scholarly journals Application of the Systems Approach to the Management of Complex Water Systems

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 2923
Author(s):  
Slobodan P. Simonovic

This paper provides an introduction to, and an overview of, the Special Issue on the application of systems approach to the management of complex water systems. The main motivation in proposing this Special Issue was that today, more than ever, we need a systems approach to assist in dealing with the difficulties introduced by the increase in the complexity of water resource problems, consideration of environmental impacts, and the introduction of the principles of sustainability. This issue offers an opportunity to review applications of the systems approach to water resource management and draw lessons from worldwide experience relevant to future water problems. The Special Issue includes 15 contributions that offer an interesting view into contemporary problems, approaches, and issues related to management of complex water resources systems. It will be presumptuous to say that these 15 contributions characterize the success or failure of the systems approach to support water resources decision-making. However, these contributions offer some interesting lessons from the current experience and trace possible future work directions.

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Fiorillo ◽  
Peter Malik

The objective of this Special Issue, “Hydraulic Behavior of Karst Aquifers”, is to focus on recent advances in karst hydrogeology in different areas of the world, focusing on topics dealing with the peculiar characteristics of karst aquifers. In particular, thirteen peer-reviewed articles were collected, focusing on hydraulic aspects and their relationship with geological features, geochemical and bacteriological aspects, tunneling and engineering mining inrush, and forecasting water resources and drought occurrences. Overall, these contributions describe several aspects of karst aquifers and are of great value for water resource management and protection.


Author(s):  
James L. Wescoat

Water resources geography expanded its spatial, regional, and intellectual horizons during the 1990s. Tobin et al. (1989) reviewed earlier US geographers’ contributions to the hydrologic sciences, water management, water quality, law, and hazards; and they identified three emerging topics: (1) theory development and model formulation; (2) applied problem-solving and policy recommendations; and (3) international water problems. This chapter assesses progress along those and other fronts, beginning with historical and disciplinary perspectives. Charting the progress of a field requires a sense of its history, and Platt’s (1993) review of geographic contributions to water resource administration in the US offers a useful perspective on policy-related research, beginning with George Perkins Marsh and John Wesley Powell. Doolittle (2000) reaches back to Native American antecedents in water resource management in North America (cf. chapters in this volume on cultural ecology, historical geography, and Native American geography). Carney (1998) sheds light on African influences on rice cultivation in the southeastern US. Research on European antecedents ranges from seventeenth-century “hydrologic” theories in England (Tuan 1968) to hydraulic engineering at the École des Ponts et Chausées in France, water courts in Spain, and more distant Muslim and Asian contacts (e.g. Beach and Luzzader-Beach 2000; Bonine 1996; Butzer 1994; Lightfoot 1997; Swyngedouw 1999; Wescoat 2000). In the field of water law and institutions, Templer (1997) has linked recent geographic work on Western water laws with earlier research in political geography. A historical geographic study of water rights transfers from irrigated ranches in the South Platte River headwaters to Denver, Colorado, has shed new light on how urban economic and political power employ and reshape water law (Kindquist 1996). The battle between Owen’s Valley and Los Angeles continues to stimulate historical geographic research on relations among facts, laws, and their social meanings (Sauder 1994). Although a geographic perspective of international water laws has yet to be written, databases on transboundary conflicts and agreements shed light on the evolution of international water law (Wolf 1997, 1999a, b; and <http://www.transboundarywaters.orst.edu>, last accessed 10 February 2003). Historical or contemporary, the pragmatic spirit of water resources geography remains strong (Wescoat 1992).


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (22) ◽  
pp. 6463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li ◽  
Yin ◽  
Zhang ◽  
Croke ◽  
Guo ◽  
...  

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (Jingjinji) region is the most densely populated region in China and suffers from severe water resource shortage, with considerable water-related issues emerging under a changing context such as construction of water diversion projects (WDP), regional synergistic development, and climate change. To this end, this paper develops a framework to examine the water resource security for 200 counties in the Jingjinji region under these changes. Thus, county-level water resource security is assessed in terms of the long-term annual mean and selected typical years (i.e., dry, normal, and wet years), with and without the WDP, and under the current and projected future (i.e., regional synergistic development and climate change). The outcomes of such scenarios are assessed based on two water-crowding indicators, two use-to-availability indicators, and one composite indicator. Results indicate first that the water resources are distributed unevenly, relatively more abundant in the northeastern counties and extremely limited in the other counties. The water resources are very limited at the regional level, with the water availability per capita and per unit gross domestic product (GDP) being only 279/290 m3 and 46/18 m3 in the current and projected future scenarios, respectively, even when considering the WDP. Second, the population carrying capacity is currently the dominant influence, while economic development will be the controlling factor in the future for most middle and southern counties. This suggests that significant improvement in water-saving technologies, vigorous replacement of industries from high to low water consumption, as well as water from other supplies for large-scale applications are greatly needed. Third, the research identifies those counties most at risk to water scarcity and shows that most of them can be greatly relieved after supplementation by the planned WDP. Finally, more attention should be paid to the southern counties because their water resources are not only limited but also much more sensitive and vulnerable to climate change. This work should benefit water resource management and allocation decisions in the Jingjinji region, and the proposed assessment framework can be applied to other similar problems.


