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This article reviews the historical development path of water rights in South Africa during the last 300 years or so. The basic finding is that water rights have come full circle. As early as 1652, the Dutch Company rulers declared water as public commodity and dominus fluminis status of the state, and they imposed the Roman-Dutch law in the country. The British, in contrast, privatized water and linked it with land tenure, thus establishing the supremacy of the riparian principle, and the apartheid government tried to swing the balance again to the Roman-Dutch law However, the modern law under the democratic regime has appointed the central government as trustee of water resources with the major objective of promoting the efficient, sustainable, and beneficial use of water in the public interest and providing equitable access to water to all. However it has brought much more responsibility than that envisaged by the law-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing demands for water by competing users in semiarid regions pose new challenges for water resources managers. Decision makers must understand the interactions between surface water, groundwater, and the environmental system. Additionally, the decisions made with regard to water transfer and allocation must take into consideration the diverse objectives that include water supply, cost efficiency, and ecosystem protection. The work presented herein demonstrates the use of groundwater simulation and optimization to construct a decision support system (DSS) for solving a groundwater management problem associated with the Upper San Pedro River Basin, located in southeastern Arizona. The case is treated as a multiobjective optimization problem in which environmental objectives are explicitly considered by minimizing the magnitude and extent of drawdown within a prespecified region. The approach adopted uses the constraint method to derive the tradeoffs among three competing objectives. Once the proposed algorithm identifies a set of efficient solutions (alternatives), concepts borrowed from fuzzy set theory are applied to rank the alternatives and to assist decision makers in selecting a suitable policy among them, each of which is optimum with regard to its goal and the corresponding consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the riparian rights of property owners along the coastline of Florida. Definition of riparian rights in the common and statutory law; Impacts of navigational servitude and the doctrine of public trust on riparian rights; Erosion of riparian rights along Florida's coast.

At a time when eastern states face continuing water shortages and regulated riparian statutes are in need of assessment, this note offers new ideas about water management by turning to two different sources of inspiration :the common law and the growing body of literature on common property regimes. The note asserts that the organizational and institutional insights offered by common property model are relevant to contemporary water management. It argues that the appurtenancy requirement within riparian law-restricting riparian rights to appurtenant owners and restricting usage to appurtenant land-bears distinct similarities to key features of common property regimes.

Shared water resources are strong sources of conflict in the Jordan River basin shared by Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. The control and allocation of water has been explicitly made a part of the ongoing peace negotiations. This article calls for the application of international water law in the resolution of water disputes in the negotiating process. The challenging task for negotiators is to translate water law principles into operating rules and procedures for the equitable apportionment of waters from shared water resources. The negotiators need a decision tool based upon objective criteria or standards to reach equitable entitlements to shared water resources by all parties. This paper introduces a multi-criteria decision tool as a possible approach to the problem of allocating the waters of the Jordan River between all riparian parties. The prime principle of the criteria is equitable allocation factors identified by water law. A general mathematical model was derived in which the proportional entitlements of the Jordan River basin waters were determined to the five riparians. It is hoped that, water negotiators review this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses about the international water conflicts on the Nile River between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan in particular. Factors that can be ascribed to explain the management of conflicts on cooperative basis; Solution for the Nile river basin; Importance of international law in regulating water conflicts and recognizing claims of all riparians.

This article examines how riparian law governed the disposal of industrial wastes into watercourses in the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The article investigates how the introduction of the doctrine of reasonable use and the balancing test gradually weakened the protection of customary water uses and facilitated industrial waste disposal. The article also examines the counter-reaction to weak protection of customary water uses at the turn of the twentieth century, which tightened the rules regulating industrial waste disposal. The article argues that riparian law was an ineffective governance institution because it created disincentives for the enforcement of riparian rights. The article also argues that riparian law arranged participation in collective choices over the rules of water use according to ability and willingness to pay, which largely explains the change of riparian law in the nineteenth century. However, the courts also gave weight to prevailing social values, which initially affirmed developmental uses of water but later took a more critical view of the interests of big business in water use. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Discusses the court case Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage District versus U.S. Tulare Lake Basin. Background of the case; Examination of the courts decision to grant the plaintiff water contractors' summary judgment motion; Assessment of the impact of the court's decision on water rights in California.

