Water Resources Management Research Papers (original) (raw)

Developing countries such as Brazil, with limited track-records in dealing with environmental conflicts on a participatory basis, or whose legal frameworks establishing water resource management practices have been introduced only recently, need mechanisms that streamline and strengthen democratic negotiating and decision processes. Increasingly common worldwide, transferring water is developing into a specific source of disputes whose solutions are becoming significant, particularly in the developing countries. This paper analyzes the application of the strategic choice methodology in a dispute over transferring water between two river basins, which is a situation not covered by specific legislation in Brazil. This analysis leads to the conclusion that the application of this methodology is particularly relevant in cases such as this, where decisions are taken on an incremental basis over time, within a context of political, administrative and legal uncertainties.

- by and +1
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- Water, Methodology, Case Studies, Conflict Resolution

Albay, M., Oruç Babuşçu, F., Berberoğlu, U., Biçkici, E., Çakmak, Ö., Çamur, D., ... Yılmaz, Ş. (2014). Su Sağlığı ve Su Kalitesinin İyileştirilmesi. In M. Müezzinoğlu, & E. Gümüş (Eds.), Çok Paydaşlı Sağlık Sorumluluğunu Geliştirme... more

- by Yelda Aydin Turk
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- Water, Environmental Studies, Water quality, Turkey

Anayasanın 98 inci İçtüzüğün 104 ve 105 inci Maddeleri Uyarınca Bir Meclis Araştırması Açılmasına İlişkin Önergeleri ve (10/1, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17) Esas Numaralı Meclis Araştırması Komisyonu Raporu TÜRKİYE BÜYÜK MİLLET MECLİSİ BAŞKANLIĞINA Sanayileşmiş ülkelerin atmosfere saldıkları gazların, dünya üzerinde sera etkisi yaratması sonucu, dünya yüzeyinin sıcaklığı artmaktadır. Bu da dünyayı olumsuz etkilemekte ve küresel ısınmaya neden olmaktadır, Bilim insanlarının 1860'tan günümüze kadar tuttukları kayıtların ortalamasına bakıldığında, sıcaklığın 0,5 ile 0,8 derece arttığını görmekteyiz. 2100 yılına kadar da sıcaklığın 1,8 ila 4 derece arasında yükseleceği iddia edilmektedir.

- by MUAZ AYHAN IŞIK
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- Climate Change, Gender, Waste Management, Sustainable Water Resources Management

To illustrate and test the applicability and performance of the innovative honey-bee mating optimization (HBMO) algorithm in highly non-convex hydropower system design and operation, two problems are considered: single reservoir and multi-reservoir. Both hydropower problems are formulated to minimize the total present net cost of the system, while achieving the maximum possible ratio for generated power to installed capacity. The single hydropower reservoir problem is approached by the developed algorithm in 10 different runs. The first feasible solution was generated initially and later improved significantly and solutions converged to a near optimal solution very rapidly. In the application of the proposed algorithm to a five-reservoir hydropower system with 48 periods and a total of 230 decision variables, in early mating flights, the first feasible solution was identified and the results converged to a near optimal solution in later mating flights. In the case of the multi-reservoir problem, an efficient gradient-based nonlinear-programming solver (LINGO 8.0) failed to find a feasible solution and for the single hydropower reservoir design problem it performed much worse than the proposed algorithm.

While the relations between climate variables and sectoral water demand have been well established in the literature, few studies have attempted to quantify changes in urban water usage with climate change. Concentrating on the city of Hamilton, New Zealand, we investigate possible water use and infrastructure needs for a range of climate and population projections. We find that water demand (at the monthly aggregate level) is largely driven by changes in population, and not significantly affected by changes in climate. However, as population increases, the effect of climate variables on per capita consumption will be magnified. Monthly aggregate changes may further mask potenially significant short-term shortages. In several scenarios, water supply shortages in 2030 occur with a 30-40% probability, suggesting needs for long-term capacity expansion or aggressive demand side management, rather than implementation of short-term management of water demand.

- by Matthias Ruth
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- Climate Change, Water resources, Climate variability, Water Resources Management

To have an efficient water distribution network, design alternatives need to be identified and analysed. This paper shows how the hydraulic modelling software, WaterGEMS, coupled with an integrated fast-messy genetic algorithm can be used to assess and select an optimum design alternative. The sole objective of the optimisation modelling was to minimise network cost subject to hydraulic and design constraints. Before being applied to the real network of Maun, Botswana, the fast-messy genetic algorithm was tested using the benchmark case study of Hanoi, Vietnam. The findings of the test revealed that the fast-messy genetic algorithm is superior to other popular metaheuristics (standard GA, simulated annealing, shuffled frog leaping algorithm, and shuffled complex evolution) in terms of processing speed. For the water distribution network of Maun, the focus was on finding the best trunk network pipeline route between two optimised options. Both alternative routes were designed to satisfy current and future (2020, 2025) peak hour demands.

- by Tshepo Jankie and +1
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- Hydraulics, Sustainable Water Resources Management, Water Resources Management, Integrated Water Resources Management

A genetic algorithm (GA) and a backward moving stochastic dynamic programming (SDP) model has been developed for derivation of operational policies for a multi-reservoir system in Kodaiyar River Basin, Tamil Nadu, India. The model was developed with the objective of minimizing the annual sum of squared deviation of desired target releases. The total number of population, crossover probability and number of generations of the GA model was optimized using sensitivity analysis, and penalty function method was used to handle the constraints. The policies developed using the SDP model was evaluated using a simulation model with longer length of inflow data generated using monthly time stepped Thomas-Fiering model. The performance of the developed policies were evaluated using the performance criteria namely, the monthly frequency of irrigation deficit (MFID), Monthly average irrigation deficit (MAID), Percentage monthly irrigation deficit (PMID), Annual frequency of irrigation deficit (AFID), Annual average irrigation deficit (AAID), and Percentage annual irrigation deficit (PAID). Based on the performance, it was concluded that the robostic, probabilistic, random search GA resulted in better optimal operating policies for a multi-reservoir system than the SDP models.

