Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:27:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2007-10-17Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:26:28Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 madruga_fn_me_rcla.pdf: 602399 bytes, checksum: d87f99c9718cfb1252754ffad0a1b32e (MD5) / Os Comitês de Gerenciamento de Bacias Hidrograticas têm sido objeto de uma série de estudos de caso, que apresentam as particularidades da formação, representação e atuação destes Comitês sem situá-Ios em um contexto maior. Neste trabalho procura-se mostrar uma visão geral da importância dada aos problemas ambientais a partir das últimas décadas do século XX, e, em especial, a importância assumida pelas questões de manejo, recuperação e conservação dos recursos hídricos no Brasil. São apresentados de modo detalhado o Sistema de Gerenciamento de Recursos Hídricos do Brasil, de 1997, e de Santa Catarina, de 1994, a fim de mostrar o papel dos Comitês de Gerenciamento de Bacias Hidrográficas nestes Sistemas. Tratando de modo mais específico, foram apresentadas as potencialidades e as dificuldades da atuação e o trabalho dos 16 Comitês de Gerenciamento de Bacias Hidrográficas no Estado de Santa Catarina, dentro da metodologia do Sistema de Gerenciamento de Recursos Hídricos que as idealizou. Por fim, são apontadas as contribuições que a Geografia pode dar ao processo de gestão de recursos hídricos no Brasil. / The Committees of Hydrographic Basins Management have been object of many case studies, witch show the particularities of formation, representation and actuation of these Committees, without pointing out them in a bigger context. In this work the aim is to display a general view of the importance concerning to the enviromental questions from the last decades of the XX century and, specially, the value assumed by the hydrical resources' management, recovering and conservation issues in Brazil. It's detailed Brazil's (1997) and Santa Catarina's (1994) Hydric Resource Management Systems, intending to reveal the role of the committees of hydrographic basins in those Systems. More specifically, have been presented potentialities and difficulties in the actuation and the work of the 16 Committees of Management of Hydrographic Basins in the State of Santa Catarina, within the methodology of the Hydric Resources Management System that idealized them. To conclude, have been pointed out the contributions with which Geography can suply the process of hydrical resources management in Brazil.

Este trabalho apresenta uma análise ambiental do rio das Ostras através do levantamento das características físicas, bióticas e antrópicas da macrorregião onde está localizada a bacia hidrográfica, que tomada como unidade de planejamento de uso e ocupação do solo, permite a elaboração de diversos instrumentos de gestão capazes de valorizar os ecossistemas existentes, resultando em políticas públicas com uma visão sócio ambiental. Apesar de as bacias hidrográficas apresentarem gestão com base legal estadual e federal, os maiores conflitos de ocupação ocorrem nos municípios e são capazes de gerar impactos ambientais locais, cuja responsabilidade de mitigação e compensação passam pela administração municipal. A bacia hidrográfica do rio das Ostras está, quase que integralmente, situada no município de mesmo nome,no Estado do Rio de Janeiro. As características analisadas neste trabalho apontaram a necessidade de elaboração de um Plano de Gestão na bacia visando a preservação dos ecossistemas ali existentes, promovendo ações de educação ambiental, programas de redução de poluição, monitoramento da qualidade da água e das condições hidrosanitárias, controle de erosão e assoreamentos, recuperação da vegetação ciliar, manutenção da diversidade ecológica, resultando, assim, na melhoria global das condições sócio ambientais da região. / This dissertation presents an environmental analysis of the Ostras River Basin through surveys of physical, biological and anthropomorphic characteristics of the macroregion where the basin is located. The river basin was used as the base area for use management and ground occupation, allowing the elaboration of diverse assessment instruments capable of evaluating existing ecosystems, resulting in community politics with a social vision. Although river basins are under state and federal jurisdiction, the major conflicts in occupation occur in the cities, impacting the local environment, leaving the municipal administration responsible for enforcing pollution reduction and environmental compensation. The Ostras River Basin is almost entirely situated in the city of same name, in the State of Rio de Janeiro. The characteristics analyzed in this dissertation point to the necessity of developing a Management Plan for this basin with the aim of preserving the existing ecosystems: promoting environmental education, developing pollution reduction programs, monitoring water quality and sewage and water conditions, soil and riverbank erosion, promoting recovery of riverbank vegetation, preserving ecological diversity, resulting, thus, in global improvement of the social conditions of the region.

