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Water quality and quantity are heavily influenced by catchment management, yet without participation by local communities, opportunities for enhanced protection and conservation in rural areas is limited. This paper explores the factors hindering local participation in catchment management, analysing stakeholder engagement by conducting in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and evidence syntheses in three contrasting catchments in Malawi. Our findings reveal omission of key actors in the catchment management process. Rural communities were least involved in catchment management. Barriers limiting participation were found to be interlinked and complex including weak regulatory frameworks, inadequate resources, lack of commitment, corruption, resistance to change, poor coordination, and cultural factors. Analysis of the interlinkages highlighted areas for intervention in promoting stakeholder participation which would, in turn, improve water security at catchment level. A comprehensive theory of change-based engagement framework that considers specific socio-cultural, economic, and political contexts to overcome the identified barriers is proposed. • Rural communities rely on natural resources including water for their livelihoods. • Appropriate catchment protection requires involvement of rural communities. • 23 barriers limit the engagement of communities in catchment management. • Barrier interlinkages explored providing insights to its solution. • Theory of change based framework proposed for engaging rural communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrological catchments today are largely the product of human activity. They have been engineered. The negative impacts of some of this engineering such as deforestation and agriculture intensification need to be addressed but the solution is not simply a matter of doing the opposite, for example through afforestation or moving to less‐intensive farming. We propose a catchment systems engineering (CSE) approach that utilizes and expands on existing catchment‐based approaches, combining interventions that work with or mimic natural processes with traditional "hard" engineering to provide a practical route to improved catchment function. The approach is predicated on the need to take an holistic view of catchments and to make proactive interventions that provide and enhance multiple ecosystem services. CSE seeks to address problems that are international in scope, recognizing the need to understand better how hydrological processes have changed due to human activity and how those changes influence frequency, duration, and severity of environmental problems such as floods, droughts, and poor water quality. The emphasis is placed on how we can act to engineer catchment systems to a safer functionally appropriate level utilizing measures such as nature‐based solutions alongside traditional engineering structures. CSE is the means to provide multiple ecosystem services while recognizing trade‐offs between reducing flood and drought risk directly, improving water quality and creating healthy habitats for wildlife. By targeting local hydrological flow pathways in defined spatial and temporal windows (e.g., during rainfall events at key locations such as riparian zones), CSE can deliver holistic water resource management now. This article is categorized under:Engineering Water > Sustainable Engineering of WaterEngineering Water > Planning WaterScience of Water > Water ExtremesWater and Life > Conservation, Management, and Awareness [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been considerable interest and discussion surrounding institutional design and governance in the areas of planning, political studies and policy development and more recently natural resource management. Within England, like much of Europe, an integrated catchment management, called the catchment-based approach (CaBA), has been developed when implementing the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive (WFD). This is seen as both a driver for stricter standards for water quality and ecological status in water course and encouraging the active involvement of stakeholders and communities in both planning and action. This paper analyses institutional design at the local level from the perspective of two concepts, namely institutional governance and social–ecological systems. The intension is to highlight synergies between the two concepts. Through this a new aspect of institutional design is revealed, the micro-level or ‘crafting’ of institutions by local actors. The paper identifies criteria that are associated with this aspect and analyses an integrated catchment case study in England. The paper concludes that the current policy approach in England, and potentially elsewhere in Europe, offers potential for the ‘crafting’ of institutions and at the local social–ecological systems scale this has potential for positive benefits such as great understanding and locally effective governance. Both would assist in achieving policy objectives, such as those of the WFD. The case study utilised an effective participatory approach that was, according to the criteria, robust and transferable in developing an adaptive governance approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The promise of integrated research for addressing complex problems of sustainability such as catchment management has been widely recognised. However, the mechanisms for achieving integration in research have been the subject of few empirical studies. A major challenge of doing integrated research is how to combine and effectively manage diverse disciplinary perspectives and other knowledge/s in the generation of new knowledge for practice and policy change. We examined this challenge within a large catchment management research project in Australia's Murray Darling Basin and asked, ‘What supports or enables integration in research?’ Addressing this question requires an attention to integration as a dynamic process of knowledge production. We propose a model of this dynamic process which is characterised by a changing demand for integration in five different phases: (1) establishing the imperative for integration; (2) coordinating different disciplinary and other knowledge commitments; (3) consolidating arrangements for integration; (4) prioritising outputs from integration; and, (5) representing outputs of integration. For researchers and research managers this model can help identify the mechanisms required to support effective integration within research projects. We identify these mechanisms as sites and devices for integration that must be both planned (as part of the original integrated research design) and emergent (iteratively created and supported) in research projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated Catchment Management (1CM) has been the rallying call for water resource managers since the publication of Agenda 21 following the UN Conference on Environment and Development in 1993. The reality is that the potential for ICM lies not in legislation, but through grassroots movements that promote public stewardship of land and water. The Australian landcare movement has been seen as one such route to ICM. The Australian experience has been transposed to South Africa through a program led by the National Department of Agriculture. This paper assesses the potential for LandCare South Africa to be an effective catalyst for ICM through an analysis of the Sisonke LandCare project run by the Kat River Catchment Forum. In this paper, I present an analysis of the LandCare project in terms of, first, the effectiveness of the land care activities in addressing land degradation problems and, second, the role of the land care project in reinforcing a catchment ethic that can be applied within an integrated catchment management framework. The paper reflects on the role that the Land Care project has played in developing the effectiveness of the Catchment Forum as a body through which broader integrated catchment management can become a reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the strong emphasis on public participation in the National Water Act (NWA), South Africa has yet to implement a comprehensive and functional approach to public engagement at the level of Water Management Areas. Part of the problem is that actual requirements are not explicitly articulated anywhere. This has led to the situation where public participatory processes are poorly conceptualised, misdirected and often perceived as confusing by stakeholders. 'Participation fatigue' is the consequence of this accompanied by a growing frustration with the implementation of the content of the Act. The intention for decentralised democratic water resources management is consequently seriously jeopardised if the public participation processes are not clearly presented in the public domain. In this paper we draw on a number of sources, namely a national pilot integrated catchment management programme called the Save the Sand Project initiated in the north-eastern part of SA, a Water Research Commission project on public participation and a DWAF project that funded the exploration of public participation in the Sand River Catchment. The latter (2005 -2007) supported a better understanding of public participation processes and dynamics in a high-density rural catchment, the findings from which are reported here. Additionally this paper is referenced against the current discourse on public participation in water resources aimed at elucidating public participation in integrated water resource management (IWRM) in South Africa. The focus of the work reported in this paper is specifically on the development and implementation of catchment management strategies as the locus of decentralised, democratised, participatory water resource management. In this paper we start out by discussing how complexities surrounding public engagement might present newly established catchment management agencies (CMAs) with serious challenges and then move on to a proposed framework for focusing public engagement on specific IWRM tasks. The framework outlines tasks where multi-stakeholder platforms collaboratively design strategic water management actions that are assembled as the catchment management strategy (CMS), a statutory obligation for CMAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa's water resources are unequally distributed over space and time and an already stressed water resource situation will only be exacerbated by climate change if current predictions are correct. The potential for conflict over increasingly strained water resources in South Africa is thus very real. In order to deal with these complex problems, national legislation is demanding that water resource management be decentralized to the local level where active participation can take place in an integrated manner in accordance with the principles of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). However, administrative and political boundaries rarely match those of catchments as, throughout South Africa, rivers have been employed extensively to delineate administrative and political boundaries at a number of spatial scales. The aim of this research is to determine if rivers act as dividing or uniting features in a socio-political landscape and whether topography will influence their role in this context. The Orange-Senqu River is