Water Resources In Basin Research Articles

WATER RESOURCES MODELING UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE

Modeling of changes in water resources in the Chirchik river basin in the past, present, and futurehas been carried out. Changes in river basin flow dynamics showed an increase in the proportion of precipitation frequency change by 2030 (2020–2039), 3050 (2040–2069) and 2070 under two IPCC scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). Although there is a tendency to increase water flow in the Chirchik River basin under climate change scenarios, it was found that due to the uneven distribution of water resources in the future, the available water may not be sufficient based on the needs of water users in the basin.

Inter-basin water transfers under changing climate and land use: Assessing water security and hydropower in the Paraíba do Sul River basin, Brazil

The intensification of climate extremes and land uses poses a major challenge for water managers, especially in heavily populated basins with large reservoirs, multiple uses, and inter-basin transfers. In this study, we analyzed water security in the Paraíba do Sul River basin, responsible for supplying a significant fraction of the needs of Brazil's two largest metropolitan areas through water transfer. Unless existent studies emphasize aspects of water scarcity disregarding other competitive water use, we considered the impacts on hydropower generation in a fully integrated modeling framework, which includes reservoir operation rules. To achieve this, we integrated future projections of land uses, global climate change (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5), and water demand for the period 2016–2055. Most of the climate change scenarios suggested a reduction in the frequency of both high and low flows, by nearly 25%, which resulted in an increase in flow regularization in the main basin's reservoirs. An undesirable consequence of those trends was the reduction of hydropower generation. Regarding water supply to the metropolis outside the basin, results indicated a possibility of a more contentious water governance scenario. The long-term sustainability of the basin's water resources will require implementing policies to enhance water use efficiency and reuse, in combination with other renewable energy sources.

Evaluating Future Streamflow Patterns under SSP245 Scenarios: Insights from CMIP6

The potential impacts of climate change on water resources in the Upper Indus Basin of Pakistan, a region heavily reliant on these resources for irrigated agriculture. We employ state-of-the-art global climate models from the CMIP6 project under the SSP245 scenario to evaluate changes in river runoff using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). Our findings indicate that temperature fluctuations play a crucial role in streamflow dynamics, given that the primary sources of river runoff in the Upper Indus Basin are snow and glacier melting. We project a substantial increase of approximately 18% in both minimum and maximum temperatures, precipitation pattern increases of 13–17%, and a significant rise in streamflow by 19–30% in the future, driven by warmer temperatures. Importantly, our analysis reveals season-specific impacts of temperature, precipitation, and streamflow, with increasing variability in projected annual changes as we progress into the mid and late 21st century. To address these changes, our findings suggest the need for integrated strategies and action plans encompassing hydroelectricity generation, irrigation, flood prevention, and reservoir storage to ensure effective water resource management in the region.

Geospatial Analysis for Tectonic Assessment and Soil Erosion Prioritization: A Case Study of Wadi Al-Lith, Red Sea Coast, Saudi Arabia

An investigation into tectonics and erosion reveals that they play an important role in causing uplifting, valley incision, and soil erosion. The analysis of drainage basins at different scales is irreplaceable in the development of sustainable plans, particularly in arid regions. Morphotectonics and morphometric characterization analyses are very effective methods for defining the evolution of different landforms, current-day tectonic activity, and hydrological and morphological signatures of basins under investigation. The reorganization of critical drainage basins and sub-basin risk priority ranking are essential for effective and accurate sustainable plans for drainage basin management and water resources. In this study, the coupling of geospatial techniques and statistical strategies was used to examine the tectonic activity and priorities in terms of soil erosion for 15 sub-basins of Wadi Al-Lith along the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia. Two effective models, namely, the relative tectonic activity model and the weighted sum analysis model, were applied for examining each geomorphological and hydrological characteristic based on an analysis of the morphotectonics and morphometric parameters. Regarding the relative tectonic activity model, the 15 sub-basins were classified into three classes of tectonic activity: low, moderate, and high. Sub-basins 5, 6, 13, and 15 were considered to be in class 1 (high relative tectonic activity). On the other hand, the weighted sum analysis model assigned the sub-basins into three different ranks: low-, moderate-, and high-soil-erosion priorities. The current study’s results suggest that sub-basins 5, 6, 10, 13, and 15 were recorded within the high-soil-erosion zone and highly relative tectonic activity, covering approximately 53.52% of the total sub-basin areas. The relative tectonic activity and weighted sum analysis models proved their validity in the risk studies, which will be very useful for decision makers in various fields, including natural resources and agriculture.

