Towards a pragmatic approach for dealing with uncertainties in water management practice

Management of water resources is afflicted with uncertainties. Nowadays it is facing more and new uncertainties since pace and dimension of changes (e.g. climatic, demographic) are accelerating and are likely to increase even more in the future. Hence it is crucial to find pragmatic ways to deal with these uncertainties in water management. So far, decision-making under uncertainty in water management is based on either intuition, heuristics and experience of water managers or on expert assessments all of which are only of limited use for water managers in practice. We argue for an analytical yet pragmatic approach to enable practitioners to deal with uncertainties in a more explicit and systematic way and allow for better informed decisions. Our approach is based on the concept of framing, referring to the different ways in which people make sense of the world and of the uncertainties. We applied and tested recently developed parameters that aim to shed light on the framing of uncertainty in two sub-basins of the Rhine. We present and discuss the results of a series of stakeholder interactions in the two basins aimed at developing strategies for improving dealing with uncertainties. The strategies are synthesized in a cross-checking list based on the uncertainty framing parameters as a hands-on tool for systematically identifying improvement options when dealing with uncertainty in water management practice. We conclude with suggestions for testing the developed check-list as a tool for decision aid in water management practice. Key words: water management, future uncertainties, framing of uncertainties, hands-on decision aid, tools for practice, robust strategies, social learnin

Trustworthy IoT: An evidence collection approach based on smart contracts

Today, Internet of Things (IoT) implements an ecosystem where a panoply of interconnected devices collect data from physical environments and supply them to processing services, on top of which cloud-based applications are built and provided to mobile end users. The undebatable advantages of smart IoT systems clash with the need of a secure and trustworthy environment. In this paper, we propose a service-based methodology based on blockchain and smart contracts for trustworthy evidence collection at the basis of a trustworthy IoT assurance evaluation. The methodology balances the provided level of trustworthiness and its performance, and is experimentally evaluated using Hyperledger fabric blockchain

Identifying and addressing sustainable pasture and grazing management options for a major economic sector - The north Australian beef industry

Sustainable use of Australia's northern grazing lands is a long-standing issue for management and policy, heightened by projections of increased climatic variability, uncertainty of forage supplies, vegetation complexes and weeds and diseases. Meat & Livestock Australia has supported a large study to explore sustainable grazing management strategies and increase the capacity of the sector to address climate change. Potential options were explored by bio-economic modeling of 'representative' beef enterprises defined by pastoralists and supported by regional research and extension specialists. Typical options include diversification, infrastructure, flexible stocking rates, wet season resting and pre-scribed fire. Concurrent activities by another team included regional impact assessments and surveys of pastoralists' understanding of and attitudes towards climate change and adaptive capacity. The results have been widely canvassed and a program of on-ground demonstrations of various options implemented. The paper describes the structure of this program and highlights key results indicating considerable scope to address sustainability challenges. © 2013

Systematic management of stocking rates improves performance of northern Australian cattle properties in a variable climate

The risks for extensive cattle properties in the rangelands of northern Australia arising from high inter-annual rainfall variability are predominantly managed through adjustments in stocking rates (SR). This modeling study compared the performance of SR strategies that varied considerably in the extent that they adjusted SR annually at 3 locations in northern Australia. At all locations, land types and pasture condition states, the SR strategies that achieved the best pasture condition were those that least increased and most decreased SR annually in response to changes in forage avail-ability. At Donors Hill (Qld), these conservative strategies also achieved the highest cattle liveweight gains per hectare (LWG/ha). While conservative strategies produced the highest percent perennial pasture species at Fitzroy Crossing (WA), strategies which allowed larger increases and decreases in SR also performed well, enabling them to also achieve high LWG/ha with little deterioration of pasture condition. A similar trend occurred at Alice Springs (NT), although at this location the strategies with even larger annual increases and decreases in SR achieved relatively high percent peren-nials and the highest LWG/ha. While systematic management of SR appears to perform better than a constant SR strategy when rainfall variability is high, it is unclear if the magnitude of annual adjustments in SR needs to increase with increasing rainfall variability. © 2013

Identifying and addressing sustainable pasture and grazing management options for a major economic sector - The north Australian beef industry

Sustainable use of Australia's northern grazing lands is a long-standing issue for management and policy, heightened by projections of increased climatic variability, uncertainty of forage supplies, vegetation complexes and weeds and diseases. Meat & Livestock Australia has supported a large study to explore sustainable grazing management strategies and increase the capacity of the sector to address climate change. Potential options were explored by bio-economic modeling of 'representative' beef enterprises defined by pastoralists and supported by regional research and extension specialists. Typical options include diversification, infrastructure, flexible stocking rates, wet season resting and pre-scribed fire. Concurrent activities by another team included regional impact assessments and surveys of pastoralists' understanding of and attitudes towards climate change and adaptive capacity. The results have been widely canvassed and a program of on-ground demonstrations of various options implemented. The paper describes the structure of this program and highlights key results indicating considerable scope to address sustainability challenges. © 2013

Systematic management of stocking rates improves performance of northern Australian cattle properties in a variable climate

The risks for extensive cattle properties in the rangelands of northern Australia arising from high inter-annual rainfall variability are predominantly managed through adjustments in stocking rates (SR). This modeling study compared the performance of SR strategies that varied considerably in the extent that they adjusted SR annually at 3 locations in northern Australia. At all locations, land types and pasture condition states, the SR strategies that achieved the best pasture condition were those that least increased and most decreased SR annually in response to changes in forage avail-ability. At Donors Hill (Qld), these conservative strategies also achieved the highest cattle liveweight gains per hectare (LWG/ha). While conservative strategies produced the highest percent perennial pasture species at Fitzroy Crossing (WA), strategies which allowed larger increases and decreases in SR also performed well, enabling them to also achieve high LWG/ha with little deterioration of pasture condition. A similar trend occurred at Alice Springs (NT), although at this location the strategies with even larger annual increases and decreases in SR achieved relatively high percent peren-nials and the highest LWG/ha. While systematic management of SR appears to perform better than a constant SR strategy when rainfall variability is high, it is unclear if the magnitude of annual adjustments in SR needs to increase with increasing rainfall variability. © 2013