The hydrological units of administration (e.g. Drainage Departments, etc.) often do not correspond with the planning units or administrative units (New Orleans synchronised them after Katrina). Which levels should be distinguished in a spatial sense, with the river basin being the biggest scale?
The hydrotechnical units of the drainage of deltacities are set by human planning. Do the engineered units of control of water correspond with the hydrologic-ecologic understanding of waterflows?
Dear Benjamin. The definition of Hydrolgical Units is more related to the type of soil and the drainage capacity of the soil within a river basin. However, I see in your question that you are more interested in urban basin administration. I think, sometimes, basin authorities take decisions not always based on hydrological units but on political issues mainly in developing countries.
Therefore, if you are planning make an spatial analysis, you should include more non technical information. It is true that topography, climate, flooding areas help to make a decision; but other information such as population density, services density, poverty, evacuation routes and other.
I am not an expert in planning, but I expect those variables influencing a lot in decision making.
Dear colleague,
The hydrological units (rainfall, runoff, recharge, surface drainage and deep drainage to groundwater) may not necessarily be within same administrative boundaries. One of the solutions is to promote integrated water resources management which has its own challenges. I refer you to one of recent articles:
http://www.ipsonet.org/publications/open-access/water-policy-main
Dear David and Shabaz,
thanks for your answers. I realised the different perspectives of different disciplines are an important factor when talking about water in a planning context. It is very helpful to use the shift in perspective to understand demands of different disciplines for decision-making in their "units", even this decisions should increasingly be done transdisciplinary.
I try to come to an inclusion of viewpoints to form a framework for a delta-city like Bangkok to transform for a living with water. Therefore I will check how your mentioned units can dock on the framework. The IWRM-issue is a big challenge and definitely needs co-production of knowledge, I will read your article, thanks a lot.
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