Integrated water cycle planning for towns in New South Wales, Australia

2003 ◽  
Vol 47 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 87-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Schneider ◽  
A. Davison ◽  
A. Langdon ◽  
G. Freeman ◽  
C. Essery ◽  
...  

Integration means different things to different people and as a consequence appears to only partially deliver on promised outcomes. For effective integrated water cycle management these outcomes should include improved water use efficiency, less waste, environmental sustainability, and provide secure and reliable supply to meet social and economic needs. The objective of integration is the management and combination of all these outcomes as part of a whole, so as to provide better outcomes than would be expected by managing the parts independently. Integration is also a consequence of the Water Reforms embarked on by the NSW State Government in 1995. The key goals of the reforms are clean and healthy rivers and groundwaters, and the establishment of more secure water entitlements for users. They are also essential for meeting the Council of Australian Government (COAG) water management strategies. The policies and guidelines that formed the NSW Water Reforms were the basis of the Water Management Act 2000 (NSW) (WMA) which is the legislative framework for water management in NSW. The NSW Department of Land and Water Conservation has developed an approach to integrated water cycle management for rural centres in NSW based on a catchment and policy context. This approach includes consideration of catchment wide needs and issues, environmental sustainability, government policy and community objectives in the development of an integrated water cycle plan. The approach provides for a transparent assessment of priorities and how to deal with them, and while specific to urban centres, could easily be expanded for use in the management of the whole of the catchment water cycle. Integration of the water cycle is expected to offer benefits to the local environment, community and economy. For instance, any unused proportion of an urban centre's water entitlement, or an offset against this entitlement created through returned flows (such as via good quality sewage effluent discharge to a river), can provide a surplus which is available to be traded on an annual basis. Further, improved demand management within an urban centre can be expected to result in a reduction in abstraction against the licence entitlement. This may result in the increased availability of in-stream water for environmental or other purposes and is expected to increase the economic value of returned water. Improved water use efficiencies are also expected to result in reduced capital works (and their associated costs) as the efficiency of service delivery and resource use improves. In this paper an example of the application of this process is provided and the outcomes discussed.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adel Zeggaf Tahiri ◽  
G. Carmi ◽  
M. Ünlü

Water is the most limiting factor for crop production in arid and semiarid areas. The search of promising water management strategies is foremost for achieving highly productive and sustainable agriculture. Irrigation water management, water conservation, and nonconventional water use for agriculture are key issues to be considered by the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) in these areas. According to climate change scenarios and population growth predictions, these countries will undergo even severe water scarcity levels. Failure of resolving food production challenge will exacerbate tensions between countries, wars, and illegal immigration and compromise human, social, economic, and sustainable development in these areas. However, the search for innovative solutions to water scarcity must comply with societal values, environmental sustainability, and market growth.


2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivek Shandas ◽  
Meenakshi Rao ◽  
Moriah McSharry McGrath

Social and behavioral research is crucial for securing environmental sustainability and improving human living environments. Although the majority of people now live in urban areas, we have limited empirical evidence of the anticipated behavioral response to climate change. Using empirical data on daily household residential water use and temperature, our research examines the implications of future climate conditions on water conservation behavior in 501 households within the Portland (OR) metropolitan region. We ask whether and how much change in ambient temperatures impact residential household water use, while controlling for taxlot characteristics. Based on our results, we develop a spatially explicit description about the changes in future water use for the study region using a downscaled future climate scenario. The results suggest that behavioral responses are mediated by an interaction of household structural attributes, and magnitude and temporal variability of weather parameters. These findings have implications for the way natural resource managers and planning bureaus prepare for and adapt to future consequences of climate change.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 273-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Cobacho ◽  
F. Arregui ◽  
J.C. Parra ◽  
E. Cabrera

Hotels are a fundamental component within the tourist Spanish sector, and their role in water management turns out even more relevant taking into account the fact that tourist areas, in which they are generally located, are water scarce. Trying to go further from the standard ratios and estimations to plan water conservation, this work intends to really measure and quantify water use in rooms. Only by doing this, can subsequent conservation actions, now able to be reliably specified for each specific use, achieve a real success.


2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tong Thi Hoang Duong ◽  
Avner Adin ◽  
David Jackman ◽  
Peter van der Steen ◽  
Kala Vairavamoorthy

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 89-94
Author(s):  
M. McIntyre

For 150 years California met water needs primarily through expensive surface water reservoirs and increased groundwater pumping. This approach to water management was emulated around the world. Today, however, budget deficits, climate change and competing interest all strain California's ability to meet new needs for a growing population, the economy and the environment. Water for California and the Planning & Conservation League led an effort to assess viable options for California under these new realities. The resulting Investment Strategy for California Water identifies cost-effective, environmentally beneficial and socially acceptable water management strategies for meeting these needs. The Strategy demonstrates how California can more than meet water supply needs with locally planned and implemented programs such as water conservation, recycling and groundwater treatment. As with past California approaches to water management, this Strategy can be useful to other regions facing similar challenges.


