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The article offers insights into the main legal concepts of riparian rights. Topics mentioned include the definition of sovereign submerged land, the sale of sovereign submerged land to private owners, and the legal disputes regarding riparian rights over sovereign submerged land and highwater line location.

The article examines several cases relating to Indiana lake and water law which were handed down between September 1, 2018 and August 31, 2019. Topics discussed include two cases that have something to do with competing riparian rights, the regulation of certain lakefront property, and cases that address various issues stemming from notices of violation issued under the Dam Safety Act.

The equitable apportionment doctrine is the judicial apportionment remedy for interstate water conflicts. It has undergone refinement in the years since the United States Supreme Court established it in 1907. However, as this Note will argue, the current landscape of the equitable apportionment doctrine proves to be problematic and ill-equipped to manage increasingly technical and party-heavy disputes over water between states. This Note presents a background about the development of the differing water rights regimes in the United States. Additionally, it will explain the equitable apportionment doctrine by examining the pivotal Supreme Court cases from which the doctrine is derived. This Note will also demonstrate how the equitable apportionment doctrine has become problematic in its current state. Finally, this Note will propose a bifurcated litigation process to mitigate the negative consequences of the problematic equitable apportionment doctrine as it currently stands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change's effects on water resources have been some of the first realities of ecological change in the Anthropocene, forcing climate change adaptation efforts even as the international community seeks to mitigate climate change. Water law has thus become one vehicle of climate change adaptation. Legal research into the intersections between climate change and water law in the United States must contend with the facts that: (a) climate change affects different parts of this large country differently; and (b) U.S. water law is itself a complicated subject, with each state having its own laws for surface water and groundwater and the federal government playing a significant role in interstate and international waters, in building and managing large water infrastructure, and in creating water rights for Native American tribes and other federal reservations. Within this complexity, legal research to date has tended to focus on the law governing surface water in the American West, enumerating various problems with the prior appropriation doctrine as the West grows hotter and drier and offering multiple suggestions to increase legal flexibility so that western water can be re‐allocated to reflect changing social–ecological realities. These suggestions extend to new, more comprehensive, and more adaptive water governance approaches. Far less legal scholarship has focused on eastern riparian rights, the various groundwater doctrines at play in the United States, or the increasing role of tribes in managing water resources, but these areas warrant future attention. This article is categorized under:Engineering Water > Planning WaterHuman Water > Water GovernanceScience of Water > Water and Environmental Change [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article revisits the court case Bell v. Armstrong, wherein plaintiffs petitioned for monitoring of water use, punishment of violators for illegal water diversions that impinged on water usage rights that caused water scarcity, and enforcement of water law in Montana's Gallatin River Valley from 1860 to 1909. Topics discussed are right of appropriation and quantity for water use in mining and irrigation farming, water rights under the riparian doctrine, and concept of beneficial purpose.

Sustainable utilization of water resources requires preventive measures that must be taken to promote optimal use of water resources together with consideration of stakeholder interests and the economic value of water. The main objective of this study is to present an integrated hydro-economic model for allocating agricultural water based on its economic value. The study region covered six irrigation networks downstream of the Zayandeh Rood Dam in Iran. In fact, this study addresses questions of how to allocate scarce water to different consumers, in order to achieve the highest efficiency and economic benefits. To gain this goal, the existing agricultural activities in each irrigation network were simulated by applying the Positive Mathematical Programming (PMP) economic model and then by coupling the economic model with a water allocation planning model of the basin (MODSIM), the hydro-economic framework was generated. These tools helped to allocate water based on its economic value, maximize net profit by determining the optimal cultivating area and analyze the effects of various allocation scenarios on employment, economic productivity, and reliability indicators. Moreover, Bayesian Networks and Random Forest algorithms were developed as an automated substitute to simplify the process and reduce computational complexity. The results showed that the Nekoabad Network enjoys top priority followed by the Barkhar, Mahyar, Sonati, Abshar, and Rodasht Networks. After implementing the Bayesian Network, the four criteria of MAE, MAPE, R2, and the Nash-Sutcliffe index for the irrigation networks were 9 MCM, 24%, 0.738, and 0.644 respectively, which indicated the model has good accuracy. Random Forest method was also employed as a novel technique in automated allocation, and the values obtained for the four mentioned criteria were 7 MCM, 15%, 0.861, and 0.80, which showed it is more accurate. The results indicated the capability of the presented hydro-economic model as well as the intelligent models substituting it in allocating agricultural water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author offers his views on the legal system of riparian rights in relation to the water governance in Vermont. Topics discussed include the hydrologic cycle in the Anthropocene, the amendments needed for water system protection, and the riparian water code report published by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

