Search

Today's water systems require integrated water resource management to improve the water supply for conflicting water uses. This research explores alternative policies to improve the water supply for two conflicting uses, hydropower and environmental, using the Leishui River basin and Dongjiang reservoir as a case study. First, the natural flow regime prior to reservoir construction (pre-1992) was estimated by performing a statistical analysis of 41years of daily streamflow data (March 1952-February 1993). This natural flow regime was used as a template for proposing environmental flow (e-flow) requirements. The post-reservoir flow regime (post-1992) (March 1993-February 2011) was analysed to estimate the streamflow alteration. Results show that the natural flow regime has been completely transformed; post-1992 winter normal flows are greater, and summer flows are smaller than pre-1992 conditions. Also, the occurrence of natural floods has been prevented. Second, a planning model was built of the current operation of the Dongjiang reservoir and used for comparison of four alternative water management policies that considered e-flow releases from the Dongjiang reservoir. The scenarios that considered combinations of the current operational policy and e-flow releases performed better in terms of hydropower generation than the current operation. Different volumes of e-flow requirements were tested, and an annual e-flow volume of 75% of the pre-1992 hydrograph was determined to generate the most hydropower while providing for environmental water needs. Trade-offs are essential to balance these two water management objectives, and compromises have to be made for both water uses to obtain benefits.

Due to population growth and agricultural intensification, water scarcity is increasing in the Upper Ewaso Ng'iro Basin. Quantitative information is needed to improve the management of this resource, but is a challenge due to lack of hydrometeorological data. Using water footprint thinking, a pragmatic approach applying available information and simple assumptions was used to estimate blue and green water availability and consumption for different land uses and activities. Despite the attention it receives, flower production makes up a small component of the basin's water footprint (1.4% of blue water consumed, roses used 0.73%), although the drastic impact of horticulture on low flows during dry periods is recognized. Surface water evaporation from irrigation dams containing captured floodwaters or pumped groundwater has a water footprint comparable to greenhouse horticultural production itself. Small-scale irrigation was estimated to use 71.4% of the blue water consumed, while total commercial horticultural production was estimated to use 8.2%. Direct human consumption was estimated at 3% and livestock and wildlife consumption at 4.2% of consumed blue water. Labour opportunities were almost 10 times higher for roses than for maize per hectare and per m3 of water consumed. Water productivity in terms of selling price was 128 times higher for 1 tonne of roses than for 1 tonne of maize. This approach can be used in data-poor regions to advance understanding between multiple stakeholders (such as between farmers, pastoralists and conservationists) for participatory management, and to better understand the basin's water balance to estimate exploitable water resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the complex interactions of human activity and the hydrological cycle, achieving urban water security requires comprehensive planning processes that address urban water hazards using a holistic approach. However, the effective implementation of such an approach requires the collection and curation of large amounts of disparate data, and reliable methods for modeling processes that may be co-evolutionary yet traditionally represented in non-integrable ways. In recent decades, many hydrological studies have utilized advanced machine learning and information technologies to approximate and predict physical processes, yet none have synthesized these methods into a comprehensive urban water security plan. In this paper, we review ways in which advanced machine learning techniques have been applied to specific aspects of the hydrological cycle and discuss their potential applications for addressing challenges in mitigating multiple water hazards over urban areas. We also describe a vision that integrates these machine learning applications into a comprehensive watershed-to-community planning workflow for smart-cities management of urban water resources.

This study sheds light on the importance of boundary spanners in developing the conditions that foster trust between stakeholders in integrated water resource management (IWRM). Boundary spanners routinely reach across organizational borders to build interconnections and interdependencies in order to manage complex problems, inform policy, and encourage knowledge sharing. The importance of the boundary spanning role has been shown in organizational business practices, urban planning, and higher education yet little research exists on its impact in IWRM. The mixed methods approach used in this study involved surveying and interviewing individuals with previous experience with IWRM in Nebraska. The results of the survey indicated that boundary spanning behavior predicted a large percentage of the variance in conditions that build trust between stakeholders. Further exploration revealed that boundary spanning, cooperation, power imbalance, and scale mismatch were predictors of trust building conditions. In addition, authentic leadership, autonomy, and trustworthiness were predictors of boundary spanners' ability to establish trust building conditions between stakeholders, with trustworthiness being the strongest predictor. The qualitative phase included interviews with thirteen individuals who participated in the online survey and scored high in boundary spanning behaviors. The interview analysis resulted in seven themes, which strongly support the promising role that boundary spanners play in fostering conditions that build trust between stakeholders within IWRM. This paper reflects on the importance of a boundary spanner within integrated water management, demonstrates the effectiveness of boundary spanning on the development of trust building conditions, and encourages more research on how to better identify and train boundary spanners to assist in the co-production of knowledge.

