Search results

In line with climate variability such as extreme floods and cyclones, siltation is identified as among the most serious environmental problems posed to Chilika Lagoon fisheries. Exposure to silt accumulation reduced the water spread area and hindered the exchange of water between the sea and river, resulted in decreased salinity level and subsequent prolific growth of freshwater invasive species. As a result, fish landing quantities in Chilika Lagoon rapidly decreased until the year 2000, thereby leading to the poorer people not being effectively able to adapt to the ecological-social-economic system. The weed invasion also obstructed passages from boat jetties to fishing grounds, sometimes leading to boat clashes and the subsequent disputes among fishers.

The watershed approach is recognized as a holistic approach to ecosystem management. The chapter examines the concept of watershed as an ecosystem in relation to ecosystem management, disaster risk reduction, and climate change adaptation. It describes the importance of watersheds in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. It specifically looks at the watershed approach and provides some case studies showing the important role of communities in watershed management. Moreover, it discusses some incentive schemes in managing watersheds.

Over the last decade, new governance-style, collaborative approaches to environmental management have increased exponentially. What is not well known is how the structure of these partnerships, particularly the policies that foster their development, may contribute to theʼ ability to achieve either procedural or substantive policy goals. Our study investigated efforts in the States of Washington and Oregon to encourage the development of collaborative watershed management institutions. Thirtyfive watershed partnerships were examined to understand how the planning groups implement policy objectives and how partnerships are creating or modifying institutions for planning and implementation. Our findings suggest that both States face similar challenges in important respects. Challenges include obtaining adequate participation, developing and sustaining organizational capacity, and planning implementation. Together, these findings demonstrate that new governance strategies are not a panacea for water management.

The United States today boasts of a complex and extensive set of public and private institutions and arrangements for managing its water resources. Today's system of watershed management is neither entirely top-down nor bottom-up. It is not entirely planned, nor is it entirely laissez-faire. Rather it is a hybrid. This chapter analyzes through a historical lens how American watershed management evolved to this state. It looks at two driving factors: technological change and trends in American political culture. Technology provided the reason for water resource and watershed management to evolve because of the conflicts provoked by its unintended and negative side effects, such as pollution. American political culture mediated the way that individuals and government reacted to these conflicts and spurred the evolution of new institutions.

This book reviewed a historical sketch of lagoon fisheries management from the past to the present and future orientation that fishers and concerned stakeholders might commit themselves to take actions. The study made great endeavor to highlight the lagoon fisheries with regard to development and conservation at multiple scales associated with various stakeholders. Evidence from case studies (state-based, community-based, and partnership-based) revealed that the nature of lagoon fisheries is quite complex and ecosystem processes are dominated by an essential quality of uncertainty. Indeed, lagoon fisheries are considered vulnerable in terms of climate variability, the extent of salinity level and water volumes, patterns of hydrological cycle, and water pollution. The case studies addressed how lagoon areas are physically or climatically subject to various influences not only from their internal environment but also from the adjacent marine and terrestrial areas. In an effort to maintain (and, preferably, improve) fishery resources in the lagoon environment, attention has to be paid to highlight a wider realization of lagoon fisheries management at multiple scales. The scope of its management might be expanded beyond the range of fish ecology (with the exception of migratory fishes such as salmon and eel). Given that the focus of lagoon fisheries management is on the entire watershed, multiple resources and livelihood activities must be taken into account; many resources are transboundary in nature with a high degree of mobility (Armitage, Marschke, & Plummer, 2008).

This paper aims to find the pattern of interaction of political actors in situations of tenurial conflict in the watershed through a review of cases of social conflicts of plantation villages around Siak watershed 2009-2014.

In harmony with the Research Master Plan (RIP) of Riau University, the socio-political of Riau Malay society and the fundamental scientific pattern of Riau university, the development of the resources of area and waters and Malay culture, since 2001, the writer has conducted a study related to the issues of natural resources policy, especially oil palm in the era of regional autonomy and decentralization. This is in line with the umbrella of research developed by the University of Riau namely studying various aspects of natural resources (especially oil palm) and human resources of Watershed (DAS). The writer's review is; first, the dynamics of politics in relation to the issue of oil palm plantation policy in Riau. This study shows that there are many central policies when implemented at the local level including watersheds clashing with local interests such as forests and land ownership. Second, the writer has also reviewed the policy issues and problems of oil palm plantations in Riau watershed in 2000. This study shows there are many issues and problems formulated differently by different people.

Mapping and strategy are examined through the study of political strategies on oil palm plantations and use them to answer the following two questions: what kind of political model which can be used to manage the watershed conflict since regional autonomy is implemented. Economic factors are influential in mapping and management strategies for the emergence of tenurial conflicts in the Siak River Rivershed 2009-2014. The tenurial conflict management model of Siak rivershed, which is considered relevant, is a conflict-based model of cooperation with a partnership pattern between local government, watershed civil society and plantation business actors. The change of agrarian structure is directed to the effort to open the space for the accesibility of society in decision-making.

Some of these studies have not reached the tenurial conflicts in the watershed areas, especially Siak watershed. In fact, about 80 per cent of Riau province region consists of watershed. This becomes the originality and gap of this study with previous studies. This research was conducted further as an effort to synergize Riau's development policy with Riau University's research in harmony with RIP that was created and aimed to find the pattern of interaction of political actors in situations of tenurial conflict in Watershed through a review of cases of social conflicts of plantation around Siak watershed in 2009-2014.

