Water Balance Assessment for Water Management in Oil & Gas Operations: A Methodological Approach

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattia Paolo Bergamini ◽  
Mattia Chiavico ◽  
Laura Bracco ◽  
Anna Moglia ◽  
Melania Buffagni

Abstract The Water Balance Assessment is a methodological approach developed and applied by Eni for the identification of improvements in water management at site level. The approach is based on three steps. The following report describes each step and the application of the approach to a real case study in Tunisia. Water is a vital resource for our planet and for humankind. Biodiversity and ecosystems’ preservation, human health, and food security as well as energy production, industrial development and economic growth are all dependent on water. The consequences of climate change and the actual projections of increasing water demand will affect water availability and quality in the coming years. About the Oil & Gas sector, this industry consumes and produces significant volumes of water. For this reason, energy companies must consider sustainable options for the use of this resource, especially in water stress areas. This can be achieved through:A deep knowledge of the site water streams and of the context where the site is located.Identification of improvements and initiatives that could reduce the water risk of the site. About water safeguarding, Eni is committed to pursue the following practices:Water Conservation: Upstream Oil & Gas operations need significant quantities of water; a key element for its conservation includes the reduction of withdrawals and the efficiency in water use.Water Reuse and Valorization: Upstream Oil & Gas operations must manage large volumes of wastewater, mainly Produced Water. Design solutions shall introduce and maximize the recycle of water with the adoption of suitable treatments, to make discharges compatible with the reuse in the same production cycle or by third parties (e.g., other plants, local communities), and pursue the opportunity to reuse industrial water, instead of discharging it as wastewater. For their deployment, Eni has defined and applied a methodological approach to support the definition of improvement and optimization initiatives of water management at the site level. The approach represents an application of a "convergence approach" which, starting from an overall view of the site, identifies opportunities, further and more detailed areas of analysis, and design projects that can improve water use, management, and reuse. The methodological approach is based on the following steps:A country-based framework study on water resources, and water-related risks analysis at country and local level.A Water Balance Assessment, gathering water qualitative and quantitative information and site framework details.Definition of site initiatives for wastewater reuse and valorization, and for the optimization of water withdrawals, based on the above steps and considering local legislation. Through this approach, operational water risks exposure is analyzed in detail, allowing to address a wide range of opportunities for the improvement of water management, also through the development of new synergies with local communities.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Valencia ◽  
Sabine Egerer ◽  
María Máñez

<p>Higher temperatures and changes in precipitation patterns caused by climate change may potentially affect water availability for agriculture and increase the risk of crop loss in Northeast Lower Saxony (NELS), Germany. The drought of 2018 showed that an intensification of irrigation might be a temporary solution. However, a long-term increase in water extraction, especially during drought periods, is not a sustainable solution. To assess possible water management solutions, we implement a participatory system dynamics approach, namely Group Model Building, to develop a qualitative system dynamics model (QSDM) describing the agricultural system and its relation to water resources in NELS.</p><p>The development of the QSDM seeks to understand the complexity of the interactions between agriculture and hydrological systems, recognize the stakeholders’ needs and identify risks and weaknesses of both systems. By understanding this, we expect to reinforce the adaptation process, reduce conflict and be able to suggest tailored solutions and adaptation measures. The QSDM incorporates a wide range of perceptions, as twenty stakeholders ranging from farmers, government agencies, environmental protection organizations and local water authorities were involved in the QSDM development. Their perceptions were recorded in the QSDM through individual interviews and a group workshop.</p><p>Through the QSDM, we identified and mapped the structure and connections between agriculture and the water balance. It was also possible to identify the strongest feedback loops governing both sectors as well as their influence on the current situation. The loops represent behaviors and structures, which might become unmanageable under climate change conditions. The causal loops include the different uses for the available water of the region, the impact of irrigation, the significance of crop selection and the importance of sustainable soil management.</p><p>By analyzing the system this way, we confirmed that climate change poses a risk to the region as elevated temperatures could increase the crop water demand and increase the need for irrigation. In the same way, changes in the rain patterns could affect the water balance of the region. The agricultural system has, however, potential to adapt by implementing new water management strategies such as restructuring water rights, water storage and reuse and conjunctive water use. Other measures include increasing the irrigation efficiency, changing crops and enhancing the soil quality, among others.</p>


