scholarly journals Quantitative analysis on the ecological impact of large-scale water transfer project on water resource area in a changing environment

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 10465-10500 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. H. Yan ◽  
H. Wang ◽  
H. H. Li ◽  
G. Wang ◽  
T. L. Qin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Resource ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ecological Impact ◽  
Water Environment ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Water Transfer ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Natural Reserves

Abstract. The interbasin long-distance water transfer project is a key support for the reasonable allocation of water resources in a large-scale area, which can optimize the spatiotemporal change of water resources to reinforce the guarantee of the access of water resources. And large-scale water transfer projects have a deep influence on ecosystems; besides, global climate change causes the uncertainty and additive effect of the ecological impact of water transfer projects. Therefore, how to assess the ecological and environmental impact of large-scale water transfer projects in both construction and operation has triggered a lot of attention. The water-output area of the western route of China's South-North Water Transfer Project was taken as the study area of the present article. According to relevant evaluation principles and on the basis of background analysis on the eco-environment of the study area, the influence factors were identified and evaluation indexes were established. The climate-hydrology-ecology coupled simulation model was used to imitate the laws of ecological and environmental change of the water resource area in a changing climate. The emphasis of influence analysis and quantitative evaluation was placed on the reservoir construction and operation scheduling, representative river corridors and wetlands, natural reserves and the water environment of river basins below the dam sites. In the end, an overall influence evaluation of the impact of the project on the water circulation and ecological evolution of the water resource area was conducted. The research results were as follows: the environmental impacts of the western route project in the water resource area were concentrated on two aspects, i.e. the permanent destruction of vegetation during the phase of dam construction and river impoundment, and the significant influence on the hydrological situation of natural river corridor after the implementation of water transfer. Its impact on local climate, vegetation ecology, typical wetlands, natural reserves and the water environment of river basins below the dam sites was small.

scholarly journals Quantitative analysis on the environmental impact of large-scale water transfer project on water resource area in a changing environment

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. 2685-2702 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. H. Yan ◽  
H. Wang ◽  
H. H. Li ◽  
G. Wang ◽  
T. L. Qin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Water Resource ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Water Environment ◽  
Water Transfer ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Changing Environment ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Natural Reserves

Abstract. The interbasin long-distance water transfer project is key support for the reasonable allocation of water resources in a large-scale area, which can optimize the spatio-temporal change of water resources to secure the amount of water available. Large-scale water transfer projects have a deep influence on ecosystems; besides, global climate change causes uncertainty and additive effect of the environmental impact of water transfer projects. Therefore, how to assess the ecological and environmental impact of megaprojects in both construction and operation phases has triggered a lot of attention. The water-output area of the western route of China's South-North Water Transfer Project was taken as the study area of the present article. According to relevant evaluation principles and on the basis of background analysis, we identified the influencing factors and established the diagnostic index system. The climate-hydrology-ecology coupled simulation model was used to simulate and predict ecological and environmental responses of the water resource area in a changing environment. The emphasis of impact evaluation was placed on the reservoir construction and operation scheduling, representative river corridors and wetlands, natural reserves and the water environment below the dam sites. In the end, an overall evaluation of the comprehensive influence of the project was conducted. The research results were as follows: the environmental impacts of the western route project in the water resource area were concentrated on two aspects: the permanent destruction of vegetation during the phase of dam construction and river impoundment, and the significant influence on the hydrological situation of natural river corridor after the implementation of water extraction. The impact on local climate, vegetation ecology, typical wetlands, natural reserves and the water environment of river basins below the dam sites was small.

scholarly journals Impact of the municipal merger on watershed management: a study of Lake Kasumigaura, Japan

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeshi Mizunoya ◽  
Noriko Nozaki ◽  
Rajeev Kumar Singh
Keyword(s):  
Watershed Management ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Water Environment ◽  
Reduction Rate ◽  
Oxygen Demand ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Pollution Reduction ◽  
Lake Kasumigaura ◽  
The Impact

