Trans-boundary Issues

Assoc. Prof. Wanpen Wirojanagud, Ph.D. Research Center for Environmental and Hazardous Substance Management Fac ulty of Engineering, Khon Kaen University

Trans-Boundary Issue

River Basin §  A river basin is the land that water flows across

or under on its way to a river. Just as a bathtub catches all of the water that falls within its sides, a river basin sends all of the water falling within it to a central river and out to an estuary or to the ocean.

§  Everyone lives in a river basin. §  It is part of an ecological address.

Relationship of Ecosystem Services and Human Well Being

Ecosystem Ecosystem services

Human Well Being

Biodiversity

Natural Resources and Environment

About the Mekong River

the

International river

Flows southward Upper Mekong Basin

Parts of China and Myanmar

Lower Mekong basin Lao PDR Thailand Cambodia Vietnam

South China Sea 4,800 km distance 795,000 km2 drainage area Annual runoff of 475,000 MCM.

About the Mekong River

§  The Mekong River ~ Complexity of managing trans-‐boundary rivers ~ Use of water and related resources in one

country can have negative effects in the other countries.

Trans-boundary issue ?

Trans-boundary impact?

National Report on Water Quality from a trans-‐boundary perspective, the national Mekong Committee, May 2003).

Trans-boundary Issue/Impact

“an undertaking, intervention or process is trans-boundary if its impact is felt on the other side of a boarder.

It thus comprises of an undertaking, intervention or natural process at one place and impact at another location

Such impact may be permanent, seasonal or even shorter duration”

Trans-boundary issue

§  Trans-‐boundary issues -‐Identified by investigation and/or research §  Potential trans-‐boundary issues -‐ Used instead of Trans-‐boundary issue -‐ Could be assessed by monitoring data on

water quantity (flow) and quality


§  Trans-‐boundary issues -‐Identified by investigation and/or research §  Potential trans-‐boundary issues -‐ Used instead of Trans-‐boundary issue -‐ Sedimentation, water quality deterioration, water quantity alteration


What are the potential transboundary issue and impact?

Sedimentation

Cauase

-  Upland cultivation

-  Deforestation

-  Development project along the Mekong river and its tributaries

-  Natural erosion in the Upper Mekong Basin

-  Bank erosion

High sediment volume impacts on

-  Aquatic ecosystem

-  Unbalance of wetland ecosystem

-  shallowing of rivers waterways, and wetland

-  Wetland deterioration causes decrement of fish population

-  decrement of fish population affect to riparian people

Impact

Cauase

-  Development project along the Mekong river

-  Commercialization/ Industrial and urbanization upstream

* Discharging wastewater/solid waste into the river directly

-  Agriculture and fishery along the Mekong river and its tributaries

* Run off contaminated with pesticide/herbicide, and chemical/organic fertilizer

- Oil spill

-  Depletion of fishery resource

-  Deterioration of aquatic ecosystem

-  Fish stock declining

-  Public health and quality of life

-  Higher cost for water treatment

Impact

Water Quality Deterioration

Ø  Are such parameters trans-‐boundary issue and impacts???

*** Require investigation and assessment

Remark?

Ø  How to minimize the trans-‐boundary impacts???

***Technical, social and regulation measures

EMPs and Project Management

PROJECT CYCLE

EMP (2)

Pre-feasibility

Construction

EIA A

pproval

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

CYCLE

HP Siting

Environment – EIA EIA -‐-‐-‐-‐-‐ mitigation + monitoring EMPs Environmental flow -‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐Mitigation

Environmental flow Feasibility study Engineering +Economic+ Environment

Multiple Use

Advantages Considerations

Multiple Use and Environmental Flows Challenges

E-flows

What are the purposes of dams?

Multi-‐purpose dams

Advantages

Multiple bene1its from a single investment.

More attractive to international 1inancial assistance

Fit well into regional development programmes

Complement strategies for climate change adaptation

CHALLENGES

Climate change impacts

Regulatory demands

Attracting private

investors

Environmental flows Variety of terminology

IFR – in-‐stream flow requirement

Environmental Water Requirements

Ecological Reserve Ecological Flows

What is Environmental flows

Environmental flows describe the quantity, timing and quality of water flows required to sustain freshwater ecosystems and the human livelihoods and well-‐being that depend on these ecosystems

Brisbane Declaration, 2007, 10th International River Symposium and Environmental Flows Conference

What is Environmental flows An environmental flow is not the amount of water needed to maintain an ecosystem in close-‐to-‐pristine condition .

Flow is allocated to its following a process of environmental, social and economic assessment.

It will be the flow that maintains ecosystem or river less than pristine condition, but acceptable to the decision making process.

This is a societal judgment that will vary from country to country and region to region.

New: how to design to meet multiple interests? Existing: how to improve operations to maximise benefits and avoid problems for some stakeholders?

E-‐flow

E-‐Flow

Maintain ecosystem services

Requires rigorous

assessments and baseline

data

O7en trade-‐offs between social, economic and environmental values have to be nego=ated

Alloca=ng water for the environment

Need for water and energy planning

objec=ves to be integrated

E-Flow

E-‐Flow assessment method Method Advantages Disadvantages

Hydrological Index (½ month)

•  Low cost, rapid to use Look-‐up tables, Desktop analysis

•  Not site specific, ecological links assumed

Hydraulic rating (2-‐4 months)

•  Low cost, site specific: Wetted perimeter

•  Ecological links assumed

Habitat simulation (6-‐18 months)

•  Ecological links included : in-‐stream incremental methodology,

PHABSIM – physical habitat simulation

•  Extensive data collection and use of experts, high cost

Holistic (12-‐36 months)

•  Covers most aspects (Building Block Method, Downstream

Response to Imposed Flow Trans-‐formation, Expert panels)

•  Requires very large scientific expertise, very high cost

Considerations for multiple use and E-flows

Different scales and perspectives: Project – project level impacts Basin – whole of basin, sub-basin, plan view with or without relief

Instream/cross-sectional – different types of hydropower release regimes cause different effects

Longitudinal – cascade developments, long-distance, short-distance

Temporal – years, months, days/hours, event-based Decision making procedure, finance and budgeting

Environmental flows Corporate strategy

ú  Which rivers? ú  Priorities?

Environmental flow development ú  Generation/

operation ú  Trading ú  Ecological ú  Stakeholder ú  Recreational ú  Commercial ú  Water supply

Thank you for your attention !

Science

Trans-boundary Issues