scholarly journals Assessing the Effectiveness of the WFD as a Tool to Address Different Levels of Water Scarcity Based on Two Case Studies of the Mediterranean Region

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 840 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stella Apostolaki ◽  
Ebun Akinsete ◽  
Stella Tsani ◽  
Phoebe Koundouri ◽  
Nikittas Pittis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Ecological Status ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
Natural Phenomenon ◽  
Holistic Approaches ◽  
Mediterranean Regions ◽  
Good Ecological Status ◽  
The Impact

Despite being a natural phenomenon, water scarcity is, to a great extent, human-induced, particularly affected by climate change and by the increased water resources vulnerability. The Water Framework Directive (WFD), an ‘umbrella’ directive that aims to provide holistic approaches to the management of water resources and is supported by a number of Communication documents on water scarcity, requires for prompt responses to ensure ‘healthy’ water bodies of good ecological status. The current paper presents a multidisciplinary approach, developed and engaged within the Globaqua Project, to provide an assessment of the main challenges towards addressing water scarcity with emphasis on the climate change projections, in two Mediterranean regions. The current paper attempts to critically assess the effectiveness of the WFD as a tool to address water scarcity and increase sustainability in resource use. Criticism lies on the fact that the WFD does not directly refer to it, still, water scarcity is recognized as a factor that increases stress on water resources and deteriorates their status. In addition, the Program of Measures (PoMs) within the WFD clearly contribute to reducing vulnerability of water resources and to ensure current and future water use, also under the impact of the projected climate change.

scholarly journals Spatial Variation of Annual and Monthly Rainfall in Orsang River Basin, Gujarat, India

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 584-587
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Spatial Variability ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Monthly Rainfall ◽  
Natural Phenomenon ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Hydrology And Water Resources ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

Climate change is one of the most discussed issues affecting the environment nowadays. Many researchers have been agreed that the increase in temperature in comparison to the previous century is due to anthropologically related activities, though there are enough historical evidence to support the theory that climate change is a natural phenomenon. This paper reviews the impact of climate change by assessing the trend of annual and monthly rainfall and representing spatial variability over the Orsang river basin in Narmada lower river basin in the state of Gujarat, India. This will be helpful to study the impacts of climate change on hydrology and water resources, and planning & management of water resources, environmental protection, and ecological balance over the orsang river basin, India.

scholarly journals Historien om en kanal: Klimaforandringer og vandpolitik i det peruanske højland

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattias Borg Rasmussen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Irrigation Canal ◽  
Peruvian Andes ◽  
The Impact

Klimaforandringerne øger presset på vandressourcerne i det peruanske Andes. Artiklens forfatter følger i tid og rum en vandingskanal i provinsen Recuay i Perus højland. Historisk følges kanalen før, under og efter jordbrugsreformerne. Med inspiration fra Norman Longs Encounters at the Interface (2002) er det muligt at lokalisere et antal interfaces langs kanalen. Gennem en analyse af interfaces og kanalens forløb bliver det muligt at konkludere, at vandmanglen er et resultat af et samspil mellem økologiske og sociale relationer. Til slut fremføres det, at samtidig med at klimaforandringerne øger presset på vandressourcerne, skabes der også nye muligheder for dialog mellem den lokale befolkning og eksperterne. Søgeord: klimaforandring, vand, lokalpolitik, Andes, Peru English: The Story of a Canal. Climate Change and the Politics of Water in the Peruvian HighlandClimate change increases pressure upon water resources in the Peruvian Andes, and the issue of water scarcity may become even more pertinent. The exploration of the problematic of water is about the relationship between water and social organization, and the impact of climate change upon that relationship. “The story of a canal” traces the course of an irrigation canal in the Peruvian highland province of Recuay in time and space. The history of the canal is followed through different phases of before, under and after the agrarian reform up until the establishment of the present day peasant communities, thus inserting the course of the canal into historical land tenure dynamics. Following the analytical framework set up by Norman Long in Encounters at the Interface (2001), a number of interfaces of interaction is located along the course. Through an analysis of the interfaces and the course of the canal it is argued that water scarcity is the result of a complex interplay between ecological and social relations. Finally it is argued, that while climate change increases pressure upon water resources, it also can produce new openings through renewed dialogue between the local population and experts. Keywords: Climate change, water, local politics, Andes, Peru 

scholarly journals An Overview of Water Markets in Southern Africa: An Option for Water Management in Times of Scarcity

