Problems of dependable water use in the transboundary Ural River basin

The regional specifics of water use in the transboundary basin of the Ural R. are studied. The diverse problems of dependable water use in the region are caused by the interaction of natural and anthropogenic factors. Considering the space and time variations of river runoff, a possible approach to solving water use problem is runoff regulation. To effectively solve the problem of water use requires the search for an organizational and legal form of institutional interaction within the transboundary basin of the Ural R.     

Institutions for management of transboundary water resources: their nature,characteristics and shortcomings

This paper examines the evolution structure and characteristics of the management systems of 12 transboundary river basins: The Mekong, Indus, Ganges–Brahmaputra, the Nile, Jordan, Danube, Elbe, Rio Grande and Colorado, Rio de la Plata, Senegal and Niger. The paper presents the legal principles which guide the legal regime of the studied rivers, particularly the principle of equitable use of transboundary water resources and the obligation not to cause harm in the management of transboundary water resources. The practice of management in the abovementioned rivers is divided into three categories:(a) Treaties and agreements stopping short of allocating water between riparian states such as free navigation treaties or institutions which were established for a sole purpose such as combating pollution (Elbe, Danube, Rhine).(b) Treaties and agreements allocating water between states (the Indus, Nile, Ganges, Jordan).(c) Agreements for joint management of internationally shared waters (Colorado and Rio Grande, Mekong, Senegal and Niger).Some of the institutions discussed in this paper have evolved only after a long conflict (Indus, Ganges, Jordan) and that there is a danger of adopting institutions for only a portion of a river basin (Mekong, Nile). The success of institutions which were founded on basin-wide joint management lie in their territorial coverage and broad functional frameworks. These institutions also reflect, in the best way, the current legal norms in the management of transboundary water resources.     

Quantifying temporal variations in water resources of a vulnerable middle eastern transboundary aquifer system

Freshwater resources in the arid Arabian Peninsula, especially transboundary aquifers shared by Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Iraq, are of critical environmental and geopolitical significance. Monthly Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite‐derived gravity field solutions acquired over the expansive Saq transboundary aquifer system were analysed and spatiotemporally correlated with relevant land surface model outputs, remote sensing observations, and field data to quantify temporal variations in regional water resources and to identify the controlling factors affecting these resources. Our results show substantial GRACE‐derived terrestrial water storage (TWS) and groundwater storage (GWS) depletion rates of ?9.05 ± 0.25 mm/year (?4.84 ± 0.13 km³/year) and ?6.52 ± 0.29 mm/year (?3.49 ± 0.15 km³/year), respectively. The rapid decline is attributed to both climatic and anthropogenic factors; observed TWS depletion is partially related to a decline in regional rainfall, while GWS depletions are highly correlated with increasing groundwater extraction for irrigation and observed water level declines in regional supply wells.     

A framework for resolving the transboundary water allocation conflict conundrum

This paper describes a methodology for resolving transboundary water disputes that arise when people/states/nations sharing a resource that crosses legal/political jurisdictions disagree about the use of the resource. Laws and treaties written in an attempt to settle disputes are frequently neither enforced nor effective, and disagreements continue. Crises, arising through resource overuse or shortages, worsen the conflict and typically result in further discord, lawsuits, depletion of the resource, and even open-armed hostility. Many water management experts call for either private/market-based or state/command-and-control resource management systems, but these eventually break down during crisis. The crises therefore necessitate the adoption of a more effective institutional arrangement to address and resolve present and future problems. A better alternative to management by private or state entities and the resolution of conflicts by the mere application of law is a cooperative approach. The Rowland-Ostrom Framework, introduced in this paper, incorporates Ostrom's eight design principles for sustainable common pool resource management within the context of crisis that involves an urgent threat to the quantity or quality of a resource such as water, as described by the author. This paper demonstrates that although established 15 years ago, Ostrom's design principles remain applicable today for effective, sustainable transboundary water management, and the Rowland-Ostrom Framework is a model for the equitable use of shared water resources throughout the world.     

