Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

The class of derivations in a system of logic has an inductive definition. One would thus expect that crucial properties of derivations, such as normalization in natural deduction or cut elimination in sequent calculus or consistency in arithmetic be proved by induction on the last rule applied. So far it has not been possible to implement this simple requirement uniformly. It is suggested that such proofs can be carried through by a methodology that is hidden in Gentzen’s original unpublished proof of the consistency of arithmetic: to prove that a suitably chosen property of derivations is maintained under the composition of two derivations. As examples, new proofs by induction on the last rule in a derivation are given for normalization and strong normalization in natural deduction.

Managing water is a grand challenge problem and has become one of humanity’s foremost priorities. Surface water resources are typically societally managed and relatively well understood; groundwater resources, however, are often hidden and more difficult to conceptualize. Replenishment rates of groundwater cannot match past and current rates of depletion in many parts of the world. In addition, declining quality of the remaining groundwater commonly cannot support all agricultural, industrial and urban demands and ecosystem functioning, especially in the developed world. In the developing world, it can fail to even meet essential human needs. The issue is: how do we manage this crucial resource in an acceptable way, one that considers the sustainability of the resource for future generations and the socioeconomic and environmental impacts? In many cases this means restoring aquifers of concern to some sustainable equilibrium over a negotiated period of time, and seeking opportunities for better managing groundwater conjunctively with surface water and other resource uses. However, there are many, often-interrelated, dimensions to managing groundwater effectively. Effective groundwater management is underpinned by sound science (biophysical and social) that actively engages the wider community and relevant stakeholders in the decision making process. Generally, an integrated approach will mean “thinking beyond the aquifer”, a view which considers the wider context of surface water links, catchment management and cross-sectoral issues with economics, energy, climate, agriculture and the environment. The aim of the book is to document for the first time the dimensions and requirements of sound integrated groundwater management (IGM). The primary focus is on groundwater management within its system, but integrates linkages beyond the aquifer. The book provides an encompassing synthesis for researchers, practitioners and water resource managers on the concepts and tools required for defensible IGM, including how IGM can be applied to achieve more sustainable socioeconomic and environmental outcomes, and key challenges of IGM. The book is divided into five parts: integration overview and problem settings; governance; socioeconomics; biophysical aspects; and modelling and decision support. However, IGM is integrated by definition, thus these divisions should be considered a convenience for presenting the topics rather than hard and fast demarcations of the topic area.

Throughout history, and throughout the world, groundwater has been a major source of water for sustaining human life. Use of this resource has increased dramatically over the last century. In many areas of the world, the balance between human and ecosystem needs is difficult to maintain. Understanding the international scale of the groundwater issue requires metrics and analysis at a commensurate scale. Advances in remote sensing supplement older traditional direct measurement methods for understanding the magnitude of depletion, and all measurements motivate the need for common data standards to collect and share information. In addition to metrics of groundwater availability, four key international groundwater issues are depletion of water, degradation of water quality, the water-energy nexus, and transboundary water conflicts. This chapter is devoted to introducing these issues, which are also discussed in more detail in later chapters.

Groundwater resources are part of larger social-ecological systems. In this chapter, we review the various dimensions of these complex systems in order to uncover the diversity of elements at stake in the evolution of an aquifer and the loci for possible actions to control its dynamics. Two case studies illustrate how the state of an aquifer is embedded in a web of biophysical and sociopolitical processes. We propose here a holistic view through an that describes the various possible pathways of evolution for a groundwater related social-ecological system. Then we describe the elements of this starting with physical entities and processes, including relations with surface water and quality issues. Interactions with society bring an additional layer of considerations, including decisions on groundwater abstraction, land use changes and even energy related choices. Finally we point out the policy levers for groundwater management and their possible consequences for an aquifer, taking into account the complexity of pathways opened by these levers.

This chapter grapples with the challenge of simultaneously sustaining biodiversity, energy and food supplies in conjunction with efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Managing groundwater supplies sustainably is critical to that challenge, and the chapter assesses the positive synergies and perverse impacts for sustaining groundwater resources from both climate change mitigation and adaptation policies. The chapter finds that the pressures on groundwater resources will likely increase in the future, with the location, scale and magnitude of groundwater use shifting in response to other pressures. For example, changing energy policies are resulting in rapid deployment of thirsty technologies. Similarly, climate change adaption will increasingly rely on the water storage capacity of aquifers, yet many adaptation measures may also increase groundwater use. For better groundwater management under global change pressures we recommend a focus on complementary measures to: integrate information, deploy appropriate new technologies, apply market-based incentives and improve cross-sectoral governance. The key challenge for proponents of sustaining groundwater resources is to engage stakeholders and decision-makers outside the water sector in governance institutions.

