Criteria for the Assessment of Sustainable Water Management

Pressure on the world’s water resources is increasing, restraining social and economic development in many countries, and threatening ecological values in others. In order to manage water resources in a more sustainable manner, new planning methodologies/processes for river basin management need to be developed. This study attempts to construct a set of useable normative criteria for the analysis and evaluation of such processes. The criteria were designed as a response to the lack of deductive approaches in the evaluation of methodologies and working procedures used in the context of river basin management, making it possible to highlight their potential for sustainable development. The criteria are based on the twin concepts of participation and integration. These concepts function as well-established dimensions of both sustainable development and sustainable river basin management, and they are of significant methodological relevance. A synthesis of the key aspects connected to the two concepts is undertaken, based on a broad literature review. Focus is laid on how in methodological terms, and in relation to regional water management, to achieve participation and integration in a decision-making or planning process. The criteria are concerned with how knowledge and values are integrated into the planning process and how commitment, legitimacy, or acceptance for the resulting plan is generated.     

Evaluation of the MIKE SHE Model for Application in the Loess Plateau,China1

Abstract: Quantifying the hydrologic responses to land use/land cover change and climate variability is essential for integrated sustainable watershed management in water limited regions such as the Loess Plateau in Northwestern China where an adaptive watershed management approach is being implemented. Traditional empirical modeling approach to quantifying the accumulated hydrologic effects of watershed management is limited due to its complex nature of soil and water conservation practices (e.g., biological, structural, and agricultural measures) in the region. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the ability of the distributed hydrologic model, MIKE SHE to simulate basin runoff. Streamflow data measured from an overland flow‐dominant watershed (12 km²) in northwestern China were used for model evaluation. Model calibration and validation suggested that the model could capture the dominant runoff process of the small watershed. We found that the physically based model required calibration at appropriate scales and estimated model parameters were influenced by both temporal and spatial scales of input data. We concluded that the model was useful for understanding the rainfall‐runoff mechanisms. However, more measured data with higher temporal resolution are needed to further test the model for regional applications.     

From climate change impacts to adaptation: A development perspective for India

India has good reasons to be concerned about climate change as it could adversely affect the achievement of vital national development goals related to socio‐economic development, human welfare, health, energy availability and use, and infrastructure. The paper attempts to develop a framework for integrated impact assessment and adaptation responses, using a recently built railroad coastal infrastructure asset in India as an example. The framework links climate change variables — temperature, rainfall, sea level rise, extreme events, and other secondary variables — and sustainable development variables — technology, institutions, economic, and other policies. The study indicates that sustainable development variables generally reduce the adverse impacts on the system due to climate change alone, except when they are inadequately applied. The paper concludes that development is a vital variable for integrated impact assessment. Well crafted developmental policies could result in a less‐GHG intensive future, enhanced adaptive capacities of communities and systems, and lower impacts due to climate change.     

Building resilience to drought in desertification-prone savannas in Sub-Saharan Africa: The water perspective

Securing sustainable livelihood conditions and reducing the risk of outmigration in savanna ecosystems hosted in the tropical semiarid regions is of fundamental importance for the future of humanity in general. Although precipitation in tropical drylands, or savannas, is generally more significant than one might expect, these regions are subject to considerable rainfall variability which causes frequent periods of water deficiency. This paper addresses the twin problems of “drought and desertification” from a water perspective, focusing on the soil moisture (green water) and plant water uptake deficiencies. It makes a clear distinction between long‐term climate change, meteorological drought, and agricultural droughts and dry spells caused by rainfall variability and land degradation. It then formulates recommendations to better cope with and to build resilience to droughts and dry spells. Coping with desertification requires a new conceptual framework based on green‐blue water resources to identify hydrological opportunities in a sea of constraints. This paper proposes an integrated land/water approach to desertification where ecosystem management supports agricultural development to build social‐ecological resilience to droughts and dry spells. This approach is based on the premise that to combat desertification, focus should shift from reducing trends of land degradation in agricultural systems to water resource management in savannas and to landscape‐wide ecosystem management.     

