Water Management Plans Research Articles

Critical analysis of hydrological mass variations of northwest India

With current climate change, water availability is a huge concern. Ground-water (GW) is depleting at a steep rate globally and more specifically in Northwest India. Estimation and analysis of GW availability would be of great use for formulating a proper water management plan for the future. The study is carried out in the north-western part of India with the aim of generating a time series for total water storage (TWS) using different remote sensing and model-based data like GRACE, Landsat, MODIS. From the time series, it is clear-cut that, the TWS is showing a declining trend and this might be due to depletion of groundwater as, other variables like precipitation, evapotranspiration, soil moisture (obtained from MERRA-2 and CFSR data) are not showing any negative trend during the study period (2002 - 2021). Also, from the change detection analysis of land use land cover maps and crop yield statistics of water-intensive crops it can be concluded that croplands in the study area are increasing denoting the usage of water for irrigation at a large scale. Thus, better management of the groundwater is required for avoiding severe water scarcity in the future.

Planning for effective water management: an evaluation of water management plans in California

Facing pressures to contend with continual changes in physical availability, to balance water supply with environmental and social impacts, and to build resilience to environmental hazards such as droughts and climate change, water managers increasingly use management plans as a blueprint for managing water. We apply qualitative content analysis to evaluate water management plans from diverse water and land use organizations in California’s Central Valley. To understand whether plans are working toward holistic, multi-dimensional management, we assess plans’ coverage of water supply, environmental, and socioeconomic dimensions of water use, as well as the quality and implementability of the plans. The plans provide a strong assessment of water supplies and indicate progression toward integrated water resource management. However, we identify gaps in managing water for the environment, considering socioeconomic and distributional impacts, planning for future drought and climate change, and effective coordination with other water agencies and the public.

Improving the spatiotemporal resolution of remotely sensed ET information for water management through Landsat, Sentinel-2, ECOSTRESS and VIIRS data fusion

Robust information on consumptive water use (evapotranspiration, ET) derived from remote sensing can significantly benefit water decision-making in agriculture, informing irrigation schedules and water management plans over extended regions. To be of optimal utility for operational usage, these remote sensing ET data should be generated at the sub-field spatial resolution and daily-to-weekly timesteps commensurate with the scales of water management activities. However, current methods for field-scale ET retrieval based on thermal infrared (TIR) imaging, a valuable diagnostic of canopy stress and surface moisture status, are limited by the temporal revisit of available medium-resolution (100 m or finer) thermal satellite sensors. This study investigates the efficacy of a data fusion method for combining information from multiple medium-resolution sensors toward generating high spatiotemporal resolution ET products for water management. TIR data from Landsat and ECOSTRESS (both at ~ 100-m native resolution), and VIIRS (375-m native) are sharpened to a common 30-m grid using surface reflectance data from the Harmonized Landsat-Sentinel dataset. Periodic 30-m ET retrievals from these combined thermal data sources are fused with daily retrievals from unsharpened VIIRS to generate daily, 30-m ET image timeseries. The accuracy of this mapping method is tested over several irrigated cropping systems in the Central Valley of California in comparison with flux tower observations, including measurements over irrigated vineyards collected in the GRAPEX campaign. Results demonstrate the operational value added by the augmented TIR sensor suite compared to Landsat alone, in terms of capturing daily ET variability and reduced latency for real-time applications. The method also provides means for incorporating new sources of imaging from future planned thermal missions, further improving our ability to map rapid changes in crop water use at field scales.

Analysis of spatio-temporal variation of hydroclimatic variables of the Krishna river basin under future scenarios

Climate change and intensified human activities are expected to alter the natural hydrological cycle would cause changes in distribution of water resources and their availability across space and time. Therefore, the present study focused on understanding the spatiotemporal variations of hydroclimatic variables namely rainfall, surface runoff, water yield, and the Aridity Index (AI) of the Krishna River Basin (KRB) under combined impact of climate and Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) change scenarios. From trend analysis, the best model (CNRM-CM5 driven RCM) projected an increasing trend in rainfall under both RCP 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios for the entire century. Results indicated that, except for the central part, most of KRB experiences high runoff and water yield conditions under both RCP 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios in mid and end centuries, conversely it may face low runoff and water yield conditions in early century. Most of the central part is in arid and semi-arid conditions and, eastern part of the basin is in dry sub-humid conditions, while the Western Ghats, Palleru, and Munneru regions of the basin fall under humid and hyper humid regions under RCP 4.5 scenario. Whereas majority of the basin falls under humid and hyper humid regions under RCP 8.5 scenario except for the central and few other parts of the basin. In light of this, it was essential to review the current water management strategies and plan future projects to provide efficient and effective ways to mitigate the adverse impacts resulting from climate variability.

