Water Security Issues Research Articles

Harnessing Technologies for Mitigating the Water Woes in the City of Bengaluru

Industrialization has caused most of the world's environmental problems like climate change, water security issues, biodiversity issues among others. Water-related issues like water scarcity, lack of water quality, water sanitation issues, lack of proper water resources management are some of them. Urbanization, population increase, pollution has led to an increase in water demand. Water being the elixir of life, is essential for the day-to-day living of an individual. The Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies like AI, IoT, Blockchain, Machine Learning have the capability of bringing solutions to these issues. The current study focuses on the water woes of Bengaluru, a fast-growing urban city, due to its migrating population. The woes are also due to the irresponsible behaviour of builders converting lakes into real estate infrastructure leading to clogged drains, excess sewage creation and flooding. A huge mismatch between demand and supply of water is created due to these issues. Before the city hits the Day Zero – no water day, it is significant to set up water infrastructure along with technology implementation which will help resolve this burning issue at the earliest.

Harnessing technology for mitigating water woes in the city of Bengaluru

Industrialization has caused most of the world’s environmental problems like climate change, water security issues, biodiversity issues among others. Water-related issues like water scarcity, lack of water quality, water sanitation issues, lack of proper water resources management are some of them. Urbanization, population increase, pollution has led to an increase in water demand. Water being the elixir of life, is essential for the day-to-day living of an individual. The Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies like AI, IoT, Blockchain, Machine Learning have the capability of bringing solutions to these issues. The current study focuses on the water woes of Bengaluru, a fast-growing urban city, due to its migrating population. The woes are also due to the irresponsible behaviour of builders converting lakes into real estate infrastructure leading to clogged drains, excess sewage creation and flooding. A huge mismatch between demand and supply of water is created due to these issues. Before the city hits the Day Zero – no water day, it is significant to set up water infrastructure along with technology implementation which will help resolve this burning issue at the earliest.

Transdisciplinary soil hydrology

AbstractIn this paper, I present an evolutional pathway from disciplinary towards transdisciplinary science and research and offer contemporary examples of interdisciplinary research in soil hydrology. I further explore exciting opportunities that can lead to transdisciplinary research (TDres), as society demands for our science expertise to be increasingly involved in developing solutions in global issues of sustainability, food and water security, as well as in the decision‐making process. By way of TDres involvement in public policy, the scientist is going to be working in the trans‐science domains for which (s)he is likely not very prepared. Recommendations are presented to better train students and early‐career scientists so that they can be effective in participating in TDres and communicating their scientific knowledge to relevant stakeholders, the public, and decision makers as part of the policy‐making process.

Governance, water security and citizenship in Brazil, 2019

Even though benefitting from over 12% of the world’s surface freshwater, Brazil nevertheless has undergone increasingly frequent water scarcity crises in both rural and urban areas. This paper presents the results of an exploratory research on water security issues in Brazil, developed according to a three-step methodology. The concept of water security is discussed based on a review of the literature, taking into account the sustainability criterion. An institutional analysis of water governance in Brazil, summarized from the perspective of water security, based on Brazilian constitutional mentions related to water, followed by the identification of policy initiatives at national and subnational level.

Economic Dispatch Optimization of Multi-Water Resources: A Case Study of an Island in South Korea

Ensuring stable and continuous water supplies in isolated but populated areas, such as islands, where the water supply is highly dependent on external factors, is crucial. Sudden loss of function in the water supply system can have enormous social costs. To strengthen water security and to meet multiple water demands with marginal quality, the optimized selection of locally available, diversified multi-water resources is necessary. This study considers a sustainable water supply problem of Yeongjong Island, 30 km west from Seoul, South Korea. The self-sufficiency of several locally available water resources is calculated for four different scenarios based on the volume and quality of the various water sources. Our optimization results show that using all the available local sources can address the water security issues of the island in the case of interruption in the existing supply system, which is fed from a single source of mainland Korea. This optimization framework can be useful for areas where water must be secured in the event of emergency.