A numerical method to index the risk of conflict around the transboundary water resources. Validation by a studied case

The world-wide crisis of water will make that the transboundary water resources will be the object of tensions and litigations increasingly marked. Also, the transboundary conflicts on fresh water intended to the categories of traditional uses are subjected to a growing attention on behalf of national and international organizations. Each case of conflict, related as well to surface water as groundwater, has its accurate characteristics and to appreciate its relative importance, it is necessary to consult a broad documentation based on reports of commissions, organizations or groups of research. According to criteria and data taken into account, the situation is some times appreciated differently.     

Parallelization strategies for rapid and robust evolutionary multiobjective optimization in water resources applications

This study uses a formal metrics-based framework to demonstrate the Master–Slave (MS) and the Multiple-Population (MP) parallelization schemes for the Epsilon-Nondominated Sorted Genetic Algorithm-II (ε-NSGAII). The MS and MP versions of the ε-NSGAII generalize the algorithm’s auto-adaptive population sizing, ε-dominance archiving, and time continuation to a distributed processor environment using the Message Passing Interface. This study uses three test cases to compare the MS and MP versions of the ε-NSGAII: (1) an extremely difficult benchmark test function termed DTLZ6 drawn from the computer science literature, (2) an unconstrained, continuous hydrologic model calibration test case for the Leaf River near Collins, Mississippi, and (3) a discrete, constrained four-objective long-term groundwater monitoring (LTM) application. The MP version of the ε-NSGAII is more effective than the MS scheme when solving DTLZ6. Both the Leaf River and the LTM test cases proved to be more appropriately suited to the MS version of the ε-NSGAII. Overall, the MS version of the ε-NSGAII exhibits superior performance on both of the water resources applications, especially when considering its simplicity and ease-of-implementation relative to the MP scheme. A key conclusion of this study is that a simple MS parallelization strategy can exploit time-continuation and parallel speedups to dramatically improve the efficiency and reliability of evolutionary multiobjective algorithms in water resources applications.     

Economic Commission for Europe inventory of transboundary ground water in Europe

In Europe, a long history of cooperation over transboundary rivers--most notably the Rhine and Danube rivers--exists. To help foster cooperation and communication vis-à-vis transboundary ground water, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), as part of its ground water program, conducted a survey on transboundary aquifers in Europe. The survey produced 25 responses from 37 countries and identified 89 transboundary aquifers. Respondents reported on the degree of ground water use within their own boundaries, transboundary aspects (agreements, joint commissions, etc.) of ground water, and transboundary aquifers themselves. The inventory proved useful, but a number of problems were identified: different map scales and symbols, difficulty in identifying transboundary aquifers, inconsistent labeling of aquifers, and data discrepancies. The UNECE ground water program also drafted guidelines for monitoring and assessment of transboundary ground water. These guidelines are not legally binding but have been adopted by 25 countries, deal mainly with monitoring and assessment, and are being implemented through a number of pilot projects. Other organizations-the United Nations Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Association of Hydrogeologists, and the European Union--are all supporting the investigation of transboundary aquifers in an effort to facilitate data sharing and coordinated management of these valuable resources.     

Mechanism for open management of harmonizing water use strategies under stochastic conditions

The study is focused on the harmonization of water use and removal strategies employed by a management body of a water resource system (center) and water users, i.e., active elements, which can intentionally distort information about their potentialities and preferences. The harmonization mechanism is based on the open-management (fair-play) principle. The instruments of harmonization are prices for water use and removal. When the volumes of allocated water resources and the masses of removed chemicals are determined independently, the harmonization is perfect, while when the joint management of the amount and quality of water resources is used, the harmonization is approximate.     

Mathematical models of rational water use strategies under uncertainty

An approach is proposed for the development of water use strategies adaptable to possible variations of the functioning conditions of water management systems. This approach is used as the basis for a set of mathematical models, enabling the comparison, screening, and the choice of rational models.     