The hydrological regime of Taihu Lake under the influence of anthropogenic activities

Study regionThe Taihu Lake is located at the downstream of the Yangtze River, China, which serves various functions such as regional flood control, drought resistance, and drinking water for many vital cities in China such as Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou. Since 1950 s, Taihu Lake has experienced three stages of anthropogenic management. Due to these managements, the natural hydrologic properties of Taihu Lake are gradually disappearing, and the Taihu Lake tends to become an artificially controlled lake. Study focusTo understand how anthropogenic activities have impacted the hydrological regime of Taihu Lake at different stages, this study has analyzed daily average water level of Taihu Lake for 70 years and daily average precipitation data of the Taihu Lake Basin for 60 years. And finally it reveals the natural and anthropogenic effects on trend, amplitude, period and extreme water level of Taihu Lake. New hydrological insights for the regionThe multi-year average water level of Taihu Lake witnesses an increment of 0.23 m, and the contribution from anthropogenic activities account for 34.78%. The maximum decrements of frequency of extreme high and low water level drops by 29.55% and 7.69% recently due to anthropogenic activities. The anthropogenic activities on the hydrological regime in Taihu Lake has become increasingly pronounced, and these hydrological changes are beneficial for basin flood control and water resources.

Spatiotemporal Variability in the Hydrological Regimes and Water Resources of the Ouham River Basin at Batangafo, Central African Republic

This paper examines the effect of rainfall decline on water resources in each sub-basin (Bozoum: 8100 km2 and Bossangoa: 22,800 km2) and at the outlet of Batangafo (43,650 km2) over the 1951–1995 period, due to a lack of measurements since 1996. Annual, monthly, and daily series of rainfall and discharges were subjected to statistical tests (rainfall and flow indices, SPI, search for ruptures/breaks, depletion coefficient, and potential groundwater discharge) to present and discuss the rainfall variability impact on the water resources of the whole basin. The average rainfall per sub-basin decreases from the west to the east according to the Ouham river direction: 1423 mm at Bozoum, 1439 mm at Bossangoa, and 1393 mm at Batangafo, the main outlet. The SPI approach provides evidence of a moderate to normal drought in the whole basin in the 1980s, mainly compared to the 1970s. Thus, deficient breaks in the rainfall series of the Ouham Basin at Batangafo were noticed in 1967 (Bossangoa and Batangafo) and 1969 (Bozoum). A declining rainfall of −5% on average tended to have the highest impact on the runoff deficit, from about −30 to −43%. The deficit seems more important from west to east, and is also high over the groundwater in each outlet (−33% at Bozoum, −29% at Bossangoa, and −31% at Batangafo) in the 1986–1995 period, despite rainfall recovery in 1991 having generated a flow increase in 1995 at Bossangoa as well as at Batangafo. At the same time, Chari/Logone at Ndjamena recorded critical discharges in both 1987 (313 m3/s) and 1990 (390 m3/s) before they increased, such as on the Ouham. These results demonstrate the decline in water resources in the Ouham River, and their direct impact on the water level of the Chari River and Lake Chad in the targeted period.

Integrated framework for hydrologic modelling in data-sparse watersheds and climate change impact on projected green and blue water sustainability

