Cyanobacteria and their toxins are an increasing global public health menace. Most recently, problems have been experienced in Australia, the United States and, due to drought and increasing water scarcity, pose a severe threat in the U.K. With an international range of contributors, all leading experts in their fields, Toxic Cyanobacteria in Water examines the increasing need to protect drinking water and water resources from the hazards of Cyanobacteria and their impact on health. Written and edited by a World Health Organization working group, Toxic Cyanobacteria in Water is an operational handbook in a practical, assessible style.Toxic Cyanobacteria in Water will be invaluable to environmental health officers, professionals in the fields of water supply, public health, fresh water ecology and education, national and international organizations, special interest groups, post-graduate students and utilities responsible for managing drinking water supplies.
Written by two of the world’s leading experts on sediment management, 'Extending the Life of Reservoirs' provides guidance on adopting sediment management practices for hydropower and water supply dam projects. It explains how ensuring long-term resilience of critical infrastructure requires early and constant attention to reservoir sedimentation processes, which can reduce the storage capacity of reservoirs and damage hydro mechanical equipment. The report provides concrete guidance on safeguarding against these effects and preserving the many important services of hydropower and dam projects, including water supply, irrigation, and renewable electricity. In particular, it stresses the importance of integrating sediment management into the early planning phases of projects. 'Extending the Life of Reservoirs' is designed to assist those evaluating dam and hydropower proposals. While for the primary audience includes policy makers, lending agencies, and general practitioners, the level of detail provided in the report should appeal to a wide array of stakeholder groups. The content is neither overly technical nor overly simplistic, and aims to provide practical and useful information. Importantly, this report provides a new perspective on the importance of sediment management that is not found in prior work. It stresses the value of sediment management measures as a robust adaptation measure to support sustainable hydropower. The techniques described in the report make sense regardless of future climate changes, but in many cases have even more value when uncertainty over future hydrological patterns is taken into account.
This book discusses different aspects of water resources, ranging from hydrology and modeling to management and policy responses. Climate changes and the uncertainty of future hydrological regimes make sustainable water resources management a difficult task, requiring a set of approaches that address climate variability and change. The book focuses on three main themes: hydrological changes, adaptive decision-making for water resources, and institutional analysis and risk management. It discusses the applications and limitations of climate change models and scenarios related to precipitation projection, which predicts to the future availability of water. It also offers interesting examples from around the globe to describe the policy options for dealing with climate change. Addressing emerging issues that need to be resolved and techniques that can be applied for sustainable climate-change-sensitive water resources protection and management, this practical, state-of-the-art reference book is a valuable resource for researchers, students and professionals interested in sustainable water resources management in a changing climate.
Big dams built for irrigation, power, water supply, and other purposes were among the most potent symbols of economic development for much of the twentieth century. Of late they have become a lightning rod for challenges to this vision of development as something planned by elites with scant regard for environmental and social consequences—especially for the populations that are displaced as their homelands are flooded. In this book, Sanjeev Khagram traces changes in our ideas of what constitutes appropriate development through the shifting transnational dynamics of big dam construction. Khagram tells the story of a growing, but contentious, world society that features novel and increasingly efficacious norms of appropriate behavior in such areas as human rights and environmental protection. The transnational coalitions and networks led by nongovernmental groups that espouse such norms may seem weak in comparison with states, corporations, and such international agencies as the World Bank. Yet they became progressively more effective at altering the policies and practices of these historically more powerful actors and organizations from the 1970s on. Khagram develops these claims in a detailed ethnographic account of the transnational struggles around the Narmada River Valley Dam Projects in central India, a huge complex of thirty large and more than three thousand small dams. He offers further substantiation through a comparative historical analysis of the political economy of big dam projects in India, Brazil, South Africa, and China as well as by examining the changing behavior of international agencies and global companies. The author concludes with a discussion of the World Commission on Dams, an innovative attempt in the late 1990s to generate new norms among conflicting stakeholders.
China is home to half of the world's large dams and adds dozens more each year. The benefits are considerable: dams deliver hydropower, provide reliable irrigation water, protect people and farmland against flooding, and produce hydroelectricity in a nation with a seeimingly insatiable appetite for energy. As hydropower responds to a larger share of energy demand, dams may also help to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, welcome news in a country where air and water pollution have become dire and greenhouse gas emissions are the highest in the world. Yet the advantages of dams come at a high cost for river ecosystems and for the social and economic well-being of local people, who face displacement and farmland loss. This book examines the array of water-management decisions faced by Chinese leaders and their consequences for local communities. Focusing on the southwestern province of Yunnan—a major hub for hydropower development in China—which encompasses one of the world's most biodiverse temperate ecosystems and one of China's most ethnically and culturally rich regions, Bryan Tilt takes the reader from the halls of decision-making power in Beijing to Yunnan's rural villages. In the process, he examines the contrasting values of government agencies, hydropower corporations, NGOs, and local communities and explores how these values are linked to longstanding cultural norms about what is right, proper, and just. He also considers the various strategies these groups use to influence water-resource policy, including advocacy, petitioning, and public protest. Drawing on a decade of research, he offers his insights on whether the world's most populous nation will adopt greater transparency, increased scientific collaboration, and broader public participation as it continues to grow economically.
