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There is a close quality relationship between the harmful levels of all three drought indicator groups (meteorological, hydrological and agricultural). However, the numerical scale of the relationships between them is unclear and the conversion of indicators is unsolved. Different areas or an area with different forms of drought cannot be compared. For example, from the evaluation of meteorological drought using the standardized precipitation index (SPI) values of a river basin, it cannot be stated how many tonnes of maize will be lost during a given drought period. A reliable estimated rate of yield loss would be very important information for the planned interventions (i.e. by farmers or river basin management organisations) in terms of time and cost. The aim of our research project was to develop a process which could provide information for estimating relevant drought indexes and drought related yield losses more effectively from remotely sensed spectral data and to determine the congruency of data derived from spectral data and from field measurements. The paper discusses a new calculation method, which provides early information on physical implementation of drought risk levels. The elaborated method provides improvement in setting up a complex drought monitoring system, which could assist hydrologists, meteorologists and farmers to predict and more precisely quantify the yield loss and the role of vegetation in the hydrological cycle. The results also allow the conversion of different-purpose drought indices, such as meteorological, agricultural and hydrological ones, as well as allow more water-saving agricultural land use alternatives to be planned in the river basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land cover changes around river basins have caused serious environmental degradation in global surface water areas, in which the direct monitoring and numerical modeling is inherently difficult. Prediction of pollutant loads is therefore crucial to river environmental management under the impact of climate change and intensified human activities. This research analyzed the relationship between land cover types estimated from NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) imagery and the potential annual pollutant loads of river basins in Japan. Then an empirical approach, which estimates annual pollutant loads directly from satellite imagery and hydrological data, was investigated. Six water quality indicators were examined, including total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), suspended sediment (SS), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), and Dissolved Oxygen (DO). The pollutant loads of TN, TP, SS, BOD, COD, and DO were then estimated for 30 river basins in Japan. Results show that the proposed simulation technique can be used to predict the pollutant loads of river basins in Japan. These results may be useful in establishing total maximum annual pollutant loads and developing best management strategies for surface water pollution at river basin scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The occurrence of 70 pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) was investigated in the Tone River. The river has the largest basin in Japan, and the water is utilized not only for farming, but also as a source of water supply. One day in both January and October 2006, surface waters in the river and its tributaries and effluents from sewage treatment plants (STPs) directly discharging into the Tone River were collected, the location of which ranged over 150 km along the river. The 70 PPCPs in the samples were concentrated by solid phase cartridge and were measured by LC-MS/MS using three analytical methods. Fifty-seven PPCPs were detected in one or more samples. Bezafibrate, caffeine, carbamazepine, clarithromycin, crotamiton and sulpiride were frequently detected. Mass flow profiles of some PPCPs (e.g., crotamiton) were comparable to cumulative inhabitants in the basin, suggesting that these PPCPs could be markers of population. Total load of each PPCP into the basin from upstream, the tributaries, and the STPs were calculated. The contribution of selected PPCPs from the tributaries with lower sewerage system coverage was dominant compared to those from upstream and the STPs, suggesting the installation of sewerage systems is necessary to reduce the load of PPCPs in the Tone River basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Web-based toolboxes are handy tools to inform experienced users of existing software in their disciplines. However, for the implementation of the Water Framework Directive, a much more diverse public (water managers, consultancy firms, scientists, etc.) will ask for a very wide diversity of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools. It is obvious that the users of a web-based ICT-toolbox providing all this will not be experts in all of the disciplines and that a toolbox for ICT tools for Water Framework Directive implementation should thus go beyond just making interesting web-links. To deal with this issue, expert knowledge is brought to the users through the incorporation of visitor-geared guidance (materials) in the Harmoni-CA toolbox. Small workshops of expert teams were organized to deliver documents explaining why the tools are important, when they are required and what activity they support/perform, as well as a categorization of the multitude of available tools. An integration of this information in the web-based toolbox helps the users to browse through a toolbox containing tools, reports, guidance documents and interesting links. The Harmoni-CA toolbox thus provides not only a virtual toolbox, but incorporates a virtual expert as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evapotranspiration (ET) from irrigated land is one of the most useful indicators to explain whether the water is used as "intended". In this study, the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) was used to compute actual ET from a Landsat7 image of December 29, 2000 for diverse land use in the Krishna Basin in India. SEBAL ETa varies between 0 to 4.7 mm per day over the image and was quantified for identified land use classes. Seasonal/annual comparison of ETa from different land uses requires time series