Climate and hydrologic hazards pose a threat to the distribution of watersheds’ water resources in time and space, necessitating planning for sustainable resilience and adaptation. Hydrologic modelling has emerged as a potential solution for understanding watershed responses to projected climate change, and a prediction model that can deliver actionable information is necessary, although it requires basin-scale observations to calibrate the model to reliably predict basin-scale water resources hazards. Such luxury is not always tenable in watersheds with inadequate ground-based observation. However, satellite-based evapotranspiration (ET) data coupled with a machine learning feature selection as a data refinement process has made integrated water balance modelling widely regarded as a viable alternative for improving the capability of watershed modelling processes in data-sparse regions. This study developed a convincing hydrologic model framework to sufficiently calibrate and provide accurate behavioural solutions for all model responses. The framework was applied to four sub-basins that form the larger Lake Chad basin. The model results were applied to assess the dynamic changes in projected blue and green water resource sustainability in response to climate change in one of the sub-basins. Study findings indicate that hydrologic fluxes can be simulated accurately with varying degrees of acceptability, with R2 and NSE values in the range of 0.69–0.88 and 0.45–0.77 for calibration and 0.69–0.79 and 0.34–0.63 for validation, respectively, and captured within a satisfactory uncertainty range of P-factor and R-factor values of 0.68–0.93 and 0.73–1.31, respectively, in 83%, 67%, 85.7%, and 81.3% of the sub-watersheds based on multi-site simulation despite distinct watershed morphology, although there are significant trade-offs in parameter sensitivity. Whilst green water is the dominant freshwater component across the basin relative to blue water, climate change may be a significant factor influencing changes in the projected green water sustainability status, and the combination of socioeconomic drivers and climate change may significantly impact the projected blue water sustainability status across the basin. Projected changes in the green and blue water sustainability status have shown that more than 50% of the watershed will become ecologically fragile. In addition, the identified freshwater geographic sustainability hotspots may be beyond restoration without adequate long-term river basin water resource plans.

Application of the DPSIR approach to identify pressures on water resources in the Drina river basin

As the global population grows, we are witnessing rapid urbanization and the development of industry and agriculture. Novel, largely toxic substances are being used in agriculture to improve yields. All of this has led to the generation of large amounts of pollutants that need to be disposed of and treated. Irresponsible behavior and discharges into nature and river channels not clearly defined by law or sanctioned, certainly have an environmental impact. The Drina River Basin occupies parts of the territories of four countries. It is one of the most important drainage areas in the West Balkans. It calls for international cooperation in many areas, such as public water supply, irrigation, hydropower generation, and the like. However, in order to achieve such cooperation, all the countries that “steward” the resource need to commit to water quality conservation and protection. The DPSIR approach proposed by the Water Framework Directive of the European Union is followed to identify major pressures (pollution sources) in the Serbian part of the Drina River Basin. The pressures are grouped into several categories and described in detail.

Evaluation of Subseasonal Precipitation Simulations for the Sao Francisco River Basin, Brazil

Water conflicts have been a significant issue in Brazil, especially in the Sao Francisco River basin. Subseasonal forecasts, up to a 60-day forecast range, can provide information to support decision-makers in managing water resources in the river basin, especially before drought events. This report aims to evaluate 5-year mean subseasonal simulations generated by the Eta regional model for the period from 2011 to 2016 and assess the usefulness of this information to support decision-making in water resource conflicts in the Sao Francisco River basin. The capability of the Eta model to reproduce the drought events that occurred between the years 2011 and 2016 was compared against the Climate Prediction Center Morphing (CMORPH) precipitation data. Two sets of 60-day simulations were produced: one started in September (SO) and the other in January (JF) of each year. These months were chosen to evaluate the model’s capability to reproduce the onset and the middle of the rainy seasons in central Brazil, where the upper Sao Francisco River is located. The SO simulations reproduced the observed spatial distribution of precipitation but underestimated the amounts. Precipitation errors exhibited large variability across the subbasins. The JF simulations also reproduced the observed precipitation distribution but overestimated it in the upper and lower subbasins. The JF simulations better captured the interannual variability in precipitation. The 60-day simulations were discretized into six 10-day accumulations to assess the intramonthly variability. They showed that the simulations captured the onset of the rainy season and the small periods of rainy months that occurred in these severe drought years. This research is a critical step to indicate subbasins where the model simulation needs to be improved and provide initial information to support water allocation in the region.

