scholarly journals The use of groundwater crustacean communities as indicators for aquifers quality in the semi-arid region of north-central Chile

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanda Iepure ◽  
Nicolas Gouin ◽  
Angeline Bertin ◽  
Ana Camacho ◽  
Antonio González-Ramón ◽  
...  

Chile has large extensions of arid and semi-arid regions throughout the whole country, where the intensive demands and use of water resources, especially groundwater for irrigations and mining activities, increased dramatically over the last decades. The aquifer depletions due to water abstraction for irrigation and nutrient loads, exert major alterations of water quality, groundwater recharge and the natural renewal rate. All these factors diminish the aquifer value for the users and contribute to the degradation of groundwater as environment and habitat for fauna. This intensive use of groundwater resources in Chile brought to significant social and economic benefits, but their inadequate management resulted in negative environmental, legal and socioeconomic consequences. In this study, we aimed at providing a first assessment of environmental alterations of groundwater ecosystems from agricultural watersheds in northern Chile by specifically evaluating the effects of nitrogen and pesticide loads on groundwater communities and identifing the ecosystem service alterations due to agricultural activities. The study has been performed in a glacial aquifer from Coquimbo region; 250 km north of Santiago de Chile, the floodplain of which is dominated by agriculture (fruits tress, vineyards). Due to low regional precipitations (100-240 mm/year) the aquifer is primarily recharged by snowmelt from the Andean chain and surface runoff. The relative groundwater levels, groundwater temperature, chemical analysis of nitrogen and total phosphorus and pesticide concentrations were examined, along with the evaluation of crustacean biodiversity and spatial distribution pattern. Stygofauna taxonomic richness and the presence of stygobites have been related more to groundwater level stability than to chemical water parameters indicating that over-exploitation has a negative impact on habitat suitability for groundwater invertebrates. Groundwater biota assessment is essential in understanding the impact produced by agriculture activities on groundwater as a resource and as ecosystem, a nexus that becomes more and more widely recognized. The rationale and the preliminary results of this study are summarized in the Suppl. material 1.

Author(s):  
Maryna Khmara

The peculiarities of gemstone market functioning under the impact of globalization are examined. Modern condition of financial stabilization in world is defined and main features of gemstones are outlined. Negative impact of illegal market on socio-economic development of countries, namely on revenues to the country’s budget from the business, is revealed. The importance of the problem of transferring most of gemstones processing operations beyond the countries of production is emphasized. Poor public control over the circulation of precious stones is proven. The challenges are substantiated to be aggravating under the impact of globalization. The diamonds market, which has peculiar high demand, is analyzed: diamonds and derivatives account for 85% of global turnover. Application of managerial strategies for gemstones market to efficiently use resources is defined to be complicated by the fact that managerial strategies impact the high cost of product items and its variability; unique features; intangible qualities; complicated processing. More environmentally friendly production and social responsibility are confirmed to have impact on forming of demand on gemstones. Investment attractiveness of gemstones, except for diamonds, is proven to be low. Condition of production and consumption of diamonds is analyzed. Development condition of the market segment – non-diamonds gemstones – is shown. The activity of small enterprises and households engaged in gemstones production is confirmed to be characterized by chaotic and complicated nature of broker networks, leading to aggravated global challenges. The paper defines that expansion of spectrum and emergence of new opportunities for illegal activity, reduced income and loss of other types of economic benefits, growing negative ecological and social impact, growing exploitation of workers at illegal enterprises remain to be the global challenges of gemstones market functioning. The author suggests increasing of social and ecological responsibility of business, strengthening of the state regulating functions and promotion of gemstones market legalization in order to reduce the challenges.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (8) ◽  
pp. 2635-2656
Author(s):  
Samson Oiro ◽  
Jean-Christophe Comte ◽  
Chris Soulsby ◽  
Alan MacDonald ◽  
Canute Mwakamba

