Compounding Impacts of Human-Induced Water Stress and Climate Change on Water Availability.

PubMed

Mehran, Ali; AghaKouchak, Amir; Nakhjiri, Navid; Stewardson, Michael J; Peel, Murray C; Phillips, Thomas J; Wada, Yoshihide; Ravalico, Jakin K

2017-07-24

The terrestrial phase of the water cycle can be seriously impacted by water management and human water use behavior (e.g., reservoir operation, and irrigation withdrawals). Here we outline a method for assessing water availability in a changing climate, while explicitly considering anthropogenic water demand scenarios and water supply infrastructure designed to cope with climatic extremes. The framework brings a top-down and bottom-up approach to provide localized water assessment based on local water supply infrastructure and projected water demands. When our framework is applied to southeastern Australia we find that, for some combinations of climatic change and water demand, the region could experience water stress similar or worse than the epic Millennium Drought. We show considering only the influence of future climate on water supply, and neglecting future changes in water demand and water storage augmentation might lead to opposing perspectives on future water availability. While human water use can significantly exacerbate climate change impacts on water availability, if managed well, it allows societies to react and adapt to a changing climate. The methodology we present offers a unique avenue for linking climatic and hydrologic processes to water resource supply and demand management and other human interactions.

Compounding Impacts of Human-Induced Water Stress and Climate Change on Water Availability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mehran, Ali; AghaKouchak, Amir; Nakhjiri, Navid; Stewardson, Michael J.; Peel, Murray C.; Phillips, Thomas J.; Wada, Yoshihide; Ravalico, Jakin K.

2017-01-01

The terrestrial phase of the water cycle can be seriously impacted by water management and human water use behavior (e.g., reservoir operation, and irrigation withdrawals). Here we outline a method for assessing water availability in a changing climate, while explicitly considering anthropogenic water demand scenarios and water supply infrastructure designed to cope with climatic extremes. The framework brings a top-down and bottom-up approach to provide localized water assessment based on local water supply infrastructure and projected water demands. When our framework is applied to southeastern Australia we find that, for some combinations of climatic change and water demand, the region could experience water stress similar or worse than the epic Millennium Drought. We show considering only the influence of future climate on water supply, and neglecting future changes in water demand and water storage augmentation might lead to opposing perspectives on future water availability. While human water use can significantly exacerbate climate change impacts on water availability, if managed well, it allows societies to react and adapt to a changing climate. The methodology we present offers a unique avenue for linking climatic and hydrologic processes to water resource supply and demand management and other human interactions.

Assessment of water availability and its relationship with vegetation distribution over a tropical montane system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Streher, A. S.; Sobreiro, J. F. F.; Silva, T. S. F.

2017-12-01

Water availability is one of the main drivers of vegetation distribution, but assessing it over mountainous regions is difficult given the effects of rugged topography on hydroclimatic dynamics (orographic rainfall, soil water, and runoff). We assessed how water availability may influence the distribution of vegetation types in the Espinhaço Range, a South American tropical mountain landscape comprised of savannas, grasslands, rock outcrops, cloud forests, and semi-deciduous/deciduous forests. For precipitation, we used CHIRPS monthly and daily products (1981- 2016) and 112 rain gauge ground stations, and assessed potential evapotranspiration (PET) using the MODIS MOD16A3 (2000-2013) product. Vegetation types were classified according to the Global Ecoregions by WWF. We show that rainfall has well-defined rainy and dry seasons with a strong latitudinal pattern, there is evidence for local orographic effects. Dry forests (907 mm/yr; 8% cv) and caatinga vegetation (795 mm/yr; 7% cv) had the lowest average annual precipitation and low variance, whilst Atlantic tropical forest in the southeast (1267 mm/yr; 15% cv), cerrado savanna vegetation in the west (1086 mm/yr; 15% cv) and rupestrian grasslands above 800m (1261 mm/yr; 20% cv) received the highest annual precipitation, with the largest observed variance due to their wide latitudinal distribution. Forests and rupestrian grasslands in the windward side of the mountain had a higher frequency of intense rainfall events (> 20mm), accounting for 6% of the CHIRPS daily time series, suggesting orographic effects on precipitation. Annual average PET was highest for dry forests (2437 mm/yr) and caatinga (2461 mm/yr), intermediate for cerrado (2264 mm/yr) and lowest for Atlantic tropical forest (2083 mm/yr) and rupestrian grasslands (2136 mm/yr). All vegetation types received less rainfall than its PET capacity based on yearly data, emphasizing the need for ecophysiological adaptations to water use. Climate change threatens

Compounding Impacts of Human-Induced Water Stress and Climate Change on Water Availability

DOE PAGES

Mehran, Ali; AghaKouchak, Amir; Nakhjiri, Navid; ...

2017-07-24

The terrestrial phase of the water cycle can be seriously impacted by water management and human water use behavior (e.g., reservoir operation, and irrigation withdrawals). Here we outline a method for assessing water availability in a changing climate, while explicitly considering anthropogenic water demand scenarios and water supply infrastructure designed to cope with climatic extremes. The framework brings a top-down and bottom-up approach to provide localized water assessment based on local water supply infrastructure and projected water demands. When our framework is applied to southeastern Australia we find that, for some combinations of climatic change and water demand, the regionmore » could experience water stress similar or worse than the epic Millennium Drought. We show considering only the influence of future climate on water supply, and neglecting future changes in water demand and water storage augmentation might lead to opposing perspectives on future water availability. While human water use can significantly exacerbate climate change impacts on water availability, if managed well, it allows societies to react and adapt to a changing climate. The methodology we present offers a unique avenue for linking climatic and hydrologic processes to water resource supply and demand management and other human interactions.« less

Compounding Impacts of Human-Induced Water Stress and Climate Change on Water Availability

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mehran, Ali; AghaKouchak, Amir; Nakhjiri, Navid

The terrestrial phase of the water cycle can be seriously impacted by water management and human water use behavior (e.g., reservoir operation, and irrigation withdrawals). Here we outline a method for assessing water availability in a changing climate, while explicitly considering anthropogenic water demand scenarios and water supply infrastructure designed to cope with climatic extremes. The framework brings a top-down and bottom-up approach to provide localized water assessment based on local water supply infrastructure and projected water demands. When our framework is applied to southeastern Australia we find that, for some combinations of climatic change and water demand, the regionmore » could experience water stress similar or worse than the epic Millennium Drought. We show considering only the influence of future climate on water supply, and neglecting future changes in water demand and water storage augmentation might lead to opposing perspectives on future water availability. While human water use can significantly exacerbate climate change impacts on water availability, if managed well, it allows societies to react and adapt to a changing climate. The methodology we present offers a unique avenue for linking climatic and hydrologic processes to water resource supply and demand management and other human interactions.« less

Assessing surface water availability considering human water use and projected climate variability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ashraf, Batool; AghaKouchak, Amir; Mousavi-Baygi, Mohammd; Moftakhari, Hamed; Anjileli, Hassan

2017-04-01

Climate variability along with anthropogenic activities alter the hydrological cycle and local water availability. The overarching goal of this presentation is to demonstrate the compounding interactions between human water use/withdrawals and climate change and variability. We focus on Karkheh River basin and Urmia basin, in western Iran, that have high level of human activity and water use, and suffer from low water productivity. The future of these basins and their growth relies on sustainable water resources and hence, requires a holistic, basin-wide management to cope with water scarcity challenges. In this study, we investigate changes in the hydrology of the basin including human-induced alterations of the system, during the past three decades. Then, we investigate the individual and combined effects of climate variability and human water withdrawals on surface water storage in the 21st century. We use bias-corrected historical simulations and future projections from ensemble mean of eleven General Circulation Models (GCMs) under two climate change scenarios RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. The results show that, hydrology of the studied basins are significantly dominated by human activities over the baseline period (1976 - 2005). Results show that the increased anthropogenic water demand resulting from substantial socio-economic growth in the past three decades have put significant stress on water resources. We evaluate a number of future water demand scenarios and their interactions with future climate projections. Our results show that by the end of the 21st century, the compounding effects of increased irrigation water demand and precipitation variability may lead to severe local water scarcity in these basins. Our study highlights the necessity for understanding and considering the compounding effects of human water use and future climate projections. Such studies would be useful for improving water management and developing adaption plans in water scarce regions.

Large Scale Evapotranspiration Estimates: An Important Component in Regional Water Balances to Assess Water Availability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garatuza-Payan, J.; Yepez, E. A.; Watts, C.; Rodriguez, J. C.; Valdez-Torres, L. C.; Robles-Morua, A.

2013-05-01

used in a "kind of" crop factor manner for all vegetation types (including agricultural fields). Finally, the model uses air temperature and humidity, both extracted from the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) database. ET estimates were then compared to ground truth data from four sites where long-term Eddy Covariance (EC) measurements of ET were conducted. This approach was developed and applied in Northern Mexico. Emphasis was placed on trying to minimize the large uncertainties that still remained on the temporal evolution and the spatial repartition of ET. Results show good agreement with ground data (with r2 greater than 0.7 on daily ET estimates) from the four sites evaluated using different vegetation types hence reducing the spatial uncertainties. Estimates of total annual ET were used in a water balance, assessing ground water availability for eleven aquifers in the state of Chihuahua. Annual ET in a four-year analysis period, ranged from 200 to 280 mm/year, representing 63 to 83 % of total annual precipitation, which reflects the importance of this component in the water balance. A GIS tool kit is under development to support decision makers at CONAGUA.

Assessment of the terrestrial water balance using the global water availability and use model WaterGAP - status and challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Müller Schmied, Hannes; Döll, Petra

2017-04-01

The estimation of the World's water resources has a long tradition and numerous methods for quantification exists. The resulting numbers vary significantly, leaving room for improvement. Since some decades, global hydrological models (GHMs) are being used for large scale water budget assessments. GHMs are designed to represent the macro-scale hydrological processes and many of those models include human water management, e.g. irrigation or reservoir operation, making them currently the first choice for global scale assessments of the terrestrial water balance within the Anthropocene. The Water - Global Assessment and Prognosis (WaterGAP) is a model framework that comprises both the natural and human water dimension and is in development and application since the 1990s. In recent years, efforts were made to assess the sensitivity of water balance components to alternative climate forcing input data and, e.g., how this sensitivity is affected by WaterGAP's calibration scheme. This presentation shows the current best estimate of terrestrial water balance components as simulated with WaterGAP by 1) assessing global and continental water balance components for the climate period 1971-2000 and the IPCC reference period 1986-2005 for the most current WaterGAP version using a homogenized climate forcing data, 2) investigating variations of water balance components for a number of state-of-the-art climate forcing data and 3) discussing the benefit of the calibration approach for a better observation-data constrained global water budget. For the most current WaterGAP version 2.2b and a homogenized combination of the two WATCH Forcing Datasets, global scale (excluding Antarctica and Greenland) river discharge into oceans and inland sinks (Q) is assessed to be 40 000 km3 yr-1 for 1971-2000 and 39 200 km3 yr-1 for 1986-2005. Actual evapotranspiration (AET) is close to each other with around 70 600 (70 700) km3 yr-1 as well as water consumption with 1000 (1100) km3 yr-1. The

Global assessment of predictability of water availability: A bivariate probabilistic Budyko analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Weiguang; Fu, Jianyu

2018-02-01

Estimating continental water availability is of great importance for water resources management, in terms of maintaining ecosystem integrity and sustaining society development. To more accurately quantify the predictability of water availability, on the basis of univariate probabilistic Budyko framework, a bivariate probabilistic Budyko approach was developed using copula-based joint distribution model for considering the dependence between parameter ω of Wang-Tang's equation and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and was applied globally. The results indicate the predictive performance in global water availability is conditional on the climatic condition. In comparison with simple univariate distribution, the bivariate one produces the lower interquartile range under the same global dataset, especially in the regions with higher NDVI values, highlighting the importance of developing the joint distribution by taking into account the dependence structure of parameter ω and NDVI, which can provide more accurate probabilistic evaluation of water availability.