An Integrated Modelling Study on the Effects of Weir Operation Scenarios on Aquatic Habitat Changes in the Yeongsan River

The Seungchon and Juksan Weirs were constructed in 2012 through four major river projects to control floods and secure water in the Yeongsan River. However, anthropogenic changes in the environment can lead to loss of biodiversity and longitudinal connectivity and the deterioration of ecosystem health. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of physical and chemical changes in the Yeongsan River on aquatic habitats through an integrated (water quality–aquatic habitat) model (i.e., Delft3D and HABITAT). The target species used to simulate habitat suitability included Squalidus chankaensis tsuchigae (an endemic fish), Cyprinus carpio, and Micropterus salmoides (an invasive species of fish). Based on the results, maintaining the lowest water level in one of the two weirs was predicted to improve the habitat of the target species. In particular, the habitat area was greatly improved, especially when the Juksan Weir was completely opened. Furthermore, resistance to environmental changes due to habitat area changes indicates that invasive species adapt more to environmental changes than endemic species. This study suggests that physical and chemical changes in the environment can predict the impact on the health of the aquatic ecosystems, which will be useful in establishing an integrated water management plan. These results can be used as basic data for supporting water management policy, to apply an aquatic ecology prediction model suitable for the Yeongsan River system, and to present a management plan for improving the health of an aquatic ecosystem.

Changes in water demand resulting from pandemic mitigations in Southeast Michigan

AbstractThe COVID‐19 pandemic impacted many dimensions of daily life; including how and where people used water. These changes have important implications for water management and utility planning. This study quantifies regional water demand changes across 75 utilities in Southeast Michigan throughout 2020. Deviations were not uniform, with both increases and decreases noted in indoor base flow and average day demands. Effects on diurnal patterns included peak use decreasing but occurring later in the morning and lasting longer. Utility demand changes are statistically correlated to community characteristics of income, population density, job density, and daytime population as well as altered movement trends in response to shutdowns. Commuter communities and those with employment centers experienced greater demand deviations. Understanding the socio‐demographic factors behind the changes will help determine which patterns will be permanent or prevail post‐pandemic. Utilities will be able to better plan for water supplies, capital improvements, operations, and finances.

Evaluation of the Physico-Chemical and the sustainability of ground and surface water quality using statistical correlation method and Water Quality Index in Dimapur District, Nagaland

This study surveyed Dimapur District to identify the accessibility of safe drinking water and deduce the prevalence of harmful contaminants in water. 64 water samples collected from various point sources of Dimapur District were analysed. Nine parameters namely, pH, EC, TDS, DO, Fe, SO42-, TH, NO3– and PO43- were selected based on their importance in water quality to evaluate the permissibility of water sources for human consumption using Water Quality Index, Statistical Correlation and Principal Component Analysis. Understanding the water situation in the Dimapur district would lead to plans for potential urban water management in other districts of Nagaland.

Assessment of the environmental status of the water object by hydrochemical indicators

The problem of surface water is one of the key challenges of humanity. In accordance with the goals of research and analysis of the environmental status of water bodies are of great practical importance, as their condition further affects the quality of drinking water. The purpose of the work is to assess the environmental status of the water body. The originality of the obtained results is a comprehensive assessment based on the analysis of time monitoring data on the ecological status of water of the water body, taking into account the weighting factors of pollution indices. The study of the ecological state was carried out taking into account the integrated hydrochemical indicators. Microsoft Excel software was used to conduct the study. Google Maps was used to find places on maps and build the maps you needed to work. Microsoft Excel was used to perform calculations and build graphics. The ecological status of a water body is determined on the basis of pollution index calculations. The method of assessing the ecological status of surface waters by relevant categories has been improved through the use of weights. The assessment method is universal and can be used to study the ecological status of any water body. However, the selection of hydrochemical indicators took into account only the content of major pollutants, namely chlorides, sulfates, phosphates, suspended solids, petroleum products, compounds of copper and zinc violated. The obtained research results can be used in the development of water management plans and measures to improve their condition.