Many see the city of Jerusalem as an intractable religious political issue, beyond the pale of negotiation and problem solving. This view reflects a set of problematic assumptions, including beliefs that Jerusalem produces a contest between maximalist claims that only power can resolve. In this article, we conduct a conceptual exercise designed to rethink Jerusalem as an issue of political geography open to needs-based bargaining. Drawing from evidence in the Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database, we suggest that riparian negotiations offer an analogue that might be used to restructure the discourse used in the negotiations about Jerusalem. We propose the use of a riparian simile in which negotiators begin with the assumption that “the conflict over Jerusalem is like international water disputes.” Riparian negotiations encourage movement from sovereign rights to functional needs, the use of time as a flexible variable, a focus on beneficial uses, and the creation of language recognizing local contingencies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Inter-state water disputes occur in federal political systems. They stand at the intersection of two branches of law: federalism under constitutional law, and water law – specifically river basin regulation. In India, constitutional federalism is the outcome of colonial history. River-basin regulation is the outcome of developments in capitalism within the social context of Europe and United States, later universalised as international law under the Helsinki Rules and the International Law Commission Convention on Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses. When national law evolved in the historical context of colonisation, intersecting with international law evolved in the historical context of European capitalism, it reproduced imperial-colonial relations of super-ordination and sub-ordination in relation to water. It created an internal schism that locks the water sector into a developmental catharsis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Examines the dispute concerning the river basins and headwaters located in the tri-state area of Alabama, Florida and Georgia. Issues concerning water quality in maritime commerce; Application of legal concepts and riparian rights in the water supply dispute; Terms of the agreement signed at the ACT River Basin Compact; Implementation of a watershed management plan in Georgia.

Links the Southeast Anatolia Development Project (GAP) to the escalation of the water dispute between Turkey, Syria and Iraq over the use of the Euphrates-Tigris River Basin. Rationale and expected benefits of GAP; Domestic and international dynamics of the GAP area; Dispute over riparian rights and water distribution; Effect of Kurdish separatism and the Gulf War on the dispute.

The article reports the decision of the North Dakota Supreme Court in the case 'Norby v. Estate of Kuykendall.' It reports that reviewed an appeal by Rocky Norby after the district court quieted title to disputed property in lames Kuykendall. It reports that court dismissed Norby's argument that their ruling runs contrary to the rule that riparian rights have no regard for artificial boundaries.

Studies the development of riparian rights and the manufacturing industry in South Carolina. Role of industrialist William Gregg in the approval of the An Act to Declare a Certain Description of Streams Navigable, and for Other Purposes; Impact of legislation approval on political economy; Contrasting lines of argument on effects of slavery on southern manufacturing.

Proposes a conceptual model of riparian zones that integrates the physical processes that shape valley-floor landscapes, the succession of terrestrial plant communities, and the production of nutritional resources for aquatic ecosystems. Interfaces between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems; Importance of landscape perspectives for understanding the structure and function of stream ecosystems.

