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The management of inter-regional basins in the Spanish case is a clear example of the complexity of water policy. The entry into force of the Water Framework Directive changed the objective and design process of public policy, prioritizing the conservation of river ecosystems and establishing the mandate for participation and inter-administrative coordination. This expanded the number of participants, creating a network of public and private actors with different interests and perceptions, bringing the water issue closer to what is often referred to in public policy as a wicked problem. In this chapter, we highlight how the Spanish political sphere has approached water policy in this new context, paying special attention to the role played by river basin organizations. To this end, we deal with two conflicts: the first concerning the Ebro Delta and the second on the water transfer between the Tajo and Segura rivers. Both cases show the inability of the central bodies of the State, the autonomous communities, and private agents to reach a consensus on water policy, which ends up shaping a decision-making system in which, although the legislative resources of the stakeholders are key, and the policy capacity of the basin organizations is reduced.

The report is an environmental impact assessment of two conjoining water streams in the lower area of the Wembury catchment where freshwater meets the coast. The assessment was conducted as there were concerns that the streams may be causing exceedances of the Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) due to catchment-based inputs from anthropogenic activities.

Water, sediment samples, and other parameters were collected, measured, and treated to preserve the concentration of nutrients and metals at three sites. A comparison with the neighbouring river Erme was made to determine if the findings were coherent. The report includes recommendations and mitigation strategies needed to improve the environmental quality of the system.

Findings indicate several breaches of EQS: water nitrogen, copper and zinc, and sediment copper. The highest recorded concentrations were mainly at sites one and two, likely from point source inputs from Wembury town and pollution accumulation from upstream land use such as arable and agricultural land. A special precaution must be taken for sediment copper, increasing monitoring to ensure values do not exceed Probable Effects Level (PEL) possibly becoming dangerous for the fauna and flora but also for humans. River Erme showed to also have EQS breaches but to some degree displayed an overall better ecological status. Despite several breaches in the legal limits, Wembury displays an overall good ecological status supporting life above and below water and is therefore an appropriate model for promoting environmental stewardship. It is to be noted that the material of the coursework was further edited after its original submission.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the factors influencing citizens' willingness to participate in the development of smart cities.

Citizens drawn from 30 second-tier cities in China were chosen as the research object for this empirical research. Based on citizenship behavior theory, research hypotheses were tested and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM).

The results indicated that information publicity has a direct and positive effect on residents' participation behavior. Perceived benefits, personal responsibility and subjective norms are positively associated with residents' citizenship. Additionally, citizenship was found to affect residents' participation intention positively. Finally, the moderating effect of information credibility in this context was also verified.

As one of the first empirical studies on this topic, this paper offers important guidance for future research regarding residents' participation in the development of smart cities. On this basis, the implications of this research with respect to policies that aim to encourage residents to participate in the construction of smart cities are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to explore the sustainability reporting of a public sector organisation (PSO). This study focuses on socio-environmental practices of a major agro-economic platform in Australia – the Murray–Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) to provide a unique perspective on water resource management and sustainability.

This longitudinal qualitative case study collects published data from the MDBA’s annual reports over 21 years (1998–2018) and considers economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability using legitimacy and institutional theory.

This study finds that the MDBA’s sustainability reporting is influenced by its response to the Water Act 2007 and the Basin Plan 2012 regulations and to maintain its legitimacy with stakeholders. The MDBA wished to pursue sustainability through integrating these regulations complemented by stakeholder expectations. Although all categories increased in reporting, the environment category has the highest primacy in achieving a healthy basin through sustainable water management for the long-term benefit of the stakeholders.

This study contributes to the PSOs sustainability reporting literature. Particularly, this study provides insights of sustainability reporting patterns and practices over a long period through a longitudinal study. This study contributes new knowledge on the awareness of PSOs sustainability practice which has implications for governments, regulators, policymakers, managers and other stakeholders.

The Australian PSOs setting is under-researched from the perspective of a regulatory framework. The MDBA case provides unique insights on water resource management and sustainability which has value for many countries around the world.

This study aims to explain the existing adaptation practices in an urbanized sub-region in the lower Chao Phraya River basin (CPRB) across different scales and dimensions. It offers an overview of water hazards in urban areas along the river basin to discover ways to deal with and recover from hazards via understanding the implications of existing and potential practice for the mitigation of hydrological hazards.