Regional Responses to Constrained Water Availability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cui, Y.; Calvin, K. V.; Hejazi, M. I.; Clarke, L.; Kim, S. H.; Patel, P.

2017-12-01

There have been many concerns about water as a constraint to agricultural production, electricity generation, and many other human activities in the coming decades. Nevertheless, how different countries/economies would respond to such constraints has not been explored. Here, we examine the responding mechanism of binding water availability constraints at the water basin level and across a wide range of socioeconomic, climate and energy technology scenarios. Specifically, we look at the change in water withdrawals between energy, land-use and other sectors within an integrated framework, by using the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM) that also endogenizes water use and allocation decisions based on costs. We find that, when water is taken into account as part of the production decision-making, countries/basins in general fall into three different categories, depending on the change of water withdrawals and water re-allocation between sectors. First, water is not a constraining factor for most of the basins. Second, advancements in water-saving technologies of the electricity generation cooling systems are sufficient of reducing water withdrawals to meet binding water availability constraints, such as in China and the EU-15. Third, water-saving in the electricity sector alone is not sufficient and thus cannot make up the lowered water availability from the binding case; for example, many basins in Pakistan, Middle East and India have to largely reduce irrigated water withdrawals by either switching to rain-fed agriculture or reducing production. The dominant responding strategy for individual countries/basins is quite robust across the range of alternate scenarios that we test. The relative size of water withdrawals between energy and agriculture sectors is one of the most important factors that affect the dominant mechanism.

Assessing groundwater availability in the Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain aquifer system

USGS Publications Warehouse

Masterson, John P.; Pope, Jason P.; Monti, Jack; Nardi, Mark R.

2011-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey's Groundwater Resources Program is conducting an assessment of groundwater availability throughout the United States to gain a better understanding of the status of the Nation's groundwater resources and how changes in land use, water use, and climate may affect those resources. The goal of this National assessment is to improve our ability to forecast water availability for future economic and environmental uses. Assessments will be completed for the Nation's principal aquifer systems to help characterize how much water is currently available, how water availability is changing, and how much water we can expect to have in the future (Reilly and others, 2008). The concept of groundwater availability is more than just how much water can be pumped from any given aquifer. Groundwater availability is a function of many factors, including the quantity and quality of water and the laws, regulations, economics, and environmental factors that control its use. The primary objective of the North Atlantic Coastal Plain groundwater-availability study is to identify spatial and temporal changes in the overall water budget by more fully determining the natural and human processes that control how water enters, moves through, and leaves the groundwater system. Development of tools such as numerical models can help hydrologists gain an understanding of this groundwater system, allowing forecasts to be made about the response of this system to natural and human stresses, and water quality and ecosystem health to be analyzed, throughout the region.

Water Resources Availability in Kabul, Afghanistan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akbari, A. M.; Chornack, M. P.; Coplen, T. B.; Emerson, D. G.; Litke, D. W.; Mack, T. J.; Plummer, N.; Verdin, J. P.; Verstraeten, I. M.

2008-12-01

The availability of water resources is vital to the rebuilding of Kabul, Afghanistan. In recent years, droughts and increased water use for drinking water and agriculture have resulted in widespread drying of wells. Increasing numbers of returning refugees, rapid population growth, and potential climate change have led to heightened concerns for future water availability. The U.S. Geological Survey, with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development, began collaboration with the Afghanistan Geological Survey and Ministry of Energy and Water on water-resource investigations in the Kabul Basin in 2004. This has led to the compilation of historic and recent water- resources data, creation of monitoring networks, analyses of geologic, geophysical, and remotely sensed data. The study presented herein provides an assessment of ground-water availability through the use of multidisciplinary hydrogeologic data analysis. Data elements include population density, climate, snowpack, geology, mineralogy, surface water, ground water, water quality, isotopic information, and water use. Data were integrated through the use of conceptual ground-water-flow model analysis and provide information necessary to make improved water-resource planning and management decisions in the Kabul Basin. Ground water is currently obtained from a shallow, less than 100-m thick, highly productive aquifer. CFC, tritium, and stable hydrogen and oxygen isotopic analyses indicate that most water in the shallow aquifer appears to be recharged post 1970 by snowmelt-supplied river leakage and secondarily by late winter precipitation. Analyses indicate that increasing withdrawals are likely to result in declining water levels and may cause more than 50 percent of shallow supply wells to become dry or inoperative particularly in urbanized areas. The water quality in the shallow aquifer is deteriorated in urban areas by poor sanitation and water availability concerns may be compounded by poor well

Summary of available state ambient stream-water-quality data, 1990-98, and limitations for national assessment

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pope, Larry M.; Rosner, Stacy M.; Hoffman, Darren C.; Ziegler, Andrew C.

2004-01-01

of these factors, a high level of uncertainty exists in a national assessment of water quality. The purpose of this report is to present a summary of electronically available State ambient stream-water-quality data for 10 selected constituents and measurements from monitoring sites with nine or more analyses for 199098 and to discuss limitations for use of the data for national assessment. These analyses were statistiscally summarized by monitoring site and State, and the results presented in tabular format. Most of the selected constituents or measurements have U.S. Environmental Protection Agency criteria or guidelines for aquatic-life or drinking-water purposes. A significant finding of this investigation is that for a large percentage of monitoring sites in the Nation, there are insufficient data to meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommendations for determining if water-quality conditions are degraded and for making informed decisions regarding total maximum daily loads.

Water availability and vulnerability of 225 large cities in the United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Padowski, Julie C.; Jawitz, James W.

2012-12-01

This study presents a quantitative national assessment of urban water availability and vulnerability for 225 U.S. cities with population greater than 100,000. Here, the urban assessments account for not only renewable water flows, but also the extracted, imported, and stored water that urban systems access through constructed infrastructure. These sources represent important hydraulic components of the urban water supply, yet are typically excluded from water scarcity assessments. Results from this hydraulic-based assessment were compared to those obtained using a more conventional method that estimates scarcity solely based on local renewable flows. The inclusion of hydraulic components increased the mean availability to cities, leading to a significantly lower portion of the total U.S. population considered "at risk" for water scarcity (17%) than that obtained from the runoff method (47%). Water vulnerability was determined based on low-flow conditions, and smaller differences were found for this metric between at-risk populations using the runoff (66%) and hydraulic-based (54%) methods. The large increase in the susceptible population between the scarcity measures evaluated using the hydraulic method may better reconcile the seeming contradiction in the United States between perceptions of natural water abundance and widespread water scarcity. Additionally, urban vulnerability measures developed here were validated using a media text analysis. Vulnerability assessments that included hydraulic components were found to correlate with the frequency of urban water scarcity reports in the popular press while runoff-based measures showed no significant correlation, suggesting that hydraulic-based assessments provide better context for understanding the nature and severity of urban water scarcity issues.

Climate change and water availability for vulnerable agriculture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dalezios, Nicolas; Tarquis, Ana Maria

2017-04-01

Climatic projections for the Mediterranean basin indicate that the area will suffer a decrease in water resources due to climate change. The key climatic trends identified for the Mediterranean region are continuous temperature increase, further drying with precipitation decrease and the accentuation of climate extremes, such as droughts, heat waves and/or forest fires, which are expected to have a profound effect on agriculture. Indeed, the impact of climate variability on agricultural production is important at local, regional, national, as well as global scales. Agriculture of any kind is strongly influenced by the availability of water. Climate change will modify rainfall, evaporation, runoff, and soil moisture storage patterns. Changes in total seasonal precipitation or in its pattern of variability are both important. Similarly, with higher temperatures, the water-holding capacity of the atmosphere and evaporation into the atmosphere increase, and this favors increased climate variability, with more intense precipitation and more droughts. As a result, crop yields are affected by variations in climatic factors, such as air temperature and precipitation, and the frequency and severity of the above mentioned extreme events. The aim of this work is to briefly present the main effects of climate change and variability on water resources with respect to water availability for vulnerable agriculture, namely in the Mediterranean region. Results of undertaken studies in Greece on precipitation patterns and drought assessment using historical data records are presented. Based on precipitation frequency analysis, evidence of precipitation reductions is shown. Drought is assessed through an agricultural drought index, namely the Vegetation Health Index (VHI), in Thessaly, a drought-prone region in central Greece. The results justify the importance of water availability for vulnerable agriculture and the need for drought monitoring in the Mediterranean basin as part of

Balancing global water availability and use at basin scale in an integrated assessment model

DOE PAGES

Kim, Son H.; Hejazi, Mohamad; Liu, Lu; ...

2016-01-22

Water is essential for the world’s food supply, for energy production, including bioenergy and hydroelectric power, and for power system cooling. Water is already scarce in many regions of the world and could present a critical constraint as society attempts simultaneously to mitigate climate forcing and adapt to climate change, and to provide for a larger and more prosperous human population. Numerous studies have pointed to growing pressures on the world’s scarce fresh water resources from population and economic growth, and climate change. This study goes further. We use the Global Change Assessment Model to analyze interactions between population, economicmore » growth, energy, land, and water resources simultaneously in a dynamically evolving system where competing claims on water resources from all claimants—energy, land, and economy—are reconciled with water resource availability—from renewable water, non-renewable groundwater and desalinated water sources —across 14 geopolitical regions, 151 agriculture-ecological zones, and 235 major river basins. We find that previous estimates of global water withdrawal projections are overestimated. Model simulations show that it is more economical in some basins to alter agricultural and energy activities rather than utilize non-renewable groundwater or desalinated water. Lastly, this study highlights the importance of accounting for water as a binding factor in agriculture, energy and land use decisions in integrated assessment models and implications for global responses to water scarcity, particularly in the trade of agricultural commodities and land-use decisions.« less

Balancing global water availability and use at basin scale in an integrated assessment model

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kim, Son H.; Hejazi, Mohamad; Liu, Lu

Water is essential for the world’s food supply, for energy production, including bioenergy and hydroelectric power, and for power system cooling. Water is already scarce in many regions of the world and could present a critical constraint as society attempts simultaneously to mitigate climate forcing and adapt to climate change, and to provide for a larger and more prosperous human population. Numerous studies have pointed to growing pressures on the world’s scarce fresh water resources from population and economic growth, and climate change. This study goes further. We use the Global Change Assessment Model to analyze interactions between population, economicmore » growth, energy, land, and water resources simultaneously in a dynamically evolving system where competing claims on water resources from all claimants—energy, land, and economy—are reconciled with water resource availability—from renewable water, non-renewable groundwater and desalinated water sources —across 14 geopolitical regions, 151 agriculture-ecological zones, and 235 major river basins. We find that previous estimates of global water withdrawal projections are overestimated. Model simulations show that it is more economical in some basins to alter agricultural and energy activities rather than utilize non-renewable groundwater or desalinated water. Lastly, this study highlights the importance of accounting for water as a binding factor in agriculture, energy and land use decisions in integrated assessment models and implications for global responses to water scarcity, particularly in the trade of agricultural commodities and land-use decisions.« less

Water Availability--The Connection Between Water Use and Quality

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hirsch, Robert M.; Hamilton, Pixie A.; Miller, Timothy L.; Myers, Donna N.

