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Over-pumping of aquifers is a worldwide problem, mainly caused by agricultural water use. Among its consequences are the falling dry of streams and wetlands, soil subsidence, die-off of phreatophytic vegetation, saline water intrusion, increased pumping cost and loss of storage needed for drought relief. Stopping or reversing the trend requires management interventions. The North China Plain serves as an example. A management system is set up for a typical county. It contains three components: monitoring, decision support based on modelling, and implementation in the field. Besides all monitoring data, the decision support module contains an irrigation calculator, a box model, and a distributed groundwater model to project the outcomes of different water allocation scenarios. In view of grain security, a solution combines an adaptation of the cropping system with imports of surface water from the South. The Open Access book does not only describe the problem and the path to its solution. It also gives access to nine manuals concerning methods used. They include computer programs and the game Save the Water. The Chinese experience should be of considerable interest to other regions in the world which suffer from over-pumping of aquifers.
How could having farmers play experiential games contribute to improving groundwater governance? These games are an example of an innovative procedure, a policy instrument or institutional tool, which those involved in improving groundwater governance could use to understand their problems and opportunities; consider and possibly agree on norms or rules that might avoid aquifer depletion, and create shared gains that use water more productively. Institutional tools for groundwater governance could help deal with complex nexus linkages and achieve gains such as transitions to solar-powered pumping, aquifer recharge and storage to buffer against drought, and protecting and regenerating ecosystems. The concept of a groundwater governance toolbox offers a metaphor for thinking about the variety of policy instruments available and how they might be chosen, combined, and adapted to create customized toolkits to solve problems and achieve gains in specific contexts. New policies are typically layered on top of existing sets of institutions that govern relationships between people and water. This makes it crucial to understand existing knowledge and institutions and how those may interact with institutional changes. The thesis of the paper is that institutional tools need to be combined and crafted to fit contexts, including political economy constraints, opportunities, and solutions.
This book presents a unique and up-to-date summary of what is known about groundwater on our planet, from a global perspective and in terms of area-specific factual information. Unlike most textbooks on groundwater, it does not deal with theoretical principles, but rather with the overall picture that emerges as a result of countless observations,
The Terrestrial Water Cycle: Natural and Human-Induced Changes is a comprehensive volume that investigates the changes in the terrestrial water cycle and the natural and anthropogenic factors that cause these changes. This volume brings together recent progress and achievements in large-scale hydrological observations and numerical simulations, specifically in areas such as in situ measurement network, satellite remote sensing and hydrological modeling. Our goal is to extend and deepen our understanding of the changes in the terrestrial water cycle and to shed light on the mechanisms of the changes and their consequences in water resources and human well-being in the context of global change. Volume highlights include: Overview of the changes in the terrestrial water cycle Human alterations of the terrestrial water cycle Recent advances in hydrological measurement and observation Integrated modeling of the terrestrial water cycle The Terrestrial Water Cycle: Natural and Human-Induced Changes will be a valuable resource for students and professionals in the fields of hydrology, water resources, climate change, ecology, geophysics, and geographic sciences. The book will also be attractive to those who have general interests in the terrestrial water cycle, including how and why the cycle changes.
