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2015 | Buch

Applied Geoinformatics for Sustainable Integrated Land and Water Resources Management (ILWRM) in the Brahmaputra River basin

Results from the EC-project BRAHMATWINN

herausgegeben von: Nayan Sharma, Wolfgang-Albert Flügel

Verlag: Springer India

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Über dieses Buch

The central theme of this book is focused on the analyses and the results which emerged from the international research project BRAHMATWINN sponsored by European Commission (EC) and conducted during 2006 – 2009. The book highlights the achievements of BRAHMATWINN to carry out a harmonised integrated water resources management (IWRM) approach as addressed by the European Water Initiative (EWI) in headwater river systems of alpine mountain massifs. The latter are already impacted from climate change, and the BRAHMATWINN project established transfer of professional IWRM expertise, approaches and tools based on case studies carried out in twinning European and Asian river basins. The project addresses all important IWRM issues in a balanced way, including conflict resolution in the trans- boundary Danube and Brahmaputra River Basins in Europe and South Asia respectively.

This book will be useful to researchers, professionals, managers and decision makers associated with study and application of sustainable integrated land and water resources management (ILWRM) in the backdrop of climate change.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter
1. Introduction
Abstract
In the past decades, climate change (CC) has become a consistent global threat and research challenge, and there is rising concern that CC will alter a wide spectrum of drivers that are likely to impact our continental and global hydrological domains both in terms of natural and socioeconomic processes. Responding to the challenge of global CC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established in 1988 and in a special report published special emission scenarios (SRES), of which the A1B and B1 scenarios are considered as the most likely ones. Therefore, they have been evaluated in the BRAHMATWINN project.
Wolfgang-Albert Flügel, Nayan Sharma
2. Conceptual Background of Applied Geoinformatics
Abstract
Present global climate modelling state-of-the-art and results have been published by the 4th Assessment Reports of the IPCC. They compile the results from 21 different atmosphere–ocean global circulation models (AOGCM) for the IPCC scenario A1B, evaluated as multimodel datasets (MMD-A1B) in the Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI). According to the 4th IPCC report, the temperature projections based on the MMD-A1B models indicate a significant warming over the 21st century. Temperature rise greater than the global mean is projected for South Asia (3.3 °C) and East Asia (3.3 °C), and is significantly higher than the global mean in the continental interior of Asia, for example, 3.7 °C in central Asia, 3.8 °C in Tibet, and 4.3 °C in northern Asia.
Wolfgang-Albert Flügel
3. The EC-Project BRAHMATWINN
Abstract
The BRAHMATWINN project was funded by the European Community (EC contract no. 036952) and was carried out between June 2006 and December 2009. Its overall objective was to provide a comprehensive impact assessment of climate change to the hydrological dynamics and integrated land and water resources management (ILWRM) in alpine mountain massifs.
Wolfgang-Albert Flügel, Nayan Sharma
4. Regional Climate Projections
Abstract
Regional climate projections are required to further downscale the results provided by Atmosphere-Ocean Global Circulation Models (AOGCM) from the global scale grid size to the mesoscale grid size used in ILWRM application for mesoscale and macroscale river basins. The results provided from this climate modelling study were inputs into the hydrological modelling exercises done by the means of DANUBIA hydrological river basin model.
Bodo Ahrens, Andreas Dobler
5. Land Use/Land Cover Classification of the Natural Environment
Abstract
Land use/land cover (LULC) information is one of the most important spatial input for environmental modelling and a crucial indicator to identify and quantify natural and socioeconomic impacts triggered by LULC changes. Such impacts are related to glacier, snow cover, and permafrost melting, the forming of GLOFs, erosion by land sides, discharge and sediment transport dynamics of alpine rivers, and the socioeconomic regional urban and rural development to name some of them.
Rajesh Thapa, Stefan Lang, Elisabeth Schöepfer, Stefan Kienberger, Petra Füreder, Peter Zeil
6. Glacier Changes and Permafrost Distribution
Abstract
Glaciers, snow cover and permafrost are important storages of terrestrial fresh water and are released from the storage by melting processe having a seasonal dynamics. Their changes over time can have significant impacts on the water cycle controlling the discharge behaviour of alpine rivers and on natural disasters relating to thawing of glaciers, snow and permafrost. These effects often include downstream areas outside of the direct glacial and periglacial zone.
Andreas Kääb, Regula Frauenfelder, Iris Sossna
7. Wetlands and Their Dynamics
Abstract