2008-01-01

Water availability has become a high priority in the United States, in large part because competition for water is becoming more intense across the Nation. Population growth in many areas competes with demands for water to support irrigation and power production. Cities, farms, and power plants compete for water needed by aquatic ecosystems to support their minimum flow requirements. At the same time, naturally occurring and human-related contaminants from chemical use, land use, and wastewater and industrial discharge are introduced into our waters and diminish its quality. The fact that degraded quality limits the availability and suitability of water for critical uses is a well-known reality in many communities. What may be less understood, but equally true, is that our everyday use of water can significantly affect water quality, and thus its availability. Landscape features (such as geology, soils, and vegetation) along with water-use practices (such as ground-water withdrawals and irrigation) govern water availability because, together, they affect the movement of chemical compounds over the land and in the subsurface. Understanding the interactions of human activities with natural sources and the landscape is critical to effectively managing water and sustaining water availability in the future.

Water-quality assessment of the Potomac River Basin: analysis of available pesticide data, 1972-1990

USGS Publications Warehouse

Zappia, Humbert; Fisher, Gary T.

1997-01-01

A study of available data for the period from 1972 to 1990 was conducted to characterize the occurrence and distribution of pesticides in sur-face water, bottom material, ground water, and fish tissue in the Potomac River Basin. The study was conducted by the Potomac River study unit of the U.S. Geological Survey?s National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program. Exist-ing data coverage was evaluated to guide future data-collection activities. Data from computer data bases and from published and unpublished reports were obtained from local, State, and Fed-eral agencies in the four Potomac River Basin states and the District of Columbia. Data are available for all environmental media, but geo-graphic and temporal coverage are limited. Clusters of data occur in the north-central parts of the basin, with numerous samples at discrete loca-tions in the Shenandoah and Monocacy River Basins, along the mainstem Potomac River, in the Washington, D.C., area, and in streams along the Potomac Estuary. Much of the available surface-water and bottom-material data are from the ear-lier years of the period of interest, the ground-water data are from the middle years, and the fish-tissue data are distributed over much of the period. Overall, temporal coverage is not sufficient for analysis of trends. Comparisons between different sample media are possible in some areas of the Potomac River Basin, particularly in the northern end of the Great Valley. Residual concentrations of some pesticides have been found in surface water, bottom mate-rial, ground water, and fish tissue. Samples have been analyzed for a total of at least 69 pesticides and related compounds in surface water, bottom material, ground water, and fish tissue. Most con-centrations of the pesticides analyzed during the period from 1972 to 1990 were less than or equal to reporting limits. For surface-water samples, 13 out of 41 pes-ticides and related compounds analyzed had concentrations equal to or greater than the

Water Availability in a Warming World

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aminzade, Jennifer

between SDDI and soil moisture projections. Chapter Three addresses the three major differences between SDDI and soil moisture calculations that shed light on why their future projections diverge: evaporation approximations, dependence on previous months' conditions, and the inclusion of additional variables such as runoff. We implement various changes in SDDI and a GCM vegetation scheme to test the sensitivity of each measure and to evaluate which alterations increase the similarity between SDDI and soil moisture. In addition to deconstructing the differences between SDDI and soil moisture, we analyze their projections regionally in Chapter Four. In seven regions (the southwest U.S., southern Europe, eastern China, eastern Siberia, Australia, Uruguay and Colombia), we (1) assess the forecasts of future water availability changes, (2) compare the atmospheric dynamical processes that produce rainfall and drought in the real world to the way it occurs in individual GCMs, (3) determine how these processes change as global temperatures increase, and (4) identify the most likely scenarios for future regional water availability. Chapter Five summarizes key findings by chapter, enumerating this dissertation's contributions to the field. It then discusses the limitations of existing models and measures, and suggests potential solutions for overcoming their predictive shortfalls. Finally, the chapter concludes with a proposal for future research to expand upon this dissertation work. This thesis highlights the global and zonal differences between two water availability measures, SDDI and soil moisture and identifies regions where they agree and disagree in 21st century modeled scenarios. It provides an explanation for differing projections in soil moisture and SDDI and proves that it is possible to bring convergence to their future projections, which is also applicable to PDSI. Finally, a detailed analysis of climatic changes from five GCMs made it possible to present the most

Improved methods for national water assessment, water resources contract: WR15249270

USGS Publications Warehouse

Thomas, Harold A.

1981-01-01

The purpose of our research is to develop methods to make National Water Assessment more useful in estimating water availability for economic growth and more helpful in determining the effect of water resource development upon the environmental quality of related land resources. There are serious questions pertaining to the 1975 Water Assessment and these amplify the significance of decisions made as to the planning and scheduling of the next assessment.

Middle-term Metropolitan Water Availability Index Assessment Based on Synergistic Potentials of Multi-sensor Data

EPA Science Inventory

The impact of recent drought and water pollution episodes results in an acute need to project future water availability to assist water managers in water utility infrastructure management within many metropolitan regions. Separate drought and water quality indices previously deve...

Assessment of impacts of climate change on surface water availability using coupled SWAT and WEAP models: case of upper Pangani River Basin, Tanzania

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kishiwa, Peter; Nobert, Joel; Kongo, Victor; Ndomba, Preksedis

2018-05-01

This study was designed to investigate the dynamics of current and future surface water availability for different water users in the upper Pangani River Basin under changing climate. A multi-tier modeling technique was used in the study, by coupling the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and Water Evaluation And Planning (WEAP) models, to simulate streamflows under climate change and assess scenarios of future water availability to different socio-economic activities by year 2060. Six common Global Circulation Models (GCMs) from WCRP-CMIP3 with emissions Scenario A2 were selected. These are HadCM3, HadGEM1, ECHAM5, MIROC3.2MED, GFDLCM2.1 and CSIROMK3. They were downscaled by using LARS-WG to station scale. The SWAT model was calibrated with observed data and utilized the LARS-WG outputs to generate future streamflows before being used as input to WEAP model to assess future water availability to different socio-economic activities. GCMs results show future rainfall increase in upper Pangani River Basin between 16-18 % in 2050s relative to 1980-1999 periods. Temperature is projected to increase by an average of 2 °C in 2050s, relative to baseline period. Long-term mean streamflows is expected to increase by approximately 10 %. However, future peak flows are estimated to be lower than the prevailing average peak flows. Nevertheless, the overall annual water demand in Pangani basin will increase from 1879.73 Mm3 at present (2011) to 3249.69 Mm3 in the future (2060s), resulting to unmet demand of 1673.8 Mm3 (51.5 %). The impact of future shortage will be more severe in irrigation where 71.12 % of its future demand will be unmet. Future water demands of Hydropower and Livestock will be unmet by 27.47 and 1.41 % respectively. However, future domestic water use will have no shortage. This calls for planning of current and future surface water use in the upper Pangani River Basin.

Water Availability for the Western United States - Key Scientific Challenges

USGS Publications Warehouse

Anderson, Mark Theodore; Woosley, Lloyd H.

2005-01-01

users in the West is that these reserved rights may supersede other existing users. The minimum amount of water required, however, to sustain native peoples, a riparian system, or an endangered species eventually will need to be known in order to manage the available water supply. Periodic inventory and assessment of the amounts and trends of water available in surface water and ground water are needed to support water management. There is a widespread perception that the amount of available water is diminishing with time. This and other perceptions about water availability should be replaced by objective data and analysis. Some data are presented here for the major Western rivers that show that flows are not decreasing in most streams and rivers in the West. Systematic information is lacking to make broad assessments of ground-water availability, but available data for specific aquifers indicate that these aquifers are being depleted, especially near population centers. The complexity added to the issue of Western water availability by these and other factors gives rise to a significant role of science. Science has played a role in support of Western water development from the beginning, and the role has evolved and changed over time as society's values have changed. In this report, the role of science is discussed in three phases: (1) development and construction, (2) consequences and environmental awareness, and (3) sustainability. The development and construction phase includes some historical accounting of water development in the West and shows how some precedents set in those early days are still applied today. Science has played an important role in the second phase by objectively pointing out the consequences of this development and construction phase, such as the effects from converting rivers to reservoirs, the effects of ground-water pumping on surface water in streams, land-surface subsidence, and the changes in water quality brought about by the dispo

Stover removal effects on seasonal soil water availability under full and deficit irrigation

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Removing corn (Zea mays L.) stover for livestock feed or bioenergy feedstock may impact water availability in the soil profile to support crop growth. The role of stover in affecting soil profile water availability will depend on annual rainfall inputs as well as irrigation level. To assess how res...

Water availability and use pilot; methods development for a regional assessment of groundwater availability, southwest alluvial basins, Arizona

USGS Publications Warehouse

Tillman, Fred D.; Cordova, Jeffrey T.; Leake, Stanley A.; Thomas, Blakemore E.; Callegary, James B.

2011-01-01

budget components using recent (2000-2007) data and methods of data analysis. Estimates of inflow components, including mountain-front recharge, incidental recharge from irrigation of agriculture, managed recharge from recharge facilities, interbasin underflow from upgradient basins, and streamflow losses, are quantified for recent time periods. Mountain-front recharge is the greatest inflow component to the groundwater system and was estimated using two methods: a basin characteristic model and new precipitation information used in a previously developed regression equation. Annual mountain-front recharge for the study area for 1940-2007 estimated by the two methods is 730,000 acre-ft for the basin characteristic model and 643,000 acre-ft for the regression equation, representing 1.5 percent and 1.3 percent of precipitation, respectively. Outflow components, including groundwater withdrawals, evapotranspiration, and interbasin flow to downgradient basins, are also presented for recent time periods. Groundwater withdrawals accounted for the largest share of the water budget, with nearly 2.4 million acre-ft per year withdrawn from the study area in recent years. Evapotranspiration from groundwater was estimated at nearly 1.3 million acre-ft per year for the study area using a newly developed method incorporating vegetation indices from satellite images and land cover information. For water-budget components with temporal variation that could be assessed from available data, estimates for intervening time periods since before development were also developed. An estimate of aquifer storage change, representing both gains to and losses from the groundwater system since before development, was derived for the most developed basins in the study area using available estimates of groundwater-level changes and storage coefficients. An overall storage loss of 74.5 million acre-ft was estimated for these basins within the study area. Demonstration

Drought Assessment over the Four Major River Basins of India using GRACE-based estimates of Water Availability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sinha, D.; Syed, T. H.