This book is a collection of overview articles showing how space-based observations, combined with hydrological modeling, have considerably improved our knowledge of the continental water cycle and its sensitivity to climate change. Two main issues are highlighted: (1) the use in combination of space observations for monitoring water storage changes in river basins worldwide, and (2) the use of space data in hydrological modeling either through data assimilation or as external constraints. The water resources aspect is also addressed, as well as the impacts of direct anthropogenic forcing on land hydrology (e.g. ground water depletion, dam building on rivers, crop irrigation, changes in land use and agricultural practices, etc.). Remote sensing observations offer important new information on this important topic as well, which is highly useful for achieving water management objectives.Over the past 15 years, remote sensing techniques have increasingly demonstrated their capability to monitor components of the water balance of large river basins on time scales ranging from months to decades: satellite altimetry routinely monitors water level changes in large rivers, lakes and floodplains. When combined with satellite imagery, this technique can also measure surface water volume variations. Passive and active microwave sensors offer important information on soil moisture (e.g. the SMOS mission) as well as wetlands and snowpack. The GRACE space gravity mission offers, for the first time, the possibility of directly measuring spatio-temporal variations in the total vertically integrated terrestrial water storage. When combined with other space observations (e.g. from satellite altimetry and SMOS) or model estimates of surface waters and soil moisture, space gravity data can effectively measure groundwater storage variations. New satellite missions, planned for the coming years, will complement the constellation of satellites monitoring waters on land. This is particularly the case for the SWOT mission, which is expected to revolutionize land surface hydrology. Previously published in Surveys in Geophysics, Volume 37, No. 2, 2016
Based on the water footprint (WF) concept, this book reviews WF-based water stress evaluation methods at the city, provincial and river basin levels respectively. In addition, it explores the factors that influence regional water footprint in the spatial sequence via the extended STIRPAT model. Highlighting the utilization of WF accounting in sustainable water management, one of the book’s goals is to establish the optimization model of water allocation in various industrial sectors. Based on WF accounting, which thoroughly considers the water input for production, the relevant intermediate water inputs, and the water amount for wastewater discharge dilutions, the book provides a wealth of insights for scholars and practitioners with an interest in water resources and environmental management. In addition, it exhibits a scientific plan for regional water resource utilization and allocation, helping relieve regional water shortages.
The United Nations World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) is hosted and led by UNESCO. WWAP brings together the work of 31 UN-Water Members as well as 37 Partners to publish the United Nations World Water Development Report (WWDR) series. Under the theme Water for Sustainable Development, the WWDR 2015 has been prepared as a contribution from UN-Water to the discussions surrounding the post-2015 framework for global sustainable development. Highlighting water's unique and often complex role in achieving various sustainable development objectives, the WWDR 2015 is addressed to policy- and decision-makers inside and outside the water community, as well as to anyone with an interest in freshwater and its many life-giving benefits. The report sets an aspirational yet achievable vision for the future of water towards 2050 by describing how water supports healthy and prosperous human communities, maintains well functioning ecosystems and ecological services, and provides a cornerstone for short and long-term economic development. It provides an overview of the challenges, issues and trends in terms of water resources, their use and water-related services like water supply and sanitation. The report also offers, in a rigorous yet accessible manner, guidance about how to address these challenges and to seize the opportunities that sound water management provides in order to achieve and maintain economic, social and environmental sustainability.
This text is written by a number of authors from different countries and disciplines, affording the reader an invaluable and unbiased perspective on the subject of intensive groundwater development. Based on information gathered from the experience of many countries over the last decades, the text aims to present a clear discussion on the conventional hydrogeological aspects of intensive groundwater use, along with the ecological, legal, institutional, economic and social challenges. Divided into two main sections, the first group of authors put forward the positive and negative aspects of intensive groundwater use, whilst a second group provide an overview of the situation specific countries face as a consequence of this phenomenon. Fully revised and up-to-date, Groundwater Intensive Use makes a significant number of discoveries in a subject area that is topical in today's climate.
People use lots of water for drinking, cooking and washing, but significantly more for producing things such as food, paper and cotton clothes. The water footprint is an indicator of water use that looks at both direct and indirect water use of a consumer or producer. Indirect use refers to the 'virtual water' embedded in tradable goods and commodities, such as cereals, sugar or cotton. The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community or produced by the business. This book offers a complete and up-to-date overview of the global standard on water footprint assessment as developed by the Water Footprint Network. More specifically it: o Provides a comprehensive set of methods for water footprint assessment o Shows how water footprints can be calculated for individual processes and products, as well as for consumers, nations and businesses o Contains detailed worked examples of how to calculate green, blue and grey water footprints o Describes how to assess the sustainability of the aggregated water footprint within a river basin or the water footprint of a specific product o Includes an extensive library of possible measures that can contribute to water footprint reduction