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The 1992 United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention and the 1997 Watercourses Convention ("the global water conventions") offer a framework for the international protection of shared international river basins, a key source of essential freshwater resources. However, in practice, two-thirds of the world's transboundary rivers do not have cooperation arrangements to ensure the rivers' protection. One factor contributing to the low number of such agreements, according to UN Water (a mechanism consisting of intergovernmental and other international entities that coordinates the UN's work on water and sanitation), is limited trust between basin States. This distrust may be due to a fundamental misunderstanding of the rights and obligations governing international rivers under the global water conventions, and how the legal mechanisms contained in the conventions may contribute to bridging that trust gap. The global water conventions offer a legal solution to practically implement riparian States' rights and obligations vis-à-vis their shared river, particularly on the allocation of river uses (protected under the equitable utilization rule) and the prohibition on causing harm to other States' interests and the environment (guaranteed under the no-harm rule). However, a longstanding controversial issue over the exact nature of the relationship between equitable utilization and no-harm is a stumbling block for riparian States entering into basin agreements. Underlying the uncertainty and ambiguity over the relationship is the prevailing view that equitable utilization takes priority over no-harm, contrary to the text of the treaty. This interpretation of the treaty creates uncertainty that inhibits States from entering into agreements, resulting in ungoverned and unregulated environmental protection of international rivers. This Article makes the case for a textual approach in interpreting water treaties on the basis that the global water conventions are clear and balanced and do not favor one rule over another, or upstream riparian States over downstream riparian States. Adhering to a textual approach corrects the unequal treatment of the treaty and restores the treaty to give effect to the environmental protection of international rivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The absence of a basin-wide apportionment agreement on using the Nile River equitably has been a long-standing source of disagreement among Nile riparian states. This study introduces a new approach that the riparian states can consider that quantifies the Nile River's apportionment. The approach includes (1) developing a basin-wide database of indicators representative of the United Nations Watercourse Convention (UNWC) relevant factors and circumstances, (2) developing an ensemble of indicator weighting scenarios using various weighting methods, and (3) developing six water-sharing methods to obtain a range of apportionments for Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia and the group of the White Nile Equatorial States for each weighting scenarios. The results illustrate a relatively narrow range of country-level water apportionments, even though some individual factor weights vary from 3% to 26%. Considering the entire Nile River, the water apportionment for Ethiopia ranges from 32% to 38%, Sudan and South Sudan from 25% to 33%, Egypt from 26% to 35%, and the Equatorial States from 5% to 7%. We trust that the six proposed equitable water-sharing methods may aid in fostering basin-wide negotiations toward a mutual agreement and address the dispute over water sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large lowland rivers represent an important type of ecosystem that has been under a constant anthropogenic influence (industry, thermal power plants, untreated communal water, and agriculture) for centuries, which has led to most of them no longer meeting natural reference conditions. These pressures affect diatom communities which represent a reliable bioindicator of the overall degradation of water bodies. The current study provides detailed information about benthic diatoms from the large international lowland rivers Sava and Tisa, analyzed using digital microscopy. Using the digital method and the BIIGLE 2.0 image annotation system, a total of 205 and 206 diatom taxa in the Sava and Tisa rivers were identified, belonging to 65 and 63 genera, respectively. Some of the dominant genera in the Sava River were Achnanthidium, Cocconeis, Gyrosigma, and Navicula, while in the Tisa River, mostly centric diatoms (Discostella, Cyclotella, Stephanodiscus) were dominant. Most of the recorded species are alkaliphilic and characteristic of running waters with high trophic conditions. The presence of halophilic taxa was also noted (e.g. Bacillaria paxilifera, Tryblionella species, Nitzschia clausii, Navicula salinarum). These taxa are sensitive indicators of even short-term changes in lowland lotic ecosystems characterized by elevated conductivity. The diatom indices showed very consistent ecological status, mainly moderate in terms of the general pollution index IPS, and poor to bad ecological status according to trophic diatom indices (Rott TI and TDI). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The international river Paraná flows through Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, and holds two major binational dams: the upstream ITAIPU dam (Brazil-Paraguay) and the downstream Yacyreta dam (Argentina-Paraguay). In the past years, the South American region was strongly affected by adverse environmental challenges exacerbated by climate change, like wildfires and severe droughts, which in turn drastically affected the water flow of the Paraná river, a river used for multiple purposes, inter alia the production of energy. The hydropower obtained from ITAIPU is one of the main sources of energy for Paraguay and the Southern part of Brazil. At the same time, the downstream parts of the river is used for navigation purposes, which is crucial for land-locked Paraguay to export its agricultural products, and for water consumption, as is the case for Argentina. The present case study will show how in spite of these challenges, South America has been an successful example of transboundary water cooperation, especially by using the international water law guidelines aimed at achieving reasonable and equitable utilization of an international river.

