Application of DPSIR method for integrated management of the transboundary aquifer in Prespa-Ohrid basin

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantinos Voudouris ◽  
Emanuela Kiri ◽  
Hamza Reci ◽  
Elpida Kolokytha
Keyword(s):  
Water Level ◽  
Hydraulic System ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Karst Aquifer ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Mountainous Area ◽  
Aquifer Management ◽  
Transboundary Aquifer ◽  
European Environmental Agency ◽  
Prespa Lake

<p>The transboundary aquifers are of utmost importance to sustain water supply in present days. The exploitation of these aquifers has to be only in a sustainable and rational way, in order to sustain the quantity and quality of the aquifers' groundwater. A transboundary aquifer is developed in karstified limestones between the lakes Great Prespa (shared between North Macedonia, Albania, and Greece ) and Ohrid (shared between North Macedonia and Albania). The karst mountainous area is characterized by the presence of numerous crevices, sinkholes, as surface forms, and caves, canals, etc., as underground forms. The elevation of Prespa Lake is about 153 m higher than that of Ohrid Lake, and the two lakes represent a common hydraulic system, protected by international conventions. Prespa Lake is characterized by a continuous decline in water level during the last decades. The transboundary karstic aquifer is a complex system, discharging through numerous karstic springs (e.g., Saint Naum, Tushemisht, etc.), and operating as a hydrocollector and hydroconductor between the lakes. The aquifer is vulnerable to external pollution, as well as to climate changes affecting the lakes’ ecosystems. Agriculture, livestock, and tourism are the main activities in the wider area.</p><p>The DPSIR (Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response) model, adopted by European Environmental Agency, was applied in GIS context, in order to study and analyze the main causes of pressures and to optimize the measures for integrated aquifer management. In addition, the aim of DPSIR technique is the correlation of the driving forces and pressures with the present status of the complex hydraulic system and finally to optimize the aquifer management. The major driving forces that affect the Prespa-Ohrid basin are the irrigated agriculture, the livestock, the tourism development, and population growth. The main pressures are the overexploitation of the aquifer, water pollution, and the decline of the water level of Lake Prespa.</p><p>Based on the results of DPSIR, a set of measures and appropriate policy responses are proposed. Finally, DPSIR is a valuable tool for local authorities and administrators in order to plan and implement strategies for integrated and sustainable management of the transboundary karst aquifer and its dependent ecosystems.</p>

scholarly journals Design and Modeling of a Bio-Inspired Flexible Joint Actuator

Actuators ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Ming Xu ◽  
Cheng Rong ◽  
Long He
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic System ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Element Analysis ◽  
Flexible Joint ◽  
Fea Model ◽  
The Finite Element Analysis ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
The Mathematical Model ◽  
Moving Speed

Spiders rely on a hydraulic system to stretch their legs but use muscles to make their legs flex. The compound drive of hydraulics and muscle makes an integrate dexterous structure with powerful locomotion abilities, which perfectly meets the primary requirements of advanced robots. Inspired by this hydraulics-muscle co-drive joint, a novel flexible joint actuator was proposed and its driving characteristics were preliminarily explored. The bio-inspired flexible joint manifested as a double-constrained balloon actuator, which was fabricated by the composite process of 3D printing and casting. To evaluate its performance, the mathematical model was deduced, as well as the finite element analysis (FEA) model. A series of experiments on the rotation angles, driving forces, and efficiencies of the flexible joint were carried out and compared with the mathematical calculations and FEA simulations. The results show that the accuracy of the two theoretical models can be used to assess the joint actuator. The locomotion test of a soft arthropod robot with two flexible joints was also implemented, where the moving speed reached 22 mm/s and the feasibility of the proposed flexible joint applied to a soft robot was demonstrated.

scholarly journals Climate change or irrigated agriculture – what drives the water level decline of Lake Urmia

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Schulz ◽  
Sahand Darehshouri ◽  
Elmira Hassanzadeh ◽  
Massoud Tajrishy ◽  
Christoph Schüth
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Level ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Lake Urmia ◽  
Water Level Decline

scholarly journals Overview of the Chemical and Isotopic Investigations of the Mareza Springs and the Zeta River in Montenegro

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 957
Author(s):  
Katarina Živković ◽  
Milan Radulović ◽  
Sonja Lojen ◽  
Mira Pucarević
Keyword(s):  
Seasonal Variations ◽  
Water Samples ◽  
Mean Transit Time ◽  
Karst Aquifer ◽  
Winter Period ◽  
Mountainous Area ◽  
Monthly Precipitation ◽  
Air Masses ◽  
Water Fraction ◽  
Stable Isotopic

