Originally presented as the author's Thesis (M.A.--University of Oregon). / Includes bibliographical references (p. 54-55). Also available on the World Wide Web.

This was the final statement in a report, prepared for the Namibian Programme to Combat Desertification (NAPCOD), which researched the process, praxis and environmental impacts of borehole provision in communal areas in Namibia (ENGEO, 1997).¹ This dissertation is a response to this concluding statement. It presents a theoretical model which provides a comprehensive yet simple environmental assessment and management framework to inform, guide and manage the provision of boreholes in communal areas in Namibia. The model has been designed to be cost effective, appropriate for its context and 'user-friendly'. Most importantly, the model aims to present a system which would promote principles of sustainability and, consequently, sustainable development in terms of borehole provision in communal areas in Namibia.

No description available.

No description available.

Stormwater management necessitates a regional plan based on the best practical methods. "Storm", a mathematical model, is employed to simulate runoff conditions in the Shingle Creek Basin. The computed runoff quantity is calibrated directly with the streams hydrograph. Runoff quality is predicted with two sets of pollutant loading rates. The scope of the model is expanded by development of parametric curves that can be used to convert measured quality data to input land use loadings. A parametric study is also performed to fabricate the effects of urbanization on the Shingle Creek Basin.

No description available.

China has a long history of hydrological development. According to Chinese legends, famous projects of flood water diversion were developed by the Great Yu as early as the year two thousand B.C. The earliest hydrological record appeared in 256 B.C., when Mr. Lipin and his son constructed the Dujiangyan irrigation system in the upper reach of the Mingjiang River in Sichuan Province. At Baopingkao, the water intake point of the Dujiangyan irrigation system, a water staff gage was carved on a stone for the measurement of water levels. Although hydrological studies in China started early, hydrology and water resources as modern sciences have been developed only in the last several decades, particularly rapidly in the last 30 years. For instance, the number of hydrological stations has increased 45 times, from about 350 to more than 16,000. Of these, about 3300 stations also take flow velocity measurements. The average density of the hydrological stations is about one per 530 km2 and that of discharge measurement stations about one in 3,000 km2. These stations are highly concentrated in eastern China. The longest records of precipitation are maintained in the large cities in eastern China, including Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjing. Beijing has 140 years of precipitation records. The Hankao hydrological station on the Changjiang (Yangtze) River has the longest discharge record spanning 117 years (1865- 1982).

This study focuses on the design of water resources systems in developing nations with particular reference to the development of water resources in the Lower Mekong Basin (Khmer Republic, Laos, Thailand, and Republic of South Viet -Nam). The determination of the "best" system in terms of social goals reflecting the economic and social environment of the Mekong countries is the main issue of this dissertation. The imperfection of the usual technique for planning water resources systems, namely, cost -benefit analysis, leads to the use of the standardized cost -effectiveness methodology. To illustrate how the design is accomplished, two distinctly different structural alternatives of possible development in the Lower Mekong Basin are defined. The design process starts from the statements of goals or objectives of water resources development, which are then mapped onto specifications sets in which social needs are represented. Next, the capabilities of alternative systems are determined through simulation in which three 50 -year sequences of synthetic streamflow are generated by a first order autoregressive scheme. The two alternatives are then compared using both quantitative and qualitative criteria. To illustrate how a decision in selecting an alternative system could be reached, ranking of criteria by order of preference is demonstrated. With the choice of either a fixed -cost or fixed- effectiveness approach, the decision to select the best alternative system could be made. At this point, the use of a weighting technique, which is a common fallacy of systems analysis, will be automatically eliminated. The study emphasizes that a systematic design procedure of water resources systems is provided by the standardized cost- effectiveness approach, which possesses several advantages. The approach will suggest and help identify the system closest to meeting the desired economic and social goals of the developing countries in the Lower Mekong Basin. In this connection, the approach will help governments in the preparation of programming and budgeting of capital for further investigations and investments. It is believed that the approach will eliminate unnecessary expenses in projects that are planned on an individual basis or by methods used at present. Further, the approach provides an appropriate mechanism for generating essential information in the decision process. Both quantifiable and non -quantifiable criteria are fully considered. The choice of a fixed -cost or fixed -effectiveness approach will determine the trade -off between these criteria. The study recognizes that research to determine appropriate hydrologic models for monthly streamfiow generation for tributary projects in the Basin is necessary. This leads to another important area of research which is to find the appropriate number of monthly sequences of streamflow to be generated in relation to number of states and decision variables. Research on the design of computer experiments is necessary to improve simulation as a tool to estimate the quantitative effects of a given project.