Author(s):  
Raymond Yu Wang ◽  
Xiaofeng Liu

Household water use accounts for an important portion of water consumption. Notably, different households may behave differently regarding how water is used in everyday life. Trust and risk perception are two significant psychological factors that influence water use behavior in households. Since trust and risk perception are malleable and subject to construction, they are useful for developing effective demand management strategies and water conservation policies. The concepts of trust and risk perception are multidimensional and interconnected. Risk perception varies across social groups and is often shaped by subjective feelings toward a variety of activities, events, and technologies. Risk perception is also mediated by trust, which involves a positive expectation of an individual, an organization, and/or an institution that derives from complex processes, characteristics, and competence. Likewise, different social groups’ trust in various entities involved in household water use is subject to the significant and far-reaching impact of risk perception. The complexity of the two notions poses challenges to the measurement and exploration of their effects on household water use. In many cases, risk perception and trust can influence people’s acceptance of water sources (e.g., tap water, bottled water, recycled water, and desalinated water) and their conservation behavior (e.g., installing water-saving technologies and reducing water consumption) in household water use. Trust can affect household water use indirectly through its influence on risk perception. Moreover, trust and risk perception in household water use are neither given nor fixed; rather, they are dynamically determined by external, internal, and informational factors. A coherent, stable, transparent, and fair social and institutional structure is conducive to building trust. However, trust and risk perception differ among groups with diverse household and/or individual demographic, economic, social, and cultural characteristics. Direct information from personal experiences and, more importantly, indirect information from one’s social network, as well as from mass media and social media, play an increasingly important role in the formation and evolution of trust and risk perception, bringing a profound impact on household water use in an era of information. Future directions lie in new dynamics of risk perception and trust in the era of information explosion, the coevolution mechanism of risk perception and trust in household water use, the nuanced impacts of different types of risks (e.g., controllable and uncontrollable) on household water use, and the interactive relations of risk perception and trust across geographical contexts.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Jobbová

Using a range of evidence from archaeology, ethnography, paleoclimatology and epigraphy this work explores the relationship between Maya society and the local environment; it does so by looking at the impact of different environmental conditions on settlement patterns, subsistence and water management strategies and human responses to climate and environmental stress.


Author(s):  
James W. Cox ◽  
Michele Akeroyd ◽  
Danielle P. Oliver

Abstract. South Australia is the driest state in the driest inhabited country in the world, Australia. Consequently, water is one of South Australia's highest priorities. Focus on water research and sources of water in the state became more critical during the Millenium drought that occurred between 1997 and 2011. In response to increased concern about water sources the South Australian government established The Goyder Institute for Water Research – a partnership between the South Australian State Government, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Flinders University, University of Adelaide and University of South Australia. The Goyder Institute undertakes cutting-edge science to inform the development of innovative integrated water management strategies to ensure South Australia's ongoing water security and enhance the South Australian Government's capacity to develop and deliver science-based policy solutions in water management. This paper focuses on the integrated water resource assessment of the northern Adelaide region, including the key research investments in water and climate, and how this information is being utilised by decision makers in the region.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Bolton

The author undertakes a literature review of attitudes to water usage in Jordan. One survey was identified which assessed attitudes towards water conservation, sampling 2000 residents in three regions in Jordan (Irbid, Amman, and Zarqa) in 2017. According to the survey, only 61% of respondents believed there was a water shortage in Jordan. 23% believed the water shortage was due to population pressures. The survey focussed more on water conservation than water use. Most of the respondents felt the government were not doing enough on water shortage issues. They were not asked how they feel about the role of the government versus their individual responsibility. Older respondents perceived the shortages to be more critical. A lack of interest in participating in water saving activities was identified among the youth. Water quality was perceived as poor in the USAID survey and noted in other sources. The survey found that most residents had management strategies in place for the day that the water was delivered. Views about politics of regional cooperation and refugee pressure on water use potentially affect attitudes to water but this was not identified specifically within the scope of this report.


HortScience ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 25 (9) ◽  
pp. 1183c-1183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles F. Mancino

Arizona's golf and sod industry generates $280 M year-1 in revenue and surpasses the vegetable, cotton and dairy industries. Despite the economic worth of turf, a need still exists to conserve the limited supply of potable water in this harsh Sonoran Desert environment. Mandatory water conservation programs have been developed for many sectors of the Arizona economy. To meet this challenge, the turfgrass industry and government bodies have begun to contribute to the development of research programs which reduce turfgrass water requirements and dependence upon potable water. Current research includes a) determining the minimum water requirements of higher quality turf under conditions of high temperatures and vapor pressure deficits; b) the turfgrass potential of grasses with lower water requirements than bermudagrass; c) the development of a statewide weather station network to predict daily turfgrass water use; and d) determine management strategies for turfgrass irrigated with wastewater effluent. The overall goal of these programs is to produce high quality and functional turf with 20 to 50 percent less water.


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