**7. Hula valley farmers and Kinneret limnologists should be friends**

Since 1993 flocks of migratory Cranes (*Grus grus*) stay during 4 winter months in the Hula Valley. The Crane wintering provided the most attractive target for Eco-tourism [42]. The winter migrating of app. 50,000 Cranes in the Hula Valley during 4 months are very attractive, and the touristic visits were enhanced significantly from about 50,000 during the early 1990's to almost half a million presently. The Crane wintering flocks created severe difficulties, including damage of agricultural crop and nutrient (excretions) sources in Lake Agmon-Hula and further downstream into Lake Kinneret. It might be risky for the stability of the Kinneret Sustainable trait: 50 × 103 Cranes excrete 5.24 gP/Ind./day during 170 days produce approximately 44.5 tons of TP [42] beside other TP sources in the Hula Peat soil, agricultural fertilization and ecological processes in Lake Agmon.

Protection of aquatic Ecosystem sustainability require anthropogenic control throughout the entire watershed. The social, agricultural, hydrological and ecological activities of development in the Hula Valley justify a careful approach., The Crane case, among others, require a significant consideration. The Hula Valley contribute above 50% of the external nutrient inputs into Lake Kinneret and the agricultural management has an impact on nutrients merit to the lake. Ecotouristic management including Crane wintering as visitors' attraction is part of reasonable entire Valley management and Kinneret water quality protection. Therefore collaborative management by the farmers and tourism managers is vital. A collaborative solution between farmers, nature authorities, water managers, land owners, and regional municipalities was budgeted and implemented. Money was allocated for the renting of a 40 ha field block in the valley dedicated as "Feeding Station" where purchased Corn seeds are given to the cranes twice a day. Feeding start in late December and continue until early March when the Cranes fly back to Europe for breeding. Cranes which land prior to Mid-December are deported aimed at reducing number of potential feeders, prevention damage and reduction of the cost of Corn seeds. This

*Landscape Architecture - Processes and Practices Towards Sustainable Development*

Copepoda 9.0 (33) 2.3–17.7 Cladoceraa 15.9 (59) 8.8–25.1 Rotifera 2.1 (8) 0.9–5.2 Total 27.0 12–48

*).*

**Group Average (g(ww)/m2**

*Rotifera, Total) WW-biomass (g(ww)/m<sup>2</sup>*

lakes Phosphorus removal is ultimately required. Because Phosphorus removal was excluded Sustainability protection was only a partial success: zooplankton biomass was recovered but algal biomass was not reduced [36–39]. The suppression of the enhanced population winter migratory fish consumer Cormorants in Lake Kinneret became essential as a protector of ecosystem sustainability [36–39]. The deportation of Cormorant from Lake Kinneret is a useful implementation of water quality protection. The number of Great Cormorant *(Phalcocorax carbo*) wintering (from the end of October through March) in the Lake Kinneret Region is approximated as 6000 (5000–7000). The predation rate of the Cormorants indicates a daily ration varying between 300 and 1000 grams per bird with the more common value of 700 grams per bird [37, 38]. Six thousand Great Cormorants preying daily at 500 g fish per bird during 100 days removed 300 tons of sub-commercial-sized Tilapia (Mostly *S. galilaeus*) from the lake. However, we have to take into account that the fishes preyed on are below the commercial size of 100 g per fish, that is to say that the potential damage is bigger (legal size >200 g/fish). Individual Tilapia preyed on weighted 50-70 g; if not preyed on they might grow up to commercial size within 5–6 months to be marketed. Consequently, the commercial value of such losses is between 1.5 and 3.0 million US\$. Such a damage to fishermen's income and ecologically to the system can be reduced by aggressive deportation of the Cormorants from Lake Kinneret and simultaneously from their night station site. The ecological contribution of Tilapia to the ecosystem aimed at water quality protection is done through the consumption of *Peridinium* biomass gradually reappeared recently. The recommended accompanied operation is Bleaks removal aimed at releasing zooplankton food biomass to *S. galilaeus*. Predictive recommendations include, among others, is a practical design which is presently under consideration aimed at achieving reduction of fish predation by Cormorant without violating accepted legislations. In other words to protect nature items together with improvement of

*Averages of annual (1969–2001) means and max-min ranges of zooplankton groups (Copepoda, Cladocera,* 

**) (%) Max-min range (g(ww)/m2**

**)**

**136**

11 km2

**Table 6.**

168.9 km<sup>2</sup>

fishery and water quality in Lake Kinneret.