The Role of Dams on Water, Food, and Energy Security Issues: A Global Review and Resolution for Indonesia

Increased water, food, and energy demand due to population growth has contributed linearly to the increasing focus of world concern on dams in many countries. Lately, dams have become an important issue in sustainable water resources management, which have been used for various purposes such as flood control, industrial water supply, irrigation, fisheries, recreation, navigation, hydroelectricity, and other purposes. This study aims to analyze the relationships between variables related to the world's water, food and energy issues, including dams. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to identify the significance of interrelated relationships between variables of water consumption, energy consumption, irrigated areas and the number of dams based on period 1960-2010 data. The results of the analysis concluded that water consumption had the most significant effect on energy consumption and the number of dams. Meanwhile, the number of dams has a significant impact on water consumption, followed by energy consumption. As a resolution for Indonesia, which currently focuses on food and energy security issues, this study recommends that the construction of dams (including large dams) be accelerated.

Catchment classification in a transboundary river using runoff and sub-basin characteristics

ABSTRACTTransboundary rivers that run through separate water management jurisdictions with distinct hydrological characteristics sometimes experience competitive water usage. A system of classification of catchments along such river basins could help ease hydrological modelling on subbasin scales and hopefully refine the spatial and temporal resolution of information about adjacent catchments especially under changing natural and anthropogenic influences. However, there exists no universally accepted basis for hydrological classification of catchments. Some studies have applied hydrological models to catchment classification based upon criteria like streamflow regimes, hydrologic similarity, and hydroclimatic factors. But some constraints have included geographic or situational limitations of models, and large numbers of model parameters and data involved. The latter is counterproductive because the main purpose of catchment classification is to decrease the complexity of water systems by grouping them into several like categories. This study performed catchment classification in four different ways (quasi-runoff coefficients, empirical runoff equations, Muskingum-Cunge routing, and exceedance probabilities) in a major transboundary river whose basins sometimes experience water security issues. Using predefined catchment classification criteria and thirteen initial hydrological zones, the results across all four methods revealed five distinct catchment areas and suggest that a combination of different methodology may be needed for reliably classifying catchments. The methodology and information gathered could be used by stakeholders for applications in irrigation planning, river discharge modelling, navigation, flood risk management, improving dam storage and release policies, and optimizing food-water-energy nexus in the region.

Deliberation for Development: Ghana’s First Deliberative Poll

This article poses the problem of public consultation in developing countries and applies a solution in Ghana as a test case. It describes the theoretical rationale for deliberative consultation with random samples, describes specific criteria for success, and then assesses an application under the challenging conditions of a developing country. It builds on notions of “deliberative democracy,” and shows how they can be practically realized in an African context through “Deliberative Polling” (DP). The challenge is that the context is one of the poorest parts of one of the poorest countries in Africa. Rather than consulting just stakeholders, or self-selected populations, or using conventional surveys, DP’s have the advantage of consulting random samples with deliberation in depth in confidential surveys so that the opinion changes can be evaluated at the individual level, free of social pressures for consensus. Is this practical in this context? A DP was conducted in Tamale, Ghana on issues of water, sanitation, hygiene and food security. Criteria for success for DPs that have been applied in highly developed countries are discussed and then applied in Ghana under challenging conditions.

Diffusion behavior of humic acid during desalination with air gap and water gap membrane distillation

Desalination and water reuse are important means to resolve local water scarcity and security issues worldwide where membrane distillation (MD) may be part of a solution. Natural organic matter and in particular, humic acids (HA), are widely present in water supplies to be treated but exhibit little understood behavior to diffuse through MD membranes into permeate. In this work, air gap (AGMD) and water gap (WGMD) were utilized to study HA behavior in MD using seawater and synthetic water over a range of typical MD temperatures, flow rates and membrane types. HA diffusion was first shown with seawater feed then on synthetic solutions at all process conditions. While electrical conductivity rejection was always above than 99%, HA rejection showed values of 33% and 90% for AGMD and 68% and 93% for WGMD with seawater and synthetic water, respectively. Analytical techniques were used to perform a preliminary organic matter characterization in permeate, obtaining clear differences between the feed and permeate HA property. Compared to hydrophobic membranes, uniquely oleophobic membranes inhibit HA diffusion suggesting hydrophobic surface diffusion of HA through the membrane. HA flux as well as potential undesirable effects of the organic matter in permeate should be considered for MD applications.