used as a case study. This paper goes on to consider the implications of this for catchment management in South Africa. No study known to the authors has explored the effect of the river itself, and its topographic setting, on the drivers that foster either conflict or cooperation, and allow for participatory management. This study presents evidence that the topography of a catchment has the ability to aggravate or reduce the impact of the variables considered by water managers and thereby influence the role of a river as a dividing or uniting feature. South Africa's proposed form of decentralized water management will have to contend with the effects of different topographies on the way in which rivers are perceived and utilized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The importance of uncertainty analysis has been increasingly recognised, due to the influence of uncertainties in data, models and expert judgements. However, the successful integration of uncertainty analysis into multi-criteria analysis (MCA) has rarely been achieved. This paper analyses uncertainty sources in MCA. General methods of uncertainty analysis in MCA are reviewed, including probabilistic methods, indicator-based methods and fuzzy logic. Building on this review, an uncertainty analysis module developed for use within a GIS-based MCA tool for catchment management is presented. In this module, the influence of uncertainties on decision-making can be visually explored using an indicator-based method. The indicator-based method provides a pragmatic approach to communicating areas of uncertainty to decision-makers without assuming any prior knowledge of uncertainty analysis techniques. This enables uncertainty analysis to be more effectively operationalised within the decision-making process. An application example in the Tamar catchment, southwest UK, is used to illustrate the capability of the uncertainty analysis module when applied in a decision-making context. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Principles of good practice for collaborative resource management were derived from the literature and their use studied in a range of integrated catchment management processes. Desk-based reviews and interviews with participants allowed the principles to be refined and described within a framework that illustrates the interrelationships between core principles, enabling principles, precursors to a project and the influence of external factors on such collaborative processes. The findings illustrate the importance of these relationships in understanding how success is defined and under what conditions successful outcomes can be achieved. Understanding how these procedural aspects influence outcomes contributes to the wider literature on collaborative resource management that often treats processes separately from their context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human-induced changes to river loads of nutrients and sediments pose a significant threat to marine ecosystems. Ongoing land-use change can further increase these loads, and amplify the impacts of land-based threats on vulnerable marine ecosystems. Consequently, there is a need to assess these threats and prioritise actions to mitigate their impacts. A key question regarding prioritisation is whether actions in catchments to maintain coastal-marine water quality can be spatially congruent with actions for other management objectives, such as conserving terrestrial biodiversity. In selected catchments draining into the Gulf of California, Mexico, we employed Land Change Modeller to assess the vulnerability of areas with native vegetation to conversion into crops, pasture, and urban areas. We then used SedNet, a catchment modelling tool, to map the sources and estimate pollutant loads delivered to the Gulf by these catchments. Following these analyses, we used modelled river plumes to identify marine areas likely influenced by land-based pollutants. Finally, we prioritised areas for catchment management based on objectives for conservation of terrestrial biodiversity and objectives for water quality that recognised links between pollutant sources and affected marine areas. Our objectives for coastal-marine water quality were to reduce sediment and nutrient discharges from anthropic areas, and minimise future increases in coastal sedimentation and eutrophication. Our objectives for protection of terrestrial biodiversity covered species of vertebrates. We used Marxan, a conservation planning tool, to prioritise interventions and explore spatial differences in priorities for both objectives. Notable differences in the distributions of land values for terrestrial biodiversity and coastal-marine water quality indicated the likely need for trade-offs between catchment management objectives. However, there were priority areas that contributed to both sets of objectives. Our study demonstrates a practical approach to integrating models of catchments, land-use change, and river plumes with conservation planning software to inform prioritisation of catchment management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing awareness of the environmental significance of fine-grained sediment fluxes through catchment systems continues to underscore the need for reliable information on the principal sources of this material. Source estimates are difficult to obtain using traditional monitoring techniques, but sediment source fingerprinting or tracing procedures, have emerged as a potentially valuable alternative. Despite the rapidly increasing numbers of studies reporting the use of sediment source fingerprinting, several key challenges and uncertainties continue to hamper consensus among the international scientific community on