Architecture Commons^™

Introduction, Tor Hundloe

Tor Hundloe

ExtractAsk people to think of a catchment and they tend to think of large geographical areas and extensive communities, for example the Nile River and all the people who work on and around it and benefit from it. As the Nile catchment illustrates, many large catchments extend beyond the boundaries of one nation. For some of the world’s largest river basins, not just two, but many more countries can have some or all of their territory in the basin. National boundaries dissect catchments. A variety of different land uses and human occupations make diversity the norm of catchment economies and …

The Principles Of Sustainability And Economics, Tor Hundloe

Tor Hundloe

ExtractWe have already pointed out that in 1987 the United Nations’ four- year-long investigation of environmental and development matters, the Brundtland Report, came to its conclusions and put the concept of sustainable development on the agenda of governments worldwide. Five principles underpin the concept. Two are ethical constructs, rather than being science-based. The first, and best known, is the principle of intergenerational equity. At its simplest this requires us to manage the globe’s ecosystems and economies in a manner whereby future generations will be worse off than present generations. And for those presently living in poverty, it requires much improvement …

The Value Of Water, Tor Hundloe

Tor Hundloe

ExtractOur catchment is different from those that supply towns and cities with water for residential purposes and those that supply industry (for example providing cooling for power plants). It is a simple catchment, meeting simple needs - farming, oyster growing, and residential needs for drinking and washing water. We have already explained the controversy that has arisen over the proposal to change water allocation in the catchment by constructing a large dam in a corner of the upper catchment. Rather than to go immediately to the issue of the value of water if switched between users, we take the effort …

The People And Use Of Natural Resources, Tor Hundloe, Peter Daniels, Amy White, Christine Crawford

Tor Hundloe

Extract With the brief history behind us, we now start to develop our understanding of the Little Swanport catchment as it is today. While considerable time will be spent on description, never far from our mind will be the central issues and questions we have dealt with in the lead-up to our case study. If this river basin was a nation (obviously a tiny one, in the San Marino league), what would we make of its economy and society? As a river basin, could its economy and society be improved by changing its present use of water, the resource that …

The World's Great River Basins, Tor Hundloe, Amy White

Tor Hundloe

Extract All of us live, work, and manage our affairs in what we call a nation or country. We expect to find rivers and river basins, if only the most meagre ones, in all countries. The tiniest amount of rain needs to drain somewhere - unless the soil or sand is so porous that it disappears without trace. Draining water forms a rivulet. A number of rivulets fed by the same rainfall combine to form a proto-catchment or rivulet basin. Australia is a country containing many significant river basins, one large and dominant, plus hundreds of smaller ones. Our challenge, …

Introduction To Sustainability, Tor Hundloe

Tor Hundloe

ExtractWhat do we think when using the term sustainability? If we wish to sustain the ecology, the economy, and the social relationships in a river basin, what do we mean? I imagine we think of it in terms of sustaining our particular lifestyles, assuming they are enjoyable. We think of sustaining jobs - no one wishes to worry about losing paid work. This would apply regardless of how we view our work - even work we do not enjoy is valuable because it pays the bills. We want to sustain our incomes however they are earned, as profits, as wages, …

An Introduction To The Little Swanport Catchment, Tor Hundloe

Tor Hundloe

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From here on, the book deals in considerable detail with one small catchment. What goes on in the catchment is described, places of interest are identified and so are some individuals. Our research took us deep into the lives of people in a small catchment. Of course, we cannot, and do not, delve far into personal matters where they must remain personal. Our interests are the social, economic and environmental relationship in a tiny catchment. Historical facts and matters of community interest that residents shared with us, and are willing to share with the reader, are here to be …

A Short History Of The Catchment Settlement, Tor Hundloe, Michelle Wenner

Tor Hundloe

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As already noted, our catchment has a human history of some significance – feeding approximately one-tenth of the Indigenous Tasmanian population for millennia. Of this we know little, and so it will remain indefinitely. There are no history books to read. However, it is for our research, at the very least, to sketch the available history of the catchment, because history does matter, and there is invariably what economists call ’path dependence’ - what occurs today can be traced to what happened yesterday, the day before and the day before that, going back to some earlier ’tipping point’ in …

Economic Values Of Nature, Tor Hundloe

Tor Hundloe

ExtractIn this and the next chapter, we take up the challenge of how we might formally link the economy to the environment. First some background which follows on from our previous discussion. It has become increasingly obvious during the past 50 years that nature is being degraded through the release of pollutants and widespread over-use of natural resources, both finite and renewable. It costs polluters nothing to use and abuse the rivers, the oceans, and the atmosphere. Thor Heyerdahl, in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean more than 60 years ago, was astounded to find large blobs of pollutants …

Practical Measurements: Water As An Ecosystem Good, Tor Hundloe

Tor Hundloe

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We started with the proposition that catchments (or river basins) would form ideal national boundaries. Although a river can wind through myriad sub-ecosystems (from mountains, to grasslands, to wetlands), it is the life blood of the system, falling water, running water, underground water and evaporating water, that captures our attention and presents both the opportunities and constraints that define our natural economy. If a catchment (presumably a large one) was a nation, the first thing we would do is construct a comprehensive model of its economy. Our treasury departments, in particular, and our governments in general, could not operate …

The Catchment Regional Economy, Tor Hundloe, Peter Daniels

Tor Hundloe

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A catchment’s surrounding environment is not limited to towns and cities on the periphery of the catchment. It is likely that a far wider, much larger economy is associated with the catchment community and its economy. That wider economy could be the state, province or nation in which the catchment sits. Recall our discussion of the Nile River basin - the basin is Egypt, the rest is desert. Egypt would not be a country without the Nile. The Mississippi-Missouri River basin in the United States is not all of the United States, but nevertheless a great slice of it. …

Conclusions, Christine Crawford, Tor Hundloe

Tor Hundloe

Extract We have come to understand the human-environment dynamics of a small Tasmanian catchment. Our focus throughout the extended period we spent in the field (and sitting in front of computer screens) was to explore the relationships between the use of water by farmers and the needs of oyster growers. The relationship between upstream catchment activities and the quality and quantity of water downstream (in estuaries and off-shore lagoons) is the fundamental issue in catchment management. It necessitates an analysis of the value of water in different, and often competing, uses. On the face of it, that might seem a …