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This paper examines the challenges that a region of China is facing as it seeks to integrate a centrally planned, hierarchically determined water transfer project into its own water supply systems. Water from China's South-North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP) has been available in Shandong since 2013. How has this province been managing the integration of SNWTP water into its water supply plans, and what challenges is it facing in the process? This paper demonstrates that Shandong's planners consistently overestimated future demand for water; this, together with the threats posed by reduced flows in the Yellow River, encouraged the Shandong government to support the building of the SNWTP. However, between the genesis of the plans for the SNWTP and its construction, the supply from the Yellow River became more reliable and the engineering systems and the efficiency of water use in Shandong Province itself has improved. As a result, by the time the SNWTP water became available, the province had little pressing need for it. Besides this reduced demand for SNWTP water, there have been difficulties in managing delivery of, and payment for, water within the province. These difficulties include unfinished local auxiliary projects that connect cities to the main canal, high water prices, conflict and lack of coordination among stakeholders, and ambiguous management policies. The result is that in 2016, on average, cities used less than 10% of their allocated quota of SNWTP water, while seven cities used none of their quota. The story of the SNWTP in Shandong is that of a centralised, hierarchically planned, fixed infrastructure with its deterministic projections coming into conflict with the fluidity of water demand and local political circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides exercises for the sampling and analysis of suspended solids in streams. Advantages are that a number of homemade devices can be used and their construction can involve students at a practical level. The exercises lead to a greater understanding of the natural system. (Author/KC)

The move by Australian governments to mobilise rural communities in the fight against land degradation has resulted in huge benefits in terms of the ability to implement on-ground works and increased community ownership of both land management problems and solutions. These benefits have been at the expense of access to technical and scientific expertise, impacting on project outcomes. Technical and scientific expertise is an extremely important component of any land/water management project, providing the detailed understanding of the system that allows appropriate and efficient decisions to be made. In this article we present a case study in which an attempt was made to introduce scientific expertise to a small scale community project. The attempt at introducing scientific expertise was not successful, with the community failing to accept the technical report. Despite this failure there are a number of lessons that can be drawn from this experience, the main ones being: 1. Technical and scientific investigations should commence before project planning starts so that the knowledge can form one of the major inputs to the planning process; 2. The investigation must have the complete support of the community, which means they must be aware of what is being undertaken and how the results will be used to assist in planning and what benefits this will bring about; and 3. The method by which the outcomes of the investigation will be communicated to and discussed with the community must be carefully planned and allowed for in time-lines. Such lessons will be very useful for informing future attempts at solving the issue of technical/scientific input and community projects.

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-5871.2010.00676.x Byline: Phillip O'Neill, Brian Finlayson, Clive Forster, Wayne Stephenson

The vast Dongting Lake in the middle Yangtze River basin, China, was occupied by Chinese Neolithic settlements starting 10 000 years ago, and rice cultivation there is probably the earliest in the world. The numerous Neolithic settlements identified by previous archaeological surveys represent the five major Neolithic cultural stages, i.e. the Pengtoushan (9000–7900 cal. yr BP), Zaoshixiaceng (7900–6800 cal. yr BP), Daxi (6800–5500 cal. yr BP), Qujialing (5500–5000 cal. yr BP), and Shijiahe (5000–4000 cal. yr BP). Using sedimentological and geoarchaeological approaches, this paper analyses the drivers of basin-scale settlement relocation in relation to lake-level fluctuations and monsoon climate variations in the Holocene. The relocation of Neolithic sites around the lake shoreline and on the adjacent floodplain, together with radiocarbon-dated stratigraphy, clearly indicates that the shape of the lake basin was an incised and elongated valley occupied by a lake in the early Holocene, which became a broader and shallower depression in the mid to late Holocene. The established lowest habitable base of the settlements positioned on the lake shore assists reconstruction of the change in lake level from 22 m at 9000 cal. yr BP to 26 m at 5500–4000 cal. yr BP, although higher and lower lake levels occurred during the intervening cultural stages. The pollen spectra reveal a warming trend throughout the Holocene with at least four major temperature cycles, driven by monsoon variations between temperate- and warm-humid conditions. In the early Holocene the climate changed from cool-dry to warm-humid, and this played a key role in developing the earliest Pengtoushan culture in the region. Subsequent climate fluctuations fit well with the advance and retreat of the lake shore, also coevally with Neolithic site movements in the lake region. In this study we show how geoarchaeological evidence can be used in environmental reconstruction during the Holocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In September 2007, Lake Davis (near Portola, California) was treated by the California Department of Fish and Game with CFT Legumine, a rotenone formulation, to eradicate the invasive northern pike ( Esox lucius). The objective of this report is to describe the fate of the five major formulation constituents-rotenone, rotenolone, methyl pyrrolidone (MP), diethylene glycol monethyl ether (DEGEE), and Fennedefo 99-in water, sediment, and brown bullhead catfish ( Ameiurus nebulosus; a rotenone-resistant species) by determination of their half-lives ( t1/2) and pseudo first-order dissipation rate constants ( k). The respective t1/2 values in water for rotenone, rotenolone, MP, DEGEE, and Fennedefo 99 were 5.6, 11.1, 4.6, 7.7, and 13.5 d; in sediments they were 31.1, 31.8, 10.0, not able to calculate, and 48.5 d; and in tissues were 6.1, 12.7, 3.7, 3.2, and 10.4 d, respectively. Components possessing low water solubility values (rotenone and rotenolone) persisted longer in sediments (not detectable after 157 d) and tissues (<212 d) compared with water, whereas the water-miscible components (MP and DEGEE) dissipated more quickly from all matrices, except for Fennedefo 99, which was the most persistent in water (83 d). None of the constituents was found to bioaccumulate in tissues as a result of treatment. In essence, the physicochemical properties of the chemical constituents effectively dictated their fate in the lake following treatment. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 2012; 31: 1032-1041. © 2012 SETAC [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GLO:1FPP/01may20:geor12403-gra-0001.jpg PHOTO (COLOR): . gl Geoff Missen was born on 27 August 1935 in Sydney. Geoff and Jenny had two daughters, Kirsten and Katrina, who both now live in Adelaide. In 1999, Geoff and Jenny left Melbourne to settle at Port Willunga, south of Adelaide, where he remained until his death in 2018. [Extracted from the article]