Climate change adaptation and vulnerability assessment of water resources systems in developing countries: a generalized framework and a feasibility study in Bangladesh

Water is the primary medium through which climate change influences the Earth’s ecosystems and therefore people’s livelihoods and wellbeing. Besides climatic change, current demographic trends, economic development and related land use changes have direct impact on increasing demand for freshwater resources. Taken together, the net effect of these supply and demand changes is affecting the vulnerability of water resources. The concept of ‘vulnerability’ is not straightforward as there is no universally accepted approach for assessing vulnerability. In this study, we review the evolution of approaches to vulnerability assessment related to water resources. From the current practices, we identify research gaps, and approaches to overcome these gaps a generalized assessment framework is developed. A feasibility study is then presented in the context of the Lower Brahmaputra River Basin (LBRB). The results of the feasibility study identify the current main constraints (e.g., lack of institutional coordination) and opportunities (e.g., adaptation) of LBRB. The results of this study can be helpful for innovative research and management initiatives and the described framework can be widely used as a guideline for the vulnerability assessment of water resources systems, particularly in developing countries

The Development of a Home Health Agency

Three objectives were focused upon regarding the development of a home health agency. The first objective involved was to define what a home health agency is. Several definitions exist, however, for practical purposes, the definitions set forth in the state and federal regulations of home health agencies have been used. Many people are not aware of the fact that health care in the home is an integrated program of health and social services . Following a review of pertinent literature, these health and social services have been explained in more detail. The second objective concerns itself with the relevance of home care to the elderly. Factors pertaining to the psychological benefits as well as the economic benefits have been explored. The fact that home care can maximize the potential of individuals to function and enjoy life in their own hares has been documented. While institutionalization remains necessary for some, hare health care has been shown to offer an acceptable alternative to many. The actual development of a hare health agency was the third objective. Steps that were taken to progress the idea of opening a hare health agency into an actual reality have been discussed. The steps and decision making processes involved in developing a home health agency that would be certified by the State and eligible to participate in the Medicare program were numerous. The state and federal regulations have been included as Appendices in this paper in order to show the rigid guidelines by which a certified hare health agency must abide

Irrigation Water Quality Assessment and Identification of River Pollution Sources in Bangladesh: Implications in Policy and Management.

Due to uncontrolled rapid industrialization and the lack of decisive and effective policy framework, river water pollution is posing an increasing threat to surface water irrigation in Bangladesh. In this paper, irrigation water quality and possible sources of pollution in the watershed of the Khiru River have been assessed. Results indicate severe degradation in water quality likely to cause serious damage to crop production. The presence of severe alkali hazards and heavy metals pose further threats to the future. Multivariate analysis suggests that industrial and municipal wastewater may be a possible cause of such degradation. The immediate formulation and implementation of water pollution prevention policies and strategies are therefore recommended to minimize farming threats to 7000 ha of land and 20,000 families depending on the river for survival

Can integrated water resources management increase adaptive capacity to climate change adaptation? A critical review

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is now a global paradigm. While conceptions of IWRM principles vary between contexts, it primarily aims to ensure more coordinated management between different aspects of water issues such as water quality, land management and habitat protection. However, one increasingly significant cross-cutting management issue is climate change adaptation which presents multiple problems for IWRM approaches. This paper therefore seeks to gauge the extent to which IWRM principles can, and indeed are, enhancing the adaptive capacity of water management through reducing vulnerability and increasing the resilience of social-ecological systems. A review of research into vulnerability and resilience to date suggests that IWRM has significant potential for supporting some of the key determinants of adaptive capacity. However, despite IWRM being promoted as an attractive approach, our assessment argues that IWRM, as currently practiced, cannot readily enhance flexibility and adaptability, which is required for climate change adaptation. Normative recommendations for future policy are then provided

Spatial Assessment of Water Use Efficiency (SDG Indicator 6.4.1) for Regional Policy Support

Countries are facing the challenge of identifying the most effective implementation strategies and measures for achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) and their specific targets. The standard procedure proposed by international organizations consists of a set of indicators (one or more per target) assessed at country level. However, such country scale assessments have only limited potential for regional or national policymaking, because of aggregation and averaging effects, which limit the identification of phenomena, their causal relationships, and their spatial-temporal dynamics. The need thus emerges for defining assessment procedures that go beyond national level aggregation and zoom into local phenomena, while maintaining a link with the approach adopted at the global level for monitoring and reporting the progress towards the meeting of the SDGs. SDG 6 focuses on water resources and aims at achieving safe water and sanitation for all, which are essential to human health, environmental sustainability and economic prosperity. SDG 6 is evidently interconnected with several other SDGs, and in particular with those focused on food production (SDG2) and other socio-economic activities using water as a production factor. This paper proposes an approach to assess SDG 6, based upon freely available global data sets. The methodology is suitable for both reporting at international level in accordance with approved guidelines proposed by custodian agencies and – more importantly – analyzing the spatial features of the phenomena related to the SDGs and their targets, producing information useful to support effective sustainability oriented policies. The proposed approach is demonstrated for the assessment of the indicator 6.4.1 (Change in water use efficiency) in South and South-East Asia, with the ambition to provide operational solutions timely applicable at the global level by exploiting the ever-increasing availability of spatial information deriving from ongoing exercises in the field of global change. This will allow identifying current and emerging water management issues, such as the areas where strategies are required to increase the availability of water resources, or those necessitating transboundary strategies. Scenario analysis driven by the IPCC Shared Socioeconomic Pathways is developed to explore policy and technological solutions across the nexus between water management and agriculture