The Mareza karst aquifer is the most important drinking water resource for the water supply system of the City of Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. This study presents the first assessment for the determination of the Mareza catchment area. Water chemistry and stable isotopic composition (δ18O and δ2H) of monthly precipitation samples (as inputs) are presented, in order to determine the Local Meteoric Water Line (LMWL) for the study area, and to analyze the behavior of the karst spring Mareza (as output) and the Zeta River water. The possible impact of the river on the Mareza springs was also investigated. Stable isotope compositions were used to analyze the origin of the four springs of the Mareza aquifer. Seasonal variations of δ18O and δ2H values and deuterium excess (d excess) changes in precipitation are explained by the mixing of air masses, such that a Mediterranean source prevails in the winter period, while in the summer period, the area is rather under the influence of air mass originating from the Atlantic Ocean. All spring water samples have lower δ values than the local precipitation and they plot above the LMWL, which may indicate recharge at a higher altitude in the distant mountainous area. The d excess values of all water samples (higher than 10‰) indicate the prevalence of the Mediterranean as a moisture source. Based on the analysis of the seasonal variations of δ18O and δ2H in precipitation and the Mareza spring, it has been estimated that the groundwater mean transit time (MTT) is 92–129 days, and that the young water fraction (Fyw) amounts to 40.9%–53.3%. These values are typical for the strong karstic springs of highly karstified terrains.

Estimation of shallow groundwater evaporation from dried-up areas of Lake Urmia, Iran

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sahand Darehshouri ◽  
Nils Michelsen ◽  
Christoph Schüth ◽  
Stephan Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Water Level ◽  
Salt Lake ◽  
Shallow Groundwater ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Lake Area ◽  
Lake Urmia ◽  
Night Time ◽  
Undisturbed Soil ◽  
Custom Made ◽  
Water Level Decline

<p>Lake Urmia, located in the northwest of Iran, had an initial volume of about 19 km<sup>3</sup> and a surface area of 5,700 km<sup>2</sup> (Alipour, 2006). Once one of the largest hypersaline lakes in the world, this UNESCO Biosphere Reserve site currently shows a remarkable water level decline. About 70% of the lake area (Tourian et al., 2015) and more than 90% of its volume were lost between 2000 and 2014 (Schulz et al., 2020). The lack of a precise water balance of the Lake Urmia catchment is one of the challenges authorities are facing in their efforts to restore the lake to its ecological level. Here, key issues are that lake evaporation rates are mostly assumed and that evaporation of shallow groundwater from dried-up areas (up to 3,000 km<sup>2</sup>) is often ignored. The objective of this study is to obtain evaporation rate estimates for the dried-up parts of the Urmia lake bed. To this end, we set up a laboratory experiment with undisturbed soil columns collected from dried-up areas of the lake. With the help of a custom-made low-cost environmental chamber, the columns were subject to day- and night-time weather conditions typical for the area. Performed measurements comprise water level logging and monitoring of mass losses from the columns due to evaporation. First experimental results will be presented.</p><p> </p><p><strong>References </strong></p><p>Alipour, S., 2006. Hydrogeochemistry of seasonal variation of Urmia Salt Lake, Iran. Saline Systems 2, 9. doi:10.1186/1746-1448-2-9</p><p>Schulz, S., Darehshouri, S., Hassanzadeh, E., Tajrishy, M., Schüth, C., 2020. Climate change or irrigated agriculture – what drives the water level decline of Lake Urmia. Sci. Rep. 1–10. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-57150-y</p><p>Tourian, M.J., Elmi, O., Chen, Q., Devaraju, B., Roohi, S., Sneeuw, N., 2015. A spaceborne multisensor approach to monitor the desiccation of Lake Urmia in Iran. Remote Sens. Environ. 156, 349–360. doi:10.1016/j.rse.2014.10.006</p><p> </p>

scholarly journals Climate change or irrigated agriculture – what drives the water level decline of Lake Urmia?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Schulz ◽  
Sahand Darehshouri ◽  
Elmira Hassanzadeh ◽  
Christoph Schüth
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Level ◽  
Climatic Changes ◽  
Water Withdrawal ◽  
Water Volume ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Agricultural Water ◽  
Lake Urmia ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Water Level Decline

