Policies drain the North China Plain: Agricultural policy and groundwater depletion in Luancheng County, 1949-2000

Agricultural production / Groundwater / Aquifers / Water shortage / Irigation efficiency / Agricultural policy / Crop production / Wastewaters / Water management / Hydrology / Economic development / Crop yield / Cotton / Wheat / Sprinkler irrigation / Water conservation / Water use efficiency / Pumping / Water balance / Vegetables / Rural economy / Irrigated framing

The Brisbane Declaration and Global Action Agenda on Environmental Flows (2018)

A decade ago, scientists and practitioners working in environmental water management crystallized the progress and direction of environmental flows science, practice, and policy in The Brisbane Declaration and Global Action Agenda (2007), during the 10th International Riversymposium and International Environmental Flows Conference held in Brisbane, Australia. The 2007 Declaration highlights the significance of environmental water allocations for humans and freshwater-dependent ecosystems, and sets out a nine-point global action agenda. This was the first consensus document that bought together the diverse experiences across regions and disciplines, and was significant in setting a common vision and direction for environmental flows internationally. After a decade of uptake and innovation in environmental flows, the 2007 declaration and action agenda was revisited at the 20th International Riversymposium and Environmental Flows Conference, held in Brisbane, Australia, in 2017. The objective was to publicize achievements since 2007 and update the declaration and action agenda to reflect collective progress, innovation, and emerging challenges for environmental flows policy, practice and science worldwide. This paper on The Brisbane Declaration and Global Action Agenda on Environmental Flows (2018) describes the inclusive consultation processes that guided the review of the 2007 document. The 2018 Declaration presents an urgent call for action to protect and restore environmental flows and aquatic ecosystems for their biodiversity, intrinsic values, and ecosystem services, as a central element of integrated water resources management, and as a foundation for achievement of water-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Global Action Agenda (2018) makes 35 actionable recommendations to guide and support implementation of environmental flows through legislation and regulation, water management programs, and research, linked by partnership arrangements involving diverse stakeholders. An important new element of the Declaration and Action Agenda is the emphasis given to full and equal participation for people of all cultures, and respect for their rights, responsibilities and systems of governance in environmental water decisions. These social and cultural dimensions of e-flow management warrant far more attention. Actionable recommendations present a pathway forward for a new era of scientific research and innovation, shared visions, collaborative implementation programs, and adaptive governance of environmental flows, suited to new social, and environmental contexts driven by planetary pressures, such as human population growth and climate change

‘Sub-Prime’ Water, Low-Security Entitlements and Policy Challenges in Over-Allocated River Basins: the Case of the Murray–Darling Basin

Environmental policy is often implemented using market instruments. In some cases, including carbon taxing, the links between financial products and the environmental objectives, are transparent. In other cases, including water markets, the links are less transparent. In Australia’s Murray–Darling Basin (MDB), financial water products are known as ‘entitlements’, and are similar to traditional financial products, such as shares. The Australian water market includes ‘Low Security’ entitlements, which are similar to ‘sub-prime’ mortgage bonds because they are unlikely to yield an amount equal to their financial worth. Nearly half the water purchased under the Murray–Darling Basin Plan for environmental purposes is ‘Low Security’. We suggest that the current portfolio of water held by the Australian Government for environmental purposes reflects the mortgage market in the lead-up to the global financial crisis. Banks assumed that the future value of the mortgage market would reflect past trends. Similarly, it is assumed that the future value of water products will reflect past trends, without considering climate change. Historic records of allocations to ‘Low Security’ entitlements in the MDB suggest that, in the context of climate change, the Basin Plan water portfolio may fall short of the target annual average yield of 2075 GL by 511 GL. We recommend adopting finance sector methods including ‘hedging’ ‘Low Security’ entitlements by purchasing an additional 322–2755 GL of ‘Low Security’, or 160–511 GL of ‘High Security’ entitlements. Securing reliable environmental water is a global problem. Finance economics present opportunities for increasing the reliability of environmental flows