2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 1869-1884 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire L. Walsh ◽  
Stephen Blenkinsop ◽  
Hayley J. Fowler ◽  
Aidan Burton ◽  
Richard J. Dawson ◽  
...  

Abstract. Globally, water resources management faces significant challenges from changing climate and growing populations. At local scales, the information provided by climate models is insufficient to support the water sector in making future adaptation decisions. Furthermore, projections of change in local water resources are wrought with uncertainties surrounding natural variability, future greenhouse gas emissions, model structure, population growth, and water consumption habits. To analyse the magnitude of these uncertainties, and their implications for local-scale water resource planning, we present a top-down approach for testing climate change adaptation options using probabilistic climate scenarios and demand projections. An integrated modelling framework is developed which implements a new, gridded spatial weather generator, coupled with a rainfall-runoff model and water resource management simulation model. We use this to provide projections of the number of days and associated uncertainty that will require implementation of demand saving measures such as hose pipe bans and drought orders. Results, which are demonstrated for the Thames Basin, UK, indicate existing water supplies are sensitive to a changing climate and an increasing population, and that the frequency of severe demand saving measures are projected to increase. Considering both climate projections and population growth, the median number of drought order occurrences may increase 5-fold by the 2050s. The effectiveness of a range of demand management and supply options have been tested and shown to provide significant benefits in terms of reducing the number of demand saving days. A decrease in per capita demand of 3.75 % reduces the median frequency of drought order measures by 50 % by the 2020s. We found that increased supply arising from various adaptation options may compensate for increasingly variable flows; however, without reductions in overall demand for water resources such options will be insufficient on their own to adapt to uncertainties in the projected changes in climate and population. For example, a 30 % reduction in overall demand by 2050 has a greater impact on reducing the frequency of drought orders than any of the individual or combinations of supply options; hence, a portfolio of measures is required.


Author(s):  
V Shinju ◽  
Aswathi Prasad

The natural resources are repository for the survival of all of us, so they must be used efficiently to meet the present needs while conserving them for future generations. An action to develop capacities from global to household levels for their sustainable management and regulation is required henceforth. Of these natural resources, water resources are most precious. If there is no water; there would be no life on earth. Since ‘water is the elixir of life’, water resource management has been considered as one of the most relevant areas of intervention. Understanding the gender dimensions of water resource management is a starting point for reversing the degradation of water resources. Women play an important role here since they have to access the water resources for almost all the activities on a daily basis. As the women are the strong social agents, effective and improved water preservation techniques could be achieved through their empowerment that may eventually lead to the well-being of the households in particular and of the community in general. Therefore, the major research question posed in this study is to analyze the role of women in the preservation and management of water, an inevitable, precious but diminishing natural resource. The study also intends to describe the relationship between the three ‘W's-Women, Water & Well-being. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are essential here as it is a contingent issue in the present scenario. Psychological dimensions were also explored since the issue is affecting the routine life of the community. The case study of women belonging to the Kuttadampadam region was done to explain the role of women in preserving water resources in the areas affecting severe water scarcity.


Author(s):  
P. Pallavi ◽  
Shaik Salam

Water is an important, but often ignored element in sustainable development by now it has been clear that urgent action is needed to avoid global water crisis. Water resource management is the activity of planning, developing, distributing and managing the optimum use of water resources. Successful management of water resources requires accurate knowledge of their resource distribution to meet up the competing demands and mechanisms to make good decisions using advanced recent technologies.Towards evolving comprehensive management plan in suitable conservation and utilization of water resources space technology plays a crucial role in managing country’s available water resources. Systematic approaches involving judicious combination of conventional server side scripting programming and remote sensing techniques pave way for achieving optimum planning and operational of water resources projects.   new methodologies and 24/7 accessible system need to be built, these by reducing the dependency on complex infrastructure an specialist domain Open source web GIS systems have proven their rich in application of server side scripting and easy to use client application tools. Present study and implementation aims to provide wizard based or easily driven tools online for command area management practices. In this large endeavour modules for handling remote sensing data, online raster processing, statistics and indices generation will be developed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 16-22
Author(s):  
Dileep Kumar Koshta ◽  
Ashu Jain