Water Security Assessment of China’s One Belt and One Road Region

The sustainable development of socioeconomic and environmental systems are highly dependent on water capital and water utilization efficiency. Nowadays, a significant portion of the world is facing water security issues due to a combination of various factors. As a result, socioeconomic and environmental systems are threatened. China is also currently experiencing problems. Water security assessment helps to identify key determining factors for optimal water utilization, so the authors present the Driving Forces-Pressures-Carrying Capacity-State-Impacts-Responses (DPSCIR) water security assessment framework. Unlike previous methods, the proposed framework incorporates the carrying capacity of the environment, and as a result, yields assessment results that are more realistic. As a case study, the proposed framework coupled with the entropy method is applied to assess the water security status of the One Belt and One Road (B&R) region in China. In addition, the water security level of the provinces and municipalities in this region are simulated for the time period from 2017 to 2022 using the Grey Prediction Model. The results show that Responses, State, Pressures, and Carrying Capacity Subsystems greatly influence water security of the region. According to the assessment, water security of the area improved from 2011 to 2016. The results portray the following trend among the three subregions of the study area, the water security of the 21st Maritime Silk Road (One Road) area is better than Silk Road Economic Belt (One Belt) and the Strategy Support and Pivotal Gateway (SSPG) of B&R areas. Generally, from the evaluation results it can be concluded that only focusing on the subsystem of Responses cannot entirely address the water security problems within the B&R area. Therefore, to ensure sustainable water security in the region and in the country, the government needs to design water resource management mechanisms that take all the subsystems into account.

State of future water regimes in the world’s river basins: balancing the water between society and nature

Global freshwater resources have faced critical water security challenges during the 21st century in the world’s river basins. Shortages of water have impaired economic development by disrupting regimes of river flows, ecosystem functioning and food security. Excessive surface and groundwater withdrawals have almost reached the threshold. The current withdrawals of total water (4700 km3·y−1) suggest the imbalance of water use and renewal rates in the world’s river basins. The water security issues are further intensified by phosphate and nitrate pollution from land use and climate change. Today, about 400 million people worldwide experience extreme shortages of water for daily use. Limited availability of water which needs to meet the basic needs of hygiene and sanitation for consumption and other uses has increased competition among users. While the society demands more water-intensive goods and services, the ecosystems are however left behind, consequently leading to increased conflicts and insecurity. Equitable water allocation for people and nature is becoming increasingly urgent. However, understanding the complex interactions between the society and nature in the world’s river basins is limited. This paper aims to unravel some key strategies that enhance future water security through the advancement of science, knowledge and technologies in the world’s river basins.

Qualitative and quantitative analysis of perceived liveability in the context of socio-ecohydrology: evidence from the urban and peri-urban Cirebon-Indonesia

In this study, we examine key liveability aspects, viz., ecosystem services (ES), urban services (US), peri-urban services (PS) and human services (HS). Further, disparity in the liveability of urban and peri-urban areas that could hamper sustainability was investigated. The Cirebon Metropolitan Region in Indonesia frequently experiences water security issues. The perceived liveability of this region was assessed using survey data collected in 65 villages within 25 sub-districts. The study demonstrates that ES, US, PS and HS in the analytical framework of importance–performance analysis (IPA) can identify the main areas needing intervention to improve urban and peri-urban socio-ecohydrological systems and liveability. The method of combining qualitative and quantitative IPA schemes developed in this study is novel and is able to support a demand-based approach and comprehensive understanding of place-based needs for long-term liveability in a developing country situation.

