Water Shortage Issues Research Articles

Multi-scale variability and trends of precipitation in North China

The issue of water shortage and related eco-environmental degradation in North China is one of the major emerging problems in China. Precipitation is the most key factor for water resources. Based on the historical flood/dryness grade dataset during the period of 1470–2000 obtained from 25 gauging stations in North China, the multi-scale variability and trends are analyzed by means of power spectral and continuous wavelet transform. It is found that the precipitation is characterized by obvious seasonal changes, quasi biennial oscillations, inter-annual 4–7 year component and inter-decadal 19-year periodicity. The MK test results showe that step changes occurred around 1914 and 1964 in the annual precipitation. As for the historical flood/dryness grade time series, it is characterized by 4∼5 year ENSO mode inter-annual oscillation, quasi-10 year inter-decadal variability, quasi-24 year component and 50–80 year centurial periodicity. However, the scales of these variations have decreased significantly since the 1970s. The trend for precipitation change in North China has been negative for last 30 years. Further research shows that North China will continue to become dryer until 2015 and may change to a wetter regime after 2020. These findings should be helpful for future decision-making to ensure sustainable water resource management in North China.

Agricultural water-saving and sustainable groundwater management in Shijiazhuang Irrigation District, North China Plain

Summary North China Plain (NCP) is one of the most important agricultural production regions in China. A severe water shortage, due to intensive irrigation, exists in the plain. In NCP, crop water-use accounts for 70% of total groundwater use in the floodplains and over 87% in the piedmont regions. Surface water in the plain is limited and restricted for urban water supply. Agricultural production therefore heavily relies on groundwater irrigation; the main driver of groundwater depletion in the region. To address the water shortage issue, a flexible and sustainable water management method is proposed. The method integrates crop-growth and groundwater model, and ensures groundwater recovery via agricultural water-saving. The method is successfully tested for the 4763 km 2 Shijiazhuang Irrigation District in the piedmont region of Mount Taihang. The model results show that 29.2% or 135.7 mm reduction in irrigation could stop groundwater drawdown in the plain. An additional 10% reduction in irrigation pumping (i.e., a total of 39.2% or 182.1 mm) would induce groundwater recovery and restoration to the pre-development hydrologic conditions of 1956 in about 74 years. The farmers’ current irrigation practices are inefficient and wasteful of the limited water resources. Under appropriate irrigation schemes therefore, grain yield loss as a result of the 39.2% agricultural water-saving is less than 10%. This minimal agronomic loss is economically acceptable, giving the ecological and environmental benefits of groundwater recovery in the study area. However, successful agricultural water-saving requires not only practical feasibility of models, but also sufficient political commitment, promotion of water-saving incentives and efficient water-saving technologies, and enforcement of sustainable water management policies.

Глобализация ресурсов пресной воды: инновационная стратегия управления

За последние пятьдесят лет численность населения Земли возросла в два с половиной раза, а объем потребляемой воды утроился. Статья посвящена проблеме водного дефицита, который увеличивается быстрее, чем прогнозировалось ранее, а доставка воды по мощным трубопроводам считается более сложной задачей, чем транспортировка нефти. Результаты последних исследований позволяют специалистам сделать оптимистическое заявление - совокупного количества пресноводных ресурсов достаточно для жизнедеятельности планеты. По мнению авторов, главный вопрос заключается не в количестве и качестве воды, а в управлении ею. К настоящему времени в сфере водных проблем накопился весомый интеллектуальный капитал, что позволяет установить интегральную систему управления пресноводными ресурсами глобального масштаба с целью предотвращения драматических сценариев.

Minimizing the Environmental Impact of Sea Brine Disposal by Coupling Desalination Plants with Solar Saltworks: A Case Study for Greece

The explosive increase in world population, along with the fast socio-economic development, have led to an increased water demand, making water shortage one of the greatest problems of modern society. Countries such as Greece, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia face serious water shortage issues and have resorted to solutions such as transporting water by ships from the mainland to islands, a practice that is expensive, energy-intensive and unsustainable. Desalination of sea-water is suitable for supplying arid regions with potable water, but extensive brine discharge may affect marine biota. To avoid this impact, we explore the option of directing the desalination effluent to a solar saltworks for brine concentration and salt production, in order to achieve a zero discharge desalination plant. In this context, we conducted a survey in order to evaluate the potential of transferring desalination brine to solar saltworks, so that its disposal to the sea is avoided. Our analysis showed that brine transfer by trucks is prohibitively expensive. In order to make the zero discharge desalination plant economically feasible, efforts should be directed into developing a more efficient technology that will result in the production of only a fraction of the brine that is produced from our systems today.

Advanced low quality waters treatment for unrestricted use purposes: imminent challenges

Various countries in the Mediterranean Basin and other arid and semi-arid regions are confronting water shortage issues. This gap between supply and demand is closely linked with agricultural production, environmental conditions, and climate changes. It is also probably due to reduced amounts of precipitation, decrease in natural groundwater recharge and low availability of natural water sources. Special ventures have to be undertaken in order to supply water at adequate quality for all utilization purposes. These can be accomplished by development of additional water sources that currently are considered marginal. The additional sources include saline ground water, treated wastewater and runoff water and sea water for desalination. The study presents reuse options of wastewater in conjunction with minimizing water supply dependence on other high quality water sources. Domestic secondary effluent is a valuable water source for reclamation, however, extra treatment is required to reuse it for unrestricted purposes. It can be achieved primarily by implementation of the membrane technology, namely ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO) stages. Field results revealed that membrane technology is essential for sustainable production. However, additional work has to be carried out in order to improve the membrane performance and efficacy.

