Commentary on Section 264 of ITAA 1936: commissioner may require information and evidence
Dabner, Justin
2007-01-01
Search results
43 records were found.
Water resources in many parts of the world, but particularly in Africa, face
multiple pressures. These growing pressures, along with rainfall variability, pose
significant risks to water resources and livelihoods. Over the past two decades
the concept of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has been
presented as a panacea, but subscription to this model has not delivered the
results expected. Despite a massive endeavour there is extensive evidence that
IWRM remains difficult to implement, particularly in fragile states. In contrast, at
local level the responsibility of communities to manage water supply systems
forms a central component of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector
policy. But WASH programmes are focused primarily on the supply of services,
and not enough on water resources. Consequently, remarkably little has...
Environmental management is plagued with uncertainty, despite this, little
attention has until recently been given to the sensitivity of management decisions
to uncertain environmental projections. Assuming that the future climate is
stationary is no longer considered valid, nor is using a single or small number of
potentially incorrect projections to inform decisions. Instead, it is recommended
that decision makers make use of increasingly available probabilistic projections
of future climate change, such as those from perturbed physics ensembles like
United Kingdom Climate Projections 2009 (UKCP09), to gauge the severity and
extent of future impacts and ultimately prepare more robust solutions.
Two case studies focussing on contrasting aspects of local water management;
namely irrigation demand and urban drainage management, were use...
Historically, Malawi has depended on rain-fed agricultural systems. It is reported that the frequent droughts and unreliable rainfall since early 1990s have caused many small-scale farmers to turn to the wetlands as alternative sites for crop production. There they use low-cost farming methods and various forms of ‘informal’ irrigation. This study, to better understand the water management practices and the socioeconomic characteristics of the wetland farmers, was carried out in the Shire Valley, at the southern tip of Malawi. This covers about 600,000ha and supports around 250,000 farming families. More than half is wetland, characterized by a network of small streams, rivers, and swamps, and a mosaic of many very small farms separated by bush.
Phase I mainly documented the agriculture technologies and socioeconomic characteristics o...
This thesis assesses how climate change impacts water resources and communities and reviews how
the resource can be managed in an integrated manner for small water and sanitation providers. This
thesis was based upon a 10 month Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between Cranfield
University and Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP). The aim of the project was to assess
the opportunities and vulnerabilities presented by climate change and how Integrated Water Resource
Management (IWRM) is relevant to water and sanitation services for the urban poor. This thesis is
based on two papers prepared following the KTP. The research was based upon a literature review
and field work to WSUP projects in Lusaka (Zambia), Naivasha (Kenya) and Antananarivo
(Madagascar). During the field work 11 focus groups and 97 stakeholder interviews we...
Population growth and development will increase the demands on water resources in Africa, and hence there is a need for agriculture to use water efficiently. Drip irrigation is widely promoted for water saving at the farm level. Moreover, it is easily adaptable to small-scale farming common in Africa. The use of low-cost drip irrigation, especially the low-cost medium head (LCMH) drip system, is growing rapidly in some Asian countries. However, the uptake of low-cost drip irrigation in general has been slow in Kenya, which has scarce water for irrigation.
Using the theory of the adoption and diffusion of innovation, this research aimed to identify the factors affecting the rate of adoption and continued use of low-cost low head (LCLH) drip irrigation in Kenya. Following a review of experiences of low-cost drip irrigation from India and...
Involving stakeholders in water governance is becoming an increasingly important
topic in England. In this thesis I consider this ambition from the farming perspective, by
investigating the potential for farmers to cooperate and participate in water
governance. This dynamic is viewed through the conceptual lens of adaptive
comanagement, an approach which its proponents claim can achieve the dual focus of
ecosystem protection and livelihood sustainability under conditions of change and
uncertainty. The relevance of adaptive comanagement is highlighted by the increasing
complexity and uncertainty surrounding water governance in England, amongst other
things because of the effects of climate change and a growing population.
The research adopts an integrated methodological approach that revolves around a
“politicised” version of the Instit...
The humidification-dehumidification (HD) greenhouse is a relatively new
technology. In addition to the humidification process and cultivation normally
present in greenhouses in arid countries, the HD greenhouse also integrates a
dehumidification process. In these greenhouses, saline or brackish water is
evaporated in the ordinary evaporative cooling pads (i.e. 1st humidifier) before
passing through the main crop growing section. The air is further loaded with
more moisture by passing it through a 2nd humidifier. This humidification
process is then followed by a dehumidification process to condense as much
water vapour as possible. The main purpose of the HD greenhouses is to find a
cheap means of desalinating saline water for the sake of using the condensate
for irrigation.
Most of previous attempts to improve the performance of the HD...
There has been an increased interest on small-scale pumped irrigation (SSPI)
in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA), however little is known on the adoption processes
behind this technology. Moreover, the conditions for successful SSPI adoption
remain largely unexplored. This research aims to achieve a deeper
understanding of the present adoption processes to inform future policy. The
thesis was framed around the diffusion of innovations model (Rogers 2003),
using the systematic review methodology and field surveys. Interviews involving
212 farmers and 25 other stakeholders were conducted between 2013 and
2014 within 3 districts in Malawi. The responses were analysed using
descriptive statistics and content analysis.
The systematic review revealed that evidence relating to pump performance in
SSA was limited, lacked standards and confined within ...
The aim of this thesis is to predict the future demand for water for irrigation of outdoor
agricultural crops in England, and to assess the likely on-farm responses to potential water
shortages and related legislative change.
The past underlying growth in the demand for irrigation water was assessed, by regression
analyses of the MAFF irrigation survey results, for each of eight crop categories and in total,
using modelled irrigation need as a proxy for climate variation. The growth in total water
demand was validated by comparison with the reported growth in total abstractions. These
indicate an underlying growth in total irrigation water use between 1982 and 1995 of between
3% and 4% per annum, expressed as percentages of the 1995 values. The results show that
irrigation has been increasingly concentrated on the more valuable crops, ...
Despite information on the benefits of climate change adaptation planning being widely available and well documented, in the UK at least relatively few real-world cases of scenario led adaptation have been documented. This limited uptake has been attributed to a variety of factors including the vast uncertainties faced, a lack of resources and potentially the absence of probabilities assigned to current climate change projections, thereby hampering conventional approaches to decision making under risk. Decision criteria for problems of uncertainty have been criticised for being too restrictive, crude, overly pessimistic, and data intensive. Furthermore, many cannot be reproduced reliably from sub-samples of the UKCP09 probabilistic dataset. This study critically compares current decision criteria for problems of uncertainty and subsequ...