This article makes two suggestions for ongoing debates about property concepts. First, these debates have focused too much on concepts for ownership; they have neglected concepts that cover property rights weaker than rights of ownership but still robust enough to constitute rights in relation to ownable resources. Second, these same debates have neglected the roles that artifact functions might play in property concepts. Property rights are artifacts, and functions play crucial roles in artifacts and the concepts that represent them. The Article confirms both suggestions via a close study of one particular property concept. That concept is prominent in Anglo-American property common law. In that concept's focal sense, a property right refers to: an immunized and in rem claim-right; given institutional status in law and social morality; in relation to a separable resource; to facilitate the beneficial use of that resource and other resources commonly proximate to it. This concept gets its structure from a function, the imperative that property rights be structured to serve different people's correlative interests in using resources for rational well-being. This concept explains why the field of property rights covers not only rights of sole ownership but also nonpossessory rights and rights in concurrent estates. To illustrate, the Article studies: legal interests in tenancies in common; easements; revocable licenses; mortgages; covenants running with the land; riparian rights; and appropriative rights and appurtenant ditch easements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Water diplomacy may be understood broadly as the measures that may be taken to prevent or peacefully resolve conflicts over water resources concerning their availability, allocation or use between and within states. The concept is preventive in nature as well as offering an approach for conflict resolution. Instruments of international water law, among them notably conventions and soft law developed on that basis – which promote equitable and reasonable use of transboundary waters and prevention of transboundary impact – can serve as tools for water diplomacy. The obligation to establish agreements on shared waters and joint bodies to govern them has contributed to gathering important experience, and some of this has been synthesized into the Principles for Effective Joint Bodies which were adopted by the Meeting of the Parties to the UNECE Water Convention in 2015. The Principles are intended as a resource to increase the effectiveness of joint bodies in transboundary water cooperation. This paper analyses Finland's cooperation arrangements in the light of the Principles and assesses the extent to which Finland's transboundary water commissions reflect the good practices specified in the Principles. Taking a wider perspective, the paper also examines the elements of the principles and their practical realisation with a view to understanding better their promotion of water diplomacy. Relevant features include, inter alia, the competency and representation of the joint institution, its accountability and the extent to which public participation is permitted, and the cooperative mechanisms in place. Naturally the underlying transboundary water agreements specify the framework for cooperation between the riparian states to a great extent, but the established joint bodies often play a significant role, specifically in the equitable use and management of the shared water resources, but even beyond, in the prevention and settling of conflicts, and in the general promotion of cooperation and security at a regional level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The MRC has played a role in preventing and managing water-related tensions. • MRC's water diplomacy framework evolved over time based on its unique legal mandate. • Water diplomacy in-action uses legal, institutional and strategic mechanisms. • Best available technical knowledge is used to inform water diplomacy. • Political will, the 'Mekong Spirit', is essential for successful water diplomacy. Abstract The Mekong region, home to one of the world's great rivers – the Mekong – is also one of the world's most geostrategic regions, featuring seemingly conflicting interests among regional states including Viet Nam, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia and world powers such as China and the United States of America. For nearly a century, some of the riparian states have developed parts of the basin in their territories – to great benefits and harm – and recently the remaining late developing countries are catching up with water and related resources development plans to dam, withdraw and use the mighty Mekong to fund national progress and alleviate poverty. World leaders, academics, NGOs, media and even some government officials have warned that the current rush to development is not only bringing a sure death to a great previously untamed river, potentially displacing millions of people, and threatening livelihoods, but would also usher in an era of aggravated tensions and possibly even conflict. The Mekong River Commission (MRC), tasked to manage the river for the sake of the environment and the people, is failing its mission with work that has been ineffective, uninfluential and wasted, critics say. Yet this scenario is both wrong in its thesis about Mekong development and misleading in its understanding of MRC's role and work. While past and current water resources development in the region has brought challenges and risks associated with changes in the river system, these have not led to widespread destruction of livelihoods and conflict among riparian countries. A critical factor preventing conflict and managing tensions as well as supporting optimal and sustainable development is the MRC and its water diplomacy framework, which has a technical core to provide objective scientific advices and legal, institutional and strategic mechanisms that facilitate and support negotiated solutions to complex water and related problems. While challenges remain for the MRC as an organization, its water diplomacy framework has gradually been established and strengthened as the cases of managing tensions and potential conflicts in the Mekong for the past twenty years illustrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The article provides an outline of the current issues in the Brahmaputra Basin. • Illustrates the need for multi-stakeholder and multi-track water diplomacy. • Water diplomacy has to be an inclusive, open and transparent process. • Interactions involving multiple actors facilitate sustainable water cooperation. Abstract The Yarlung Zangbo-Brahmaputra – Jamuna river basin (further referred to as Brahmaputra River Basin) is one of the most important river systems in South Asia. It originates on the Tibetan Plateau and links Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, and India. Despite being an important river system of South Asia, with an immense potential for regional development, very little progress has been made so far at regional level to manage this transboundary river. Apart from stereotypical upstream-downstream syndromes, a lack of trust, an atmosphere of hostility, and an asymmetric information and power situation as also the absence of regional principles or frameworks make transboundary interaction between the Brahmaputra riparian countries complex and challenging. The lack of information and knowledge regarding the river itself makes decision-making further complicated. Negotiation for a basin-wide treaty on cooperation in the absence of trust is a non-starter for the Brahmaputra basin, for it may result in asymmetric cooperation, opening up ground for future conflicts. To avoid such asymmetric cooperation, information-rich, multilateral informal dialogues need to take place to develop an accepted definition of cooperation, which meets the needs of all riparian states. The article provides an outline of the current issues in the Brahmaputra river basin and illustrates the need for multitrack and multi-stakeholder dialogues in the Brahmaputra region. The paper is inspired by the 'Brahmaputra Dialogue' project initiated in 2013, that demonstrates that water diplomacy has to be an inclusive, open, and transparent process involving multiple actors, because such interaction facilitates sustainable water cooperation, not only between riparian countries but also between riparian communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses legal issues concerning lakes in Indiana. It explains the riparian rights associated with ownership of property on a lake and the use of public lakes. Also discussed are the Lake Preservation Act of 1974, the right to an unobstructed view, limitations on the public trust doctrine, rights of lakefront property owners, the group pier license and buoy regulations for lakefront properties.