key components of the existing methodological procedures. Accordingly, this contribution reviews and presents recent developments for several key aspects of fingerprinting, namely: sediment source classification, catchment source and target sediment sampling, tracer selection, grain size issues, tracer conservatism, source apportionment modelling, and assessment of source predictions using artificial mixtures. Finally, a decision-tree representing the current state of knowledge is presented, to guide end-users in applying the fingerprinting approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Payment for Ecosystem Service (PES) schemes is increasingly being used to obtain and drive environmental improvements. This paper describes two PES schemes, designed by Severn Trent Water (STW) to manage metaldehyde; Farm to Tap, and Product Substitution. Data collected over three years of running the schemes indicate that they can reduce the mean metaldehyde concentration at the Water Treatment Works by up to 61%; however, in‐catchment concentrations are more variable. Participant usage and behavioural surveys identify that the majority of farmers will use multiple methods to manage their slug problem. Farmer initiatives developed where rewards are paid for metaldehyde reductions, regardless of the process(es) used (Farm to Tap), result in 12% more metaldehyde reduction than when product substitution is used alone. Going forward, catchment management is the long‐term, economic and sustainable option. Schemes like Farm to Tap and Product Substitution are crucial to achieve water quality improvements and wider environmental benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study on the environmental impacts of catchment management on the status of Pong wetland was conducted during the year 2011-12 in the immediate catchment of Pong reservoir. Four main tributaries viz., Buhal, Dehar, Gaj and Banerwere selected to determine spatial trends in nutrient concentrations and to relate these trends to different land use systems in the catchment. Each tributary was divided into four sites of 5 km each. Site which does not form the catchment of Pong reservoir was excluded. Nutrient concentrations at most of the sites within the catchment were found within the permissible limits. However, no spatial trend was observed along a longitudinal gradient in the nutrient concentrations of tributaries taken under study. Spatial distribution of land use system in the catchment of wetland corroborated that catchment under study covered maximum area under forest land use followed by cultivated land and barren land. Three representative samples of silt at different locations were collected from the lake at the point of their entry into the lake and were used to analyze for certain heavy metals like Cd, Fe, Cu, Zn. Silt characteristics of lake were showed that lake sediments contain heavy metals but ranged within the permissible limits. However, increase in their concentration in near future may cause changes in the physico-chemical composition of the lake water. Improved management and maintenance of catchment land use systems are crucial and there is a need to conserve and preserve these existing wetlands to maintain and improve the ecological balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sodium dominance index was developed to quantify weathering rates and critical loads in Scotland, where atmospheric aerosols of maritime origin dominate over biogeochemical weathering in providing base cation inputs to catchment soils and drainage waters. High sodium dominance in river or lake water indicates low weathering rate. Here, this concept is evaluated using intensive temporal and spatial sampling strategies in two substantial catchments, one in Scotland and the other in central England, with particular reference to detection of groundwater inputs, and to possible problems from road salting in the calibration. In the Dee network, the spatial distribution of sodium dominance reflects the distribution of soil parent material geology, but land use also influences the equations. It is postulated that road density, via winter road salting, influences the sodium dominance calibration in lowland agricultural areas. Although road salting can also be problematic in some upland areas, the index still can provide clear indication of the likely severity of acid flush events in remote upland streams. In the Etherow catchment, sodium dominance varies markedly, sometimes over relatively small distances, reflecting soil type distribution, the occurrence of ground-water inputs to streams, and the influence of water in tributaries above the sampling point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Integrated catchment management (ICM), as promoted by recent legislation such as the European Water Framework Directive, presents difficult challenges to planners and decision-makers. To support decision-making in the face of high complexity and uncertainty, tools are required that can integrate the evidence base required to evaluate alternative management scenarios and promote communication and social learning. In this paper we present a pragmatic approach for developing an integrated decision-support tool, where the available sources of information are very diverse and a tight model coupling is not possible. In the first instance, a loosely coupled model is developed which includes numerical sub-models and knowledge-based sub-models. However, such a model is not easy for decision-makers and stakeholders to operate without modelling skills. Therefore, we derive from it a meta-model based on a Bayesian Network approach which is a decision-support tool tailored to the needs of the decision-makers and is fast and easy to