Faced with the challenges of strained resources, ageing infrastructure and new forms of competition, water utilities must adopt a strategic business perspective, similar to ones that characterize successful business organizations. This reports discusses the many implications and demonstrates integration of the strategic planning process into annual planning. Coverage includes expectations of consumers, policy boards, state and federal guidelines and funding, competitive issues, long and short term options, planning, collaboration, prioritizing and communications.

This open access textbook provides a concise introduction to economic approaches and mathematical methods for the study of water allocation and distribution problems. Written in an accessible and straightforward style, it discusses and analyzes central issues in integrated water resource management, water tariffs, water markets, and transboundary water management. By illustrating the interplay between the hydrological cycle and the rules and institutions that govern today’s water allocation policies, the authors develop a modern perspective on water management. Moreover, the book presents an in-depth assessment of the political and ethical dimensions of water management and its institutional embeddedness, by discussing distribution issues and issues of the enforceability of human rights in managing water resources. Given its scope, the book will appeal to advanced undergraduate and graduate students of economics and engineering, as well as practitioners in the water sector, seeking a deeper understanding of economic approaches to the study of water management.

This book is open access under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license. This revised, updated textbook presents a systems approach to the planning, management, and operation of water resources infrastructure in the environment. Previously published in 2005 by UNESCO and Deltares (Delft Hydraulics at the time), this new edition, written again with contributions from Jery R. Stedinger, Jozef P. M. Dijkman, and Monique T. Villars, is aimed equally at students and professionals. It introduces readers to the concept of viewing issues involving water resources as a system of multiple interacting components and scales. It offers guidelines for initiating and carrying out water resource system planning and management projects. It introduces alternative optimization, simulation, and statistical methods useful for project identification, design, siting, operation and evaluation and for studying post-planning issues. The authors cover both basin-wide and urban water issues and present ways of identifying and evaluating alternatives for addressing multiple-purpose and multi-objective water quantity and quality management challenges. Reinforced with cases studies, exercises, and media supplements throughout, the text is ideal for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in water resource planning and management as well as for practicing planners and engineers in the field.

The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper II (PRSP-II) examines the major development challenges faced by Burundi. The paper identifies achievements in areas such as security and governance, but draws attention to the below-par performance in overall economic growth and development. The primary reasons for the lack of development have been cited in the report. The four major strategic pillars of the PRSP-II provide a road-map for achieving the goals and objectives enunciated to put Burundi on the path toward sustainable development.

This book describes the water sector as it is structured in Italy, presenting innovative engineering, financial and managerial solutions implemented by the Italian water sector, through the experiences of its major stakeholders. The main themes addressed include water regulation, financing infrastructures, economic performance of the leading companies, abstraction, potabilization, distribution, treatment and purification technologies, energy production, and organizational restructuring. The last part of the work presents company profiles with important financial indicators, as well as future strategic postures. Written by leading Italian experts, the book reflects the remarkable advances that have been made in the field of water governance and environmental management. The book is especially valuable for researchers, water professionals, utility managers, as well as policy makers and foreign investors looking for opportunities. This work has been prepared as part of the research activities of the Observatory on Sustainable Water Industry, one of Agici’s Research and Advisory units.

This edition of Evapotranspiration - Remote Sensing and Modeling contains 23 chapters related to the modeling and simulation of evapotranspiration (ET) and remote sensing-based energy balance determination of ET. These areas are at the forefront of technologies that quantify the highly spatial ET from the Earth's surface. The topics describe mechanics of ET simulation from partially vegetated surfaces and stomatal conductance behavior of natural and agricultural ecosystems. Estimation methods that use weather based methods, soil water balance, the Complementary Relationship, the Hargreaves and other temperature-radiation based methods, and Fuzzy-Probabilistic calculations are described. A critical review describes methods used in hydrological models. Applications describe ET patterns in alpine catchments, under water shortage, for irrigated systems, under climate change, and for grasslands and pastures. Remote sensing based approaches include Landsat and MODIS satellite-based energy balance, and the common process models SEBAL, METRIC and S-SEBS. Recommended guidelines for applying operational satellite-based energy balance models and for overcoming common challenges are made.

This thesis presents analysis of the status of IWRM implementation along with the challenges with regards to policy and institutional measures as well as the required basin information and management instruments. The research entailed a detailed analysis of water resources systems based on a case study from the Awash River Basin in Ethiopia, covering the historical and present state of the challenges and gaps in policies, institutional arrangements and management instruments. The status quo of practical water management, implications of plausible management alternatives in terms of their impact to future water availability, demand fulfilment, patterns of use, and sustainability of the environment were examined. Moreover, the interlinkages and dynamics between key water dependent resources sectors, broadly categorized into water, energy, food, and ecosystems (WEFE) was explored to identify key tradeoffs and synergies. This was deliberated as to improving the synchronization of sectoral plans and resources management programs, thereby fast-tracking the coordination process in IWRM. Overall, the research provides a clearer understanding of the system-wide problems, structural challenges and possible future consequences regarding the management and sustainability of the entire water resource system. Ultimately the purpose is to set in motion new strategies and mechanisms to improve the implementation of the currently applied IWRM framework in the context of the SDGs.