O estudo das bacias formadoras do rio Piracicaba é prioritário no contexto de solução da crise hídrica na região sudeste do Brasil, pois elas são mantenedoras de mais 4,5 milhões de habitantes na região das bacias Piracicaba, Capivari e Jundiaí (PCJ), e contém o sistema de represas do Cantareira, que promove o abastecimento de água de aproximadamente 8 milhões de habitantes na região metropolitana da cidade de São Paulo. Para a garantia de tais recursos hídricos, é fundamental um plano de restauração e conservação do entorno das represas constituintes do sistema, bem como das microbacias nas cabeceiras de seus tributários, tais como o rio Jaguari. Nessa região, na microbacia do ribeirão das Posses, afluente do rio Jaguari no município de Extrema - MG, iniciou-se no ano de 2007 o projeto Conservador das Águas, com o intuito de promover restauração e conservação de nascentes dentro de propriedades privadas, no modelo de Pagamentos por Serviços Ambientais (PSA). Esta pesquisa teve por objetivo avaliar a dinâmica espaço-temporal de parâmetros hídricos qualiquantitativos em corpos d\'água, como nascentes em restauração, tributários e canal principal do ribeirão das Posses e sua influência no rio Jaguari, considerando o uso do solo na área drenada a montante de cada ponto amostral. Os parâmetros hidrobiogeoquímicos avaliados foram: vazão, temperatura, pH, condutividade elétrica, DBO, além de oxigênio, carbono, nitrogênio e elementos iônicos principais dissolvidos e massa e razão isotópica de carbono e nitrogênio no material particulado em suspensão. Os resultados demonstram que as ações de restauração têm contribuído para a redução na condutividade elétrica (CE) nas nascentes. O uso da terra interferiu na qualidade dos corpos hídricos e que o Cl- pode ser utilizado como traçador ambiental, refletindo a influência do ambiente de pastagens. Por fim, os processos erosivos predominam na bacia, sendo que o transporte de material particulado em suspensão para a foz no rio Jaguari foi de 68 ton km-2 ano-1. / The study of the basins forming the Piracicaba river is a priority in the context of the solution of the water crisis in the southeastern region of Brazil, as they maintain more than 4.5 million inhabitants in the Piracicaba, Capivari and Jundiaí (PCJ) basins and contain the Cantareira dam system, which promotes the water supply of approximately 8 million inhabitants in the metropolitan region of the city of São Paulo. For the guarantee of such water resources, a plan of restoration and conservation of the surroundings of the dams constituting the system, as well as the micro-basins in the headwaters of its tributaries, such as the Jaguari river, is fundamental. In this region, the Conservador das Águas project was started in 2007 in the microbasin of the Posses stream, a tributary of the Jaguari river in the municipality of Extrema - MG, with the purpose of promoting restoration and conservation of springs within private properties, in the Payments for Environmental Services (PSA) model. The objective of this research was to evaluate the spatiotemporal dynamics of qualitative water parameters in water bodies, such as springs in restoration, tributaries and main channel of the Posses stream and its influence on the Jaguari river, considering the use of the soil in the drained area amount of each sampling point. The hydrobiogeochemical parameters evaluated were: flow, temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, BOD, in addition to oxygen, carbon, nitrogen and major dissolved ionic elements and isotopic mass and carbon and nitrogen ratio in suspended particulate matter. The results show that restoration actions have contributed to the reduction in the electrical conductivity (EC) in the springs. Land use has interfered in the quality of the water bodies and that Cl- can be used as an environmental tracer, reflecting the influence of the pasture environment. Finally, erosion processes predominate in the basin, and transport of particulate matter in suspension to the mouth of the Jaguari River was 68 tons km-2 year-1.