<p>Lake Urmia is one of the largest hypersaline lakes on earth with a unique biodiversity. Over the past two decades the lake water level declined dramatically, threatening the functionality of the lake’s ecosystems. There is a controversial debate about the reasons for this decline, with either mismanagement of the water resources, or climatic changes assumed to be the main cause.</p><p>During this study we gathered an extensive hydro-meteorological data set, information about the reservoirs and the lake bathymetry. This data served for a quantification of the water budget components of Lake Urmia over the last five decades. Interestingly, a comparison of the temporal patterns of the principal natural boundary conditions of streamflow (precipitation and evaporation) with the inflow to the lake revealed that the variability of the inflow can be well explained its natural drivers. With this we can show that variations of Lake Urmia’s water level during the analyzed period were mainly triggered by climatic changes.</p><p>However, under the current climatic conditions agricultural water extraction volumes are significant and often exceed the remaining surface water inflow volumes. This rather simple observation shows that something deeper needs to be dug here. Therefore, we performed a parsimonious hindcast experiment and run a set of development scenarios based on the previously developed water balance. This helped us to better quantify the human impact on the development of the water volume of Lake Urmia. We could show that changes in agricultural water withdrawal would have a significant impact on the lake volume and could either stabilize the lake, or lead to its complete collapse (Schulz et al., 2020).</p><p> </p><p><strong>References</strong></p><p>Schulz, S., Darehshouri, S., Hassanzadeh, E., Tajrishy, M. and Schüth, C.: Climate change or irrigated agriculture – what drives the water level decline of Lake Urmia, Sci. Rep., 10(1), 236, doi:10.1038/s41598-019-57150-y, 2020.</p>

scholarly journals Evaluation of safe alternative wetting & drying and its influence on growth, yield and water use of the efficiency of rice (Orzya sativa l.)

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 407-413
Author(s):  
M. Nagarajan ◽  
S. Porpavai ◽  
G. Thiyagarajan
Keyword(s):  
Water Level ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
Sandy Loam ◽  
Maximum Yield ◽  
Growth Yield ◽  
Ground Level ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Safe Alternative ◽  
Loam Soil

Due to the increase in scarcity of freshwater resources available for irrigated agriculture and escalating demand for food around the world, in the future, it will be necessary to produce more food with less water. Due to inadequate or unevenly-distributed rainfall, irrigation is essential to high rice yields. A field experiment of Alternative Wetting and Drying Irrigation (AWDI) was conducted during kharif season 2014 & 2015 at Soil & Water Management Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India. The treatments ranged from delayed irrigations of T1 to T6 (10, 15, 20 cm depletion of water level below the ground level, 15cm depletion of water up to maximum tillering, up to panicle initiation & up to 10 days prior to harvest) and continuous submergence (T7) of field irrigation water denoting the application of 5 cm flooded water condition, when the water level in the perforated PVC pipe fell at 10, 15 and 20 cm below ground level respectively. There was a significant (5% level) consequence of plant height, productive tillers, filled grains, yield and Water Use Efficiency (WUE) due to the influence of AWDI. The highest yield (5981 kg/ha) and WUE (7.56 kg/ha/mm) was recorded in treatment T1. Longer water stress resulted in the loss of grain yield to the tune of 500 to 1000 kg/ha. This study found that in sandy loam soil at 10cm depletion of ponded water produced maximum yield (5809 kg/ha, besides the highest B.C ratio of 2.02) and WUE (7.56 kg/ha mm).

Understanding of reservoirs in karst: the case of Vora Bosco cave (Salento, Italy)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara Leins ◽  
Isabella Serena Liso ◽  
Mario Parise ◽  
Andreas Hartmann
Keyword(s):  
Water Level ◽  
Potential Evapotranspiration ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Karst Aquifer ◽  
High Water ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Daily Data ◽  
Fast Flow ◽  
Summer Time

<p>Vora Bosco Cave is located in the Salento karst peninsula (Apulia, S Italy), surrounded by the Ionian and Adriatic Seas. In this part of Apulia, due to climate change, the typical Mediterranean climate is moving towards arid and semi-arid, with scarce or absent surface runoff. The Salento groundwater is a freshwater lens fluctuating on seawater, entering inland because of intrusion phenomena. The freshwater volume stored in the lens is subjected to both sea level rise and an increasing pressure caused by the high water demand, especially in summer time, for touristic purposes. Therefore, developing an understanding of the hydrogeological dynamics of the karst aquifer can be a useful tool for planning better protection and management actions on Apulian groundwater resources.</p><p>Vora Bosco cave was instrumented with a multi-parameter probe for groundwater level measurements from November 2017 to July 2018. Thereby, the system behaviour within the cave recharge area can be explored. To characterise and quantify the natural recharge and discharge behaviour of the system, a simple reservoir model was developed and calibrated with the measured data. The model consists of 4 reservoirs, which are filled and emptied using simple discharge equations. The model considers evapotranspiration from the soil, slow flow in the unsaturated and saturated zone, as well as fast flow in the karstic conduits. Daily data of precipitation and potential evapotranspiration are used as model inputs. The model simulates the water level at Vora Bosco and is calibrated by comparison of simulated and measured water level, using the Kling-Gupta-Efficiency as an objective function. Our results reveal that the model simulations show acceptable performance in reflecting the dynamics of the observed water level data. The calibration achieves reasonable results for the model parameters. In addition to the water level simulations, quantifying predictions uncertainty by Monte Carlo approach, it is shown that there is still potential to produce more reliable estimates of future groundwater dynamics, in order to better manage the precious regional groundwater resources.</p>

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