The analysis of groundwater level below the earth surface is focused on current and future scenarios. To analyze the wells under the threat of water level depletion, a study is conducted on the groundwater level using control charts. To improve watershed management, the important criteria are to increase infiltration as well as water storage capacity. There are 15 over-exploited zones in the study area (Dynamic GW Resources 2011). The purpose of this paper is to help in understanding the importance of wells for improving the water level to a certain extent for sustainable development.

The water levels in the wells are located with the help of x, y, z plotting on the ground using ArcGIS software. This water level mapping is done at a micro-watershed level to increase the clarity of information at the micro-level. In this study, the problem of depleted wells is sorted out, and the water level present in depleted wells pre-monsoon and post-monsoon is evaluated for the two years. Also, water level analysis is done using a control chart to find out the critical wells. On the basis of Poisson distribution, C-chart is used here to analyze the quality of wells and the water levels in those wells to be improved.

The outcome of the C-chart helps to track the wells that can be improved further to increase the water level. This paper presents the study of estimation of appropriate sites to be given importance and the rate of water level depletion to be controlled, which also helps to select a site suitable for artificial restoration by targeting groundwater potential zones.

This paper gives an outlook idea of wells that can be improved and the area that should be given more attention. Analyzing water level depletion helps to identify a suitable site for groundwater restoration using a remote sensing and geographical information system. These measures help the government and public sectors for proper planning and management of natural resources.

Climate change affects the natural resource base and poses enormous difficulty for the natural resource‐dependent indigenous population of the cold desert region in the high altitude Himalayas. The interplay of climatic and eco‐hydrological processes on these fragile ecosystem coupled with increasing anthropogenic pressure, are leading to increasing stress on indigenous agro‐pastoral communities and their livelihoods. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the outcomes of a study carried out in the Trans and Western Indian Himalayas to quantify the level of environmental threat and adaptive capacity.

Field studies were carried out across the cold desert belt in Indian Himalaya. A stratified, nested sampling across four Altitude Bands and three hydrological levels in two bio‐geographic regions. A participatory approach blended with scientific field observations and secondary data collection was adopted. Criterion variables were used to identify the “Vulnerability Hotspots” while component indices helped in depiction of key characteristic features of study units.

Data generated through participatory resource appraisal and scientific field observations were used to determine vulnerable “hotspot's”, identifying the driving factors (both anthropogenic and natural processes), and determining focus areas for interventions.

A pilot project on Water Access and Wasteland Development has been initiated in the Western Himalayas that integrates community based natural resource management with infusion of appropriate technology to address water stress and ecosystem vulnerability.

The research results identify target areas and methodologies for intervention, while the pilot initiative strives to ensure that disadvantaged cold desert mountain communities have access to resources and skills for effective management of these resources.

The study aims to identify the evoked “sense of place” that the campus community attributes to a watershed area in a Malaysian higher institution, aiming to enhance their participation in watershed conservation. Central to this objective is the incorporation of the concept of a watershed as a place, serving as the conceptual framework for analysis.

This case study explores an urban lake at Universiti Malaya, Malaysia’s oldest higher institution. It uses diverse qualitative data, including document analysis, semi-structured interviews, vox-pop interviews and a co-production workshop, to generate place-based narratives reflecting the meanings and values that staff and students associate with the watershed. Thematic analysis is then applied for further examination.

The data patterns reveal shared sense of place responses on: campus as a historic place, student, staff and campus identity, in-place learning experiences and interweaving of community well-being and watershed health. Recommendations advocate translating these narratives into campus sustainability communication through empirical findings and continuous co-production of knowledge and strategies with the campus community.

The research findings play a critical role in influencing sustainable campus planning and community inclusion by integrating place-based frameworks into sustainable development and watershed management. The study recommends the process of identifying place-based narratives with implications for the development of sustainability communication in a campus environment.

This paper contributes both conceptually and empirically to the sustainable management of a campus watershed area through place-based thinking. It outlines a process for enhancing campus sustainability communication strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to study Indian aspects of policy convergence in the context of budgetary linkage of two nationalized flagship programs – Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and Integrated Watershed Management Program (IWMP). Therefore, in lieu of inter-departmental convergences; issues related to water resource development of Jharkhand’s (India) rain-fed areas were addressed.

Centered on policy convergence strategy, present study applied comprehensive review and analysis approach for formulation of research base. A conceptual framework was thus designed for analytical purposes and therefore advancing toward conjectural knowledge base.

Application of inter-departmental policy convergence strategy suggested ample opportunities for optimal water resource development. Presence of abundant wage labor, rich indigenous water management techniques, tested replicable models, under-harvested rainwater potential, etc., appeared as catalysts of policy convergence. Yet, State’s lack of inter-departmental coordination and grass-root institutional framework will continually challenge policy convergences in absence of good governance.

An initiative of Indian government; MGNREGA has received international attention due to its wider coverage including natural resource management, besides guaranteed wage employment. Targeted at freshwater management discourse of Jharkhand; present paper reviewed prospective inter-departmental policy convergence strategy within various arena of MGNREGA, by exploring associated scopes and challenges. Similarly for cost effectiveness, related to maintenance and lift-irrigation demands of rain-fed area development; the present study suggested optimum utilization of inter-departmental funding linkages for development of sustainable water resources.