- by Vinayakam Jothiprakash
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- Genetic Algorithms, Policy Development, Sensitivity Analysis, Tamil Nadu

Pressure control is one of the main techniques to control leakages in Water Distribution Networks (WDNs) and to prevent pipe damage, improving the delivery standards of a water supply systems. Pressure reducing stations (PRSs) equipped by either pressure reducing valves or motor driven regulating valves are commonly used to dissipate excess hydraulic head in WDNs. An integrated new technical solution with economic and system flexibility benefits is presented which replaces PRSs with pumps used as turbines (PATs). Optimal PAT performance is obtained by a Variable Operating Strategy (VOS), recently developed for the design of small hydropower plants on the basis of valve time operation, and net return determined by both energy production and savings through minimizing leakage. The literature values of both leakages costs and energy tariffs are used to develop a buisness plan model and evaluate the economic benefit of small hydropower plants equipped with PATs. The study shows that the hydropower installation produces interesting economic benefits, even in presence of small available power, that could encourage the leakage reduction even if water savings are not economically relevant, with consequent environmental benefits.

- by Riccardo Martino
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- Water Resources Management, Multidisciplinary

Effects of multiple types of water use efficiency appliances on long term water savings and water use trend shifts were analyzed. The study group included senior and low income families in the urban areas of Miami-Dade County, Florida, USA. The participants in the study group experienced continuous and significant water savings within 3 years of the implementation of the water conservation incentives. Water savings were observed at approximately 200 l per household per day, which is about 31 % reduction in household water demand in comparison to the average residential water demand within the County. The water use profile of participants showed noticeable shifts over time in water demand frequency curves toward lower water consumption rates. The cost-saving analysis showed that adoption of multiple water efficiency appliances contributed to the highest annual monetary savings (i.e., high water savings and moderate product costs). Future conservation program planning efforts should take both water savings and product cost into account in order to achieve the greatest benefits.

- by Mengshan Lee
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- Water Resources Management, Multidisciplinary

The continuous high demand of water resources for agricultural uses in Jordan is leading to a water crisis. A possible partial solution may be to import food which requires large amounts of water to grow instead of cultivating high water consuming crops. Crops such as banana and citrus cause a huge virtual water loss, which can be reduced by cultivating other less water-demanding crops. This paper focuses on analyzing the economic value of cultivating tree fruit from a virtual water perspective. The virtual water calculations in this study depend on the average rainfall, water quota, and the crops' water requirements (CWR). The gross profit to the water use ratio showed that banana has the lowest value 0.085 JD/m 3 , while lemon has the highest value 1.65 JD/m 3 . The calculations show that the average embedded water in fruits varies from about 470 m 3 /ton for grapes to about 2,500 m 3 /ton for dates. Banana and citrus plantations consume about 21 and 71 million cubic meters (MCM) annually, respectively, which represent about 85% of the total water consumption in fruit tree plantation. The virtual water flow estimation embedded in fruits shows that Jordan imports about 77 MCM per year. However it exports about 29 MCM per year. The results were analyzed from an integrated water resources management (IWRM) perspective. The analysis shows that a way to recover some of the water costs involved in, e.g., banana production would be

- by Hartmut Gaese and +1
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- Water, Water resources, Consumption, Water Resources Management
- by Erin Bohensky
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- Social-Ecological Systems, Water Resources Management

Seventy-five percent of the available water resources in Malaysia are used for rice irrigation. Proper water management must be given due emphasis to effectively manage the water resources. This study analyzed field level practices, which could save irrigation water and thus increase area to be irrigated. The analyses were conducted for both the pre-saturation and normal supply periods using field data collected at the Besut irrigation scheme, Malaysia. Based on field water requirements and available flows at the intake structures, canal simulation was performed using the CanalMan model (Utah State University) together with water balance. The results have shown that pre-saturation should not be done continuously unless flow rates are at least 9.00 and 3.00 m3 s−1 for the Besut and Angga barrages, respectively. If the flow rate falls below these values, then pre-saturation should be done in two phases. However, when the flow rate is between 5.00 and 5.50 m3 s−1 at Besut barrage, pre-saturation should be done in three phases. The simulated schedules were compared with present pre-saturation schedules and it was observed that irrigable area could be increased by 10% than that at present. During the period of normal irrigation supply to the fields, there must be flow rates of at least 5.00 m3 s−1 and 1.50 m3 s−1 at the Besut and Angga barrages, respectively; in order to maintain irrigation supply to the whole irrigation scheme. Otherwise, selective irrigation or irrigation on a rotational basis will have to be enforced.

- by angga putra
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- Water, Irrigation, Water resources, Water Resources Management

This theme issue re-engages the ghost of Wittfogel in ethnographically grounded conversations around the imbrication of water, power, and infrastructure. It examines social and political relations in ways that take their tensions and correspondences with water seriously, as Wittfogel did half a century ago, but in a less monolithic and totalizing manner. Instead, the contributions pay attention to the situated, partial, multiple, and open-ended encounters that (un)make these links. Together, the papers collected in this theme issue build a critical conversation around the role of water in configuring and reproducing power. Its major threads are the construction of authority through water, the social complexity of water relations, and the interrelationships between water, infrastructure, and political rule.