These proceedings include digital media with the full conference papers (3600+ pages). Sustainable and Safe Dams Around the World contains the contributions presented at the 2019 Symposium of the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD 2019, Ottawa, Canada, 9-14 June 2019). The main topics of the book include: 1. Innovation (recent advancements and techniques for investigations, design, construction, operation and maintenance of water or tailings dams and spillways) 2. Sustainable Development (planning, design, construction, operation, decommissioning and closure management strategies for water resources or tailings dams, e.g. climate change, sedimentation, environmental protection, risk management). 3. Hazards (design mitigation and management of hazards to water or tailings dams, appurtenant structures, spillways and reservoirs (e.g. floods, seismic, landslides). 4. Extreme Conditions (management for water or tailings dams (e.g. permafrost and ice loading, arid/wet climates, geo-hazards). 5. Tailings (design, construction, operation and closure for tailings dams; recent advancements and best practice) Sustainable and Safe Dams Around the World will be invaluable to academics and professionals interested or involved in dams. Un monde de barrages durables et sécuritaires contiennent les contributions présentées lors du symposium de 2019 de la Commission internationale des grands barrages (CIGB 2019, Ottawa, Canada, 9-14 juin 2019). Les principaux sujets du livre incluent: 1. Innovation (Avancées et techniques récentes pour l’investigation, la conception, la construction, l’exploitation et l’entretien de barrages hydrauliques, de barrages de stériles et d’évacuateurs de crues) 2. Développement durable (stratégies de gestion pour la planification, la conception, la construction, l’exploitation, la mise hors service et la fermeture de barrages hydrauliques ou des barrages de stériles, par exemple, changement climatique, sédimentation, protection de l’environnement, gestion des risques). 3. Risques (mesures d’atténuation et gestion des risques liés aux barrages hydrauliques et barrages de stériles, aux ouvrages annexes, aux évacuateurs de crues et aux réservoirs, par exemple, inondations, tremblements de terre, glissements de terrain). 4. Environnement extrême (gestion des barrages hydrauliques et barrages de stériles, par exemple, pergélisol et charge de glace, climats secs / humides, géorisques). 5. Barrages de stériles (conception, construction, exploitation et fermeture des barrages de stériles; avancées récentes et meilleures pratiques). Un monde de barrages durables et sécuritaires seront d'une valeur inestimable pour les universitaires et les professionnels intéressés ou impliqués dans les barrages.
Provides critiques of current practices for environmental flow assessment and shows how they can be improved, using case studies. In Environmental Flow Assessment: Methods and Applications, four leading experts critique methods used to manage flows in regulated streams and rivers to balance environmental (instream) and out-of-stream uses of water. Intended for managers as well as practitioners, the book dissects the shortcomings of commonly used approaches, and offers practical advice for selecting and implementing better ones. The authors argue that methods for environmental flow assessment (EFA) can be defensible as well as practicable only if they squarely address uncertainty, and provide guidance for doing so. Introductory chapters describe the scientific and social reasons that EFA is hard, and provide a brief history. Because management of regulated streams starts with understanding freshwater ecosystems, Environmental Flow Assessment: Methods and Applications includes chapters on flow and organisms in streams. The following chapters assess standard and emerging methods, how they should be tested, and how they should (or should not) be applied. The book concludes with practical recommendations for implementing environmental flow assessment. Describes historical and recent trends in environmental flow assessment Directly addresses practical difficulties with applying a scientifically informed approach in contentious circumstances Serves as an effective introduction to the relevant literature, with many references to articles in related scientific fields Pays close attention to statistical issues such as sampling, estimation of statistical uncertainty, and model selection Includes recommendations for methods and approaches Examines how methods have been tested in the past and shows how they should be tested today and in the future Environmental Flow Assessment: Methods and Applications is an excellent book for biologists and specialists in allied fields such as engineering, ecology, fluvial geomorphology, environmental planning, landscape architecture, along with river managers and decision makers.
Coastal reservoirs are viewed in many regions of the world as an emerging concept of storing fresh water when the river basin is in flood. Similar reservoirs (or impoundments) can be used to generate tidal renewable energy and/or provide the catalysis for urban regeneration. Constructed near the coast in natural river basins, these reservoirs have a smaller environmental footprint and are less obstructive than inland dams. Written by an international group of Civil, Environmental, and Geotechnical Engineers, Sustainable Water Resource Development using Coastal Reservoirs discusses the latest research and breakthroughs in their use, while offering expert advice into their sustainable design and construction. The perfect reference for researchers exploring the feasibility of this emerging technology or experienced professionals who wish to implement this technology as a water scarcity solution or a tidal renewable energy source or for urban regeneration, Sustainable Water Resource Development using Coastal Reservoirs provides an expert resource to the design, construction and use of coastal reservoirs. The reference begins with a brief but readable examination of water quantity, quality design and geotechnical considerations. The book includes international case studies to clearly illustrate the various uses, design, planning, construction, and operation methods. These case studies include projects such as: Afsluitdijk in the IJsselmeer, (Netherlands), Zuiderzee (Netherlands), Thanneermukkom Bund (India), Sihwa (South Korea), Saemangeum, (South Korea), Chenhang (China), Plover Cove (China), and Marina Barrage (Singapore).
This open access book surveys the frontier of scientific river research and provides examples to guide management towards a sustainable future of riverine ecosystems. Principal structures and functions of the biogeosphere of rivers are explained; key threats are identified, and effective solutions for restoration and mitigation are provided. Rivers are among the most threatened ecosystems of the world. They increasingly suffer from pollution, water abstraction, river channelisation and damming. Fundamental knowledge of ecosystem structure and function is necessary to understand how human acitivities interfere with natural processes and which interventions are feasible to rectify this. Modern water legislation strives for sustainable water resource management and protection of important habitats and species. However, decision makers would benefit from more profound understanding of ecosystem degradation processes and of innovative methodologies and tools for efficient mitigation and restoration. The book provides best-practice examples of sustainable river management from on-site studies, European-wide analyses and case studies from other parts of the world. This book will be of interest to researchers in the field of aquatic ecology, river system functioning, conservation and restoration, to postgraduate students, to institutions involved in water management, and to water related industries.
