon scanning exercise that identified the questions, which, if answered, would deliver much needed progress in the field of environmental water management. We distributed an online survey to ask researchers and practitioners in the field of environmental water management to identify the key questions. The authors then consolidated 268 submitted questions and organized them into key themes. The consolidated list was presented to a workshop of environmental water researchers and practitioners, where attendees were asked to review the questions, vote on the most important, and provide feedback on gaps, issues, or overlaps. The breadth of issues facing environmental water management is captured by the six key themes into which questions were classified: (1) Ecological knowledge and environmental flow assessment methods, (2) Adaptive management, (3) Integrated management and river objectives, (4) Knowledge transfer: applying best practice in a global context, (5) Community knowledge and engagement, and (6) Active management. These questions provide a roadmap for research and management innovations that will improve the effectiveness of environmental flows programs.

Introduction -- Regulatory capitalism : a contextual account of the role of law -- Forces underpinning the development of environmental water markets : convergence and divergence between jurisdictions -- The legal setting for environmental water acquisition -- Steering via water planning measures -- Steering strategies based on the purchase of water rights for the environment -- Transferring water : institutions, mechanisms and regulatory enterprise -- Formalising relationships and accountabilities under mewa frameworks -- The role of law : constructing dynamic regulation

This report was prepared in cooperation with, and was funded by, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), with the goal of providing an assessment of the legal regimes for reviewing and approving environmental water transfers in twelve western states. The ability to transfer, change, or dedicate an existing water right under the prior appropriation system to instream uses is a relatively new legal tool. Legislatures in western states first passed statutes authorizing and governing these transfers in the late 1980s. As part of its overall western water program, NFWF engaged with Water in the West to assess the scope, status, and functioning of these laws in different western states.

Legitimacy deficits have been identified as central to the ongoing challenges encountered in implementing the policy reforms introduced to reduce the environmental impacts of over-allocating water in the Murray-Darling Basin. In closing the special issue on Building and Maintaining Trust and Legitimacy in Environmental Water Management, this article draws on the preceding articles in responding to a call for the focus of evaluations of environmental water reforms to be broadened to assess their performance against metrics of legitimacy. The first aim is to consider some analytical issues to be encountered in developing legitimacy metrics for MDB environmental water reform contexts. The other aim is to explore the role of legitimacy metrics in empirical research designed to strengthen the evidence available for deciding whether and how to invest in establishing and sustaining the legitimacy of the MDB reforms. Particular reference is made to empirical studies of the consequences and antecedents of legitimacy in U.S. contexts of the law and its policing. Furnishing policy makers with reliable evidence to guide their decisions on whether and how to invest in the legitimacy of the MDB environmental water reforms will require studies of this kind that are adapted to the unique contexts of these reforms.