- by Franz Krause
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- Civil Engineering, Anthropology, Ethnography, Water Resources Management

We are all dependent on water. We need it every day, in so many ways. We need it to stay healthy; we need it for growing food, for transportation, irrigation and industry. Under the existing trend of climatic change, serious problems will occur accompanying the intensive migratory processes of the population living in the arid regions. The main goals of the project was increasing local population's participation in decision-making process on ecological issues by raising their awareness on irrigation water pollution issues, reinforcing them to participate in investigation of the problem in frames of the project, and supporting them to impact on local water resource management policy.

- by Nana Bolashvili and +1
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- Water Resources Management

Efficient natural resources management, including continental water at watershed level, requires understanding the arrangement of landscape attributes in a region. The geographical analysis of landscape attributes is a useful approach to delineate relatively homogeneous watersheds or regions. This research was carried out in order to evaluate the effect of land cover through time on regionalisation modelling in the poorly-gauged Cuitzeo Lake Watershed, and to develop models to create two hydrogeographical regionalisations for the years 1975 and 2000. The inputs required by the regionalisation methodology were integrated in a GIS and validated before carrying out statistical regionalisation procedures (cluster analysis and PCA). GIS operations were done in Arc View 3.2 and statistical analyses in PC-ORD. Median Euclidean distances with mean distance linkage methods were used. A 75% of similarity was chosen as the threshold to generate regions. Importance rankings of regions were obtained using multicriteria evaluation methods. Based on the analysis, 38 of the 52 subwatersheds belonging to the Cuitzeo Lake Watershed were clustered; eight groups were defined in 1975 and nine in 2000. According to PCA, the strongest positive variables are associated to morphometric, geologic, land cover and soil attributes. Fourteen subwatersheds were never clustered. Four subwatersheds changed of cluster between 1975 and 2000. This change is explained because of rainfed agricultural parcel abandonment, and subsequent shrubland growth. This means that the hydrogeographical regionalisation is sensitive to land cover change processes. The methodological approach applied in this research is a low-cost and fast alternative for evaluating the impact of land cover and land use change on hydrogeographical regionalisation; in consequence, data and information generated during the analysis were made available to local authorities so that they can improve both water resources planning and their informational baseline for decision making and for development of environmental policies in the Cuitzeo Lake Watershed.

Recently, the U.S. EPA issued the 303(d) list of impaired waters in Idaho State that contained the causes of impairment. This 303(d) list provides useful information that can be used to determine the Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs). Implementation of TMDLs should result in pollutant reductions, which, in turn can lead to the restoration of these water bodies. Flow alteration is one of the potential sources of impairments in the Big Lost River in south-central Idaho, which have some negative impacts on the water quality and beneficial uses. Flow in the Big Lost River is altered, both in quantity and quality, and this reduces recreation activities, affects the fish assemblage, and changes the composition and relative abundance of aquatic species. The effect of riparian vegetation is another factor that needs to be predicted. In addition, three conservation schemes (construction of upstream reservoirs, downstream reservoirs, and canal linings) were proposed to restore flow in the downstream reaches of the river and compensate for water loss during the low flood seasons. However, there is no single predictive model that can be used to appropriately represent each of these issues as management decisions. In this paper, an expert system in the form of a Bayesian network, a graphical diagram of nodes and arcs, was implemented to examine all significant water management variables and relationships among these variables. Lining the irrigation canals was found to be the best scheme, followed by constructing an upstream reservoir. The TMDLs would benefit the water quality in the watershed but would not significantly increase the water quantity and solve the flow alteration problem. Consequently, this can be used to determine the sequence of decisions that can be taken in the future.

- by Ahmed Said
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- Management, Water, Water quality, Water Resources Management

This paper provides a method for evaluating the residual lives of water pipes using the proportional hazards model (PHM) based on the economically optimal replacement times of pipes. The survival times, which are used in the proportional hazards modeling process, were defined as the economically optimal replacement times of pipes. The break rate of an individual pipe is estimated using the General Pipe Break Model (GPBM). The optimal replacement time of a pipe is obtained using the equivalence relationship between the GPBM and threshold break rate. In order to use the GPBM effectively, the process of estimating the GPBM has been modified in this paper by utilizing additional break data for the time of installation and adjusting the value of the weighting factor (WF) in the GPBM. The residual lives and hazard ratios of the case study pipes, of which the cumulative number of breaks was at least one, were estimated using the estimated survivor function of the constructed PHM. The time-dependency of the pipe material covariate caused the hazard rate of the cast iron pipes to become lower than the hazard rate of the steel pipes after 19 years since installation. The methodology developed in this paper may help utilities identify important factors related to the economics of water pipe maintenance and; therefore more efficiently maintain their water pipes.

- by Suwan Park
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- Methodology, Water resources, Case Studies, Prediction
- by Todd Holmes
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- Business, Water, Environmental History, American West

A consensus was echoed at different regional consultation platforms that there is a legitimate need for the development of a new initiative that could both strengthen and compliment capacity of the Mekong countries and existing institutions in improving water resources data management. Conditionally, the new initiative must identify its clear and responsive objectives and focuses aiming to truly fill gaps and needs at regional and country levels. It is also required to well compliment and join forces with among other existing initiatives and to avoid duplications. To pursuing inclusiveness and informing decisions should also be the core values.
This draft discussion paper, Rapid Needs Assessment-Improving Data for Mekong Water Resources Management aims to provide an updated situation of and capacity needs for water resources data management in the Lower Mekong region. It also hopes to provide guidance and directions for potential opportunities of the new initiative, and how it can well engage key partners.

