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AbstractThe International Council on Systems Engineering has long declared a wish to extend the scope of application of systems engineering from its traditional sphere of complex technical systems to more complex sociotechnical systems. The Segura River reclamation project was a successful systems engineering project, involving water treatment and management and environmental regeneration, which falls squarely into the latter category. Taking lessons from this project, the paper sets out to understand the circumstances in which systems engineering can be successful in guiding and managing interventions in nontraditional domains such as transportation, housing, infrastructure, health and environmental systems. This involves an analysis using critical systems thinking. The paper also seeks to suggest how systems engineering must change to ensure success in circumstances that are less propitious for its theory and practice than in the Segura case.

Considers (84) S. 180. ; Considers legislation authorizing Interior Dept to construct and maintain the Washita River Reclamation project in Oklahoma. ; Record is based on bibliographic data in CIS US Congressional Committee Hearings Index. Reuse except for individual research requires license from Congressional Information Service, Inc. ; Indexed in CIS US Congressional Committee Hearings Index Part VI ; Considers (84) S. 180. ; Considers legislation authorizing Interior Dept to construct and maintain the Washita River Reclamation project in Oklahoma. ; Mode of access: Internet.

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.Muddy Thinking in the Mississippi River Delta uses the story of mud to answer a deceptively simple question: How can a place uniquely vulnerable to sea level rise be one of the nation's most promiscuous producers and consumers of fossil fuels? Organized around New Orleans and South Louisiana as a case study, this book examines how the unruly Mississippi River and its muddy delta shaped the people, culture, and governance of the region. It proposes a framework of ";muddy thinking"; to gum the wheels of extractive capitalism and pollution that have brought us to the precipice of planetary collapse. Muddy Thinking calls upon our dirty, shared histories to address urgent questions of mutual survival and care in a rapidly changing world

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Muddy Thinking in the Mississippi River Delta uses the story of mud to answer a deceptively simple question: How can a place uniquely vulnerable to sea level rise be one of the nation's most promiscuous producers and consumers of fossil fuels? Organized around New Orleans and South Louisiana as a case study, this book examines how the unruly Mississippi River and its muddy delta shaped the people, culture, and governance of the region. It proposes a framework of "muddy thinking" to gum the wheels of extractive capitalism and pollution that have brought us to the precipice of planetary collapse. Muddy Thinking calls upon our dirty, shared histories to address urgent questions of mutual survival and care in a rapidly changing world.

The following report presents estimates of the value of irrigation and of the ability of water users to pay for irrigation water supplied from the development of the Bear River project. A general description of the existing agricultural economy and projections as to future economic conditions with development of the project are also presented in this study. The economic analysis of the Bear River project has been accomplished in accordance with Reclamation Instructions and directives concerning the preparation of feasibility reports. Irrigation payment capacity by the water users, expressed in dollars and cents, was accomplished through the farm budget method of analysis. The farm budgets are intended to represent the average farmer operating a family-size farm with average efficiency under conditions expected to prevail in the future "without" and "with" construction of the project. This analysis is also based on projected prices, normal crop yields, normal turnoff rates, etc. Data used in this report are both primary and secondary and were obtained from a number of sources. Primary data were obtained from farm management and field surveys conducted by the Bureau in and near the project area during 1958, 1959, and 1960. These data included information such as types of farming, size of farms, number and kinds of livestock, crop and livestock yields, prices received and paid, etc. The Bureau of Reclamation over a period of years has also assembled and developed information on farm-input requirements and related output values, much of which was adjusted and used in this report. Other data used were from U.S. Department of Agriculture, county governments, private enterprise, agricultural leaders, Utah State University, and others.

The United States is producing more oil and natural gas than ever before. Sites of production are contributing to the known land-use phenomenon of energy sprawl, though little is known about how these sites will be reclaimed and how legacy effects will be governed and managed. Reclamation returns degraded energy landscapes to some productive capacity in order to avoid permanent environmental harm. Thus far, the technical aspects of reclamation have been the topic of most research while the human dimensions are under-studied. This research draws attention to the social and political dimensions of environmental legacy management. A period of coalbed methane development in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming (1999-2009) provides an instructive case study to investigate the legacy effects of energy resource development. After a decade of coalbed methane production, about 5,700 orphaned wells remained without viable industry operators to fund and manage well-plugging and reclamation. This dissertation uses a qualitative case study approach including document analysis, policy analysis, and forty semi-structured interviews with local surface owners, attorneys, state and federal regulators, local government officials, and industry personnel. Contextual research revealed that management of post-production oil and gas is a highly complex governance challenge made more complicated by the split estate property regime that characterizes the American West. Empirical research found that environmental legacy issues are exacerbated by 'private participation'. Applying a framework tied to the concept of social license to operate, investigation of surface owner-industry relations revealed that individuals played a critical role in decision-making processes. Surface owner's private participation resulted in decisions to forgo reclamation and integrate CBM-related infrastructure into ranching operations, therefore contributing to the scale and extent of environmental legacies. This dissertation also found that an adaptive, or 'learn as ...