This study focuses on the design of water resources systems in developing nations with particular reference to the development of water resources in the Lower Mekong Basin (Khmer Republic, Laos, Thailand, and Republic of South Viet-Nam). The determination of the "best" system in terms of social goals reflecting the economic and social environment of the Mekong countries is the main issue of this dissertation. The imperfection of the usual technique for planning water resources systems, namely, cost-benefit analysis, leads to the use of the standardized cost-effectiveness methodology. To illustrate how the design is accomplished, two distinctly different structural alternatives of possible development in the Lower Mekong Basin are defined. The design process starts from the statements of goals or objectives of water resources development, which are then mapped onto specifications sets in which social needs are represented. Next, the capabilities of alternative systems are determined through simulation in which three 50-year sequences of synthetic streamflow are generated by a first order autoregressive scheme. The two alternatives are then compared using both quantitative and qualitative criteria. To illustrate how a decision in selecting an alternative system could be reached, ranking of criteria by order of preference is demonstrated. With the choice of either a fixed-cost or fixed-effectiveness approach, the decision to select the best alternative system could be made. At this point, the use of a weighting technique, which is a common fallacy of systems analysis, will be automatically eliminated. The study emphasizes that a systematic design procedure of water resources systems is provided by the standardized cost-effectiveness approach, which possesses several advantages. The approach will suggest and help identify the system closest to meeting the desired economic and social goals of the developing countries in the Lower Mekong Basin. In this connection, the approach will help governments in the preparation of programming and budgeting of capital for further investigations and investments. It is believed that the approach will eliminate unnecessary expenses in projects that are planned on an individual basis or by methods used at present. Further, the approach provides an appropriate mechanism for generating essential information in the decision process. Both quantifiable and non-quantifiable criteria are fully considered. The choice of a fixed-cost or fixed-effectiveness approach will determine the trade-off between these criteria. The study recognizes that research to determine appropriate hydrologic models for monthly streamflow generation for tributary projects in the Basin is necessary. This leads to another important area of research which is to find the appropriate number of monthly sequences of streamflow to be generated in relation to number of states and decision variables. Research on the design of computer experiments is necessary to improve simulation as a tool to estimate the quantitative effects of a given project.

Lack of adequate hydrologic information has been one of the major reasons for postponement of many water resource developments in developing countries. Many of these decisions to postpone developments that have been reviewed by the author have been found to be arbitrary and not based on the extent of benefit that the additional information would contribute. Due to lack of understanding of the implications and natural tendency towards risk aversion, the beneficiaries are deprived of goods and services which the development would have produced. In this dissertation a decision strategy which can guide decision makers to determine if the additional information is essential, is developed. The strategy is derived from the concepts of the three currently used decision methodologies in water resources: namely, the cost-effectiveness, benefit-cost and the Bayesian decision methodologies. The concepts of these methodologies have been selected and combined for their appropriateness to particular phases of the decision process. Description of the analytical procedure in the use of the strategy is given, and some analytical methods that can be used in the procedure have also been suggested and discussed. The applicability of the strategy is demonstrated by applying it to a case study involving a decision that was taken to postpone a simple irrigation project in Ghana. Three alternative plans for the irrigation project were evaluated, based on selected decision criteria. The results of the study indicated that the local hydrologic factors in the project analyzed were not critical to the design decision, and errors due to hydrologic uncertainties would be damped out in the evaluation of the economic feasibility. The design decision proved to be more sensitive to the economic and technological factors. The insensitivity of the design decision to the hydrologic factors was attributed to a combination of climatic and topographical conditions existing in the river basin. Based on the results of the study, a rule was suggested to aid decision makers to determine when a greater hydrologic base may be needed for design and project viability decisions.