scholarly journals Water Crisis in Petorca Basin, Chile: The Combined Effects of a Mega-Drought and Water Management

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 648 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariel A. Muñoz ◽  
Karin Klock-Barría ◽  
Camila Alvarez-Garreton ◽  
Isabella Aguilera-Betti ◽  
Álvaro González-Reyes ◽  
...  

Since 2010, Chile has experienced one of the most severe droughts over the last century, the so-called mega-drought (MD). The MD conditions, combined with intensive agricultural activities and the current water management system, have led to water scarcity problems in Mediterranean and Semi-arid regions of Chile. An emblematic case is the Petorca basin, where a water crisis is undergone. To characterize this crisis, we analyzed water provision by using tree-ring records, remote sensing, instrumental data, and allocated water rights within the basin. Results indicate that the MD is the most severe dry period over the last 700-years of streamflow reconstruction. During the MD, streamflow and water bodies of the upper parts of the basin have been less affected than mid and low areas of this valley, where consumptive withdrawals reach up to 18% of the mean annual precipitation. This extracted volume is similar to the MD mean annual precipitation deficits. The impacts of the current drought, along with the drier climate projections for Central Chile, emphasize the urgency for faster policy changes related to water provision. Climate change adaptation plans and policies should enhance the current monitoring network and the public control of water use to secure the water access for inhabitants and productive activities.

2001 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 121-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Ayers

“Business as usual is not an option.” Water management practices are changing too slowly and the global 'fresh water gap' continues to grow. Actions as must be taken by government and civic leaders. Industry also has a responsibility to act, but its inability to adequately meet the challenge to date points to the need for additional stimuli. The current water crisis can be mitigated by changes in behaviour and perceptions. This presentation will argue that specific catalysts are required to encourage and support a dramatic shift of behaviours and perceptions by industry leaders. The catalysts include: establish clear and objective rules; introduce water pricing; recognize 'life cycle' costs; prioritize needs; reward small-scale solutions; nurture innovations; spread global best practices. With the help of the catalysts described herein, industry can take its place as a leader in effective water management in the 21st Century. In partnership with governments, international organizations and civic organizations, industry leaders can help meet the challenge of the water crisis while creating sustainable economic growth.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui Ito ◽  
Tosiyuki Nakaegawa ◽  
Izuru Takayabu

AbstractEnsembles of climate change projections created by general circulation models (GCMs) with high resolution are increasingly needed to develop adaptation strategies for regional climate change. The Meteorological Research Institute atmospheric GCM version 3.2 (MRI-AGCM3.2), which is listed in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5), has been typically run with resolutions of 60 km and 20 km. Ensembles of MRI-AGCM3.2 consist of members with multiple cumulus convection schemes and different patterns of future sea surface temperature, and are utilized together with their downscaled data; however, the limited size of the high-resolution ensemble may lead to undesirable biases and uncertainty in future climate projections that will limit its appropriateness and effectiveness for studies on climate change and impact assessments. In this study, to develop a comprehensive understanding of the regional precipitation simulated with MRI-AGCM3.2, we investigate how well MRI-AGCM3.2 simulates the present-day regional precipitation around the globe and compare the uncertainty in future precipitation changes and the change projection itself between MRI-AGCM3.2 and the CMIP5 multiple atmosphere–ocean coupled GCM (AOGCM) ensemble. MRI-AGCM3.2 reduces the bias of the regional mean precipitation obtained with the high-performing CMIP5 models, with a reduction of approximately 20% in the bias over the Tibetan Plateau through East Asia and Australia. When 26 global land regions are considered, MRI-AGCM3.2 simulates the spatial pattern and the regional mean realistically in more regions than the individual CMIP5 models. As for the future projections, in 20 of the 26 regions, the sign of annual precipitation change is identical between the 50th percentiles of the MRI-AGCM3.2 ensemble and the CMIP5 multi-model ensemble. In the other six regions around the tropical South Pacific, the differences in modeling with and without atmosphere–ocean coupling may affect the projections. The uncertainty in future changes in annual precipitation from MRI-AGCM3.2 partially overlaps the maximum–minimum uncertainty range from the full ensemble of the CMIP5 models in all regions. Moreover, on average over individual regions, the projections from MRI-AGCM3.2 spread over roughly 0.8 of the uncertainty range from the high-performing CMIP5 models compared to 0.4 of the range of the full ensemble.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayalew Assefa ◽  
Abebe Tibebu ◽  
Amare Bihon ◽  
Alemu Dagnachew ◽  
Yimer Muktar

Abstract African horse sickness is a vector-borne, non-contagious and highly infectious disease of equines caused by African Horse Sickness viruses (AHSv) that mainly affect horses. The occurrence of the disease causes huge economic impacts because of its fatality rate is high, trade ban and disease control costs. In planning of vectors and vector borne diseases, the application of Ecological niche models (ENM) used an enormous contribution in exactly delineating the suitable habitats of the vector. We developed an ENM with the objective of delineating the global suitability of AHSv outbreaks retrospective based on data records from 2005–2019. The model was developed in R software program using Biomod2 package with an Ensemble modeling technique. Predictive environmental variables like mean diurnal range, mean precipitation of driest month(mm), precipitation seasonality (cv), mean annual maximum temperature (oc), mean annual minimum temperature (oc) mean precipitation of warmest quarter(mm), mean precipitation of coldest quarter (mm) mean annual precipitation (mm), solar radiation (kj /day), elevation/altitude (m), wind speed (m/s) were used to develop the model. From these variables, solar radiation, mean maximum temperature, average annual precipitation, altitude and precipitation seasonality contributed 36.83%, 17.1%, 14.34%, 7.61%, and 6.4%, respectively. The model depicted the sub-Sahara African continent as the most suitable area for the virus. Mainly Senegal, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Madagascar and Malawi are African countries identified as highly suitable countries for the virus. Besides, OIE-listed disease-free countries like India, Australia, Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia have been found suitable for the virusThis model can be used as an epidemiological tool in planning control and surveillance of diseases nationally or internationally.


