scholarly journals The Canadian Water Resource Vulnerability Index to Permafrost Thaw (CWRVIPT)

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 437-462
Author(s):  
C. Spence ◽  
M. Norris ◽  
G. Bickerton ◽  
B.R. Bonsal ◽  
R. Brua ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Resource ◽  
Vulnerability Index ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Hudson Bay ◽  
Hudson Bay Lowlands ◽  
Permafrost Thaw ◽  
Canadian North

This study developed and applied a framework for assessing the vulnerability of pan-Canadian water resources to permafrost thaw. The national-scale work addresses a key, but neglected, information gap, as previous research has focused on small scale physical processes and circumpolar trends. The framework was applied to develop the Canadian Water Resources Vulnerability Index to Permafrost Thaw (CWRVIPT) and map the index across the Canadian North. The CWRVIPT is a linearly additive index of permafrost, terrain, disturbance, and climatic conditions and stressors that influence water budgets and aquatic chemistry. Initial results imply water resources in the western Northwest Territories and Hudson Bay Lowlands are most vulnerable to permafrost thaw; however, water resources on Banks, Victoria and Baffin Islands are also relatively vulnerable. Although terrain and permafrost sub-indices are the largest component of the CWRVIPT across a wide swath from the Mackenzie River Delta to the Hudson Bay Lowlands, the climate sub-index is most important farther north over parts of the southern portion of the Arctic Archipelago. The index can be used to identify areas of water resource vulnerability on which to focus observation and research in the Canadian North.

scholarly journals Using the Arctic water resources vulnerability index in assessing and responding to environmental change in Alaskan communities

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 19-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Williams ◽  
Andrew Kliskey ◽  
Molly McCarthy ◽  
Richard Lammers ◽  
Lilian Alessa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Vulnerability Index ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Arctic Water ◽  
Water Resources Vulnerability

scholarly journals Global warming triggers the loss of a key Arctic refugium

2013 ◽  
Vol 280 (1772) ◽  
pp. 20131887 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. M. Rühland ◽  
A. M. Paterson ◽  
W. Keller ◽  
N. Michelutti ◽  
J. P. Smol
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Sea Ice ◽  
Sediment Cores ◽  
Freshwater Ecosystems ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Hudson Bay ◽  
Native Communities ◽  
Hudson Bay Lowlands ◽  
Short Period

We document the rapid transformation of one of the Earth's last remaining Arctic refugia, a change that is being driven by global warming. In stark contrast to the amplified warming observed throughout much of the Arctic, the Hudson Bay Lowlands (HBL) of subarctic Canada has maintained cool temperatures, largely due to the counteracting effects of persistent sea ice. However, since the mid-1990s, climate of the HBL has passed a tipping point, the pace and magnitude of which is exceptional even by Arctic standards, exceeding the range of regional long-term variability. Using high-resolution, palaeolimnological records of algal remains in dated lake sediment cores, we report that, within this short period of intense warming, striking biological changes have occurred in the region's freshwater ecosystems. The delayed and intense warming in this remote region provides a natural observatory for testing ecosystem resilience under a rapidly changing climate, in the absence of direct anthropogenic influences. The environmental repercussions of this climate change are of global significance, influencing the huge store of carbon in the region's extensive peatlands, the world's southern-most polar bear population that depends upon Hudson Bay sea ice and permafrost for survival, and native communities who rely on this landscape for sustenance.

scholarly journals Water resource development and management for agricultural sustainability

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 73 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Zaman ◽  
Parveen Zaman ◽  
Sagar Maitra
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Resource ◽  
Water Resources Management ◽  
Irrigation Water ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Sustainable Growth ◽  
Soil Conditions ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Resources Management ◽  
Rainfed Farming

Agricultural production can only be sustained on a long term basis if the land, water and forests on which it is based are not degraded further. Improvements in water resources management are essential to raise agricultural productivity and reduce land degradation and water pollution.  Salinization, alkalization and water logging should be addressed by a more careful approach to drainage and the regulation of water quantities through efficient use of irrigation water, which require that water be applied to growing crops at appropriate times and in adequate. The integrated management of water resources could only be possible through adoption of efficient and optimum use of irrigation water, which could only be ensured by judicious and economic use of irrigation potential whatsoever created to increase crop production. The integrated water resources management also includes the concept of rainwater management that has got an immense important on the way to develop the rainfed farming system. It has got relevancy particularly in installing small-scale irrigation system based on farmers’ participatory approach for sustainable crop production for maintaining sustainable growth and development of agriculture. Modern irrigation techniques like sprinkler and drip should be promoted when water is scarce and the topographic and soil conditions do not permit efficient irrigation by conventional methods.  Promotions of such water saving devices should be an objective of the national water policy.  Water resource management is a integrated and multidisciplinary activity, managing irrigation water that needs agronomy and crop husbandry, efficient methods and system of irrigation needs soils scientists and engineers. More than 98% of the irrigated lands are under the coverage of surface irrigation where more than 50% of water as considered as wastages wherein effective minimization of wastage of water used for irrigation and application of right quantity of water at right time will be the key to successful management of this crucial resource. So question of judicious management of water is pertinent while prioritizing researchable issues became of national importance.

