Asia’s Wicked Environmental Problems

The developing economies of Asia are confronted by serious environmental problems that threaten to undermine future growth, food security, and regional stability. This study considers four major environmental challenges that policymakers across developing Asia will need to address towards 2030: water management, air pollution, deforestation and land degradation, and climate change. We argue that these challenges, each unique in their own way, all exhibit the characteristics of “wicked problems”. As developed in the planning literature, and now applied much more broadly, wicked problems are dynamic, complex, encompass many issues and stakeholders, and evade straightforward, lasting solutions.asia environmental problems; food security; water management; air pollution; deforestation; land degradation; climate change; wicked problems

The Economics and Governance of Multipurpose Hydropower Reservoirs

Hydropower reservoirs can provide a range of energy and water services. Proponents of multipurpose reservoirs as a climate change and water security 'solution' often neglect an important detail: the technical capacity for infrastructure to provide water services and social benefits is a necessary but not sufficient condition for their actual provision. Multipurpose operations constrain electricity generation and hydropower companies' revenues. The opportunity costs of providing non-energy services are changing under the global transition to renewable energy systems. The value of water services shifts as water demand and supply change under short-term shocks, such as extreme weather events, and long-term trends, such as climate change and population growth. Under dynamic risks and trade-offs, profit-motivated hydropower companies do not have the discretion nor information to efficiently and equitably provide water services. The potential social benefits of multipurpose hydropower operations are not automatic; they need to be secured through flexible regulation and economic incentives. This thesis considers the governance of multipurpose hydropower reservoirs and the dynamic trade-offs between the profits of hydropower companies and the welfare of water users. First, I review existing hydropower governance instruments to propose three reforms: (1) period relicensing of reservoir operations, (2) pricing water services to reflect the value of foregone hydroelectricity generation, and (3) climate/green performance bonds with a conditional interest rate. Second, I consider how economic and institutional analyses could be incorporated into the governance of water systems under complex risks. Insights are drawn from a participatory risk assessment process in Vietnam where local government officials are piloting irrigation water pricing reforms. Third, I use hydro-economic modelling of a multipurpose reservoir in Tasmania, Australia to examine the conditions under which irrigation water pricing could be an appropriate reform in other locations. Finally, I consider a major practical barrier to pricing water services from hydropower reservoirs: the transmission of price spikes in electricity markets to water prices. I estimate the cost of price stability controls by modelling an alternative water tariff which incorporates the intertemporal opportunity costs of irrigation water extractions. I conclude by outlining future research on regulating hydropower reservoirs to support the resilience of social-ecological systems to water insecurity