images, processed by SEBAL. In this study, the Landsat-derived snapshot SEBAL ETa result was interpreted using the cropping calendar and time series analysis of MODIS imagery. The wastewater irrigated area in the basin has the highest ETa in the image, partly due to its advanced growth stage compared to groundwater-irrigated rice. Shrub and forests in the senescence phase have similar ETa to vegetable/cash crops, and ETa from grasslands is a low 0.8 mm per day after the end of the monsoon. The results indicate that wastewater irrigation of fodder and rice is sufficient to meet crop water demand but there appears to be deficit irrigation of rice using groundwater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide, the application of river basin water quality models is increasing, often imposed by law. It is, thus, important to know the degree of uncertainty associated with these models and their application to a specific watershed. These uncertainties lead to errors that are revealed when model outputs are compared to observations. Such uncertainty is typically described by calculating the residuals. However, residuals should not be seen as an estimate of total uncertainty, since through the calibration process, the residuals may be reduced by over-adjustment to the data, which is typically the case for over-parameterised models. Over-adjustment during a calibration period can also lead to highly biased results when the model is applied to other periods or environmental conditions. The total model uncertainties are, therefore, assessed by four components: the sum of the squares of the residuals (SSQ), parameter uncertainties (that can be ignored when their error is much smaller than SSO), input data uncertainties, and an additional predictive uncertainty that is expressed when the model appears to be biased when it is applied for data other than the data used for calibration. The sources are ranked according to a quantification criterion (magnitude) as well as an identification criterion that depends on the number of observations that are covered by the confidence region. This approach is illustrated with SWAT2003 simulations for flow and sediment of Honey Creek, a tributary of the Sandusky River basin (Ohio). The results show the dominance of the model uncertainty. The input data uncertainty is less important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Source water quality is of major concern to all drinking water utilities. The accidental introduction of contaminants to their source water is a constant threat to utilities withdrawing water from navigable or industrialized rivers. The events of 11 September, 2001 in the United States have heightened concern for drinking water utility security as their source water and finished water may be targets for terrorist acts. Efforts are underway in several parts of the United States to strengthen early warning capabilities. This paper will focus on those efforts in the Ohio River Valley Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD) offers an unparalleled opportunity for improving river basin management. Active participation is essential for its delivery. "End-of-pipe" solutions will not deliver the improvements needed to achieve its ambitious goals. This research tested DesignWays, a toolkit for participatory planning, as a mechanism for maximizing the long-term social and environmental benefits of such stakeholder and community participation. It examined the emerging role of "planning for sustainability" in the context of river catchments. Sustainable management of water requires integration, and recognition of interconnections between systems at different levels of scale. This is an endeavour in which systems thinking provides useful tools. The development of DesignWays was a conscious attempt to embed 'new paradigm' living systems metaphors into a practical planning tool. This paper begins with a description of DesignWays and its development in Southern Africa. An outline of the context of the action research in North-West England is followed by a description of the stages of the process, with highlights of the outcomes. This research had two major outcomes: a contribution to theory through an in-depth exploration of the theoretical basis of participatory, ecologically informed design; and a contribution to practice through investigating DesignWays' potential to meet key challenges of the WFD. This research points to the importance of understanding participatory planning as a societal process, aiming to make the process engaging and meaningful. It has pointed to the need to see participatory planning and education for sustainability as an integrated process. It demonstrated the benefits of an iterative process in which planning at the landscape level of scale informs, and is informed by, work at the site level. It has shown that an approach consistent with a living systems paradigm can contribute to the development of more integrated, ecologically sound plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A three-year study that started solely as an industrial pollution reduction effort in Dong Nai Province of Vietnam expanded into an ongoing regional river basin water quality management effort. The project was a cooperative effort between the United Nations (UNDP and UNIDO) and the Federal and Provincial governments in Vietnam. A comprehensive approach was used to assess the impacts and strategies for reducing industrial, municipal and agricultural pollution to the water, air and land. The strategy was based upon use of knowledge in four subject areas, economics, ecology, technology and institutions, integrated within a framework for regional environmental quality management, sometimes called Areawide Environmental Quality Management (AEQM). Dong Nai Province encompasses a major developing area immediately north of Ho Chi Minh City. The land area chosen for the AEQM study is the 1,400 square kilometre region in and around Bien Hoa that drains into the Dong Nai River. The Dong Nai River serves many purposes including navigation, fisheries and a water supply for both the Province and Ho Chi Minh City. Extensive industrial and residential development was underway and was projected to increase in the coming decade. A strategy for the control of pollution from liquid, gaseous and solid wastes for the period 1998 to 2010 in