Contemporary water-governance approaches lack an understanding of the differences revealed when land and water governance interact. Conflicts arise because the spatial component is less regarded in water-governance approaches. This explorative paper introduces an analytical framework for the common management of land and water along three frontiers: the vertical frontier concerns the interaction between subsurface groundwater and land uses on the surface; the horizontal frontier refers to coastlines or riverfronts; and the fluent frontier is about inundations and flood events. Rather than a panacea for all governance issues, this paper proposes a more differentiated perspective on integrative water-governance approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa is a water-scarce country, a challenge which has been exacerbated by reduced precipitation and high levels of evaporation. Despite this state of affairs, water use and consumption has increased three folds in the past 25 years and this is projected to continue increasing in the next 50 years. As a response to the current and projected water crisis, South Africa, has developed and started implementing progressive water resource policies and strategies to optimise its water resources. Post-independence in 1994, the government introduced the National Environmental Management Act of 1998, Water Service Act 108 of 1997, National Water Act (NWA) 36 of 1998 and National Water Resource Strategy 2004 (1), 2013 (2), 2020 (3), and numerous other strategies to improve the management of water resource. While some of these policies and strategies have achieved significant successes, a majority of them have failed to address the structural and systemic challenges of sustainably managing water resources in the country. This paper, using data obtained through an empirical investigation, presents and discusses systemic and structural processes and mechanism which hamper the sustainable management of water resources for socio-economic and national development. A key point of discussion for this paper revolves around the silo approach used in the management of water resources in South Africa which give rise to massive fragmentations in the policy framework. It is, thus, recommended that for South Africa, to achieve some of the sustainable development targets, there is an urgent need for the country to adopt and implement principles of water resource management embedded in the integrated water resource management (IWRM) framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Water Resources Journal / Revue Canadienne des Ressources Hydriques is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of World Water Policy is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Study region: This study explores the connectivity of upland farmers and downstream fishers through interlinkages of water, energy and food within the Dampalit sub-watershed of Laguna Lake, Philippines. Study focus: The aim of the study is to yield policy relevant results to improve the status of the water resources and food products and to reduce possible user conflicts. Surveying 176 households mainly in the mid- and downstream areas elements and interlinkages of the local Water-Energy-Food Nexus (WEF-Nexus) were identified by the five capitals of the sustainable livelihood approach through a socio-ecological network analysis. New hydrological insights for the region: Besides the innovative methodology, this research adds to the underserved local perspective in the WEF-Nexus research. The survey shows different livelihood profiles for the two groups and a lack of direct social links between them in the WEF-Nexus context. Also indirect links through consumption of the other group’s food products could not be identified. However, a large fraction of the population share the use of char coal for cooking, the Makiling groundwater for drinking and various household purposes and the Central Market in Los Banos for their food supply.