AbstractIn the early 2000s, Japan instituted the Great Heisei Consolidation, a national strategy to promote large-scale municipal mergers. This study analyzes the impact that this strategy could have on watershed management. We select the Lake Kasumigaura Basin, the second largest lake in Japan, for the case study and construct a dynamic expanded input–output model to simulate the ecological system around the Lake, the socio-environmental changes over the period, and their mutual dependency for the period 2012–2020. In the model, we regulate and control the following water pollutants: total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and chemical oxygen demand. The results show that a trade-off between economic activity and the environment can be avoided within a specific range of pollution reduction, given that the prefectural government implements optimal water environment policies, assuming that other factors constraining economic growth exist. Additionally, municipal mergers are found to significantly reduce the budget required to improve the water environment, but merger budget efficiency varies nonlinearly with the reduction rate. Furthermore, despite the increase in financial efficiency from the merger, the efficiency of installing domestic wastewater treatment systems decreases drastically beyond a certain pollution reduction level and eventually reaches a limit. Further reductions require direct regulatory instruments in addition to economic policies, along with limiting the output of each industry. Most studies on municipal mergers apply a political, administrative, or financial perspective; few evaluate the quantitative impact of municipal mergers on the environment and environmental policy implications. This study addresses these gaps.

scholarly journals Mapping the Distribution of Water Resource Security in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region at the County Level under a Changing Context

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (22) ◽  
pp. 6463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li ◽  
Yin ◽  
Zhang ◽  
Croke ◽  
Guo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Resource ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Water Diversion ◽  
County Level ◽  
Populated Region ◽  
Water Resource Security ◽  
Resource Security

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (Jingjinji) region is the most densely populated region in China and suffers from severe water resource shortage, with considerable water-related issues emerging under a changing context such as construction of water diversion projects (WDP), regional synergistic development, and climate change. To this end, this paper develops a framework to examine the water resource security for 200 counties in the Jingjinji region under these changes. Thus, county-level water resource security is assessed in terms of the long-term annual mean and selected typical years (i.e., dry, normal, and wet years), with and without the WDP, and under the current and projected future (i.e., regional synergistic development and climate change). The outcomes of such scenarios are assessed based on two water-crowding indicators, two use-to-availability indicators, and one composite indicator. Results indicate first that the water resources are distributed unevenly, relatively more abundant in the northeastern counties and extremely limited in the other counties. The water resources are very limited at the regional level, with the water availability per capita and per unit gross domestic product (GDP) being only 279/290 m3 and 46/18 m3 in the current and projected future scenarios, respectively, even when considering the WDP. Second, the population carrying capacity is currently the dominant influence, while economic development will be the controlling factor in the future for most middle and southern counties. This suggests that significant improvement in water-saving technologies, vigorous replacement of industries from high to low water consumption, as well as water from other supplies for large-scale applications are greatly needed. Third, the research identifies those counties most at risk to water scarcity and shows that most of them can be greatly relieved after supplementation by the planned WDP. Finally, more attention should be paid to the southern counties because their water resources are not only limited but also much more sensitive and vulnerable to climate change. This work should benefit water resource management and allocation decisions in the Jingjinji region, and the proposed assessment framework can be applied to other similar problems.

Strategies to manage stream flow to benefit people and nature: a non-government conservation organisation's perspective

2004 ◽  
Vol 49 (7) ◽  
pp. 89-95
Author(s):  
J. Pittock ◽  
R. Holland
Keyword(s):  
Stream Flow ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
River Basins ◽  
River Basin Management ◽  
Freshwater Biodiversity ◽  
Flow Management ◽  
Stream Flows ◽  
Freshwater Management ◽  
Increasing Demand ◽  
The Impact

More than for any other biome, freshwater biodiversity is increasingly imperiled, particularly due to poor stream flow management and increasing demand for water diversions. The adoption by the world's governments of targets to extend water services to the poor and at the same time to conserve biodiversity increase the need to better direct investments in freshwater management. In this paper WWF draws on examples from its work to identify areas where investment can be focused to assure efficient water use and improve stream flow management, namely:• Prioritize and target those river basins and sub-catchments that are most critical for conservation of freshwater biodiversity to maintain stream flows;• Link strategic field, policy and market interventions at different scales in river basins to maximize the impact of interventions;• Implement the World Commission on Dams guidelines to minimize investment in large scale and costly infrastructure projects;• Apply market mechanisms and incentives for more sustainable production of the world's most water consuming crops;• Enhance statutory river basin management organizations to draw on their regulatory and financial powers;• Implement international agreements, such as the Convention on Wetlands;• Integrate environment and development policies.

