Sustainability of Global Golden Inland Waterways

Sustainable inland waterways should meet the needs of navigation without compromising the health of riverine ecosystems. Here we propose a hierarchical model to describe sustainable development of the Golden Inland Waterways (GIWs) which are characterized by great bearing capacity and transport need. Based on datasets from 66 large rivers (basin area > 100,000 km2) worldwide, we identify 34 GIWs, mostly distributed in Asia, Europe, North America, and South America, typically following a three-stage development path from the initial, through to the developing and on to the developed stage. For most GIWs, the exploitation ratio, defined as the ratio of actual to idealized bearing capacity, should be less than 80% due to ecological considerations. Combined with the indices of regional development, GIWs exploitation, and riverine ecosystem, we reveal the global diversity and evolution of GIWs' sustainability from 2015 to 2050, which highlights the importance of river-specific strategies for waterway exploitation worldwide

“Good dredging practices”: the place of traditional eco-livelihood knowledge

Livelihoods of most residents of rural communities in developing countries are often dependent on surface water resources. The use and management of this vital resource should be as much as possible equitable for sustainable development to be achieved at local levels in these countries. Inland river dredging is a water resources management strategy usually aimed at improving water courses for navigation, land reclamation and or mitigate flood in the dredged catchment. Dredging operations like most development projects have impacts that are often localised, and benefits that could be local, regional or national. “Good dredging practices”, GDP, in industrialised countries have been aimed at balancing national/regional economic benefits, technical feasibility and environmental protection. These practices rely heavily on the quality, and quantity of relevant base-line data available. In most developing countries there is a dearth of baseline data, and most often national/regional economic gains do not necessarily translate into local livelihood benefits. Hence, the basis of GDP should be extended to incorporate local livelihoods priorities, without ignoring the relevance of scientific data when it is available, the issue of technical feasibility, environmental sustainability and economic viability. This approach is relevant to the demand for equitable development in the developing world; could be used in conjunction with traditional eco-livelihoods knowledge (TELK) in developing or determining appropriate approaches for sustainable surface water resources management, as well as reducing environmental conflicts between stakeholders

River use profile of the Central Niger Delta based on traditional eco-livelihood knowledge (TELK)

This is a journal article. It was published in the journal, Environment, Development and Sustainability [© Springer Netherlands]. The original publication is available at www.springerlink.comThe Central Niger Delta is made up of a network of rivers and creeks that constitute the inland surface waters. These surface waters have historically influenced settlement patterns and are of diverse use to residents of the Central Niger Delta. Surface water like many ecological system are complex, whose complexity has been associated with seasonal variability. Traditional knowledge (TK), traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and the traditional eco-livelihood knowledge (TELK) of residents of four rural communities in the Central Niger Delta have been explored in developing a river use profile of rural communities of the Central Niger Delta. A questionnaire survey has been carried out in four communities, two each from the Otuoke and Kolo Creeks. The result shows that river use varies across seasons and affected by: physico-chemical water quality and characteristics of surface water; the hydrological characteristics; the biological / ecological characteristics; cultural use and demand; need for development projects; and access to this vital resource. Fishing constitute one of the major livelihood source in the Central Niger Delta and the TELK of fishers in the sample communities have specifically been explored to understanding fishing patterns across seasons. The five seasons identified from this study are: flood season; flood recession season; dry season; early rainy season; and rainy season. Therefore, the thesis of this paper is that there is the need to balance the current usage of surface water in the developing world such as the Central Niger Delta with the demand for development as well as future use if development is to meet the criteria for equitable development. The river use profile could be a promising tool in planning for equitable development