Moving beyond water centricity? Conceptualizing integrated water resources management for implementing sustainable development goals

While the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted in 2015, establishes an ambitious set of goals, targets and indicators for supporting global sustainability, greater conceptual clarity is required to measure implementation. A key UN Target (6.5) for implementing sustainable development goal (SDG) 6 is to ‘implement integrated water resources management (IWRM) at all levels’. However, we argue that the current UN emphasis on measuring its implementation through institutional indicators limits our understanding of effectiveness, while ignoring links to other SDGs. While IWRM is often interpreted to mean the integration of water-related management components at the river basin scale, conceptualizations differ significantly. Specifying the critical normative principles of IWRM, therefore, becomes important for measuring its implementation. Drawing upon pre-existing conceptualizations, we consequently identify seven core principles or dimensions (integration; scale; institutions; participation; economic valuation; equity; and, environmental/ecological protection) to re-conceptualize IWRM after the adoption of agenda 2030. These dimensions, we argue, allow more objective measurement of IWRM implementation through the development of Target 6.5 sub-indicators. They also help shift IWRM beyond its current ‘water centric’ emphasis to enhance its contribution to achieving other SDGs such as those for ending poverty, providing clean and affordable energy, achieving gender equality, protecting terrestrial ecosystems, promoting sustainable cities, combatting hunger and climate change, and strengthening the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

Sustainable coastal social-ecological systems: how do we define “coastal”?

Coastal social-ecological systems (SES) are home to over 500 million people and one of the most productive and diverse ecosystems in the world. In recent years, coastal SES are experiencing severe threat from an increasing population, resource exploitation, and global environmental change (e.g. climate change), which have devastating societal impacts in coastal areas. Despite several global, national, and local initiatives, there is a growing consensus that coastal resources are depleting and increasing conflicts in coastal areas. Recognizing the global call to understand social–ecological interactions for implementing development practices, this special issue features a suite (seven) of articles advancing the understanding of the sustainability of social and ecological interactions within coastal areas through theoretical SES approaches and related analytical methods. In this editorial of this special issue, we also argued that coastal area needs to define from SES perspectives, which have received less attention compared to ecological and social perspectives. We hope that this special issue will stimulate the debate and further thinking of how coastal SES can be managed sustainably by conceptualizing and understanding the complex dynamics (interaction, feedback) of SES

Water governance in a comparative perspective: From IWRM to a 'nexus' approach?

Nexus thinking, in the form of integrating water security with agriculture, energy and climate concerns, is normatively argued to help better transition societies towards greener economies and the wider goal of sustainable development. Yet several issues emerge from the current debate surrounding this concept, namely the extent to which such conceptualisations are genuinely novel, whether they complement (or are replacing) existing environmental governance approaches and how - if deemed normatively desirable - the nexus can be enhanced in national contexts. This paper therefore reviews the burgeoning nexus literature to determine some common indicative criteria before examining its implementation in practice vis-à-vis more established integrated water resources management (IWRM) models. Evidence from two divergent national contexts, the UK and Bangladesh, suggests that the nexus has not usurped IWRM, while integration between water, energy, climate and agricultural policy objectives is generally limited. Scope for greater merging of nexus thinking within IWRM is then discussed

Exploring institutional structures for Tidal River Management in the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta in Bangladesh

Tidal River Management (TRM) is a local adaptation strategy for coastal floodplains in the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta in Bangladesh. TRM involves the periodic opening and closing of embankments to accelerate land accretion (or reclamation) in a floodplain. Although the approach is considered a promising adaptation strategy, there have been both positive and negative outcomes from recent TRM implementation. The aim of this study is consequently to explore the institutional (community, rules-in-use, and also biophysical) factors influencing successes and failures of TRM implementation for managing common-pool resources, as a basis for making recommendations on future institutional design. The Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, first developed by Ostrom (2010) and revised by Bisaro and Hinkel (2016), is therefore used to conduct comparative analysis of TRM institutional effectiveness in three Delta floodplains or beels: one led by a local community and the other two by national authorities. Our research employs a mixed method approach involving focus group discussions, stakeholder interviews, site visits, along with secondary literature analysis. The results of this assessment provide insights into coastal adaptation governance that could inform TRM implementation in Bangladesh and other similar contexts worldwide

Exploring human-nature interaction on the coastal floodplain in the ganges-brahmaputra delta through the lens of ostrom’s social-ecological systems framework

This study diagnoses temporal and spatial variations in the performance of different social-ecological systems (SES) in coastal floodplain management in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta. We go beyond common pool resource management problems and address the management of local public goods. In the assessment, we consider recent developments in the framework initially developed by Elinor Ostrom. The main variables of the framework that we use are resource systems, the environment, the governance system and actors. The focal SES is defined based on guiding questions relating to the definition of the key problem, system boundaries, and action situations. According to our results, the performance of resource systems and the environment deteriorated in 1960–79 compared to the performance prior to 1960. The condition reached a low point during 1980–1999 but improved slightly after 1999. The horizontal network structure of local governance was active until 1960. Due to the introduction of the ‘tidal river management’ approach in the 90 s, the performance of the resource system and the environment has slightly improved, as has the involvement of government and non-government organizations. Our results also show that overall SES performance is comparatively bette