**6. Shallows: beach vegetation interface**

The lake shallows/beach interface is a contradiction between public and eco-limnological services. The surface area of the inundation zone is about

is 55 km and adjacent beach belt width is 50 m. This nearby water beach area is potentially open for recreation service entitled "Aquatic Recreation Belt" (ARB) [41]. Nevertheless, under temporal long-term inundation regime the ARB allocation is not precisely predictive. During heavy precipitation season WL is high and major part of the ABR area is shrunk while after low rainfall season ABR area is wider

, and 213 mbsl with lake bottom area of 161.4 km2

according to: Annual WL fluctuates between 209 with lake bottom area is

, lake shoreline length

achievement initiated benefits for both the landowner farmers by income resource as half a million bird visiting watchers (priced entrance) while the Hula Valley effluents were not significantly deteriorated.

It is suggested that Cranes do not contribute a significant addition of TP to lake Kinneret and the Epilimnion increase is the result of internal sources. Moreover, positive regressions were indicated between River Jordan discharge and nutrient inflow loads which is r2 = 0.596, (p < 0.0001) for TP. Independently, the discharges in the Jordan River were declined since the mid-1980's from 15 to <10 m3 /s caused by precipitation decline.

The reconstruction of the old Hula native Flora and Fauna indicated approximately 300 bird species 12 fish species, 40 plant species observed in the Hula Valley.

The Eco-Touristic Crane Project was designed to be a part of a comprehensive objective aimed at establishment of watershed and lake Kinneret ecosystems sustainability.

The Hula Reclamation Project was aimed at ensuring sustainability of modified eco-systems by bridging over the conflict between agriculture development, Kinneret water quality protection and nature conservation. The tension between farmers, water managers, nature preservation was reduced, and collaboration came instead. The outcome of the HP was renewal of an ecosystem, which has become a tourist attraction including enriching the biological diversity.

### **8. Conclusive summary**

The management of Lake Kinneret and its watershed require a national attempt to ensure their sustainability. These ecosystems are crucial for the nation and their protection is the national concern. Their functional efficiency can be achieved by long term managerial operation conducted by principles of sustainability. The outcome of this paper evaluations are the following recommendations: Lake Management: (1) Shorter length of residence time to enhance water exchange and input of desalinized waters and together with pumped withdraw for supply and Dam open policy and lowering of WL are accepted options; (2) Recommended WL range between 208.8 and 213 mbsl with annual fluctuated amplitude of 1.5 m; (3) Enhance nitrogen supply to the epilimnion to encourage Peridinium bloom renovation; (4) Stocking of *Sarotherodon galilaeus* and *Hypophthalmichthys molitrix* and implementation and enforcement of fishery regulations; (5): Renewal bleaks fishery; (6): Mowing of aquatic vegetation in public beaches; Management of the Watershed: Enhance peat soil moisture through continuation of the "Peat Soil Convention"; agricultural maintenance accompanied by eco-tourism with reasonable population size of cranes and regulated number of visitors.

**139**

**Author details**

Moshe Gophen

MIGAL, Kiryat Shmone, Israel

\*Address all correspondence to: gophen@Migal.org.il

provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

*Sustainable Utilization of the Lake Kinneret and Its Watershed Ecosystems: A Review*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93727*

*Sustainable Utilization of the Lake Kinneret and Its Watershed Ecosystems: A Review DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93727*
