The natural flows of rivers have been heavily modified in the process of development and economic growth across the basins of the world. This hydrological change affects river ecosystems and their provision of diverse services to society, threatening biodiversity and sustainable basin development. Reservoir construction is one major human activity causing such modification to the river landscape that has largely affected delivery of ecosystem services. This study is motivated to understand how varying patterns of dam development in a basin affect the river flow regime, differentially impacting the provision of river ecosystem services. Focusing on the Upper Cauvery basin in India, the study has developed an integrated modeling analysis examining the ecological and economic impact of varying levels of dam development....

In the last decades, thousands of socio-environmental conflicts have spawned, especially at the sub-national scale. Among these, water conflicts are especially complex and multifaceted, since most are driven by a combination of socio-economic dynamics that increase pressure on natural resources, more extreme hydro-climatic trends, outdated or biased legal frameworks, large power asymmetries between actors, and the dominance of sociotechnical paradigms that reduce the decision space of water policies. Although water conflicts often receive a lot of attention, public scrutiny, and media exposure, this has not necessarily transcended into improving our understanding of their relation to the coupled human-water systems in which they are embedded, and even less of their transformative potential to open the decision space on the development pathways of cities and water systems. Furthermore, if a conflict drags on, it creates the notion of conflict impasse, of a static nature and confined to a narrowed space. This can further obstruct our understanding of what the conflict is really about, what are its root causes, what are the motivations of key actors, how do actors mobilize different capitals to achieve their goals and coalesce in networks, and what are the best ways to move forward and find transformative alternatives. This PhD thesis aims to reveal that water conflicts are highly dynamic and the result of a complex web of events influenced by social and natural long-term dynamics, knowledge controversies, and actors and network dynamics that widen the perception of the boundaries of water conflicts. To map out and navigate these turbulent waters of water conflicts, new transdisciplinary methods and action research are necessary. The realization that conflicts are complex and dynamic, and that transdisciplinary and action methods are needed to transform them has many implications. First, given the longterm dynamics that determine a conflict, it is necessary to analyze its history beyond the “official” start of the conflict, even before the involvement of the main actors in the conflict. Therefore, a water conflict involves much more than only just a dispute between parties, but also wider and more transcendent discussions of sustainability of cities and water systems and fairness of socio-political systems. Second, these long-term dynamics are both social and natural, thus, water conflicts need to be analyzed in an interdisciplinary manner to better deal with controversies composed of different kinds of uncertainties and ambiguity in the coupled human-water systems. The development of new hybrid disciplines like socio-hydrology and hydrosocial studies are a step forward, but they keep being dominated by either a natural sciences or social sciences epistemology. Third, further analyzing the conflict in a transdisciplinary and longitudinal manner, by involving actors in knowledge co-production, can improve our understanding of knowledge controversies, which in turn increases the reflectivity of the role of science and scientists in these conflicts.

Due to increasing global population and increasing food demand, crop yield needs to be improved to forestall potential food shortages. To achieve optimal crop yield, irrigation is applied to replace water losses due to evapotranspiration (ET). Information on ET should be applied to optimize water allocations and water use. In this study, the correlation between ET and yield will be investigated on field-scale level to assess the potential of high resolution ET products as a tool to detect yield variation. The variability of crop yield and transpiration are caused by the variability in the topography, groundwater and soil properties.
Agricultural practices and field-scale water management demand high resolution (in meters) and high temporal resolution (daily to sub-daily) remote sensing products. With the arrival of new satellite platforms, such as Sentinel-2, the aforementioned remote sensing data can be improved significantly in spatial and temporal resolution. In order to compare the functionality of different remote sensing products, an assessment is executed for two satellite derived vegetation indices: normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and normalized difference water index (NDWI), and two satellite derived evaporation products: WaPOR (Water Productivity through Open access of Remotely sensed derived data) and a newly developed evaporation algorithm from VanderSat. Within this research, the focus lies on assessing which dataset is able to observe the spatial difference and temporal patterns on field-scale level. Using a large sugarcane plantation in Xinavane, Mozambique, as a case study, we demonstrate how the spatial variability of the remote sensing results are correlated to the sugarcane yield. To assist irrigated agriculture we demonstrate that a high resolution evaporation product is needed to incorporate spatial variability in evaporation estimates. The analysis shows that the high resolution satellite derived vegetation indices are related to the spatial variability of yield. Our results indicate that NDWI has a strong positive correlation of 0.73 with yield, but NDVI has only 0.64. The actual evapotranspiration estimates have a moderately positive correlation with yield of 0.5 for WaPOR and 0.57 for VanderSat. Evaporation estimates should be related to yield to control irrigation properly. WaPOR and VanderSat use NDVI as a input for crop stress, these existing evaporation algorithms should incorporate high resolution spatial imagery as NDWI instead of NDVI to assist irrigation adequately. In order to use the satellite derived evaporation algorithms for agricultural practices and field-scale water management, future research should be focus on improving the relation between satellite derived evaporation algorithms and yield.