Presented at River basin management to meet competing needs: proceedings from the USCID conference on shared rivers held on October 21-31, 1998 in Park City, Utah. ; Through the Reclamation Act of 1902 the Reclamation Service, since renamed the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), was created to develop irrigation works for storage, delivery, and development of water. More recent legislation has placed additional requirements on Federal agencies, including Reclamation, to comply with specific environmental protection measures. Reclamation recognizes that salmon and other water-related resource needs require it to look at the way it will operate in the future. The SR3 Leadership Team has been tasked with developing the necessary technology to help decision makers assess the effects of potential operation decisions and better understand the trade-offs to the Snake River resources. Because SR3 is not a decision making process, its public outreach is not geared towards identifying and evaluating alternatives. Public involvement, in its traditional sense, is not a part of SR3. Public participation in SR3 is taking two basic forms; outreach to the interested public and participation by key stakeholders. The public outreach and stakeholder participation activities are uniquely designed to meet the needs of SR3. The SR3 Leadership Team adopted the Bleiker Systematic Development of Informed Consent (SDIC) methodology. SDIC is a methodology in which management tools are systematically applied to improve public agencies' implementation capabilities. During the first half of SR3, the SDIC methodology has served SR3 well. SR3's experience thus far has shown that reapplying the SDIC methodology at major transition points in the life cycle of a project is important. It is incumbent upon us to be knowledgeable of the different methodologies available, to select an appropriate methodology, and apply it properly. Productive stakeholder involvement does not happen by accident.

This pamphlet provides historical data and information on the history and construction of Hoover Dam, effects on the Colorado River and the creation of Lake Mead. Pamplet dates from the 1950s. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: Born in Flagstaff on June 4, 1899, George Babbitt, Jr. was a member of the well-known Babbitt Family of Flagstaff, Arizona. George Babbitt, Jr. went to college at Loyola University in Los Angeles, California. By 1920 he had finished his Bachelor of Arts and went on to be awarded a Master of Arts from Loyola. Throughout the 1920s, he worked at various jobs, including sales manager for the Babbitt Brothers Trading Post from 1927-1930. During the 1930s, Babbitt served as Coconino County Democratic Committee chairman. In 1936 he became Postmaster of Flagstaff and continued in that position until 1953. In 1942 Babbitt organized the Babbitt Investment Company, which he later merged with his own George Babbitt Land Company to form the George Babbitt Company in 1957. Among his contributions was his service to business and community organizations. His interests beyond business were principally in history and historic preservation. He was a member of the Arizona Historical Society and the Northern Arizona Pioneers' Historical Society. Babbitt collected many rare books and informational material on topics ranging from water development to Northern Arizona History. He also conducted oral interviews of some of Arizona's oldest living pioneers. George Babbitt, Jr. died October 24, 1980.

This two-volume report sets out the results of a research project under taken by the Natural Resources Law Center examining opportunities to change the manner in which water demands in the West, traditionally served by Bureau of Reclamation projects, are satisfied. In the first phase of the project, we looked at 15 Bureau of Reclamation projects located throughout the West where some type of change was under way to address environmental concerns. Volume 1, Section One, sets out a summary of our findings from phase one, and the preliminary conclusions in which we identified several types of opportunities for changes in Reclamation projects that have the potential to produce environmental benefits without necessarily reducing traditional economic benefits. We refer to these as first generation changes. The details of our 15 case studies are set out in Volume 1, Section Two. Volume 2 contains the results of the second phase of the project. Incorporating many of the smaller geographic settings included in the 15 earlier studies, these broader, basinwide studies focused on six rivers or river segments in which Reclamation operations play a significant role in river management. Not only do they cover a larger geographic area, they also include a much more complex set of legal and institutional issues that must be considered in any proposals to modify traditional water management for environmental benefits. This report represents the work of several current and former staff members of the Center, including former Director Lawrence J. MacDonnell, former Associate Directors Sarah Bates (now Sarah Van de Watering) and Judith Jacobsen, and Senior Staff Attorney Teresa Rice. Several Center student research associates drafted the 15 case studies in Volume 1, Section Two, and their names are acknowledged at the beginning of each case study. The contents of this report were developed under a joint grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Department of the Interior. Support from the Ford Foundation also contributed to the research conducted in the second phase of the project. This publication is a product of the Natural Resources Law Center, a research and public education center at the University of Colorado School of Law. The Center alone is responsible for the opinions and conclusions in this publication. Thus, interpretations or conclusions in Natural Resources Law Center publications should be understood to be solely those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Center, the University of Colorado, the State of Colorado, or any of the organizations that support Natural Resources Law Center research.

The lower Georges River, on Dharawal and Dharug lands, was a place of fishing grounds, swimming holes and picnics in the early twentieth century. But this all changed after World War II, when rapidly expanding industry and increasing population fell heaviest on this river, polluting its waters and destroying its bush. Local people campaigned to defend their river. They battled municipal councils, who were themselves struggling against an explosion of garbage as population and economy changed. In these blues (an Australian term for conflict), it was mangroves and swamps that became the focus of the fight. Mangroves were expanding because of increasing pollution and early climate change. Councils wanted to solve their garbage problems by bulldozing mangroves and bushland, dumping garbage and, eventually, building playing fields. So they attacked mangroves as useless swamps that harboured disease. Residents defended mangroves by mobilising ecological science to show that these plants nurtured immature fish and protected the river's health. These suburban resident action campaigns have been ignored by histories of the Australian environmental movement, which have instead focused on campaigns to save distant 'wilderness' or inner-city built environments. The Georges River environmental conflicts may have been less theatrical, but they were fought out just as bitterly. And local Georges River campaigners – men, women and often children – were just as tenacious. They struggled to 'keep bushland in our suburbs', laying the foundation for today's widespread urban environmental consciousness.