Orientador: Sergio Valdir Bajay / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecanica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-09T02:16:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Leite_AlvaroAfonsoFurtado_D.pdf: 1730792 bytes, checksum: 05398fc1640871f56239cb667d810356 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: Neste trabalho se propõe a realização, no Brasil, de estudos de Planejamento Integrado de Recursos ¿ PIR, de cunho indicativo, nas bacias hidrográficas do País, centrado em torno da disponibilidade, custo e qualidade da água, energia elétrica e gás canalizado como importantes vetores de desenvolvimento regional. A implantação do tipo de planejamento proposto nesta tese é bastante complexa e inovadora, no Brasil e no mundo. Tais características impedem um tratamento, neste trabalho, ao mesmo tempo abrangente e detalhado em todas as suas múltiplas facetas. Optou-se, então, por definir, como uma contribuição específica da tese, o desenvolvimento, em detalhes, de estudos prospectivos do mercado de energia, incluindo programas de eficiência energética, em bacias hidrográficas, associados a planos nacionais e projeções de mercado estaduais. Para subsidiar estes estudos e se detectar tendências, realizou-se amplas análises retrospectivas sobre a economia e a matriz energética do Estado de São Paulo e da bacia escolhida, dentro do Estado, utilizando várias fontes de informações de uso público restrito e construindo uma base de dados sócio-econômicos e energéticos municipais para a bacia em questão. A bacia hidrográfica escolhida para ilustrar os procedimentos propostos nesta tese foi a da Unidade de Gerenciamento de Recursos Hídricos dos rios Piracicaba, Capivari e Jundiaí (UGRH ¿ PCJ). Foram avaliados, neste trabalho, programas de eficiência energética implementados em um passado recente na bacia hidrográfica objeto de estudo, que são comparados com programas de eficiência energética que tiveram sucesso no exterior. Como resultado desta avaliação, são propostas novas políticas energéticas, sobretudo na área de eficiência energética, para serem implantadas na bacia; seus prováveis impactos na demanda energética também são estimados, com o auxílio do modelo de projeção de demanda desenvolvido na tese / Abstract: Indicative studies of Integrated Resources Planning are proposed in this thesis for the Brazilian river basins, centred upon the availability, cost and quality of water, electricity and pipeline gas as important resources for regional development. The implementation of the kind of planning proposed in this thesis is highly complex and innovative, not only in Brazil but in the world. Such characteristics hinder an approach, here, which could be, at the same time, broad and detailed, in all its multiple aspects. The option taken, then, as a specific contribution of the thesis, was to develop detailed prospective studies for the energy market in river basins, including energy efficiency programmes, associated to national plans and market forecasts at the state level. To provide subsidies for these studies and to detect trends, wide scope retrospective analysis concerning the economy and the energy market in the State of São Paulo and in the river basin chosen were carried out, using several sources of classified information. A data basis containing social, economic and energy consumption information for the municipalities of that river basin was also built. The river basin chosen to illustrate the procedures proposed in this thesis was the UGRH-PCJ ¿ Unit of Hydro Resources Management of the Piracicaba, Capivari and Jundiai Rivers. Energy efficiency programmes recently implemented in the river basin studied here are evaluated in this work. Comparisons are made with well succeeded programmes abroad. As a result of this assessment, new energy policies for this river basin, particularly those concerning energy efficiency, are proposed. The likely impacts of such policies in the basin¿s energy demand are also estimated, using the demand forecasting model developed in the thesis / Doutorado / Planejamento de Sistemas Energeticos / Doutor em Planejamento de Sistemas Energéticos

Orientadores: Sergio Valdir Bajay, Gilberto de Martino Jannuzzi / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecanica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-15T09:04:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dorileo_IvoLeandro_D.pdf: 21487500 bytes, checksum: dfda2a083f83b7b2bf7bda76be3098df (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Resumo: Este trabalho propõe a retomada do planejamento integrado de recursos - PIR e estabelece uma metodologia para a sua elaboração no âmbito de bacias hidrográficas, segundo diretrizes que o tornam um processo de cunho indicativo e descentralizado, assentado na conceituação do desenvolvimento sustentável, como alternativa ao planejamento tradicional do setor energético. O ordenamento jurídico das águas, em vigor no Brasil, incorpora novos princípios, como o de bacia hidrográfica como unidade de planejamento e gestão, esta delegada a comités de bacia e conselhos de recursos hídricos, com a participação da União e dos Estados, e também de Municípios, usuários de recursos hídricos e da sociedade civil. Nesse cenário, o PIR compòe-se com a estrutura legal e administrativa da gestão de recursos hídricos, associado aos Planos de Bacia - a ideia básica que moveu este trabalho - e inserido na política de recursos hídricos e de meio ambiente. Desenvolve-se, então, um modelo de projeção integrada das demandas de energia e de água - determinantes para o planejamento em bases municipais e circunscrito na região de uma bacia hidrográfica -, aplicando-o a um amplo estudo de caso da região da bacia do rio Cuiabá. Também, como uma das vertentes do PIR e valendo-se dos seus pressupostos, formula-se um modelo de planejamento e gestão integrada