Considerations on the issue of water reuse in eastern China plain brooky regions

This paper summarises the characteristics of water systems in plain brooky regions of Jiangsu Province in eastern China, and discusses the water shortage issue resulting from water quality deterioration. It is emphasised that attention should be paid not only to the full treatment of wastewater and rainwater but also the proper disposal of treated wastewater which meets the national discharge standard GB18918-2002 but still contain significant amount of pollutants if compared with the national surface water quality standard GB3838-2002. To the plain brooky regions of Jiangsu Province, the discharged pollutant loads still significantly exceed the environmental capacity of the receiving waters even if all treated wastewater meet the first grade B limits of GB18918-2002, and the water pollution problem still cannot be really eliminated. Therefore, the disposal and utilisation of the treated wastewater need to be taken into consideration. Thus, this paper presents some considerations on the disposal of treated wastewater and management of urban rainwater, mainly concerning water reclamation and reuse, construction of ecological purification systems, strategy changes of wastewater and rainwater management, and the key technology selections.

Towards better water security in North China

Water shortages and related environmental degradation in North China are major issues facing the country. As runoff from the mountainous parts of the region steadily decrease and water resources become overcommitted, serious water and environmental problems have resulted. These include drying-up of rivers, decline in groundwater levels, degradation of lakes and wetlands, and water pollution. Thus, 4000,km of the lower reaches of the Hai River – some 40% of its length – has experienced zero flows and, as result, parts of this river have become an ephemeral stream. The area of wetland within the Basin has decreased from 10,000,km2 at the beginning of 1950s to 1,000km2 at present. Over-extraction of groundwater occurs beneath 70% of the North China Plain, with the total groundwater over-extraction estimated at 90,billion m3. Thus, problems of water shortage and related environmental issues in North China have become the most significant limiting factors affecting sustainable development in this important region of China. This paper addresses the water security issues facing North China in the 21st Century using the Hai River basin as an example. We describe hydrologic cycles under changing environments, water-saving agriculture, assessment of water resource security, and efforts towards achieving integrated catchment management.

THE ROLE OF PRICING ON INTEGRATED WATER MANAGEMENT AT THE INDUSTRIAL PARK LEVEL: A CASE OF TEDA

Increasing water shortage and water pollution issues have attracted people to seek an integrated water management approach. This paper presents an integrated water management model at the industrial park level by employing a case of TEDA. Such a model is an overall management model for optimizing water resources within an industrial park, seeking potential water reuse among industries, incorporating the size and cost of reclaimed wastewater delivery systems. The main focus of this paper is to test how pricing strategy can influence water reuse scenarios by doing a cost sensitivity analysis. The results Indicate that when being set at the correct level, increased water charges could help reduce freshwater use and wastewater discharge, while covering administrative costs, financing environmental improvements (e.g. cleaner production), or subsidizing the operation of the wastewater treatment plant and the maintenance of freshwater infrastructure, therefore, providing water reuse incentives for water users within an industrial park.

The Global International Waters Assessment for the Pacific Islands: Aspects of Transboundary, Water Shortage, and Coastal Fisheries Issues

The Global International Waters Assessment for the Pacific Islands: Aspects of Transboundary, Water Shortage, and Coastal Fisheries Issues

The Global International Waters Assessment for the Pacific Islands: Aspects of Transboundary, Water Shortage, and Coastal Fisheries Issues

Aspects of transboundary, water shortage, and fisheries issues are discussed in the context of the recently completed Global International Waters Assessment (GIWA) for the Pacific Islands. The region encompasses some 30 million km2 and approximately 12% of the world's ocean space, and features great geographic, demographic and developmental diversity. Global change, especially sea level rise and sea surface temperature increases, is the dominant transboundary concern as it impacts all aspects of life. Water shortage and unsustainable fishing issues are selected for discussion, as they will dominate the region into the foreseeable future, and they are illustrated with examples from Fiji, Kiribati, and Tonga. The environmental impacts are exacerbated by socioeconomic issues such as high population growth rates, urban drift, the breakdown of traditional life styles and the rapid adoption of the cash economy. Policy options that may assist in addressing these issues are proposed.

Economics of seawater RO desalination in the Red Sea region, Egypt. Part 1. A case study

Tackling water shortage issues with desalting of seawater and salty water is common in the desert nations of the Middle East and the Mediterranean. The fast growing development in Egypt has required big movements of investments and people from the Nile Valley towards the east, with the fantastic Red Sea and Sinai coastal zones, and also towards the Western Desert that has promising brackish groundwater potentialities. In both cases, fresh water supply is essential and desalination is a feasible option that can cover the wide gap between the available capacities and the accelerating demands. The cost of desalination, either thermal or membrane, is inversely proportional to the production capacity. This greatly affects the economics of desalination at the modern tourism development area on the Red Sea. The sporadic nature of the tourist hotels and resorts along more than 1500 km of coastal strip, at Sinai and the Red Sea region, favores the small capacity reverse osmosis plants with the range between 200 and 3000 m 3/d. The higher RO plant capacities (>300 m 3/ d) and fewer and limited to the main towns. The present work outlined the economic variables and limitations that influence the pure water cost by using the small capacity SWRO desalination plants. The techno-economic study was made to estimate the actual cost of production on real field measurements. The fixed and operating costs of five selected SWRO plants of 250, 500, 2000, 3500 and 4800 m 3/d were evaluated and discussed. It was found that the production cost resulted from small SWRO desalination plants is much higher than the world cost. The study indicated that the economic larger SWRO desalination capacity (>20,000 m 3/ d) should be considered during the development strategy and planning of the new tourist projects. The related recommendations to the technical, operational and environmental considerations are given in detail.