Tracing water resources flows by complementary use of hydrological and water accounting models

Historically, there has been a dispute over water allocation between users and policymakers in Iran's Zayandeh-Roud Basin (ZRB). In this study, we used the “System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Water” (SEEAW) framework in combination with the hydrologic model “Soil and Water Assessment Tool” (SWAT) to achieve the water balance in ZRB. We used SEEAW to combine a wide range of water-related statistics across stakeholders and SWAT to evaluate the unknown agricultural water use. The SWAT model is calibrated based on the stream flows and crop yields in the basin. The model assess the renewable water of the basin into two components, about 363 and 70 mm as green and blue water, respectively. Also results from the physical water supply and water use tables demonstrates that the agricultural sector uses 78% of the total renewable freshwater, followed by the residential, 16%, and the industrial sector, 6%. The flows of water from source to services in ZRB are traced based on the water supply and water use tables. The flow diagram shows that 8 MCM of industrial reused water was transferred to the agricultural sector, and 137 MCM and 18 MCM of water from the wastewater treatment plants to the agricultural and industrial sectors, respectively. Furthermore, the results show that the index of the basin dependence on groundwater resources is high (61%), the value of water stress is high (0.88) and the dependence of the basin on transboundary water resources is 30%. Therefore, this method is highly beneficial for achieving a conceptual water balance in disputed basins without enough agricultural water uses data.     

Investigation and water management aspects of a Hungarian-Ukrainian transboundary aquifer

In the framework of an EEA Norway and EU grants project involving industrial and scientific partners, complex hydrogeological investigation and groundwater modeling of a regional transboundary aquifer between Hungary and Ukraine were carried out in 2010. To find a common groundwater management strategy, this challenging cooperation work was completed by an EU country and a non-EU country. This pilot project demonstrated how the EU Water Framework Directive and some other legal aspects can be applied for a regional scale transboundary aquifer between Hungary and Ukraine. The transboundary aquifers play significant role in Hungary because the country land is mainly located in a deep and closed basin called Carpathian. After finalizing the watershed management plans in 2009, it turned out that 40 from the total 185 groundwater bodies are classified as transboundary in Hungary. The authors were involved to participate in an earlier NATO Science for Peace Project, which investigated a transboundary aquifer between Hungary and Romania some years ago. The special experience gained that time was utilized in the current project.     

Ground water rights, spatial variation, and transboundary conflicts

The goal for any property rights system is to achieve equity, efficiency, and certainty. Trying to achieve these goals for ground water is difficult because a ground water right is not exclusive. To make matters more complicated, ground water is often under the jurisdiction of more than one political unit. The result is transboundary conflicts. Two critical elements must be included in any system of ground water rights. The system must define how the ground water can be used and define the relationships that each user and each use has with the other users and uses in the system. Unfortunately, these relationships are seldom completely defined and are made more complex by the transboundary scales at which they operate. As ground water moves horizontally across boundaries, different users or different jurisdictions have sequential control, creating conflicts between the first users and subsequent ones. Other problems occur because of vertical relationships, with more than one person or entity having control over ground water at the same time. This simultaneous exercise of authority can create conflicts between an individual who possesses a right to use ground water and a state or federal agency that regulates the same water. Transboundary conflicts occur at different scales and include conflicts between neighboring property owners as well as conflicts between countries. Scale, the property rights structure, and the nature of the relationship between users influence the way transboundary ground water conflicts are resolved.     

Challenges for integrated water resources management

During the past century, while world population tripled, the use of water increased sixfold. Irrigation accounts for 70% of global water withdrawals, industry for 20%, and municipal use for 10%. To meet the water resources challenges, a series of transitions is under way, with major implications for water management. The present paper underlines the major issues and the new role of engineers in charge of development and project management.     

