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Journal Article Water Rights Arenas in the Andes: Networks to Strengthen Local Water Control(2008) Boelens, Rutgerd"The threats that Andean water user collectives face are ever‐growing in a globalising society. Water is power and engenders social struggle. In the Andean region, water rights struggles involve not only disputes over the access to water, infrastructure and related resources, but also over the contents of water rules and rights, the recognition of legitimate authority, and the discourses that are mobilised to sustain water governance structures and rights orders. While open and large‐scale water battles such as Bolivia’s 'Water Wars' or nationwide mobilisations in Ecuador get the most public attention, low‐profile and more localised water rights encounters, ingrained in local territories, are far more widespread and have an enormous impact on the Andean waterscapes. This paper highlights both water arenas and the ways they operate between the legal and the extralegal. It shows how local collectives build on their own water rights foundations to manage internal water affairs but which simultaneously offer an important home‐base for strategising wider water defence manoeuvres. Hand‐in‐hand with inwardly reinforcing their rights bases, water user groups aim for horizontal and vertical linkages thereby creating strategic alliances. Sheltering an internal school for rights and identity development, reflection and organisation, these local community foundations, through open and subsurface linkages and fluxes, provide the groundwork for upscaling their water rights defence networks to national and transnational arenas."Journal Article Two Eyes on Asia: Public-Private Partnerships for Water and Sanitation(2008) Thapan, Arjun"Asian water utilities have their work cut out for them. They are expected to provide water supply and sanitation services to Asia’s 4 billion people but are perpetually overwhelmed by challenges contributing to poor service — from artificially low tariffs to staff incapacity to insufficient budgets for infrastructure development. Delivery of sustained world class service will require considerable help from partners. Mr. Arjun Thapan of the the Asian Development Bank (ADB) shares the institution’s experience in making successful public-private partnerships."Journal Article The SES Framework in a Marine Setting: Methodological Lessons(2012) Schlüter, Achim; Madrigal, Róger"The paper discusses the application of Elinor Ostrom’s Social Ecological Systems (SES)framework, using as example a community organization in Costa Rica, which collectively extracts turtle eggs. The paper does so with the particular aim of examining the coevolving relationship between political science and economics. The SES framework is understood as a useful exploratory tool, which was introduced into a joint research agenda from a political science perspective. The breadth of its approach enables it to capture empirically observable diversity. In this sense it provided a perfect complement to the more partial view that economics brought into the coevolving research process."Journal Article Access and Resilience: Analyzing the Construction of Social Resilience to the Threat of Water Scarcity(2006) Langridge, Ruth; Christian-Smith, Juliet; Lohse, Kathleen A."Resilience is a vital attribute that characterizes a system's capacity to cope with stress. Researchers have examined the measurement of resilience in ecosystems and in social-ecological systems, and the comparative vulnerability of social groups. Our paper refocuses attention on the processes and relations that create social resilience. Our central proposition is that the creation of social resilience is linked to a community's ability to access critical resources. We explore this proposition through an analysis of how community resilience to the stress of water scarcity is influenced by historically contingent mechanisms to gain, control, and maintain access to water. Access is defined broadly as the ability of a community to actually benefit from a resource, and includes a wider range of relations than those derived from property rights alone. We provide a framework for assessing the construction of social resilience and use it to examine, first, the different processes and relations that enabled four communities in northern California to acquire access to water, and second, how access contributed to their differential levels of resilience to potential water scarcity. Legal water rights are extremely difficult to alter, and given the variety of mechanisms that can generate access, our study suggests that strengthening and diversifying a range of structural and relational mechanisms to access water can enhance a community's resilience to water scarcity."Journal Article Quality of River Nile Sediments from Idfo to Cairo(2005) Abdel-Satar, Amaal"Ten sediment samples from the main channel of River Nile beside four from the banks were collected seasonally from Idfo to Cairo during autumn 2000 to summer 2001. The present study focuses on the levels of heavy metals (Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Ni, Co, Pb and Cd) beside major cations (Na, K, Ca and Mg) in River Nile sediments and the correlations between metal concentrations, sediment particle size, carbonate and organic matter contents. The sediment samples were also analyzed for the exchangeable nutrient groups. The study revealed that the sand comprised more than 80% of the studied Nile sediment. The exchangeable nutrient showed irregular seasonal trends and the exchangeable phosphate (3.79-18.31 μg/g) recorded low levels compared with nitrate (2.4-52.28 μg/g) and ammonia (27.90-595.5 μg/g). The Nile sediments are slightly enriched with the major cations and the elevated concentrations of heavy metals are often associated with the industrial pollution. Iron and manganese oxides beside organic matter seem to be the principal carrier phases for most studied heavy metals. Comparison of studied metals to freshwater sediment quality guidelines was cited and discussed."Journal Article 'Chasing for Water': Everyday Practices