Integrated Water Resources Management In Alpine Regions

Zsfassung in dt. u. engl. Sprache.

Better water management will be crucial if we are to meet many of the key challenges of this century - feeding the worlds growing population and reducing poverty, meeting water and sanitation needs, protecting vital ecosystems, all while adapting to climate change. The approach known as Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is widely recognized as the best way forward, but is poorly understood, even within the water sector. Since a core IWRM principle is that good water management must involve the water users, the understanding and involvement of other sectors is critical for success. There is thus an urgent need for practical guidance, for both water and development professionals, based on real world examples, rather than theoretical constructs. That is what this book provides. Using case studies, the book illustrates how better water management, guided by the IWRM approach, has helped to meet a wide range of sustainable development goals. It does this by considering practical examples, looking at how IWRM has contributed, at different scales, from very local, village-level experiences to reforms at national level and beyond to cases involving trans-boundary river basins. Using these on-the-ground experiences, from both developed and developing countries in five continents, the book provides candid and practical lessons for policy-makers, donors, and water and development practitioners worldwide, looking at how IWRM principles were applied, what worked, and, equally important, what didn‘t work, and why. Published with the Global Water Partnership

Integrated water resources management advocates a coordinated approach for managing water resources in a way that balances social and economic needs with concern for the environment. While potentially useful, integrated water management is also controversial. Supporters believe that the multi-dimensional nature of water can only be understood and managed from a holistic perspective, while critics often argue that integrated water management lacks suffi ciently well-defi ned rules for its practical implementation. This book, written by academics, users and practitioners, provides a down-to-earth approach to the ideal of integrated water resources management, drawing from conceptual frameworks and real-life practice to identify the key aspects that are yet to be resolved. As such, it examines the role of water accounting, food trade, environmental externalities and intangible values as key aspects whose consideration may help the water management community move forward. Overall, integrated water resources management is perceived to be a useful utopia, whose value lies more in the steps that need to be taken to make it a reality than in achieving its ever-elusive end goal.

Advanced Tools for Integrated Water Resources Management, Volume Three, explores a wide breadth of emerging and state-of-the-art technologies used to study advanced tools for integrated water resources management. The book provides insights in chapters relating to How to involve the public - citizen science approaches for IWRM, Urban forestry as a management tool for urban water, Applying water accounting methods in Mediterranean areas, The Jucar River case, Valuation of Guadalquivir River Basin water resources (southern Spain) using SEEA Water Account, Applying water accounting methods through statistical data and simulation models, and much more. Covers a wide breadth of emerging and state-of-the-art technologies Includes contributions from an International board of authors Provides a comprehensive set of reviews relating to water resource management

This volume presents a selection of the main contributions made to the international conference on Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) entitled ‘Management of Water in a Changing World: Lessons Learnt and Innovative Perspectives’ that was held from 12 to 13 October 2011 in Dresden, Germany. The book summarise the main messages issuing from the conference and contains selected papers which were presented during the conference, either as keynote lectures in plenary sessions or as submitted papers in one of the thematic sessions. The key themes of the book are: Water resources in changing environments Groundwater management Technologies and implementation Water management indicators at different scales Information and decision support systems Water governance: actors and institutions The book provides an overview on important issues concerning the conceptual framework of integrated water resources management (IWRM). All presentations and abstracts and the corresponding PowerPoint presentations as well as a video recording of the panel discussion are available at the conference website http://www.bmbf.iwrm2011.de. Readers are encouraged to complete their review of the conference and its messages by consulting this interesting on-line source of accompanying scientific material.

Global change possesses serious challenges for water managers and scientists. In mountain areas, where water supplies for half of the world population originate, climate and hydrologic models are still subject to considerable uncertainty. And yet, critical decisions have to be taken to ensure adequate and safe water supplies to billions of people, millions of farmers and industries, without further deteriorating rivers and water bodies. While global warming is known to cause glaciers’ retreat and reduced snow packs around the world, it is not clear that mountain discharge will be lower. What is widely recognised is that water management must be adapted to accommodate significant regime changes. However, this inevitably involves managing transboundary rivers, adding further complexity to putting principles in practice. This book takes global warming and the importance of mountain areas in world water resources as the starting point. First, it provides detailed reviews of the processes going on in several rivers systems and world regions in Europe (Rhône and Ebro), North America (Canadian Rockies, Western US and Mexico), the Middle East (Jordan), Africa (Tunisia, Kenya and South Africa). These contexts provide case studies and examples that show the difficulties and potential for adaptation to global change. Land-use, economics, numerous modeling approaches are some of the cross-cutting issues covered in the chapters. The volume also includes the views of water practitioners, with two chapters authored by members of the US-Canada International Joint Commission, an industrialist from Western Canada and an environmental leader in Spain. By combining a rich set of contexts and approaches, the volume succeeds in offering a view of the global challenges faced by water agencies, international donors and researchers around the world. A case is made in some chapters to seek adaptive strategies rather than trying to reduce or control resources variability. This requires factoring in land-use, social and economic aspects, especially in developing countries. Another conclusion is that complex problems can and must be posed and negotiated with the help of models, mapping techniques and science-based facts. However complex these may be, there are ways to translate them to easily interpretable and visualisations of alternative scenarios and courses of action. This book provides numerous examples of the potential of such approaches to draft environmental programmes solve transboundary disputes and reduce the economic consequences of droughts and climate instability.