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Abstract. The equitable sharing of benefits in transboundary river basins is necessary to solve disputes among riparian countries and to reach a consensus on basin-wide development and management activities. Benefit-sharing arrangements must be collaboratively developed to be perceived not only as efficient, but also as equitable in order to be considered acceptable to all riparian countries. The current literature mainly describes what is meant by the term benefit sharing in the context of transboundary river basins and discusses this from a conceptual point of view, but falls short of providing practical, institutional arrangements that ensure maximum economic welfare as well as collaboratively developed methods for encouraging the equitable sharing of benefits. In this study, we define an institutional arrangement that distributes welfare in a river basin by maximizing the economic benefits of water use and then sharing these benefits in an equitable manner using a method developed through stakeholder involvement. We describe a methodology in which (i) a hydrological model is used to allocate scarce water resources, in an economically efficient manner, to water users in a transboundary basin, (ii) water users are obliged to pay for water, and (iii) the total of these water charges is equitably redistributed as monetary compensation to users in an amount determined through the application of a sharing method developed by stakeholder input, thus based on a stakeholder vision of fairness, using an axiomatic approach. With the proposed benefit-sharing mechanism, the efficiency-equity trade-off still exists, but the extent of the imbalance is reduced because benefits are maximized and redistributed according to a key that has been collectively agreed upon by the participants. The whole system is overseen by a river basin authority. The methodology is applied to the Eastern Nile River basin as a case study. The described technique not only ensures economic efficiency, but may also lead to more equitable solutions in the sharing of benefits in transboundary river basins because the definition of the sharing rule is not in question, as would be the case if existing methods, such as game theory, were applied, with their inherent definitions of fairness.

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A novel integrated hydro-economic modeling framework that links a bottom-up partial equilibrium (engineering) model with a top-down (economic) general equilibrium model is developed for assessing the regional economic impacts of water resources management and infrastructure development decisions in a transboundary river basin. The engineering model is employed first to solve the water allocation problem for a river system in a partial equilibrium setting. The resulting system-wide changes in optimal water allocation are subsequently fed into the general equilibrium model to provide an economy-wide perspective. This integrated hydro-economic modeling framework is illustrated using the Eastern Nile River basin as a case study. The engineering-based stochastic dual dynamic programming (SDDP) model of the Eastern Nile basin is coupled with the computable general equilibrium (CGE) model GTAP-W to assess the economy-wide impacts of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Eastern Nile economies.

Abstract. The equitable sharing of benefits in transboundary river basins is necessary to solve disputes among riparian countries and to reach a consensus on basin-wide development and management activities. Benefit sharing arrangements must be collaboratively developed to be perceived not only as efficient, but also as equitable in order to be considered acceptable to all riparian countries. The current literature mainly describes what is meant by the term benefit sharing in the the context of transboundary river basins and discusses this from a conceptual point of view, but falls short of providing practical, institutional arrangements that ensure maximum economic welfare as well as collaboratively developed methods for encouraging the equitable sharing of benefits. In this study we define an institutional arrangement that distributes welfare in a river basin by maximizing the economic benefits of water use and then sharing these benefits in an equitable manner using a method developed through stakeholder involvement.We describe a methodology in which (i) a hydrological model is used to allocate scarce water resources, in an economically efficient manner, to water users in a transboundary basin, (ii) water users are obliged to pay for water, and (iii) the total of these water charges are equitably redistributed as monetary compensation to users in an amount determined through the application of a sharing method developed by stakeholder input, thus based on a stakeholder vision of fairness, using an axiomatic approach. The whole system is overseen by a river basin authority. The methodology is applied to the Eastern Nile River basin as a case study. The described technique not only ensures economic efficiency, but may also lead to more equitable solutions in the sharing of benefits in transboundary river basins because the definition of the sharing rule is not in question, as would be the case if existing methods, such as game theory, were applied, with their inherent definitions of fairness.

The performance of stormwater treatment trains and of their individual green infrastructures was evaluated near Montreal, Canada. Three treatment trains were studied: Train 1 – five bioretention cells in series with a wet retention pond; Train 2 – an infiltration trench in series with a dry detention pond; and Train 3 – Train 2 in series with a wet retention pond. A total of 47 rain events were monitored to quantity the hydrological performance, while water quality samples were taken during 24 rainfall events. During the summer, the bioretention cells led to a reduction in runoff volumes varying from 8 to 100%. Overall, the three studied treatment trains and all of the individual infrastructures, except for the dry pond, provided reductions in the mean concentrations of total suspended solids, chemical oxygen demand, total nitrogen and total phosphorous. Results also showed that the use of a train of stormwater infrastructures can be more effective to reach Quebec's legislated targets than single infrastructures, but only if the infrastructures are sequenced properly. Indeed, the addition of a dry basin at the end of Train 2 affected negatively the removal efficiency of the four studied contaminants.

In 1990, a two year study was underlaken to determine the effects of water table management on the movement of the herbicide prometryn in an organic soil in southern Qu6bec. Three water table management systems were used: controlled drainage, subsudace irrigation, and subsurface drainage. Results indicate that most of the prometryn movement through soil and into groundwater occurred during the first few months following application. In the subsurlace drainage field, the concentrations of herbicide in groundwater were mostly higher than the drinking water quality standard of 10 pg/L. When subirrigation or controlled drainage was used, the concentration fell significantly below this level, indicating their usefulness in reducing the amount of prometryn reaching the groundwater. The study also demonstrated that, in an organic soil, pesticide movement was affected mainly by the water balance. The negative water balance during dry periods caused the soil water and pesticide to move upwards. This phenomenon was enhanced when the water table was close to the soil surface and the contaminant was positioned higher in the soil profile, which improved the opporlunity for degradation of the chemical before it reached the drains. On the other hand, during high rainfall events and periods of positive water balance, the contaminant was readily leached through the soil profile. R6sum6 En 1990, une 6tude de deux ans visant d d6terminer les effets de la gestion de la nappe phr6atique sur le mouvement des prom6trynes herbicides fut entreprise dans un sol organique du Sud du Qu6bec. Trois systdmes de gestion de la nappe phr6atique furent utilises : drainage control6, l'irrigation souterraine et le drainage souterrain. Les resultats indiquent que le mouvement des prom6trynes dans le sol et dans les eaux souterraines s'est produit au cours des quelques premiers mois qui ont suivi l'application. Dans le champ de drainage souterrain, les concentrations d'herbicide dans les eaux souterraines furent pour la plupart plus 6lev6es que ce que dictent les normes de qualit6 de l'eau potable fix6es d 1o g/1. Lorsqu'on a eu recours d l'irrigation souterraine ou au drainage control6, la concentration est tomb6e consid6rablement au-dessous de ce niveau, ce qui indique qu'a la fois l'irrigation souterraine et le drainage contr0l6 constituent des m6thodes de gestion pratiques pour ce qui est de r6duire les quantit6s de prom6trynes qui parviennent aux eaux souterraines. L 6tude a r6v6l6 6galement que c'est surtout l'equilibre hydrique dans un sol organique qui a influ6 sur le mouvement des pesticides. Lequilibre hydrique n6gatif au cours des p6riodes de s6cheresse a provoqu6 la mont6e vers le haut de l Graduate Student, 2. Professor, 3-Research Associate, 5. Post Doctoral Fellow,