The availability and distribution of water resources in catchments are influenced by various natural and anthropogenic factors. Human-induced environmental changes are key factors controlling the hydrological flows of semi-arid catchments. Land degradation, water scarcity and inefficient utilization of available water resources continue to be important constraints for socio-economic development in the headwater catchments of the Nile river basin in particular over the Ethiopian Catchments. This research investigates the impact of landscape anthropogenic changes on the hydrological processes in the Upper Tekeze basin (A tributary of the Nile). The hydrology of the basin is investigated through analysis of hydro-climatic data, remote sensing techniques, new field measurements and parsimonious hydrological models.

Rural communities in drylands of low-income countries represent highly vulnerable societies that are
often strongly affected by the increased climate variability (UNDP, 2007/2008). Additionally to climatic
uncertainty, local households have also to cope with strongly fluctuating political and economic
conditions, which are difficult to predict and impede regional development. Current planning practices
that aim to address these uncertainties are often model based top-down focused approaches that lack an
appropriate inclusion of local stakeholders. Crucial next steps are the downscaling of models to increase
their local applicability and the incorporation of the knowledge and preferences of practitioners to
achieve a sustainable landscape management plan. In this thesis, I developed a participatory planning
approach to support sustainable development under uncertain future conditions and applied it to a case
study in the southern drylands of Zimbabwe.
The newly developed planning approach is based on a synthesis of current good practices in development
aid and recent advancements of research in predictive planning and management. Specifically, the
dynamic adaptive policy pathways (Haasnoot et al., 2013) are merged with the landscape approach (Sayer
et al., 2013), which accounts for sustainable development in a participatory manner, and transformed into
a new dynamic adaptive development pathways approach.
The dynamic adaptive development pathways approach was applied to plan the upscaling of irrigation
practices using an alluvial aquifer in Zimbabwe. A critical step was the use of visualisation sessions and
focus group discussions to define the landscape area and local values, as well as to assemble a set of
promising development actions. I then assessed the collected information using value matrixes and a
hydrological model, to design different pathways for sustainable development.
The creation of naturally, socially and ecologically sustainable pathways in a participatory manner for this
case study proved possible and may function as a seed for sustainable development in the area. While
uptake and application of the approach by local stakeholders still needs to be assessed, the adaptive
capacity seems a valuable addition for development planning under uncertain future conditions.

A water crisis is looming for Lebanon. Economic growth, natural population growth and the inflow of refugees from Syria cause an increased water demand in Lebanon. In the meanwhile, the precipitation rates of Lebanon are decreasing. An important water source of Lebanon is the Litani river, which is totally located within the borders of Lebanon. The water of this river is used for agricultural purposes, production of hydropower and supply of domestic water. At the moment, domestic water supply is only a small user of the water of the Litani river. However, water supply from the Litani river to the capital of Lebanon, Beirut is proposed. The Litani already nearly dries up each year and therefore the water allocation of the Litani river has to be optimised. This research aims to optimise the water allocation of Lebanon, in order to protect the country against the looming water crisis. Since the Litani is the most important river of Lebanon, the research focuses only on this basin: the Litani River Basin (LRB).
Optimal water allocation is achieved when the social benefits gained from the deviation of water are at a maximum. The social benefits are described by three principles: economic efficiency, social equity and sustainability. Since the Litani river is an important source for the Lebanese economy, the economic efficiency principle is assumed to be the most important principle in optimising the water allocation.This means that the optimal water allocation is achieved when the profits from the deviation of water are maximised. In order to optimise the water allocation in the LRB, the current water allocation is needed. In this research project, first the current water allocation will be described. Afterwards,
scenarios will be applied to see what the effect is on the current water allocation. The research ends with the implementation of measures in order to see their effect on the water allocation.
The current water allocation is based on hydrological data of the area and the assumption that in the current water allocation everyone tries to maximise the total income of the LRB.