operate. The meta-model can be derived at different levels of detail and complexity according to the requirements of the decision-makers. In our case, the meta-model was designed for high-level decision-makers to explore conflicts and synergies between management actions at the catchment scale. As prediction uncertainties are propagated and explicitly represented in the model outcomes, important knowledge gaps can be identified and an evidence base for robust decision-making is provided. The framework seeks to promote the development of modelling tools that can support ICM both by providing an integrated scientific evidence base and by facilitating communication and learning processes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article examines the importance of social process and multiple engagement approach in developing collaboration and learning in integrated catchment management (ICM). It focuses on the experience of an ICM research programme based in the Motueka catchment in New Zealand. It highlights the significance of multiple engagement approaches to address different constituent needs and opportunities.

Institutional reform of state-owned water utilities serving urban areas has often set out to turn them into effective and efficient organisations, so that they can become excellent service providers. However, the pursuit of such objectives, which are often based on commercial targets, woefully ignores efficient catchment management. In view of this, this study reviews the case of the Cross State Water Board (CRSWB) Ltd in Calabar, eastern Nigeria. It identifies the serial neglect of the local watershed as a factor responsible for its operational and maintenance costs. It therefore argues for the need to develop and integrate catchment or ecosystem indicators into overall performance indicators currently used in setting and monitoring performance by the water utility as well as other utilities elsewhere, their owners or regulators. Such socio-ecological considerations as manifest in a catchment, according to the paper, are vital in building appropriate resilience against hazard risks such as flooding, land erosion, land inundation and salt water intrusion which currently plague the CRSWB, hence offering a bold and sustainable road map towards service efficiency and effectiveness for the growing urban population under a variable climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on the effects of applying integrated catchment management (ICM) on stream flow, macroinvertebrates, and water temperature in Waikato, New Zealand. It states that ICM is deemed as the tool to improve the economic and environmental performance of the hill farm used for grazing sheep and cattle. The study found out that six years after the ICM implementation, the macroinvertebrates has demonstrated a rapid recovery towards its metric values and faunal composition.

The aim of the Hydrology for the Environment, Life and Policy (HELP) project is to strengthen the role and inputs of the scientific community in the integrated catchment management process. Water resources management in the 21st century requires a radical reorientation and an effective dialogue between decision-makers, stakeholders and the scientific water community. This paper offers a skeleton worldview as a starting point for that dialogue by bringing together key issues as identified by water resource experts from different disciplines. Experiences from all over the world demonstrate the need for multistakeholder advocacy and the importance of compromise-building mechanisms. Water law defines the rules of the game and provides a necessary framework for policy and its execution. However, there must be adequate social acceptance and active compliance, otherwise the formal rules and administrative regulation will not be perceived as legitimate and ultimately could prove ineffective. The challenge now is to create management systems where the formal decision-makers interact with relevant members of the scientific community, users and other stakeholders for a coordinated approach that successfully orchestrates water uses towards internal compatibility. Integrated water resources management is essential for securing a proper overview of all the activities that depend on the same resource--the precipitation over the basin--and which are internally linked by the mobility of water from the water divide to the river mouth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes strategies for cost sharing for catchment land and water management planning in Australia. Integrated catchment management; Watershed management; Community participation.

Kenyir Lake Basin was built to generate hydroelectric power for Peninsular Malaysia. This water body is a promising natural preserved environment and has been attracting the developer to develop tourist spots to fulfill their profit margin. Such approach commonly has been polluting the environment since the past few decades. In the present study, the hydrological and water quality assessment on rivers was carried out to identify the existing physical environment of Kenyir Lake Basin. Samples and in-situ data were collected at 19 stations during the dry and wet season. The obtained data was compared with National Water Quality Standard (NWQS) for Malaysian waters as well as interpreted and analysis using chemometrics technique. Based on the climatology and hydrological data, it has been observed that the sedimentation rate is increasing which may damage the Kenyir Dam turbines in the future. Besides that, the water quality of Kenyir Lake Basin is complied to Class IIB NWQS which is suitable for recreational use with body contact. Similarly, Kenyir Lake Basin is classified as Class III based on