Copyright of World Water Policy is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper engages in a normative analysis of water security, in view of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the call for transformation. It examines the role of river basin organizations (RBOs) and integrated water resources management (IWRM) to water governance, and the extent to which they are consistent with water security for development in Southern Africa. The paper uses Policy Coherence for Development (PCD) and addresses essential questions regarding the extent to which RBOs in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) insofar as concerns SDG 6 achieve water security for people at the grassroots. The theoretical contribution of the paper includes the comparative examination of normative PCD and water security structures at RBO level in Southern Africa, and the extent to which RBOs reflect IWRM principles. Empirically, the paper highlights regional water policies regarding harmonization and coordination in the respective riparian states of and the RBOs, in line with the SADC's developmental objectives. As RBOs seem to prefer conserving, developing and utilizing water resources over people, they would do well to shift their focus on to people by adopting normative PCD, if they are to witness transformation. This would also be consistent with regional goals, which seek to bring the transformation agenda to the ground. • The SDGs suggest that development should be realized through "transformation". • Theoretically, normative PCD and water security are compared, and how far they reflect IWRM principles. • Empirically, harmonization and coordination of water policies of riparian states in basin organizations are highlighted. • SADC's commitment to IWRM integrates core values essential for transformation in some of its key policy documents. • The core values have not been translated into SADC river basins' water resources management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water resources and water-related ecosystem services are vital to social–ecological systems, yet in many parts of the world water as a finite resource is revealed by its unsustainable and inequitable use. Increased threats to water security and supply of ecosystem services arise due to increasing and contested demand and declining supply due to climate change and other stressors. Trade-off decisions need to be made between competing sectors of food production, hydropower generation and environmental needs: the water–food–energy–environment nexus. New approaches are needed to address how water resources and ecosystem service benefits are shared among competing interests. One approach involves changes to decision contexts, shaped by the values, rules and knowledge which decision makers draw upon when considering options. By changing decision contexts, new opportunities become available. Here, we describe Nexus Webs; a knowledge framework designed to promote collaborative exploration of synergies and trade-offs and enable changes in decision contexts for water use. As part of the process of shifting this framework from concept to operation, we apply Nexus Webs to contrasting water use scenarios in the Pangani Basin (Tanzania and Kenya), where water is over-allocated and highly contested. Under each scenario, we detail linkages between different water uses and their effects on assets (ecosystems, biodiversity and built infrastructure), the effects on assets for the supply of ecosystem services and how these affect livelihoods and wellbeing. We outline how Nexus Webs can be developed and used to change the decision context to consider options for more socially inclusive and equitable use of water resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The rapid global growth in the use of renewable energy to reduce GHG emissions and mitigate climate change, through the inclusion of large amounts of PV and wind in existing electricity grids, has highlighted certain challenges. Most critically, their intermittent supply, necessitates flexible dispatchability from other generators in the grid. Currently, few renewable energy technologies offer this dispatchability, with only concentrating solar power (CSP) offering storage. CSP generates electricity from thermal heat, similar to fossil-driven thermal power plants, with the heat-source being inexhaustible concentrated solar irradiance. The thermal process, however, requires cooling, best achieved with a finite resource; water. CSP is ideally suited to areas of high solar irradiation, typically arid and water stressed. The need for water as a source of cooling is often neglected in the planning and development of CSP. This paper identifies water as a constraint to CSP deployment, and explores CSP's potential contribution to generation through the lens of the water-energy nexus. This aids our understanding of how water availability threatens expected CSP production capacity and places natural limits on its sustainable development. For strategic planning of CSP, we therefore propose the inclusion of integrated water resource management in CSP energy infrastructure planning. Highlights • Identify and explain the dependence of CSP on water as a limited resource. • Highlight disparity between co-location of high DNI and lack of water resources. • Highlight impact of variability of water resources on existing thermal power plants. • Identify lack of water resource consideration in CSP deployment planning. • Suggested integration of water resource management into CSP deployment planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Norway is the largest hydropower producer in Europe and provides currently 96% of domestic electricity supplies. Hydropower is a renewable and climate friendly source of energy, but causes an impairment on local environmental conditions, recreational use and aesthetics in and along impacted watercourses and lakes. Around 70% of the larger Norwegian watercourses and half of the country's total water-covered areas are regulated for hydropower production. By 2022, up to 430 hydropower licences will come up for revisions to implement the European Water Framework Directive in Norway. These have considerable potential to increase environmental and aesthetic conditions in Norwegian watercourses. We examine the decision-making of five completed licence revisions by means of document analyses of all relevant written sources, showing the content, methods and procedural qualities of the revision process. Despite case-specific differences, there are significant commonalities which form the basis for recommendations. Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) can be used to improve the documentation of physical impacts and value judgements in hydropower decision-making processes. We analyse the perception of main interest groups with regards to the use of MCDA in future revisions. There exists a rather strong resistance to using MCDA due to a variety of political and regulatory reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Zhejiang University (Science Edition) is the property of Journal of Zhejiang University (Science Edition) Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract Climate change exacerbates climate variability, and makes water governance more complex. The French local water management plans (SAGE) developed an integrated approach that relies on a balance between bottom-up and top-down governance. The aim of this article is to question the actual role of the local basin authorities and ask whether they are central in water governance. The Social Network Analysis of the Thau basin shows that the key actors of the SAGE, namely the Rhone-Mediterranean-Corsica Water Agency, the local water agency and the local water commission, are the most powerful actors in the management of the river basin and play a crucial brokerage role in climate change adaptation. Integrated water resource management shifted power from territorial and central authorities to functional and local managers. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Adaptation to climate change is already an issue in Mediterranean coastal lagoons; • Shifts in power are observed due to changes in water governance, but not a direct consequence of WFD implementation; • Functional and local basin authorities have gained power and legitimacy; • Local basin authorities clearly have a brokerage role; • This mix of top-down and bottom-up governance is appropriate to deal with climate change adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract As a typical rapid urbanization area and an emerging scientific and technological creative center, Shenzhen is confronted with the pressure of balancing water supply and demand. Based on clarifying the whole water cycle of the city, a system dynamics model was constructed to investigate the complex interactions throughout the water cycle within the social-economic-ecological system. Water supply and demand in Shenzhen City was simulated from 2015 to 2030. The results show that the water supply and demand (WSDR) of Shenzhen will steadily decline in future years, which indicates a serious scarcity of water resources and conflicts between water supply and demand in this region. Based on the sensitivity analysis, six parameters were identified as the most influential factors on water supply and demand in Shenzhen. They are the growth rate of secondary industry, the growth rate of tertiary industry, the utilization rate of surface water resources, the comprehensive utilization rate of wastewater, the per capita domestic water demand and the water consumption per unit of value of added industrial output. To avoid water resource shortages in the future, a scenario analysis was conducted using these parameters as control variables. The values of these control variables were set with integrated social and economic development targets. The results showed that water supply and demand (WSDR) will increase from 0.89 in the baseline scenario to 1.04 in the optimized scenario in 2020 and from 0.64 to 1.05 in 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lake Victoria Basin is a very important resource for the five riparian countries: Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. The Lake Victoria Basin provides resources for fishing, agriculture, medicine, forestry, water transport and other economic activities. However, its surrounding is affected by population growth, urbanization, industrialization, increasing commercial activities and inadequate provision of sanitation services among others. These grossly affect the landscape and water resources around the lake basin. In this paper, a web based integrated solution prototype is presented. The system consists of web access, mobile access, web service handler, mobile service handler and a database. It can be used to address communication challenges by enhancing stakeholder's participation, information sharing and enforcement of laws by timely communication and coordination of activities of good governance. The test results confirm that the system is effective and can be used to operate in real world environment in the management of water resources by providing the key actors with relevant information to facilitate decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated Water Resources Management has gained prominence in British Columbia due to growing concerns about drinking water quality and supply and risks from cumulative land-use and climate change. Experiences are examined in the upper Kiskatinaw River of the Peace River basin and the source watershed for the city of Dawson Creek. Though there is no formal decision-making capacity, efforts led by the city have focused on balancing intensive resource industry development activity with its stewardship objectives despite not having a formal role in watershed governance. Through investments in planning, characterization and monitoring, the city is well positioned now to further achieve facilitating interest-based solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract By the later part of the 21st Century, our planet will be faced with compelling climatic circumstances requiring tradeoffs to maintain viable environmental conditions and standards of living. The prognosis for people near coastlines and waterways is particularly dire without decisive actions that capitalize on shared strengths such as ecosystems. One clear opportunity is the regenerative services and co-benefits of natural infrastructure that reduce the impacts of environmental disasters as magnified by climatic change. Certainly, nature-based solutions are increasingly being viewed as critical actions to reduce societal risk. However, to advance the use of natural infrastructure through eco-engineering, there is a need to clarify the science regarding risk reduction effectiveness, develop agreeable principles, standards, and