Adapting to climate variability: Pumpkins, people and policy

Understanding of how best to support those most vulnerable to climate stress is imperative given expected changes in climate variability. This paper investigates local adaptation strategies to climate variability, focusing on agricultural decision‐making in a communal irrigation scheme in Vhembe District, Limpopo Province, South Africa. Research done through interviews, surveys and participatory methods demonstrates that adaptation strategies within a community are socially differentiated and present differing objectives and priorities. These results highlight the need for intervention and policy that support a heterogeneous response to a wide range of stresses. Evidence for climate change is clear and the need for adaptation is urgent. However, adaptation measures have to be sensitively integrated with ongoing development pathways to ensure they are sustainable and relevant to local priorities.     

The need for integration of drought monitoring tools for proactive food security management in sub‐Saharan Africa

Reducing the impact of drought and famine remains a challenge in sub‐Saharan Africa despite ongoing drought relief assistance in recent decades. This is because drought and famine are primarily addressed through a crisis management approach when a disaster occurs, rather than stressing preparedness and risk management. Moreover, drought planning and food security efforts have been hampered by a lack of integrated drought monitoring tools, inadequate early warning systems (EWS), and insufficient information flow within and between levels of government in many sub‐Saharan countries. The integration of existing drought monitoring tools for sub‐Saharan Africa is essential for improving food security systems to reduce the impacts of drought and famine on society in this region. A proactive approach emphasizing integration requires the collective use of multiple tools, which can be used to detect trends in food availability and provide early indicators at local, national, and regional scales on the likely occurrence of food crises. In addition, improving the ability to monitor and disseminate critical drought‐related information using available modern technologies (e.g., satellites, computers, and modern communication techniques) may help trigger timely and appropriate preventive responses and, ultimately, contribute to food security and sustainable development in sub‐Saharan Africa.     

Spatial systems approach to sustainable development: A conceptual framework

Even though “sustainable development” seems to have emerged as the development paradigm of the 1990s, a great deal of vagueness still surrounds the meaning, definition, and theoretical underpinnings of the concept. There is also a general lack of emphasis on the spatial dimension of sustainable development when developing relevant conceptual or environmental accounting frameworks. In clarifying the concept, this article proposes a definition that explicitly incorporates the temporal as well as the spatial dimension of sustainability. It also develops a logically consistent conceptual framework for the analysis and evaluation of sustainable development, following a spatial systems approach. Five interconnected aspatial subsystems or subsets of a spatial system are identified and their respective operational dimensions discussed. A proposed composite index calleddegree of stainable development (DSD) and its five component indicators are also outlined. The difficulties involved in operationalizing the DSD measure and the conceptual framework are noted, and the various tasks that need to be undertaken in this regard are specified. It is concluded that future research utilizing the proposed conceptual framework should not only foster the development of appropriate methodologies for the comparative evaluation of sustainable development at global, national, or regional scales, but also offer insights to appropriate decision makers at various levels regarding available options and alternative actions for the healthy development of their respective societies.     

Toward an improved legislative framework for China's land degradation control

The Chinese government has recently been attaching increasing importance to the application of effective legal tools to tackle land degradation (LD) issues. Based on the concept of sustainable development, China began developing and reaping the benefits of environmental and natural resources legislation including LD control regulations in the 1990s. In the past three years, some central‐western provinces in China have been implementing a “ People's Republic of China/Global Environment Facility (PRC/GEF ) Partnership on LD Control of Dryland Ecosystems”, which is based on an integrated ecosystem management (IEM) approach. IEM is designed to achieve a balanced, scientific and participatory approach to natural resources management, which creates the potential to improve the quality of Chinese environmental law and policy procedures. The paper studies the existing Chinese national laws and regulations pertinent to LD control within 9 areas covering land, desertification, soil erosion, grassland, forest, water, agriculture, wild animals and plants, and environment protection in detail, against IEM principles and basic legal elements. The main objective is to identify problems and provide feasible solutions and recommendations for the improvement of the existing laws and regulations. The authors conclude that the development of an improved national legislative framework is essential if LD control is to be successfully achieved. The paper is partly based on Component 1 — Improving Policies, Laws and Regulations for Land Degradation Control under PRC/GEF Partnership on Land Degradation in Dryland Ecosystems (TA 4357).     