Malaysian Department of Environment (DOE) water quality index; which is suitable for body contact recreational activities but requires an extensive treatment. The chemometrics analysis has highlighted total dissolved solid, turbidity (TUR), biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand and salinity have affecting the water quality. Additionally, dissolved oxygen and pH showed higher potential risk toward the environmental process management and monitoring owing to the development surround Kenyir catchment area. The present findings advocate a higher management method to facilitate the preservation and maintain the life of Kenyir Lake Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) has in recent years been promoted by a wealth of 'top-down' government policies, while a number of 'bottom-up' community-based initiatives have also been set up. At the same time, adaptive water governance, built around multi-level, integrative and participatory institutional arrangements, is called for in order to enhance adaptive capacity of social-ecological systems to global changes. Working across scales, aligning planning processes, and multi-actor collaboration are key issues in the linking of top-down and bottom-up ICM, hence providing insights into how adaptive water governance can work in practice. The paper presents a study of how ICM actors work across scales and reconcile national and local priorities in 15 regional experiences chosen to reflect a diversity of scales, histories and governance arrangements. It is complemented with an in-depth, illustrative example, taken from the Tweed River Basin in Scotland, where a local charity has gradually developed and helped bridge gaps between local communities and government. Research results present the ways in which ' trusted intermediaries' can successfully close the gap across levels of governance, i.e. between communities, business, and governmental interests at multiple scales. Local ' trusted intermediaries' perform well, with their local knowledge, at building rapport with key actors and effectuate change on the ground. The research also indicates the need for a legal framework, or at least an established policy structure, that acts to harness the good will and interests of local actors while improving implementation of broader, national objectives. There appears to be no specific mechanism for multi-level collaboration, although results indicate that more formal and coercive forms of partnership are necessary at later stages to ensure implementation, for example, via the establishment of formal duties on public bodies or legally binding agreements between ICM stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the natural low flow of a catchment is critical for effective water management policy in semi‐arid and arid lands. The Geba catchment in Ethiopia, forming the headwaters of Tekeze‐Atbara basin was known for its severe land degradation before the recent large scale Soil and Water conservation (SWC) programs. Such interventions can modify the hydrological processes by changing the partitioning of the incoming rainfall on the land surface. However, the literature lacks studies to quantify the hydrological impacts of these interventions in the semi‐arid catchments of the Nile basin. Statistical test and Indicators of Hydrological Alteration (IHA) were used to identify the trends of streamflow in two comparatives adjacent (one treated with intensive SWC intervention and control with fewer interventions) catchments. A distributed hydrological model was developed to understand the differences in hydrological processes of the two catchments. The statistical and IHA tools showed that the low flow in the treated catchment has significantly increased while considerably decreased in the control catchment. Comparative analysis confirmed that the low flow in the catchment with intensive SWC works was greater than that of the control by >30% while the direct runoff was lower by >120%. This implies a large proportion of the rainfall in the treated catchment is infiltrated and recharge aquifers which subsequently contribute to streamflow during the dry season. The proportion of soil storage was more than double compared to the control catchment. Moreover, hydrological response comparison from pre‐ and post‐intervention showed that a drastic reduction in direct runoff (>84%) has improved the low flow by >55%. This strongly suggests that the ongoing intensive SWC works have significantly improved the low flows while it contributed to the reduction of total streamflow in the catchment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By managing a catchment effectively, the range and amount of contaminants entering waters used for public water supply can be reduced, with resultant benefits for both water companies and consumers. Consequently, catchment management is increasingly being recognised as being at the heart of the water environment. An overview of current and previous catchment management initiatives is given, along with the European Landscape Convention, which could be used as a vehicle for the implementation of a national catchment management strategy. The adoption of the drinking water safety plan approach is strongly advocated by the World Health Organisation, and effective catchment management underpins this approach. Effective management of our catchments will also make a significant contribution to meeting our obligations under the Water Framework Directive, by helping to address the serious issue of diffuse pollution from agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporary storage areas (TSAs) represent a category of soft‐engineered nature‐based solutions that can provide dispersed, small‐scale storage throughout