Inter-Basin Water Transfer Case Studies from Australia, United States, Canada, China and India

About this book

Increasing demands for irrigation, domestic and industrial water have generated a massive growth world-wide in the number of large water infrastructure projects involving the transfer of water from basins considered to have surplus water to those where the demand for water has exceeded or is expected to exceed supplies. Using the experiences of projects in Australia, United States, Canada, China and India, this book examines case studies within the diverse geographical, climatic, economic, and policy regimes operating in these countries. It examines the water resources of Australia, the driest inhabited continent, and explores inter-basin water transfer projects in the United States, Canada, China and India, examining their benefits and impacts within these nations' contrasting economies and governance systems. This comprehensive and well-illustrated text will be of great interest to professionals and researchers in the fields of hydrology, water resources, and to those engaged in environmental science, policy and regulation.


* Analyses all the issues involved in inter-basin water transfer
* Examines implemented or proposed inter-basin transfer projects in five profoundly different countries
* Comprehensive and well illustrated

Contents

Part I. The Challenges: 1. World population and pressures on land, water and food resources; 2. Inter-basin water transfer issues; Part II. Inter-basin Water Transfer in Australia: 3. Land and water resources of Australia; 4. The Snowy Mountains hydro-electric scheme; 5. Inter-basin water transfer from coastal basins of New South Wales; 6. The Bradfield and the Reid schemes in Queensland; 7. Three schemes for flooding Lake Eyre; 8. The Goldfields pipeline scheme of Western Australia; 9. Supplying Perth, Western Australia with water: the Kimberley pipeline scheme; 10. Other schemes in Australia; Part III. Inter-basin Water Transfer in Other Selected Countries: 11. Inter-basin water transfer in the United States of America; 12. Inter-basin water transfer in Canada; 13. Inter-basin water transfer in China; 14. The national river-linking project in India; 15. Inter-basin water transfer, successes, failures and the future; Appendix A. Some of the Australian pioneers of the inter-basin water transfer; Appendix B. Construction timetable of the Snowy Mountains hydro-electric scheme; Appendix C1. Details of diversion schemes from the Clarence River basin; Appendix C2. Details of diversion schemes from the Macleay River basin; Appendix D. Chronological table of the most important events in the Goldfields water supply scheme, Western Australia; Appendix E. Flooding of the Sahara depression; Appendix F. The Ord River irrigation scheme; Appendix G. The West Kimberley irrigation scheme; Appendix H. Some other water transfer schemes in Australia; Appendix I. Selected technical features of the Central Valley project in California; Appendix J. Selected technical features of the State Water Project in California; Appendix K. Selected characteristics of some of the inter-basin water transfer projects in Australia, United States, Canada, China and India; Glossary; Index.

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Biography

Fereidoun Ghassemi is Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, The Australian National University. He is a Fellow of the Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand and was recipient of the G. Burton Medal from the Hydrological Society of Canberra in 1995. Dr Ghassemi has more than 35 years of experience in various aspects of water resource research in Australia, France, Iran and Vietnam. Ian White is Professor of Water Resources at the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, The Australian National University. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. Professor White was awarded a Centenary Medal for service to Australian society in environmental science and technology in 2003 and has twice (in 1994 and 1997) received the G. Burton Publication Medal from the Hydrological Society of Canberra. He has worked in water and land resources in Australia, the United States, Pacific small island nations, Vietnam, China and France.