Assessing Socioeconomic Drought Based on a Standardized Supply and Demand Water Index

Socioeconomic drought is a phenomenon of water shortage caused by an imbalance between the supply and demand of water resources in natural and human socioeconomic systems. Occurrence of these droughts is closely related to sustainable socioeconomic development. However, compared with meteorological drought, hydrological drought and agricultural drought, socioeconomic drought has received relatively little attention. Therefore, this paper proposes a universal and relatively simple socioeconomic drought assessment index, the Standardized Supply and Demand Water Index (SSDWI). Taking the Jianjiang River Basin (JJRB) in Guangdong Province, China as an example, socioeconomic drought characteristics and trends during 1985-2019 were analyzed. The return period of different levels of drought were calculated using a copula function to estimate the risk of socioeconomic drought in the basin, and the relationship between socioeconomic, meteorological, and hydrological droughts and their potential drivers were discussed. The results showed that: (1) SSDWI was a better index for characterizing socioeconomic drought in the JJRB. 29 socioeconomic droughts occurred in the basin during the past 35 years, with an average duration of 6.16 months and an average severity of 5.82 per events. Socioeconomic droughts mainly occurred in autumn and winter, which also had more severe droughts than other seasons. (2) In the JJRB, the joint return periods of ‘∪’ and ‘∩’ for moderate drought, severe drought and extreme drought were 8.81a and 10.81a, 16.49a and 26.44a, and 41.68a and 91.13a, respectively; (3) Due to the increasing outflow from Gaozhou Reservoir, the risk of socioeconomic drought and hydrological drought in the JJRB has significantly declined since 2008. The reasonable operation of the reservoir has played an important role in alleviating the hydrological and socioeconomic drought in the basin.

Seasonal Yield Response Factor for Red Bombay Onion (Allium cepa L.) Variety in Arba Minch, Ethiopia

Background: For better water resources management in the areas of water shortage for crop production, deficit irrigation is very important. The understanding of the yield response factor to water deficit is crucial for efficient irrigation water management. Deficit irrigation for studying yield response factors is always practiced in the way of stressing the demand of the crops. The present study was done for the determination of the seasonal yield response factor of red Bombay onion variety under Arba Minch agro climate condition. Furthermore, it also examined the effect of furrow irrigation systems on the seasonal yield response factor. Methods: The experiment was conducted from August to November 2019. The experiment had six treatments, which were the combination of two furrow irrigation systems and three irrigation levels. Data were collected for soil moisture before and after each irrigation and bulb yield. The seasonal yield response factors were determined through simple linear regressions using SPSS software. Result: When considering the furrow irrigation system as a factor, the seasonal yield response factor for alternate furrow irrigation system was 1.18 while for paired row furrow irrigation system was 1.07. This red Bombay variety of onion clearly shows more sensitive to water stress for alternative furrow irrigation systems than paired row furrow irrigation systems. Therefore, in the area of water shortage paired row furrow irrigation system is better than alternate furrow irrigation system. The seasonal yield response factor as a wall for red Bombay onion variety in Arba Minch agro-ecological condition was 1.12. Therefore, the red Bombay onion variety in Arba Minch agroclimate condition was sensitive to water stress.

Shifts in Dry-Wet Climate Regions over China and Its Related Climate Factors between 1960–1989 and 1990–2019

The shifts in dry-wet climate regions are a natural response to climate change and have a profound impact on the regional agriculture and ecosystems. In this paper, we divided China into four dry-wet climate regions, i.e., arid, semi-arid, semi-humid, and humid regions, based on the humidity index (HI). A comparison of the two 30-year periods, i.e., 1960–1989 and 1990–2019, revealed that there was a shift in climate type in each dry-wet climate region, with six newly formed transitions, and the total area of the shifts to wetter conditions was more than two times larger than that of the shifts to drier conditions. Interestingly, the shifts to drier types were basically distributed in the monsoon region (east of 100∘ E) and especially concentrated in the North China Plain where agricultural development relies heavily on irrigation, which would increase the challenges in dealing with water shortage and food production security under a warming climate. The transitions to wetter types were mainly distributed in western China (west of 100∘ E), and most areas of the Junggar Basin have changed from arid to semi-arid region, which should benefit the local agricultural production and ecological environment to some extent. Based on a contribution analysis method, we further quantified the impacts of each climate factor on HI changes. Our results demonstrated that the dominant factor controlling HI changes in the six newly formed transition regions was P, followed by air temperature (Ta). In the non-transition zones of the arid and semi-arid regions, an increase in P dominated the increase of HI. However, in the non-transition zones of the semi-humid and humid region with a more humid background climate, the thermal factors (e.g., Ta, and net radiation (Rn)) contributed more than or equivalent to the contribution of P to HI change. These findings can provide scientific reference for water resources management and sustainable agricultural development in the context of climate change.