Global water: issues and insights

This book brings together some of the world’s leading water researchers with an especially written collection of chapters on: water economics; transboundary water; water and development; water and energy; and water concepts. Introduction Freshwater governance holds a prominent position in the global policy agenda. Burgeoning water demand due to population growth and rising incomes is combining with supply-side pressures, such as environmental pollution and climate change, to create acute conditions of global water scarcity. This is a major concern because water is a primary input for agriculture, manufacturing, environmental health, human health, energy production and just about every economic sector and ecosystem. In addition to its importance, the management of freshwater resources is a complex, multidisciplinary topic. Encompassing a range of fields in the physical and social sciences, the task of sustainably meeting human and environmental water needs requires a depth and breadth of understanding unparalleled by most other policy problems. Our objective in this volume is to provide knowledge and insights into major issues and concepts related to freshwater governance. The book is divided into five themed parts: Economics, Transboundary governance, Development, Energy and Water Concepts. A part addresses each theme and opens with an introduction that provides an overview of key topics. For example, the introduction to the economics section presents two main foci: measuring the value of water and managing trade-offs between different water uses. The thematic case studies discuss issues such as water pricing in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, finance of water supply and irrigation infrastructure and improving agricultural production with enhanced water management. The aim of the volume is to accessibly communicate academic research from the many fields of freshwater governance. Too often, academic research is paywalled and/or written in a style that caters to colleagues in the same field, rather than a broader audience from other disciplines, the policy-making community and the general public. This open-access book presents the research of a range of global experts on freshwater governance in brief, insightful chapters that do not presume a high level of pre-existing knowledge of their respective subjects. This format is intended to present knowledge on the key problems of and solutions to global freshwater challenges. The final part presents research from several United Nations Educational, Social, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) supported water research Chairs and Centres. Support and coordination of the insititutions highlighted in this part of the book is provided by UNESCO. One water research Chair is The Australian National University – UNESCO Chair in Water Economics and Transboundary Governance, which was established in April 2010 and works with partners in southern Africa, UNESCO, the Global Water Partnership and other organisations to: (1) increase the skills, capacity, networks and potential of leaders and prospective water managers and policy-makers; (2) sustain and strengthen institutional capacity (especially in southern Africa) by providing a platform for collaboration and institutional development; and, (3) develop innovative research, tools, case-studies, and insights on water economics, water governance and equity. Established by the ANU–UNESCO Chair, the Global Water Forum (GWF) seeks to disseminate knowledge regarding freshwater governance and build the capacity of students, policy-makers and the general public to respond to local and global water issues. The GWF publishes accessible, subscription-free articles highlighing the latest research and practice concerning freshwater governance. A broad range of water-related topics are discussed in a non-technical manner, including water security, development, agriculture, energy and environment. In addition to publishing articles, reports and books, the GWF is engaged in a range of activities, such as the annual Emerging Scholars Award and hosting a portal to educational resources on freshwater. We hope that you enjoy reading this book and, more importantly, gain an improved understanding of the complex freshwater-governance challenges facing us all on a global scale and at a local level

The paradox of water pricing: dichotomies, dilemmas, and decisions

We deliver a public policy perspective on the dichotomies, dilemmas, and decisions of water pricing. First, the dichotomies between price and value, and costs, are defined to explain the paradox of water pricing: the price of water almost never equals its value and rarely covers its cost. Second, the dilemmas of water pricing are highlighted across efficiency and equity, objectives for water pricing, and the instruments available to decision-makers. Third, the challenges of decision-making are evaluated and illustrated in relation to water pricing. Fourth, an adaptive process is provided that includes participatory assessment of risks and options to guide water-pricing decision-making. Keywords: water tariff, costs, equity, efficiency, regulatio

Water reform for all: a national response to a water emergency

Australia’s water reform project is failing to fully deliver for all Australians. With the COVID-19 pandemic, long-accepted approaches are being questioned in many areas of national policy. This also applies to water reform. The Australian bush fires of 2019-20 mean that Australians can no longer ignore the devastating impacts of natural disasters in a dryer and warmer country. The new normal is that it will continue to get hotter and, where most Australians live, it will get drier. Rainfall will become more unpredictable and extreme weather events, such as cyclones, more intense. These conditions will make it even more difficult for water managers who, during repeated and prolonged droughts, are struggling to manage the intensification of Australia’s ‘boom and bust’ water availability. To cope with Australia’s water emergency, we need to extract less water and ensure our rivers, lakes and wetlands have the water they need at the right time to deliver ecosystem functions and services: water supply for people and livestock; habitat for plants and animals; water quality and flood regulation; nutrient cycling; recreation; and, importantly, access and use of water by all Australians. Here, we propose six principles to provide a foundation for Water Reform For All: (1) establish shared visions and goals that are community-based and co-produced; (2) develop clarity of roles and responsibilities, including an ability and willingness to revise adaptation plans, actions and visions; (3) understand adaptation as a means to respond to persistent escalation of stresses, including drought, climate change, bush fires and governance failures; (4) invest in advanced technology to monitor, predict and understand changes in water availability in a transforming Australian landscape and grow our shared knowledge as a basis for adaptive water reform; (5) integrate bottom-up community-based adaptation, including from Indigenous communities, into renewed arrangements for water governance; and (6) implement management actions as experiments for ‘learning to do things differently’. These six water reform principles require national conversations, supported by our collective capacity to imagine alternative futures and apply this to decision-making, along with recognition and inclusion of First Peoples’ values and knowledge of land, water and fire. Without national conversations on water reform and deliberative processes, we expect that Australia’s water emergency will continue and, with climate change, get worse. This is a future that we can, and must, change for the benefit of all Australians.The Australian National Universit