A New Integrated Grey Water Footprint Assessment Method

2015 ◽  
Vol 671 ◽  
pp. 412-418
Author(s):  
Lu Lu Xu ◽  
Li Zhu Chen ◽  
Hugh Gong ◽  
Xue Mei Ding
Keyword(s):  
Water Footprint ◽  
Ecological Impact ◽  
Water Environment ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
Water Volume ◽  
Accurate Assessment ◽  
Ambient Water ◽  
Grey Water ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Comprehensive Indicator

Water footprint is a volumetric indicator of freshwater appropriation. The grey water footprint (GWF) provides a tool to assess the water volume needed to assimilate a pollutant. However, evaluating the impact on water environment cannot rely solely on volumetric consumption of freshwater. It demands accurate assessment criteria to reflect its environmental and ecological effects on ambient water resource. In this paper, a new assessment method is proposed: the effluent toxicity and the Potential Eco-toxic Effects Probe (PEEP) index of aquatic environment are taken into consideration. This method provides a comprehensive indicator for evaluating water footprint, specified in effluents’ ecological impact on ambient water sources.

scholarly journals Integrated assessment of impact of water resources of important river basins in Eastern India under projected climate conditions

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 594-606 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Catchment Area ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Weather Data ◽  
Distributed Hydrological Model ◽  
Eastern India ◽  
Impact Of Climate Change ◽  
Daily Weather Data ◽  
The Impact

<div> <p>The impact of climate change on water resources through increased evaporation combined with regional changes in precipitation characteristics has the potential to affect mean runoff, frequency and intensity of floods and droughts, soil moisture and water supply for irrigation and hydroelectric power generation. The Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) system is the largest in India with a catchment area of about 110Mha, which is more than 43% of the cumulative catchment area of all the major rivers in the country. The river Damodar is an important sub catchment of GBM basin and its three tributaries- the Bokaro, the Konar and the Barakar form one important tributary of the Bhagirathi-Hughli (a tributary of Ganga) in its lower reaches. The present study is an attempt to assess the impacts of climate change on water resources of the four important Eastern River Basins namely Damodar, Subarnarekha, Mahanadi and Ajoy, which have immense importance in industrial and agricultural scenarios in eastern India. A distributed hydrological model (HEC-HMS) has been used on the four river basins using HadRM2 daily weather data for the period from 2041 to 2060 to predict the impact of climate change on water resources of these river systems.&nbsp;</p> </div> <p>&nbsp;</p>

scholarly journals Simulating impact of over-grazing on grassland degradation using GIS: a case study in the Heihe River Basin, China

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Bingyu Wang ◽  
Takashi Oguchi ◽  
Lin Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Arid Regions ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Heihe River ◽  
Grassland Degradation ◽  
Inland River ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Heihe River Basin

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Inland river basins in arid to semi-arid regions are widely distributed in Northwest China, Central Asia, Central Australia, and North Africa, and are often subject to significant human activities. The most distinctive natural feature of such basins is the shortage of water resources, and the pivotal reasons involve less precipitation and heavy evapotranspiration (ET). In recent years, intensive human activities also damage the natural environment of the basins. They result in many problems especially the deterioration of ecological environment which will lead to severe consequences such as desertification, sandstorm, the disappearance of wetlands, reduction of forest and grassland degradation. They prevent us from achieving the goal of sustainable development. How to balance economic development and ecosystem conservation and to realize the sense of sustainability in inland river basins will be vitally important.</p><p>The Heihe River is the second largest inland river in the Northwest of China with a long history development by human (Figure 1). Water resources from the river are crucial not only for the ecosystem but also for local human societies. The Heihe River Basin (HRB) is divided into three zones with different landscapes and natural environments. The upstream of HRB is the headstream which generates water resources mainly from glaciers and snow in Qilian Mountain. A large population of nomadic national minorities inhabits here and keeps animal husbandry as the primary production activity. In the early times, the Chinese government encouraged production activities to stimulate economic growth, and significant over-grazing and resultant severe grassland degradation occurred. Grassland is crucial for maintaining water resources especially in arid regions, without grasses most water will quickly evaporate into the air. Therefore, land resource management about grassland and the impact of human activities on the natural environment are of high research value in the HRB.</p><p>This research aims to investigate the impact of over-grazing on grassland degradation in the inland ecosystem of the HRB. The changes of grassland distribution were simulated under different over-grazing scenarios to provide a reference for resource management and the related decision-making process and to contribute to the sustainable development of the region.</p>

