scholarly journals Risk-based principles for defining and managing water security

2013 ◽  
Vol 371 (2002) ◽  
pp. 20120407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jim Hall ◽  
Edoardo Borgomeo
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Water Systems ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Water Resources Planning ◽  
Widespread Application ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Resources Planning

The concept of water security implies concern about potentially harmful states of coupled human and natural water systems. Those harmful states may be associated with water scarcity (for humans and/or the environment), floods or harmful water quality. The theories and practices of risk analysis and risk management have been developed and elaborated to deal with the uncertain occurrence of harmful events. Yet despite their widespread application in public policy, theories and practices of risk management have well-known limitations, particularly in the context of severe uncertainties and contested values. Here, we seek to explore the boundaries of applicability of risk-based principles as a means of formalizing discussion of water security. Not only do risk concepts have normative appeal, but they also provide an explicit means of addressing the variability that is intrinsic to hydrological, ecological and socio-economic systems. We illustrate the nature of these interconnections with a simulation study, which demonstrates how water resources planning could take more explicit account of epistemic uncertainties, tolerability of risk and the trade-offs in risk among different actors.

Aquatic Habitat Analysis as an Element of Water Resources Planning and Management

1985 ◽  
Vol 17 (6-7) ◽  
pp. 879-890 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin E. Herricks
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Habitat Management ◽  
Aquatic Habitat ◽  
Water Quality Criteria ◽  
Water Resources Planning ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Planning And Management ◽  
Resources Planning

With increased emphasis on environmental quality objectives in water resources planning and management, past practices of simply considering water quality as the only environmental quality objective are inappropriate. Expanded environmental quality objectives include maintenance of high quality aquatic habitat. Water resource systems must provide both physical and chemical conditions appropriate for the propagation and maintenance of healthy diverse aquatic communities. Managing water resources to provide high quality habitat involves planning to meet both water quality and water quantity objectives. Existing technology based water quality controls and stream based water quality criteria can now be supplemented by aquatic habitat management. An approach to aquatic habitat management is illustrated by use of the Incremental Methodology developed by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Incremental Methodology uses measures of aquatic habitat to assess instream flows required for by aquatic life. Thus the range of environmental quality objectives in resources planning and management is expanded by application of these methods to include aquatic habitat as well as water quality management. Methods used to determine instream flow needs for rivers in Illinois are reviewed, and the use of this information in developing regulations limiting water extraction for off stream use are described. Aquatic habitat based management is shown to provide workable methods to meet expanded environmental quality objectives in water resources planning and management.

scholarly journals Deterministic and Stochastic Principles to Convert Discrete Water Quality Data into Continuous Time Series

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danieli Mara Ferreira ◽  
Marcelo Coelho ◽  
Cristovão Vicente Scapulatempo Fernandes ◽  
Eloy Kaviski ◽  
Daniel Henrique Marco Detzel
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Statistical Characteristics ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Model Description ◽  
Water Resources Planning ◽  
Concentration Data ◽  
Water Quality Data ◽  
Planning And Management ◽  
Resources Planning

Abstract Limited water quality data is often responsible for incorrect model description and misleading interpretation in water resources planning and management scenarios. This study compares two hybrid strategies to convert discrete concentration data into continuous daily values for one year in different river sections. Model A is based on an autoregressive process, accounting for serial correlation, water quality historical characteristics (mean and standard deviation) and random variability; the second approach (model B) is a regression model, based on the relationship between monitoring flow and concentrations, plus an error term. The generated series (here referred to as synthetic series) are propagated in time and space by a full deterministic model (SihQual), that solves the Saint-Venant and advection-dispersion-reaction equations. Results reveal that both approaches are appropriate to reproduce the variability of biochemical oxygen demand and organic nitrogen concentrations, leading to the conclusion that the combination of deterministic/empirical and stochastic components are compatible. A second outcome arises from the comparison of results in different time scales, supporting the need for further assessment of statistical characteristics of water quality data - which relies on monitoring plans. Nonetheless, the proposed methods are suitable to estimate multiple scenarios of interest in water resources planning and management.

Water security crisis in South Africa will escalate

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Water Systems ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Regional Food ◽  
Agricultural Exports ◽  
Supply Disruptions ◽  
Transboundary River ◽  
Poor Water Quality

Subject Outlook for water security in South Africa. Significance Water supply disruptions and health problems caused by poor water quality are frequent triggers for violent 'service delivery' protests. Yet the problem is due at least as much to governance and infrastructure woes as it is to aridity. Official figures indicate one in ten municipal water systems are dysfunctional and 25% of the functional ones experience disruptions lasting over two days at a time. Impacts Droughts affecting the 2015 maize harvest will dampen agricultural exports and hurt regional food security. Transboundary river commissions, such as those for the Limpopo and Orange rivers, will curtail diplomatic disputes over water. Lesotho's importance for water supplies means Pretoria will remain willing to intervene if necessary to guarantee stability.