The absence of a basin-wide apportionment agreement on using the Nile River equitably has been a long-standing source of disagreement among Nile riparian states. This study introduces a new approach that the riparian states can consider that quantifies the Nile River’s apportionment. The approach includes (1) developing a basin-wide database of indicators representative of the United Nations Watercourse Convention (UNWC) relevant factors and circumstances, (2) developing an ensemble of indicator weighting scenarios using various weighting methods, and (3) developing six water-sharing methods to obtain a range of apportionments for Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia and the group of the White Nile Equatorial States for each weighting scenarios. The results illustrate a relatively narrow range of country-level water apportionments, even though some individual factor weights vary from 3% to 26%. Considering the entire Nile River, the water apportionment for Ethiopia ranges from 32% to 38%, Sudan and South Sudan from 25% to 33%, Egypt from 26% to 35%, and the Equatorial States from 5% to 7%. We trust that the six proposed equitable water-sharing methods may aid in fostering basin-wide negotiations toward a mutual agreement and address the dispute over water sharing.

This paper examines China's water governmentality in advancing the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC). It attends to how discourses, used as a political instrument, are framed, justified and contested in the reshaping of international hydrosocial territories. China's official and popular discourses present the LMC as promoting multilateral politics, economic benefits and social integration, while they obscure polarizing politics, external interventions and regional conflicts. Using strategies of positive publicity first, top-down communication and mutual empathy creation, these discourses aim to deflect attention away from controversies and geopolitics in the region to construct governable hydrosocial territories. However, in a transnational context where the Chinese state cannot unilaterally control geographical imaginaries, alternative discourses depict China as a "hydro-hegemon" that poses threats to downstream countries. The discursive dichotomy reflects multiple ontologies of water and power struggles in international river governance, bringing regional stability and sustainable development into question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The snow cover over the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) and its surrounding areas is very sensitive to climate changes. Due to the complexity of geographical environment in this large region, the response of snow cover to climate change should exhibit spatiotemporal differences. In this study, the spatiotemporal variations of snow cover from 2002–2015 in the Yarlung Tsangpo-Brahmaputra River Basin (YBRB) were analyzed using an optimized fractional snow cover (FSC) product derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Additionally, the effects of temperature and precipitation on the variability of snow cover were also investigated. The results showed that: (1) The snow cover exhibited large spatial and temporal heterogeneity in the YBRB. High FSC was observed in the northeast of the basin and the south slope of Himalaya, while the lowest was concentrated in the broad valley of the upstream of YBRB. The FSC value reached its highest in winter and dropped to its lowest in summer, but the monthly change processes were different between upstream and downstream regions. (2) A slightly increasing tendency (3.76%/10 a) of snow cover was observed on basin-wide, but the changes varied through time and space. The FSC increased significantly in the source and midstream regions during winter to spring (10.5%–18.0%/10 a), while it changed slightly in summer over all parts of the basin (−0.4%–4.3%/10 a). (3) The study area generally became warm and wet, and the change trend of temperature was more significant than that of precipitation. Snow cover changes were weakly correlated with temperature in winter and precipitation in summer. But in spring and autumn, both precipitation and temperature were significantly related to snow cover change in most regions of the basin. (4) The dominant factor driving the changes of snow cover varied in seasons. The area dominated by temperature was slightly larger than that dominated by precipitation in spring, except that precipitation significantly dominated the snow cover changes in the source region; In summer and autumn, temperature contributed more to the snow cover change in most areas of the basin; However, in winter, precipitation played a leading role in the variations of snow cover. These findings help to understand the different performance of the snow cover in the QTP and its surrounding areas under future climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Legal Studies ( IJOLS ) is the property of International Institute of Innovation Science-Education-Development in Warsaw 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.)