- by Suparerk Janprasart
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- Water Resources Management

A tank model consisting of three tanks was developed for prediction of runoff and sediment yield. The sediment yield of each tank was computed by multiplying the total sediment yield by the sediment yield coefficients; the yield was obtained by the product of the runoff of each tank and the sediment concentration in the tank. The sediment concentration of the first tank was computed from its storage and the sediment concentration distribution (SCD); the sediment concentration of the next lower tank was obtained by its storage and the sediment infiltration of the upper tank; and so on. The SCD, caused by the incremental source runoff (or the effective rainfall), was obtained by the theory of the instantaneous unit sediment graph (IUSG) and a sediment routing function. Using the SCD, the sediment yield was computed from the tank model as well as by the IUSG model. The sediment yield obtained from the tank model was then compared with that from the IUSG model. Finally, the tank model was verified on an upland watershed in northwestern Mississippi.

- by Vijay Singh
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- Theory, Prediction, Water Resources Management, Multidisciplinary

A novel approach that borrows methods commonly used in environmental geophysics was developed for obtaining the estimates of the aquifer parameters. Specifically, estimates of hydraulic conductivity were obtained from field measurements of the electrical resistivity while accounting for the karsticity of the geological formations in the area of study. Geophysically determined hydraulic conductivity estimates were introduced to a 3-D groundwater numerical simulator (Princeton Transport Code -PTC) to compute the hydraulic heads distribution of the area of interest. The calibration of the numerical model was obtained matching the hydraulic-heads predicted by the simulator with the hydraulic-heads measured at specific well locations. Simulated hydraulic-heads were used with the Chyben-Herzberg equation to approximate the position of the sharp freshwater/saltwater interface of the base of the water supply aquifer. The existence of the faults impacts the groundwater flow and the distribution of the freshwater/saltwater interface.

This paper presents a contingent valuation study concerning landscape impacts generated by the construction of one dam (Baker 1) of the HIDROAYSEN hydropower project located in the Chilean Patagonia. A survey was used to collect information about citizens’ opinions towards the hydropower project in four major cities in Chile. Specifically, a One-and-One-Half-Bound (OOHB) willingness to pay eliciting format was applied to capture citizens’ WTP. The economic loss, associated to the landscape impacts for people living in urban areas of the country, is found to be approximately US$ 205 million, which is nearly 28% of the total investment. Our results also show that the cities’ distance from the dam affects citizens’ willingness to pay.

- by Alejandra Stehr
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- Water resources, Landscape, Water Resources Management, Multidisciplinary

Along with the sequent completion of Manwan and Dachaoshan Dam, the river continuum of the middle and lower reaches of the Lancang River was separated into three types of segments: reservoir, below-dam segment and downstream flowing segment. The long-term series of water quality and river flow data over 20 years were analyzed in order to study the impact of dam construction and operation on water quality and water self-purification capacity of these different river segments. From pre-dam period to the first 7 years after Manwan Dam had been accomplished, the water quality of Manwan Reservoir became worse due to the accumulation of pollutants, and then to the next 5 years the water quality became better in virtue of the water self-purification of the reservoir. The cooperative operation of Manwan and Dachaoshan Dam had cumulatively positive impacts on water quality of their below-dam segment but no impacts on that of downstream flowing segment. From pre-dam period to the first 7 years after the closure of Manwan Dam, the water self-purification capacity of Xiaowan–Manwan segment for BOD5, CODMn and NH3–N decreased. Also, the water self-purification capacity of Manwan–Dachaoshan segment for BOD5 and CODMn decreased but for NH3–N increased. However, the water self-purification capacity of Jinghong–Ganlanba segment changed contrary to Manwan–Dachaoshan segment. In general, the construction of Manwan Dam negatively affected the water self-purification capacity of reservoir and below-dam segment but impose little impact on that of downstream flowing segment. This study suggested that it is necessary to pay attention to the effect of complicated temporal and spatial characteristics of dam on aquatic ecosystem.

- by Shikui Dong
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- Water quality, Water Resources Management, Multidisciplinary, Aquatic Ecosystem

The understanding of how people evaluate and respond to natural hazards in an urban area, and how this knowledge can be integrated in the planning and management process, are becoming very important elements of a comprehensive and participatory approach to flood hazard management. Such an approach demands a clear comprehension of the processes of the risks perception, causal attribution, possible solutions for the problem and patterns of behaviour developed during hazard situations. The willingness of the public to participate in flood management, and the attitudes to previous initiatives also need to be addressed. The provision of structural flood defences can have a major impact on the environment and there has been an expression of concern by many members of the public for the degradation of river corridors. In this context, it is becoming a commonly accepted practice by central or local governments to submit flood management plans to public discussion. Appropriate techniques for interfacing with the public are necessary to support this upsurge of public involvement. This paper presents results from research on public perception of floods, flood management and participatory initiatives in Setúbal, Portugal. An extensive interview programme was undertaken with residents and shopkeepers – with and without flood experience, professionals responsible for dealing with flood control problems and local authorities responsible for decision-making on flood management. The paper concludes with a number of recommendations for flood hazard management policy making and processes.