Turning water into wine: Exploring water security perceptions and adaptation behaviour amongst conventional, organic and biodynamic grape growers

Australian irrigators regularly experience drought conditions, placing water security as a critical issue facing agriculture, especially for permanent plantings such as grapes. This study explores irrigators’ water security perceptions and their water management adaptation behaviour using in-depth interviews and surveys with 37 conventional, organic and biodynamic grape growers in South Australia. Conventional growers’ water adaptation behaviour was primarily reliant on activities external to the vineyard (e.g. upgrading irrigation infrastructure); whereas alternative (i.e. certified organic/biodynamic) growers’ water security actions were based largely on internal vineyard activities (e.g. agro-ecological methods). Conventional growers often named governance and district physical capital as influencing their adaptive capacity to water scarcity, while alternative growers focussed more on the role of human, social, and farm soil and land capital in influencing their farm adaptive capacity. Two-thirds of surveyed alternative growers converted away from conventional production at the end of the Millennium Drought, naming water security issues as their main reason. Overall alternative growers perceived higher water security and less water vulnerability due to higher soil water retention. Findings suggest a need for current Murray-Darling Basin water policy to seriously reconsider the approach of primarily investing money in irrigation infrastructure to save water and to focus more on agro-ecological methods.

Use of Risk Analysis for Water Security Assessment

This paper presents analysis of water security using risk analysis. It contributes to an enhanced understanding of the water security issue through creating indicators and their use in the determination of the water security level. The paper presents first the methodology followed in this research, which includes three steps: identification of water risk drivers, the determination of their severity and likelihood and finally the calculation of the water security score. The paper presents the first step of the application of this methodology to Palestinian territory through the identification of the drivers of the water risk and the levels of both the severity and likelihood to be used in future water security assessment.

Development of a Generic Domestic Water Security Index, and Its Application in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Water security is a global concern because of the growing impact of human activities and climate change on water resources. Studies had been performed at global, country, and city level to assess the water security issues. However, assessment of water security at a domestic scale is lacking. This paper develops a new domestic water security assessment framework accounting for water supply, sanitation, and hygiene through twelve indicators. Water supply, sanitation, and hygiene are central to key water-related sustainable development goals. The framework is subsequently applied to the city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. From the domestic water security assessment of Addis Ababa, the water supply dimension was found to be of good level, whereas the sanitation and hygiene dimensions were of poor and fair level, respectively, indicating both a challenge and an opportunity for development. Because the analysis is spatially explicit at the city-branch level (in Addis), variation in domestic water security performance across Addis Ababa can be assessed, allowing efficient targeting of scant resources (financial, technical, personnel). Analysis further shows that a lack of institutional capacity within the utility, existing infrastructure leading to ‘lock-in’ and hindering maintenance and upgrade initiatives, and an unreliable power supply are the main issues leading to poor domestic water security in the study city. These areas should be tackled to improve the current situation and mitigate future problems. The developed framework is generic enough to be applied to other urban and peri-urban areas, yet provides planners and policy makers with specific information on domestic water security considering water supply, sanitation and hygiene, and accounting for within-city variability. This work could therefore have practical applicability for water service providers.

The Nexus of Water, Ecosystems, and Agriculture in Endorheic River Basins: A System Analysis Based on Integrated Ecohydrological Modeling

AbstractIn arid and semiarid areas, the issues of water security, ecological security, and food security are tightly interlinked. Understanding the water‐ecosystem‐agriculture (WEA) nexus in such areas is critical to their sustainable development. This study presents a basin‐scale integrated ecohydrological model and a paradigm for analyzing the WEA nexus through physically based modeling. The integrated model is successfully applied to the Heihe River Basin (HRB), the second largest endorheic river basin in China. A system analysis of the WEA nexus in the HRB is performed using the validated model. The major findings are as follows. First, reducing the amount of irrigation water applied to the midstream of the HRB produces widely varying effects on the water balance of the basin. Second, a threshold of 11.5 × 108 m3/yr is found for the streamflow from the midstream region to the downstream region, beyond which the contribution of the streamflow to the recovery of vegetation is trivial in the short term. Third, the trade‐off among water conservation, ecosystem protection, and food production in the HRB is strong, and it is highly sensitive to the water management strategy employed. Evaporative water‐saving practices are more desirable than direct water‐saving regulation of irrigation water from the perspective of the WEA nexus. Overall, the results of the study provide insights into the allocation of water resources, ecosystem conservation, and agricultural development in the vast arid and semiarid areas of the world.