2020 ◽  
pp. 251484862093471
Author(s):  
Laura Imburgia ◽  
Henny Osbahr ◽  
Sarah Cardey ◽  
Janet Momsen

Genuine inclusive participation in the self-governance of communal irrigation systems remains a challenge. This article analyses the mechanisms of participation in irrigation water users’ associations (WUAs) with focus on women as leaders of those organizations by drawing on cases from a comparative, multicase mixed-method study in Ethiopia and Argentina. After having being a topic for decades in gender and development debates, in many irrigated areas of the world, WUAs continue to be male dominated at all levels, especially in influential positions. Findings in this article suggest that despite large socio-economic and cultural differences, the current water management systems in both research locations reinforce problems of unequal gender participation; women have more obstacles and constraints in establishing equal access in membership, participation, and decision making in irrigation management. The lack of inclusive participation and the low representation of women in leadership roles lead to WUAs being poorly rooted in their community of users. Incomplete social rootedness of WUAs jeopardizes their effectiveness and equality in water management and, as a result, affects long-term sustainability. Through analysis of empirical data of communal small-scale irrigation systems in both countries, the article discusses who participates, how and why they participate, and the reasons for low numbers of women in leadership roles within the WUAs. Finally, the article reflects on possible enabling conditions that could foster inclusive participation, increase the quantity and capacity of women in management and leadership roles, and the benefits this may bring to sustainable irrigation systems.


2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 1605-1621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masoud Yazdanpanah ◽  
Dariush Hayati ◽  
Gholam Hosein Zamani ◽  
Fereshteh Karbalaee ◽  
Stefan Hochrainer-Stigler

Botany ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 88 (4) ◽  
pp. 409-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Curtis R. Björk

A region of contrastively wetter and milder climate occurs in inland northwest North America, separated from similar climates of the Pacific coast by 200–400 km. Researchers have long noted that numerous vascular plants divide their ranges between the interior wetbelt and coastal regions, although many such disjunctions have hitherto gone undocumented. Here I summarize all vascular plants shared between coastal and interior wetbelt regions, disjunct by at least 200 km. These disjunct taxa are assigned to north-coast and south-coast lists according to whether the coastal portions of the ranges occur primarily north or south of the southern limits of maximum continental glaciation. A list of interior wetbelt endemic taxa is also presented, focusing on those that occur at forested elevations. Presence/absence for coastal disjunct and endemic taxa were assigned to grid of 1° × 1° latitude–longitude cells. Using this grid, concentrations of disjunct and endemic taxa were detected, and total values per cell were tested in linear regression for a relationship to mean annual precipitation. In total, 116 coastal disjunct taxa were detected, 31 of them north-coastal and 85 south-coastal. Interior wetbelt endemic and subendemic taxa total 95, and of these, 46 were found primarily at forested elevations. North-coast taxa were found over a wide latitudinal range both north and south of the glacial limits, and their distribution had a weak positive relationship with annual precipitation. South-coast and endemic taxa were found mostly south of the glacial limits, and their distribution did not correlate to annual precipitation. The greatest concentrations of south coastal disjunct and endemic taxa occurred in the Clearwater region of north-central Idaho; a region noted by previous researchers to be a likely ice-age refugium for wet-climate dependent plants and animals. Inferences are made from these patterns, both for biogeographical understanding of the roles played by the interior wetbelt and some regions connecting to the coast, as well as for preservation of biodiversity and ecosystem continuity.


Author(s):  
P. Das ◽  
M. D. Behera ◽  
P. S. Roy

The impact of long term climate change that imparts stress on forest could be perceived by studying the regime shift of forest ecosystem. With the change of significant precipitation, forest may go through density change around globe at different spatial and temporal scale. The 100 class high resolution (60 meter spatial resolution) Indian vegetation type map was used in this study recoded into four broad categories depending on phrenology as (i) forest, (ii) scrubland, (iii) grassland and (iv) treeless area. The percentage occupancy of forest, scrub, grass and treeless were observed as 19.9&amp;thinsp;%, 5.05&amp;thinsp;%, 1.89&amp;thinsp;% and 7.79&amp;thinsp;% respectively. Rest of the 65.37&amp;thinsp;% land area was occupied by the cropland, built-up, water body and snow covers. The majority forest cover were appended into a 5&amp;thinsp;km&amp;thinsp;&amp;times;&amp;thinsp;5&amp;thinsp;km grid, along with the mean annual precipitation taken from Bioclim data. The binary presence and absence of different vegetation categories in relates to the annual precipitation was analyzed to calculate their resilience expressed in probability values ranging from 0 to 1. Forest cover observed having resilience probability (Pr) &amp;lt;&amp;thinsp;0.3 in only 0.3&amp;thinsp;% (200&amp;thinsp;km<sup>2</sup>) of total forest cover in India, which was 4.3&amp;thinsp;% &amp;lt;&amp;thinsp;0.5&amp;thinsp;Pr. Majority of the scrubs and grass (64.92&amp;thinsp;% Pr&amp;thinsp;&amp;lt;&amp;thinsp;0.5) from North East India which were the shifting cultivation lands showing low resilience, having their high tendency to be transform to forest. These results have spatial explicitness to highlight the resilient and non-resilient distribution of forest, scrub and grass, and treeless areas in India.


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