AbstractThe Nairobi volcano-sedimentary regional aquifer system (NAS) of Kenya hosts >6 M people, including 4.7 M people in the city of Nairobi. This work combines analysis of multi-decadal in-situ water-level data with numerical groundwater modelling to provide an assessment of the past and likely future evolution of Nairobi’s groundwater resources. Since the mid-1970s, groundwater abstraction has increased 10-fold at a rate similar to urban population growth, groundwater levels have declined at a median rate of 6 m/decade underneath Nairobi since 1950, whilst built-up areas have increased by 70% since 2000. Despite the absence of significant trends in climatic data since the 1970s, more recently, drought conditions have resulted in increased applications for borehole licences. Based on a new conceptual understanding of the NAS (including insights from geophysics and stable isotopes), numerical simulations provide further quantitative estimates of the accelerating negative impact of abstraction and capture the historical groundwater levels quite well. Analysis suggests a groundwater-level decline of 4 m on average over the entire aquifer area and up to 46 m below Nairobi, net groundwater storage loss of 1.5 billion m3 and 9% river baseflow reduction since 1950. Given current practices and trajectories, these figures are predicted to increase six-fold by 2120. Modelled future management scenarios suggest that future groundwater abstraction required to meet Nairobi projected water demand is unsustainable and that the regional anthropogenically-driven depletion trend can be partially mitigated through conjunctive water use. The presented approach can inform groundwater assessment for other major African cities undergoing similar rapid groundwater development.


Politeja ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (6(69)) ◽  
pp. 19-50
Author(s):  
Weronika J. Krawczyk

This article examines the process of public finance fraud leading to unjust enrichment of ruling elites in Angola, a resource-rich, yet ironically povertytrapped country, owing to decades of rule of José Eduardo dos Santos. It analyses the phenomenon of political corruption in the Angolan context, translating into mismanagement of public revenues coming from natural resources as a means of attaining private economic benefits and consolidating power. Moreover, by examining cross-border inter-company networks aimed at concealing public assets behind front companies, the author attempts to establish a connection between corruption and illicit financial flows. Ultimately, since political corruption is intrinsically linked to governance, the article looks at the impact of the latter on social development as well as on the effectiveness of development aid granted to Angola. It was written based on secondary resources including existing literature and material evidence. Its findings and conclusions correspond with the overall theory postulated by the academic community, maintaining that natural resources and aid have negative impact on governance, institutional accountability, and in consequence on human development, especially in countries characterised by despotic rule.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saad Younes Ghoubachi

El-Oweinat area is located in southwestern Egypt and is considered to be one of the new land reclamation projects in the Western Desert. The Nubian Sandstone aquifer has high potentiality and good groundwater quality. The results of geologic and hydrogeologic studies reveal that the Six Hills sandstone aquifer represents the sole groundwater resource used for all purposes (agriculture, drinking, domestic, livestock and poultry) in East El-Oweinat area. The Six Hills sandstone aquifer overlies directly the Precambrian basement rocks. The concerned aquifer exists under unconfined conditions as it is exposed on the surface. The hydrogeological cross sections show that the fully saturated thickness of the Six Hills sandstone aquifer ranges between 150.2 m and 651 m and increases towards the west. The groundwater generally flows towards the northeast direction with an average hydraulic gradient of 0.6 ‰. The calculated groundwater volume of the Six Hills sandstone aquifer in East El-Oweinat area (4,340 km2) reaches 350 bcm of fresh water. The comparison of the depth to water in the same monitoring wells during 14 years (2003 and 2016) reveals that the head decline rate in groundwater depths were ranging between 5 cm/year and 80 cm/year. The pumping rate increased from 600,000 m3/day in year 2003 to 3,600,000 m3/day in 2016. The average transmissivity attains 2,060 m2/day reflecting the high potential of the Six Hills sandstone aquifer in East El-Oweinat area. The groundwater flow model (MODFLOW) has been used to investigate the impact of groundwater withdrawal on groundwater levels for sustainable groundwater management. Four scenarios were applied to predict the probable head changes in the Six Hills sandstone aquifer and their impact on the availability of groundwater. The fourth scenario is recommended in order to sustain the groundwater resources in the study area and keep the drawdown rates in the range of 0.66 m/year through reducing the present discharging rates (10,000 m3/day/well) by about 40%.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 3253
Author(s):  
Mohammed Analy ◽  
Nour-Eddine Laftouhi

