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This chapter examines the effectiveness of civic attempts to regulate and improve the urban environment against a background of population change and epidemic plague. The maintenance of communal buildings such as the walls, the implementation of building regulations, and the attempts to preserve green spaces and control livestock and industrial activities are all examined. By communal and charitable efforts the citizens were able to ensure a piped supply of fresh water. The chapter demonstrates the Londoners' concern to ensure that their city was clean and healthy.

This chapter follows the evolution of rights to use or enjoy streams and lakes. It distinguishes legally ‘land-based’ systems from those that are ‘use-based’. Tracing the alternation or cycling of these two systems in four countries, and beginning with a brief survey of Roman water law it shows that that medieval English law regarded rights over fresh water as a continuation of rights over the adjoining land. A change to use-based rights began when mill-owners ‘demanded’ that their water rights be interpreted by the courts to protect private title to a flow; this was accomplished in the Industrial Revolution by recognizing priority in use. This prior-use concept was found inadequate and in the next phase the English courts swung back to a land-based right, adopting ‘natural’-flow and ‘reasonable’-use criteria to decide which cities and factories should have rights. The chapter follows these phases abroad. It describes the western-lands invention of the appropriative-rights doctrine in the US, and its adaptation elsewhere. Throughout, the chapter also refers to changes in ‘prescriptive rights’ to water, distinguishing them from those in the prior-use and prior-appropriation phases.

Freshwater habitats are filled with abundant animal life from numerous phyla. Because the osmotic concentration of fresh water is extremely low compared to both extracellular and intracellular fluids, all freshwater animals are hyper-regulators. The influx of water across the integument presents a difficult and costly physiological challenge. Freshwater animals have evolved numerous mechanisms for producing very dilute urine as a means of ridding themselves of this excess water. A second challenge is the requirement to obtain ions from an environment in which ionic concentrations are exceptionally low. Ion uptake is achieved by specialized transport processes in both the integument and the gut. Examples from both invertebrate and vertebrate groups are provided to illustrate the physiological and morphological diversity that exists in freshwater organisms.

This chapter explores what is known about how amphibians deal with extreme environmental situations, beginning with aquatic environments, both fresh water and marine. It then describes life in extreme terrestrial and underground environments. The next section deals with overwintering in both aquatic and terrestrial environments, and discusses the particular stresses of hypoxia and low temperature. The chapter concludes with a discussion of metabolic depression as an intrinsic metabolic mechanism that extends energy reserves when environmental conditions preclude activity.

This chapter details efforts by New Bedford's public officials to confront the challenges presented by the Civil War on fiscal management and municipal governance. It examines community debates over wartime costs, maintaining public services, and planning the city's postwar future. New Bedford's local officials coordinated with agents of state and national governments to meet unprecedented military expenses such as bounties. Despite the pressures of an uncertain war and an economic downturn, the city avoided large deficits by cutting costs in key areas such as public schools and collecting taxes with great efficiency. The issue of supplying New Bedford with fresh water, and its huge price tag, divided business and political leaders during a wartime referendum in 1864. Another municipal responsibility impacted directly by the Civil War was New Bedford's generous program of welfare administered by the Overseers of the Poor.

Economic activities have long been associated with fresh water and legal rules have been developed to govern the use and exploitation of water as a potential source of profit in this context. The various economic utilizations of water range from navigation, irrigation, the generation of hydroelectric power, and its supply for industrial and domestic use. It is notable that the economic uses of water have evolved over time. A particular focus is placed on the contemporary regimes of international trade and investment law as they relate to fresh water in this chapter. Moreover, consideration is given to the international law relating to international transfers of bulk water, as well as the emerging practice of virtual water transfers.

This chapter examines how international environmental law contributes to the protection and effective management of fresh water. There has been, over time, a growing awareness of the linkages between water and the environment. Principles and norms of international environmental law have emerged and are incorporated in many treaties dealing with transboundary water resources. Moreover, a number of multilateral environmental agreements are concerned with the protection of these water resources and their institutional mechanisms assist with implementation. International environmental law instruments and those instruments dealing with fresh water complement each other in enhancing the protection and management of fresh water overall.

Chapter 2 traces the evolution of fresh water regulation. It identifies the various uses of fresh water that have been subject to legal rules, including boundary delimitation along international watercourses, navigation, fishing, irrigation, energy production, other industrial uses, and recreational purposes. Areas where conflicts of uses arise are also highlighted, and the way in which these are sometimes resolved by the law is explained, with an emphasis on the importance of human needs and the notion of minimum flow. The major treaties that purport to govern international watercourses, such as the UN Watercourses Convention of 1997, which entered into force in 2014, as well as other sources of fresh water and their accompanying legal regimes, are similarly presented.

Institutions of a varied nature and with diverse mandates are involved with the protection and management of fresh water. Indeed, there has been an ever-increasing institutionalization trend in fresh water governance since the nineteenth century. As some of the first international institutions to be established, basin organizations and commissions have helped—and continue to help—strengthen cooperation among riparian countries, as well as to facilitate other concerned actors’ involvement in this endeavour. Since the early 1970s, the mandates of international organizations have increasingly included a variety of issues related to water protection and management. Among these issues is the provision of technical and financial assistance, which now serves as a key governance tool. Moreover, partnerships among various stakeholders have also been established and these are explored in this chapter.

