Integrated Water Resources Research

This book reviews the concept, contemporary research efforts and the implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). The IWRM concept was established as an international guiding water management paradigm in the early 1990ies and has become a vital approach to solving the problems associated with the topic of water. The book summarizes fourteen comprehensive IWRM research projects with worldwide coverage and analyses their motivations, settings, approaches and implementation of results. Aiming to be an up-to-date interdisciplinary scientific reference, this book provides a comprehensive theoretical and empirical analysis of contemporary IWRM research, examples of science based implementations and a synthesis of the lessons learnt. It concludes with some major future challenges, the solving of which will further strengthen the IWRM concept.

This book presents case studies that share important experiences regarding Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) in various countries. Following an introduction to theoretical concepts, responsibilities, and challenges, the subsequent chapters address, among other topics, an analysis of policies and regulations for water management in Brazil, the drivers that led California to adapt to the IWRM framework, and the international regulations for water markets and water banking in Australia and Chile. The implications of climate change for water resource systems in Mexico are discussed, as well as management strategies from California that could potentially serve as IWRM adaptation schemes in Mexico. Critical cases from Guanacaste (Costa Rica), and from Zayandehrud River Basin and Lake Urmia (Iran) are reviewed in terms of management practices and solutions. The book also provides an overview of the current availability and use of water resources in South Korea, and discusses the management of and international water law instruments for transboundary groundwater in Africa.

The research project CuveWaters developed and implemented adapted technologies and accompanying measures to support the national process towards an Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). The aim is to give people in the Cuvelai-Etosha Basin reliable access to clean water over the long term, thus enhancing their livelihood and health, and to create job opportunities. IWRM relies on solutions that use various sources, types and qualities of water for different purposes. CuveWaters implemented pilot plants for rain- and floodwater harvesting, groundwater desalination, as well as facilities for sanitation and water reuse. Technical components of the project were framed by societal and scientific components. Integrated Water Resources Management in Water-scarce Regions provides a comprehensive view on the complexity and interconnectedness of findings and conclusions regarding the principle strategic approach within the CuveWaters project’s concept. The book aims to present the work of technical, social and natural scientists but also of media professionals: It gives thematically focussed details on the three technology-based solutions which go beyond mere technical considerations and embed this into the overarching process towards IWRM in Namibia. Finally, it critically addresses lessons learnt and limits of projects in the context of research for implementation. This book is of great value to experts, professionals and also students and academics in the areas of water management, technology development and implementation and transdisciplinary science.

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.

Anthropogenic and natural disturbances to freshwater quantity and quality are a greater issue for society than ever before. To successfully restore water resources requires understanding the interactions between hydrology, climate, land use, water quality, ecology, and social and economic pressures. This Special Issue of Water includes cutting edge research broadly addressing investigative areas related to experimental study designs and modeling, freshwater pollutants of concern, and human dimensions of water use and management. Results demonstrate the immense, globally transferable value of the experimental watershed approach, the relevance and critical importance of current integrated studies of pollutants of concern, and the imperative to include human sociological and economic processes in water resources investigations. In spite of the latest progress, as demonstrated in this Special Issue, managers remain insufficiently informed to make the best water resource decisions amidst combined influences of land use change, rapid ongoing human population growth, and changing environmental conditions. There is, thus, a persistent need for further advancements in integrated and interdisciplinary research to improve the scientific understanding, management, and future sustainability of water resources.

Sustainable water management is a key environmental challenge of the 21st century. This book presents the very latest studies, methods and innovations for managing our water resources from the first International Conference on Adaptive and Integrated Water Management, held in November 2007 in Basel, Switzerland. The book addresses a wide interdisciplinary audience of scientists and professionals from academia, industry, and those involved in policy making.

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

'Blue Revolution upturns some environmental applecarts - not for the hell of it, but so we can manage our environment better.' Fred Pearce, New Scientist This updated and revised edition of The Blue Revolution provides further evidence of the need to integrate land management decision-making into the process of integrated water resources management. It presents the key issues involved in finding the balance between the competing demands for land and water: for food and other forms of economic production, for sustaining livelihoods, and for conservation, amenity, recreation and the requirements of the environment. It also advocates the means and methodologies for addressing them. A new chapter, 'Policies, Power and Perversity,' describes the perverse outcomes that can result from present, often myth-based, land and water policies which do not consider these land and water interactions. New research and case studies involving ILWRM concepts are presented for the Panama Canal catchments and in relation to afforestation proposals for the UK Midlands.