The water of the Litani river is used by three different sectors: agriculture, energy and supply of domestic water. In most of these sectors, water does not directly generate a profit. For example the agricultural sector: yields are increased by the availability of water and these yields will be sold. Formulas of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) are used in order to determine the actual yields. The actual yield depends on reference evapotranspiration, actual evapotranspiration and crop characteristics. 훼 is added to the equation in order
to model the current situation. 훼 describes the current power of the agricultural sector. This value is based on the current amount of water flowing to this sector and the profits that are generated within this sector. The value of this objective function is limited by the hydrological conditions of the area. The current power of the agricultural sector is 0.445. Therefore, the power of the hydropower sector is 0.555. When water is used for the production of hydropower, it can be used for other purposes afterwards. A part of the water that is used for the production of hydropower is used for the supply of domestic water afterwards, therefore the domestic water sector is not included in the objective function.

In the current water allocation 71.7% of the water is used in the agricultural sector. The other 28.3% is used to produce hydropower. Of this water 23.4% is afterwards supplied as domestic water to the inhabitants of the LRB. The agricultural water use is mainly high in the subbasins with a high marginal
value. If one extra unit of water is flowing to these subbasins, the increase in the profits will be significant. The model is based on the assumption that all individuals try to maximise the total income of the Litani River Basin and therefore the water will be used in the subbasins with the highest marginal
value.

Two scenarios are applied to see the effect on the current water allocation: a water supply to Beirut and a flow to the downstream subbasins. Water supply to Beirut is a proposed solution in order to provide the inhabitants of Beirut with enough domestic water. The water that will be supplied to Beirut, first will be used to produce hydropower. Therefore, the minimum flow to the hydropower stations will be 93 million 푚3/year. In order to reach this amount of water, less water will be used for agriculture. This causes a decrease in the profits generated within the area. Furthermore, the Qaraoun Lake is over-exploited. In the end of the season in which hydropower is produced, the Qaraoun Lake is almost empty. In the first years, 93 million 푚3/year can be delivered to Beirut. However, the Lake has to be over-exploited to reach this amount and therefore the water could not be supplied in the last years.The demand of Beirut is too high to be supplied by the LRB.
The supply of water to the downstream basins will only take place during the dry months. In the current water allocation the water level is high during these months, since the water is not used for the production of hydropower in these months. During the dry period, the demand of the agriculture in the downstream subbasins is high. During these months 10% of the water stored in the Qaraoun Lake will flow downstream. The profit will remain more or less constant, however the flow to the hydropower stations will decrease. The amount flowing from the Qaraoun Lake to the downstream subbasins is small compared to the area of the downstream subbasins and therefore the effect will not be significant.

Measures are proposed to see how the water allocation could be optimised. Replacing water sensitive crops by water insensitive crops is the best way to optimise the water allocation within the LRB. There are two reasons why this measure is the most effective one. The first reason has to do with the yield
response factor. Water insensitive crops have a lower yield response factor and therefore the decrease in yield will be less significant when a water-deficit occurs. Furthermore, the water insensitive seasonal crops are groundnut and tobacco. These crops are profitable crops and this will positively affect the water allocation within the LRB as well. The other principles of optimising the water allocation are social equity and sustainability. It is difficult to give a conclusion about the sustainability, since the exact water levels in the Litani are unknown. However, the system is not sustainable when it has to supply water to Beirut. In order to reachthis demand, the water of the lake has to be over-exploited. A conclusion can be drawn about thesocial equity principle, agricultural water is available within the entire LRB and the agricultural profits generated per hectare are equally divided over the area. Since there is enough water available for the inhabitants of the LRB and agricultural water is available over the entire basin, the water allocation is optimal according to the social equity principle. However, when Beirut is included in this social equity principle, the water allocation will be optimal when water is supplied to Beirut as well.