Description:    This paper presents the conceptualisation, design and implementation of an online course on the topic of Decision Support Systems in River Basin Management. The need for development of such a course has been recognised, as activities in the field of water resources planning and management increasingly depend on decision support methods such as simulation, optimisation and Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA). The online learning approach is particularly needed for continuous professional development and life-long learning of professionals active in this field, and especially for those coming from developing countries. The course was developed and implemented following the competence-based learning approach, supported by the EU FP 7 educational research project named TenCompetence , which also provided the learning platform for deploying and delivering the course. The paper presents the course design, implementation and evaluation by the course participants, with special focus on the course content and the developed learning resources. Participants’ evaluations show high appreciation for the course, but they also highlight areas for future improvements. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-19 DOI 10.1007/s11269-011-9959-y Authors A. Jonoski, Department of Hydroinformatics and Knowledge Management, UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, P.O. Box 3015, 2601 DA Delft, The Netherlands I. Popescu, Department of Hydroinformatics and Knowledge Management, UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, P.O. Box 3015, 2601 DA Delft, The Netherlands Journal Water Resources Management Online ISSN 1573-1650 Print ISSN 0920-4741

Description:    Flooding vulnerability assessment is an important issue in Taiwan since Taiwan lies within the most active tropical cyclone formation zone of the Western Pacific. Huge economic damages and losses of human lives are occurred almost every year. This study aims to evaluate flooding vulnerability of a given area subject to large-scale land developments. A scoring-based approach associated with a physiographic drainage-inundation model is developed to quantitatively evaluate vulnerability for flooding. The flooding vulnerability index defined as the product of an exposure score and a hazard score. The exposure score assesses relative losses exposed to flooding, which is determined by land-uses classification. The hazard score measures flooding severity, which is simultaneously determined by inundation depth and duration that are obtained from the inundation model for a design storm. The Yenshui River basin located in southwestern Taiwan is used an example to illustrate the proposed method. The results show that the projected urbanization plan within the Yenshui River basin would increase flooding vulnerability from 0.371 to 0.472. However, this value is reduced to 0.388 when the mitigation measure has been implemented. The obtained spatial distribution of flooding vulnerability for a design storm provides decision-makers useful information to identify hotspots of the study area and evaluate effects of flood-mitigation measure on flooding risk-reduction. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-17 DOI 10.1007/s11269-011-9960-5 Authors Jenq-Tzong Shiau, Department of Hydraulic and Ocean Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan, Republic of China Ching-Nuo Chen, Teaching Resources Center, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung 912, Taiwan, Republic of China Chang-Tai Tsai, Department of Hydraulic and Ocean Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan, Republic of China Journal Water Resources Management Online ISSN 1573-1650 Print ISSN 0920-4741

Description:    This study integrates an artificial neural network (ANN) and constrained differential dynamic programming (CDDP) to search for optimal solutions to a nonlinear time-varying groundwater remediation-planning problem. The proposed model (ANN-CDDP) determines optimal dynamic pumping schemes to minimize operating costs and meet water quality requirements. The model uses two embedded ANNs, including groundwater flow and contaminant transport models, as transition functions to predict groundwater levels and contaminant concentrations under time-varying pumping. Results demonstrate that ANN-CDDP is a simplified management model that requires considerably less computation time to solve a fine mesh problem. For example, the ANN-CDDP computing time for a case involving 364 nodes is 1/26.5 that of the conventional optimization model. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-17 DOI 10.1007/s11269-011-9957-0 Authors Liang-Cheng Chang, Department of Civil Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, 1001 TA Hsueh Road, Hsinchu, Taiwan 300 Hone-Jay Chu, Department of Geomatics, National Cheng Kung University, No.1, University Road, Tainan City, 701 Taiwan Chin-Tsai Hsiao, Department of Information Management, Chung Chou University of Science and Technology, No. 6, Lane 2, Sec. 3, Shanjao Rd., Yuanlin Township, Changhua County 510, Taiwan Journal Water Resources Management Online ISSN 1573-1650 Print ISSN 0920-4741

Description:    Discharges in a network of drainage ditches generated by intense rainfall are influenced by overland flow dynamically interacting with infiltration. Therefore a detailed estimation of the overland flow, especially in agricultural fields prepared for surface irrigation, is essential to the design of drainage ditches. In order to simulate overland flow, which in that case may be considered unsteady and one dimensional, numerical models were developed based on the numerical solution of the Saint-Venant equations, externally coupled with the Green-Ampt equation to account for the dynamic interaction between surface flow and infiltration. The numerical solution of the Saint Venant equations in their complete form (dynamic model) and in the simplified forms of the diffusion (diffusion model) and the kinematic wave equations (kinematic model) was obtained by applying the MacCormack explicit computational scheme. Overland flow models’ simulations were conducted in order to study the effect of the soil surface parameters on the hydrographs at the downstream end of the fields, as well as the accuracy of the diffusion and kinematic equations. It was found that the kinematic wave equations were unable to describe overland flow, while the diffusion model results were close to the results of the dynamic model. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-13 DOI 10.1007/s11269-011-9955-2 Authors D. Pantelakis, Department of Hydraulics, Soil Science and Agricultural Engineering, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece Th. Zissis, Department of Hydraulics, Soil Science and Agricultural Engineering, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece E. Anastasiadou-Partheniou, Department of Hydraulics, Soil Science and Agricultural Engineering, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece E. Baltas, Department of Hydraulics, Soil Science and Agricultural Engineering, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece Journal Water Resources Management Online ISSN 1573-1650 Print ISSN 0920-4741