2017-12-01

Drought is a natural disaster that has mutilating consequences over agriculture, ecosystems, economy and the society. Over the past few decades, drought related catastrophe, associated with global climate change, has escalated all across the world. Identification and analysis of drought utilizing individual hydrologic variables may be inadequate owing to the multitude of factors that are associated with the phenomenon. Therefore it is crucial to develop techniques that warrant comprehensive monitoring and assessment of droughts. In this study we propose a novel drought index (Water Availability Index (WAI)) that comprehends all the aspects of meteorologic, agricultural and hydrologic droughts. The proposed framework underscores the conceptualization and utilization of water availability, quantified as an integrated estimate of land water storage, using Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) observations, and precipitation. The methodology is employed over four major river basins of India (i.e. Ganga, Krishna, Godavari and Mahanadi) for a period of 155 months (April 2002 to February 2015). Results exhibit the potential of the propounded index (WAI) to recognize drought events and impart insightful quantification of drought severity. WAI also demonstrates enhanced outcomes in comparison to other commonly used drought indices like PDSI, SPI, SPEI and SRI. In general there are at least three major drought periods with intensities ranging from moderate to severe in almost all river basins. The longest drought period, extending for 27 months, from September 2008 to November 2010, is observed in the Mahanadi basin. Results from this study confirm the potential of this technique as an effective tool for the characterization of drought at large spatial scales, which will only excel with better quantification and extended availability of terrestrial water storage observations from the GRACE-Follow On mission.

The role of reservoir storage in large-scale surface water availability analysis for Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garrote, L. M.; Granados, A.; Martin-Carrasco, F.; Iglesias, A.

2017-12-01

A regional assessment of current and future water availability in Europe is presented in this study. The assessment was made using the Water Availability and Adaptation Policy Analysis (WAAPA) model. The model was built on the river network derived from the Hydro1K digital elevation maps, including all major river basins of Europe. Reservoir storage volume was taken from the World Register of Dams of ICOLD, including all dams with storage capacity over 5 hm3. Potential Water Availability is defined as the maximum amount of water that could be supplied at a certain point of the river network to satisfy a regular demand under pre-specified reliability requirements. Water availability is the combined result of hydrological processes, which determine streamflow in natural conditions, and human intervention, which determines the available hydraulic infrastructure to manage water and establishes water supply conditions through operating rules. The WAAPA algorithm estimates the maximum demand that can be supplied at every node of the river network accounting for the regulation capacity of reservoirs under different management scenarios. The model was run for a set of hydrologic scenarios taken from the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP), where the PCRGLOBWB hydrological model was forced with results from five global climate models. Model results allow the estimation of potential water stress by comparing water availability to projections of water abstractions along the river network under different management alternatives. The set of sensitivity analyses performed showed the effect of policy alternatives on water availability and highlighted the large uncertainties linked to hydrological and anthropological processes.

Hindcast of water availability in regional aquifer systems using MODFLOW Farm Process

USGS Publications Warehouse

Schmid, Wolfgang; Hanson, Randall T.; Faunt, Claudia C.; Phillips, Steven P.

2015-01-01

Coupled groundwater and surface-water components of the hydrologic cycle can be simulated by the Farm Process for MODFLOW (MF-FMP) in both irrigated and non-irrigated areas and aquifer-storage and recovery systems. MF-FMP is being applied to three productive agricultural regions of different scale in the State of California, USA, to assess the availability of water and the impacts of alternative management decisions. Hindcast simulations are conducted for similar periods from the 1960s to near recent times. Historical groundwater pumpage is mostly unknown in one region (Central Valley) and is estimated by MF-FMP. In another region (Pajaro Valley), recorded pumpage is used to calibrate model-estimated pumpage. Multiple types of observations are used to estimate uncertain parameters, such as hydraulic, land-use, and farm properties. MF-FMP simulates how climate variability and water-import availability affect water demand and supply. MF-FMP can be used to predict water availability based on anticipated changes in anthropogenic or natural water demands. Keywords groundwater; surface-water; irrigation; water availability; response to climate variability/change

Lunchtime School Water Availability and Water Consumption among California Adolescents

PubMed Central

Bogart, Laura M.; Babey, Susan H.; Patel, Anisha I.; Wang, Pan; Schuster, Mark A.

2015-01-01

Purpose To examine the potential impact of California SB1413, which required school districts to provide free, fresh drinking water during mealtimes in food service areas by July 1, 2011, on greater water consumption among California adolescents. Methods Data were drawn from the 2012 and 2013 state-representative California Health Interview Survey. A total of 2,665 adolescents aged 12-17 were interviewed regarding their water consumption and availability of free water during lunchtime at their school. Results Three-fourths reported that their school provided free water at lunchtime, mainly via fountains. In a multivariate model that controlled for age, gender, income, race/ethnicity, BMI, and school type, adolescents in schools that provided free water consumed significantly more water than adolescents who reported that water was not available, b (SE) = 0.67 (0.28), p = .02. School water access did not significantly vary across the two years. Conclusions Lunchtime school water availability was related to water consumption, but a quarter of adolescents reported that their school did not provide free water at lunch. Future research should explore what supports and inducements might facilitate provision of drinking water during school mealtimes. PMID:26552740

Lunchtime School Water Availability and Water Consumption Among California Adolescents.

PubMed

Bogart, Laura M; Babey, Susan H; Patel, Anisha I; Wang, Pan; Schuster, Mark A

2016-01-01

To examine the potential impact of California SB 1413, which required school districts to provide free, fresh drinking water during mealtimes in food service areas by July 1, 2011, on greater water consumption among California adolescents. Data were drawn from the 2012 and 2013 state-representative California Health Interview Survey. A total of 2,665 adolescents aged 12-17 years were interviewed regarding their water consumption and availability of free water during lunchtime at their school. Three-fourths reported that their school provided free water at lunchtime, mainly via fountains. In a multivariate model that controlled for age, gender, income, race/ethnicity, body mass index, and school type, adolescents in schools that provided free water consumed significantly more water than adolescents who reported that water was not available, bivariate (standard error) = .67 (.28), p = .02. School water access did not significantly vary across the 2 years. Lunchtime school water availability was related to water consumption, but a quarter of adolescents reported that their school did not provide free water at lunch. Future research should explore what supports and inducements might facilitate provision of drinking water during school mealtimes. Copyright © 2016 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. All rights reserved.

25 CFR 137.2 - Availability of water.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Availability of water. 137.2 Section 137.2 Indians BUREAU... COSTS, SAN CARLOS INDIAN IRRIGATION PROJECT, ARIZONA § 137.2 Availability of water. Pursuant to section... notice to announce when water is actually available for lands in private ownership under the project and...

25 CFR 137.2 - Availability of water.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Availability of water. 137.2 Section 137.2 Indians BUREAU... COSTS, SAN CARLOS INDIAN IRRIGATION PROJECT, ARIZONA § 137.2 Availability of water. Pursuant to section... notice to announce when water is actually available for lands in private ownership under the project and...

25 CFR 137.2 - Availability of water.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2012-04-01 2011-04-01 true Availability of water. 137.2 Section 137.2 Indians BUREAU... COSTS, SAN CARLOS INDIAN IRRIGATION PROJECT, ARIZONA § 137.2 Availability of water. Pursuant to section... notice to announce when water is actually available for lands in private ownership under the project and...

25 CFR 137.2 - Availability of water.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Availability of water. 137.2 Section 137.2 Indians BUREAU... COSTS, SAN CARLOS INDIAN IRRIGATION PROJECT, ARIZONA § 137.2 Availability of water. Pursuant to section... notice to announce when water is actually available for lands in private ownership under the project and...

Balancing global water availability and use at basin scale in an integrated assessment model

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kim, Son H.; Hejazi, Mohamad; Liu, Lu

Water is essential for the world’s food supply, for energy production, including bioenergy and hydroelectric power, and for power system cooling. Water is already scarce in many regions of the world and could present a critical constraint as society attempts simultaneously to mitigate climate forcing and adapt to climate change, and to provide for a larger and more prosperous human population. Numerous studies have pointed to growing pressures on the world’s scarce fresh water resources from population and economic growth, and climate change. This study goes further. We use the Global Change Assessment Model to analyze interactions between population, economicmore » growth, energy, land and water resources simultaneously in a dynamically evolving system where competing claims on water resources from all claimants—energy, land, and economy—are reconciled with water resource availability—from renewable water, non-renewable groundwater sources and desalinated water—across 14 geopolitical regions, 151 agriculture-ecological zones, and 235 major river basins. We find that previous estimates of global water withdrawal projections are overestimated. Model simulations show that it is more economical in some basins to alter agricultural and energy activities rather than utilize non-renewable groundwater or desalinated water. This study highlights the importance of accounting for water as a binding factor in agriculture, energy and land use decisions in IAMs and implications for global responses to water scarcity, particularly in the trade of agricultural commodities and land-use decisions.« less

On the New Concept of the Available Water Climatology and Its Application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Byun, H. R.; Kim, D. W.; Choi, K. S.; Deo, R. C.; Lee, S. M.; Park, C. K.; Kwon, S. H.; Kim, G. B.; Kwon, H. N.

2014-12-01

We propose a new concept of climatology called the Available Water Climate (AWC). Available water is 'the remained water usable in every moment' that is calculated regardless of any time intervals or the amounts of precipitation. With this concept, the Available Water Resources Index (AWRI) has been digitized following the earlier work of Byun and Lee (2002). The applicability of AWRI not only to the assessment and prediction of water related disasters but also to the academic researches has been tested. Resulted merits are as follows. Firstly, the threshold value of AWRI for the occurrence of all water related disasters like flood, drought, inundation landslide, and drought each region became clear, therefore the assessment and the prediction of them became much more precise than before. It became clear that the more extreme the AWRI value is, the severer the related disasters become. As example, all disasters caused by heavy rains, even though a small inundation, became predictable at the time step of heavy rain warning with the help of the Long-term remained water index(LWI). As another example, the drought intensity and its dates on start and end are defined with more reasonably and precisely than any other drought indexes with help of the Effective drought index (EDI) using sliding time scale. Secondly, the spatiotemporal distribution of water environment were digitized clearly and objectively using AWRI and new concepts of the Water Abundant Season (WAS) and the Little Water Season (LIWAS), their dates on start and end, and their strength were defined, which is very beneficial for agriculture, forestry, and all other water controls. Also, the differences of water environments among regions were clearly digitized and the improvement of the climate classification by Köppen etc. became possible. Thirdly, other merits will be found continuously afterwards.

Water availability at hospitals in low- and middle-income countries: implications for improving access to safe surgical care.