A lighthouse to enhance the quality of life in the Nile River basin

AbstractThe future of large rivers is related to regional cooperation programs for the sustainable development of water and related resources in great river basins. The objective of this article is to present how roadmaps can be utilized for both building up sustainable development for the Nile River, and supporting the integration of national and regional development strategies in Egypt and other Nile basin countries. The strategic objective is to highlight a wide range of sustainable freshwater pathways for an inclusive, peaceful, and sustainable future for all. In particular, it focuses on generating innovative water solutions, actions, and practices that enhance water exploitation in large river basins, transboundary shared rivers, and other transboundary shared water resources. The roadmapping approach is adopted and developed widely in the science, technology, and innovation community. The paper concentrates on roadmapping as an important tool that promotes sound planning of sustainability of large rivers, and in particular, transboundary shared rivers. The roadmap analyzes the benefits of planning shared water cooperation that extends to ecological, economic, and political features, and also beyond the river for the benefit of all, and identifies at an early stage the actions needed to manage the associated technology and environmental risk. The roadmap includes the key water resources governance characteristics, geographical scope, climate change (CC), and its impact, member states, organizational structure, decision-making, data information sharing, monitoring, the role of multiple stakeholders, financing, legal basis, dispute resolution, and benefit sharing. Therefore, a roadmap for the Nile River can help raise productivity and support faster growth, if considered as a lighthouse for national development strategies. Roadmap for the Nile River proposes windows of opportunity and is a vital milestone for cooperation, peace, stability, joint investment, and prosperity. With possible benefits exceeding those derived from the river itself, a roadmap for the Nile River can catalyze strengthened cooperation and greater regional ecological, economic, social, and political integration. The paper concludes that the roadmap for the Nile River sustainability (NRS) is a promising model for assuring the sustainability of transboundary shared large rivers.

A framework of payments for water-related ecosystem services (PWES) based on green water management

Green water describes precipitation that infiltrates into the unsaturated soil layer and returns to the atmosphere via plant transpiration and soil evaporation, which are two functions of the hydrological cycle. Green water provides the basis for timber growth, crop production, and ecosystem services. However, it has not been adequately accounted for in traditional payments for water-related ecosystem services (PWES), which predominantly consider on blue water and hence underestimate the availability of all water resources. In this study, a new framework of payments for green water-related ecosystem services (PGWES) is proposed based on green water management (GWM) and green water compensation (GWC). This framework is constructed with game theory modelling, hydrological simulation and scenario evaluation. Then, the Xiangjiang River Basin (XRB) is used as a case study to test and evaluate the feasibility of the framework. The results of this study are as follows: (a) the framework of PGWES and its game payoff matrix and optimal payoff function are improved by adding the GWM scenarios. This approach can identify the GWC standard and Pareto optimal solution in different GWM scenarios, thereby optimizing the spatial allocation of blue and green water in the river basin and coordinating conflicts of interest between the upstream and downstream. (b) The average Pareto optimal payoffs of the XRB are increased by 4390 million CNY/year under different GWM and GWC scenarios compared to the baseline scenario, and the average GWC standard is 2.41 CNY/m3 or 1305.98 CNY/hm2. The case study indicates that the socioeconomic and ecological benefits for the whole XRB are expected to significantly improve under this framework. (c) Three aspects of managing water resources and conflict of interest issues noted during the study include “broadening water sources”, “saving water resources” and “coordinating water conflict”. Green water resources are an important component in broadening water sources; green water management provides a basic measurement tool for saving water resources; and green water compensation based on game theory offers a possible way to coordinate water conflicts and should be given more attention. In general, the PGWES framework provides a referenced methodology for the efficient development and equitable allocation of blue and green water resources in the river basin; furthermore, this study provides a scientific basis for the theory and methods of PWES, thus enriching this field of research.

Estimation of Runoff by SWAT Model in Noyyal River Basin

Accurate assessment of water balance components holds paramount importance for the sustainable management of water resources in river basins. This study specifically concentrates on the application of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model to evaluate water balance elements within the Noyyal River basin, a tributary of the Kaveri River originating from the Vellingiri hills in Western Tamil Nadu grapples with escalating water stress brought about by both anthropogenic activities and climatic fluctuations.
 The methodology adopted encompasses the harmonious integration of diverse spatial and temporal datasets. These datasets are seamlessly incorporated within the confines of a Geographic Information System (GIS) framework. Through the process of watershed delineation 21 sub-basin was partitioned and which is further subdivided into 217 unique Hydrological Response Units (HRUs) are derived, each corresponding to a distinct hydrological reaction. The simulation employs 33 years of daily precipitation, coupled with minimum and maximum temperature records, enabling the continuous execution of the SWAT model for runoff prediction. The findings elucidate fluctuating runoff volumes over time, spanning from a minimum of 11.17 mm to a maximum of 610.32 mm. Notably, the annual average runoff stands at 206.7 mm, representing approximately 25.6% of the cumulative rainfall experienced within the Noyyal river basin.