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greenwell Matchaya ◽  
Luxon Nhamo ◽  
Sibusiso Nhlengethwa ◽  
Charles Nhemachena
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Imperfect Competition ◽  
Water Markets ◽  
Water Transfers ◽  
The Impact

Southern Africa faces acute water scarcity challenges due to drought recurrence, degradation of surface water resources, and the increasing demand of water from agriculture, which has to meet the growing food demands of an increasing population. These stressors require innovative solutions that ensure the sustainability of water resources, without which the consequences could be dire for a region exposed to a host of vulnerabilities, including climate change. This review outlines the role of water markets in water management in times of water scarcity, highlighting the drivers of water markets in southern Africa, such as water scarcity, transboundary nature of water resources, and their uneven distribution. The review further discusses the role of water markets in climate change adaptation. Related institutional and legal frameworks as well as water allocation mechanisms are explored, aiming at improving water markets governance. The impact of adaptation to new water regimes in the face of scarcity are assessed by considering characteristics of current markets as related to future opportunities. In a diverse region such as southern Africa with unevenly distributed water resources, advancing the concept of water markets could play an important role in mitigating water scarcity challenges and promoting regional integration through coordinated transboundary water transfers. The emergence of water markets in the region is influenced by the continued depletion of water resources, which is resulting in the adoption of innovative water marketing strategies, such as inter-farm sharing or farm joint venture systems and inter-basin and intra-basin water transfers. As the concept is new in the region, it still has challenges that include general market inefficiencies, high transaction costs, market information asymmetries, imperfect competition, and weak or absent robust institutional frameworks that can facilitate market development.

scholarly journals Analysing the Impact of Climate Change on Hydrological Ecosystem Services in Laguna del Sauce (Uruguay) Using the SWAT Model and Remote Sensing Data

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 2014
Author(s):  
Celina Aznarez ◽  
Patricia Jimeno-Sáez ◽  
Adrián López-Ballesteros ◽  
Juan Pablo Pacheco ◽  
Javier Senent-Aparicio
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Swat Model ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Erosion Control ◽  
Sensing Data ◽  
Extreme Precipitation Events ◽  
The Impact

Assessing how climate change will affect hydrological ecosystem services (HES) provision is necessary for long-term planning and requires local comprehensive climate information. In this study, we used SWAT to evaluate the impacts on four HES, natural hazard protection, erosion control regulation and water supply and flow regulation for the Laguna del Sauce catchment in Uruguay. We used downscaled CMIP-5 global climate models for Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 2.6, 4.5 and 8.5 projections. We calibrated and validated our SWAT model for the periods 2005–2009 and 2010–2013 based on remote sensed ET data. Monthly NSE and R2 values for calibration and validation were 0.74, 0.64 and 0.79, 0.84, respectively. Our results suggest that climate change will likely negatively affect the water resources of the Laguna del Sauce catchment, especially in the RCP 8.5 scenario. In all RCP scenarios, the catchment is likely to experience a wetting trend, higher temperatures, seasonality shifts and an increase in extreme precipitation events, particularly in frequency and magnitude. This will likely affect water quality provision through runoff and sediment yield inputs, reducing the erosion control HES and likely aggravating eutrophication. Although the amount of water will increase, changes to the hydrological cycle might jeopardize the stability of freshwater supplies and HES on which many people in the south-eastern region of Uruguay depend. Despite streamflow monitoring capacities need to be enhanced to reduce the uncertainty of model results, our findings provide valuable insights for water resources planning in the study area. Hence, water management and monitoring capacities need to be enhanced to reduce the potential negative climate change impacts on HES. The methodological approach presented here, based on satellite ET data can be replicated and adapted to any other place in the world since we employed open-access software and remote sensing data for all the phases of hydrological modelling and HES provision assessment.

scholarly journals A simulation study on the effect of climate change on crop water use and chill unit accumulation