Multi-dimensional evaluation of water footprint and implication for crop production: A case study in Hetao Irrigation District, China

Developing water-saving agriculture must balance the interests of stakeholders in terms of economic benefits, food and ecological security objectives. The production-based water footprint (PWF), the energy-based water footprint (EWF), and the net benefits-based water footprint (NBWF) (including grey water footprint (GWF)) can be used to evaluate food and ecological security, water use efficiency, and benefits objectives. However, little attention is paid to the multi-dimensional evaluation of water consumption in agriculture. This study quantified the annual PWF, EWF, and NBWF of grain crops, cash crops, and feed crops in the Hetao Irrigation District (HID) over 1995–2017, and analyzed their spatiotemporal evolution characteristics and comparative advantages, then clarified the implications of the three types of water footprints for stakeholders in the HID for crop planning. The results showed the water use efficiency was decreasing and the benefits were increasing. The GWF deserves more attention as it contributed 35%− 40% of the total water footprint. The comparative advantages of the three water footprints revealed that the current crop distribution in the HID only favors benefits. Considering the crop distribution issues in the HID, the adjustment objectives can be determined by combining the connotations of the three types of water footprints, GWF, PWFblue-green/EWFblue-green, and NBWFblue-green, corresponding to stakeholders’ environmental and social-economic interests. This study could provide basic guidance for crop planning and agricultural water management in the HID and similar areas.

A GIS-based approach to assessing the capacity of rainwater harvesting for addressing outdoor irrigation

The increased demand for water along with limited water supply and climate change has brought about water access challenges globally. Novel and sustainable water management systems are needed for addressing the imbalance between the increasing water demand and limited water resources. Rainwater as a renewable resource presents great potential to help achieve this goal. This study focuses on an important sustainable water management strategy, rainwater harvesting (RWH), and proposes a Geographic Information System (GIS) based method to assess the capability of RWH to meet outdoor irrigation demand at the city scale. High-resolution LiDAR data and orthophotos are used to delineate RWH catchment areas and identify outdoor vegetated sites. Both active and passive RWH are considered in the rainwater supply estimation. Factors including vegetation height, species, density and microclimate variables are incorporated in the outdoor irrigation demand estimation. The approach is applied to study the capacity of RWH in Tucson, Arizona, a semi-arid water stressed city in the Southwestern United States. Results show that the outdoor irrigation in 32% of the Tucson township sections can be met by RWH for more than 8 months of a wet year. The proposed RWH system deployment can lead to an overall savings of 13.8 million U.S. dollars and provides important insights into urban water management and sustainable water planning.

Community participation in forest and water management planning in Kenya: challenges and opportunities

ABSTRACT Forest and water are linked resources that are important to community livelihoods in East Africa. Sectoral reforms in Kenya have decentralized forest and water management functions to local communities through forest and water Acts. It has been argued that problems are more likely to be understood as interconnected, and thus managed more holistically, at the local level. Through case studies on the processes of developing forest and water management plans in two Kenyan ecosystems, we explore the challenges and opportunities for resource management planning at the local level. The questions we addressed are: How is the content of the plans determined? How is gender integrated ? What are the barriers to implementation? How can content and implementation be improved to support joint forest and water management? Despite their close links, water and forest governance is separate, as sectoral approaches nationally trickle down locally. We argue that the process of developing the plans should take an integrated landscape approach. A practical way forward is to improve current processes, by ensuring local participation and generating local ownership through improved facilitation and engagement of community members, including women. This includes the integration of community participants from both spheres into both forest and water management planning.