designs, and grow a demonstration site network responsive to circumstances faced by communities around the globe. In addition, there is a need to consider the legal, policy, and regulatory obstacles and opportunities for natural infrastructure within local to national contexts (i.e., science-based building codes, architectural design criteria, incentive policies, etc.). Ultimately, the integration of science, designs, and policy coupled with installation within several global resource management processes (IWRM, ICZM, etc.) will help establish eco-engineering standards. Supportive coastal, river, and urban examples from around the world are used to illustrate the current state of knowledge, model this integration of science, design, and policy, serve as initial "benchmark site", and finally help define guiding principles for the emerging field of eco-engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquifers are a significant drinking water source for the United States. Although vital to human well-being, development, and economies, these systems, specifically karst, either have minimal protections or are entirely overlooked in federal and state-level water quality policies and regulations. A lack of policies and regulations for the protection of karst groundwater resources is problematic, especially because these systems are characterized by distinctive landforms such as interconnected networks of underground rivers, sinkholes, springs and caves, and are extremely susceptible to contamination from polluted overland flows. This study considers policy approaches to improve water quality in groundwater, specifically karst systems, especially with regard to emerging contaminants of concern (CECs) and health threats, such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The study reviews and evaluates groundwater and karst groundwater quality and AMR policy gaps in federal water legislation (including the U.S. Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act), and state-level programs in 44 states to provide recommendations for future policy development. Presently, there is limited federal and state-level protection for groundwater systems and minimal state-level for karst throughout the U.S. Also, there are neither federal nor state regulations for AMR mitigation in water resources. There is a need for policies and monitoring and regulatory programs that support water quality protection and management strategies for water resources with distinctive hydrology. Addressing water quality policy gaps for groundwater resources – especially karst aquifers – and prioritizing emerging contaminants in research, monitoring, and policymaking, are critical to safeguard the public against nascent public and environmental health threats. • Evaluated U.S. federal and state groundwater (including karst) quality regulations. • Evaluated if these regulation address AMR in groundwater and karst systems. • Groundwater, especially karst, regulation is limited at federal and state levels. • Karst needs different regulations than non-karst systems due to unique hydrology. • Despite human and economic health threats there are no regulations for AMR in water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water resources are under growing pressures globally, and better basin planning is crucial to alleviate current and future water scarcity issues. Communicating the complex interconnections and needs of natural and human systems is a significant research challenge. With advances in cyberinfrastructure allowing for new innovative approaches to basin planning, this same technology can also facilitate better stakeholder engagement. The potential benefits of using digital basin planning platforms for stakeholder engagement are immense; yet, there is limited guidance on how to best use these platforms for more effective stakeholder engagement in water-related issues and projects. We detail our digital platform, Basin Futures, and highlight the potential uses for stakeholder engagement through an integrative framework across different assessment levels. Basin Futures is a web application that is an entry-level modelling tool that aims to support rapid and exploratory basin planning globally. As a cloud-based tool, it brings together high-performance computing and large-scale global datasets to make data analysis accessible and efficient. We explore the potential use of the tool through three case studies exploring agricultural development, transboundary water-sharing agreements and allocating water for environmental flows.

The existing methods of river evaluation tend to focus exclusively on water quantity; therefore, they do not provide a suitable methodology for integrated water management. In this study, research was carried out to develop an integrated river evaluation system that can simultaneously consider water quantity and water quality to improve the existing river evaluation methods. To this end, specific indicators were established to evaluate water quantity and water quality; moreover, an integrated evaluation formula was developed to express each indicator as an index. The integrated evaluation formula used additive functions and enabled integrated and comprehensive river evaluation through the sum of each indicator’s indices. The research subjects were rivers in the Paldang watershed, which surrounds important water resources in rep. of Korea. The rivers were analyzed using the study’s integrated river evaluation formula to identify the deteriorated grade of the water quality as well as the water quantity. Finally, the results of the integrated river evaluation rating were found to be poor or very poor. Based on this, the study determined that an integrated river management policy is required to simultaneously consider water quantity and water quality to restore the integrity of the rivers in the Special Countermeasures Area. The existing evaluations of rivers, which had been conducted only with a focus on water quantity, could be judged narrow or incomplete results. Based on this finding, it was also possible to identify an urgent need for a basic river management plan that can consider both water quantity and water quality organically. Ultimately, the study demonstrated that its methodology was able to make highly intuitive judgments about rivers’ current conditions; thus, it can be utilized to generate basic data for the establishment of customized river management policies.