PubMed

Chawla, Sagar S; Gupta, Shailvi; Onchiri, Frankline M; Habermann, Elizabeth B; Kushner, Adam L; Stewart, Barclay T

2016-09-01

Although two billion people now have access to clean water, many hospitals in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) do not. Lack of water availability at hospitals hinders safe surgical care. We aimed to review the surgical capacity literature and document the availability of water at health facilities and develop a predictive model of water availability at health facilities globally to inform targeted capacity improvements. Using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, a systematic search for surgical capacity assessments in LMICs in MEDLINE, PubMed, and World Health Organization Global Health Library was performed. Data regarding water availability were extracted. Data from these assessments and national indicator data from the World Bank (e.g., gross domestic product, total health expenditure, and percent of population with improved access to water) were used to create a predictive model for water availability in LMICs globally. Of the 72 records identified, 19 reported water availability representing 430 hospitals. A total of 66% of hospitals assessed had water availability (283 of 430 hospitals). Using these data, estimated percent of water availability in LMICs more broadly ranged from under 20% (Liberia) to over 90% (Bangladesh, Ghana). Less than two-thirds of hospitals providing surgical care in 19 LMICs had a reliable water source. Governments and nongovernmental organizations should increase efforts to improve water infrastructure at hospitals, which might aid in the provision of safe essential surgical care. Future research is needed to measure the effect of water availability on surgical care and patient outcomes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Multilayer geospatial analysis of water availability for shale resources development in Mexico

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Galdeano, C.; Cook, M. A.; Webber, M. E.

2017-08-01

Mexico’s government enacted an energy reform in 2013 that aims to foster competitiveness and private investment throughout the energy sector value chain. As part of this reform, it is expected that extraction of oil and gas via hydraulic fracturing will increase in five shale basins (e.g. Burgos, Sabinas, Tampico, Tuxpan, and Veracruz). Because hydraulic fracturing is a water-intensive activity, it is relevant to assess the potential water availability for this activity in Mexico. This research aims to quantify the water availability for hydraulic fracturing in Mexico and identify its spatial distribution along the five shale basins. The methodology consisted of a multilayer geospatial analysis that overlays the water availability in the watersheds and aquifers with the different types of shale resources areas (e.g. oil and associated gas, wet gas and condensate, and dry gas) in the five shale basins. The aquifers and watersheds in Mexico are classified in four zones depending on average annual water availability. Three scenarios were examined based on different impact level on watersheds and aquifers from hydraulic fracturing. For the most conservative scenario analyzed, the results showed that the water available could be used to extract between 8.15 and 70.42 Quadrillion British thermal units (Quads) of energy in the typical 20-30 year lifetime of the hydraulic fracturing wells that could be supplied with the annual water availability overlaying the shale areas, with an average across estimates of around 18.05 Quads. However, geographic variation in water availability could represent a challenge for extracting the shale reserves. Most of the water available is located closer to the Gulf of Mexico, but the areas with the larger recoverable shale reserves coincide with less water availability in Northern Mexico. New water management techniques (such as recycling and re-use), more efficient fracturing methods, shifts in usage patterns, or other water sources need

Potential Water Availability Index (PWAI): A New Water Vulnerability Index for Africa Based on GRACE Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hasan, E.; Tarhule, A.; Hong, Y.; Moore, B., III

2016-12-01

The critical role of water in enabling or constraining human wellbeing and socio-economic activities has led to interest in quantitatively establishing the status or index of water (in)sufficiency over time and space. Introduced in 1989, the first widely accepted index expressed the status of water resources availability in terms of vulnerability, stress, or scarcity. Since then, numerous refinements and modifications to the concept have been published but nearly all adopt the same basic formulation; water status is a function of available water resources and demand or use. However, accurately defining and assessing `available water' has proved problematic especially in data scarce regions, such as Africa. In this paper, we use Total Water Storage (TWS) estimated from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) in lieu of observational hydrologic data, to estimate the Water Scarcity Index (WSI) for Africa at country level. The monthly TWS Positive anomalies represent periods of net system recharge while negative anomalies represent net system loss due to evapotranspiration and anthropogenic withdrawals. The procedure is as follows. First, we calculated the long-term (2002-2014) Internal Water Storage (IWS) for each country using the monthly precipitation data from the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC). Next, the yearly cumulative positive and negative anomalies were added to the long-term IWS to obtain volumetric Potential Water Storage (VPWS) per country. By dividing VPWS by population, we obtain estimates of per capita water availability which can be grouped into vulnerability classes using established thresholds. Our VPWS showed very high correlation (R2 =0.94, p=0.0001) with the values of Internal Renewable Water Resources (IRWR) estimated by AQUSTAT. Additionally, the GWSI is highly correlated (R2 =0.94, p=0.0001) with the existing WSI index from the world bank data center. The novelty and contribution of our approach is in using GRACE

46 CFR 76.10-3 - Water availability.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 46 Shipping 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Water availability. 76.10-3 Section 76.10-3 Shipping... Fire Main System, Details § 76.10-3 Water availability. (a) On all vessels on an international voyage, regardless of the date of construction, water pressure from the firemain protecting enclosed spaces shall be...

46 CFR 76.10-3 - Water availability.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 46 Shipping 3 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Water availability. 76.10-3 Section 76.10-3 Shipping... Fire Main System, Details § 76.10-3 Water availability. (a) On all vessels on an international voyage, regardless of the date of construction, water pressure from the firemain protecting enclosed spaces shall be...

46 CFR 76.10-3 - Water availability.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 46 Shipping 3 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Water availability. 76.10-3 Section 76.10-3 Shipping... Fire Main System, Details § 76.10-3 Water availability. (a) On all vessels on an international voyage, regardless of the date of construction, water pressure from the firemain protecting enclosed spaces shall be...

46 CFR 76.10-3 - Water availability.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 46 Shipping 3 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Water availability. 76.10-3 Section 76.10-3 Shipping... Fire Main System, Details § 76.10-3 Water availability. (a) On all vessels on an international voyage, regardless of the date of construction, water pressure from the firemain protecting enclosed spaces shall be...

46 CFR 76.10-3 - Water availability.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 46 Shipping 3 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Water availability. 76.10-3 Section 76.10-3 Shipping... Fire Main System, Details § 76.10-3 Water availability. (a) On all vessels on an international voyage, regardless of the date of construction, water pressure from the firemain protecting enclosed spaces shall be...

Shifts in water availability mediate plant-pollinator interactions.

PubMed

Gallagher, M Kate; Campbell, Diane R

2017-07-01

Altered precipitation patterns associated with anthropogenic climate change are expected to have many effects on plants and insect pollinators, but it is unknown if effects on pollination are mediated by changes in water availability. We tested the hypothesis that impacts of climate on plant-pollinator interactions operate through changes in water availability, and specifically that such effects occur through alteration of floral attractants. We manipulated water availability in two naturally occurring Mertensia ciliata (Boraginaceae) populations using water addition, water reduction and control plots and measured effects on vegetative and floral traits, pollinator visitation and seed set. While most floral trait values, including corolla size and nectar, increased linearly with increasing water availability, in this bumblebee-pollinated species, pollinator visitation peaked at intermediate water levels. Visitation also peaked at an intermediate corolla length, while its relationship to corolla width varied across sites. Seed set, however, increased linearly with water. These results demonstrate the potential for changes in water availability to impact plant-pollinator interactions through pollinator responses to differences in floral attractants, and that the effects of water on pollinator visitation can be nonlinear. Plant responses to changes in resource availability may be an important mechanism by which climate change will affect species interactions. © 2017 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2017 New Phytologist Trust.

Effects of soil water availability on water fluxes in winter wheat

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cai, G.; Vanderborght, J.; Langensiepen, M.; Vereecken, H.

2014-12-01

Quantifying soil water availability in water-limited ecosystems on plant water use continues to be a practical problem in agronomy. Transpiration which represents plant water demand is closely in relation to root water uptake in the root zone and sap flow in plant stems. However, few studies have been concentrated on influences of soil moisture on root water uptake and sap flow in crops. This study was undertaken to investigate (i) whether root water uptake and sap flow correlate with the transpiration estimated by the Penman-Monteith model for winter wheat(Triticum aestivum), and (ii) for which soil water potentials in the root zone, the root water uptake and sap flow rates in crop stems would be reduced. Therefore, we measured sap flow velocities by an improved heat-balance approach (Langensiepen et al., 2014), calculated crop transpiration by Penman-Monteith model, and simulated root water uptake by HYDRUS-1D on an hourly scale for different soil water status in winter wheat. In order to assess the effects of soil water potential on root water uptake and sap flow, an average soil water potential was calculated by weighting the soil water potential at a certain depth with the root length density. The temporal evolution of root length density was measured using horizontal rhizotubes that were installed at different depths.The results showed that root water uptake and sap flow matched well with the computed transpiration by Penman-Monteith model in winter wheat when the soil water potential was not limiting root water uptake. However, low soil water content restrained root water uptake, especially when soil water potential was lower than -90 kPa in the top soil. Sap flow in wheat was not affected by the observed soil water conditions, suggesting that stomatal conductance was not sensitive to soil water potentials. The effect of drought stress on root water uptake and sap flow in winter wheat was only investigated in a short time (after anthesis). Further research

Water on Mars - Volatile history and resource availability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jakosky, Bruce M.

1990-01-01

An attempt is made to define the available deposits of water in the near-surface region of Mars which will be available to human exploration missions. The Martian seasonal water cycle is reviewed, and geochemical and geological constraints on the availability of water are examined. It is concluded that the only sure source of water in amounts significant as a resource are in the polar ice deposits.

Groundwater availability in the United States: the value of quantitative regional assessments

USGS Publications Warehouse

Dennehy, Kevin F.; Reilly, Thomas E.; Cunningham, William L.

2015-01-01

The sustainability of water resources is under continued threat from the challenges associated with a growing population, competing demands, and a changing climate. Freshwater scarcity has become a fact in many areas. Much of the United States surface-water supplies are fully apportioned for use; thus, in some areas the only potential alternative freshwater source that can provide needed quantities is groundwater. Although frequently overlooked, groundwater serves as the principal reserve of freshwater in the US and represents much of the potential supply during periods of drought. Some nations have requirements to monitor and characterize the availability of groundwater such as the European Union’s Water Framework Directive (EPCEU 2000). In the US there is no such national requirement. Quantitative regional groundwater availability assessments, however, are essential to document the status and trends of groundwater availability for the US and make informed water-resource decisions possible now and in the future. Barthel (2014) highlighted that the value of regional groundwater assessments goes well beyond just quantifying the resource so that it can be better managed. The tools and techniques required to evaluate these unique regional systems advance the science of hydrogeology and provide enhanced methods that can benefit local-scale groundwater investigations. In addition, a significant, yet under-utilized benefit is the digital spatial and temporal data sets routinely generated as part of these studies. Even though there is no legal or regulatory requirement for regional groundwater assessments in the US, there is a logical basis for their implementation. The purpose of this essay is to articulate the rationale for and reaffirm the value of regional groundwater assessments primarily in the US; however, the arguments hold for all nations. The importance of the data sets and the methods and model development that occur as part of these assessments is stressed

Water Availability and Management of Water Resources

EPA Science Inventory

One of the most pressing national and global issues is the availability of freshwater due to global climate change, energy scarcity issues and the increase in world population and accompanying economic growth. Estimates of water supplies and flows through the world's hydrologic c...