a catchment. TSAs store and attenuate surface runoff, providing new additional storage during flood events. The need for such additional catchment storage will become more urgent as the frequency and magnitude of extreme hydrological events increases due to climate change. Implementation of TSAs in headwater catchments is slowly gaining momentum, but practitioners still require further evidence on how such measures function during flood events. This review focuses on the role of relatively small‐scale (<10,000 m3) TSAs in headwater catchments for flood risk management. It also explores the potential wider benefits for implementing these as part of an integrated catchment management approach. TSA flood mitigation effectiveness is primarily determined by the TSA's available storage prior to the event. At the local scale, this can be represented by the relationship between TSA inputs, outputs and total storage. Factors influencing the local functioning and effectiveness of TSAs are discussed, with potential considerations for optimizing future TSA design and management. Hydrological models have suggested that TSAs could be used to effectively attenuate high magnitude events. However, future considerations should involve addressing the lack of empirical evidence showing TSA catchment scale effectiveness and how local TSA functioning might change in time. Small‐scale headwater TSAs offer a holistic and sustainable approach to catchment management that can deliver both local benefits to landowners and wider flood risk mitigation for society. This article is categorized under:Engineering Water > Sustainable Engineering of WaterScience of Water > Water ExtremesScience of Water > Hydrological Processes [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive nutrient loadings into rivers are a well-known ecological problem. Implemented mitigation measures should ideally be cost-effective, but perfectly ranking alternative nutrient mitigation measures according to cost-effectiveness is a difficult methodological challenge. Furthermore, a particularly practical challenge is that cost-effective measures are not necessarily favoured by local stakeholders, and this may impede their successful implementation in practice. The objective of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of mitigation measures using a methodology that includes a participatory process and social learning to ensure their successful implementation. By combining cost data, hydrological modelling and a bottom-up approach for three different European catchment areas (the Latvian Berze, the Swedish Helge and the German Selke rivers), the cost-effectiveness of 16 nutrient mitigation measures were analysed under current conditions as well as under selected scenarios for future climate and land-use changes. Fertiliser reduction, wetlands, contour ploughing and municipal wastewater treatment plants are the measures that remove nutrients with the highest cost-effectiveness in the respective case study context. However, the results suggest that the cost-effectiveness of measures not only depends on their design, specific location and the conditions of the surrounding area, but is also affected by the future changes the area may be exposed to. Climate and land-use changes do not only affect the cost-effectiveness of measures, but also shape the overall nutrient loads and potential target levels in a catchment. • Local conditions determine the cost-effectiveness of nutrient mitigation measures. • Climate change affects cost-effectiveness and catchment nutrient loads. • Stakeholder engagement may exclude the selection of impractical measures. • Relying on participatory approaches may only partly reach environmental targets. • Trade-offs exist between theoretical cost-effectiveness and practical feasibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both natural and anthropogenic catchment-level effects alter the functioning of fluvial systems, which in-turn impacts river habitats. Catchment management aims to reduce impacts of land use practises on reach-scale river habitats. However, the coupling of anthropogenic and natural catchment-level effects often makes it difficult to distinguish the dominant control and therefore may hinder identification of appropriate management actions. Rather than separate anthropogenic and natural processes, we explore their interconnectivity by assessing similarity of catchments across the highly modified landscapes of England and Wales. We applied the self-organised map technique – an artificial neural network – to group 4485 catchments based on their ecohydrological features, hydromorphological features and habitat quality score under statutory assessment. This approach identified seven 'catchment types' with distinct distributions of stream power, sediment size, flow velocity and aquatic macrophyte diversity; each critical components of physical habitats. The feature distributions show catchment types across an energy gradient from high energy, upland catchments with coarse sediments and fast flow velocities, to low energy, lowland catchments with fine sediment and slow flows. This reflects natural changes in morphometry, rainfall, geology and land cover. However, anthropogenic modification caused departures from this expected natural gradient. For example, lowland catchment types with extensive arable land had significantly finer sediment than other lowland classes; likely due to fine sediment eroded from agricultural fields being deposited in rivers. Catchment types with the highest arable and urban coverage had the lowest habitat quality scores, slowest flow velocities and highest macrophyte diversity; but these hydromorphological features also lend themselves to naturally occurring low