Assessing irrigation mitigating drought impacts on crop yields with an integrated modeling framework

Irrigation is one of the major adaptation strategies to combat the negative impacts of drought on crop yields. However, during droughts, the water resources are limited and determining the exact irrigation amount and its response to crop yields are crucial. Existing crop yield simulation models are data-intensive and a majority of these are point-based. Therefore, this study presents a novel integrated modeling framework by using two parsimonious models (CROPWAT, an irrigation water requirement simulation model; and AquaCrop-GIS, a spatial crop yield simulation model) to simulate corn and soybean yields under different irrigation application rates during drought years at a spatial scale in the Mobile River Basin (MRB), Southeast U.S. To simulate crop yields for drought years, first agricultural drought years are identified using an integrated drought index called the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Soil Moisture Index (SPESMI). The results indicate that a majority of the basin was affected by mild to extreme droughts during the years 2008, 2011, 2012, 2016. The results of the integrated modeling framework illustrate the potential corn and soybean yields can be increased from 10% to 259% and 20% to 229% respectively under different irrigation water application rates (50%, 75%, and 100% of irrigation water requirement) relative to rainfed crop yields at the counties in the MRB during drought years. These findings demonstrate the importance of overall irrigation and the integrated modeling framework in devising robust irrigation water management plans in drought-affected areas at a spatial scale. Failure in integrating irrigation water requirement models in crop yield simulations will result in erroneous yield simulations, especially during droughts – this is salient given projections for frequent and intense droughts globally. Although the study is focused on MRB, the framework developed is applicable for irrigation planners and water managers in any region that experiences mild to extreme droughts, as long as the farmers have the ability to adapt the irrigation in their practice given socio-economic constraints.

INSTITUTIONAL INSTRUMENTS FOR ECO-FOCUSED WATER TRANSPORT DEVELOPMENT

Topicality. In recent years, there has been increasing pressure on the marine and riverine environment due to increasing volumes and globalization processes in international trade. This situation has the effect of increasing the negative impact on the dynamics of the natural aquatic environment quality by increasing oil spills, emissions of chemicals and other harmful substances, air pollution and the indirect impact of these processes on water resources, waste disposal, noise and radioactive load. The forecast assessment of the dynamics of the world economy shows a gradual increase in the volume of shipping due to the increase in the world's population and consumption. Enhanced use of water basins requires new innovative management initiatives with the development of tools to ensure the ecological sustainability of marine and river ecosystems, taking into account the threats and risks of their introduction to the environment. The peculiarity of protecting the marine and riverine environment from navigation is that ships do not always operate within the flag state, and the further the ship moves away from it, the less the state has the opportunity to rely on traditional sovereignty within its jurisdiction. Involvement of many stakeholders in the process of water transport, lack of full autonomy of the flag state to regulate the activities of the ship outside its jurisdiction requires the development of methodological approaches and practical measures to develop ways and methods of institutional and organizational impact on ships based on international requirements. and standards. Aim and tasks. The purpose of the article is to analyse the existing and potential institutional resources for the prevention of technogenic threats from shipping and the development of water transport on the basis of eco-focused. Research results. It has been confirmed that at the present stage of economic development transport plays a leading role, as it is an important part of industry, consumption, agriculture. Water transport is responsible for the majority of international traffic, which results in negative consequences of its work. It is known that any type of transport, including maritime, is one of the biggest polluters of the environment, but the vital needs of mankind should not be met by future generations. Solving environmental issues is a relatively new direction in the science of management, however, in recent decades many countries have joined this practice, focusing on scientific support of programs and plans against global change, which affect not only marine and river biocenoses, but also have consequences in the form of a shift in the ecosystem framework of the entire planet. The activity of water transport is slowly growing in its scale and consequences, which requires more attention from government agencies, which should join international initiatives to obtain a positive result from environmental activities and increase the authority of the state. In addition, the aquatic environment is usually the area of interest of different countries and different stakeholders, being a transboundary area, which should take into account not only the interests and needs of different countries, but also form a single legal basis for economic, environmental and recreational activities within marine and river borders. Conclusion. The paper examines and analyses the existing organizational and legislative precautionary tools to reduce technogenic pollution of the marine and river environment, investigates measures for the treatment of ballast water and developed an algorithm for their management; an analysis of possible precautionary measures against the impact of air pollution, garbage, oil and petroleum products on the quality of the aquatic environment and proposed a number of precautionary measures; conceptual provisions for the formation of a national action plan for ballast water management have been developed. Conceptual provisions for the formation of state organizational and institutional support for the treatment of ballast water by methods of preventive protection on the basis of updated management tools, economic feasibility and environmental orientation; developed scientific and applied substantiation of regulatory and coordination approaches based on economic feasibility, focused on the balanced development of aquatic ecosystems and environmental safety of navigation.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as Supporting Tools in the Monitoring and Water Management of Lakes in Poland: A Review