de recursos, delineando uma orientação para a utilização de recursos energéticos e hídricos de forma eficiente no setor industrial. Discutem-se, por fim, novas políticas e programas integrados de eficiência energética e de conservação de água como ações inerentes à prática do PIR e impreteríveis na gestão desses sistemas. / Abstract: This work considers the retaking of the integrated resources planning - IRP and establishes a methodology that expands it for river basins as part of an indicative and decentralized process towards sustainable development. The current Brazilian Water Resources Law assigns the river basins as units of planning and management, which are carried on by basin committees and hydric resources councils, with the participation of the Union, States and Cities, users and consumers of such resources. In this scenario, the IRP is inserted into the legal and administrative Basin Plans structure, and environmental policies - the basic idea that moved this research. A model of integrated water and energy demands forecast is also developed, aiming the regional planning in municipal bases, aggregated in the river basins. This model is applied to an ample case-study for the Cuiabá river basin, including an accurate assessment related to energy and water demand for end-uses through a disaggregation of the energy and water requirements in the economic sectors. A model of integrated management is also set up as one of the IRP sources, making use of its attributes, delineating an orientation for an efficient resources use in the industrial sector. At last, new integrated programs for energy efficiency and water conservation are devised for river basins, as inherent actions to the IRP's procedures, essential to the management of these systems. / Doutorado / Planejamento de Sistemas Energeticos / Doutor em Planejamento de Sistemas Energéticos

O estudo de bacias hidrográficas no meio tropical úmido, tem adquirido grande importância nas últimas décadas, devido a crescente demanda por planejamento de recursos hídricos. Entretanto, muitos desses trabalhos têm confundido o conceito de bacias hidrográficas, acreditando ser esta, uma mera rede de canais interconectados que formam a hidrografia dos terrenos, portanto, tomando-a como simples unidade cartográfica de estudo. Este fato tem banalizado em muito o uso de conceitos relacionados aos estudos de bacias, provocando sérios equívocos nas produções acadêmicas atuais. Partindo do princípio de que as bacias hidrográficas são espaços territoriais de circulação vertical e horizontal dágua, tendo a rede interconectada de canais, como um dos seus principais elementos, que escolhemos a bacia hidrográfica do Rio Benevente para estudo da relação entre a dinâmica fluvial desta e os seus condicionantes estruturais e morfológicos. Fundamentado no método da associação e indeterminação geomorfológica de Leopold e Langbein (1970), e, através de informações oriundas dos procedimentos técnico-operacionais de compartimentação geomorfológica e compilação de dados de parâmetros hidrográficos, foi possível descobrir que os sub-sistemas de drenagem que compõem a hidrografia total da bacia, evoluem condicionados por litoestruturas cristalinas e tectônicas do proterozóico, portanto, de organização antiga, e, que, aparentemente, demonstram não sofrer reativações modernas, a ponto de intervir na evolução dos sub-compartimentos de relevo regionais e na evolução hidrográfica da rede de canais. Chega-se desta forma, à conclusão de que os processos de encaixamento da drenagem, capturas fluviais, seccionamento de litoestruturas, gênese de knickpoints e evolução dos perfis longitudinais fluviais estão associados à dinâmica de processos geomórficos diferenciais, sob litoestruturas de forte natureza anisotrópica e complexa organização geotectônica. Fato que responde pela diversidade de sub-compartimentos de relevo e configuração evolutiva dos sistemas fluviais de dinâmicas diferenciais. / The study of watersheds in the humid tropical environment, has acquired great importance in recent decades due to growing demand for water resources planning. However, many studies have confused the concept of watersheds, believing that this was simply a network of interconnected channels that form the hydrography of the land, thus making it as simple cartographic unit of study. This commonplace is the use of concepts related to the studies of basins, causing serious confusion in the current academic productions. Assuming that the basins are territorial spaces of vertical and horizontal movement of water, the interconnected network of channels, as one of its main elements, we chose the basin of Rio Benevente to study the relationship between the dynamics of this river and its structural and morphological constraints. Based on the method of the Association and indeterminacy in geomorphologic Leopold and Langbein (1970), and through information from the technical and operational procedures of geomorphological partitioning and compilation of data from hydrographic parameters, could find that the sub-drainage systems that make up the total of the hydrographic basin, driven by evolving litoestruturas crystal and the tectonic proterozóico, therefore, the old organization, and that, apparently, show not suffer reactivations modern as to intervene in the evolution of sub-compartments of regional importance and the evolution of the network of river channels. Enough is thus concluded that the processes to fit the drainage, catch river, sectioning of litoestruturas, gênesis of knickpoints and evolution of longitudinal river profiles are associated with the dynamic of geomorphic processes differential,under litoestruturas of strong anisotropic nature and complex organization geotectônica. Fact responsible for the diversity of sub-compartments of important configuration and evolutionary dynamics of river systems of differential.