区域可达性与旅游景点空间分布关系研究——以四川省为例

以四川省为例,采用栅格成本加权距离算法对四川区域可达性和旅游景点的空间分布情况进行定量研究.研究表明,成都平原与川西高原之间的生态过渡带由于相对高差大、可达性低、受人类活动影响较小等,生物多样性和景观多样性较丰富,景点富集程度和景点面积均较其他区域要高,且多以自然保护区、山水地文景观等为主的自然景点.根据景点空间分布特征,从加强交通可达性、景区规划等方面提出建议,以期为四川省旅游业的可持续发展提供理论支持.     

Division Scheme for Environmental Management Regionalization in China

Based on regional heterogeneity of environmental characteristics and factors influencing those characteristics, environmental units may be classified into homogeneous zones. Then, essential strategies and mitigation measures in each zone may be developed and environmental quality may be holistically improved using a system of environmental management regionalization (EMRZ). Here, an EMRZ scheme for China was devised by outlining regional management using integrated qualitative and quantitative methods. First, the land was subdivided into four environmental management domains using China’s three physical geographic domains. Second, using a regionalization indicator system, the environmental characteristics of neighboring provinces in four domains was quantified using the one-dimensional Euclidean distance method; regions with high similarity were merged into one environmental management region (EMR) and the preliminary draft of EMRs was obtained. Based on the preliminary scheme, eight EMRs using prefecture-level administrative regions were obtained through boundary adjustment based on important natural geographical boundaries and existing regional plans. These include the Northeastern China Region, the North China Plain Region, the Loess Plateau Region, Southeast Coast Region, the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River, the Southwestern China Region, the Northwestern China Region, and the Tibetan Plateau Region. Priority environmental problems of each EMR were discussed. The main contribution of this study is that it develops a novel methodological framework for EMRZ integrating qualitative and quantitative methodologies, and considers the spatial contiguity of each EMR and the spatial integrity of each administrative unit. Future research will focus on priority goals and establishment of suitable environmental management policies for each EMR based on known local environmental problems.     

A Yin‐Yang approach to education policy regarding health and the environment: early‐careerists' image of the future and priority programmes

Since the inception of sustainable development (SD), there has been a somewhat ignored contradiction between paradigms that are ecosystem‐based and paradigms that are human‐based or purely economic. We suggest that this contradiction can be unified through a balance of the two. The Chinese Yin‐Yang philosophy is applied as a tool or approach to seeking balance between these ecocentric and anthropocentric paradigms. Priority education policy design for the merging of ecology and health are projected through an Ecohealth lens in response to increasing SD challenges and the intention of the international Ecohealth organization to contribute to SD goals. Meeting SD goals along the nexus of health and environment is further considered through early‐careerist cultural assessments and projections. The groups considered for their professional image of the future are: members of the Ecohealth Association Student Section and Chinese early‐careerists participating in a related conference. In response to SD goals, a problem‐based learning design is suggested as an education policy priority. Rather than approaching SD as a boolean concept, for example, by either focusing on ecosystem sustainability or economic development, we suggest education policy for programmes and curriculums that will help emerging professionals balance these paradigms, so as to best address national and global challenges.     