- by Graça AN Saraiva
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- Decision Making, Water resources, Water Resources Management, Multidisciplinary

The Bowen ration energy balance (BREB) is considered as a standard method for estimating lake evaporation. The BREB method however requires numerous input data which may not be readily available especially in developing countries. This limitation could be solved by using methods with fewer data requirements. Evaporation from lakes and reservoirs in Iran is commonly estimated using pan evaporation because there have not been a consensus on which methods are most applicable under the limited data condition and arid climate. Therefore, the objective of this research was to determine the most appropriate evaporation methods over Doosti dam reservoir in Iran. Eighteen existing methods were tested and ranked based on the BREB method. The Jensen-Haise, Makkink, Penman and deBruin methods were among the most consistent methods with BREB in which the RMSD values were obtained 1.2, 1.34, 1.62 and 1.65 mm d −1 , respectively. Finally, we concluded that methods which rely only on air temperature, or air temperature combined with sunshine data (e.g., Jensen-Haise and Makkink), were relatively cost-effective options for estimating evaporation at the study area due to their simplicity, least sensitivity and high accuracy. Keywords Evaporation. Limited data. Semi-arid. Sensitivity analysis Nomenclature E the evaporation rate (mm d −1) R n the net radiation (W m −2) N the change in the energy storage in the water (W m −2) λ the latent heat of vaporization c the specific heat of water (J kg −1) F in and F out the heat fluxes from water flows in and out of the water body (W m −2) F P the heat inflow from precipitation (W m −2

- by Maysam Majidi
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- Water Resources Management, Multidisciplinary

La Agenda 2030 representa la más ambiciosa iniciativa mundial en favor de la sostenibilidad del desarrollo, expresada en objetivos concretos que promueven la prosperidad económica y el bienestar social a escala universal, a través de un esfuerzo sin precedentes para recuperar y preservar la calidad del medio ambiente. Los objetivos del desarrollo sostenible (ODS) asociados a dicha agenda han sido adoptados por México como parte de su marco de planeación para el desarrollo. Como en muchos países, para el nuestro este compromiso plantea enormes retos en materia de financiamiento, ejecución y monitoreo, en un contexto de restricciones financieras crecientes. Uno de los objetivos específicos de esta agenda es el Objetivo 6: “Garantizar la disponibilidad de agua y su gestión sostenible y el saneamiento para todos”; es además un factor transversal fundamental para lograr otras metas en materia de salud, superación de la pobreza, productividad económica, equidad de género, preservación de ecosistemas y acceso a la educación. A pesar de esta importancia central del tema, sin embargo, en México la gestión del agua pasa por una etapa crítica en materia no sólo de limitación presupuestal, sino de una deficiente estructura de gobernanza, desarticulación institucional, deterioro de las capacidades técnicas, obsolescencia y rezago en infraestructura, así como una creciente vulnerabilidad ante los fenómenos naturales. El logro de los ODS en general, y en el sector agua en particular, no sólo requerirá de un enorme esfuerzo financiero, sino sobre todo de una reorganización estructural que corrija las distorsiones en la planificación, el financiamiento, la ejecución, la implementación y la evaluación de las acciones. En este capítulo se abordan estos retos y se proponen algunas líneas de discusión para construir una nueva forma de gestión del recurso para México, íntegra, profesional y solidaria.

- by Ricardo Sandoval Minero
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- Water Resources Management, México

The sustainability challenges faced by islands in the European Union (EU) are not well reflected in EU policy, where the approach to island issues has been incremental and fragmented. This paper identifies EU islands and their main sustainability issues, and argues for a stronger awareness of island issues in EU policy processes. It notes in particular the current restrictive definition of islands, which excludes island states, and the fact that the issues of peripherality and insularity do not fit into any of the categories provided in the EU's impact assessment guidelines. Moreover, since European islands are found at various administrative scales, there is a lack of harmonized statistical data on fundamental factors necessary for monitoring their sustainable development.

- by Saviour Formosa and +1
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- Archaeology, Maritime Archaeology, Conservation Biology, Landscape Archaeology

Abstract
Attention has been growing recently in the water problems in the world, and the urgent need to write a scientific book on water resources in the province of Basra in particular because it is the most severe spot drought in the world,
The problems of water in Basra are multiple and rooted and have a temporal dimension (political and social complex), so there is a need to disassemble and analyze the scientific resources available from the water wealth, and design features conducive to finding practical solutions to possible problems, and the book presents a summary of research experience and personal coexistence researcher with the hydrological situation in In the south of Iraq during several different periods witnessed a striking disparity between the abundance of water and scarcity, and the prospect of the near future confirmed the scarcity of drought-prone, also to develop possible solutions to address the reality of water deteriorating in Basra, the book included fourteen chapters of the scientific view of the hydrological situation The book also included an explanation of the implemented water projects and proposals for the integrated management of water resources, streams and channels, and innovative ideas for the transformation of the main freshwater transporters to be less extensive and the most important design of the channels (Al-Bida'a and Kteeban Canals), and to benefit from the flow of sea water in the Shatt al-Arab and co-exist with it, and to develop a new vision to deal with the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in the central and southern areas in the introduction of sustainable agricultural and pastoral varieties. Reducing waste and depletion to cope with climate change and increasing reservoir and irrigation projects, as well as preparing for the expected water shortages and the deterioration of their quality, and planning for traditional water alternatives by using Gulf water resources that are permanent water and non-traditional resources that meet some of the population's needs. In Basra, the authors made recommendations on the development of economic activities such as aquaculture, power generation, transport, fishing and tourism.