First, this study collected current adaptation strategies and measures from interview, focus group discussion, workshop organization, etc. to get the current adaptation strategies/measures for the whole CPRB and each specific area. Second, this study identified a set of criteria for evaluation from review of current publications and official reports. Then, the current adaptation strategies/measures were examined through a set of criteria to obtain the current situation of existing practices. Finally, analysis of key challenges and opportunities was done to propose supporting guidelines to reduce hydrological risks and incorporate further adaptation measures needed to boost resilience in the area.

Adaptation methods should focus on mixed adaptation, which integrates structural, social, organizational and natural adaptation, and to develop multi-dimensional collaboration. The adaption strategy has restricted the usage of some technologies and technical know-how, particularly in the area of climate change. As a result, intentional adaptation to become more inventive is required, to reduce hazards and improve disaster-response capacity. The various adaptation measures should be more integrated or more adaptive and to achieve greater cohesion and mutual benefit of individual measures, such as community-based adaptation or community-driven slum upgrading.

Hydrological risks are wreaking havoc on social, economic and environmental elements, particularly river flood, flash flood and drought in the Asia-Pacific region. Twenty-two existing adaptation options were evaluated with evaluation criteria such as scales of risks/impacts reduction, benefits of environmental and socio-economic and institutional aspects. The findings highlight the current situation of existing practices, key challenges and opportunities, which emphasized on natural-based solutions, raising knowledge and awareness and lessons learned on adaptation of hydrological risks. The existing adaptation measures will be suggested as supporting guidelines and master plans to minimize the hydrological risks.

Disasters are occurring worldwide, and Sri Lanka has also become a victim of multiple disasters. Though there is a disaster management mechanism from the national level to the local level in Sri Lanka, several gaps are identified in pre- and postdisaster management activities. Among them, the responsibilities of local-level stakeholders in flood management activities are not performing at a satisfactory level. Therefore, the flood damage from the previous events was too great. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to assess the roles, responsibilities and performance of stakeholders involved in local-level flood risk management activities.

The Deduru Oya basin in Sri Lanka was selected as the study area. The study hypothesized that “ineffective roles, responsibilities and performance of local level stakeholders have weakened the flood risk management in the Deduru Oya basin.” The stratified random sampling method selected the sample (n = 425) from the flood-vulnerable population. Primary data were collected through a questionnaire survey, key informant interviews and field observations. Secondary data were collected from reports, work plans, journal papers and published maps. Descriptive data analysis methods and thematic data analysis methods were used in the study.

About 69% of the respondents state that they are not satisfied with the involvement of government agencies in local-level flood risk management activities, while 10% of the respondents state that they are satisfied. The thematic analysis reveals several gaps, such as the lack of reservations in the Deduru Oya, improper land use practices, no inundation areas are identified and mapped out and the effects of illegal sand mining in the Deduru Oya. In addition to that, the lack of legal power vested in local governments in disaster management and the weaknesses of current legislation on flood risk management are the other major courses of local-level ineffectiveness.

The current research was limited to studying the involvement of local-level stakeholders in flood risk management, but the involvement of subnational and national-level stakeholders should be studied in future research.

This paper examines the involvement of local-level stakeholders in flood risk management. The results of the study confirm that the roles and responsibilities of local-level stakeholders are not well-defined and mandated, and therefore, the performance of stakeholders involved is minimal. Therefore, the results highlight the need for a well-established community-based flood risk management mechanism.

This paper aimed to develop a participatory methodology to analyze the disaster risk creation in coastal cities, based on an approach that combines social, urban, environmental and disaster risk elements.

The methodology uses some aspects of three theoretical approaches in a complementary way: i) the Pressure and Release (PAR) framework for the identification of dynamic pressures that contribute to disaster risk creation; ii) the application of Drivers, Pressure, State, Impact, Response (DPSIR) framework to analyze environmental dimensions; and iii) urban analysis, applying the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) tool to classify urban processes. The methodology combined the use of satellite remote sensing data to analyze the urban sprawl and citizen science methods to collect social and environmental data, using the case study of the watershed of the Juqueriquerê River in the coastal city of Caraguatatuba, Brazil. The pilot project was part of a local university extension project of the undergraduate course on Architecture and Urban Planning and also engaged residents and city hall representatives.

