Hydraulic Bureaucracies and the Hydraulic Mission: Flows of Water, Flows of Power

Anchored in 19th century scientism and an ideology of the domination of nature, inspired by colonial hydraulic feats, and fuelled by technological improvements in high dam constructions and power generation and transmission, large-scale water resources development has been a defining feature of the 20th century. Whether out of a need to increase food production, raise rural incomes, or strengthen state building and the legitimacy of the state, governments – North and South, East and West – embraced the 'hydraulic mission' and entrusted it to powerful state water bureaucracies (hydrocracies). Engaged in the pursuit of iconic and symbolic projects, the massive damming of river systems, and the expansion of large-scale public irrigation these hydrocracies have long remained out of reach. While they have enormously contributed to actual welfare, including energy and food generation, flood protection and water supply to urban areas, infrastructural development has often become an end in itself, rather than a means to an end, fuelling rent-seeking and symbolising state power. In many places projects have been challenged on the basis of their economic, social or environmental impacts. Water bureaucracies have been challenged internally (within the state bureaucracies or through political changes) and externally (by critiques from civil society and academia, or by reduced funding). They have endeavoured to respond to these challenges by reinventing themselves or deflecting reforms. This paper analyses these transformations, from the emergence of the hydraulic mission and associated water bureaucracies to their adjustment and responses to changing conditions

Parametric Estimation of Load for Air Force Datacenters

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has tasked Federal agencies to develop a Data Center Consolidation Plan. Effective planning requires a repeatable method to effectively and efficiently size Air Force Base-level data centers. Review of commercial literature on data center design found emphasis in power efficiency, thermal modeling and cooling, and network speed and availability. The topic of sizing data center processing capacity seems undeveloped. This thesis provides a better, pedigreed solution to the data center sizing problem. By analogy, Erlang\u27s formulae for the probability of blocking and queuing should be applicable to cumulative CPU utilization in a data center. Using survey data collected by 38th Engineering Squadron, a simulation is built and correlation between the observed survey measurements and simulation measurements, and the Erlang, Gamma, and Gaussian-Normal distributions is found. For a sample dataset of 70 servers over 14 hours of observation and a supposed .99999 requirement for traffic to be passed or otherwise unimpeded, Erlang distribution predicts 10 CPU cores are required, Gamma distribution predicts 10 CPU cores are required, Gaussian-Normal distribution predicts 9 CPU cores are required, Erlang B formulae predicts 14 CPU cores are required, and Erlang C formulae predicts 15 CPU cores are required

River basin trajectories: societies, environments and development

River basin management / River basin development / Hydrology / Water governance / Water use / History / Water allocation / Water transfer / Water quality / Irrigation management / Groundwater management / Surface irrigation / Water lifting / Pumping / Middle East / Jordan / South Africa / Mexico / Tunisia / Tanzania / Iran / India / China / USA / Australia / Lower Jordan River Basin / Olifants River Basin / Lerma-Chapala River Basin / Mediterranean River Basin / Great Ruaha River / Zayandeh Rud River Basin / Krishna River Basin / Bhavani River Basin / Yellow River Basin / Colorado River Basin / Murray Darling River Basin / Merguellil Basin

Deviation of planned water demand from actual on farm water usage and suggestions for improvements: a case study from Uda Walawe irrigation scheme, Sri Lanka.

Water managers’ seasonal water allocation plans deviates from the actual water usage in the field due to many factors. Temporal and spatial variations that vary dramatically will affect the Field Irrigation Requirement (FIR) which is calculated. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to see how planned FIR deviates from the actual on farm water usage in Uda Walawe Irrigation Scheme. The study proposes suggestions for improvements in meeting and balancing the water demands. Irrigation issues and the interviews with farmers and officials were used for the analysis. Results show that actual water usage is always higher than the FIR and water manager’s planned. There are various factors contributes for these discrepancy. Two lines of improvement are outlined. One is adjustment of the volumes allocated to each D. The second possibility of improvement points to greater involvement of farmers at the scheme and branch levels. A way to tackle this is to devise a transparent process of allocation at the scheme level whereby representatives from the different branch canals would participate in the definition of sharing arrangements. MASL’s role would be to ensure bulk allocation at the head of canal. FOs are responsible for finding ways to distribute this volume within their area