The Jordan River system, shared by Jordan, Israel, the Palestinians in the occupied territories, Syria, and Lebanon, is a major issue in Middle East politics. This paper identifies the water resources of the system, outlines historical development plans, and presents the relevant legal riparian issues and practices related to the basin. The descriptive analysis concludes that the application of the Helsinki and ILC rules separately is not suitable to a region which is in conflict on every issue. To assist in addressing the problem based on recognized water rights and water sharing, mathematical tools need to be used as these tools may help to help solve the problem based on recognized water rights and water sharing. The Multicriteria Decision Aid (MCDA) method of PROMETHEE was applied to rank the co-riparians. The results of relative ranking indicate that Jordan and the Palestinians in the occupied territories ranked high in this analysis (compared to Israel, Syria, and Lebanon). Sensitivity analysis was carried out to check the ranges of stability of the results and further analysis regarding possible allocations of future investments in the basin subjected to different constraints was demonstrated using the new version of PROMETHEE V. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water supply organizations control a large portion of agricultural water rights in the western U.S. This paper applies cooperative and club theory models to analyze the response of these organizations to potential rural-to-urban water transfers. Application of the models is to a proposed water trade between Southern California's Imperial Irrigation District and Metropolitan Water District. The analysis reveals that substantial intraorganizational conflict can emerge in response to specific transfer proposals, and this conflict may be sufficient to defeat or delay otherwise beneficial transfers. Poorly defined property rights and a failure to align these rights with operational control in the water supply organization are pinpointed as key sources of conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complete reliance on water rights markets for an efficient allocation fails to recognize the impact of currently existing social externalities and legal uncertainties. Specifically, it is possible that water may have a "community value" which may not be captured in the market price of a water right, thereby precluding an efficient market solution. Also, there are uncertainties related to the legal/instilutional process currently governing the use of western water which have the same implications for the standard notion of economic efficiency. These result primarily from inconsistencies in the application of certain legal principles, and the incomplete definition and assignment of ownership rights to the use of water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the early development of California water law from 1850 to 1911 to understand how such a hybrid system emerged and how well it promoted economic growth. Argument that 19th-century jurists worked within the confines of the doctrine to mitigate some of its potential inefficiencies; Existence of evidence that jurists selectively promoted appropriative claims in order to encourage reallocation of water from existing riparian uses.

This article examines the efficiency implications of the appropriative doctrine at a long-run competitive equilibrium under simplified assumptions as to the legal status of water rights in the U.S. Historically, water rights to surface water in the U.S. have developed under two distinct legal doctrines, the English common law notion of riparian rights and the appropriative doctrine. Generally speaking, the riparian doctrine forms the basis for water law in the eastern states, while the western states have adopted the appropriative doctrine. Under the riparian doctrine, each property owner fronting on a lake or stream has a right to the unimpaired use of the waterway, regardless of the location of his property along the waterway and regardless of the time at which the property is acquired or use made of the waterway.

Examines the legal issues in which the water of an interstate stream in the arid West in the United States can be divided between the states and their respective peoples for irrigation, power, manufacturing, household and other beneficial uses. Riparian and appropriation systems of water law; Four possible suggestions; Suggestion that each state should have for its people the quantity of water afforded by nature.

Focuses on the transition that forms the framework of the law of watercourses. Development of the rules under which one may take into his own possession and make his private property a portion of the flowing mass which in its natural course and wandering is uncontrolled by man and belongs to no one; Law's recognition of the right to have the liquid flow and to use it, which is called usufructuary right or water right; Principle of a private right in the use as distinguished from the substance itself.

Explains the riparian rights and the state's title to tide-flowed lands in the United States. Connecticut's law where the riparian owner has the exclusive right to wharf and fill out in front of his upland; New York's law in which the state owns the soil below high-water mark and with that it could be granted away to any individual; Laws on titles to the shore and shore rights in New Jersey and the Massachusetts.

Comments on the legal issues raised by the Watuppa Pond cases in Massachusetts. Governance of the pond by the provisions of the state Colony Ordinance and Ancient Charter of 1641-47,"; Right of riparian owners to the flow of the pond to their land; Examination of the cases which affirm the right of riparian owners to outlet streams to compensation for water diverted from lakes or ponds.

The article focuses on the U.S. court case Mildenberger v. United States, which dealt with the dumping of water into an ecologically sensitive river resulting in pollution. Topics include the riparian rights of abutting landowners and if abutters are entitled to just compensation for the increase in pollution and decrease in wildlife caused by the dumping.