En esta investigación se realiza el análisis hidrológico de la cuenca Utcubamba, y posteriormente el análisis hidráulico del río Utcubamba, para así, poder obtener un mapa de inundación que permita identificar las zonas susceptibles a este fenómeno, en el distrito del Milagro, departamento de Amazonas. Para poder realizar el mapa de inundación, se parte del análisis hidrológico que consta de delimitar la cuenca Utcubamba, determinar sus características, mediante el software ArcGis. Previamente, se tendrá que recolectar los registros de precipitación de las diferentes estaciones pluviométricas, donde mediante métodos probabilísticos y pruebas de bondad, y estimando los datos faltantes, se puede obtener los hietogramas de diseño para lograr la obtención de las avenidas máximas (caudales de diseño) para diferentes tiempos en que se va a retornar y que se han propuesto. Para el análisis hidráulico, se necesita realizar visitas a campo, para poder hallar el factor de rugosidad más apropiado para el río, y además para obtener un panorama más amplio sobre el lugar de estudio. Se obtendrán las curvas de nivel y la batimetría, datos fundamentales para el modelamiento y obtención de secciones transversales del río. Para ello, se usará el modelo matemático HEC-RAS. Y así con la intervención de los programas y el análisis propuesto se podrá obtener el mapa de inundación y así dar la alternativa de solución más adecuada al problema que se pueda generar / In this research, the hydrological analysis of the Motupe basin is carried out, and later the hydraulic analysis of the Motupe river, in order to obtain a flood map that allows identifying the areas susceptible to this phenomenon, in the district of Milagro, Amazonas. In order to carry out the flood map, we start from the hydrological analysis that consists of delimiting the Utcubamba basin, determining its characteristics, with the help of the ArcGis program. Previously, the precipitation data from the different rainfall stations will have to be collected, where by means of probabilistic methods and goodness tests, and estimating the missing data, the design hietograms can be obtained in order to obtain the maximum flows (design flows) for different proposed return times. For hydraulic analysis, field visits are required to determine the most appropriate roughness coefficient for the river, and also to obtain a broader view of the study site.,contour lines and bathymetry will be obtained, fundamental data for modeling and obtaining cross sections of the river. For this, the mathematical model HEC-RAS will be used. And thus, with the intervention of the programs and the proposed analysis, it will be possible to obtain the flood map and thus provide the most appropriate alternative solution to the problem that may be generated.

Water resource management is a multifaceted issue that becomes more complex when considering multiple nations’ interdependence upon a single shared transboundary river basin. With over 200 transboundary river basins worldwide shared by two or more countries, it is important to develop tools to allow riparian countries to cooperatively manage these shared and often limited water resources. Cooperative game theory provides tools for determining if cooperation can exist across jurisdictional boundaries through a suite of mathematical tools that measure the benefits of cooperation among basin stakeholders. Cooperative game theory is also useful for transboundary negotiation because it provides a range of solutions which will satisfy all players in the game and provides methods to fairly and equitably allocate the gains of that cooperation to all participating stakeholders, if that cooperation is shown to be possible. This dissertation applies cooperative game theory concepts to the Rio Grande/Bravo basin in North America as a case study. The Rio Grande/Bravo forms the 1,200 km border between the United States and Mexico. A comprehensive water resources planning model was developed for the basin including the major water users, water related infrastructure including reservoirs, and water policy logic related to the bi-national water sharing agreements. The water planning model is used to calculate the characteristic functions for the cooperative game analysis. For the Water Demand Reduction Game, the largest agricultural users, District 005, District 025 and the Texas Watermaster Section below Falcon were defined individual players. The cooperative analysis was between the individual players rather than the countries. In addition to the cooperative analysis, performance measures for water deliveries were calculated to determine if water delivery was improved to each player under the cooperative game. The results show that the amount of additional water to the downstream players may not be large enough to induce cooperation. The small amount of increase in water deliveries is related to the large system losses as the water travels downstream over a long distance and a division of water under the 1944 Treaty between the United States and Mexico. / text