- by Hassan K H A L E E L H . AL_Mahmood
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- Climate Change, Water, Water resources, Drought Stress

... Research at FIU, and Dr. WJ Cooper, Director of DWRC at FIU. ... models, MS thesis, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, Florida. ... Tsihrintzis,VA, Fuentes, HR and Gadipudi, RK:... more

This research work evaluates the impact of stormwater infiltration on the removal of organics, solids, nitrogen and phosphorus in a LECA-based horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetland. Stormwater runoff for the period between January 2008 and June 2010 (30 months) was estimated for the drainage basin of the Vila Fernando wastewater treatment plant (constructed wetland system) and it was observed proportionality between the increase in surface runoff and the infiltration flow rate that reached the plant. The average stormwater infiltration rate that reached the plant was 67.4 m(3) d(-1) (77% of the influent flow rate into the plant). The 30 month monitoring campaign set up at one of the reed beds showed that stormwater infiltration led to a high variation of the hydraulic loading rate (HLR) throughout the bed, which affected its performance in the removal of organic matter, suspended solids and nitrogen. For a HLR below 20 cm d-1 the removal efficiencies for BOD5, COD and TSS doubled. The removal of nitrogen was too low and was associated with the weak development of nitrifying biofilm and the poor growth of reeds. However, it was observed a good relationship between the applied and removed loads for most of the parameters, which seems to indicate that the organic, solid, nitrogen and phosphorus loading rates influenced the respective removal rates. The use of a bed material with high specific surface area, such as LECA, can only improve the treatment capacity of horizontal subsurface flow systems if the organic and solid loading rates, as well as the HLR, can be effectively controlled.

Wetland is a valuable ecosystem for the sustainable environment both for present and future generations. Wetlands are used for multiple purposes, and it has significant role in the livelihood of the local people in riverine country like Bangladesh. A particular wetland was selected named " Padma River " in Rajshahi district of the northern part of Bangladesh for the purpose of estimating the economic value. Wetlands possess a high economic value. The economic value of wetland includes both use and non-use values. Wetland use values are associated with a diverse and complex array of direct and indirect uses. Wetland direct use values/benefits are those which can be consumed directly from wetland such as food, water supply, recreation, transport, timber etc. whereas indirect uses benefited people indirectly and arises from the functions occurring within the ecosystem, such as water quality, flood control, ground water recharge and other such functions. Therefore, the objectives of the present study were to estimate the total economic value of non-use attributes of the River at the present with the help of Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). CVM is one of the important methods in environmental valuation, which gives empirical estimates of both use and non-use values of environmental resources. Data collected from questionnaire survey, key informant interview and focus group discussion. The results of the study show that the proposed annual economic value is greater than the present annual economic value. This study would guide the government in identifying the sectoral priorities regarding conservation of wetland and to formulate strategies for the short term as well as the long term effective management of wetland of Rajshahi Division. INTRODUCTION Wetlands are surrounded by the Earth's most productive ecosystems. These Wetlands are described both as "the kidneys of the landscape". Because of the functions wetlands perform in the hydrological and chemical cycles, and as "biological supermarkets" because of the widespread food webs and amusing biodiversity wetlands sustenance. (Barbier et al., 1997). The nation's wetlands play a dynamic character in our social and economic well-being. Wetlands provide services such as amended water quality, groundwater restoring, shoreline securing, natural flood control, and support a diverse variety of fish, wildlife, and plants (Lupi et al., 1991). Bangladesh has the vast area of wetlands including rivers and streams, freshwater lakes and marshes, haors, baors, beels, water storage reservoirs, fish ponds and estuarine systems with extensive mangrove swamps. The haors, baors, beels, and jheels are of fluvial origin and are commonly identified as freshwater wetlands. (Ghosh, 2010). Among the wetlands of Bangladesh, Padma River is an important wetland in Rajshahi City Corporation area under Rajshahi District which now experiences a threat of

- by Abdulla - Al Kafy and +2
- •
- Water Resources Management, Economic valuation of natural resources

Modeling efforts on Nestos river are presented. First, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), within a GIS interface (version AVSWATX), was applied to the lower Nestos River basin in Northern Greece. The model was calibrated and verified with the use of field data collected at four monitoring sites along the river course for a period of 3 years (October 2006-October 2009). The performance of the model was evaluated with the use of numerous statistical parameters, which showed a good agreement between the predicted and the observed values. The validated model was then used to test the impact of various management scenarios on the river flow and nutrient loadings. Second, a fuzzy logic model approach was used for the short-term prediction of water depth and chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) in the river according to measured values. The study showed that both the SWAT model and the fuzzy logic technique, if properly calibrated, could be useful and reliable tools in water resources management.

Water resources planning : Stages in water resources planning, data collection and processing, estimation of future water demands, preliminary planning, institutional set-up, public involvement, formulation and screening of alternatives, models for water resources planning, sensitivity analysis, Environmental and social considerations : Water in environment, environmental impact of water resources projects, environmental impact of reservoirs, environmental problems in command areas.

Integrating human knowledge with modeling tools, an intelligent decision support system (DSS) is developed to assist decision makers during different phases of flood management. The DSS is developed as a virtual planning tool and can address both engineering and non-engineering issues related to flood management. Different models (hydrodynamic, forecasting, and economic) that are part of the DSS share data and communicate with each other by providing feedback. The DSS is able to assist in: ...