Author(s):  
Myriam Saadé-Sbeih ◽  
François Zwahlen ◽  
Ahmed Haj Asaad ◽  
Raoul Gonzalez ◽  
Ronald Jaubert

Abstract. Water management is a fundamental issue in post-conflict planning in Syria. Based on historical water balance assessment, this study identifies the drivers of the profound changes that took place in the Lebanese and Syrian parts of the Orontes River basin since the 1930s. Both drastic effects of the conflict on the hydro-system and the strong uncontrolled anthropization of the river basin prior to the crisis have to be considered in the design of recovery interventions.


Author(s):  
Baoliang Chen ◽  
Peng Liu ◽  
Feiyun Xiao ◽  
Zhengshi Liu ◽  
Yong Wang

Quantitative assessment is crucial for the evaluation of human postural balance. The force plate system is the key quantitative balance assessment method. The purpose of this study is to review the important concepts in balance assessment and analyze the experimental conditions, parameter variables, and application scope based on force plate technology. As there is a wide range of balance assessment tests and a variety of commercial force plate systems to choose from, there is room for further improvement of the test details and evaluation variables of the balance assessment. The recommendations presented in this article are the foundation and key part of the postural balance assessment; these recommendations focus on the type of force plate, the subject’s foot posture, and the choice of assessment variables, which further enriches the content of posturography. In order to promote a more reasonable balance assessment method based on force plates, further methodological research and a stronger consensus are still needed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexey Bondar ◽  
Olga Rybakova ◽  
Josef Melcr ◽  
Jan Dohnálek ◽  
Petro Khoroshyy ◽  
...  

AbstractFluorescence-detected linear dichroism microscopy allows observing various molecular processes in living cells, as well as obtaining quantitative information on orientation of fluorescent molecules associated with cellular features. Such information can provide insights into protein structure, aid in development of genetically encoded probes, and allow determinations of lipid membrane properties. However, quantitating and interpreting linear dichroism in biological systems has been laborious and unreliable. Here we present a set of open source ImageJ-based software tools that allow fast and easy linear dichroism visualization and quantitation, as well as extraction of quantitative information on molecular orientations, even in living systems. The tools were tested on model synthetic lipid vesicles and applied to a variety of biological systems, including observations of conformational changes during G-protein signaling in living cells, using fluorescent proteins. Our results show that our tools and model systems are applicable to a wide range of molecules and polarization-resolved microscopy techniques, and represent a significant step towards making polarization microscopy a mainstream tool of biological imaging.


2008 ◽  
Vol 23 (11) ◽  
pp. 2361-2378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel El Chami ◽  
Maroun El Moujabber ◽  
Alessandra Scardigno

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Qian ◽  
Yang Yu ◽  
Ke Tang ◽  
Yaochu Jin ◽  
Xin Yao ◽  
...  

In real-world optimization tasks, the objective (i.e., fitness) function evaluation is often disturbed by noise due to a wide range of uncertainties. Evolutionary algorithms are often employed in noisy optimization, where reducing the negative effect of noise is a crucial issue. Sampling is a popular strategy for dealing with noise: to estimate the fitness of a solution, it evaluates the fitness multiple ([Formula: see text]) times independently and then uses the sample average to approximate the true fitness. Obviously, sampling can make the fitness estimation closer to the true value, but also increases the estimation cost. Previous studies mainly focused on empirical analysis and design of efficient sampling strategies, while the impact of sampling is unclear from a theoretical viewpoint. In this article, we show that sampling can speed up noisy evolutionary optimization exponentially via rigorous running time analysis. For the (1[Formula: see text]1)-EA solving the OneMax and the LeadingOnes problems under prior (e.g., one-bit) or posterior (e.g., additive Gaussian) noise, we prove that, under a high noise level, the running time can be reduced from exponential to polynomial by sampling. The analysis also shows that a gap of one on the value of [Formula: see text] for sampling can lead to an exponential difference on the expected running time, cautioning for a careful selection of [Formula: see text]. We further prove by using two illustrative examples that sampling can be more effective for noise handling than parent populations and threshold selection, two strategies that have shown to be robust to noise. Finally, we also show that sampling can be ineffective when noise does not bring a negative impact.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roman Gereev ◽  
Milyausha Pinskaya

The monograph is devoted to the analysis of tax incentives, the use of which will help to achieve the economic goals of the state in the field of industrial support. The theoretical foundations of tax incentives for industrial development are considered, the effectiveness of tax incentives is evaluated, and measures to improve state financial support for industrial production are proposed. It is intended for a wide range of readers: specialists involved in tax risk management, economists in the field of industrial production, consultants in the field of taxation and tax administration, students and teachers of economic universities.