Achieving global water sustainability through a resilient international legal architecture presents one of the most pressing challenges within our resource finite planet. A staggering 42 percent of the total land area of the earth is covered by transboundary river basins, where more than 40 percent of the global population lives and depends on the ecosystem services of the 286 transboundary river basins and 200 transboundary aquifers stretching across the political boundaries of 151 countries. There is already evidence of water resources becoming a source of conflict in many regions and constraining a whole myriad of securities – climate, human, environmental, food, economic, energy – on various levels of society. The international legal architecture to manage this critical natural resource is the overarching area of inquiry in this thesis, and requires improvement to address current and predicted future transboundary water challenges, conflicts and strengthen cooperation. Despite the establishment of around 690 river basin treaties, many of these agreements completely miss or provide unclear provisions on principles and rules of international water law. Until recently there was no legally binding global treaty on transboundary watercourses and customary international law has provided the default rules in the absence of agreements and facilitated the re-interpretation of older agreements in accordance with the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Now there are potentially two global treaties, with the recent entry into force of the 1997 UN Watercourses Convention and the global opening up of the 1992 pan-regional United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Water Convention, to all UN member states. There is also a plethora of other international environmental legal and non-legally binding instruments, indirectly addressing international law relevant to transboundary watercourses and freshwater ecosystems. Legal regimes for the protection and use of international river basins cannot be interpreted and applied in isolation from other relevant norms of international environmental and general international law. This thesis seeks to understand the rising role and contribution of regional approaches relevant to international law on transboundary watercourses and freshwater ecosystems. More specifically it explores the contribution of the UNECE Water Convention and other relevant UNECE environmental instruments as a structurally distinctive ‘regime’. This thesis introduces a novel conception of a broader ‘UNECE water regime’ which includes the Water Convention, the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice (Aarhus Convention), the Convention on Transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment (Espoo Convention), the Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents, as well as their protocols and non-binding instruments. This research demonstrates how these instruments and their institutions can be interpreted and understood to form a common framework of rules, principles and approaches which fills critical gaps in basin treaties, and collectively contributes to the clarification and development of international law on transboundary watercourses and freshwater ecosystems. This analysis also explores institutional interaction and coordination between and beyond the UNECE pan-regional agreements, as well as the role of soft law or non-binding instruments, and state and non-state actors in the regime. This thesis seeks to contribute to a more coherent understanding of the relationship between the UNECE water regime, international water law, international environmental law and general international law. The UNECE water regime has contributed to clarifying many of the cornerstone rules and principles of international water law and it is argued that the UNECE water regime is lex specialis, which can and mostly does go beyond the UN Watercourses Convention. The UNECE water regime has also arguably spearheaded a paradigm shift in international water law, which sees it moving beyond its historically predominant focus on issues of transboundary impact and utilisation towards a stronger ecosystem orientated approach to environmental protection and equitable use of transboundary river basins. This research identifies key elements of an ecosystem approach, drawing from international environmental and international water law and demonstrates how the ecosystem approach, including ecosystem services, as supported by the UNECE water regime, affects interpretation of international water law towards enhancing ecosystem protection and intra-state equity. This research also explores how the UNECE regime goes beyond what exists elsewhere in international law and international water law on public participation and access to justice. Finally, this research examines the contribution of the UNECE regime vis-à-vis international and European Union water law, across the spectrum of pan-European river basins, especially focusing on the Danube, Sava and Western Bug basins. The UNECE water regime is the most evolved pan-regional regime of its kind, providing ambitious detailed standards and clarification of rules and principles relevant to transboundary watercourses and freshwater ecosystems. It also provides a valuable model of institutional cooperation, progressively engaging state and non-state actors. As this regime takes steps towards realising its global ambition, with almost all instruments now open to all UN member states, and the recent accession by Chad to the Water Convention, this analysis demonstrates why this is predominantly a positive endeavour but also highlights potential challenges and hurdles. This research thus explores the implications and benefits of the UNECE’s rising role in strengthening the international legal architecture to protect the world’s fragile transboundary watercourses and freshwater ecosystems.

Zugl.: Bonn, University, Diss., 2004.