Welcome to Hydro-Blog of Sophal Try: March 2016

El Niño (Spanish word for male child) is a naturally occurring event in the equatorial region which causes temporary changes in the world climate. El Niño refers to a whole complex of Pacific Ocean sea-surface temperature changes and global weather events. The ocean warming off South America is just one of these events. Every three to seven years, an El Niño event may happen during many months to more than one year causing economic and atmospheric worldwide. The worst El Niño occurred in 1997-1998.
In contrast, La Niña (Spanish word for female child) refers to an anomaly of unusually cold sea surface temperatures found in the eastern tropical Pacific. La Niña occurs roughly half as often as El Niño.

Integrated Water Resources Management is a step-by-step process of managing water resources in a harmonious and environmentally sustainable way by gradually uniting stakeholders and involving them in planning and decision-making processes, while accounting for evolving social demands due to such changes as population growth, rising demand for environmental conservation, changes in perspectives of the cultural and economic value of water, and climate change (Stakhiv, 2009).

Water is a limited resource that is essential for economic growth and environmental and social well-being. Because it affects everyone, managing this precious resource requires balancing the interests of the many different user groups and individuals. Without that balance many conflicts can occur. Promoting coordinated water resources management in a basin that open to all stakeholders will not only resolve such conflicts but will also bring enormous benefits to society, the basin, and to individual stakeholders.

Integrated Water Resources Management has been identified as one of the basic water resources related policy approaches in several recent important commitments and recommendations (Varis et al., 2006). IWRM aims at developing democratic governance and promote balanced development in poverty reduction, social equity, economic growth and environmental sustainability. IWRM is a theoretical concept with not much sound scientific background from real-life development projects and not much sustainable impact on the environment, society and economy.

The facets of IWRM (Varis et al., 2006)

The Tonle Sap Lake is one of the world's most productive large lacustrine-wetland eco-system, with an extreme biodiversity. For many of the Mekong fish species, the floodplain of the lake, and particularly the riparian flooded forest and shrublands. The lake also operates as a natural flood water reservoir for the lower Mekong Basin in the wet season and make an important contribution to the dry season flow to the Mekong Delta in Vietnam.

Referemces:

STAKHIV, E. Z. (2009). IWRM Guidelines at River Basin Level. World.

Varis, O., Kummu, M., Keskinen, M., Sarkkula, J., Koponen,J., Heinonen, U., andMakkonen, K. (2006). Integratedwater resources management on the Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia. Water Scienceand Technology: Water Supply, 6(5),51-58.