Author(s):  
Valentyna Kolmakova

The purpose of the article is to substantiate the theoretical and methodological approach to determining the key characteristics of the assessment of ecosystem assets of territorial communities related to water. The study considers the theoretical and methodological principles of assessing ecosystem assets for sustainable development of local communities. The initial methodological approaches of the accumulated world experience on the assessment of ecosystem services and ecosystem assets of local level territories in the context of three components (ecological, economic and social) in the context of water-related ecosystems are specified. An algorithm for estimating ecosystem assets is proposed. The key guidelines for assessing the ecosystem assets of territorial spatial entities based on European experience are revealed. The list of scientific recommendations for the assessment of water-related ecosystem assets to enhance the capacity of local communities and preserve and restore ecosystems is substantiated. The novelty of the study lies in the proposals for the implementation in Ukrainian practice of general approaches to the methodology of assessment of ecosystem assets and services, according to the recommendations of the international project of the European Commission “The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity” (TEEB). The key Euro-benchmarks proposed by the author for the assessment of water-related ecosystem assets will help increase the investment attractiveness of spatial territorial formations and create preconditions for the development of a new economy on an ecosystem basis. Further research has prospects in the following areas: formation of a comprehensive strategic approach to the introduction of ecosystem asset valuation at the local level; development and introduction of effective methodological approaches to the assessment of ecosystem assets for the formation of investment attractiveness of the territory through the use of local natural resources, including water, as ecosystem assets of sustainable spatial development.


2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-497
Author(s):  
E Soltani ◽  
A Soltani ◽  
S Galeshi ◽  
F Ghaderi-far ◽  
E Zeinali

Volunteer canola (Brassica napus) and Sinapis arvensis are well identified weeds of different cropping systems. Quantitative information on regarding seed production by them is limited. Such information is necessary to model dynamics of soil seed banks. The aim of this work was to quantify seed production as a function of the size of those weeds. A wide range of plant size was produced by using a fan seeding system performed at two sowing dates (environments). Plant size varied from 3 to 167 g per plant for canola and from 6 to 104 g per plant for S. arvensis. Seed production ranged from 543 to14,773 seeds per plant for canola, and from 264 to 10,336 seeds per plant for S. arvensis. There was a close relationship between seed production per plant and plant size which was well-described by a power function (y = 130.6x0.94; R² = 0.93 for canola and y = 28x1.27; R² = 0.95 for S. arvensis). There was also strong relationships among the number of pods produced in individual plants and the quantity of seeds produced (g per plant) with the size of the plant. The relationships found in this study can be used in dynamic seed bank models of volunteer canola and S. arvensis.


2018 ◽  
Vol 170 ◽  
pp. 04008
Author(s):  
Nadezhda Kurepina ◽  
Irina Rybkina

Geoinformation systems (GIS) are actively used in modern scientific research, including the field of Urban Territories’ management. The lack of a universal methodology for their application requires an individual approach in the study of water management and water and environmental problems in the region. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate concrete examples of GIS successful use in solving some water supplying problems. One of the leading research methods is geoinformation-cartographic modeling, which has a wide range of possibilities and contributes to the effective solution of water-related and water-ecological regional problems. The developed algorithm for GIS using in solving regional water, a step-by-step procedure organizes for carrying out research work, the presented structure of the thematic database facilitates the systematizatin of thematic data large volume with the base a GIS project is created, where information is integrated, calculations, and a cartographic model is created that visualizes the regional water management and water-e logical situation. The research examples carried out in the Institute of Hydrometeorology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Siberian Branch) on regional water management and water ecological problems by means of GIS and using the method of geoinformation-cartographic modeling considered in this paper prove the effectiveness and their use expediency.


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