Dong Nai Province was developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant damage to surface water is caused by cattle husbandry. Only one global approach of water management and fanning techniques (breeding management and cultivation methods) will ensure significant results. A pilot study run in the west of France proved that water quality can easily be improved by renovating the cattle buildings. It also showed that manure used as a fertilizer covers cultivation needs, which allows substantial savings for the farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measures proposed to reduce the load of nutrients to the Baltic Sea focus on the removal of point emissions through introduction of environmental technology in the eastern and southern parts of the drainage basin. This article draws attention to the mixed success of Western European river basin management by comparing water quality trends and turnover of nutrients in the Vistula and Rhine basins. Removal of point sources in the Rhine basin has caused a marked drop in the concentrations of phosphorus and ammonium nitrogen, whereas the long-term upward trend in the concentration of nitrate was broken only recently. As compared to the Vistula fiver, the Rhine is still in some respects more polluted. Expressed as area-specific export, the riverine load of nitrate from the Vistula basin is only about one sixth of that of the Rhine basin. The area-specific export of phosphorus is comparatively higher in the Vistula, but still only half of that of the Rhine. In addition to the lower input of nutrients in the Eastern European agriculture, the much lower runoff in the Vistula basin is an important explanation to the observed differences. Furthermore, in-stream processes, such as sedimentation of phosphorus, play an important role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seven different methods of source apportionment were applied in an analysis of the nutrient emissions from point and diffuse sources of 14 river basins in Northeastern Germany. The aim was to compare the results relating to the uncertainties of the methods and to test whether the difference between the emissions and load is caused by systematical errors or by retention and loss processes in the river systems. Beside the simplest method, where the diffuse emission is the difference between the observed transport and the point source inventory, other immission methods including a nutrient retention term are applied. The emission methods used also estimate the diffuse nutrient inputsby different ways. For all methods the relative standard deviation of the estimated diffuse emission was calculated for each of the riverbasins. The mean standard deviation of the original data sets for all emission methods and the immission approaches with the retention term was 22% for nitrogen and 48% for phosphorus. By variation of additionally introduced coefficients this standard deviation can be reduced to 18% and 24% for nitrogen and phosphorus, respectively. Tests regarding possible systematical under- and/or overestimation of the measured load and the diffuse emissions, respectively, show indications of such a behavior for phosphorus, only. Nevertheless, a large difference between the nutrient emissions and the load remains, which can only be explained by intensive retention processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing water quality management strategies is often complicated by the difficulty in simultaneously considering large amounts of relevant data, applicable submodels, competing objectives, unquantifiable factors, nonlinear characteristics, and uncertainty during parameterization. Mathematical optimization techniques offer promise in identifying optimal or satisfactory strategies that may be used as benchmarks for decision making. Newer optimization techniques such as genetic algorithm (GA) and fuzzy mathematical programming make the search foroptimal control strategies in an uncertain environment more feasible. Using a probabilistic search procedure that emulates Darwinian natural selection, GAs allow multicriteria decision making with respect to both nonlinear feature and fuzzy characteristics to be incorporateddirectly into the optimization process and generate trade-off curvesbetween cost and environmental quality while identifying good control strategies. This paper verifies such a discovery by a case study ofwater quality control in the Tseng-Wen river basin in Taiwan. (c) 1998 IAWQ. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of stricter environmental regulations for surface water quality in Flanders, large efforts are made for the construction of sewers and water treatment plants. The present methodology to determine the necessary pollutant load reductions is based on the combination of simple mass balances, the 90-percentile discharge and neglects the self- purification capacity of the surface water. This method is very easy to apply but offers little guarantee that the goals set will be met. A sustainable river basin management requires a methodology to evaluate different options in pollution abatement strategies. Only by this, the available resources can be applied in the most advantageous,sustainable way. In this paper, a methodology is proposed to evaluate water quality based on dynamic modelling. This methodology is illustrated by means of a case study on the river Derider. Continuous and simultaneous measurements in 3 places along the river were used to calibrate and validate the model. Continuous simulations over a period of four years guarantee that, in contrast with traditional event typesimulations, most discharge and hydrometeorologic conditions are taken into account. Attention was given to the occurrence of extreme events. These events will determine the global ecological condition of the river. CDF-curves (Concentrated-Duration-Frequency) make it possible to gain insight in die duration and the frequency of occurrence ofevents with inadmissible concentrations of dissolved oxygen and ammonia. Besides simulations taking into account the present loads, different pollutant abatement strategies were analysed and compared. The applied methodology offers the possibility to evaluate the impact of different strategies and to locate present and future problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]