The article reports that illustrative example connects international river historiography with a related body of social scientific theory dealing with international water conflicts, under the sign of "hydro hegemony". Topics include considered that Mark Zeitoun and Jeroen Warner coined the term hydro hegemony in a 2006 article considering the patterns and processes of international water disputes.

Copyright of Basra Studies Journal is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) 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.)

International rivers create complex relationships between their riparian states, which can contribute to economic, political, and social losses. Treaties provide a means for states to coordinate their actions in managing international river disputes to minimize these losses. However, there is little knowledge about treaty content and the factors influencing treaty design. We test whether a relationship exists between the challenges of negotiating, complying, and distributing the gains in bilateral, multilateral, and basin-wide negotiation contexts and the depth of cooperation along with the degree of institutionalization. While the great challenges confronting multilateral or basin-wide negotiations can produce treaties that focus on joint gains and shallow cooperation to secure the signature of riparians, we find that they can also provide opportunities for deeper, more behavior-altering, cooperation. To manage the difficulties of maintaining multilateral cooperation, we find a higher degree of institutionalization. We also find that bilateral negotiations provide states with opportunities for deeper cooperation, but a lower degree of institutionalization.

Today Europe is developing a unified navigation system of inland waterways, which is a network of interconnected natural and artificial waterways and allows inland navigation vessels to carry out Trans-European navigation from one river basin to another. This article examines the problems and mechanisms of their solution related to the development of a unified navigation system of inland waterways and the development of a new international legal regime for navigation on international rivers in Europe. The study is based on the analysis of international legal acts of the Mannheim Convention on the navigation of the Rhine of 1868 and the Belgrade Convention of 1948 on the regime of navigation on the Danube. The Article analyzes the principles, problems and ways of resolving, legal regulation of navigation on the international rivers Danube and Rhine.

International rivers that traverse the territories of different States are subject to their exercise of the principle of territorial sovereignty. Utilization of these rivers and performance development plans by each of the riparian States will have impacts which may affect the rights and interests of other riparian States. Rules of international legal order relevant to international rivers have regulated legal relations among riparian States for the prevention of disputes and conflicts. Turkish government launched Güneydoğu Anadolu Projesi (GAP) and scheduled the construction of the Ilisu dam on the River Tigris. The operation of this dam in the future will diminish the Tigris water flow to the territory of lower riparian States such as Syria and Iraq. This diminishing effect indirectly plays an important role in developing arid and desert areas and leads to the intensification of dust haze, especially in Iran. This article examines international obligations of Turkish government with regard to the utilization of Ilisu dam.