The article examines the development of the public trust doctrine in the state of New York. It makes a comparison between New York's public trust doctrine, doctrines of several other states and the federal public trust doctrine. The rights reserved for New York residents to access water held in trust and the rights reserved for the people of other states are compared. Also discussed are the rights of real estate developers and riparian landowners under the federal trust doctrine.

The article discusess various court cases. Topics discussed include v. BNSF Railway Co. court case addressing motion for new trial based on juror nondisclosure; Unified CCR Partners v. Abright court case addressing motion for revival of judgment; and Incline Village Board of Trustees v. Edler court case addressing riparian rights attached with artificial body of water.

Waterbury v. Washington came to the Connecticut Supreme Court as a dispute over water rights that could have been resolved via a number of statutory or common law doctrines. Instead, the court sought to articulate a uniform theory of riparian law in Connecticut, acknowledging all of these competing doctrines. This uniform theory was one of regulated riparianism. After articulating this standard, the court left many decisions to be worked out by lower courts. Since Waterbury was decided, those lower courts have struggled to incorporate a view that reconciles the public trust doctrine in light of Connecticut's statutory scheme. Many of these struggles will need resolution before important public trust questions in Connecticut can be approached with a sense of certainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam both as an outcome of shifts in the regional hydropolitical dynamics in the past decade and as a catalyst of future cooperation developments in the Nile Basin region. First, it analyzes the GERD in the context of changing power relations, including a critical discussion of the role of multilateral cooperation process and norms. Second, it examines the GERD as a shaper of future hydropolitical dynamics, and how the complex trilateral cooperative process around the GERD (2011–2015) can represent a constructive step towards wider institutional transboundary cooperation and regional economic integration in the Nile Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This issue articulates the opportunities and challenges surrounding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) through multiple disciplinary lenses: its possibilities as a basis for a new era of cooperation in the eastern Nile basin; its regional and global implications; its benefits and possible drawbacks; the benefits of cooperation and coordination in dam filling; and the need for participatory and transparent decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The principle of fairness operates alongside lofty principles of international law, such as equity and justice. However, these concepts often face criticism for being too vague to shed any meaningful light on the practical interpretation and implementation of international law within specific fields. By analysing the cooperation between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan on the Blue Nile, this paper seeks to address such criticism. It suggests that the concept of fairness does have value as a framework for analysing both commitment and compliance in international law; and that exploring specific contexts, such as legal developments related to the Blue Nile, helps give it further meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A modelling study is performed to evaluate interannual and decadal-scale streamflow variability into the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) reservoir and comparison of various filling strategies for hydropower and downstream releases to Sudan and Egypt from this dam. To capture these aspects, simulations of probabilistic streamflow via wavelet analysis are produced to define the propensity towards wetter or drier conditions for absolute, threshold and percentage-based filling strategies. Absolute filling strategies have lower uncertainty than percentage-based strategies, benefiting upstream planning; however, downstream releases may be near zero on occasion. Consensus among the riparian countries prior to initiation of filling is strongly encouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Negotiations over the GERD have not transformed the debate in the Eastern Nile from sharing water to sharing benefits. Nationalistic discourse used by the three governments, the political sensitivity of the Nile issue, cautious Egyptian approach towards Eastern Nile cooperation beyond the project, divisions within policy circles in Egypt on dealing with the project and with the NBI as a framework of cooperation, the failure of Egypt to adapt its water policies to expected changes in the post-GERD era, and the new power asymmetries in the Eastern Nile have affected, and will continue to affect, positions in ongoing negotiations, making it more difficult to reach a benefit-sharing deal. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which Ethiopia started constructing in 2011, presented major challenges to the notion of existing rights and uses of the Nile waters asserted by Egypt and Sudan. Through an incremental approach based on gaining time, Ethiopia succeeded in making the GERD a reality, bolstered four years later, in 2015, by the signature by the three countries of two instruments: the Declaration of Principles and the Khartoum Document. The article traces and follows the developments regarding the GERD since 2011, and the escalation of the dispute thereon with Egypt and Sudan, discusses the two instruments, and analyzes the new legal order emanating therefrom. It concludes with an examination of the opportunities forgone as a result of the riparians’ unilateral development plans, and those to be gained through cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A literary criticism of the book "The Mill on the Floss" by George Eliot is presented. It outlines the characters Maggie and Tom Tulliver and explores empathy and social connectedness among these characters. It examines the state of riparian law in the 1850s. The article discusses the legal judgement of cases involving the main characters of the book. The novel also explores interpersonal dynamics among the characters.

The property rights literature has had an extensive debate over the extent to which systems of property rights can be spontaneously generated by custom and common practice, without the positive intervention of the state. This Essay takes a divided view on that question, noting that these property rights, often with uncertain stability, can be created when it is possible to create a system of absolute priorities, as with land, or a system of proration, as with riparian property rights. The simple definition of rights, easily known and scalable, make this possible, so that government intervention, often through statutes of frauds and recordation are used to improve the overall stability, not to reconfigure those rights. More complicated systems--such as those used for preserving fish wildlife, for creating prior appropriation of water rights, pooling of oil and gas rights--require complex regulatory interventions, which should be crafted in a form that seeks by using principles of just compensation, the prior rights holders under simpler legal regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the need of developing the new approach to water conservation based on the command-and-control pollution laws of the 1970s in California. It mentions that California should adopt a technology-based approach similar to the Clean Air Act (CAA) and Clean Water Act (CWA) to set new standards for water permits. It also mentions that riparian water rights with the natural flow doctrine for the adequate water supply.

The eastern United States generally lacks statutory limits on the use of water for agricultural uses, particularly irrigation. Commentators lament this deficit and advocate for statutory limits, citing certain problematic cases, such as Georgia's former exemption for agricultural water use. No research surveys the status of agricultural water use in the eastern United States under so-called "regulated riparian" statutes. This article examines water use and the statutory water allocation rules in 19 eastern states with regulated riparian statutes to determine the extent of agricultural water uses in the East, as well as whether adequate controls are in place for such uses. This article analyzes water use data for each state and summarizes and categorizes the water allocation statutes in each state. The article concludes that the controls on agricultural water use in the East present a more nuanced issue than previously forecast, with agricultural uses of water posing issues in some states and not others, and with some states imposing comprehensive controls while others lack such a holistic approach. In almost all cases, state legislatures fail to link usage data with regulation. The article concludes with a recommendation to use effective existing regulations as model rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examine the surface water regulation in South Carolina, as of March 2015. Topics discussed include the New Jersey Supreme Court's decision in the case 'Merritt v. Parker;' concept of riparian rights; the South Carolina Supreme Court's decision in the case 'Omelvany v. Jaggers;' and riparian owners that are entitled to the natural flow of rivers and streams.