Turning Adversaries into Partners: Lessons from the Columbia, the Mekong, and International Rivers Between Nepal and India [abstract]

2 pages

Turning Adversaries into Partners: Lessons from the Columbia, the Mekong, and International Rivers Between Nepal and India [abstract]

2 pages

Lawyers Write Treaties, Engineers Build Dikes, Gods of Weather Ignore Both: Making Transboundary Waters Agreements Relevant, Flexible, and Resilient in a Time of Global Climate Chanage

This Article identifies and critically reviews the importance of adaptability and flexibility in treaties and institutional arrangements by providing resilience in the face of the anticipated impact of climate change on the good governance of international waters. Building greater resilience and adaptability into international waters agreements is essential to address the uncertainties in hydrological and ocean processes associated with climate change. There is also growing consensus that conflict over natural resources can be linked to extreme events and climate change, and this is receiving increased attention in foreign policy development. Surface water resources are especially vulnerable to the anticipated consequences of climate change, due to the strong linkage surface water resources have with precipitation and temperature. Other international waters such as international large marine ecosystems and international groundwater resources are also potentially impacted by climate change events. Climate change and adaptation need to be at the forefront of water policy. Technical solutions, such as dams, are important elements in strategies to deal with climate change; however, they have their limitations. At the core of successful adaptation will be institutions that are designed and maintained with the flexibility and capacity to develop and implement innovative and adaptive strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate change. This Article accepts the proposition that current climate predictions are largely correct and that there will be greater variability in precipitation, with a general trend at higher latitudes and elevations of greater precipitation in the wet season and reduced precipitation in the dry season. This Article argues there is an urgent need to design and implement institutional arrangements to deal specifically with these challenges. The Article focuses on the structure of arrangements to deal with or accommodate changes associated with climate change

Some Reflections on the Resolution of State-to-State Disputes in International Waters Governance Agreements

This paper reviews various dispute resolution mechanisms that have, or may have, application in international waters governance agreements. International waters are water resources that are shared by two or more states. They include international freshwater, international groundwater and international Large Marine Ecosystem (LMEs) situations. There are a number of possible types of dispute resolution mechanisms in international waters governance agreements. They include: (1) international courts, such as the International Court of Justice; (2) standing regional courts and tribunals, such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal; and (3) ad hoc arbitration, such as arbitrations administered by the Permanent Court of Arbitration. While no one type of dispute resolution mechanism is suitable for all states in all situations, some of the objectives that may be sought in dispute resolution in international waters governance agreements arguably include: (1) obtaining an effective remedy; (2) obtaining a correct result and (3) maximizing the efficiency, in terms of cost and/or timing, of the decision-making process. Having an efficacious dispute resolution enforcement mechanism in an international waters governance agreement may help ensure that a state can obtain an effective remedy even when an opposing state fails to voluntarily comply with a decision in a timely manner. Providing for an enforcement mechanism in an international waters governance agreement may also help encourage voluntary compliance as it may move states to consider the costs of non-compliance

Evaluation of a thermal gradient lamp for applications in fast time-resolved atomic absorption analysis

Thesis (B.S.) in Chemistry--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1984.Bibliography: leaf 57.Microfiche of typescript. [Urbana, Ill.] : Photographic Services, University of Illinois, U of I Library, [1988]. 2 microfiches (65 frames) : negative ; 11 x 15 cm

A Sacred Responsibility: Governing the Use of Water and Related Resources in the International Columbia Basin Through the Prism of Tribes and First Nations

In the fall of 2012, leaders from Columbia Basin First Nations and tribes participated, along with about 150 other people, in the 4th transboundary symposium convened by the Universities Consortium on Columbia River Governance. Gathered on the shores of Flathead Lake in Polson, Montana, the participants explored the interests, rights, roles, and responsibilities of indigenous people in the international Columbia River Basin. This symposium generated two notable outcomes: first, The Columbia River Basin: A Sense of the Future—a synthesis of interests and concerns with regard to the future of the transboundary river basin as captured by the Universities Consortium during four symposia and related research initiatives; and second, a commitment from indigenous people to continue exploring their role in the governance of the international Columbia Basin. Following the symposium, members of the Universities Consortium continued to work with the Columbia Basin tribes and First Nations to frame an appropriate set of objectives to guide this applied research and report. After an exchange of memorandum and the creation of a steering committee, the Steering Committee agreed to a number of objectives

Transboundary Water Management: An Institutional Comparison Among Canada, The United States And Mexico

Canada, the United States and Mexico are adjacent coastal nations. They share numerous important transboundary natural resources, including a significant number of international fresh water drainage basins. Bilateral institutions have been established over the years to deal with the conservation and management of these international drainage basins. Prominent among these have been the International Joint Commission (IJC) between Canada and the United States, and the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) between the United States and Mexico. The geographic scopes of the IJC and the IBWC are enormous. Canada and the United States share a 6,400 km boundary between the main portions of their provinces and states, and an additional 2,400 km between the Canadian Northwest Territories and Alaska. Crossing these boundaries are some of the richest and most prolific waterways in the world, not least of which are the vast water resources of the five Great Lakes. In comparison, the United States and Mexico share a 3,141 km long boundary not including maritime areas. The United States/Mexico boundary follows the middle of the Rio Grande from its mouth on the Gulf of Mexico a distance of 1,254 miles (2,019 kin) to a point just upstream of El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Judrez, Chihuahua; then it follows an alignment westward overland and marked by monuments a distance of 533 miles (858 km) to the Colorado River; thence it follows the middle of that river northward a distance of 24 miles (38 In); and then it again follows an alignment westward overland and marked by monuments a distance of 141 miles (226 Iam) to the Pacific Ocean. The region along the boundary is characterized by deserts, rugged mountains and abundant sunshine. The two main rivers, the Colorado River and the Rio Grande, provide life-giving waters to the largely arid but fertile lands along the rivers in both countries. Although sparsely settled, the region rapidly developed, beginning with the coming of the railroads in the 1880s and the development of irrigated agriculture after the turn of the century. In 1981, more than 810,000 hectares were irrigated in the border area with waters of the boundary rivers. Today, the United States/Mexico boundary is singularly characterized by fourteen pairs of sister cities sustained by agriculture, import-export trade, service and tourism, and, in recent years, a growing manufacturing sector. The borderlands population has grown to over eleven million people and is expected to reach 19.4 million by 2020. A high projection for 2000 is estimated to be 12.4 million and a low projection for that year is estimated at 11.5 million. The objectives of this paper are to: (1) introduce the subject of international drainage basins and the laws that govern their utilization; (2) describe the origins and operation of the ICJ and the IBWC; (3) make observations regarding the operation of the IJC and IBWC; and (4) assess the HC and the IBWC as models for the sustainable management of international shared natural resources

Desiderata For Public Policy Requirements For The Mexican Coastline

Canada, the United States, and Mexico are adjacent coastal nations where the impact of significantly increased human activity in the coastal zone by the year 2050 will be potentially catastrophic. Integrated coastal management (ICM) may well have a role to play within, and between, all three countries to help ameliorate this situation. This paper develops a list of pieces of a complex puzzle that will help explain the relationship between socio-economic processes, cultural values and legal frameworks in Mexico compared with those of the United States and Canada