Water Balances of Two Piedmont Headwater Catchments: Implications for Regional Hydrologic Landscape Classification

In the Piedmont of North Carolina, a traditionally water‐rich region, reservoirs that serve over 1 million people are under increasing pressure due to naturally occurring droughts and increasing land development. Innovative development approaches aim to maintain hydrologic conditions of the undisturbed landscape, but are based on insufficient target information. This study uses the hydrologic landscape concept to evaluate reference hydrology in small headwater catchments surrounding Falls Lake, a reservoir serving Raleigh and the greater Triangle area. Researchers collected one year of detailed data on water balance components, including precipitation, evapotranspiration, streamflow, and shallow subsurface storage from two headwater catchments representative of two hydrologic landscapes defined by differences in soils and topographic characteristics. The two catchments are similar in size and lie within the same physiographic region, and during the study period they showed similar water balances of 26‐30% Q, ?4 to 5% ΔS, 59‐65% evapotranspiration, and 9‐10% G. However, the steeper, more elevated catchment exhibited perennial streamflow and nongrowing season runoff ratios (Q/P) of 33%, whereas the flat, low‐lying stream was drier during the growing season and exhibited Q/P ratios of 52% during the nongrowing season. A hydrologic landscape defined by topography and soil characteristics helps characterize local‐scale reference hydrology and may contribute to better land management decisions.     

Turning the tide: Enabling sustainable development for Africa's mobile pastoralists

Sustainable development for Africa's mobile pastoralists is slowly becoming a reality. Success depends to a large extent on understanding the dynamics of drylands environments, accepting the logic of customary mobile livestock keeping, and enabling effective governance. Appropriate investment in pastoralism requires a clear understanding of the values that are attached to it and innovative approaches to marketing of the goods and services that emanate from the system. To make development truly sustainable it is imperative that the environmental services of pastoralism are recognised, rewarded and promoted. Constraints to sustainable pastoral development include low and misdirected public and private investment, weak security of resource rights, low human capital, weak pastoral voice and poor governance. Successful and sustainable development is observed in pastoral regions where customary governance has been legitimized, resource rights secured and economic development of the pastoral sector, as opposed to transformation of livestock keeping, has prevailed. This article presents state‐of‐the‐art knowledge on sustainable pastoralism, gathered through the GEF/UNDP/IUCN World Initiative for Sustainable Pastoralism (WISP), with data and case studies taken from three recently published WISP reports: “Global Economic Review of Pastoralism”, “Pastoralism as Conservation in the Horn of Africa”, and “Policy Impacts on Pastoral Environments”.     

环境伦理学与可持续发展

本文综述了近几十年来环境伦理学的研究成果，包括环境伦理学的学科性质、研究对象、研究内容等。文章同时还从环境伦理学角度探讨了可持续发展的思想和理念，并对实现可持续发展提出了一些指导性原则和建议。     

Linking carbon sequestration science with local sustainability: an integrated assessment approach

This paper introduces an integrated assessment (IA) approach for a Canada-China joint research project that linked forest carbon sequestration, forest resource management, and local sustainability enhancement. The purpose of the IA was to improve the measurement of carbon in different land uses and vegetation covers, as well as to direct decision makers to those land uses or options as an CO₂ emission reduction strategy while supporting rural sustainable development. In this connection, three questions are addressed in this paper:

1)

How will forestry carbon sequestration land use policies affect regional sustainability prospects in rural China?     

Cosmetics or Critical Constraints? The Role of Landscape in Design Policies in English Development Plans

This paper reviews the nature of landscape policies pertaining to the design of urban development in the post 1992 generation of English development plans. It examines the landscape concepts which underpin policy and concludes that these are essentially concerned with landscaping as a cosmetic activity, an afterthought in the design process. Recommendations are made for the development of policies that will allow landscape considerations to be integrated with nature conservation and ecology considerations and thereby assume a fundamental role in urban design policies as a key element in ensuring sustainable development.     

Taking Venezuela back to the sustainability path: The role of financial development and economic integration in low‐carbon transition

