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Best practices on urban water management from across the world

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This case study by All India Institute of Local Self Government deals with the transformation of Surat, from a city infested with plague to second cleanest city in India.  This transformation was largely due to improved municipal management, which was brought about by a strong leadership.

This study by the National Institute of Hydrology deals with the geomorphologic & land use planning for Danda watershed in Tehri Garhwal district of Uttar Pradesh.

The management arrangements and governance of the city have to be viewed at three levels by Mangalore city corporation (MCC).  

• Firstly, the responsibility of providing urban services within the boundary of city (both obligatory and discretory in nature).  This is normal with other cities.
• Secondly, the responsibility to meet the demands generated out of economic activities beyond city limits.  For example, incoming and outgoing trucks transporting logs, granite stone and groceries generate employment for locals.  The city has to respond to provide minimum facilities in such a situation.
• Thirdly, involvement in to the infrastructure development activities initiated by the state government.  The expansion of economic activities beyond city limits can be due to the regional development plan of the state government or the idea of regional development is based on the expansion of economic activities of the area.  These externalities are interlinked.

Micro-watershed level planning requires a host of inter-related information to be generated and studied in relation to each other. Remotely sensed data provides valuable and up-to-date spatial information on natural resources and physical terrain parameters.

The paper is based on the initiatives taken by the Sangli-Miraj Kupwad Municipal Corporation (SMK-MC) in the state of Maharashtra.

This study presents a remote sensing based rapid watershed health appraisal of NWDPRA watersheds of Rajasthan. The study area is distributed across 8 agro-climatic zones ranging from desertic western plain to humid southern and south-eastern plain. The satellite data prior to treatment year (1988) was compared with post-treated year (1996), to reveal the noticeable changes over a span of 8 years.

The study is based on a scoping study on ‘Developing Markets for Watershed Protection Services and Improved Livelihoods in India,’ which Winrock International India (WII), New Delhi, undertook as part of a larger international study being carried out by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), London. 

This report titled "Institutional History of Watershed Research in India - The evolution of ICRISAT's work on natural resources in India", by Dr C Shambu Prasad, A J Hall and S P Wani, published by ICRISAT, is a case study of watershed-based development initiatives at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). It seeks to reveal the way scientists and development practitioners work and how they are shaped by the diversity of partners involved and thereby draw process lessons for ongoing and future work on watersheds in international agricultural research centers (IARCs).

This report in two parts titled "Feasibility of Payments for Watershed Services" is an outcome of a literature review taken up as part of the India PES Project, a collaborative initiative of CISED and NIVA.