Description:    The nature of terrain imposes severe limitations on the scale of productive activities as well as on the efficiency of infrastructural facilities in the Indian Himalaya. As a result, biomass based subsistence agriculture constitutes the main source of rural livelihood. During the recent past, rural resource development practices have changed in response to population increase and the resultant increased demand on natural resources as well as increasing socio-economic and political marginalization. This has brought about rapid environmental changes which have reduced the groundwater recharge in the region. About 36% of springs have dried, heads of perennial streams have dried and water discharge in springs and streams has decreased considerably resulting into severe crisis of water for drinking as well as irrigation during the past 20 years. In addition to assessing the impact of recent environmental changes on water resources, this paper attempts to develop a community and user oriented framework for the sustainable development of water resources with a case illustration of Kosi headwater in Kumaon Lesser Himalaya, India. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-25 DOI 10.1007/s11269-011-9825-y Authors Prakash Chandra Tiwari, Department of Geography, Kumaun University, Nainital, Uttarakhand, India Bhagwati Joshi, Department of Geography, Government Post Graduate College, Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand, India Journal Water Resources Management Online ISSN 1573-1650 Print ISSN 0920-4741

Description:    Groundwater pumping from Kalbha and Fujairah coastal aquifer of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has increased significantly during the last two decades to meet the agriculture water demands. Due to the lack of natural replenishment from rainfall and the excessive pumping, groundwater levels have declined significantly causing an intrusion of seawater in the coastal aquifer of Wadi Ham. As a result, many pumping wells in the coastal zone have been terminated and a number of farms have been abandoned. In this paper, MODFLOW was used to simulate the groundwater flow and assess the seawater intrusion in the coastal aquifer of Wadi Ham. The model was calibrated against a five-year dataset of historical groundwater levels and validated against another eleven-year dataset. The effects of pumping on groundwater levels and seawater intrusion were investigated. Results showed that reducing the pumping from Khalbha well field will help to reduce the seawater intrusion into the southeastern part of the aquifer. Under the current groundwater pumping rates, the seawater will continue to migrate inland. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-24 DOI 10.1007/s11269-011-9943-6 Authors Mohsen Sherif, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, UAE University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates P.O. Box: 17555 Anvar Kacimov, Department of Soils, Water and Agriculture Engineering, College of Agriculture and Marine Sciences, Sultan Qaboss University, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman Akbar Javadi, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, North Park Road, Exeter, EX4 4QF UK Abdel Azim Ebraheem, Water and Dams Section, Ministry of Environment and Water, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Journal Water Resources Management Online ISSN 1573-1650 Print ISSN 0920-4741

Description:    Bed load transport is a key process in maintaining the dynamically stable channel geometry for restoring the form and function of river ecosystems. Bed load consists of relatively large sediment particles that are moved along the streambed by rolling, sliding or saltation. Currently, various empirical correlations are used to estimate bed load transport rates since no single procedure, whether theoretical or empirical, has yet to be universally accepted as completely satisfactory in this aspect. Bed load particles are primarily sourced from river bed materials or banks. The amount of bed load and its spatial distribution contributes significantly to river bed level changes. Hillslope sediment contribution, mostly available to the river in the form of suspended load, also plays an important role in river bed level changes. This study aims to analyse different bed load equations and the resultant computations of river bed level variations using a process-based sediment dynamic model. Analyses have revealed that different bed load equations were mainly deduced from the concept of relating bed shear stresses to their critical values which are highly factored by the slope gradient, water discharge and particle sizes. In this study, river bed level variations are calculated by estimating total surplus or deficit sediment loads (suspended loads and bed loads) in a channel section. This paper describes the application of different widely used bed load equations, and evaluation of their various parameters and relative performances for a case study area (Abukuma River Basin, Japan) using a basin-scale process-based modelling approach. Relative performances of river bed level simulations obtained by using different bed load equations are also presented. This paper elaborates on the modelling approaches for river bed load and bed level simulations. Although verifications were not done due to unavailability of field data for bed load, qualitative evaluations were conducted vis-à-vis field data on flow and suspended sediment loads as well as the bed loads presented in different past studies. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-21 DOI 10.1007/s11269-011-9951-6 Authors Md Aynul Kabir, School of Applied Sciences and Engineering, Monash University, Churchill, VIC, Australia Dushmanta Dutta, School of Applied Sciences and Engineering, Monash University, Churchill, VIC, Australia Sadayuki Hironaka, NEWJEC Inc., 1-12-13 Shin-Ohashi, Koutou-ku, Tokyo 135-0007, Japan Alexis Pang, School of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia Journal Water Resources Management Online ISSN 1573-1650 Print ISSN 0920-4741

