scholarly journals Virtual Tracers to Detect Sources of Water and Track Water Reuse across a River Basin

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 2315
Author(s):  
Gijs Simons ◽  
Peter Droogers ◽  
Sergio Contreras ◽  
Jack Sieber ◽  
Wim Bastiaanssen
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Water Reuse ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Environmental Water ◽  
Return Flow ◽  
Water Users ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
Return Flows ◽  
Water Scarce

Water managers around the world face the increasingly challenging task to evaluate the impacts of technological measures and policy mechanisms from the local to the river basin scale. A toolset providing quantitative, actionable information on dependencies and trade-offs between upstream and downstream water users is currently lacking. Yet, any intervention needs to be assessed in terms of consequences for downstream water users. This study evaluates the potential of a tracer-like approach, implemented in the water allocation software WEAP, to quantitatively track return flows and their downstream reuse in the river basin context. The WEAP-Virtual Tracer (WEAP-VT) approach was successfully applied to one of Europe’s driest river basins, the Segura River Basin in Spain. For each water demand site, the different original sources of water supply, dependency on upstream return flows, and downstream reuse of its return flow were assessed. Based on these results, agricultural, urban, and environmental water users were evaluated in terms of their suitability for water saving measures and their vulnerability to the reduction in upstream return flows. A scenario analysis simulating the improvement of local efficiency improvements shows that specific irrigation schemes and ecosystems become deprived of water. Hence, efficiency improvement in water-scarce basins should be considered with caution. The demonstrated ability to quantify key water reuse indicators for individual water users and at different aggregation levels makes WEAP-VT a valuable tool to support water resource management decisions.

scholarly journals Development of an SDG interlinkages analysis model at the river basin scale: a case study in the Luanhe River Basin, China

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Zhou ◽  
Mustafa Moinuddin ◽  
Fabrice Renaud ◽  
Brian Barrett ◽  
Jiren Xu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Analysis Model ◽  
Policy Coherence ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
River Basin Scale ◽  
Luanhe River Basin ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Basin Scale

AbstractWhile the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are broadly framed with 17 goals, the goals and their targets inherently connect with each other forming a complex system. Actions supporting one goal may influence progress in other goals, either positively (synergies) or negatively (trade-offs). Effective managing the synergies and trade-offs is a prerequisite for ensuring policy coherence. This is particular relevant at the river basin scale where the implementation of national policies may generate inequalities at the sub-basin levels, such as the upstream and the downstream. In the existing literature, there is still a lack of methodologies to assess the SDG interlinkages and their differences at the subnational levels. This paper presents a methodology on the development of an SDG interlinkages analysis model at the basin scale and its application to a case study in China’s Luanhe River Basin (LRB). Seven broad areas, namely land use and land cover change, climate change, ecosystem services, flood risks, water sector, urbanisation, and energy, were set as the scope of study. Through a systematic review, key elements of the SDG interlinkages system were identified and their interactions were mapped. The resulting generic SDG interlinkages model were validated with expert survey and stakeholders’ consultation and tailored to the LRB. Quantification of the SDG interlinkages was conducted for 27 counties in the LRB and demonstrated by the results of 3 selected counties located in the upstream, midstream and downstream areas, respectively. The methodology and its applications can be used to support integrated water resource management in river basins.

The Rise and Fall of the French Agences de l’Eau: From German-Type Subsidiarität to State Control

2018 ◽  
Vol 04 (03) ◽  
pp. 1850013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard O. Barraqué ◽  
Patrick Laigneau ◽  
Rosa Maria Formiga-Johnsson
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
River Basin Management ◽  
State Control ◽  
Integrated Water Management ◽  
Water Users ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Administrative Elites