The territory is the fundamental part of a state. It is the geographical space where a state exercises its full sovereignty, asserts its authority and possesses its national resources and wealth. A state territory is a land area under the sovereignty of a given state, in other words, an area in which the state exercises supreme power and which it controls, organizing itself in an administrative relationship and establishing its legal regime. One of the components of a state's sovereignty is its territorial supremacy. The nature of the territorial supremacy of state sovereignty and of the state as a whole cannot be derived from any legal category. The territory of a state includes the land, inland waters and the territorial sea, the airspace above the state. There are also international rivers, streams and canals, which may lie within the territory of one or more states. An international territory is an area of international law which is not subject to the sovereignty of any state and which is open to all states in accordance with international legal standards, the airspace above it as well as over an exclusive economic zone, the seabed and ocean floor outside the country, outer space including the Moon and other celestial bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rivers play an irreplaceable role in nature and human society but are the most vulnerable ecosystem in the world to multiple environmental stressors. However, the global-scale research status and the distribution patterns of major stressors in large rivers remain unclear. This study analysed research publications (12,807 documents from 1900 to 2019) related to six large rivers with continental representativeness to tackle these knowledge gaps. The results showed that the total outputs have grown rapidly over the study period, particularly since the 1990s. Consistent with the varied environmental characteristics and problems among the rivers, the research outputs and focuses demonstrated clear differences, which could further be attributed to geographical location, journal preferences and the economic strength of the country in which the river is located. Overall, climate change was the most frequently and widely considered environmental stressor in large rivers. Regardless of climate change, species diversity and hydropower development were widely addressed in the Amazon, Congo and Mekong river basins. Water pollution was the main stressor studied in the Rhine River and Mississippi River, while agricultural irrigation and drought were the most frequently addressed research subjects in the Murray-Darling River. This study provides a comprehensive understanding of the research status and stressor distribution in large global rivers, highlighting the relationship between river research and geographical regions, pointing out future research directions and providing management guidance for large rivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of international watercourse has been used in many international conventions referring to a river and its tributaries and related canals crossing two or more countries. The notable ones include the Mekong River which crosses five states in the East Asia region and the Danube and Rhine rivers which cross 12 states in Europe. This article addresses relevant international principle which will justify the claims and counter-claims on non-navigational use of international watercourses. It justifies the conflicting parties' demands on shared watercourses. Accordingly, this paper adopts the qualitative doctrinal analysis of the principle of reasonable and equitable utilization under the United Nations Convention on the International Watercourses (UNWC) 1997. Relevant provision will be analysed and harnessed in addressing the respective conflict and weighing each argument of the conflicting parties. It is hoped that the utilisation of the available legal recourses will help strengthen the exisitng legal framework in solving conflict over non-navigational use of international watercourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rivers flow across national borders, unfettered by political distinctions, and the ecological health of rivers is closely linked to their degree of connectivity. River research today is more global than it has ever been, but we show that river research, engineering, and management still operate within homegrown local paradigms. As a basis for this discussion, we studied the citation networks surrounding the most widely cited papers in our field, assessing the degree to which researchers have collaborated across geographical boundaries and fully drawn from the international literature. Despite gains over time, our field remains surprisingly and pervasively provincial. The likely explanation for provincial bias is that researchers are generally more familiar and comfortable with their own research methods, sites, and agendas. However, local focus has tangible consequences. For example, contrasting paradigms and differing approaches to river restoration and to flood‐risk management show that opportunities are lost when we fail to learn from the successes and failures of other regions. As we look to the future, increased engagement across political and intellectual and physical borders should propel the field of river science into new and exciting directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South–South transnational advocacy networks (SSTANs) targeting emerging states, Southern companies, and their supporting institutions warrant nuanced distinctions from traditional transnational advocacy networks that are heavily reliant on Northern actors and targets, particularly in terms of the strategies and arguments they employ. This article analyzes the dynamics of SSTANs through the case of an environmental campaign against Brazilian hydropower projects proposed in the Peruvian Amazon. It demonstrates how Southern actors are mobilizing against new and emerging patterns of South–South cooperation, which, despite occurring on unfamiliar institutional terrain, reproduces familiar asymmetrical power relations and socioenvironmental burdens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dam removal is becoming an effective approach for aquatic biodiversity restoration in damming river in order to balance the aquatic ecosystem conservation with large-scale cascade damming. However, the effects of dam removal on fish communities in Asian mountainous rivers, which are dominated by Cypriniformes fishes, are still not well known. To determine whether dam removal on a mountainous river benefit restoration of fish diversity, we investigated the response of fish assemblage to dam removal using a before- after-control-impact design in two tributaries of the Lancang River (dam removal river: the Jidu River, and control river: the Fengdian River). Fish surveys were conducted one year prior to dam removal (2012) and three years (2013-2015) following dam removal. We observed rapidly and notably spatio-temporal changes in fish biodiversity metrics and assemblage structure, occurring in the Jidu River within the first year after dam removal. Overall, fish species richness, density and Shannon-Wiener diversity all increased immediately in above- and below-dam sites, and maintained a stable level in subsequent years, compared to unchanged situation in the control river. All sites in the Jidu River experienced shifts in fish composition after dam removal, with the greatest temporal changes occurred in sites below- and above- the former dam, resulting in a temporal homogenization tendency in the dam removed river. These findings suggest that dam removal can benefit the recovery of habitat conditions and fish community in Asian mountainous rivers, but the results should be further evaluated when apply to other dammed rivers since the dam age, fluvial geomorphology and situation of source populations could all affect the responses of fish assemblages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The accumulation and redistribution of heavy metals in soil in a water-level fluctuation zone (WLFZ) can create ecological risks to reservoirs and reduce river health. Little is known about how heavy metals are accumulated and redistributed in the WLFZ of reservoirs with a high background value of the heavy metal in soil. The site chosen for this case study is the Nuozhadu mega reservoir in the upper Mekong River Basin, which is held back by a dam with a height exceeding 250 m. Five sampling transects were established around the reservoir. Each transect contained three vertical sampling lines representing three land-use types: forest, farmland, and rubber plantations. Soil samples were collected both in the WLFZ and in the infralittoral reference zone (IRZ), and the concentrations of the heavy metals Zn, Cr, Ni, Cu, Mn, and Fe (%) were measured in these samples. We found that the average concentrations of each of these heavy metals were higher in the WLFZ than in the IRZ. The land-use types, especially the rubber plantations and farmlands, determine the redistribution of the heavy metals in the soil of the WLFZ. The heavy metals Cu, Mn, and Ni increased with increasing elevation within the WLFZ, but the metals Cr and Zn decreased with elevation. The results of analysis of variance indicate that the soil properties had certain differences under different land-use types and inundation durations at various elevations, which partly determined the accumulation and redistribution of heavy metals in the WLFZ. We suggest that long-term monitoring of the concentration of heavy metals is needed for soil and water management in the WLFZ of the Nuozhadu reservoir. Highlights • The concentrations of the heavy metals in the WLFZ were higher than that of IRZ. • The Cu, Mn, and Ni increased with the increasing of elevation in the WLFZ. • The Cr and Zn decreased with the increasing of elevation in the WLFZ. • Land use before dam construction has determined the redistribution of heavy metals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is devoted to the international legal basis of fresh water resources management with primary attention to international watercourses, including legal regulations of navigational and non-navigational uses. The content of a special course - “International Water Law” is suggested. Special attention is paid to the legal regime of underground waters. The results of analysis of numerous international legal documents are represented in the article, both of historical and modern importance, including relevant documents prepared by the Association of International Law and by the International Law Commission of the United Nations.