The quantitative monitoring of the shallow aquifer in Marrakesh and its surrounding area shows that the water table has been lowered gradually over the last 40 years, and attaining an acute decline in the early 2000s. This declining trend—if confirmed in the future—may lead to a water shortage, or even to a total aquifer depletion, which would be devastating for a region where economic activity and drinking water supply rely partly on groundwater resources. Two factors account for this situation: the hot semi-arid climate characterized by high temperatures and low precipitation, causing an inadequate groundwater recharge (deficit between rainwater supply and the potential evapotranspiration), and the over-pumping of groundwater from wells for intensive agricultural uses and some leisure activities (golf courses, waterparks and pools, for example). The objective of this study is to assess the hydrodynamic behaviour of the shallow aquifer in this context of persistent drought and semi-arid climate under intense use conditions. Based on earlier research studies and hydrological data recently collected from the field, a spatiotemporal analysis using a geographic information system has been conducted, allowing researchers to monitor the evolution of groundwater resources under the impact of intense exploitation. This study shows a general decline of groundwater level in the city of Marrakesh between 1962–2019. However, by dividing this period into three periods (1962–1985, 1986–2001 and 2002–2019), it is obvious that the main groundwater fall occurred during the two last decades, a period marked by highest recorded temperatures and decreased precipitation levels. This water table decline impacted 85% of the study area and is estimated at 0.9 m/year. The area most affected by the drawdown of the water table experienced a decline reaching 37 m between 2002 and 2019 (more than 2 m a year).


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1063
Author(s):  
Nuria Naranjo-Fernández ◽  
Carolina Guardiola-Albert ◽  
Héctor Aguilera ◽  
Carmen Serrano-Hidalgo ◽  
Esperanza Montero-González

Groundwater resources are regularly the principal water supply in semiarid and arid climate areas. However, groundwater levels (GWL) in semiarid aquifers are suffering a general decrease because of anthropic exploitation of aquifers and the repercussions of climate change. Effective groundwater management strategies require a deep characterization of GWL fluctuations, in order to identify individual behaviors and triggering factors. In September 2019, the Guadalquivir River Basin Authority (CHG) declared that there was over-exploitation in three of the five groundwater bodies of the Almonte-Marismas aquifer, Southwest Spain. For that reason, it is critical to understand GWL dynamics in this aquifer before the new Spanish Water Resources Management Plans (2021–2027) are developed. The application of GWL series clustering in hydrogeology has grown over the past few years, as it is an extraordinary tool that promptly provides a GWL classification; each group can be related to different responses of a complex aquifer under any external change. In this work, GWL time series from 160 piezometers were analyzed for the period 1975 to 2016 and, after data pre-processing, 24 piezometers were selected for clustering with k-means (static) and time series (dynamic) clustering techniques. Six and seven groups (k) were chosen to apply k-means. Six characterized types of hydrodynamic behaviors were obtained with time series clustering (TSC). Number of clusters were related to diverse affections of water exploitation depending on soil uses and hydrogeological spatial distribution parameters. TSC enabled us to distinguish local areas with high hydrodynamic disturbance and to highlight a quantitative drop of GWL during the studied period.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Serdiuk ◽  
◽  
V. Maksin ◽  

Agriculture, especially livestock, is rated as one of the most polluting industries in the world. In the other hand there is a modern approach to the technology implementation, and is this true that with its usage the impact on the environment is so critical and inevitably leads to environmental catastrophe. It is important to investigate and scientifically substantiate the impact of modern livestock complexes on the environment, especially on groundwater resources objectively,. And only after a number of studies conducted on pig farms with a capacity of 30 and 50 thousand heads per year it would be possible to determine next: is livestock an object of ultra-intensive pollution, or it is an object that does not have a significant negative impact on the environment and is also an economic and food lever of the country. The research was conducted on the example of the company JV LLC "NYVA PEREIASLAVSCHYNY" that is located in two districts of Kyiv region – Brovarskyi and Boryspilskyi. The sanitary protection zone size is 1500 meters to the nearest residential development (MINISTRY OF HEALTH OF UKRAINE, 1996). Projects to reduce the sanitary protection zone have not been developed as there is no need for it. Research of water quality was performed according to State Sanitary Regulations and Rules “Hygienic Requirements to Quality of Water Intended for Human Consumption” “2.2.4-171-10” (State Water Agency of Ukraine, 2010). It was conducted on samples that were taken from 4 artesian wells that are located on the territory of the pig breeding farm № 11. The aim of the research is to identify the impact of the pig breeding farm’s № 11 activity on the underground aquifer and surface water body. To reach this target water samples were collected according to the requirements established in the conclusion on environmental impact assessment from wells in the villages and river. Studies that were conducted during 2020 showed that the quality of water in wells meets the requirements for drinking water. Water samples from wells and ponds showed deviations from the norm up to 10 times. Previous studies did not set a negative impact of the pig breeding farm № 11 on groundwater quality.