The Agences de l’eau (Water Agencies) are well known abroad as the French attempt to develop integrated water management at river basin scale through the implementation of the Polluter Pays Principle (PPP). Yet, after 30 years of existence, environmental economists became aware that they were not implementing the PPP, and therefore were not aiming at reducing pollution through economic efficiency. Behind the purported success story, which still attracts visitors from abroad, a crisis has been recently growing. Initially based on the model of the German (rather than Dutch) waterboards, the French system always remained fragile and quasi-unconstitutional. It failed to choose between two legal, economic and institutional conceptions of river basin management. These principles differ on the definition of the PPP, and on the role of levies paid by water users. After presenting these two contrasting visions, the paper revisits the history of the French Agences, to show that, unwilling to modify the Constitution to make room for specific institutions to manage common pool resources, Parliament and administrative elites brought the system to levels of complexity and incoherence which might doom the experiment.

Spatiotemporal characteristics of water budget dynamic in the Yarlung Tsangpo River basin of Tibetan Plateau based on multi-source datasets

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yao Jiang ◽  
Zongxue Xu
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Water Budget ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Water Budgets ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
Yarlung Tsangpo ◽  
Yarlung Tsangpo River

<p>Understanding the dynamics of basin-scale water budgets over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) is significant for hydrology and water resource management in the southern and eastern Asia. However, a detailed water balance analysis is limited by the lack of adequate hydro-climatic observations in this region. In this study, we investigate the spatiotemporal variation of water budget components (e.g. precipitation P, evapotranspiration ET and runoff Q etc.) in the Yarlung Tsangpo River basin (YTB) of southeast TP during the period of 1975-2015 through using multi-source datasets (e.g. insitu observation, remote sensing data products, reanalysis outputs and model simulations etc.). The change trend of water budget components and vegetation parameters was analyzed in the YTB on interannual scale. The results indicated that the detailed water budgets are different from upstream to downstream YTB due to different temperature, vegetation cover and evapotranspiration, which are mainly affected by different climate conditions. In the whole basin, precipitation that are mainly during June to October was the major contributor to the runoff. The P and Q were found to show a slight but insignificant decrease in most regions of YTB since the late 1990s, which showed positive relationships with the weakening Indian summer monsoon. While the ET showed an insignificant increase across most of the YTB, especially in the middle basin. The runoff coefficient (Q/P) exhibited an indistinctively decreasing trend which may be, to some extent, due to the overlap effects of ET increase and snow and glacier changes. The obtained results offer insights into understanding the evolution mechanism of hydrological processes in such a data-sparse region under changing environment.</p>

scholarly journals BUILDING THE MODEL OF MANAGEMENT AND INFORMATION SHARING OF ENVIRONMENTAL WATER QUALITY – DONG NAI BASIN AS A CASE STUDY

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-28
Author(s):  
Long Ta Bui ◽  
Truong Duy Cao ◽  
Huong Thi My Hoang
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Environmental Water ◽  
River Basin Scale ◽  
Legal Documents ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
Basin Water ◽  
The Impact

Recently, due to the impact of natural factors and human activities, the water quality in several basins in Vietnam has been seriously degraded. Pressing issues happening in the entire river basin-scale is polluted by waste from urban and industrial areas, oil spills and waste management. So far the system of policies and legal documents relating to protection of water quality basin is still missing and not synchronized, ensure funding for activities to protect water quality basin not meeting actual requirements. In particularly, there is no information data system to cater for the management of basin water quality which is the core of the problem of environmental protection of river basins. The main reason that make pollution happened at the entire river basin scale is bad waste management. which partly due to the lack of a good system of technical data and legal documents related to protection of river basin water quality. In this paper, we present research results from the process of building model for management and information sharing of environmental water quality at Dong Nai river basin.