This article explores the water policy narrative in Pakistan, and identifies its historical trajectories and influences, as well as the impact of the global agenda setting of water for 2030. For this purpose, water sector reforms in Pakistan are examined as a case study. The National Water Policy (NWP) 2018 and Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) reforms are critically evaluated and loopholes identified, in terms of both theoretical aspects and constraints in their practical implementation. The overall analysis reveals that the engineering narrative is dominant in policy circles and large-scale infrastructure construction is seen as an exceptional measure to overcome the current loss of storage potential due to sedimentation. On the other hand, the adoption of the Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) framework reflects the desire of state institutions to imbue water policy reform with international credibility. The IWRM framework has been adopted as isomorphic mimicry to appease international financing institutions and donors. PIM reform is thus far from delivering the desired results due to ideological battles among new (i.e., the Participatory Farmers Institution) and traditional bureaucratic irrigation institutions. As adopted, the global agenda setting of water, in the shape of IWRM, is a repackaging of existing activities, and prevents alternative thinking in the setting of water priorities according to developmental needs.

Botswana experiences a water stressed situation due to the climate and a continuously increasing water demand. Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) is considered, among other measures, to improve the situation. To evaluate the possibility for increased water supply security, a probabilistic and dynamic water supply security model was developed. Statistically generated time series of source water availability are used in combination with the dynamic storages in dams and aquifers, and the possible supply is compared with the demand to simulate the magnitude and probability of water supply shortages. The model simulates the system and possible mitigation measures from 2013 to 2035 (23 years), using one-month time steps. The original system is not able to meet the demand, and the estimated volumetric supply reliability in the year 2035 is 0.51. An additional surface water dam (now implemented) will increase the reliability to 0.88 but there will still be a significant water shortage problem. Implementing large-scale MAR can further improve the reliability to at least 0.95. System properties limiting the effect of MAR are identified using the model and show how to further improve the effect of MAR. The case study results illustrate the importance and benefit of using an integrated approach, including time-dependence and future scenarios, when evaluating the need and potential of MAR.

This paper argues that a systems' thinking and explicit modeling approach is needed to address noted weaknesses (in terms of practicality and usefulness) in integrated water resource management. A process of coupling complex regional land use, economy, and water system interactions in integrated modeling is demonstrated with proof‐of‐concept applications to two urban cases (Chicago and Stockholm). In this uniquely coupled systems model, urban land use scenarios are considered a complex urban system represented by dynamic systems models of land use, economics, and water with a focus on urban environments that include drivers and system feedbacks with implications focused on urban water systems. The integrated model results reveal that the physical availability of land for economic activities (forecasted via a bottom‐up land use change model) and their locations differ sharply from top‐down sectoral‐based economic forecasts. This shows that both human systems (economic and land use planning) and natural systems (land use limitations and associated water implications) need to be considered in order to accurately account for system(s) impacts. For example, flood zone regulations divert land use to other locations, whereas land cover changes can greatly affect the water infiltration characteristics of land surfaces and thereby alter hydrological outcomes. Our results indicate that modeling social and natural processes using a systems approach can provide a more comprehensive understanding of coupled causal mechanisms, impacts, and feedbacks in applications of integrated water resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the acute socioecological crisis in the Minqin region of China's Gansu province beginning in the 1980s and the multilevel, governmental response to that crisis in the first two decades of the 21st century. Drawing on extensive field research and interviews in the area, supplemented by analysis of available data, the paper presents a detailed case study of the development and implementation of the Shiyang River Watershed Restoration Plan in the period 2007-15. The case illustrates how conflicting policy objectives of the central state-led conservation project shaped patterns of interaction between local government officials, cadres, and farmers in Minqin County as well as ensuing outcomes and challenges in policy implementation. The study finds that top-level declaration of ecological and social issues in the watershed as a national security issue incentivized local government officials and cadres to overlook the Plan's provision for local consultation, in favor of meeting binding ecological and economic targets. It contributes to scholarship on environmental authoritarianism, illuminating structural factors and institutional constraints that shape local government officials' and cadres' behavior in a centrally administered environmental policy context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]