An Analysis of Sector-Based Water Supply and Demand

This chapter sought to assess sector-based current water use levels in Sanyati catchment, assess a possibility of new ways of managing the catchment water using inter-basin transfer systems, and assess future water demands projection using WEAP model. The study was both quantitative and qualitative in nature. Interviews and observations were the main primary data collection instruments. Findings showed that the main sectors and institutions that utilised water in the catchment were mining, agriculture, manufacturing industry, and local authorities. Local authorities and farming sectors were the major users of water. WEAP model results showed a steady increase in demand for water as a result of both population growth and agricultural activities water demand. The study mapped possible inter-basin transfer routes and recommends water harvesting as part of development and management in Sanyati catchment to address the problem of water shortage.

Climate Change and Fecal Peril

Fecal peril caused by intestinal parasites is commonly reported to be causing health problems in the world. Furthermore, global climate change is inevitable. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the health effects of climate change. Water shortage contribute to increase the pressure on regional water resources and force a greater number of people to use urban wastewater as an alternative for irrigation. Therefore, unsafe management and inappropriate wastewater use in urban agriculture is likely to be responsible of exacerbating the transmission of infectious diseases, including those caused by intestinal protozoa and helminths parasitic worms. It should be taken into account that waterborne diseases are influencedby climate change. The frequency and severity of intertwined extreme weather events driven by climate change are occurring worldwide and likely to cause epidemics of waterborne gastroenteritis. The association found between both rainfall, river flooding, and the majority of waterborne disease outbreaks was frequently proved to be preceded by climatic change events.

An ecological interval two-stage fuzzy shadow price model for environmental flow allocation in the Shaying River Basin

In recent times, social water use has overstepped into the domain of ecological water use, disrupting environmental flow and, thus, destroying the ecological environment. This research aims to coordinate social and natural water use to bring about optimal economic benefits, while ensuring environmental flow requirements. In this study, an interval two-stage fuzzy shadow price model (ITS-SPM) has been developed, which combines two-stage programming (TSP) and system of water value to optimize environmental flow. The ITS-SPM is mainly characterized as system benefits constituted by expected water resource benefits and water shortage penalty. This model has removed the uncertainties of economic data and environmental water demand (expressed fuzzy and interval). It has been found that adjusting the social water structure can effectively solve the problem of insufficient ecological flow. The ITS-SPM can make the adjustment of social water use more reasonable, which will produce benefits, unlike the current agricultural water reduction policy. Under the premise of guaranteeing optimal economic benefits, the added value of environmental water use in different scenarios is (social water structure adjustment) as follows: in 2020, it was expected that Shaying River water would increase by at least 13.49%; in 2025, it is expected to increase by at least 33.35%; in 2030, the increase will be by at least 57.54%; and in 2035, it will be by at least 77.50%.

Estimation of Spatial Groundwater Recharge Using WetSpass Model For east Wasit province ,Iraq

Groundwater is an important water source, especially in arid and semi-arid areas. Recharge is critical to managing and analyzing groundwater resources despite estimation difficulty due to temporal and spatial change. the study aim is to estimate annual groundwater recharge for the eastern Wasit Province, Iraq. Where suffers from a surface water shortage due to the region's high elevation above Tigris River water elevation by about 60 m. It is necessary to search for alternative water sources, such as groundwater use, especially with the increased demand for water in light of the growth of oil extraction in the region, where oil extraction requires a quantity of water three times the amount of oil extracted. The result shows the annual recharge calculated using the WetSpass model for the period (2014-2019) ranged from 0 to 65.176 mm/year at a rate of 27.117 mm/year and a standard deviation of 21.498. The simulation results reveal that the WetSpass model simulates the components of the hydrological water budget correctly. For managing and planning available water resources, a better grasp of the simulation of long-term average geographical distribution around the components of the water balance is beneficial.