Projected global change includes groundwater systems, which are linked with changes in climate over space and time. Consequently, global change affects key aspects of subsurface hydrology (including soil water, deeper vadose zone water, and unconfined and confined aquifer waters), surface-groundwater interactions, and water quality. Research and publications addressing projected climate effects on subsurface water are catching up with surface water studies. Even so, technological advances, new insights and understanding are needed regarding terrestrial-subsurface systems, biophysical process interactions, and feedbacks to atmospheric processes. Importantly, groundwater resources need to be assessed in the context of atmospheric CO enrichment, warming trends and associated changes in intensities and frequencies of wet and dry periods, even though projections in space and time are uncertain. Potential feedbacks of groundwater on the global climate system are largely unknown, but may be stronger than previously assumed. Groundwater has been depleted in many regions, but management of subsurface storage remains an important option to meet the combined demands of agriculture, industry (particularly the energy sector), municipal and domestic water supply, and ecosystems. In many regions, groundwater is central to the water-food-energy-climate nexus. Strategic adaptation to global change must include flexible, integrated groundwater management over many decades. Adaptation itself must be adaptive over time. Further research is needed to improve our understanding of climate and groundwater interactions and to guide integrated groundwater management.

Groundwater governance can be defined as the system of formal and informal rules, rule-making systems and actor networks at all levels of society that are set up to steer societies towards the control, protection and socially acceptable utilization of groundwater resources and aquifer systems. Groundwater resources are very diverse and groundwater governance is complicated by the common pool nature of most groundwater resources, information gaps, and the diversity of stakeholders and their interests. There are few comparative studies of groundwater governance. This chapter contributes to that literature by means of a high level comparison of groundwater governance in Australia, the European Union and the Western USA. The comparison is structured using the five categories of governance issues defined in the Earth System Governance Project; architecture, access and allocation, accountability, adaptiveness, and agency – defined in this case as management organisation. The EU WFD has gone furthest towards an integrated framework to manage groundwater quantity and quality objectives, but there are many implementation challenges. Australia’s system of annually adjustable water entitlements and related water markets provides security, efficiency and flexibility but it is not yet clear how successfully environmental water allocations can be integrated within this framework. The system of prior appropriation in the Western US provides clearly defined priorities for water allocation, but lacks flexibility during extreme droughts. Fully integrated groundwater management, as intended by the WFD, is a very ambitious goal. The advantages of a strong central direction and coordination together with decentralised local management could be obtained through a decentralised system of collaborative planning and management at sub-basin scales nested within an overarching groundwater planning framework at the jurisdictional or basin scale. This system could take various forms in different countries depending on social preferences and institutional settings and capacity.

This chapter reviews fundamental legal principles relating to groundwater quantity and quality in the United States, Australia and the European Union. It also examines legal approaches to three key “integration” challenges in groundwater law, which arise in relation to many of these foundational principles. First, groundwater law must deal with the relationship between groundwater and surface water—specifically, how abstraction of one should be controlled due to impacts on the other. A second and related challenge is making legal provision for integrating groundwater with its environment, that is, making legal provision for ecological water requirements. Finally, legal frameworks face the significant challenge of dealing with groundwater management in the cross-boundary context. By comparing and contrasting approaches to common and burgeoning legal challenges across different regions, this chapter seeks to highlight the key issues that regulators and groundwater users must consider and confront in dealing with them, and a range of potential legal solutions.

The complex nature of groundwater and the diversity of uses and environmental interactions call for emerging groundwater problems to be addressed through integrated management and planning approaches. Planning requires different levels of integration dealing with: the hydrologic cycle (the physical process) including the temporal dimension; river basins and aquifers (spatial integration); socioeconomic considerations at regional, national and international levels; and scientific knowledge. The great natural variation in groundwater conditions obviously affects planning needs and options as well as perceptions from highly localised to regionally-based approaches. The scale at which planning is done therefore needs to be carefully evaluated against available policy choices and options in each particular setting. A solid planning approach is based on River Basin Management Planning (RBMP), which covers: (1) objectives that management planning are designed to address; (2) the way various types of measures fit into the overall management planning; and (3) the criteria against which the success or failure of specific strategies or interventions can be evaluated (e.g. compliance with environmental quality standards). A management planning framework is to be conceived as a “living” or iterated document that can be updated, refined and if necessary changed as information and experience are gained. This chapter discusses these aspects, providing an insight into European Union (EU), United States and Australia groundwater planning practices.

This chapter focuses on the interaction between conjunctive management and collective action. Collective action has several characteristics that provide a natural ‘fit’ with conjunctive management. These include building trust and ownership to enhance water user’s acceptance of the need for better and more integrated management and resolving conflict and facilitating trade-offs between and across water users. But what are the opportunities and challenges for conjunctive management through collective action? And what types of settings encourage broad-based collective action by water users and governments? These questions are addressed through a comparative analysis of specific instances of groundwater governance in Australia, Spain, and the western United States of America. For each case, the diverse policy and institutional settings are explained, and consideration given to the motivators for, and successes of, conjunctive management and collective action. The chapter draws comparisons across the cases to suggest lessons on incentives for conjunctive management, as well as exploring its challenges, before identifying future directions for more effective integrated water management.