scholarly journals Delving into the Divisive Waters of River Basin Planning in Bolivia: A Case Study in the Cochabamba Valley

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 190
Author(s):  
Nilo Lima-Quispe ◽  
Cláudia Coleoni ◽  
Wilford Rincón ◽  
Zulema Gutierrez ◽  
Freddy Zubieta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Reference Frames ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Management Interventions ◽  
River Basin Planning

River basin planning in Bolivia is a relatively new endeavor that is primed for innovation and learning. One important learning opportunity relates to connecting watershed planning to processes within other planning units (e.g., municipalities) that have water management implications. A second opportunity relates to integrating watershed management, with a focus on land-based interventions, and water resources management, with a focus on the use and control of surface and groundwater resources. Bolivia’s River Basin Policy and its primary planning instrument, the River Basin Master Plan (PDC in Spanish), provide the relevant innovation and learning context. Official guidance related to PDC development lacks explicit instructions related to the use of analytical tools, the definition of spatially and temporally dis-aggregated indicators to evaluate specific watershed and water management interventions, and a description of the exact way stakeholders engage in the evaluation process. This paper describes an effort to adapt the tenets of a novel planning support practice, Robust Decision Support (RDS), to the official guidelines of PDC development. The work enabled stakeholders to discern positive and negative interactions among water management interventions related to overall system performance, hydrologic risk management, and ecosystem functions; use indicators across varying spatial and temporal reference frames; and identify management strategies to improve outcomes and mitigate cross-regional or inter-sectorial conflicts.

Conflict Intensity in African Water Basins: Water Stress and the Effectiveness of Water Management Strategies

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Boyce
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Water Stress ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Water Sources ◽  
Nile River ◽  
Social Stability ◽  
Lake Turkana ◽  
Conflict Intensity ◽  
Zambezi River

Access to cross-border water sources in the African regions of the Nile River, Zambezi River, and Lake Turkana Basins becomes less certain as global population, human consumption, and climate change increase. Uncertainty during periods of high demand for water in agro-dependent economies creates circumstances of water stress, where social stability is low as stakeholders compete over scarce water sources. Longstanding traditions of political power, such as colonial rule and the status of regional superpowers, reinforce the unequal resource distribution. All three regions encounter water stress in the form of floods or droughts. They rely on dam projects that modify water distribution and basin agreements that reallocate political power to manage stress. The basins vary, however, in conflict intensity and effectiveness of water management strategies. The Nile River Basin exhibits low-intensity conflict and has institutionalized collaborative management strategies; the Zambezi River Basin demonstrates medium-intensity conflict with theoretically collaborative initiatives that fall short in practice; the Lake Turkana Basin exemplifies high-intensity conflict, lacking collaborative agreements. In order to address the discrepancy in outcomes, this study asks: what factors contribute to the intensity of conflict surrounding water stress? And, to what extent are water management practices effective in promoting cooperation and preventing conflict? The study concludes that the most intense conflicts occur in rural localities, where social instability is high and resource distribution is uneven. Collaborative agreements and international involvement in water management initiatives increase social stability and decrease conflict intensity by institutionalizing equitable distribution of water in a changing environment. 

scholarly journals Effects of Post-Fire Deadwood Management on Soil Macroarthropod Communities

Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1046 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos R. Molinas-González ◽  
Jorge Castro ◽  
Adela González-Megías ◽  
Alexandro B. Leverkus
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Dead Wood ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Bare Soil ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Higher Plant ◽  
Salvage Logging ◽  
Management Interventions ◽  
Biological Legacies ◽  
Experimental Treatments

Dead wood comprises a vast amount of biological legacies that set the scene for ecological regeneration after wildfires, yet its removal is the most frequent management strategy worldwide. Soil-dwelling organisms are conspicuous, and they provide essential ecosystem functions, but their possible affection by different post-fire management strategies has so far been neglected. We analyzed the abundance, richness, and composition of belowground macroarthropod communities under two contrasting dead-wood management regimes after a large wildfire in the Sierra Nevada Natural and National Park (Southeast Spain). Two plots at different elevation were established, each containing three replicates of two experimental treatments: partial cut, where trees were cut and their branches lopped off and left over the ground, and salvage logging, where all the trees were cut, logs were piled, branches were mechanically masticated, and slash was spread on the ground. Ten years after the application of the treatments, soil cores were extracted from two types of microhabitat created by these treatments: bare-soil (in both treatments) and under-logs (in the partial cut treatment only). Soil macroarthropod assemblages were dominated by Hemiptera and Hymenoptera (mostly ants) and were more abundant and richer in the lowest plot. The differences between dead-wood treatments were most evident at the scale of management interventions: abundance and richness were lowest after salvage logging, even under similar microhabitats (bare-soil). However, there were no significant differences between microhabitat types on abundance and richness within the partial cut treatment. Higher abundance and richness in the partial cut treatment likely resulted from higher resource availability and higher plant diversity after natural regeneration. Our results suggest that belowground macroarthropod communities are sensitive to the manipulation of dead-wood legacies and that management through salvage logging could reduce soil macroarthropod recuperation compared to other treatments with less intense management even a decade after application.