Geographic, geologic, and hydrologic summaries of intermontane basins of the northern Rocky Mountains, Montana /

One map on 1 folded leaf in pocket.Includes bibliographical references.Mode of access: Internet

A Novel Mutation within the Central Listeria monocytogenes Regulator PrfA That Results in Constitutive Expression of Virulence Gene Products

The PrfA protein of Listeria monocytogenes functions as a key regulatory factor for the coordinated expression of many virulence genes during bacterial infection of host cells. PrfA activity is controlled by multiple regulatory mechanisms, including an apparent requirement for either the presence of a cofactor or some form of posttranslational modification that regulates the activation of PrfA. In this study, we describe the identification and characterization of a novel PrfA mutation that results in constitutive activation of the PrfA protein. The PrfA L140F mutation was found to confer high-level expression of PrfA-regulated genes and to be functionally dominant over the wild-type allele. The presence of the PrfA L140F mutation resulted in the aggregation of L. monocytogenes in broth culture and, unlike previously described prfA mutations, appeared to be slightly toxic to the bacteria. High-level PrfA-dependent gene expression showed no additional increase in L. monocytogenes strains containing an additional copy of prfA L140F despite a >4-fold increase in PrfA protein levels. In contrast, the introduction of multiple copies of the wild-type prfA allele to L. monocytogenes resulted in a corresponding increase in PrfA-dependent gene expression, although overall expression levels remained far below those observed for PrfA L140F strains. These results suggest a hierarchy of PrfA regulation, such that the relative levels of PrfA protein present within the cell correlate with the levels of PrfA-dependent gene expression when the protein is not in its fully activated state; however, saturating levels of the protein are then quickly reached when PrfA is converted to its active form. Regulation of the PrfA activation status must be an important facet of L. monocytogenes survival, as mutations that result in constitutive PrfA activation may have deleterious consequences for bacterial physiology

Combining urban and rural water use for a sustainable North China Plain

In Yellow River Conservancy Commission. Proceedings, 1st International Yellow River Forum on River Basin Management - Volume II. Zhengzhou, China: The Yellow River Conservancy Publishing Hous

Policies drain the North China Plain: agricultural policy and groundwater depletion in Luancheng County, 1949-2000

The report examines the relationships between agricultural policies in the North China Plain, the approaches to water management that evolved from them, the quantity of water that was actually used, and the consequent groundwater depletion beneath Luancheng County, Hebei Province, from 1949 to 2000. To systematically address these relationships, we use a comprehensive water-balance approach. Our results indicate that a single, longstanding policy-that of using groundwater to meet the crop-water requirements not supplied by precipitation-is responsible for the steady rate of groundwater decline

Determining groundwater degradation from irrigation in desert-marginal Northern China

Groundwater degradation from irrigated agriculture is of concern in semi-arid northern China. Data-scarcity often means the causes and extent of problems are not fully understood. An irrigated area in Inner Mongolia was studied, where abstraction from an unconfined Quaternary aquifer has increased threefold over 20 years to 20 million m3/year; groundwater levels are falling at up to 0.5 m/year; and groundwater is increasingly mineralised (TDS increase from 400 to 700–1,900 mg/L), with nitrate concentrations up to 137 mg/L N. Residence-time (chlorofluorocarbons), stable-isotope and hydrogeochemical indicators helped develop a conceptual model of groundwater system evolution, demonstrating a direct relationship between modern water proportion and the degree of groundwater mineralisation, indicating that irrigation-water recycling is reducing groundwater quality. The investigations suggest that before irrigation development, active recharge to the aquifer from wadis significantly exceeded groundwater inflow from nearby mountains, previously held to be the main groundwater input. Away from active wadis, groundwater is older with a probable pre-Holocene component. Proof-of-concept groundwater modelling supports geochemical evidence, indicating the importance of wadi recharge and irrigation return flows. Engineering works protecting the irrigated area from flooding have reduced good quality recharge; active recharge is now dominated by irrigation returns, which are degrading the aquifer