Water availability and management for food security

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Food security is directly linked to water security for food production. Water availability for crop production will be dependent upon precipitation or irrigation, soil water holding capacity, and crop water demand. The linkages among these components in rainfed agricultural systems shows the impact ...

Compounding Impacts of Climate Change and Increased Human Water Withdrawal on Urmia Lake Water Availability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alborzi, A.; Moftakhari, H.; Azaranfar, A.; Mallakpour, I.; Ashraf, B.; AghaKouchak, A.

2017-12-01

In recent decades, climate change and increase in human water withdrawal, combined, have caused ecological degradation in several terminal lakes worldwide. Among them, the shallow and hyper-saline Urmia Lake in Iran has experienced about 6 meters drawdown in lake level and 80% reduction in surface area. Here, we assess the imposed stress on Urmia Basin's water availability and Lake's ecological condition in response to coupled climate change and human-induced water withdrawal. A generalized river basin decision support system model consisting network flow is developed to simulate the basin-lake interactions under a wide range of scenarios. This model explicitly includes water management infrastructure, reservoirs, and irrigation and municipal water use. Studied scenarios represent a wide range of historic climate and water use scenarios including a historical baseline, future increase in water demand, and also improved water efficiency. In this presentation, we show the lake's water level, as a measure of lake's ecological health, under the compounding effects of the climate condition (top-down) and water use (bottom-up) scenarios. This method illustrates what combinations lead to failure in meeting the lake's ecological level.

Comprehensive assessment of projected changes in water availability and aridity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Greve, Peter; Seneviratne, Sonia I.

2015-04-01

Substantial changes in the hydrological cycle are projected for the 21st century, with potential major impacts, particularly at regional scale. However, the projections are subject to major uncertainties and the metrics generally used to assess such changes do not fully account for the hydroclimatological characteristics of the land surface. In this context, the 'dry gets drier, wet gets wetter' paradigm is often used as a simplifying summary. However, recent studies have challenged the validity of the paradigm both for observations (Greve et al., 2014) and projections (Roderick et al., 2014), especially casting doubt on applying the widely used P-E (precipitation - evapotranspiration) metric over global land surfaces. Here we show in a comprehensive assessment that projected changes in mean annual P-E are generally not significant in most land areas, with the exception of the northern high latitudes where significant changes towards wetter conditions are found. We further show that the combination of decreasing P and increasing atmospheric demand (potential evapotranspiration, Ep) leads to a significant increase in aridity in many subtropical and neighbouring regions, thus confirming the paradigm for some dry regions, but invalidating it for the relative large fraction of the affected area which is currently in a humid or transitional climate regime. Combining both metrics (P-E and P-E_p) we conclude that the 'dry gets drier, wet gets wetter' paradigm is generally not confirmed for projected changes in most land areas (despite notable exceptions in the high latitudes and subtropics), because of a lack of robustness of the projected changes in some regions (tropics) and because humid to transitional regions are shifting to drier conditions, i.e. not following the paradigm. References Greve, P., Orlowsky, B., Mueller, B., Sheffield, J., Reichstein, M., & Seneviratne, S. I. Global assessment of trends in wetting and drying over land. Nature Geosci. 7, 716-721 (2014

Projections of Declining Surface-Water Availability for the Southwestern United States

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Seager, Richard; Ting, Mingfang; Li, Cuihua; Naik, Naomi; Cook, Benjamin; Nakamura, Jennifer; Liu, Haibo

2012-01-01

Global warming driven by rising greenhouse-gas concentrations is expected to cause wet regions of the tropics and mid to high latitudes to get wetter and subtropical dry regions to get drier and expand polewards. Over southwest North America, models project a steady drop in precipitation minus evapotranspiration, P -- E, the net flux of water at the land surface, leading to, for example, a decline in Colorado River flow. This would cause widespread and important social and ecological consequences. Here, using new simulations from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Five, to be assessed in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Report Five, we extend previous work by examining changes in P, E, runoff and soil moisture by season and for three different water resource regions. Focusing on the near future, 2021-2040, the new simulations project declines in surface-water availability across the southwest that translate into reduced soil moisture and runoff in California and Nevada, the Colorado River headwaters and Texas.

Proposing water balance method for water availability estimation in Indonesian regional spatial planning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Juniati, A. T.; Sutjiningsih, D.; Soeryantono, H.; Kusratmoko, E.

2018-01-01

The water availability (WA) of a region is one of important consideration in both the formulation of spatial plans and the evaluation of the effectiveness of actual land use in providing sustainable water resources. Information on land-water needs vis-a-vis their availability in a region determines the state of the surplus or deficit to inform effective land use utilization. How to calculate water availability have been described in the Guideline in Determining the Carrying Capacity of the Environment in Regional Spatial Planning. However, the method of determining the supply and demand of water on these guidelines is debatable since the determination of WA in this guideline used a rational method. The rational method is developed the basis for storm drain design practice and it is essentially a peak discharge method peak discharge calculation method. This paper review the literature in methods of water availability estimation which is described descriptively, and present arguments to claim that water balance method is a more fundamental and appropriate tool in water availability estimation. A better water availability estimation method would serve to improve the practice in preparing formulations of Regional Spatial Plan (RSP) as well as evaluating land use capacity in providing sustainable water resources.

75 FR 44805 - Central Utah Project Completion Act; Notice of Availability, Draft Environmental Assessment...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-07-29

... DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Central Utah Project Completion Act; Notice of Availability, Draft Environmental Assessment (Draft EA); Realignment of a Portion of the Utah Lake Drainage Basin Water Delivery System AGENCY: Office of the Assistant Secretary--Water and Science, Interior ACTION: Notice of...

Implications of Upstream Flow Availability for Watershed Surface Water Supply Across the Conterminous United States

Treesearch

Kai Duan; Ge Sun; Peter V. Caldwell; Steven G. McNulty; Yang Zhang

2018-01-01

Although it is well established that the availability of upstream flow (AUF) affects downstream water supply, its significance has not been rigorously categorized and quantified at fine resolutions. This study aims to fill this gap by providing a nationwide inventory of AUF and local water resource, and assessing their roles in securing water supply across the 2,099 8-...

Determining the impacts of climate change and catchment development on future water availability in Tasmania, Australia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Post, David

2010-05-01

In a water-scarce country such as Australia, detailed, accurate and reliable assessments of current and future water availability are essential in order to adequately manage the limited water resource. This presentation describes a recently completed study which provided an assessment of current water availability in Tasmania, Australia, and also determined how this water availability would be impacted by climate change and proposed catchment development by the year 2030. The Tasmania Sustainable Yields Project (http://www.csiro.au/partnerships/TasSY.html) assessed current water availability through the application of rainfall-runoff models, river models, and recharge and groundwater models. These were calibrated to streamflow records and parameterised using estimates of current groundwater and surface water extractions and use. Having derived a credible estimate of current water availability, the impacts of future climate change on water availability were determined through deriving changes in rainfall and potential evapotranspiration from 15 IPCC AR4 global climate models. These changes in rainfall were then dynamically downscaled using the CSIRO-CCAM model over the relatively small study area (50,000 square km). A future climate sequence was derived by modifying the historical 84-year climate sequence based on these changes in rainfall and potential evapotranspiration. This future climate sequence was then run through the rainfall-runoff, river, recharge and groundwater models to give an estimate of water availability under future climate. To estimate the impacts of future catchment development on water availability, the models were modified and re-run to reflect projected increases in development. Specifically, outputs from the rainfall-runoff and recharge models were reduced over areas of projected future plantation forestry. Conversely, groundwater recharge was increased over areas of new irrigated agriculture and new extractions of water for irrigation were

Quantifying Impacts of Food Trade on Water Availability Considering Water Sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oki, T.; Yano, S.; Hanasaki, N.

2012-12-01

Food production requires a lot of water, and traded food potentially has external impacts on environment through reducing the water availability in the producing region. Water footprint is supposed to be an indicator to reflect the impacts of water use. However, impacts of water use on environment, resource, and sustainability are different in place and time, and according to the sources of water withdrawals. Therefore it is preferable to characterize the water withdrawals or consumptions rather than just accumulate the total amount of water use when estimating water footprint. In this study, a new methodology, global green-water equivalent method, is proposed in which regional characterization factors are determined based on the estimates of natural hydrological cycles, such as precipitation, total runoff, and sub-surface runoff, and applied for green-water, river(+reservoir) water, and non-renewable ground water uses. Water footprint of the world associated with the production of 19 major crops was estimated using an integrated hydrological and water resources modeling system (H08), with atmospheric forcing data for 1991-2000 with spatial resolution of 0.5 by 0.5 longitudinal and latitudinal degrees. The impacts is estimated to be 6 times larger than the simple summation of green and blue water uses, and reflect the climatological water scarcity conditions geographically. The results can be used to compare the possible impacts of food trade associated with various crops from various regions on environment through reducing the availability of water resources in the cropping area.

Influences of climate change on water resources availability in Jinjiang Basin, China.

PubMed

Sun, Wenchao; Wang, Jie; Li, Zhanjie; Yao, Xiaolei; Yu, Jingshan

2014-01-01

The influences of climate change on water resources availability in Jinjiang Basin, China, were assessed using the Block-wise use of the TOPmodel with the Muskingum-Cunge routing method (BTOPMC) distributed hydrological model. The ensemble average of downscaled output from sixteen GCMs (General Circulation Models) for A1B emission scenario (medium CO2 emission) in the 2050s was adopted to build regional climate change scenario. The projected precipitation and temperature data were used to drive BTOPMC for predicting hydrological changes in the 2050s. Results show that evapotranspiration will increase in most time of a year. Runoff in summer to early autumn exhibits an increasing trend, while in the rest period of a year it shows a decreasing trend, especially in spring season. From the viewpoint of water resource availability, it is indicated that it has the possibility that water resources may not be sufficient to fulfill irrigation water demand in the spring season and one possible solution is to store more water in the reservoir in previous summer.

Influences of Climate Change on Water Resources Availability in Jinjiang Basin, China

PubMed Central

Wang, Jie; Li, Zhanjie; Yao, Xiaolei

2014-01-01

The influences of climate change on water resources availability in Jinjiang Basin, China, were assessed using the Block-wise use of the TOPmodel with the Muskingum-Cunge routing method (BTOPMC) distributed hydrological model. The ensemble average of downscaled output from sixteen GCMs (General Circulation Models) for A1B emission scenario (medium CO2 emission) in the 2050s was adopted to build regional climate change scenario. The projected precipitation and temperature data were used to drive BTOPMC for predicting hydrological changes in the 2050s. Results show that evapotranspiration will increase in most time of a year. Runoff in summer to early autumn exhibits an increasing trend, while in the rest period of a year it shows a decreasing trend, especially in spring season. From the viewpoint of water resource availability, it is indicated that it has the possibility that water resources may not be sufficient to fulfill irrigation water demand in the spring season and one possible solution is to store more water in the reservoir in previous summer. PMID:24701192

Enhanced monitoring of the temporal and spatial relationships between water demand and water availability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schneider, C. A.; Aggett, G. R.; Hattendorf, M. J.

