scholarly journals Justification criteria for Inter-Basin Water Transfer Projects

2021 ◽  
Vol 314 ◽  
pp. 06001
Author(s):  
Oussama Laassilia ◽  
Driss Ouazar ◽  
Ahmed Bouziane ◽  
Moulay Driss Hasnaoui
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Evaluation Criteria ◽  
Water Transfer ◽  
Ecological Impacts ◽  
Epistemic Communities ◽  
Current Version ◽  
The North ◽  
Interbasin Water Transfer ◽  
Basin Water ◽  
Different Levels

When implemented on a large scale, Interbasin Water Transfer (IBWT) projects are one of the most significant human interventions in natural environmental processes. Although water transfer might have considerable beneficial impacts, it produces inevitably other adverse effects on different levels. The present work aims to assess the phenomenon of IBWT to answer the question of whether such transfers are justified or not. To this end, this paper is first introduced by reviewing criteria proposed by some international organizations and epistemic communities for assessing IBWT. Then, a coherent set of IBWT evaluation criteria are proposed. Afterward, the authors have applied the chosen criteria to the North-South Water Transfer Project (NSWTP) in Morocco to provide a global assessment. The results show that the NSWTP, in its current version, is not justified. To remedy the negative sides of this project, the authors propose to limit the water transfer only between Sebou (donor) and Bouregreg (recipient), all in increasing the storage capacity of the recipient reservoir. On the other hand, studies related to the legal and institutional sides, and the ecological impacts are to be finalized.

Increased frequency of Eurasian double jets linked to summer heat extremes in Europe

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Efi Rousi ◽  
Kai Kornhuber ◽  
Goratz Beobide Arsuaga ◽  
Fei Luo ◽  
Dim Coumou
Keyword(s):  
Zonal Wind ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Linear Regression Analysis ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Self Organizing Maps ◽  
Upper Troposphere ◽  
The North ◽  
Heat Extremes ◽  
Different Levels

<p>Persistent summer extremes, such as heatwaves and droughts, can have considerable impacts on nature and societies. There is evidence that weather persistence has increased in Europe over the past decades, in association to changes in atmosphere dynamics, but uncertainties remain and the driving forces are not yet well understood. </p><p>Particularly for Europe, the jet stream may affect surface weather significantly by modulating the North Atlantic storm tracks. Here, we examine the hypothesis that high-latitude warming and decreased westerlies in summer result in more double jets, consisting of two distinct maxima of the zonal wind in the upper troposphere, over the Eurasian sector. Previous work has shown that such double jet states are related to persistent blocking-like circulation in the mid-latitudes. </p><p>We adapt a dynamical perspective of heat extreme trends by looking at large scale circulation and in particular, changes in the zonal mean zonal wind in different levels of the upper troposphere. We define clusters of jet states with the use of Self-Organizing Maps and analyze their characteristics. We find an increase in frequency and persistence of a cluster of double jet states for the period 1979-2019 during July-August (in ERA5 reanalysis data). Those states are linked to increased surface temperature and more frequent heatwaves compared to climatology over western, central, and northern Europe. Significant positive double jet anomalies are found to be dominant in the days preceding and/or coinciding with some of the most intense historical heatwaves in Europe, such as those of 2003 and 2018. A linear regression analysis shows that the increase in frequency and persistence of double jet states may explain part of the strong upward trend in heat extremes over these European regions.</p>

Towards a resilient water future via inter-basin water transfer: climate impact assessment and feasibility study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Majed Khadem ◽  
Richard Dawson ◽  
Claire Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Water Transfer ◽  
Climate Impact Assessment ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Basin Water ◽  
Water Companies

<p>Uneven distribution of water resources in the face of climate change and population growth is imposing increasing threats to communities as well as challenging decision-makers. Inter-basin water transfer (IBT) schemes have been appreciated as one of the common approaches to tackle this issue. This work presents a framework for climate impact assessment and feasibility study for IBTs. The framework investigates negative impacts of IBTs on the donor and receiving bodies. This is done by calculating hydrological drought risk and environmental risks to freshwater habitats under 1200 future climatic scenarios and two different transfer scenarios. 2.2 Km resolution time-series from UK’s Met Office most recent climate projection (UKCP18) is used as the input scenario and a water resources model developed at Newcastle University is implemented to determine allocation and calculate the above risk factors. This work considers transferring raw water from England’s water-rich North East to its water-stressed South East as the case study. This case was chosen because England, with no major IBT scheme, is experiencing challenges from more frequent climate change and increasing demand for water in London. Additionally, organisations such as National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) and Environment Agency (EA) have encouraged England’s water companies to consider IBT as one of the options to improve water supply resilience. In this study, we assess schemes to transfer water using the existing infrastructures of water companies located from North East to South East of England to minimise costs and environmental impacts. Results suggest that, under a wide range of future scenarios, meeting London’s annual water shortage through transfers from the North East during wet season of each year not only increases London’s water supply resilience but also boosts flood resilience in the North East donor basin while still meeting environmental requirements.</p>