scholarly journals Polar Ice as an Unconventional Water Resource: Opportunities and Challenges

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 3220
Author(s):  
Zahra Karimidastenaei ◽  
Björn Klöve ◽  
Mojtaba Sadegh ◽  
Ali Torabi Haghighi
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Resource ◽  
Resource Assessment ◽  
Offshore Structures ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Polar Ice ◽  
Main Challenge ◽  
Spatiotemporal Scales ◽  
Economic Considerations ◽  
New Jobs

Global water resources are under pressure due to increasing population and diminishing conventional water resources caused by global warming. Water scarcity is a daunting global problem which has prompted efforts to find unconventional resources as an appealing substitute for conventional water, particularly in arid and semiarid regions. Ice is one such unconventional water resource, which is available mainly in the Arctic and Antarctic. In this study, opportunities and challenges in iceberg utilization as a source of freshwater were investigated on the basis of a systematic literature review (SLR). A search in three databases (Scopus, Web of Science, and ProQuest) yielded 47 separate studies from 1974 to 2019. The SLR indicated that harvesting iceberg water, one of the purest sources of water, offers benefits ranging from supplying freshwater and creating new jobs to avoiding iceberg damage to offshore structures. Economic considerations and risks associated with iceberg towing were identified as the main limitations to iceberg harvesting, while environmental impacts were identified as the main challenge to exploiting this resource. Assessment of trends in ice sheets in Arctic and Antarctic across different spatiotemporal scales indicated that the main sources of icebergs showed a statistically significant (p < 0.01) decreasing trend for all months and seasons during 2005–2019.

scholarly journals The Middle Wisconsinan History of the Laurentide Ice Sheet

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynda A. Dredge ◽  
L. Harvey Thorleifson
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
Dynamic Instability ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Hudson Bay ◽  
Sea Level Changes ◽  
Hudson Bay Lowlands ◽  
Climate Indicators ◽  
Western Arctic

ABSTRACT Evidence for Middle Wisconsinan ice limits and climates comes from sites scattered around the periphery of the Laurentide Ice domain and from the Hudson Bay Lowlands. Interpretations are based on dated wood, peat, shell and sediment; biological climate indicators (chiefly cool-climate indicators); and stratigraphie sequences of both glacial and nonglacial units. The best evidence comes from the prairie provinces and the Great Lakes areas, both of which indicate substantial ice retreat from earlier southern glacial limits, and cool, boreal-tundra climates. The western arctic may have experienced an early warm period but both the western arctic — northwestern plains and eastern maritime areas may later have become ice accumulation areas. Three maps portray various possible ice limits. The first shows substantial ice cover in the arctic, but reduced ice cover in the prairies and Great Lakes, and expanded maritime ice caps (rather than Laurentide Ice) in the southeast and on Baffin Island. This ice mass distribution may reflect Middle Wisconsinan shifts in air masses and ocean currents. Ice volumes generated by this model are in accord with the marine oxygen isotope record and perceived global sea level changes. A modification to this model, which resolves some of the controversy in the Hudson Bay Lowlands, shows a calving bay penetrating into the heart of the ice sheet, induced by dynamic instability of the marine-based ice mass in Hudson Bay during relatively high glacial isostatic and eustatic seas. A third reconstruction portrays extensive climatically induced déglaciation and retains Laurentide ice only in parts of the northwest and Labrador-Ungava, with local ice in the Appalachian-Atlantic region. This model is based on alternative genetic interpretations of lithologic units and reassessment of age assignments.

Managing the impacts of mining on Ghana’s water resources from a legal perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 156-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nasirudeen Abdul Fatawu
Keyword(s):  
Surface Water ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Mining Activities ◽  
Protection Agency ◽  
Environmental Laws ◽  
Mining Areas ◽  
Legal Perspective

Recent floods in Ghana are largely blamed on mining activities. Not only are lives lost through these floods, farms andproperties are destroyed as a result. Water resources are diverted, polluted and impounded upon by both large-scale minersand small-scale miners. Although these activities are largely blamed on behavioural attitudes that need to be changed, thereare legal dimensions that should be addressed as well. Coincidentally, a great proportion of the water resources of Ghana arewithin these mining areas thus the continual pollution of these surface water sources is a serious threat to the environmentand the development of the country as a whole. The environmental laws need to be oriented properly with adequate sanctionsto tackle the impacts mining has on water resources. The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedure needs to bestreamlined and undertaken by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and not the company itself.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document