Conflict Intensity in African Water Basins: Water Stress and the Effectiveness of Water Management Strategies

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Boyce
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Water Stress ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Water Sources ◽  
Nile River ◽  
Social Stability ◽  
Lake Turkana ◽  
Conflict Intensity ◽  
Zambezi River

Access to cross-border water sources in the African regions of the Nile River, Zambezi River, and Lake Turkana Basins becomes less certain as global population, human consumption, and climate change increase. Uncertainty during periods of high demand for water in agro-dependent economies creates circumstances of water stress, where social stability is low as stakeholders compete over scarce water sources. Longstanding traditions of political power, such as colonial rule and the status of regional superpowers, reinforce the unequal resource distribution. All three regions encounter water stress in the form of floods or droughts. They rely on dam projects that modify water distribution and basin agreements that reallocate political power to manage stress. The basins vary, however, in conflict intensity and effectiveness of water management strategies. The Nile River Basin exhibits low-intensity conflict and has institutionalized collaborative management strategies; the Zambezi River Basin demonstrates medium-intensity conflict with theoretically collaborative initiatives that fall short in practice; the Lake Turkana Basin exemplifies high-intensity conflict, lacking collaborative agreements. In order to address the discrepancy in outcomes, this study asks: what factors contribute to the intensity of conflict surrounding water stress? And, to what extent are water management practices effective in promoting cooperation and preventing conflict? The study concludes that the most intense conflicts occur in rural localities, where social instability is high and resource distribution is uneven. Collaborative agreements and international involvement in water management initiatives increase social stability and decrease conflict intensity by institutionalizing equitable distribution of water in a changing environment. 

scholarly journals An Analysis of Transboundary Water Resources: A Case Study of River Brahmaputra

1970 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-141
Author(s):  
Debi Prasad Bhattarai
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Flood Control ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Brahmaputra River ◽  
Transboundary Water Resources ◽  
Political Boundaries

The need for water management on hydrological boundaries is mainly triggered by the growing competition for water or by the need to cooperate in an upstream downstream relation. For an institution operating on political boundaries, not coinciding with the boundaries of the river basin, it is very difficult to allocate or prioritise water or carry out flood control measures. A system of water management on political boundaries will induce the respective authorities to either monopolise the water supply sources within its area and to transfer the problem of flooding to downstream. In this article it is attempted to explore the major transboundary issues that need to be addressed in the whole Brahmaputra River basin. Sharing of resources, sharing of basic data and information and protection and preservation of ecosystem are identified as three major issues. In this context, controversial legal issues between the riparian nations in the past were also analysed which has triggered the scope for integrated approach to manage the Brahmaputra River basin. In the later part of the article, a critical analysis was made to understand the principles, approaches and instruments to address the above problems. Finally, some legal materials are presented which could be used as a basis for solving the major river basin issues.Key words: water management; diversifying water supply sources; water management strategies; NepalJournal of the Institute of Engineering, Vol. 7, No. 1, July 2009, pp. 135-141doi: 10.3126/jie.v7i1.2072

Zooming into the water users: A multi-scale, interactive participatory approach to co-develop Water Management Plans in Bolivian River Basins

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nilo Lima ◽  
Hector Angarita ◽  
Marisa Escobar-Arias ◽  
Wilford Rincon ◽  
Sergio Nuñez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
National Policy ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Planning System ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Management Options ◽  
Water Users

<p>In Bolivia, since 2006 the Ministry of Environment and Water, through the National Watershed Plan, has developed the conceptual framework and national policy for Watershed Management. At present, this national policy is still in the process of learning and construction from its application in various river basins, principally through the development of Watershed Master Plans.</p><p>Three principles guide the development of this national planning effort: i. the recognition of the growing dependence on participatory processes as a forum to identify and enable legitimate water management and governance options, ii. the need to plan for an uncertain future caused by climate change and other societal prerogatives iii. the systemic analysis of the territory incorporating biophysical, sectoral and regional interactions.</p><p>Here we present results and lessons learned of this process in the formulation of the Master Plan of the Río Rocha Basin (PDCR); With a population of ~ 1,500,000 people (13% of Bolivia’s population), the basin has high levels of water scarcity that feed an intricate network of conflicts related to access, governance, and environmental degradation. The PDCR is a planning opportunity to enable the necessary conditions to resolve current conflicts and set the foundation of sustainable water management.</p><p>Robust decision support (RDS) has been adopted as a guiding framework, constructing a participatory process that considers uncertainties and strategies within an array of management options for the system. To accommodate the large disparities in water access across interests represented at different regions and scales of the Rio Rocha Basin, we implemented two innovations in the RDS process: first, a set of 24 quantitative indices that can operate at several nested scales of planning sub-units (i.e. from independent irrigation units or household water supply service areas, to the entire river basin), and second the use of an interactive “hard-coupled” decision dashboard to the Water Evaluation and Planning System (WEAP). In combination, this innovations enabled a diverse audience of actors to: i) explore the positive and negative interactions of water management, production systems, hazards and risks management, and ecosystem functions ii) identify disparities in the performance of a proposed plan between scales and ii) analyze and compare different management strategies interactively to improve outcomes and identify and mitigate emerging regional or sectorial conflicts.</p><p>As a result, the PDCR established a set of regional and intersectoral actions for 2025 and 2040, which integrate infrastructure, efficiency, pollution control, and territorial and productive planning actions, accompanied by institutional strengthening and capacity development measures. The plan expects to increase access and coverage of the demand for safe water, improve irrigation access, enable long term sustainable exploitation of groundwater and establish synergies with the existing sanitation plan to achieve additional improvements in the environmental quality of the Rio Rocha.</p>

scholarly journals Effects of Water-Management Strategies on Water Resources in the Pawcatuck River Basin, Southwestern Rhode Island and Southeastern Connecticut

Circular ◽  
2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert F. Breault ◽  
Phillip J. Zarriello ◽  
Gardner C. Bent ◽  
John P. Masterson ◽  
Gregory E. Granato ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Rhode Island ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Management Strategies

scholarly journals Identifying mismatches between institutional perceptions of water-related risk drivers and water management strategies in three river basin areas

2017 ◽  
Vol 550 ◽  
pp. 704-715 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksi Räsänen ◽  
Sirkku Juhola ◽  
Adrián Monge Monge ◽  
Mira Käkönen ◽  
Markku Kanninen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Related Risk
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