Environmental protection and sustainable development are connected. Such connection is considered highly important for Venezuela, where fossil fuel abundance has created economic and environmental challenges. Surprisingly, only limited attention has been directed to identifying policy options for charting the path to sustainable development in the economy. Contributing to filling this gap in the literature, this study examines whether financial development, de facto and de jure conditions in trade and financial integration can trigger long‐term economic shifts that will change the trajectory of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in the economy using a novel estimation approach—dynamic simulations of autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) models. The empirical modelling framework incorporates the impact of population, economic growth, energy intensity and government consumption expenditure. ARDL‐bounds test provides evidence that the variables are cointegrated. Long‐run estimates from the dynamic ARDL analysis show that de facto and de jure conditions in trade and financial components of economic integration offer varied policy options for carbon mitigation in Venezuela. Population size, energy intensity, government consumption expenditure and de facto condition in financial integration have increasing impact on CO₂ emissions, exacerbating suitability challenges in the economy. On the other hand, positive shocks in financial development, de facto condition in trade integration and de jure condition in financial integration have a mitigation effect on CO₂ emissions. Overall, financial development, trade integration and the control of cross‐border financial flows are needed economic conditions that can accelerate a quick transition to a low‐carbon develpoment in Venezuela.     

Factors Affecting Stream Nutrient Loads: A Synthesis of Regional SPARROW Model Results for the Continental United States1

Preston, Stephen D., Richard B. Alexander, Gregory E. Schwarz, and Charles G. Crawford, 2011. Factors Affecting Stream Nutrient Loads: A Synthesis of Regional SPARROW Model Results for the Continental United States. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 47(5):891‐915. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2011.00577.x Abstract: We compared the results of 12 recently calibrated regional SPARROW (SPAtially Referenced Regressions On Watershed attributes) models covering most of the continental United States to evaluate the consistency and regional differences in factors affecting stream nutrient loads. The models – 6 for total nitrogen and 6 for total phosphorus – all provide similar levels of prediction accuracy, but those for major river basins in the eastern half of the country were somewhat more accurate. The models simulate long‐term mean annual stream nutrient loads as a function of a wide range of known sources and climatic (precipitation, temperature), landscape (e.g., soils, geology), and aquatic factors affecting nutrient fate and transport. The results confirm the dominant effects of urban and agricultural sources on stream nutrient loads nationally and regionally, but reveal considerable spatial variability in the specific types of sources that control water quality. These include regional differences in the relative importance of different types of urban (municipal and industrial point vs. diffuse urban runoff) and agriculture (crop cultivation vs. animal waste) sources, as well as the effects of atmospheric deposition, mining, and background (e.g., soil phosphorus) sources on stream nutrients. Overall, we found that the SPARROW model results provide a consistent set of information for identifying the major sources and environmental factors affecting nutrient fate and transport in United States watersheds at regional and subregional scales.     

HIV and AIDS: Responding to a threat to education for sustainable development

The article seeks to sensitize the development community, particularly outside the education sector, about the issues surrounding education as a vehicle for promoting sustainable development in an AIDS environment in Africa. By illustrating how the epidemic impacts education sector staff as well as parents and students at all levels, the article intends to suggest how national authorities, NGOs and donor agencies can work out strategies to enhance the role of education in promoting sustainable development in Africa. Analysis will demonstrate how the AIDS epidemic weakens the education sector, particularly in countries with a generalized epidemic (defined as more than 3% of the adult population being HIV‐positive), undermining the sector's ability to contribute to general literacy and sustainable development. The article will demonstrate that HIV and AIDS is still not fully accepted as an educational issue, which has hampered efforts to deal with its ravages in the educational sector. The need for holistic policy frameworks for supporting teachers and administrators living with HIV and AIDS will be discussed as well as how changes in curriculum and better relations with the community are important in addressing the needs of students. The article will highlight options for developing innovative responses to HIV and AIDS in African education, showing how different forms of education can serve as vehicles for responding to the challenges of the epidemic. The examples emphasize the importance of learner‐centered instruction and partnerships with the health sector and other resources needed in an AIDS‐affected environment. Key messages of the article are that the HIV and AIDS epidemic is a multi‐sectoral problem and that responding to it effectively in the education sector requires coherent responses that address the needs of learners and instructors, including those who are personally affected or infected by HIV and AIDS. Adapting the Education for Sustainable Development initiative to address the challenges posed by the epidemic must be supported by policy development, leadership and advocacy. Diverse partnerships are essential, as the education sector alone cannot deal with the challenge of HIV and AIDS to sustainable development.