The two contrasting extremes of the hydrological spectrum have substantial and far-reaching impacts on a wide range of sectors including water resources, agriculture and food security, energy, ...infrastructure, and ecosystem. The compounding factors of climate change, burgeoning population, and rapid economic development create unprecedented challenges in devising effective and sustainable strategies to cope with these natural disasters and minimize their devastating impacts. This study identifies the geographical areas that are prone to meteorological wet-dry extreme events, as drivers of hydrologic floods and droughts, and their temporal compounding in the transboundary Upper Jhelum Basin-South Asia. Additionally, the study provides a comprehensive overview of the existing and proposed water development projects, their coping capacities, and potential impacts that may be positive or negative in hydrologic, social, economic and environment terms. Extensive review and data analysis revealed that the both Pakistan and India, along with state governments, have implemented a significant number of water-related projects across the basin, however significant progress towards achieving their stated goals remains elusive. Currently, Pakistan operates 15 runoff river type hydropower plants, and an additional 11 similar projects are under construction. In contrast, Indian administrative Kashmir has 10 such plants in operation and 4 under construction. The primary factors that impede the realization of expected benefits from these projects are geography, high flow variability across seasons, climate change, insufficient planning, geopolitical disputes, lack of transboundary cooperation, financial limitations, and reservoir operation. Based on these factors, the present study suggests some alternative water management measures that offer flexibility, cost-effectiveness, accessibility, and a low environmental impact. These solutions include implementation of sub-surface floodwater harvesting system in the southwest of the basin, where extreme wet and dry events occur in close succession, augmentation of existing hydropower reservoirs with floating photovoltaic technology, and non-structural measures, including early warning systems, ecosystems-based adaptation, and green infrastructure interventions such as restoring headwater forests, reclaiming floodplains, and wetlands. This will result in reduced flood and drought impacts at local and downstream areas and reduce the reliance of local communities on forest wood.
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•Analyze extreme wet-dry events and their temporal compounding in upper Jhelum basin.•Collates and review water development projects, their coping capacities, and impacts.•Discuss the factors that impede the realization of expected benefits from these projects.•Proposed feasible solutions to mitigate flood and drought damage.
Unplanned development Rigg, Jonathan
2012., 2012, 2012-10-13, 2012-10-11, 20120101
eBook
Unplanned Development offers a fascinating and fresh view into the realities of development planning. While to the outsider most development projects present themselves as thoroughly planned ...endeavours informed by structure, direction and intent, Jonathan Rigg exposes the truth of development experience that chance, serendipity, turbulence and the unexpected define development around the world. Based on rich empirical sources from South-East Asia, Unplanned Development sustains a unique general argument in making the case for chance and turbulence in development. Identifying chance as a leading factor in all development planning, the book contributes to a better way of dealing with the unexpected and asks vital questions on the underlying paradoxes of development practice.
Currently, the spread of the concept of a smart sustainable city as the basis for the development of the human environment is a worldwide trend. The issues of financing are of particular importance ...for the successful implementation of projects for the development of the human environment on the basis of this concept. The article discusses the concept of sustainability of the living environment in the modern conditions of the digital economy and also substantiates the relevance of studying the financial aspects of projects implementation within the framework of the concept of a smart sustainable city. As a result of the work, the authors analyzed the ways of financing projects for the development of the living environment on the basis of the concept of a smart sustainable city, highlighted the problems specified in these projects in the sphere of financial support, and concluded that the most promising ways for application are those, combining both public and private sources of financing in the face of growing demand for transformation of traditional urban infrastructure.
This book delves into the research-policy nexus as it relates to development in Africa. It does so by examining four country-cases - Botswana, Cte d'Ivoire, Kenya and Zambia - while referring to ...South Africa as a possible exemplar case.The book reaffirms that the majority of governments in Africa spend less than one per cent of their GDP on research and development (R&D) despite the commitment to raise their research funding levels contained in the Lagos Plan of Action (1980). Hence, reliance on external funding for research persists on the continent.To manage research engagements and public funds, Science Granting Councils (SGCs) have been established. These institutions are held accountable for how public funds are spent and how the research they fund contributes to the advancement of society.To-date, the SGCs and researchers have demonstrated in various ways how funded research contributes to the advancement of society. However, there appear to be differences in opinion amongst key stakeholders in terms of what constitutes research priorities as well as expectations in terms of the returns on research investments made.This book brings to the fore the importance of research and its outcome on societal development, and reveals the stake that African governments hold in the process. The book encourages African governments to show greater commitment to providing funding for research on the continent.This is critical if governments are to assume a lead role in the continent's development agenda. It would also set the stage for partnerships with other stakeholders, including industry and funding organisations. Researchers are also encouraged to work closely with the SGCs to ensure the valorisation of research products for societal benefit. This has a potential to unlock more funding for research in Africa which, in turn, would drive the development of the continent.
Social sustainability’s implementation in urban development is a complex endeavour that demands alternative forms of governance. This article draws on the capabilities approach as an evaluative ...framework to better understand this implementation process. Through an in-depth case comparison of two Dutch urban development projects, the study analyses how collaborative governance situations (i.e. actors, activities and phases) relate to the expansions of resident capabilities in the urban areas. The findings present three principles for a ‘capability-centred governance’ of social sustainability in urban development: (1) integrate human logic into urban governance situations (2) balance strong goal commitment with experimentalist approaches and (3) institutionalise social sustainability implementation. The article concludes that social sustainability’s implementation requires a conceptualisation in which improvements in people’s lives are not seen as the self-evident consequences of a set of place-based policy interventions, but instead as a guiding principle that should continuously be reflected upon and learned from during the different phases of urban development processes.
The use of core outcome sets (COS) ensures that researchers measure and report those outcomes that are most likely to be relevant to users of their research. Several hundred COS projects have been ...systematically identified to date, but there has been no formal quality assessment of these studies. The Core Outcome Set-STAndards for Development (COS-STAD) project aimed to identify minimum standards for the design of a COS study agreed upon by an international group, while other specific guidance exists for the final reporting of COS development studies (Core Outcome Set-STAndards for Reporting COS-STAR).
An international group of experienced COS developers, methodologists, journal editors, potential users of COS (clinical trialists, systematic reviewers, and clinical guideline developers), and patient representatives produced the COS-STAD recommendations to help improve the quality of COS development and support the assessment of whether a COS had been developed using a reasonable approach. An open survey of experts generated an initial list of items, which was refined by a 2-round Delphi survey involving nearly 250 participants representing key stakeholder groups. Participants assigned importance ratings for each item using a 1-9 scale. Consensus that an item should be included in the set of minimum standards was defined as at least 70% of the voting participants from each stakeholder group providing a score between 7 and 9. The Delphi survey was followed by a consensus discussion with the study management group representing multiple stakeholder groups. COS-STAD contains 11 minimum standards that are the minimum design recommendations for all COS development projects. The recommendations focus on 3 key domains: the scope, the stakeholders, and the consensus process.
The COS-STAD project has established 11 minimum standards to be followed by COS developers when planning their projects and by users when deciding whether a COS has been developed using reasonable methods.
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