The Politics of Establishing ICT Governance for Large-Scale Healthcare Information Infrastructures

2020 ◽  
pp. 1704-1719
Author(s):  
Gro-Hilde Ulriksen ◽  
Rune Pedersen ◽  
Gunnar Ellingsen
Keyword(s):  
Health Authority ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Organizational Politics ◽  
The North ◽  
Information Infrastructures ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Empirical Insight ◽  
North Norway

In Norway, the focus on interoperability and communication across healthcare practices has increased the need to connect ICT portfolios at different levels of healthcare, into large-scale information infrastructures (II). Governing healthcare practices is exceptionally complex, due to the diverging goals and policies of the heterogeneous actors involved. Establish well-functioning ICT governance organizations to handle these large infrastructures is therefore important. Using information infrastructure theory, and governance literature from the IS field, this paper contributes with empirical insight to the longitudinal and political process of establishing ICT governance in a healthcare context, reporting from one of Norway's largest health ICT projects, situated in the North Norway Regional Health Authority in 2012–2016. Our focus was on the following research questions: How does organizational politics shape the process of establishing an ICT governance organization in a heterogeneous healthcare environment, and what does it take to establish such ICT governance organization?

Risk analysis of rich–poor rainfall encounter in inter-basin water transfer projects based on Bayesian networks

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 451-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kang Ling ◽  
He Xiaocong
Keyword(s):  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Source Area ◽  
Water Source ◽  
Water Transfer ◽  
The North ◽  
Huai River ◽  
North Water ◽  
Basin Water ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Scientific Decision

An inter-basin water transfer project is one of the effective ways to resolve the problem of an uneven distribution of water resources. Temporal and spatial variations in rainfall in different basins greatly affect water supply and demand in inter-basin water transfer projects, leading to risks to the operation of the water transfer projects. This paper applies a Bayesian network model to analyze this risk and studies the rich–poor rainfall encounter risk between a water source area and water receiving areas in the middle route of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project in China. Real time scenario simulations with the input of new observations were also studied. The results show that the rich–poor rainfall encounter risk is high for the Tangbai River receiving area in the fourth quarter, for the Huai River and South of Hai River receiving area in the second quarter, and for the North of the Hai River receiving area in the fourth and first quarters. The scenario simulations reflect risk change in the operation of water transfer projects, providing scientific decision support for the management of the water resource distribution in the inter-basin water transfer projects.

Water transfer versus desalination in North Africa: sustainability and cost comparison

2003 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 147-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saad A. Alghariani
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Water Transfer ◽  
Cost Comparison ◽  
Seawater Desalination ◽  
African Region ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
The North ◽  
Desalination Technology ◽  
The Cost

AbstractThe North African region is experiencing water scarcity that is getting more severe with time. The regional annual average per capita water availability has been reduced from 2285 cubic meters in 1955 to 958 cubic meters in 1990 and is expected to reach 602 cubic meters by the year 2025. To meet the present and future water demands of the region the available options are limited to either long distance water transfers from the southern aquifers to the coastal areas or to investing in large scale seawater desalination technology. Economic analysis revealed that the cost of long distance water transfer can escalate to more than 0.83 US Dollars per cubic meter. When sustainability considerations are taken into account this figure may reach up to 2.35 US Dollars per cubic meter. While these figures were competitive with the cost of seawater desalination twenty years ago, the situation has been recently shifted in favor of seawater desalination which dropped from 5.5 US Dollars in 1979 to less than 0.55 US Dollars in 1999. It is concluded that sustainable development of North Africa will depend in the future on large scale desalination as a last resort. Presently, planned water transfer projects should be substituted by this fast growing technology as the best option.

The Politics of Establishing ICT Governance for Large-Scale Healthcare Information Infrastructures

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-61
Author(s):  
Gro-Hilde Ulriksen ◽  
Rune Pedersen ◽  
Gunnar Ellingsen
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Organizational Politics ◽  
Regional Health ◽  
Healthcare Environment ◽  
The North ◽  
Information Infrastructures ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Empirical Insight

In Norway, the focus on interoperability and communication across healthcare practices has increased the need to connect ICT portfolios at different levels of healthcare, into large-scale information infrastructures (II). Governing healthcare practices is exceptionally complex, due to the diverging goals and policies of the heterogeneous actors involved. Establish well-functioning ICT governance organizations to handle these large infrastructures is therefore important. Using information infrastructure theory, and governance literature from the IS field, this paper contributes with empirical insight to the longitudinal and political process of establishing ICT governance in a healthcare context, reporting from one of Norway's largest health ICT projects, situated in the North Norway Regional Health Authority in 2012–2016. Our focus was on the following research questions: How does organizational politics shape the process of establishing an ICT governance organization in a heterogeneous healthcare environment, and what does it take to establish such ICT governance organization?

