Masahisa Nakamura

Evolving History of Lake Biwa and Yodo River Basin Management

The management story of the Lake Biwa-Yodo River Basin may be told in many different ways. It is told here as an intricate but dynamic history of management challenges involving the upstream Lake Biwa region and the downstream Yodo River region, with factual illustrations of associated policies, programs, and specific actions for water resources development, flood control, and environmental and ecosystem concerns. These factual illustrations are also interpreted by the contributing authors with views reflecting their professional backgrounds, as well as their interests and opinions on the conflicting and contested issues.

SOME OBSERVATIONS ON WATER MANAGEMENT PLANNING ALTERNATIVES

The importance of the concept of alternatives in the management of water resources has been further elaborated, reflecting on the basic arguements presented in the earlier paper [1] as well as making reference to the recent studies on lake/river basin management issues identified in Japan and in some of the developing countries [2]. A general framework of analysis proposed by Hufschmidt and McCauly [6] for integrating issues identified in these international studies was noted as reflecting the observations of historic importance in the U.S. water resource management. Though extremely useful, the proposed framework falls short of providing for unique national orientations in such countries as Japan where contemporary water resource planning and management has been looked upon more as public enterprising than water management in true sense of the words.