Water Security in Urban Water Governance: A Case Study of Dhulikhel Municipality, Kavrepalanchowk, Nepal

This paper locates the issue of water security within the larger discourse of Environmental Justice which has become more encompassing and broader in scope, forms and processes penetrating the issues of political, economic and cultural distribution of resources. The concept of urban governance and water security is inextricably tied as the need of improved water services historically grew with the expansion of cities calling for critical governance arrangements. In light of the above, this paper examines the existing state of water security in Dhulikhel. By examining the power relations between ‘fringe’ and the ‘core’ areas, the paper depicts the growing inequity across the 9 wards of Dhulikhel pertaining to water access and distribution based on caste, class, ethnicity and gender. Two fundamental questions that guide this paper are: 1) Why disparities exist between the core and fringe categories in Dhulikhel Municipality? 2) How does the core-fringe category shape the power of communities in the water governance? The findings clearly show that there is a huge discrimination between the core and the fringe, the poor and the non-poor within the core in water availability, distribution and decision making. Establishing an equitable water justice system calls for uprooting the existing social discrimination in water security to empower the fringe communities.

Adopting a Preparatory Strategy to Respond to Water Security Issues Arising from Geo-Hazards

‘Geo-hazards’ is a collective term to describe hazards causing huge problems with human settlements, where the hazards are many and varied, including earthquakes, floods, windstorms, and drought, all of which are intensifying over time in large part due to climate change and population growth. In particular, issues of availability of ‘safe’ water are major disruptive elements frequently causing widespread incidence of diarrheal diseases both during and post, geo-hazard events. In response, arguments are described which demonstrate ceramic water filters (CWFs) have credible potential to effectively remove E.-coli (and, by similar attribute characterization), are effective in the removal of cholera. Field experience in terms of removal have been demonstrated as 94.7% removal of E-coli and all users in some applications have expressed interest in continuing use of ceramic filters beyond the trial period. Arguments are put forth, for CWFs as a Point-of-Use (POU) technology by which they can be stored and rapidly disseminated given occurrence of geo-hazards, thereby providing the opportunity to respond quickly. CWFs can be effectively stored without deterioration, are inexpensive, and easy to train recipients for their post-geo-hazard occurrence.

Water security evaluation based on the TODIM method with probabilistic linguistic term sets

Nowadays, water security is becoming increasingly prominent and the water security problem becomes a primary bottleneck restricting China’s future sustainable development. Water security in China is thus worth conducting an in-depth study. This paper aims to explore an effective water security evaluation method. Based on the proposed definition of water security, an evaluation index system of water security is first built from the perspective of “pressure–state–response” conceptual model. Considering the indicators’ uncertainty and the decision makers’ (DMs’) limited knowledge, the DMs usually use linguistic terms to express their judgements. As a new type of linguistic variable, probabilistic linguistic term set (PLTS) not only allows the DMs to express their judgements with multiple linguistic terms but also can reflect the DMs’ different preference degrees over these possible linguistic terms. For the water security issue under probabilistic linguistic environment, a programming model is developed to derive the attribute weights. Then, the TODIM (an acronym in Portuguese for interactive multi-criteria decision making) method, which considers the psychological factors of the DMs, is used to evaluate water security based on the PLTS. Furthermore, a case study is conducted and some discussions and comparative analysis are carried out according to the case results.

An Assessment of the Microbiological Water Quality of Sand Dams in Southeastern Kenya

Sand-storage dams have proven to be a successful water harvesting method and potential solution to water and food security issues in semi-arid regions such as south east Kenya. This paper examines the microbiological quality of water both contained in the sand dam via test holes and abstracted from it through covered wells and scoop holes. In total, the values of thermotolerant coliform (TTC) concentration, turbidity, and pH are presented for 47 covered wells, 36 scoop holes, and 29 test holes, as well as the conductivity values in conductivity in 39 covered wells and 11 scoop holes. The water from test holes and covered wells was microbiologically of better quality than the scoop holes with median TTC levels of 0/100 mL and 159/100 mL respectively. However, the median values of turbidity for both scoop holes (20–30 NTU) and covered wells (5–10 NTU) exceed the World Health Organisation (WHO) guideline values. In addition the conductivity of water from 23% of scoop holes and 26% of covered wells is above the recommended WHO limit. This study also found that sanitary surveys are not a useful indicator of water quality in sand dams; however, they can identify areas in which sanitation and improvement of water sources are needed.