Abstract A multitude of spatial relations between the lake and its catchment prompts both water managers and scientists to use Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The paper presents the possibility of using GIS systems in the monitoring and management of Polish lakes, taking advantage of the dynamic development of geoinformatics. The focus is on the possibility of using GIS systems when creating documents necessary for the implementation of subsequent water management plans, as required by the Water Framework Directive. This review presents the currently existing spatial databases of Polish lakes and discusses the impact of the use of morphometric data of lakes on the process of water monitoring. Attention was paid to the problem of delimiting the catchment areas of lakes and the legal consequences of determining their boundaries. Tools used in the interpolation of limnological parameters and the models most often used in GIS software for water quality prediction are discussed.

Water reporting in mining: Are corporates losing sight of stakeholder interests?

The mining industry provides the raw materials needed for economic and social development. At the same time, it is a large user and, occasionally, polluter of shared water resources that form the foundation of healthy ecosystems and a dignified human life. Realizing a sustainable water use in mining operations requires meaningful information on mine site-water interactions that allows stakeholders to build opinions, make sustainability-oriented decisions on procurement, permitting or investment, and hold companies accountable for their water-related activities. The objective of this study is to evaluate the relevance and priorities of current corporate water disclosure in mining against the backdrop of stakeholder information requirements. Combining a content analysis of corporate water reporting of the world's ten largest mining companies and the results of a stakeholder perception survey reveals that disclosed information on tailings management as well as water-related regulations and compliance issues are well suited to satisfy stakeholder interests. In contrast, significant priority misalignment exists for many other disclosure aspects governing the interactions of mining and water resources, especially with respect to information on corporate water strategies, mine site-level management plans and water balances. Proposed reasons for this disparity include the use of standardized water reporting templates and a unilaterally focused reporting practice. However, the evaluation also reveals varying, partly opposing stakeholder perceptions implying that a water reporting practice satisfying all legitimate interests is hardly achievable. Based on these findings, we recommend increased flexibility to individualize mine site-level water reporting, expanding disclosed information on water strategies and management plans, as well as tailoring of reporting to a specific target audience in order to better align information in corporate water disclosures to stakeholder interests.

Vulnerability to Food and Nutritional Insecurity in Different Reaches of Tungabhadra Command Area of Karnataka: A Case Study

This study assessed the vulnerability to food and nutritional insecurity of farm households across multiple water regimes in the Tungabhadra command area of Karnataka by collecting data from 120 households comprising 40 respondents from head, middle and tail-end reaches. The Gini coefficients used to measure the inequality, which showed a high degree of income inequality among tail-end reach households. In head-reach regime, households experienced low vulnerability to food insecurity as they spent lesser proportion of their total expenditure on food, whereas, middle and tail-end reach farm households were more vulnerable. As land use decision is hard to change, there is a need for a comprehensive strategy and plan for irrigation water management and administration.

Plan writing as a policy tool: instrumental, conceptual, and tactical uses of water management plans in California

Numerous environmental regulations require organizations to codify prospective activities in a written plan. However, evidence suggests that many plans are never implemented, raising questions about why public agencies continually require plans, whether mandating plans allows agencies to meet their policy aims, and what additional purposes plans serve. Adopting concepts from literature on research utilization, we develop a plan use typology, defining instrumental use as occurring when the requirement to write a plan directly addresses a stated policy problem, conceptual use as occurring when the requirement to write a plan indirectly addresses a policy problem by raising awareness of an issue or improving governance capacity, and tactical use as occurring when the requirement to write a plan serves a political or symbolic purpose unrelated to solving the policy problem. We then apply the typology to four California statutes that require local and regional utilities to write water management plans. We first assess the statutes to identify the goals underlying the requirement to write a plan and assess what plan uses are emphasized in guidance documents and the written plans themselves. Lastly, we interview the plan writing organizations to capture their perspectives on the value and limitations of these plans. We find that legislators turn to plans to support instrumental and conceptual goals but that the plans themselves and the way they are used by authoring agencies primarily serve conceptual and tactical uses, suggesting a disconnect between the policy goals underlying plans and their actual use.