Description:    In this paper a number of hydraulic aspects concerning the flood routing in compound channels are discussed. In particular, attention is firstly focused on the management of boundary conditions for compound channel flow when 1D modelling is used. In this context, the characteristics theory was used to obtain the complete expression of the eigenvalues of the system and the consequences of the simplification associated to the commonly-used approximation were highlighted. The analysis has shown that the number of physical conditions to be imposed at the boundaries is influenced not only by the Boussinesq coefficient but also by its derivative over the water level. The second part of the paper is devoted to the analysis of unsteady flow simulations. Attention was focused on the role played by the lateral momentum transfer, between main channel and floodplains, within the 1D flood propagation model. In particular, the simulations showed that significant differences may occur between the traditional approach and the methods able to take into account the momentum transfer mechanisms. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-23 DOI 10.1007/s11269-011-9947-2 Authors Pierfranco Costabile, Dipartimento di Difesa del Suolo, LAMPIT (LAboratorio di Modellistica numerica per la Protezione Idraulica del Territorio), University of Calabria, Rende, Italy Francesco Macchione, Dipartimento di Difesa del Suolo, LAMPIT (LAboratorio di Modellistica numerica per la Protezione Idraulica del Territorio), University of Calabria, Rende, Italy Journal Water Resources Management Online ISSN 1573-1650 Print ISSN 0920-4741

Description:    This research aims to explore an emergence of river governance in Incheon, South Korea, in relation to the Incheon Stream Restoration Project from 2003 to 2010. The purpose of the project is to restore local streams in Incheon for improvement of ecological restoration, water quality, flood prevention, and waterfront amenities for local residents. The project epitomizes the ethos of river governance through accommodation of views from various stakeholders, such as the government, nongovernmental organizations, local residents, and experts through establishment of the Stream Restoration Propulsion Group (SRPG). The enactment of the Special Ordinance for the SRPG has served to help the governance system work in the project. The interim assessment of the project in terms of river governance and ecological restoration indicates that the project has achieved a good degree of river governance coupled with a limited range of ecological restoration. The key to the success of the project hinges upon a continuous collaboration between the stakeholders to achieve river restoration, particularly political bargaining between the government and the other stakeholders. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-18 DOI 10.1007/s11269-011-9952-5 Authors Seungho Lee, Graduate School of International Studies, Korea University, Anam-Dong 5, Sungbuk-ku, Seoul, South Korea 136-701 Gye-Woon Choi, Department of Civil & Environmental System Engineering, University of Incheon, 177 Dowha-Dong, Nam-Gu, Incheon, South Korea 402-749 Journal Water Resources Management Online ISSN 1573-1650 Print ISSN 0920-4741

Description:    In recent years, droughts with increasing severity and frequency have been experienced around the world due to climate change effects. Water planning and management during droughts needs to deal with water demand variability, uncertainties in streamflow prediction, conflicts over water resources allocation, and the absence of necessary emergency schemes in drought situations. Reservoirs could play an important role in drought mitigation; therefore, development of an algorithm for operation of reservoirs in drought periods could help to mitigate the drought impacts by reducing the expected water shortages. For this purpose, the probable drought’s characteristics and their variations in response to factors such as climate change should be incorporated. This study aims at developing a contingency planning scheme for operation of reservoirs in drought periods using hedging rules with the objective of decreasing the maximum water deficit. The case study for evaluation of the performance of the proposed algorithm is the Sattarkhan reservoir in the Aharchay watershed, located in the northwestern part of Iran. The trend evaluations of the hydro-climatic variables show that the climate change has already affected streamflow in the region and has increased water scarcity and drought severity. To incorporate the climate change study in reservoir planning; streamflow should be simulated under climate change impacts. For this purpose, the climatic variables including temperature and precipitation in the future under climate change impacts are simulated using downscaled GCM (General Circulation Model) outputs to derive scenarios for possible future drought events. Then a hydrological model is developed to simulate the river streamflow, based on the downscaled data. The results show that the proposed methodology leads to less water deficit and decreases the drought damages in the study area. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-29 DOI 10.1007/s11269-011-9920-0 Authors Mohammad Karamouz, Polytechnic Institute of NYU, Brooklyn, NY, USA Sanaz Imen, School of Civil Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran Sara Nazif, School of Civil Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran Journal Water Resources Management Online ISSN 1573-1650 Print ISSN 0920-4741