In BRAHMATWINN the upper Danube river basin (UDRB) and the upper Brahmaputra river basin (UBRB) were selected as the representative catchments in two mountain-dominated geographical regions. Three test sites were selected in the UBRB: the Lhasa River catchment in Tibet/China, the Wang Chu river catchment in Bhutan, and the Assam reach of the Brahmaputra river. In the UDRB the Lech river and Salzach river catchments were studied. This chapter focuses primarily on the vegetation of wetlands, which are dynamic ecosystem elements, depending on their hydrological resources and thus prone to suffer from climate change impacts. Location, hydrological ecosystem functions (ESF), and ecosystem services (ESS) together with the vulnerability of wetlands were assessed.
Norbert Exler, Iris Wagner, Georg A. Janauer
8. Large Scale Distributed Hydrological Modelling
Abstract
The impact of climate change on water resources is one of the most essential issues for the population of mountain areas and their forelands in the future. To identify appropriate adaptation strategies, water balance models must realistically describe and quantify the reactions of watersheds to climate change at the regional scale.
Monika Prasch, Thomas Marke, Ulrich Strasser, Wolfram Mauser
9. Applying the Response Units (RU) Concept for ILWRM
Abstract
Integrated land and water resources management (ILWRM) must be understood as a continuous process of coordinating sustainable land and water resources management with the aims (1) to maximize the socioeconomic development and social welfare without (2) compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems and their hydrological ecosystem functions (ESF) and ecosystem services (ESS). From a practical point of view ILWRM has to provide the administrative and technological means to (1) manage the available surface and subsurface water resource in the landscape of a river basin, (2) guarantee their sustainable recharge dynamics both in terms of water quantity and quality, and (3) protect water users and the society against destructive hazards like floods, droughts, and erosion.
Wolfgang-Albert Flügel, Jörg Pechstädt, Anita Flemming
10. Vulnerability Assessment and Scenarios
Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of the assessment of socio-economic vulnerability to floods in the context of climate change in the Salzach catchment (UDRB) as well as for the floodplains in Assam (UBRB). The assessment adapts a conceptual framework of the IPCC defining vulnerability. Within both assessments spatially-explicit and expert-based approaches are applied to provide an integrative assessment linking to ILWRM. Next to the assessment of present-day conditions, future scenarios of socio-economic vulnerability are provided building on the SRES framework. Socio-economic issues are major drivers and subjects of climate change and it is inevitable to analyse them within an integrative assessment through the application of a vulnerability approach.
Stefan Kienberger, Craig W. Hutton, Fiifi Amoako Johnson
11. Adaptive IWRM Responses to Cope with “What-If?” Scenarios
Abstract
In Chaps. 2 to 9, various Geoinformatic approaches have been presented, that comprise the interdisciplinary systems analysis of the natural environment and its human dimension applied in the BRAHMATWINN project. Together with the vulnerability analysis introduced in the previous chapter, they provide a comprehensive assessment of the BRAHMATWINN basins environment and a quantifying analysis of the mechanisms and impacts of climate change on the hydrological dynamics, the availability of water balance components and vulnerability. This holistic system approach will be completed in this chapter by applying Geoinformatics for adapting existing and developing new IWRM strategies within the context of socioeconomic vulnerability, institutional capacities and governance.
Valentina Giannini, Andrew Allan, Craig W. Hutton, Carlo Giupponi
12. Integrated Land and Water Resources Management System (ILWRMS)
Abstract
The comprehensive integrated system analysis (ISA), modelling studies, spatial analysis of water balance components, and the integrated socioeconomic analysis and scenario evaluation discussed in the previous chapters must be made available to local actors, decision makers, and planners as otherwise they will be stand-alone information with little value for sustainable integrated land and water resources management (ILWRM). This research challenge was addressed by the development of an ILWRMS based on the sophisticated integrated land management system and the ILMS info data information system applied as one of the ILMS components. This component was enhanced by complement software developments and modelling toward an ILWRMS. It should be noted, however, that the system presented in brief herein is under a continuous development by integrating demands and requirements identified by users of the system in various applied research projects.
Wolfgang-Albert Flügel, Carsten Busch, Nayan Sharma
Metadaten
Titel
Applied Geoinformatics for Sustainable Integrated Land and Water Resources Management (ILWRM) in the Brahmaputra River basin
herausgegeben von
Nayan Sharma
Wolfgang-Albert Flügel
Copyright-Jahr
2015
Verlag
Springer India
Electronic ISBN
978-81-322-1967-5
Print ISBN
978-81-322-1966-8
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1967-5