Urban-Water Harmony model to evaluate the urban water management

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (11) ◽  
pp. 1774-1781 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yifan Ding ◽  
Deshan Tang ◽  
Yuhang Wei ◽  
Sun Yin
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Urban Expansion ◽  
Water Environment ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Urban Water Management

Water resources in many urban areas are under enormous stress due to large-scale urban expansion and population explosion. The decision-makers are often faced with the dilemma of either maintaining high economic growth or protecting water resources and the environment. Simple criteria of water supply and drainage do not reflect the requirement of integrated urban water management. The Urban-Water Harmony (UWH) model is based on the concept of harmony and offers a more integrated approach to urban water management. This model calculates four dimensions, namely urban development, urban water services, water–society coordination, and water environment coordination. And the Analytic Hierarchy Process has been used to determine the indices weights. We applied the UWH model to Beijing, China for an 11-year assessment. Our findings show that, despite the severe stress inherent in rapid development and water shortage, the urban water relationship of Beijing is generally evolving in a positive way. The social–economic factors such as the water recycling technologies contribute a lot to this change. The UWH evaluation can provide a reasonable analysis approach to combine various urban and water indices to produce an integrated and comparable evaluation index. This, in turn, enables more effective water management in decision-making processes.

Legal-water assessment as a new legal and administrative instrument of surface water protection

2021 ◽  
Vol 1(23) ◽  
pp. 191-210
Author(s):  
Elżbieta Zębek
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Water Status ◽  
Water Environment ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Water Law ◽  
Water Protection ◽  
Environmental Goals ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Water Assessment

The primary objective of the water protection in the Water Framework Directive No. 2000/60/ EC is to maintain and improve the water environment by achieving good water status. These provisions have been implemented into Polish legislation in the Water Law Act of 2017. These goals are achieved by the use of appropriate legal instruments as a system of water-law approvals, including a permit, notification and legal-water assessment. The subject of the analysis is water-legal assessments as a new legal and administrative instrument of water protection. The aim is to deter-mine the legal nature of water-law assessments and to indicate their role in the protection of surface waters. Obtaining this assessment is required for investments that may affect the possibility of achieving environmental goals. If the planned investment has a positive or no impact on the possibility of achieving the environmental goals, it seems that the legal-water assessment is made. In the case of a negative impact, the obligation to submit documents confirming that all measures are taken to mitigate the negative effects of the impact on the state of water bodies are imposed. In this way, the legislator strengthened the protection of waters by imposing the obligation to meet additional conditions for large-scale investments that have a negative impact on the water environment.

scholarly journals Nationwide Assessment of Urban Surface Water Environment Status in China

2019 ◽  
Vol 81 ◽  
pp. 01003
Author(s):  
Hongjie Gao ◽  
Peng Yuan ◽  
Ruixia Liu ◽  
Lu Han ◽  
Yonghui Song
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Population Density ◽  
National Level ◽  
Water Environment ◽  
National Standard ◽  
Impact Factors ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Class Iii ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
The Impact

In this study, the assessment of nationwide urban water environment status was conducted based upon a method of integrating both 70% of objective water quality and 30% of standard compliance percent compared with national standard limit of GB3838-2002 for Class III. The impact factors on urban water environment status were discussed. The results showed that the status of urban water environment could be graded into 5 types in China. The population density, water resources, urbanized areas and so on were key impact factors on water environment. The study found that population density and urban built-up area had significantly negative effect on urban water environment status, and there was positive relationship between per capita water resources and urban water environment status. The results would provide the guidance for effective governance and management of urban water environment at national level.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document