This article explores the emergence of formal and informal bridging organizations to facilitate solutions to water conflict at the scale of the water resource. This new approach to governance is of particular importance on rivers within or shared by countries in which water management is fragmented among national and sub-national levels of government as well as among governmental sectors. This article focuses on the Columbia River Basin, in the United States and Canada. Review of the Columbia River Treaty governing shared management of the river has opened a public dialogue on river governance. Treaty review coincides with change in both the biophysical setting and the values and capacity of basin residents. Climate change is altering the timing of flow relied on by the management of developed river infrastructure and the annual runs of the basins’ salmonid species. River development increased economic development in the basin, but at the cost of ecosystem function. Assertion of legal rights by indigenous communities has brought an alternative world view to the review—one that seeks to maintain the benefits of river development while reconciling that development with ecosystem function. This article identifies the governance mechanisms needed to achieve reconciliation and describes their emergence in the Columbia River Basin through an analytical framework focused on local capacity building and network formation across jurisdictions, sectors, and scales of governance. Both countries fragment water management authority among jurisdictions and sectors, but bridging organizations have emerged to link interests and government at the watershed and basin scale. Emergence of new governance is facilitated by increases in local, regional, and indigenous governance capacity. This networked governance emerging at the biophysical scale while embedded in and linked to a hierarchy of formal international, national, state, and local government is characterized as the ecology of governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iran has dried up the Lower Zab River, the latest of Iran’s and Iraq’s transboundary (shared) rivers to be taken out of Iraq’s use. Water projects on the shared rivers will deny downstream Iraq its historic share of the waters. There is no agreement between Iran and Iraq on the management of their shared rivers and Iran ignores the principles for managing international watercourses provided in the applicable water conventions. This paper looks at the Lower Zab as the latest dried up river and its impact on the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, it reviews the present policy of the Iraqi and the Kurdistan regional governments regarding the rivers shared with Iran, and finally it suggests what can be done in Kurdistan to secure water and how to manage it with Iraq. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International rivers are conventionally understood as watercourses that cross national boundaries, while borders themselves are taken to be static and given – passive features over and across which riparian processes unfold. Employing such straightforward framings of international rivers and borders, academic studies and policy analyses of transboundary water governance perpetuate problematic ideas about the relevant scales and actors involved in international river conflicts and crises. Through a historical examination of the Ganges River and the Indo-Bangladeshi border, I introduce the ‘river-border complex’ as a new framework for reconceptualizing international rivers and borders as synergistic, co-constitutive and interdependent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]