Spatiotemporal variability and change in rainfall in the Oti River Basin, West Africa

Abstract Understanding rainwater dispersion in a spatiotemporal context is invaluable toward resourceful water management and a food-secure society. This study, therefore, assessed the variations in rainfall at a spatiotemporal scale in the Oti River Basin of West Africa for observed (1981–2010) and future periods (2021–2050) under the representative concentration pathways (RCPs) 4.5 and 8.5 emission scenarios. Rainfall data from meteorological stations and Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) were used. The percentage changes in rainfall for the peak month as well as for rainy and dry seasons under the two climate scenarios were determined. The coefficient of variation (CV) and the standardized anomaly index (SAI) were used to assess annual variations in rainfall. In general, under both emission scenarios, rainfall is projected to decrease over the study area. However, the amount of rainfall during the peak month (August) for RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 could increase by 0.26 and 9.3%, respectively. The highest SAIs for the observed period were +1.58 (2009) and −2.29 (1983) with the latter showing a relationship with historic drought in the basin. The projected SAI under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 indicated extremely wet (+2.12) and very wet (+1.91) periods for the years 2037 and 2028, respectively. The study provides relevant information and a chance to aid the design of innovative adaptation measures toward efficient water management and agricultural planning for the basin.

Accumulated impacts of imperviousness on surface and subsurface hydrology—continuous modelling at urban street block scale

To quantify the hydrological effects of disconnected impervious area is significant for urban planning and storm water management. Most relevant studies were event-based analysis and only focused on surface runoff. The accumulated impacts of disconnected imperviousness on both surface and subsurface runoff have not been fully understood yet. In this study, a physically based model coupling surface runoff, subsurface runoff and evapotranspiration was constructed for continuous simulation of the hydrological processes in an RPA (receiving pervious area)–DIA (disconnected impervious area) system at street block scale. Five RPA types with natural clay loam, compacted clay loam, natural sandy clay loam and depressed clay loam were considered. For each RPA type, urban development scenarios with varying disconnected impervious area ratios (DIRs) were designed. The results presented that both the annual total and averaged event-based surface runoff followed a generally Power form relationship with DIR for all the RPA types, which can be satisfactorily described by a concise and meaningful formula. Disconnected impervious surface can lead to higher event-based initial soil moistures, and it is much more significant when during dry months (autumn and winter) with less potential evapotranspiration intensity than during wet months (spring and summer). This results imply the importance to take the potential increased initial soil moisture of RPA and the corresponded increased runoff generation into consideration of storm water management when imperviousness disconnection is applied. At last, with the increase of DIR, the annual total groundwater recharge had a tendency to rise first and then decrease. This proves the possibility of improving underground water resource storage or maintain the groundwater recharge to the predeveloped level in the process of urban imperviousness expanding. Since this simulation work lacks on-ground validation, further studies based on the conclusions are still needed from the perspective of measured data analysis in urban RPA-DIA system.

SmartWater: A Service-Oriented and Sensor Cloud-Based Framework for Smart Monitoring of Water Environments

Due to the sharp increase in global industrial production, as well as the over-exploitation of land and sea resources, the quality of drinking water has deteriorated considerably. Furthermore, nowadays, many water supply systems serving growing human populations suffer from shortages since many rivers, lakes, and aquifers are drying up because of global climate change. To cope with these serious threats, smart water management systems are in great demand to ensure vigorous control of the quality and quantity of drinking water. Indeed, water monitoring is essential today since it allows to ensure the real-time control of water quality indicators and the appropriate management of resources in cities to provide an adequate water supply to citizens. In this context, a novel IoT-based framework is proposed to support smart water monitoring and management. The proposed framework, named SmartWater, combines cutting-edge technologies in the field of sensor clouds, deep learning, knowledge reasoning, and data processing and analytics. First, knowledge graphs are exploited to model the water network in a semantic and multi-relational manner. Then, incremental network embedding is performed to learn rich representations of water entities, in particular the affected water zones. Finally, a decision mechanism is defined to generate a water management plan depending on the water zones’ current states. A real-world dataset has been used in this study to experimentally validate the major features of the proposed smart water monitoring framework.