The Relationship between Water Resources Use Efficiency and Scientific and Technological Innovation Level: Case Study of Yangtze River Basin in China

The Yangtze River Basin's water resource utilization efficiency (WUE) and scientific and technological innovation level (STI) are closely connected, and the comprehension of these relationships will help to improve WUE and promote local economic growth and conservation of water. This study uses 19 provinces and regions along the Yangtze River's mainstream from 2009 to 2019 as its research objects and uses a Vector Auto Regression (VAR) model to quantitatively evaluate the spatiotemporal evolution of the coupling coordination degree (CCD) between the two subsystems of WUE and STI. The findings show that: (1) Both the WUE and STI in the Yangtze River Basin showed an upward trend during the study period, but the STI effectively lagged behind the WUE; (2) The CCD of the two subsystems generally showed an upward trend, and the CCD of each province was improved to varying degrees, but the majority of regions did not develop a high-quality coordination stage; (3) The CCD of the two systems displayed apparent positive spatial autocorrelation in the spatial correlation pattern, and there were only two types: high-high (H-H) urbanization areas and low-low (L-L) urbanization areas; (4) The STI showed no obvious response to the impact of the WUE, while the WUE responded greatly to the STI, and both of them were highly dependent on themselves. Optimizing their interaction mechanisms should be the primary focus of high-quality development in the basin of the Yangtze River in the future. These results give the government an empirical basis to enhance the WUE and promote regional sustainable development.

A method of water resources accounting based on deep clustering and attention mechanism under the background of integration of public health data and environmental economy.

Water resource accounting constitutes a fundamental approach for implementing sophisticated management of basin water resources. The quality of water plays a pivotal role in determining the liabilities associated with these resources. Evaluating the quality of water facilitates the computation of water resource liabilities during the accounting process. Traditional accounting methods rely on manual sorting and data analysis, which necessitate significant human effort. In order to address this issue, we leverage the remarkable feature extraction capabilities of convolutional operations to construct neural networks. Moreover, we introduce the self-attention mechanism module to propose an unsupervised deep clustering method. This method offers assistance in accounting tasks by automatically classifying the debt levels of water resources in distinct regions, thereby facilitating comprehensive water resource accounting. The methodology presented in this article underwent verification using three datasets: the United States Postal Service (USPS), Heterogeneity Human Activity Recognition (HHAR), and Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The evaluation of Accuracy rate (ACC), Normalized Mutual Information (NMI), and Adjusted Rand Index (ARI) metrics yielded favorable results, surpassing those of K-means clustering, hierarchical clustering, and Density-based constraint extension (DCE). Specifically, the mean values of the evaluation metrics across the three datasets were 0.8474, 0.7582, and 0.7295, respectively.

Study of the presence and environmental risk of organic contaminants policed by the European Union and other organic compounds in the water resources of a region overlapping protected areas: The Guadiaro River basin (southern Spain)

The study presented here is a first qualitative assessment of the occurrence of organic contaminants contemplated and not yet contemplated in European Union environmental legislation in water resources in the little anthropized Guadiaro River basin (70% of its area is covered by natural vegetation), in southern Spain. Water samples were collected from four carbonate aquifers, two detrital aquifers and four surface water courses and were analyzed for (i) 171 organic contaminants, (ii) major ions and (iii) stable isotopes (δ18OH2O, δ2HH2O, δ13CDIC). An environmental risk assessment was conducted through calculation of risk quotients comparing measured concentrations with ecotoxicological data found in the literature. Twenty-five organic contaminants were detected, at least once, including pesticides, pharmaceuticals, drugs of abuse and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Cocaine and its main metabolite were detected in 85% and 95% of water samples, respectively (0.001–0.18 μg/L and 0.004–0.6 μg/L, respectively). Pyrene (PAH) was found in all water samples (0.001–0.015 μg/L) and forest fires were pointed out as a potential diffuse source. Relationship between rivers and aquifers is reflected by the distribution of organic contaminants, essentially the drugs of abuse. Concentration of contaminants were generally higher in groundwater samples, especially from detrital aquifers, potentially due to an accumulation process promoted by irrigation-return flows and by its slow dynamic compared to that of karstic systems. Pyrene concentration was also higher in some springs from karstic aquifers. Hence, calculated risk quotients were in general higher in groundwater, meaning that the threat to surface aquatic systems can grow as aquifers increase their influence on the water courses as the dry season progresses. The relationship between δ13CDIC and most organic contaminants (especially pyrene) reveal the role of the soil as storage media.