2007-12-01

Better information on evapotranspiration (ET) is essential to better understanding of consumptive use of water by crops. RTi is using NASA Earth-sun System research results and METRIC (Mapping ET at high Resolution with Internalized Calibration) to increase the repeatability and accuracy of consumptive use estimates. METRIC, an image-processing model for calculating ET as a residual of the surface energy balance, utilizes the thermal band on various satellite remote sensors. Calculating actual ET from satellites can avoid many of the assumptions driving other methods of calculating ET over a large area. Because it is physically based and does not rely on explicit knowledge of crop type in the field, a large potential source of error should be eliminated. This paper assesses sources of error in current operational estimates of ET for an area of the South Platte irrigated lands of Colorado, and benchmarks potential improvements in the accuracy of ET estimates gained using METRIC, as well as the processing efficiency of consumptive use demand for large irrigated lands. Examples highlighting how better water planning decisions and water management can be achieved via enhanced monitoring of the temporal and spatial relationships between water demand and water availability are provided.

77 FR 45350 - Notice of Availability of Microbial Risk Assessment Guideline: Pathogenic Microorganisms With...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-07-31

... assessment. Although the focus of this guideline is microbial contamination of water and food, it will also...: Pathogenic Microorganisms With Focus on Food and Water AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ACTION: Notice of availability. SUMMARY: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Food Safety and...

Vulnerability Assessment of Water Supply Systems: Status, Gaps and Opportunities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wheater, H. S.

2015-12-01

Conventional frameworks for assessing the impacts of climate change on water resource systems use cascades of climate and hydrological models to provide 'top-down' projections of future water availability, but these are subject to high uncertainty and are model and scenario-specific. Hence there has been recent interest in 'bottom-up' frameworks, which aim to evaluate system vulnerability to change in the context of possible future climate and/or hydrological conditions. Such vulnerability assessments are generic, and can be combined with updated information from top-down assessments as they become available. While some vulnerability methods use hydrological models to estimate water availability, fully bottom-up schemes have recently been proposed that directly map system vulnerability as a function of feasible changes in water supply characteristics. These use stochastic algorithms, based on reconstruction or reshuffling methods, by which multiple water supply realizations can be generated under feasible ranges of change in water supply conditions. The paper reports recent successes, and points to areas of future improvement. Advances in stochastic modeling and optimization can address some technical limitations in flow reconstruction, while various data mining and system identification techniques can provide possibilities to better condition realizations for consistency with top-down scenarios. Finally, we show that probabilistic and Bayesian frameworks together can provide a potential basis to combine information obtained from fully bottom-up analyses with projections available from climate and/or hydrological models in a fully integrated risk assessment framework for deep uncertainty.

The potential impacts of biomass feedstock production on water resource availability.

PubMed

Stone, K C; Hunt, P G; Cantrell, K B; Ro, K S

2010-03-01

Biofuels are a major topic of global interest and technology development. Whereas bioenergy crop production is highly dependent on water, bioenergy development requires effective allocation and management of water. The objectives of this investigation were to assess the bioenergy production relative to the impacts on water resource related factors: (1) climate and weather impact on water supplies for biomass production; (2) water use for major bioenergy crop production; and (3) potential alternatives to improve water supplies for bioenergy. Shifts to alternative bioenergy crops with greater water demand may produce unintended consequences for both water resources and energy feedstocks. Sugarcane and corn require 458 and 2036 m(3) water/m(3) ethanol produced, respectively. The water requirements for corn grain production to meet the US-DOE Billion-Ton Vision may increase approximately 6-fold from 8.6 to 50.1 km(3). Furthermore, climate change is impacting water resources throughout the world. In the western US, runoff from snowmelt is occurring earlier altering the timing of water availability. Weather extremes, both drought and flooding, have occurred more frequently over the last 30 years than the previous 100 years. All of these weather events impact bioenergy crop production. These events may be partially mitigated by alternative water management systems that offer potential for more effective water use and conservation. A few potential alternatives include controlled drainage and new next-generation livestock waste treatment systems. Controlled drainage can increase water available to plants and simultaneously improve water quality. New livestock waste treatments systems offer the potential to utilize treated wastewater to produce bioenergy crops. New technologies for cellulosic biomass conversion via thermochemical conversion offer the potential for using more diverse feedstocks with dramatically reduced water requirements. The development of bioenergy

Impacts of Potential Changes in Land Use, Climate, and Water Use on Water Availability, Coastal Carolinas Region, Southeastern United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gurley, L. N.; Garcia, A. M.

2017-12-01

Sustainable growth in coastal areas with rapidly increasing populations, such as the coastal regions of North and South Carolina, relies on an understanding of the current state of coastal natural resources coupled with the ability to assess future impacts of changing coastal communities and resources. Changes in climate, water use, population, and land use (e.g. urbanization) will place additional stress on societal and ecological systems that are already competing for water resources. The potential effects of these stressors on water availability are not fully known. To meet societal and ecological needs, water resources management and planning efforts require estimates of likely impacts of population growth, land-use, and climate. Two Soil and Water Assessment (SWAT) hydrologic models were developed to help address the challenges that water managers face in the Carolinas: the (1) Cape Fear and (2) Pee Dee drainage basins. SWAT is a basin-scale, process-based watershed model with the capability of simulating water-management scenarios. Model areas were divided into two square mile sub-basins to evaluate ecological response at headwater streams. The sub-basins were subsequently divided into smaller, discrete hydrologic response units based on land use, slope, and soil type. Monthly and annual water-use data were used for 2000 to 2014 and included estimates of municipal, industrial, agricultural, and commercial water use. Models were calibrated for 2000 to 2014 and potential future streamflows were estimated through 2060 based on a suite of scenarios that integrated land use change projections, climate projections and water-use forecasts. The approaches and new techniques developed as part of this research could be applied to other coastal areas that face similar current and future water availability demands.

Using global Climate Impact Indicators to assess water resource availability in a Mediterranean mountain catchment: the Sierra Nevada study case (Spain) in the SWICCA platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

José Pérez-Palazón, María; Pimentel, Rafael; Sáenz de Rodrigáñez, Marta; Gulliver, Zacarias; José Polo, María

2017-04-01

Climate services provide water resource managements and users with science-based information on the likely impacts associated to the future climate scenarios. Mountainous areas are especially vulnerable to climate variations due to the expected changes in the snow regime, among others; in Mediterranean regions, this shift involves significant effects on the river flow regime and water resource availability and management. The Guadalfeo River Basin is a 1345 km2 mountainous, coastal catchment in southern Spain, ranging from the Mediterranean Sea coastline to the Sierra Nevada mountains to the north (up to 3450 m a.s.l.) within a 40-km distance. The climate variability adds complexity to this abrupt topography and heterogeneous area. The uncertainty associated to snow occurrence and persistence for the next decades poses a challenge for the current and future water resource uses in the area. The development of easy-to-use local climate indicators and derived decision-making variables is key to assess and face the economic impact of the potential changes. The SWICCA (Service for Water Indicators in Climate Change Adaptation) Platform (http://swicca.climate.copernicus.eu/) has been developed under the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and provides global climate and hydrology indicators on a Pan-European scale. Different case studies are included to assess the platform development and contents, and analyse the indicators' performance from a proof-of-concept approach that includes end-users feedbacks. The Guadalfeo River Basin is one of these case studies. This work presents the work developed so far to analyse and use the SWICCA Climate Impact Indicators (CIIs) related to river flow in this mountainous area, and the first set of local indicators specifically designed to assess selected end-users on the potential impact associated to different climate scenarios. Different CIIs were extracted from the SWICCA interface and tested against the local information

Conducting Source Water Assessments

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This page presents background information on the source water assessment steps, the four steps of a source wter assessment, and how to use the results of an assessment to protect drinking water sources.

An Index-Based Assessment of Agricultural Water Scarcity for Sustainable Water Resource Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, S. E.; Lee, D. K.; Kim, K. S.; Hyun, S.; Kim, Y.

2017-12-01

Global precipitation pattern is changing due to climate change, causing drought and water scarcity all around the world. As water is mandatory to all lives, water availability is becoming essential and so is sustainable water resource management. Especially in agriculture, water resource management is crucial, as it is directly connected to the production. However, many studies about water scarcity show limits by focusing on current situation and overlooking future possibilities of water availability. Also, most of the studies about water scarcity use single index or model. To overcome these shortcomings, we assessed agricultural water scarcity considering future climate, using water scarcity indices. We assessed present and future water scarcity using several indices and compared the results derived from each index. The study area of this research is South Korea, as drought is a prominent problem in agricultural sector. Precipitation in Korea is concentrated in summer, causing severe drought in spring and fall. Rainfall density in Korea is increasing with climate change, and sustainable water resource management is inevitable. In this research, we used irrigational demand along with current and future crop production of 2030 and 2050 as water demand. We projected the future (2020-2100) runoff of dams located in Korea as water demand under future scenarios, RCP 4.5 and 8.5. The result showed severe water scarcity in Southern area of Korea both in the present and the future. It was due to increase of water demand and decrease of precipitation. It indicates that the water scarcity gets more intense in the future, and emphasizes the importance of water resource management of the southern part. This research will be valuable in establishing water resource management in agricultural sector for sustainable water availability in the future.

76 FR 36143 - Central Utah Project Completion Act: Availability of Draft Environmental Assessment; Block Notice...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-21

... DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Central Utah Project Completion Act: Availability of Draft Environmental Assessment; Block Notice 1A, Heber Sub-Area Irrigation to M&I Water Conversion, Wasatch County, UT AGENCY: Department of the Interior, Office of the Assistant Secretary-- Water and Science. ACTION: Notice...

Toxicological and ecotoxicological assessment of water tracers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Behrens, H.; Beims, U.; Dieter, H.; Dietze, G.; Eikmann, T.; Grummt, T.; Hanisch, H.; Henseling, H.; Käß, W.; Kerndorff, H.; Leibundgut, C.; Müller-Wegener, U.; Rönnefahrt, I.; Scharenberg, B.; Schleyer, R.; Schloz, W.; Tilkes, F.

2001-06-01

Uncertainties regarding possible negative effects on the environment or on human health of authorizing tracing experiments in groundwater and surface waters led to the establishment of a Working Group at the German Federal Environmental Agency (Umweltbundesamt - UBA) for conducting a toxicological and ecotoxicological assessment. A total of 17 water tracers was assessed by the Working Group on the basis of the results of toxicological tests, the available literature, and the group's expert knowledge. In the future, tracers that pose a risk to the environment or to human health should no longer be used. Nevertheless, there are a number of tracers that could be used in hydrogeological and hydrological investigations for water-pollution-control purposes with no adverse environmental impact.