The satellite remote sense data analysis indicated a continuous urban sprawl between 1985 and 2020, especially in the south of the Juqueriquerê watershed, reducing urban drainage and increasing the extension and water depth of urban flooding and riverine floods. Using citizen science methods, undergraduates identified settlements with limited economic resources to elevate houses and a lack of infrastructure to promote a resilient coastal city. After identifying the dynamic pressures that contribute to disaster risk creation and the weaknesses and strengths of a resilient city, undergraduate students proposed urban planning interventions and gray and green infrastructure projects to mitigate disaster risks.

The paper identifies urban sprawl in disaster-prone areas as one of the risk factors contributing to disaster. It also comprehensively analyzes differences between different zones in the Juqueriqere River, which will be useful for policy-making.

The method presented an interdisciplinary approach that used satellite remote sensing data and citizen science techniques to analyze disaster risks in coastal cities. The multidimensional approach used to evaluate risks is useful and can be replicated in other similar studies to gain a more comprehensive understanding of disaster risks.

The purpose of this study is to address a highly heterogeneous rift margin environment and exhibit considerable spatiotemporal hydro-climatic variations. In spite of limited, random and inaccurate data retrieved from rainfall gauging stations, the recent advancement of satellite rainfall estimate (SRE) has provided promising alternatives over such remote areas. The aim of this research is to take advantage of the technologies through performance evaluation of the SREs against ground-based-gauge rainfall data sets by incorporating its applicability in calibrating hydrological models.

Selected multi satellite-based rainfall estimates were primarily compared statistically with rain gauge observations using a point-to-pixel approach at different time scales (daily and seasonal). The continuous and categorical indices are used to evaluate the performance of SRE. The simple scaling time-variant bias correction method was further applied to remove the systematic error in satellite rainfall estimates before being used as input for a semi-distributed hydrologic engineering center's hydraulic modeling system (HEC-HMS). Runoff calibration and validation were conducted for consecutive periods ranging from 1999–2010 to 2011–2015, respectively.

The spatial patterns retrieved from climate hazards group infrared precipitation with stations (CHIRPS), multi-source weighted-ensemble precipitation (MSWEP) and tropical rainfall measuring mission (TRMM) rainfall estimates are more or less comparably underestimate the ground-based gauge observation at daily and seasonal scales. In comparison to the others, MSWEP has the best probability of detection followed by TRMM at all observation stations whereas CHIRPS performs the least in the study area. Accordingly, the relative calibration performance of the hydrological model (HEC-HMS) using ground-based gauge observation (Nash and Sutcliffe efficiency criteria [NSE] = 0.71; R² = 0.72) is better as compared to MSWEP (NSE = 0.69; R² = 0.7), TRMM (NSE = 0.67, R² = 0.68) and CHIRPS (NSE = 0.58 and R² = 0.62).

Calibration of hydrological model using the satellite rainfall estimate products have promising results. The results also suggest that products can be a potential alternative source of data sparse complex rift margin having heterogeneous characteristics for various water resource related applications in the study area.

This research is an original work that focuses on all three satellite rainfall estimates forced simulations displaying substantially improved performance after bias correction and recalibration.

The purpose of this paper is to explore a new grey relational analysis model to measure the coupling relationship between the indicators for the water environment status assessment. Meanwhile, the model deals with the problem that the changing of indicator order may result in the changing of the degree of grey relation.

The binary index submatrix of the sample matrix is given first. Then the product of the matrix and its own transpose is used to measure the characteristics of the index and the coupling relationship between the indicators. Thirdly, the grey relational coefficient is defined based on the matrix norm, and a grey coupling relational analysis model is proposed.

The paper provides a novel grey relational analysis model based on the norm of matrix. The properties, normalization, symmetry, relational order invariance to the multiplicative, are studied. The paper also shows that the model performs very well on the water environment status assessment in the eight cities along the Yangtze River.

The model in this paper has supplemented and improved the grey relational analysis theory for panel data.