Integration of wetlands in water management plans in also not about pitting grey
and green infrastructure, but achieving complementarities and synergies. While
making water infrastructure decisions, a beginning can be made by examining
whether green infrastructure solutions such as wetlands can deliver the desired
water resource outcome, and then filling the gap that may still exist by a grey-green
combination, the authors suggest.
A harmonized understanding of wetlands and their hydrological functions in a
landscape is the foundation step. The science-base on wetlands will need to graduate from being dominated by describing ecosystem structures and processes to
providing quantitative assessments of hydrological functions, in usable forms and
terms suited to water sector policy-makers. Wetlands managers will also need to
have the capacity to describe water regime requirements of wetlands to perform
these functions while acknowledging that climate change may render historical
regime information insufficient to inform about the future course of actions. For
water managers, the role of wetlands will need to evolve beyond just an allocation
decision, to understanding water as it moves in a landscape, and the role wetlands
play in influencing this movement. A natural convergence point is to plan at a
catchment scale, wherein the landscape and water interactions can be assessed and
planned for meaningfully, the authors state.
In the sixth chapter, Pandya brings out the role that data plays in establishing
efficient planning and implementation as well as operational strategies for the water
sector in general. Generally, at the planning level, resource availability data is of
prime concern. However, for efficient management in real time, it is necessary to
harness the usage data at the same level of frequency and accuracy as the resource
data, he stresses.
Collection and processing of data also assumes prime importance for resource
allocation amongst competing political and administrative entities and is the key
parameter upon which the entire adjudication process relies. But, he feels that this
underlying importance is not well appreciated by the planning and economic
communities in general, and accordingly, the field remains rather neglected. The
neglect leads to gaps in the data and knowledge base. Multiple jurisdictions and
domains delineated by the federal structure of the Constitution and governance
of the country affect a unified data strategy. Lack of such strategy will lead to wrong
priorities in planning and deployment. The chapter describes data requirements,
provisions enabling collection and processing and status of availability. New
technologies and approaches available for handling constraints generated out of
multiple jurisdictions and conflict of interests are also highlighted.
Pandya also underlines the fact that transboundary water management is highly
reliant upon sound data availability, while warning that progress in equitable
development will get seriously hampered if sound data management policies are not
adopted across the board and data driven negotiations are not established.
In the last chapter, Srinivas and Prajapati are of the opinion that India’s federal
governance for long-term water security has not received its due attention. The
discourse about federal governance is generally dominated by that of fiscal federalism. The limited work about federal water governance is restricted to interstate
viii
Introduction
and green infrastructure, but achieving complementarities and synergies. While
making water infrastructure decisions, a beginning can be made by examining
whether green infrastructure solutions such as wetlands can deliver the desired
water resource outcome, and then filling the gap that may still exist by a grey-green
combination, the authors suggest.
A harmonized understanding of wetlands and their hydrological functions in a
landscape is the foundation step. The science-base on wetlands will need to graduate from being dominated by describing ecosystem structures and processes to
providing quantitative assessments of hydrological functions, in usable forms and
terms suited to water sector policy-makers. Wetlands managers will also need to
have the capacity to describe water regime requirements of wetlands to perform
these functions while acknowledging that climate change may render historical
regime information insufficient to inform about the future course of actions. For
water managers, the role of wetlands will need to evolve beyond just an allocation
decision, to understanding water as it moves in a landscape, and the role wetlands
play in influencing this movement. A natural convergence point is to plan at a
catchment scale, wherein the landscape and water interactions can be assessed and
planned for meaningfully, the authors state.
In the sixth chapter, Pandya brings out the role that data plays in establishing
efficient planning and implementation as well as operational strategies for the water
sector in general. Generally, at the planning level, resource availability data is of
prime concern. However, for efficient management in real time, it is necessary to
harness the usage data at the same level of frequency and accuracy as the resource
data, he stresses.
Collection and processing of data also assumes prime importance for resource
allocation amongst competing political and administrative entities and is the key
parameter upon which the entire adjudication process relies. But, he feels that this
underlying importance is not well appreciated by the planning and economic
communities in general, and accordingly, the field remains rather neglected. The
neglect leads to gaps in the data and knowledge base. Multiple jurisdictions and
domains delineated by the federal structure of the Constitution and governance
of the country affect a unified data strategy. Lack of such strategy will lead to wrong
priorities in planning and deployment. The chapter describes data requirements,
provisions enabling collection and processing and status of availability. New
technologies and approaches available for handling constraints generated out of
multiple jurisdictions and conflict of interests are also highlighted.
Pandya also underlines the fact that transboundary water management is highly
reliant upon sound data availability, while warning that progress in equitable
development will get seriously hampered if sound data management policies are not
adopted across the board and data driven negotiations are not established.
In the last chapter, Srinivas and Prajapati are of the opinion that India’s federal
governance for long-term water security has not received its due attention. The
discourse about federal governance is generally dominated by that of fiscal federalism. The limited work about federal water governance is restricted to interstate
viii
Introduction