Temporal and Spatial Analysis of Water Resources under the Influence of Coal Mining: A Case Study of Yangquan Basin, China

The activities of coal mining often lead to the formation of underlying runoff areas and have great impacts on both the basin hydrological cycle and water resource management. In order to investigate the changes in the hydrological processes of the coal goaf catchment, this paper analyzes and explores the coal mining influences on the hydrological processes in a small watershed in the Yangquan Basin of China. To disentangle the mining process, a distributed hydrological model, which highlighted the integration of sub-hydrological processes, was developed and implemented in the study area. The calibration and validation results indicated that the developed model simulated streamflow well. This was indicated by the Nash–Sutcliffe model efficiency (NS) and the Coefficient of Correlation (r2) for monthly runoff. The model was first calibrated in the period of 1990–2004 and then validated in the period of 2005–2018. Different scenarios were simulated and cross-compared in order to study the mining effects; the rainfall and runoff of each hydrological station are positively correlated in 2009–2018, and the scenario of change in mining area is negatively correlated with runoff in 2009–2018. The contribution of the changing input variables (rainfall and coal mining area) to the runoff of the Yangquan Basin was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively; the impact contribution rates of mining activities are 85.96% and 39.34% during the mining and recovery periods in Yangquan station, respectively. The hydrological simulations provided a better understanding of runoff changes in the Yangquan Basin. The analysis results indicate that the hydrologic response to the mining process in Yangquan Basin is changing, and it thus draws attention to other mining places over the world. Methods used in this study can be applied in other regions to orientate the policy-making process.

Comparison of Machine Learning Models to Predict Lake Area in an Arid Area

Machine learning (ML)-based models are popular for complex physical system simulation and prediction. Lake is the important indicator in arid and semi-arid areas, and to achieve the proper management of the water resources in a lake basin, it is crucial to estimate and predict the lake dynamics, based on hydro-meteorological variations and anthropogenic disturbances. This task is particularly challenging in arid and semi-arid regions, where water scarcity poses a significant threat to human life. In this study, a typical arid area of China was selected as the study area, and the performances of eight widely used ML models (i.e., Bayesian Ridge (BR), K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Gradient Boosting Decision Tree (GBDT), Extra Trees (ET), Random Forest (RF), Adaptive Boosting (AB), Bootstrap aggregating (Bagging), eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGB)) were evaluated in predicting lake area. Monthly lake area was determined by meteorological (precipitation, air temperature, Standardised Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI)) and anthropogenic factors (ETc, NDVI, LUCC). Lake area determined by Landsat satellite image classification for 2000–2020 was analysed side-by-side with the Standardised Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) on 9 and 12-month time scales. With the evaluation of six input variables and eight ML algorithms, it was found that the RF models performed best when using the SPEI-9 index, with R2 = 0.88, RMSE = 1.37, LCCC = 0.95, and PRD = 1331.4 for the test samples. Furthermore, the performance of the ML model constructed with the 9-month time scale SPEI (SPEI-9) as an input variable (MLSPEI-9) depended on seasonal variations, with the average relative errors of up to 0.62 in spring and a minimum of 0.12 in summer. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of different ML models for predicting lake area by demonstrating that the right inputs can lead to a remarkable increase in performance of up to 13.89%. These findings have important implications for future research on lake area prediction in arid zones and demonstrate the power of ML models in advancing scientific understanding of complex natural systems.