The resolution of disputes related to issues of fresh water scarcity, degradation, and access to water are evident in practice. There is a staggering diversity of institutions with judicial or quasi-judicial authority over these matters, as well as diplomatic means which can help settle these various disputes. A trend towards variation and multiplication of available mechanisms for resolving water-related disputes can be observed. As a consequence of both inter-state and mixed-party disputes concerning water, international courts and tribunals have amassed growing bodies of decisions in water law, and their reliance on the case law of other jurisdictions suggests an evolving harmonization in this field. This cross-fertilization among traditional dispute settlement bodies has progressed concurrently with the development of novel procedures tailored to the uniquely collective interests at stake in natural resource disputes.

This introductory chapter offers a preview of the challenges and opportunities attached to water. It presents the features of water as a finite resource and the challenges that accompany its management and protection. The tensions that pertain to and opportunities associated with the different uses of water are highlighted. Moreover, the relevance of a disciplinary inquiry when examining water issues is explained. The chapter also gives an overview of the key developments since the first edition of this book was published. Overall, the chapter introduces the various themes in the book and frames the issues at the heart of this study.

The Rankine closed cycle is a process in which beat is used to evaporate a fluid at constant pressure in a “boiler” or evaporator, from which the vapor enters a piston engine or turbine and expands doing work. The vapor exhaust then enters a vessel where heat is transferred from the vapor to a cooling fluid, causing the vapor to condense to a liquid, which is pumped back to the evaporator to complete the cycle. A layout of the plantship shown in Fig. 1-2. The basic cycle comprises four steps, as shown in the pressure-volume (p—V) diagram of Fig. 4-1. 1. Starting at point a, heat is added to the working fluid in the boiler until the temperature reaches the boiling point at the design pressure, represented by point b. 2. With further heat addition, the liquid vaporizes at constant temperature and pressure, increasing in volume to point c. 3. The high-pressure vapor enters the piston or turbine and expands adiabatically to point d. 4. The low-pressure vapor enters the condenser and, with heat removal at constant pressure, is cooled and liquefied, returning to its original volume at point a. The work done by the cycle is the area enclosed by the points a,b,c,d,a. This is equal to Hc–Hd, where H is the enthalpy of the fluid at the indicated point. The heat transferred in the process is Hc–Ha Thus the efficiency, defined as the ratio of work to heat used, is: . . . efficiency(η)=Hc–Hd/Hc–Ha (4.1.1) . . . Carnot showed that if the heat-engine cycle was conducted so that equilibrium conditions were maintained in the process, that the efficiency was determined solely by the ratio of the temperatures of the working fluid in the evaporator and the condenser. . . . η=TE–Tc/TE (4.1.2) . . . The maximum Carnot efficiency can be attained only for a cycle in which thermal equilibrium exists in each phase of the process; however, for power to be generated a temperature difference must exist between the working fluid in the evaporator and the warm-water heat source, and between the working fluid in the condenser and the cold-water heat sink.

Escalating human demands for fresh water are jeopardising the intrinsic biodiversity values, ecological health, and vital ecosystem services of the rivers, wetlands, and estuaries upon which millions of humans depend for water, food, and secure housing, as well as for quality of life, health, and prosperity. Climate change exacerbates these pressures by affecting the global water cycle, freshwater availability, and the ecological health of aquatic ecosystems. Restoration of biodiversity, ecosystem function, and resiliency is a global imperative for water managers, scientists, and civil society. This chapter introduces the main argument of the book, which is that to sustain freshwater and estuarine ecosystems the natural volumes and variability patterns of standing and flowing water must be maintained through provision of “environmental flows.”

The body of principles and rules of international law applicable to fresh water has developed in many different directions. Regulation, economization, environmentalization, humanization, and institutionalization are the foremost. While they are discernible from one another, they are also intertwined. The apparent clashes between some of them—in particular, environmental and human concerns on one hand, and economic concerns on the other—are palpable in certain contexts. The method for preventing these clashes relies on the promotion of an integrated and coherent approach to apprehending the environmental, economic, social, and cultural facets of fresh water. In this context, the critical role that the notion of integrated water resources management can play is explored in this chapter.

Systems engineering is a top-down approach to program management and systems procurement. It optimizes the development process by ensuring that the operational, technical, and cost goals (and limitations) of a total proposed system are understood before development begins. The requirements for the “forest” are determined before the features of the “trees” are specified. It makes a basic assumption that a team endeavor under single-system management will be established with authority to define development goals and assign subsystem programs and funding. It recognizes that each system requires a unique management structure that is based on the qualifications of the people and organizations available for the total endeavor. Systems engineering begins with an authoritative request or requirement for a system that would provide new capabilities or would reduce existing problems in a significant technical activity. After personnel and level of effort for a preliminary assessment of the need are identified, the initial effort then involves these steps: 1. A precise definition is prepared of the specific operational need for which the proposed system must provide a solution. For example, this book addresses the present national need for a new energy system that can provide a practical, timely, cost-effective, and nonpolluting alternative to petroleum-based fuels for transportation. The need arises from three factors: a. The perception that an alternative to dependence on petroleum fuels for transportation must be developed to avoid severe disruption of world economies in the early years of the twenty-first century; b. Evidence that combustion of fossil fuels is causing a significant increase in the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere (if not reduced, this could eventually produce a “greenhouse effect,” leading to large-scale changes in climate and an increase in sea level, with severe economic consequences); and c. The belief that solar energy can be used via OTEC to supply nonpolluting fuel in sufficient quantity, at low enough cost, and in time to become a practical alternative to dwindling or unavailable petroleum supplies. Failure to define the system need with sufficient clarity is a root cause of most system development difficulties.