Seasonal changes in the water use strategies of three co‐occurring desert shrubs

Water is a major limiting factor in desert ecosystems. In order to learn how plants cope with changes in water resources over time and space, it is important to understand plant–water relations in desert region. Using the oxygen isotopic tracing method, our study clarified the seasonal changes in the water use strategies of three co‐occurring desert shrubs. During the 2012 growing season, δ¹⁸O values were measured for xylem sap, the soil water in different soil layers between 0 and 300 cm depth and groundwater. Based on the similarities in δ¹⁸O values for the soil water in each layer, three potential water sources were identified: shallow soil water, middle soil water and deep soil water. Then we calculated the percentage utilization of potential water sources by each species in each season using the linear mixing model. The results showed that the δ¹⁸O values of the three species showed a clear seasonal pattern. Reaumuria songarica used shallow soil water when shallow layer was relatively wet in spring, but mostly took up middle soil water in summer and autumn. Nitraria tangutorum mainly utilized shallow and middle soil water in spring, but mostly absorbed deep soil water in summer and autumn. Tamarix ramosissima utilized the three water sources evenly in spring and primarily relied on deep soil water in summer and autumn. R. songarica and N. tangutorum responded quickly to large rainfall pulses during droughts. Differential root systems of the three species resulted in different seasonal water use strategies when the three competed for water. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Information-analytical systems for water resources quality management

The need to develop information-analytical systems (IAS) for water resources quality management is substantiated. The structure and principles of IAS organization, developed by the authors, are specified. A mathematical model that serves as a basis for the simulation block of proposed IAS is discussed and the results of model calculations are given.     

Reviews on land use change induced effects on regional hydrological ecosystem services for integrated water resources management

This paper proposed to provide valuable information for integrated water resources management through evaluating the research on the interaction mechanism among land use changes, regional hydrological ecosystem services and human well-being. Firstly, the driving mechanism of land use and land cover changes was introduced in this paper. Secondly, the overview of the interaction mechanism among land use and land cover changes, regional hydrological ecosystem services and human well-being was given. Based on the meta-analysis, land use changes have a profound influence on regional hydrological ecosystem services, and the variation of hydrological ecosystem could benefit or impair human well-being. Finally, two suggestions were emphasized for managers or policy makers for the future integrated water resources management: (1) Proper land use makes for the water resource management; (2) Blindly pursuing the provisioning services weakens other services of hydrological ecosystem.     

Climate and water resources

Abstract

River runoff and the resulting water resources which provide the needs of mankind for fresh water are subject to variations in space and time mainly depending on the space and time variability of climate characteristics. Thus there are close interrelations between the problems of the provision of fresh water and the problems of both natural and anthropogenic changes in climate. Moreover, these interrelations are characterized by specific features both under natural conditions and during a period of man's intensive impact on water resources. The problem of these interrelations has acquired a particular scientific and practical importance during recent years in which climatologists have attempted to predict global anthropogenic changes in climate for the near future, changes unknown on our plant for millennia. The present paper has been prepared mainly on the basis of research results obtained at the State Hydrological Institute in Leningrad. It describes the global interrelations between climatic characteristics and water resources under natural conditions and in the case of intensive water resources development; up-to-date ideas on the anthropogenic changes of the global climate are given; the possible consequent effects on future water resources are analysed.     

Factorial two-stage stochastic programming for water resources management

This study presents a factorial two-stage stochastic programming (FTSP) approach for supporting water resource management under uncertainty. FTSP is developed through the integration of factorial analysis and two-stage stochastic programming (TSP) methods into a general modeling framework. It can handle uncertainties expressed as probability distributions and interval numbers. This approach has two advantages in comparison to conventional inexact TSP methods. Firstly, FTSP inherits merits of conventional inexact two-stage optimization approaches. Secondly, it can provide detailed effects of uncertain parameters and their interactions on the system performance. The developed FTSP method is applied to a hypothetical case study of water resources systems analysis. The results indicate that significant factors and their interactions can be identified. They can be further analyzed for generating water allocation decision alternatives in municipal, industrial and agricultural sectors. Reasonable water allocation schemes can thus be formulated based on the resulting information of detailed effects from various impact factors and their interactions. Consequently, maximized net system benefit can be achieved.