- by sajjad ahmad
- •
- System Dynamics, Water Resources Management, Multidisciplinary, Flood Forecasting

This paper presents a Takagi Sugeno (TS) fuzzy method for predicting future monthly water consumption values from three antecedent water consumption amounts, which are considered as independent variables. Mean square error (MSE) values for different model configurations are obtained, and the most effective model is selected. It is expected that this model will be more extensively used than Markov or ARIMA (AutoRegressive Integrated Moving Average) models commonly available for stochastic modeling and predictions. The TS fuzzy model does not have restrictive assumptions such as the stationarity and ergodicity which are primary requirements for the stochastic modeling. The TS fuzzy model is applied to monthly water consumption fluctuations of Istanbul city in Turkey. In the prediction procedure only lag one is considered. It is observed that the TS fuzzy model preserves the statistical properties. This model also helps to make predictions with less than 10% relative error.

- by Abdusselam Altunkaynak
- •
- Water, Fuzzy Logic, Consumption, Prediction

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- by Michalis Fragiadakis
- •
- Water Resources Management, Multidisciplinary

Upper Karha watershed from semi-arid part of Deccan Volcanic Province, India was investigated to identify the potential sites to construct rainwater harvesting structures with the help of remote sensing and geographical information system. Attempt was made to understand the basaltic terrain in spatial context to find out the rainwater harvesting structures like farm ponds, percolation tank, check dams and gully plugs deriving from thematic layers, such as landuse/landcover, slope, soil, drainage and runoff from Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery and other collateral data. Subsequently, these layers were processed to derive runoff from Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN) method using Arc-CN runoff tool. The SCS-CN method shows that the high runoff potential is from water-body, agriculture land (including harvested land) and followed by settlement, open scrub, dense scrub and low for the open forest, dense forest area. Parameters like hydrogeomorphology, geology were considered as per Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development specifications for identification of the structures. The thematic layers overlaid using intersection based on these specifications. Derived sites were investigated for its suitability and implementation by ground truth field verification. In conclusion, the method adopted in present study deciphers the more precise, accurate and ability to process large catchment area than other methods.

Iran is one of arid and semi-arid regions of the world and has experimented many challenges in the sustainability of water resources. With the development of urbanization and the natural and artificial changes in land use, environments called urban watersheds have been created with different hydrological and hydrologic behaviors that design and manage the sustainable management and utilization of water resources in urban areas to rebuild the degradation of nature through urban development. None of the cities in Iran has been studied as a complete network with consideration of all water resources, and no optimization has been done on the allocation of urban water resources. Achieving sustainable development in urban watersheds, requires the development of integrated management models, some of these problems can be solved with using optimum runoff of precipitation in there. The purpose of this research is to investigate how water management in the urban environment and the impact of urban development on the water dynamics and the role of the city's spatial scale and density and their management in urban hydrology. Due to the lack of attention to the engineered water cycle in Iran, in measuring the total city water cycle waste, determining the penetration rate in permeable and impervious urban areas should be among the priorities. It is also important to quantifying the impact of urban areas on climate dynamics in predicting rainfall on a time scale, and should consider the impacts of these events on flood infrastructures, flood risk, and water quality. Keywords: Water Management, Urban Development, Urban Watershed, Sustainable Development

Reclaimed water from small wastewater treatment facilities in the rural areas of the Beira Interior region (Portugal) may constitute an alternative water source for aquifer recharge. A 21-month monitoring period in a constructed wetland treatment system has shown that 21,500 m3 year−1 of treated wastewater
(reclaimed water) could be used for aquifer recharge. A GIS-based multi-criteria analysis was performed, combining ten thematic maps and economic, environmental and technical criteria, in order to produce a suitability map for the location of sites for reclaimed water infiltration. The areas chosen for aquifer
recharge with infiltration basins are mainly composed of anthrosol with more than 1 m deep and fine sand texture, which allows an average infiltration velocity of up to 1 m d−1. These characteristics will provide a final polishing treatment of the reclaimed water after infiltration (soil aquifer treatment (SAT)),
suitable for the removal of the residual load (trace organics, nutrients, heavy metals and pathogens).
The risk of groundwater contamination is low since the water table in the anthrosol areas ranges from 10 m to 50 m. On the other hand, these depths allow a guaranteed unsaturated area suitable for SAT. An area of 13,944 ha was selected for study, but only 1607 ha are suitable for reclaimed water infiltration.
Approximately 1280 m2 were considered enough to set up 4 infiltration basins to work in flooding and
drying cycles.

After some lengthy processes of preparation and consultation, a new framework water law has now been declared as “ready” for Parliamentary procedures. Since Turkey aspires for European Union membership, harmonization with Water Framework Directive (WFD) is one of the key priorities within environmental negotiations. From the outset, the newly proposed water law has been drafted with an eye on WFD requirements. It also targets to eliminate the so-called “patchwork” of water-related legislation in Turkey through adoption of a single yet comprehensive law. This paper analyzes the recent draft Turkish water law in light of WFD rules and principles. It has been observed that the proposed water law appears to be largely in line with these rules. However, there is room for improvement as well. For instance, although the proposed law mentions the full-cost-recovery principle, which is one of indispensable elements of WFD, there is a degree of ambiguity in the law on whether environmental and resource costs would be calculated and recovered in full. It is anticipated that a number of by-laws would provide full-fledged frameworks of operationalization on issues that are not sufficiently articulated in the law itself.

- by Vakur Sümer and +1
- •
- European Studies, European integration, Water quality, European Union

The information on the variability of rainfall is very essential for general planning. Rainfall data in three stations (A, B and C); Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR), Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) and Federal College of Education (FCE), were statistically analysed in assessing the spatial distribution of rainfall within Zaria. Weekly rainfall data analysis observed in the stations simply depicts that weeks 33 and 34 (both in August) have the highest amount of rainfall with station B having the least overall mean weekly rainfall. Monthly rainfall data analysis reveals the month of August receiving the highest amount of rainfall while annual rainfall analysis revealed that, despite their proximity, IAR and Aviation have different years of maximum and minimum rainfall amounts received during the period of the study. They show greater similarity than when compared with the FCE weather station. This situation may be attributed to their proximity. The analysis of variance however confirms that there is no significant difference among the rainfall data of the weather stations.

