Institutional and policy analysis of river basin management: the Fraser River Basin, Canada

The authors describe and analyze a nongovernmental, multi-stakeholder, consensus-based approach to river basin management in the Fraser River basin in Canada. The Fraser River drains 238,000 km2 of British Columbia, supporting nearly 3 million residents and a diverse economy. Water management issues include water quality and allocation, flood protection, and emerging scarcity concerns in portions of the basin. The Fraser Basin Council (FBC) is a locally-initiated nongovernmental organization (NGO) with representation from public and private stakeholders. Since evolving in the 1990s from earlier programs and projects in the basin, FBC has pursued several objectives related to a broad concept of basin"sustainability"incorporating social, economic, and environmental aspects. The NGO approach has allowed FBC to match the boundaries of the entire basin, avoid some intergovernmental turf battles, and involve First Nations communities and private stakeholders in ways governmental approaches sometimes find difficult. While its NGO status means that FBC cannot implement many of the plans it agrees on and must constantly work to maintain diverse yet stable funding, FBC holds substantial esteem among basin stakeholders for its reputation for objectivity, its utility as an information sharing forum, and its success in fostering an awareness of interdependency within the basin.Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Water Conservation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Water and Industry,Sanitation and Sewerage,Water Supply and Sanitation Governance and Institutions,Drought Management,Town Water Supply and Sanitation,Water and Industry,Water Conservation

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Senior Design Project- Flow Ridas Design Group

The goal of this project was to design and test a device that will measure the flow rate of condensate that is created by large, industrial scale HV AC units. This is important because depending on the volume of water generated by an HY AC unit there is the possibility to reuse the water in non-potable situations, thus conserving water supplies and saving companies money. The design must be accurate to within 5% of the actual flow rate, within the range of 0-0.5 gpm. The device must be shorter than 12 vertical inches, must be low cost and able to run off battery and AC wall power. The final requirement is the device must have a display that enables a user to read the flow rate and total volume collected, and must be able to output this data via RS-232 connection. The device consists of two separate sub-groups; mechanical and electrical. The mechanical design consists of three systems; tipping system, housing system, and drainage system. The tipping system collects water in two equally sized buckets, and tips at a known volume. The water then exits the device through the drainage system. The housing system protects the other systems and provides support for the overall design. The electrical system consists of the following: tilt switch, microcontroller, LCD, and the power supply. The tilt switch operates by sending a signal every time the device is tilted through a certain range. This signal is sent to the microcontroller, which then is programmed to calculate and output the data required for the design and sends this data both to an output in RS-232 as well as an LCD display which can be viewed by the user. The device is subjected to a variety of tests: Calculating the total volume of water required for tip, flow rate measurement accuracy tests using a pump to simulate various flow rates, and calibration of the tipper to ensure that both sides tip at the same volume of water within an acceptable amount of variation. These tests were perfo1med on a first prototype, and based off of observations, modifications to the design were made, including re-design of the drainage system and re-sizing of the entire design. The final design specifications were sent to Cutting Edge Manufacturing to be professionally constructed. The final prototype produced mixed results from testing. The measurement accuracy is nearly double the required tlu·eshold; an average of 10%. Problems in the individual subsystems are likely the source of this error. In the mechanical subsystem, the tipper has issues maintaining a consistent tip volume. Also the tipper bounces a significant amount when stopped by the supporting rounds. Electrically, the tip switch has some instability in counting the tips; also the microcontroller as designed cannot calculate the instantaneous flow rate. The serial output has no detectable signal, thus the device cannot output data. However, total volume and the time between tips can be displayed. Page i

Gas generation and wind power: A review of unlikely allies in the United Kingdom and Ireland

No single solution currently exists to achieve the utopian desire of zero fossil fuel electricity generation. Until such time, it is evident that the energy mix will contain a large variation in stochastic and intermittent sources of renewable energy such as wind power. The increasing prominence of wind power in pursuit of legally binding European energy targets enables policy makers and conventional generating companies to plan for the unique challenges such a natural resource presents. This drive for wind has been highly beneficial in terms of security of energy supply and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, it has created an unusual ally in natural gas. This paper outlines the suitability and challenges faced by gas generating units in their utilisation as key assets for renewable energy integration and the transition to a low carbon future. The Single Electricity Market of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and the British Electricity Transmission Trading Agreement Market are the backdrop to this analysis. Both of these energy markets have a reliance on gas generation matching the proliferation of wind power. The unlikely and mostly ignored relationship between natural gas generation and wind power due to policy decisions and market forces is the necessity of gas to act as a bridging fuel. This review finds gas generation to be crucially important to the continued growth of renewable energy. Additionally, it is suggested that power market design should adequately reward the flexibility required to securely operate a power system with high penetrations of renewable energy, which in most cases is provided by gas generation