energy environments. This finding indicates that the location of anthropogenic pressures may exacerbate the underlying natural energy gradient, demonstrating the interconnectedness of natural and anthropogenic catchment-level effects. Our typology of catchment-level effects delivers an effective method of conceptualising the holistic impacts of catchments upon river reach ecohydrology and hydromorphology, providing a useful tool to inform strategic catchment management plans at a national level. The success of the self-organising maps approach for catchment classification in England and Wales could usefully be applied with national-level datasets across Europe to enable the effective management of catchments at a national scale and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the TAIERI Trust project's approach to Integrated Catchment Management undertaken in a southern New Zealand watershed. The project received a New Zealand Ministry of Environment Green Ribbon award for its efforts. Environmental management of catchments involves considerable communication with a diverse array of stakeholders—in this case: regulatory bodies, agency resource managers, research scientists, local farmers, other adult residents, and youth. Results from a review of the first three years of the project are presented. Successes and constraints are identified. Lessons learned may be applicable to those interested in communication-based approaches to sustainable development. [environmental communication, integrated catchment management, sustainable development, New Zealand] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An integrated, collaborative approach to natural resource management at the catchment scale is a strong theme in recent environmental management and planning literature. In New Zealand, integrated water resource management is undertaken by regional councils within the framework of a devolved legislative mandate, the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA). For some time, these councils have experienced difficulties discharging this role effectively, in particular with respect to the catchment scale. We argue for a multi-scalar, national policy framework, encapsulating bottom-up and top-down water governance strategies, in order to enhance the potential of integrated catchment management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catchments are socio-ecological systems integrating land, water and people with diverse roles and views. Characterising stakeholder networks and their levels of influence and interaction within catchments can help deliver more effective land and water management. In this study, we combined stakeholder analysis and social network methods to provide a novel stakeholder-mapping tool capable of identifying interactions among the land and water management communities across three contrasting study catchments. The overarching aim was to characterise the influence of different stakeholders involved in catchment management based on the perceptions of participants from four key stakeholder groups (Environmental Regulators, Water Industry Practitioners, the Farm Advisor Community, and Academics). A total of 43 participants identified 28 types of specific catchment management stakeholder groups with either core or peripheral importance to our three case study catchments. Participants contributed 490 individual scores relating to the perceived influence of these different stakeholder groups and categorised whether this influence was positive, negative or neutral for the management of catchment resources. Local Government, Farmers and Environmental Regulators were perceived to have the greatest level of influence. Social network analysis further determined which stakeholders were most commonly connected in all of the study catchments and hence formed the core of stakeholder networks in each catchment. Comparing outputs from the analysis of three contrasting river catchments, as well as between participants from four key stakeholder groups allowed identification of which stakeholders were more central to the catchment management networks. Such analyses could help facilitate effective communication within land and water management stakeholder networks by targeting highly connected opinion leaders or promoting peer learning via distinct catchment subgroups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Sustainable catchment management requires increased levels of integration between groups of natural and social scientists, land and water users, land and water managers, planners and policy makers across spatial scales. Multiple policy drivers, covering urban and rural communities and their relationships with land and water use, have resulted in the need for an integrated decision making framework that operates from the strategic national scale to the local catchment scale. Large gaps in integration between policies are resulting in uncertain outcomes of conflicting and competing policy measures. The need for further integration is illustrated by little or no reductions in nitrate and phosphate levels in surface and ground waters in England and Wales. There is a requirement for natural scientists to consider the socio-economic setting and implications of their research. Moreover, catchment system level science requires natural and social scientists to work more closely, to provide robust analysis of the state of the environment that fully considers the bio-physical, social, political and economic settings. The combined use of spatial technologies, scenarios, indicators and multicriteria analysis are increasingly being used to enable improved integration for sustainable catchment management. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]