- by Yakubu O Yusuf
- •
- Hydrology, Water Resources Management

A new lumped conceptual model based on the Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN) concept has been proposed in this paper for long-term hydrologic simulation and it has been tested using the data of five catchments from different climatic and geographic settings of India. When compared with the Mishra et al. (2005) model based on variable source area (VSA) concept, the proposed model performed better in all applications. Both the models however exhibited a better match between the simulated and observed runoff in high runoff producing watersheds than did in low runoff producing catchments. Using the results of the proposed model, dominant/dormant processes involved in watershed’s runoff generating mechanism have also been identified. The presented model is found useful in the continuous simulation of rainfall–runoff process in watersheds.

- by Ankit Mishra
- •
- Water resources, Water Resources Management, Multidisciplinary, Performance Model

The flood hazard caused by Atrato River in Quibdó, northwest of Colombia is assessed using statistical modeling techniques (Gumbel and GRADEX), hydraulic modeling with HEC-RAS and the Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Three flood hazard maps for return periods of 10, 20 and 50 years are generated. The flood hazard modeling reveals that the flooded zone is more significant out of the left (West) bank than out of the right (East) bank of Atrato River. For the three return periods the maximum depth of water reached by the river and extent of flooding are estimated. Sensitivity analysis on roughness coefficient and peak discharge is performed. For 50 year return period (Q = 3054 m 3 /s), water depth on the left and right bank of Atrato River is 3.7 m and 3.1 m, respectively. This information is useful in defining the minimum height of flood protection structures such as dikes to protect the area from flooding. The results can be useful for evacuation planning, estimation of damages and post flood recovery efforts.

- by Sajjad Ahmad
- •
- Water Resources Management, Multidisciplinary

Within river basins different social, economic, political and physical subsystems interact. When making decisions, policy makers should be aware of such interactions as any new policy will affect more than one subsystem. To determine the adequacy of a specific management policy, an integrated study is needed of a complicated water management system in the basin considering major physical, social, economic and political aspects. The Zayandeh-Rud river basin, in central Iran with a semi-arid climate and large agricultural, industrial and domestic water uses, is an example of a complicated watershed system where the lack of complete knowledge about all the interacting subsystems has led to failure of the policy makers in addressing the water shortage in the basin. Although water shortages occur fairly soon after completion of each new water source, transbasin water diversion is still the major policy of water planners to address ongoing shortages. System dynamics provides a unique framework for integrating the disparate physical, socio-economic and political systems important to watershed management. This approach is used to comprehend the interactions of different drivers of the problem and to convey the experiences, lessons learned, and perceptions gained during the model development process. A simulation model, built based on causal loop diagrams of the problem, shows that transbasin diversion is not the best and only solution to the problem. The results of the model for different scenarios suggest that various options of demand management and population control can be more effective in addressing the water crisis of the basin when combined with transbasin water diversions, increasing water storage capacity and controlling of groundwater withdrawal.

- by Kaveh Madani
- •
- System Dynamics, Climate, Water Resources Management, Multidisciplinary

The vulnerability of four European aquifers with different hydrogeological and climatic characteristics was evaluated using the COP method. The results obtained were statistically analyzed by determination coefficients to measure which factor has greater importance in the vulnerability index. Furthermore, a new parameter has been designed to measure the vulnerability for the whole of the aquifer. The results demonstrate that COP is a useful method to assess the vulnerability of the test sites under consideration. The results obtained are coherent with the conceptual model of each pilot aquifer and the available hydrogeological information (hydrographs, isotopic data, tracer tests). Fissured carbonate aquifers (diffuse flow systems) are less vulnerable than karst aquifers (conduit flow systems) and the vulnerability index is more positively correlated with the O factor (unsaturated zone protection capacity) in the first case. The karst aquifers are more vulnerable than fissured aquifers and they show a higher correlation between the C factor (karst features) and the vulnerability index. Climatic variation (precipitation for example) influences the final vulnerability index of the aquifers according to the weight in the index and the spatial distribution.

- by Natasa Ravbar
- •
- Water, Water resources, Statistical Analysis, Risk and Vulnerability

... HYDRAULIC RESISTANCE DETERMINATION IN MARSH WETLANDS ... 3) the flexural properties of the vegetation, (ie, rigid vs flexible vegetation) greatly affect flow properties. ... of the stem section, parameters which measure the... more

Solar stills of four different capacities were fabricated and tested for water distillation. The distilled water production rate performance (PRP) was analyzed. The highest rate of PRP was recorded between 11.30 am and 12.30 noon in all the solar stills studied. It was 0.0287 L/m 2 /hr in unit I, 0.0288 L/m 2 /hr in unit II, 0.0279 L/m 2 /hr in unit III and 0.0267 L/m 2 /hr in unit IV. The study reveals that the solar stills. The pH of distilled condensate was 7.0 indicating neutral character. The TS, TDS, TSS, sulphates, phosphates and chlorides were reduced to zero after the solar distillation in all the four solar stills. It insures that the distilled water is 'Pure' water.

- by Dr.Balbhim Laxman Chavan and +1
- •
- Water, Water resources, Water and wastewater treatment, Design Innovation