Why Has There Been No People’s Power Rebellion in North Korea?

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Andrew Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
North Korea ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Information Control ◽  
Al Jazeera ◽  
The North ◽  
New Information ◽  
Effective System ◽  
The Right

One scenario put forward by researchers, political commentators and journalists for the collapse of North Korea has been a People’s Power (or popular) rebellion. This paper analyses why no popular rebellion has occurred in the DPRK under Kim Jong Un. It challenges the assumption that popular rebellion would happen because of widespread anger caused by a greater awareness of superior economic conditions outside the DPRK. Using Jack Goldstone’s theoretical expla-nations for the outbreak of popular rebellion, and comparisons with the 1989 Romanian and 2010–11 Tunisian transitions, this paper argues that marketi-zation has led to a loosening of state ideological control and to an influx of infor-mation about conditions in the outside world. However, unlike the Tunisian transitions—in which a new information context shaped by social media, the Al-Jazeera network and an experience of protest helped create a sense of pan-Arab solidarity amongst Tunisians resisting their government—there has been no similar ideology unifying North Koreans against their regime. There is evidence of discontent in market unrest in the DPRK, although protests between 2011 and the present have mostly been in defense of the right of people to support themselves through private trade. North Koreans believe this right has been guaranteed, or at least tacitly condoned, by the Kim Jong Un government. There has not been any large-scale explosion of popular anger because the state has not attempted to crush market activities outright under Kim Jong Un. There are other reasons why no popular rebellion has occurred in the North. Unlike Tunisia, the DPRK lacks a dissident political elite capable of leading an opposition movement, and unlike Romania, the DPRK authorities have shown some flexibility in their anti-dissent strategies, taking a more tolerant approach to protests against economic issues. Reduced levels of violence during periods of unrest and an effective system of information control may have helped restrict the expansion of unrest beyond rural areas.

Information And Map-Made Control With The Functions Of Business Analytics For Urban Management

2019 ◽  
pp. 72-78
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Information Support ◽  
Urban Management ◽  
Business Analytics ◽  
Administrative District ◽  
The North ◽  
Model Of Management ◽  
Complex Development ◽  
Coordination System ◽  
Key Aspects

The key aspects of the process of designing and developing an information and cartographic control tool with business analytics functions for the municipal level of urban management are considered. The review of functionality of the developed tool is given. Examples of its use for the analysis and monitoring of implementation of the program of complex development of territories are given. The importance of application of information support of management and coordination at all levels of management as an integral part of the basic model of management and coordination system of large-scale urban projects of dispersed construction is proved. Information and map-made tool with business intelligence functions was used and was highly appreciated in the preparation of information-analytical and presentation materials of the North-Eastern Administrative District of Moscow. Its use made it possible to significantly optimize the list of activities of the program of integrated development of territories, their priority and timing.

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE OCEANOGRAPHIC MODELING AND OBSERVATION NETWORK (REMO) FOR PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY STUDIES AND OCEAN FORECASTING

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Antonio Moreira Lima
Keyword(s):  
Atlantic Ocean ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
North Pacific Ocean ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Height Anomaly ◽  
The North ◽  
Observation Network ◽  
Ocean Forecasting

This paper is concerned with the planning, implementation and some results of the Oceanographic Modeling and Observation Network, named REMO, for Brazilian regional waters. Ocean forecasting has been an important scientific issue over the last decade due to studies related to climate change as well as applications related to short-range oceanic forecasts. The South Atlantic Ocean has a deficit of oceanographic measurements when compared to other ocean basins such as the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Pacific Ocean. It is a challenge to design an ocean forecasting system for a region with poor observational coverage of in-situ data. Fortunately, most ocean forecasting systems heavily rely on the assimilation of surface fields such as sea surface height anomaly (SSHA) or sea surface temperature (SST), acquired by environmental satellites, that can accurately provide information that constrain major surface current systems and their mesoscale activity. An integrated approach is proposed here in which the large scale circulation in the Atlantic Ocean is modeled in a first step, and gradually nested into higher resolution regional models that are able to resolve important processes such as the Brazil Current and associated mesoscale variability, continental shelf waves, local and remote wind forcing, and others. This article presents the overall strategy to develop the models using a network of Brazilian institutions and their related expertise along with international collaboration. This work has some similarity with goals of the international project Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment OceanView (GODAE OceanView).

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document