2017 ◽  
Vol 113 (7/8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abiodun A. Ogundeji ◽  
Henry Jordaan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Irrigation System ◽  
Future Climate ◽  
Crop Water ◽  
Crop Water Use ◽  
Chill Unit ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Impact

Climate change and its impact on already scarce water resources are of global importance, but even more so for water scarce countries. Apart from the effect of climate change on water supply, the chill unit requirement of deciduous fruit crops is also expected to be affected. Although research on crop water use has been undertaken, researchers have not taken the future climate into consideration. They also have focused on increasing temperatures but failed to relate temperature to chill unit accumulation, especially in South Africa. With a view of helping farmers to adapt to climate change, in this study we provide information that will assist farmers in their decision-making process for adaptation and in the selection of appropriate cultivars of deciduous fruits. Crop water use and chill unit requirements are modelled for the present and future climate. Results show that, irrespective of the irrigation system employed, climate change has led to increases in crop water use. Water use with the drip irrigation system was lower than with sprinkler irrigation as a result of efficiency differences in the irrigation technologies. It was also confirmed that the accumulated chill units will decrease in the future as a consequence of climate change. In order to remain in production, farmers need to adapt to climate change stress by putting in place water resources and crop management plans. Thus, producers must be furnished with a variety of adaptation or management strategies to overcome the impact of climate change.

scholarly journals Integrated assessment of impact of water resources of important river basins in Eastern India under projected climate conditions

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 594-606 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Catchment Area ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Weather Data ◽  
Distributed Hydrological Model ◽  
Eastern India ◽  
Impact Of Climate Change ◽  
Daily Weather Data ◽  
The Impact

<div> <p>The impact of climate change on water resources through increased evaporation combined with regional changes in precipitation characteristics has the potential to affect mean runoff, frequency and intensity of floods and droughts, soil moisture and water supply for irrigation and hydroelectric power generation. The Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) system is the largest in India with a catchment area of about 110Mha, which is more than 43% of the cumulative catchment area of all the major rivers in the country. The river Damodar is an important sub catchment of GBM basin and its three tributaries- the Bokaro, the Konar and the Barakar form one important tributary of the Bhagirathi-Hughli (a tributary of Ganga) in its lower reaches. The present study is an attempt to assess the impacts of climate change on water resources of the four important Eastern River Basins namely Damodar, Subarnarekha, Mahanadi and Ajoy, which have immense importance in industrial and agricultural scenarios in eastern India. A distributed hydrological model (HEC-HMS) has been used on the four river basins using HadRM2 daily weather data for the period from 2041 to 2060 to predict the impact of climate change on water resources of these river systems.&nbsp;</p> </div> <p>&nbsp;</p>

scholarly journals Hydrological Alteration Index as an Indicator of the Calibration Complexity of Water Quantity and Quality Modeling in the Context of Global Change

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roxelane Cakir ◽  
Mélanie Raimonet ◽  
Sabine Sauvage ◽  
Javier Paredes-Arquiola ◽  
Youen Grusson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Stream Water ◽  
Swat Model ◽  
Water Yield ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Hydrological Alteration ◽  
Water Quality And Quantity ◽  
The Impact

Modeling is a useful way to understand human and climate change impacts on the water resources of agricultural watersheds. Calibration and validation methodologies are crucial in forecasting assessments. This study explores the best calibration methodology depending on the level of hydrological alteration due to human-derived stressors. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model is used to evaluate hydrology in South-West Europe in a context of intensive agriculture and water scarcity. The Index of Hydrological Alteration (IHA) is calculated using discharge observation data. A comparison of two SWAT calibration methodologies are done; a conventional calibration (CC) based on recorded in-stream water quality and quantity and an additional calibration (AC) adding crop managements practices. Even if the water quality and quantity trends are similar between CC and AC, water balance, irrigation and crop yields are different. In the context of rainfall decrease, water yield decreases in both CC and AC, while crop productions present opposite trends (+33% in CC and −31% in AC). Hydrological performance between CC and AC is correlated to IHA: When the level of IHA is under 80%, AC methodology is necessary. The combination of both calibrations appears essential to better constrain the model and to forecast the impact of climate change or anthropogenic influences on water resources.

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