Accelerating tropicalization and the transformation of temperate seagrass meadows

Climate-driven changes are altering production and functioning of biotic assemblages in terrestrial and aquatic environments. In temperate coastal waters, rising sea temperatures, warm water anomalies and poleward shifts in the distribution of tropical herbivores have had a detrimental effect on algal forests. We develop generalized scenarios of this form of tropicalization and its potential effects on the structure and functioning of globally significant and threatened seagrass ecosystems, through poleward shifts in tropical seagrasses and herbivores. Initially, we expect tropical herbivorous fishes to establish in temperate seagrass meadows, followed later by megafauna. Tropical seagrasses are likely to establish later, delayed by more limited dispersal abilities. Ultimately, food webs are likely to shift from primarily seagrass-detritus to more directconsumption- based systems, thereby affecting a range of important ecosystem services that seagrasses provide, including their nursery habitat role for fishery species, carbon sequestration, and the provision of organic matter to other ecosystems in temperate regions

Responding to global challenges in food, energy, environment and water: Risks and options assessment for decision-Making

We analyse the threats of global environmental change, as they relate to food security. First, we review three discourses: (i) ‘sustainable intensification’, or the increase of food supplies without compromising food producing inputs, such as soils and water; (ii) the ‘nexus’ that seeks to understand links across food, energy, environment and water systems; and (iii) ‘resilience thinking’ that focuses on how to ensure the critical capacities of food, energy and water systems are maintained in the presence of uncertainties and threats. Second, we build on these discourses to present the causal, risks and options assessment for decision-making process to improve decision-making in the presence of risks. The process provides a structured, but flexible, approach that moves from problem diagnosis to better risk-based decision-making and outcomes by responding to causal risks within and across food, energy, environment and water systems

Realizing resilience for decision-making

Researchers and decision-makers lack a shared understanding of resilience, and practical applications in environmental resource management are rare. Here, we define social-ecological resilience as a property of social-ecological systems that includes at least three main characteristics — resistance, recovery and robustness (the ‘three Rs’). We define socio-economic resilience management as planning, adaptation and transformational actions that may influence these system characteristics. We integrate the three Rs into a heuristic for resilience management that we apply in multiple management contexts to offer practical, systematic guidance about how to realize resilience

The Human Phenotype Ontology in 2024: phenotypes around the world.

The Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) is a widely used resource that comprehensively organizes and defines the phenotypic features of human disease, enabling computational inference and supporting genomic and phenotypic analyses through semantic similarity and machine learning algorithms. The HPO has widespread applications in clinical diagnostics and translational research, including genomic diagnostics, gene-disease discovery, and cohort analytics. In recent years, groups around the world have developed translations of the HPO from English to other languages, and the HPO browser has been internationalized, allowing users to view HPO term labels and in many cases synonyms and definitions in ten languages in addition to English. Since our last report, a total of 2239 new HPO terms and 49235 new HPO annotations were developed, many in collaboration with external groups in the fields of psychiatry, arthrogryposis, immunology and cardiology. The Medical Action Ontology (MAxO) is a new effort to model treatments and other measures taken for clinical management. Finally, the HPO consortium is contributing to efforts to integrate the HPO and the GA4GH Phenopacket Schema into electronic health records (EHRs) with the goal of more standardized and computable integration of rare disease data in EHRs