CURRENT ISSUES OF WATER MANAGEMENT Edited by Uli Uhlig Current Issues of Water Management Edited by Uli Uhlig Published by InTech Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia Copyright © 2011 InTech All chapters are Open Access distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, which permits to copy, distribute, transmit, and adapt the work in any medium, so long as the original work is properly cited. After this work has been published by InTech, authors have the right to republish it, in whole or part, in any publication of which they are the author, and to make other personal use of the work. Any republication, referencing or personal use of the work must explicitly identify the original source. As for readers, this license allows users to download, copy and build upon published chapters even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. Notice Statements and opinions expressed in the chapters are these of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the published chapters. The publisher assumes no responsibility for any damage or injury to persons or property arising out of the use of any materials, instructions, methods or ideas contained in the book. Publishing Process Manager Gorana Scerbe Technical Editor Teodora Smiljanic Cover Designer Jan Hyrat Image Copyright WebStudio24h, 2011. Used under license from Shutterstock.com First published November, 2011 Printed in Croatia A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com Additional hard copies can be obtained from orders@intechweb.org Current Issues of Water Management, Edited by Uli Uhlig p. cm. ISBN 978-953-307-413-9 Contents Preface IX Part 1 Water Resource Management for Rivers and Reservoirs 1 Chapter 1 Generalized Models of River System Development and Management 3 Ralph A. Wurbs Chapter 2 Integrated Water Resources Management as a Basis for Sustainable Development – The Case of the Sava River Basin 23 Dejan Komatina Chapter 3 Web-Based Decision Support Framework for Water Resources Management at River Basin Scale 43 José Pinho, José Vieira, Rui Pinho and José Araújo Chapter 4 Assessing Environmental and Social Dimensions of Water Issues Through Sustainability Indicators in Arid and Semiarid Zones 67 Enrique Troyo-Diéguez, Arturo Cruz-Falcón, Alejandra Nieto-Garibay, Ignacio Orona-Castillo, Bernardo Murillo-Amador, José Luis García-Hernández and Alfredo Ortega-Rubio Part 2 Water and Agriculture 79 Chapter 5 Integration Challenges of Water and Land Reform – A Critical Review of South Africa 81 Nikki Funke and Inga Jacobs Chapter 6 Paddy Water Management for Precision Farming of Rice 107 M.S.M. Amin, M.K. Rowshon and W. Aimrun VI Contents Part 3 Water Quality 143 Chapter 7 Simulation of Stream Pollutant Transport with Hyporheic Exchange for Water Resources Management 145 Muthukrishnavellaisamy Kumarasamy Chapter 8 Wetlands for Water Quality Management – The Science and Technology 163 Vikas Rai, A. M. Sedeki, Rana D. Parshad, R. K. Upadhyay and Suman Bhowmick Part 4 Politics, Regulation and Guidelines 177 Chapter 9 Bringing Water Regulation into the 21st Century: The Implementation of the Water Framework Directive in the Iberian Peninsula 179 Antonio A. R. Ioris Chapter 10 Public Private Partnerships in the Privatization of Water Service Delivery in Kenya 207 Okeyo J. Obosi Chapter 11 From Traditional to Modern Water Management Systems; Reflection on the Evolution of a ‘Water Ethic’ in Semi-Arid Morocco 229 Sandrine Simon Part 5 Water Demand / Water Pricing 259 Chapter 12 The Willingness to Pay of Industrial Water Users for Reclaimed Water in Taiwan 261 Yawen Chiueh, Hsiao-Hua Chen and Chung-Feng Ding Chapter 13 Analysis of the Current German Benchmarking Approach and Its Extension with Efficiency Analysis Techniques 271 Mark Oelmann and Christian Growitsch Chapter 14 Water Soft Path Analysis – Jordan Case 287 Rania A. Abdel Khaleq Chapter 15 Cities and Water – Dilemmas of Collaboration in Los Angeles and New York City 319 David L. Feldman Preface There is an estimated 1.4 billion km 3 of water in the world but only approximately three percent (39 million km³) of it is available as fresh water. Moreover, most of this fresh water is found as ice in the arctic regions, deep groundwater or atmospheric water. Since water is the source of life and essential for all life on the planet, the use of this resource is a highly important issue. 'Water management' is the general term used to describe all the activities that manage the optimum use of the world’s water resources. However, only a few percent of the fresh water available can be subjected to water management. It is still an enormous amount, but what's unique about water is that unlike other resources, it is irreplaceable. This book provides a general overview of various topics within water management from all over the world. It covers a wide range of current issues, reflecting on actual problems and demonstrating the complexity of water management. The book presents a collection of different contributions from outstanding scientists and experts and gives a detailed account of the different topics and current issues in water management. Industrial and agricultural development causes a rise in water demand, which can mainly be observed in developing countries. Additionally, most of these countries are characterized by water shortages due to climatic conditions and/or high population density, which can consequentially lead to extensive use of groundwater, also called “groundwater mining”. However, the method will only be valid for a short period of time: a sustainable water management program is an important part of industrial and agricultural development. In this book a number of authors analyse the current and future water demand, presenting solutions for sustainable water usage considering the conflict between agriculture and the limited availability of water. While water pricing is a major consideration as a tool for controlling and influencing the demand, which is discussed later on. Enormous water quality problems arise due to industrial development combined with exploration of other resources through mining activities, and some aspects of water quality issues are also discussed in this book. X Preface A part of the book is dedicated to the global nature of water management problems. Most of the important water resources in the world are extended across the borders of two or more countries, making water management an international issue. In the past decades different international institutions like the United Nations or the European Union provided numerous directives and guidelines for sustainable water management. Politics, regulation and guidelines related to water management are discussed in different chapters in different ways and for different countries. Water resource management for rivers and reservoirs is another issue tackled in the book. The authors reflect on generalized models for river system development, a web- based modelling solution, as well as an international management project. I am certain that the collected materials will provide an interesting contribution to research in this field. I would like to thank the authors for their contributions and wish the reader to enjoy the reading and perhaps gain a better understanding of the current issues in water management. Dr. Uli Uhlig Groundwater Civil Engineer Planning - GIP GmbH Dresden at the Groundwater Research Centre (GWZ) Dresden, Germany . CURRENT ISSUES OF WATER MANAGEMENT Edited by Uli Uhlig Current Issues of Water Management Edited by Uli Uhlig Published. overview of various topics within water management from all over the world. It covers a wide range of current issues, reflecting on actual problems and demonstrating the complexity of water management. . million km³) of it is available as fresh water. Moreover, most of this fresh water is found as ice in the arctic regions, deep groundwater or atmospheric water. Since water is the source of life