Many-objective risk assessment framework for guiding operational decisions on multiple reservoirs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quan Dau ◽  
David Dorchies ◽  
Jean-Claude Bader
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
International Institute ◽  
Water Resources Planning ◽  
Multiple Use ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Planning And Management ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Deterministic Dynamic ◽  
Conflicting Objectives ◽  
Resources Planning

<p>Effective optimisation methods have emerged over the last few decades to deal with the management of multiple reservoirs serving multiple and often conflicting objectives. Despite the abundant literature on the subject, the practical use of these techniques in the field remains very limited because they are perceived as “black boxes” whose behaviour is difficult to understand for users and decision-makers (Pianosi et al. 2020).</p><p>Optimisation using one or more aggregated objectives can create stakeholder reluctance when they do not recognize their values and objectives in the optimization formulation, while also raising ethical concerns related to the inclusion of undesirable and/or hidden trade-offs. In contrast, an approach considering many non-aggregated objectives has the potential to bring out alternative courses of action that better reflect the diverging perspectives of stakeholders, and align better with ethical concerns (Kasprzyk et al. 2016).</p><p>To deal with this problem, we here follow the Wierzbicki's (1979) "reference objective" concept considering each single objective as a utopia point optimised separately by deterministic dynamic programming. The optimisation, taking into account given hydroclimatic conditions and a chosen set of constraints, provides yearly probabilistic upper or lower rule curves reflecting the risk of failing to achieve each of the objectives in the future (Bader 1992). In order to use these data, we have developed a graphical user interface based on an R Shiny application showing the risk probability of future failure of each objective depending on the calendar day and the current or forecasted storage state of each reservoir.</p><p>This framework is applied on the Seine catchment area in Paris, France, which includes a system of 4 large reservoirs to protect against floods and water shortages for multiple flow thresholds and multiple locations downstream from the reservoirs. Historical datasets as well as climate change projections are used to take into account the non-stationarity nature of hydroclimatic conditions. Among other applications, this example shows the utility of such a tool in order to justify the stakeholders decisions to discard minor objectives when they undermine the chances of success of major objectives in critical situations.</p><p> </p><p>References</p><p>----------</p><p>Bader, J.-C., 1992. Consignes de gestion du barrage à vocation multiple de Manantali: détermination des cotes limites à respecter dans la retenue [Multiple use management of Manantali Dam: determination of limiting storage levels]. Hydrologie Continentale 7, 3–12.</p><p>Kasprzyk, J.R., Reed, P.M., Hadka, D.M., 2016. Battling Arrow’s Paradox to Discover Robust Water Management Alternatives. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management 142, 04015053. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000572</p><p>Pianosi, F., Dobson, B., Wagener, T., 2020. Use of Reservoir Operation Optimization Methods in Practice: Insights from a Survey of Water Resource Managers. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management 146, 02520005. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0001301</p><p>Wierzbicki, A.P., 1979. The Use of Reference Objectives in Multiobjective Optimization - Theoretical Implications and Practical Experience (No. WP-79-66). International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria.</p>

scholarly journals A social-economic-engineering combined framework for decision making in water resources planning

2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 675-686 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. S. Chung ◽  
K. S. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Stakeholder Participation ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Water Quantity ◽  
Water Resources Planning ◽  
Resources Planning

Abstract. This study develops a social-economic-engineering combined framework for decision making in water resources planning. This framework consists of four parts which are to spatially identify the grades on hydrological vulnerability (potential streamflow depletion and potential water quality deterioration), to evaluate the monetary values of improvements on hydrological vulnerability grades using the choice experiment method, to derive an alternative evaluation index (AEI) to quantify the effectiveness of all alternatives, and to combine the derived willingness-to-pays (WTPs) with the AEI and do the cost-benefit analysis of feasible alternatives. This framework includes the stakeholder participation in order to quantify the preferences with regard to management objectives (water quantity and quality) and WTPs of alternatives. Finally, the economic values of each alternative can be estimated by this study which combines the WTPs for improvements on hydrologic vulnerability grades with the AEI. The proposed procedure is applied in the Anyangcheon watershed which has been highly urbanized for past thirty years. As a result, WTPs are $0.24~$10.08/month-household for water quantity and $0.80~$8.60/month-household for water quality and residents of the five regions among six have higher WTPs for water quality improvement. Finally, since three of ten alternatives have BC>0, they can be proposed to the decision makers. This systematic screening procedure will provide decision makers with the flexibility to obtain stakeholders' consensus for water resources planning.

Water Quality Modelling and Water Resources Planning

1984 ◽  
Vol 16 (5-7) ◽  
pp. 511-519
Author(s):  
Katherine Richard-Haggard ◽  
Peter A Krenkel
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Resources Planning ◽  
Water Quality Modelling ◽  
Resources Planning
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document