of Water Access in Peri-Urban Ashaiman, Ghana(2007) Peloso, Megan; Morinville, Cynthia"Despite recent reports suggesting that access to improved sources of drinking water is rising in Ghana, water access remains a daily concern for many of those living in the capital region. Throughout the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA), the urban poor manage uncertainty and establish themselves in the city by leveraging a patchwork system of basic services that draws importantly from informal systems and supplies. This paper takes a case study approach, using evidence gathered from two-months of fieldwork in a peri-urban informal settlement on the fringe of Accra, to explore everyday practices involved in procuring water for daily needs that routinely lead residents outside of the official water supply system. Findings from this case study demonstrate that respondents make use of informal water services to supplement or 'patch up' gaps left by the sporadic water flow of the official service provider, currently Ghana Water Company Ltd. (GWCL). Basic water access is thus constructed through an assemblage of coping strategies and infrastructures. This analysis contributes to understandings of heterogeneity in water access by attending to the everyday practices by which informality is operationalised to meet the needs of the urban poor, in ways that may have previously been overshadowed. This research suggests, for example, that although water priced outside of the official service provider is generally higher per unit, greater security may be obtained from smaller repetitive transactions as well as having the flexibility to pursue multiple sources of water on a day-to-day basis."Journal Article Use of Remote Sensing and GIS in Monitoring Water Quality(2010) Usali, Norsaliza; Ismail, Mohd Hasmadi"The use of remote sensing and GIS in water monitoring and management has been long recognized. This paper however discusses the application of remote sensing and GIS specifically in monitoring water quality parameter such as suspended matter, phytoplankton, turbidity, and dissolved organic matter. In fact the capability of this technology offers great tools of how the water quality monitoring and managing can be operationalised in this country. Potential application and management is identified in promoting concept of sustainable water resource management. In conclusion remote sensing and GIS technologies coupled with computer modelling are useful tools in providing a solution for future water resources planning and management to government especially in formulating policy related to water quality."Journal Article Companion Modeling, Conflict Resolution, and Institution Building: Sharing Irrigation Water in the Lingmuteychu Watershed, Bhutan(2006) Gurung, Tayan Raj; Bousquet, François; Trebuil, Guy"We used multi-agent systems (MAS), following the companion modeling method, to facilitate water management negotiations in Bhutan. We show how this methodology helped resolve a conflict over the sharing of water resources by establishing a concrete agreement and creating an institution for collective watershed management. The conceptual model begins with a role-playing game (RPG). The stakeholders play the game, thus validating the proposed environment, the behavioral rules, and the emergent properties of the game. It is then relatively easy to translate the RPG into computerized MAS that allow different scenarios to be explored. After this first step in the MAS model, stakeholders then create an institution. A second model is developed to facilitate this process. We conclude by discussing the relationship between the models and reality, as well as the use of MAS as a mediation tool and the social process."Journal Article Institutional Options for Irrigation: The Bulgarian Case(2003) Penov, Ivan"During the transition period the irrigation water usage in Bulgaria declined by nearly 85% and many parts of the existing canal systems were abandoned. We review the roots of the problem and discuss possible institutional options to cope with the situation. The following determinants of institutional change are considered: features of transactions related to nature; characteristics of actors; governance structure; and property rights system. Data and information refer to interviews conducted in the Plovdiv region."Journal Article Sustainability of Water Resources Management in the Indus Basin Under Changing Climatic and Socio-Economic Conditions(2010) Archer, D.R.; Forsythe, N.; Fowler, H.J.; Shah, S.M."Pakistan is highly dependent on water resources originating in the mountain sources of the upper Indus for irrigated agriculture which is the mainstay of its economy. Hence any change in available resources through climate change or socio-economic factors could have a serious impact on food security and the environment. In terms of both ratio of withdrawals to runoff and per-capita water availability, Pakistan’s water resources are already highly stressed and will become increasingly so with projected population changes. Potential changes to supply through declining reservoir storage, the impact of waterlogging and salinity or over-abstraction of groundwater, or reallocations for environmental remediation of the Indus Delta or to meet domestic demands, will reduce water availability for irrigation. The impact of climate change on resources in the Upper Indus is considered in terms of three hydrological regimes – a nival regime dependent on melting of winter snow, a glacial regime, and a rainfall regime dependent on concurrent rainfall. On the basis of historic trends in climate, most notably the decline in summer temperatures, there is no strong evidence in favour of marked reductions in water resources from any of the three regimes. Evidence for changes in trans-Himalayan glacier mass balance is mixed. Sustainability of water resources appears more threatened by socio-economic changes than by climatic trends. Nevertheless, analysis and the understanding of the linkage of climate, glaciology and runoff is still far from complete; recent past climate experience may not provide a reliable guide to the future."