India is rich in natural water resources, but because of the uneven distribution of resources and improper management, the major part of the country suffers from drought almost every year. The present study is based upon the inappropriate management of water resources in the urban and rural area of Jabalpur. The present paper intends to find out the actual condition of management of water resources by the municipal corporation of Jabalpur, whether the citizens of Jabalpur are benefitted through the policies made by the government for the equal distribution of water resources, are the policies adequately implemented and monitored once they are made?The data has been collected from secondary and primary sources, and simple percentage method has been used to analyze the collected data. The outcome of the study reveals that the government is trying to manage the water resource and is concentrated on the equal distribution of water in both urban and rural areas. Many policies have been prepared by the local government, but ineffective monitoring is the leading cause of improper management of water resources.


Author(s):  
Runwen Jiang ◽  
Xiaohong Chen ◽  
Lingchu Zhao ◽  
Zhifang Zhou ◽  
Tao Zhang

AbstractDue to uncertainties in water supply, there is growing demand for water resource management in enterprises. In this study, we evaluated the effects of companies’ water-saving reconstruction projects. We used Hina Advanced Materials Company as a case to construct an investment decision model to (1) calculate the internal and external costs of water resources based on circular economic value analysis theory, and (2) locate the level of water resources circulation. We adopted gray situation decision analysis to identify the typical problems that occur in water resource utilization. Moreover, we demonstrated optimization plans for different potential improvements, thereby providing guidance and references for water resource cost management and the comprehensive optimization of environmental benefits. We concluded that the circulation economic value analysis model can effectively display the flow and amount of value derived from water resource flows, thereby providing guidance and suggestions for optimizing water resource flows.


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 2661
Author(s):  
Yongfen Zhang ◽  
Chongjun Tang ◽  
Aizhong Ye ◽  
Taihui Zheng ◽  
Xiaofei Nie ◽  
...  

Quantitatively figuring out the effects of climate and land-use change on water resources and their components is essential for water resource management. This study investigates the effects of climate and land-use change on blue and green water and their components in the upper Ganjiang River basin from the 1980s to the 2010s by comparing the simulated changes in blue and green water resources by using a Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model forced by five climate and land-use scenarios. The results suggest that the blue water flow (BWF) decreased by 86.03 mm year−1, while green water flow (GWF) and green water storage (GWS) increased by 8.61 mm year−1 and 12.51 mm year−1, respectively. The spatial distribution of blue and green water was impacted by climate, wind direction, topography, and elevation. Climate change was the main factor affecting blue and green water resources in the basin; land-use change had strong effects only locally. Precipitation changes significantly amplified the BWF changes. The proportion of surface runoff in BWF was positively correlated with precipitation changes; lateral flow showed the opposite tendency. Higher temperatures resulted in increased GWF and decreased BWF, both of which were most sensitive to temperature increases up to 1 °C. All agricultural land and forestland conversion scenarios resulted in decreased BWF and increased GWF in the watershed. GWS was less affected by climate and land-use change than GWF and BWF, and the trends in GWS were not significant. The study provides a reference for blue and green water resource management in humid areas.


Water Policy ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 1334-1352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jyoti S. Jennewein ◽  
Kelly W. Jones

Operationalizing integrated water resource management (IWRM) often involves decentralization of water management via community-based management (CBM). While attention has been given to the components leading to successful CBM, less is known about what factors motivate people's willingness to participate (WTP) in such programs. This study analyzed factors that influence household WTP in CBM in a transboundary watershed located where El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras converge – the Trifinio Region. Several variables were hypothesized to influence WTP: sense of community (SOC), dependence on water resources, level of concern for water resources, and socio-economic characteristics. In 2014, quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 62 households in five communities. Most respondents reported high levels of WTP in future CBM initiatives, and multivariate regression analysis revealed that SOC was the most important predictor of WTP, with wealth and perceptions of watershed management also statistically significant. Qualitative analyses revealed water availability was more concerning than water quality, and perceptions of inequitable access to water is an important constraint to developing CBM strategies. Taken together, these results suggest that enhancing SOC and relationships between local and regional levels of governance prior to establishing community-based projects would facilitate more success in implementing IWRM.


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