Scale and consequences – the limits of the river basin as a management unit

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 618-625
Author(s):  
Mike Muller
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Resource Management ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Aquatic Environment ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Network Governance ◽  
African Experience ◽  
Basin Scale

Abstract Contrary to dominant paradigms, the river basin is not the obvious unit within which to undertake water management given the diversity of functions inherent in water resource management. The Southern African experience is presented to illustrate issues that may arise when using the river basin for different functions. Functions best addressed at a larger ‘problem-shed’ level are identified and it is explained why some other functions should rather be performed at smaller, sub-basin scales. Using recent work on water governance, which emphasise polycentricity and network governance, it is suggested that a better understanding of the appropriate scales for different functions will support activities such as planning, monitoring and the protection of the aquatic environment that may best be focused at river basin scale.

scholarly journals Improving Indicators of Hydrological Alteration in Regulated and Complex Water Resources Systems: A Case Study in the Duero River Basin

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 2676
Author(s):  
Jesús Pardo-Loaiza ◽  
Abel Solera ◽  
Rafael J. Bergillos ◽  
Javier Paredes-Arquiola ◽  
Joaquín Andreu
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Hydrologic Alteration ◽  
Allocation Model ◽  
Water Resources Systems ◽  
Hydrological Alteration ◽  
Environmental Objectives ◽  
Basin Scale

Assessing the health of hydrological systems is vital for the conservation of river ecosystems. The indicators of hydrologic alteration are among the most widely used parameters. They have been traditionally assessed at the scale of river reaches. However, the use of such indicators at the basin scale is relevant for water resource management since there is an urgent need to meet environmental objectives to mitigate the effects of present and future climatic conditions. This work proposes a methodology to estimate the indicators of hydrological alteration at the basin scale in regulated systems based on simulations with a water allocation model. The methodology is illustrated through a case study in the Iberian Peninsula (the Duero River basin), where different minimum flow scenarios were defined, assessing their effects on both the hydrological alteration and the demand guarantees. The results indicate that it is possible to improve the hydrological status of some subsystems of the basin without affecting the water demand supplies. Thus, the methodology presented in this work will help decision makers to optimize water management while improving the hydrological status of the river basins.

Implementing integrated river basin management in the Red River Basin, Vietnam: a solution looking for a problem?

Water Policy ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 518-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
François Molle ◽  
Chu Thai Hoanh
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
River Basin Management ◽  
Red River ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
External Pressures ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
Red River Basin

Several water policy principles considered to be modern and internationally sanctioned have recently been adopted by Vietnam. This article focuses on the establishment of the Red River Basin Organization but expands its analysis to the wider transformations of the water sector that impinge on the formation and effectiveness of this organization. It shows that the promotion of integrated water resource management icons such as river basin organizations (RBOs) by donors has been quite disconnected from existing institutional frameworks. If policy reforms promoted by donors and development banks have triggered changes, these changes may have come not as a result of the reforms themselves but, rather, due to the institutional confusion they have created when confronted with the emergence of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE). For the MoNRE, the river basin scale became crucial for grounding its legitimacy and asserting its role among the established layers of the administration, while for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, RBOs became a focal point where power over financial resources and political power might potentially be relocated at its expense. Institutional change is shown to result from the interaction between endogenous processes and external pressures, in ways that are hard to predict.

scholarly journals Hydro-Economic Modelling for Water-Policy Assessment Under Climate Change at a River Basin Scale: A Review

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfonso Expósito ◽  
Felicitas Beier ◽  
Julio Berbel
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Resource Management ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Water Resource ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Economic Modelling ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
Model Components

Hydro-economic models (HEMs) constitute useful instruments to assess water-resource management and inform water policy. In the last decade, HEMs have achieved significant advances regarding the assessment of the impacts of water-policy instruments at a river basin or catchment level in the context of climate change (CC). This paper offers an overview of the alternative approaches used in river-basin hydro-economic modelling to address water-resource management issues and CC during the past decade. Additionally, it analyses how uncertainty and risk factors of global CC have been treated in recent HEMs, offering a discussion on these last advances. As the main conclusion, current challenges in the realm of hydro-economic modelling include the representation of the food-energy-water nexus, the successful representation of micro-macro linkages and feedback loops between the socio-economic model components and the physical side, and the treatment of CC uncertainties and risks in the analysis.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document