Author(s):  
Jiang Junjing

Based on a wide range of sources, the article analyzes the impact of China's trade and economic relations with the United States. Several periods of interaction between countries after the end of World War II are considered. Special attention is paid to the period of restoration of diplomatic relations since 1979. Based on various sources and historiography, the author analyzes the researchers' points of view on the impact of economic issues on the relations between the two countries. In the course of the research, the author came to the conclusion that an important aspect in the direction of the foreign economic policy of the People’s Republic of China in the first post-war years was the ideological factor. The article presents an analysis of changes in the vector of China's foreign policy in different periods. The main ways of interaction between the United States and China are described, depending on changing foreign policy doctrines. The reforms launched in 1978 provided China with economic growth and a growing prestige on the world stage, which is still present today. The rapprochement between the United States and China after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought certain economic benefits for the two countries. However, the aggravation of relations between the countries in the new Millennium provides an opportunity for new assessments of the PRC's position on the world stage. Trump’s coming to power in the United States is regarded as an economic war between the two countries. China's increased investment capacity and technological independence make it an attractive partner for other countries, which in turn has a negative impact on trade with America. The most important thing in this situation is the fact that the globalization of the world economy caused by scientific and technological progress, including the rather close interweaving of the US and Chinese economies, contradicts the national interests of both countries, which are trying to strengthen their positions and role in the world economy. Based on the analyzed material, the author comes to the conclusion that recently the foreign policy relations between China and the United States directly depend on the economic interests of the parties.


Author(s):  
Michael W. Babcock ◽  
Jose A. Davalos

The construction of highway bypasses has resulted in many economic benefits both for intercity motorists as well as residents of towns with bypasses. Despite the benefits of bypasses, they remain controversial. Local business owners in the town being bypassed fear that the reduction of traffic passing through the town will adversely affect their sales. The purpose of this study is to add to the literature concerning the economic impact of highway bypasses on small towns. The measured impacts are (1) total employment of bypass towns, (2) retail sales of the towns' travel-related businesses, (3) employment of the towns' travel-related businesses, and (4) the bypass town as a whole. To measure the impact of the bypasses on total employment of bypass towns, each of the nine sample towns was matched with a group of control towns. Total employment of each bypass town was regressed on total employment of its control towns and a bypass dummy variable used to measure the effect of the bypass. The equations were estimated by ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. The other three impacts were obtained by interviewing the owners and managers of 54 travel-related businesses located in the nine bypass towns. The statistical results are consistent with the hypothesis that the bypass did not have a statistically significant effect on total employment of the bypass towns. In the opinion of most of the owners and managers of the travel-related businesses the bypasses had a negative impact on their retail sales and employment, and on the town as a whole. There was a substantial variation in opinion regarding the impact of the bypass on company retail sales, employment, and on the town as a whole among the industry groups in the sample.


Author(s):  
Aleff Omar Shah Nordin ◽  
Fathilah Ismail ◽  
Nurain Yasmin Mohd Jamal

The purpose of this research was to identify the perceptions of the local community toward tourism development impacts on Perhentian Island. Specifically, the research examined the local community’s perceptions of socio-cultural impacts, economic impacts, and environmental impacts of tourism development. The research also examined the relationship between the impacts of tourism development on the local community’s quality of life (QOL). This research was conducted using a quantitative approach by obtaining responses from 272 local community respondents on Perhentian Island. A household survey based on purposive sampling techniques was conducted to select a suitable sample. The findings of the study revealed that the positive impacts of tourism development outweighed the negative impact. Based on local community perceptions, they believed that tourism development improved their quality of life. This study also finds the impact of social-cultural benefit, economic benefits, economic cost, and environmental benefits have a significant relationship with quality of life. However, there is a negative relationship between the impact of social-cultural cost and environment cost on the quality of life. The findings of this study are important for planners and developers in planning strategic and sustainable tourism development on tourism destinations.


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