Predictive simulation and optimal allocation of surface water resources in reservoir basins under climate change

Predicting and allocating surface water resources are becoming increasingly important tasks for addressing the risk of water shortages and challenges of climate change, especially in reservoir basins. However, surface water resource management includes many systematic uncertainties and complexities that are difficult to address. Thus, advanced models must be developed to support predictive simulations and optimal allocations of surface water resources, which are urgently required to ensure regional water supply security and sustainable socioeconomic development. In this study, a soil and water assessment tool-based interval linear multi-objective programming (SWAT-ILMP) model was developed and integrated with climate change scenarios, SWAT, interval parameter programming, and multi-objective programming. The developed model was applied to the Xinfengjiang Reservoir basin in South China and was able to identify optimal allocation schemes for water resources under different climate change scenarios. In the forecast year 2025, the optimal water quantity for power generation would be the highest and account for ∼60% of all water resources, the optimal water quantity for water supply would account for ∼35%, while the optimal surplus water released from the reservoir would be the lowest at ≤5%. In addition, climate change and reservoir initial storage would greatly affect the surplus water quantity but not the power generation or water supply quantity. In general, the SWAT-ILMP model is applicable and effective for water resource prediction and management systems. The results from different scenarios can provide multiple alternatives to support rational water resource allocation in the study area.

Study on the Spatial and Temporal Distribution of the High–Quality Development of Urbanization and Water Resource Coupling in the Yellow River Basin

China is facing a critical period of high–speed development and a transition to high–quality development. The purpose of this study is to investigate the spatial and temporal distribution of the coupling and coordination of high–quality development of urbanization and water resources in the Yellow River Basin (YRB). Firstly, we propose the concept of “High–Quality Development of Urbanization–Water Resources Coupling” and construct a high–quality development of urbanization (HQDU) system consisting of five sub–systems: innovation, coordination, greenness, openness and sharing, and a water resources system (WRS) consisting of four sub–systems: water resources background conditions, utilization capacity, management level, and pollution control. The improved coupling coordination degree model combined with the barrier degree model and clustering model is used to study the spatial and temporal distribution of the two systems in the YRB. The results show that the coupling coordination state of HQDU and WRS in the YRB improves to some extent, from “mild imbalance” to “barely coordination” in general; Henan and Ningxia are characterized by “low and fluctuating (levels) in early years and fast development in recent years”; Shanxi and Inner Mongolia develop steadily during the study period; Sichuan, Shandong, Shaanxi, and Qinghai are characterized by “low (levels) which lasted for a long time in the early stage and accelerated development in the later stage”; and Gansu Province is characterized by “high level in the early stage but insufficient momentum in later stage”. The Coordination Index of Urbanization Economic Growth Speed and the Total Wastewater Discharge are the most important obstacle factors in HQDU and WRS. This study explores the level of coordination development of HQDU and WRS as well as finds the obstacle factors in the development process of the two systems, which is an important reference value for the high–quality development of urbanization under the constraint of water resources.

The Post-1990s Hydro- Diplomacy in Eastern Nile Basin Towards Changing the Power Asymmetry


 
 
 There have been diplomatic tensions and instances of threatening and concerned rhetoric between the countries of the Nile, especially between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. This paper examined the post 1990 water diplomacy in eastern Nile River basin. For a long period of time in eastern Nile basin Egypt used to contain and influence the behavior of Sudan and other Nile River riparian states, particularly over issues pertaining to the utilization of the Nile’s waters. This paper argues the post 1990 multi-lateral water diplomacy especially NBI reduce the established power asymmetries, while contributing to the "sustainable socio-economic development of all riparian’s through the equitable utilization of, and benefit from, the common Nile basin water resources. On the other hand, following NBI, Ethiopia shifted from ‘silent partner’ to ‘bargaining power’ so that it involved through a successive water deal among the nine countries. Consequently, in 2009, the discussions among the Nile riparian are on establishing a cooperative framework agreement reached and the constructions of Ethiopia Grand Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile near the Ethiopian– Sudanese border transforming Ethiopia from “silent partner” to “influential partner and it is considered as a historic event not only for Ethiopia but also for the members of NBI’s. Drawing from lesson this article suggested that the Egyptians stand might not be consistence and the discussions and negation of Ethiopia on GERD project increasingly signaled a more flexible position on cooperating with the upstream states.