CHAPTER ONE:
SYSTEM S PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT
Concept of Systems and System Analysis
Over the centuries, surface and ground waters have been a source of water supplies for agricultural,
municipal and industrial consumers. Rivers have provided hydroelectric energy and inexpensive
ways of transporting bulk cargo between different ports along their banks, as well as water-based
recreational opportunities, and have been a source of water for wildlife and its habitat. They have
also served as a means of transporting and transforming waste products that are discharged into
them. The quantity and quality regimes of streams and rivers have been a major factor in governing
the type, health and biodiversity of riparian and aquatic ecosystems.
Floodplains have provided fertile lands for agricultural production and relatively flat lands for roads,
railways and commercial and industrial complexes. In addition to the economic benefits that can be
derived from rivers and their floodplains, the aesthetic beauty of most natural rivers has made lands
adjacent to them attractive sites for residential and recreational development. Rivers and their
floodplains have generated and, if managed properly, can continue to generate substantial
economic, environmental and social benefits for their inhabitants. Human activities undertaken to
increase the benefits obtained from rivers and their floodplains may also increase the potential for
costs and damage when the river is experiencing rare or extreme flow conditions, such as during
periods of drought, floods and heavy pollution.
These costs and impacts are economic, environmental and social in nature and result from a
mismatch between what humans expect or demand, and what nature (and occasionally our own
activities) offers or supplies. Human activities tend to be based on the ‘usual or normal’ range of
river flow conditions. Rare or ‘extreme’ flow or water quality conditions outside these normal ranges
will continue to occur, and possibly with increasing frequency as climate change experts suggest.
River-dependent, human activities that cannot adjust to these occasional extreme conditions will
incur losses.
The planning of human activities involving rivers and their floodplains must consider certain
hydrological facts. One of these facts is that flows and storage volumes vary over space and time.
They are also finite. There are limits to the amounts of water that can be withdrawn from surface
and groundwater bodies.
There are also limits to the amounts of potential pollutants that can be discharged into them
without causing damage. Once these limits are exceeded, the concentrations of pollutants in these
waters may reduce or even eliminate the benefits that could be obtained from other uses of the
resource. Water resources professionals have learned how to plan, design, build and operate
structures that, together with non-structural measures, increase the benefits people can obtain from
the water resources contained in rivers and their drainage basins. However, there is a limit to the
services one can expect from these resources. Rivers, estuaries and coastal zones under stress from
overdevelopment and overuse cannot reliably meet the expectations of those depending on them.
How can these renewable yet finite resources best be managed and used? How can this be
accomplished in an environment of uncertain supplies and uncertain and increasing demands, and
consequently of increasing conflicts among individuals having different interests in the management
of a river and its basin? The central purpose of water resources planning and management activities
is to address and, if possible, answer these questions.
These issues have scientific, technical, political (institutional) and social dimensions and thus, so
must water resources planning processes and their products. River basin, estuarine and coastal zone
managers – those responsible for managing the resources in those areas – are expected to manage
them effectively and efficiently, meeting the demands or expectations of all users and reconciling
divergent needs. This is no small task, especially as demands increase, as the variability of
hydrological and hydraulic processes becomes more pronounced, and as stakeholder measures of
system performance increase in number and complexity.
The focus or goal is no longer simply to maximize net economic benefits while ensuring the equitable
distribution of those benefits. There are also environmental and ecological goals to consider. Rarely
are management questions one-dimensional, such as: ‘How can we provide more high-quality water
to irrigation areas in the basin at acceptable costs?’ Now added to that question is how those
withdrawals would affect the downstream water quantity and quality regimes, and in turn the
riparian and aquatic ecosystems.
Problems and opportunities change over time. Just as the goals of managing and using water change
over time, so do the processes of planning to meet these changing goals. Planning processes evolve
not only to meet new demands, expectations and objectives, but also in response to new
perceptions of how to plan more effectively.
Planning and management of water resources systems are essential due to following factors:
(1) Severity of the adverse consequences of droughts, floods and excessive pollution. These can lead
to:
a. Too little water due to growing urbanization, additional water requirements, in stream flow
requirements etc. Measures should be taken to reduce the demand during scarcity times.
b. Too much water due to increased flood frequencies and also increase in water requirements due
to increased economic development on river floodplains.
c. Polluted water due to both industrial and household discharges.
(2) Degradation of aquatic and riparian systems due to river training and reclamation of floodplains
for urban and industrial development, poor water quality due to discharges of pesticides, fertilizers
and wastewater effluents etc.
(3) While port development requires deeper rivers, narrowing the river for shipping purposes will
increase the flood level
(4) River bank erosion and degradation of river bed upstream of the reservoirs may increase the
flooding risks
(5) Sediment accumulation in the reservoir due to poor water quality.
Considering all these factors, the identification and evaluation of alternative measures that may
increase the quantitative and qualitative system performance is the primary goal of planning and
management policies.
1.3 Planning and Management – Approaches
Two approaches which lead to an integrated plan and management policy are
From the top down or the command and control approach
From the bottom up or the grass-roots approach
Top down approach:
Water resources professionals prepare integrated, multipurpose “master” development plans with
alternative structural and non-structural management options. There is dominance of professionals
and little participation of stakeholders. In this approach, one or more institutions have the ability
and authority to develop and implement the plan. However, nowadays, since public have active
participation in planning and management activities, top-down approaches are becoming less
desirable or acceptable.
Bottom up approach:
In this approach there is active participation of interested stakeholders – those affected by the
management of the water and land resources. Plans are being created from the bottom up rather
than top down. Top down approach plans do not take into consideration the concerns of affected
local stakeholders. Bottom up approach ensures cooperation and commitment from stakeholders.
The goals and priorities will be common among all stakeholders by taking care of laws and
regulations and by identifying multiple alternatives and performance criteria. Trade-offs are made
between conflicting goals or measures of performance.