Topographic, edaphic, and vegetative controls on plant-available water

USGS Publications Warehouse

Dymond, Salli F.; Bradford, John B.; Bolstad, Paul V.; Kolka, Randall K.; Sebestyen, Stephen D.; DeSutter, Thomas S.

2017-01-01

Soil moisture varies within landscapes in response to vegetative, physiographic, and climatic drivers, which makes quantifying soil moisture over time and space difficult. Nevertheless, understanding soil moisture dynamics for different ecosystems is critical, as the amount of water in a soil determines a myriad ecosystem services and processes such as net primary productivity, runoff, microbial decomposition, and soil fertility. We investigated the patterns and variability in in situ soil moisture measurements converted to plant-available water across time and space under different vegetative cover types and topographic positions at the Marcell Experimental Forest (Minnesota, USA). From 0 – 228.6 cm soil depth, plant-available water was significantly higher under the hardwoods (12%), followed by the aspen (8%) and red pine (5%) cover types. Across the same soil depth, toeslopes were wetter (mean plant-available water = 10%) than ridges and backslopes (mean plant-available water was 8%), although these differences were not statistically significant (p < 0.05). Using a mixed model of fixed and random effects, we found that cover type, soil texture, and time were related to plant-available water and that topography was not significantly related to plant-available water within this low-relief landscape. Additionally, during the three-year monitoring period, red pine and quaking aspen sites experienced plant-available water levels that may be considered limiting to plant growth and function. Given that increasing temperatures and more erratic precipitation patterns associated with climate change may result in decreased soil moisture in this region, these species may be sensitive and vulnerable to future shifts in climate.

Predicting and mapping soil available water capacity in Korea.

PubMed

Hong, Suk Young; Minasny, Budiman; Han, Kyung Hwa; Kim, Yihyun; Lee, Kyungdo

2013-01-01

The knowledge on the spatial distribution of soil available water capacity at a regional or national extent is essential, as soil water capacity is a component of the water and energy balances in the terrestrial ecosystem. It controls the evapotranspiration rate, and has a major impact on climate. This paper demonstrates a protocol for mapping soil available water capacity in South Korea at a fine scale using data available from surveys. The procedures combined digital soil mapping technology with the available soil map of 1:25,000. We used the modal profile data from the Taxonomical Classification of Korean Soils. The data consist of profile description along with physical and chemical analysis for the modal profiles of the 380 soil series. However not all soil samples have measured bulk density and water content at -10 and -1500 kPa. Thus they need to be predicted using pedotransfer functions. Furthermore, water content at -10 kPa was measured using ground samples. Thus a correction factor is derived to take into account the effect of bulk density. Results showed that Andisols has the highest mean water storage capacity, followed by Entisols and Inceptisols which have loamy texture. The lowest water retention is Entisols which are dominated by sandy materials. Profile available water capacity to a depth of 1 m was calculated and mapped for Korea. The western part of the country shows higher available water capacity than the eastern part which is mountainous and has shallower soils. The highest water storage capacity soils are the Ultisols and Alfisols (mean of 206 and 205 mm, respectively). Validation of the maps showed promising results. The map produced can be used as an indication of soil physical quality of Korean soils.

Is the available cropland and water enough for food demand? A global perspective of the Land-Water-Food nexus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ibarrola-Rivas, M. J.; Granados-Ramírez, R.; Nonhebel, S.

2017-12-01

Land and water are essential local resources for food production but are limited. The main drivers of increasing food demand are population growth and dietary changes, which depend on the socioeconomic situation of the population. These two factors affect the availability of local resources: population growth reduces the land and water per person; and adoption of affluent diets increases the demand for land and water per person. This study shows potentials of global food supply by linking food demand drivers with national land and water availability. Whether the available land and water is enough to meet national food demand was calculated for 187 countries. The calculations were performed for the past situation (1960 and 2010) and to assess four future scenarios (2050) to discuss different paths of diets, population numbers and agricultural expansion. Inclusion of the demand perspective in the analysis has shown stronger challenges for future global food supply than have other studies. The results show that with the "business as usual" scenario, 40% of the global population in 2050 will live in countries with not enough land nor water to meet the demands of their population. Restriction to basic diets will be the most effective in lowering both land and water constraints. Our results identify both food production and food demand factors, and the regions that may experience the strongest challenges in 2050.

INEEL Source Water Assessment

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sehlke, Gerald

2003-03-01

The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) covers approximately 890 mi2 and includes 12 public water systems that must be evaluated for Source water protection purposes under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Because of its size and location, six watersheds and five aquifers could potentially affect the INEEL’s drinking water sources. Based on a preliminary evaluation of the available information, it was determined that the Big Lost River, Birch Creek, and Little Lost River Watersheds and the eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer needed to be assessed. These watersheds were delineated using the United States Geologic Survey’s Hydrological Unit scheme.more » Well capture zones were originally estimated using the RESSQC module of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Well Head Protection Area model, and the initial modeling assumptions and results were checked by running several scenarios using Modflow modeling. After a technical review, the resulting capture zones were expanded to account for the uncertainties associated with changing groundwater flow directions, a thick vadose zone, and other data uncertainties. Finally, all well capture zones at a given facility were merged to a single wellhead protection area at each facility. A contaminant source inventory was conducted, and the results were integrated with the well capture zones, watershed and aquifer information, and facility information using geographic information system technology to complete the INEEL’s Source Water Assessment. Of the INEEL’s 12 public water systems, three systems rated as low susceptibility (EBR-I, Main Gate, and Gun Range), and the remainder rated as moderate susceptibility. No INEEL public water system rated as high susceptibility. We are using this information to develop a source water management plan from which we will subsequently implement an INEEL-wide source water management program. The results are a very robust set of wellhead protection areas that

Ground-water-quality assessment of the Carson River basin, Nevada and California; analysis of available water-quality data through 1987

USGS Publications Warehouse

Welch, A.H.; Plume, R.W.; Frick, E.A.; Hughes, J.L.

1989-01-01

Data on groundwater quality, hydrogeology, and land and water use for the Carson River basin, Nevada and California were analyzed as part of the U. S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment program. The basin consists of six hydrographic areas--a mountainous headwaters area and five downstream areas interconnected by the Carson River. Each valley contains one or more basin-fill aquifers. The data on groundwater quality came from several agencies and were screened to verify site location and to avoid analyses of treated water. The screened data are stored in the U. S. Geological Survey National Water Information System data base. Differences in sample-collection and preservation procedures among some of the data-collection agencies restrict use of the data to a descriptive analysis. Drinking water standards were employed as the basis for evaluating reported concentrations. Frequencies with which primary or secondary standards are exceeded increase from upstream parts of the basin to downstream parts. Primary standards commonly exceeded are fluoride in upstream areas and arsenic and fluoride in downstream areas. Secondary standards commonly exceeded are iron and manganese in upstream areas and chloride, dissolved solids, iron, manganese, and sulfate in downstream areas. The poorer-quality groundwater generally is a result of natural geochemical reactions, rather than the introduction of chemicals by man. Limited data indicate, however , that manmade organic compounds are present, mostly at or near urban land. (USGS)

WATER CHEMISTRY ASSESSMENT METHODS

EPA Science Inventory

This section summarizes and evaluates the surfce water column chemistry assessment methods for USEPA/EMAP-SW, USGS-NAQA, USEPA-RBP, Oho EPA, and MDNR-MBSS. The basic objective of surface water column chemistry assessment is to characterize surface water quality by measuring a sui...

Climate change impacts on water availability in the Red River Basin and critical areas for future water conservation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zamani Sabzi, H.; Moreno, H. A.; Neeson, T. M.; Rosendahl, D. H.; Bertrand, D.; Xue, X.; Hong, Y.; Kellog, W.; Mcpherson, R. A.; Hudson, C.; Austin, B. N.

2017-12-01

Previous periods of severe drought followed by exceptional flooding in the Red River Basin (RRB) have significantly affected industry, agriculture, and the environment in the region. Therefore, projecting how climate may change in the future and being prepared for potential impacts on the RRB is crucially important. In this study, we investigated the impacts of climate change on water availability across the RRB. We used three down-scaled global climate models and three potential greenhouse gas emission scenarios to assess precipitation, temperature, streamflow and lake levels throughout the RRB from 1961 to 2099 at a spatial resolution of 1/10°. Unit-area runoff and streamflow were obtained using the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model applied across the entire basin. We found that most models predict less precipitation in the western side of the basin and more in the eastern side. In terms of temperature, the models predict that average temperature could increase as much as 6°C. Most models project slightly more precipitation and streamflow values in the future, specifically in the eastern side of the basin. Finally, we analyzed the projected meteorological and hydrologic parameters alongside regional water demand for different sectors to identify the areas on the RRB that will need water-environmental conservation actions in the future. These hotspots of future low water availability are locations where regional environmental managers, water policy makers, and the agricultural and industrial sectors must proactively prepare to deal with declining water availability over the coming decades.

Assessing rural small community water supply in Limpopo, South Africa: water service benchmarks and reliability.

PubMed

Majuru, Batsirai; Jagals, Paul; Hunter, Paul R

2012-10-01

Although a number of studies have reported on water supply improvements, few have simultaneously taken into account the reliability of the water services. The study aimed to assess whether upgrading water supply systems in small rural communities improved access, availability and potability of water by assessing the water services against selected benchmarks from the World Health Organisation and South African Department of Water Affairs, and to determine the impact of unreliability on the services. These benchmarks were applied in three rural communities in Limpopo, South Africa where rudimentary water supply services were being upgraded to basic services. Data were collected through structured interviews, observations and measurement, and multi-level linear regression models were used to assess the impact of water service upgrades on key outcome measures of distance to source, daily per capita water quantity and Escherichia coli count. When the basic system was operational, 72% of households met the minimum benchmarks for distance and water quantity, but only 8% met both enhanced benchmarks. During non-operational periods of the basic service, daily per capita water consumption decreased by 5.19l (p<0.001, 95% CI 4.06-6.31) and distances to water sources were 639 m further (p ≤ 0.001, 95% CI 560-718). Although both rudimentary and basic systems delivered water that met potability criteria at the sources, the quality of stored water sampled in the home was still unacceptable throughout the various service levels. These results show that basic water services can make substantial improvements to water access, availability, potability, but only if such services are reliable. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

User's Guide to the Water-Analysis Screening Tool (WAST): A Tool for Assessing Available Water Resources in Relation to Aquatic-Resource Uses

USGS Publications Warehouse

Stuckey, Marla H.; Kiesler, James L.

2008-01-01

A water-analysis screening tool (WAST) was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, in partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, to provide an initial screening of areas in the state where potential problems may exist related to the availability of water resources to meet current and future water-use demands. The tool compares water-use information to an initial screening criteria of the 7-day, 10-year low-flow statistic (7Q10) resulting in a screening indicator for influences of net withdrawals (withdrawals minus discharges) on aquatic-resource uses. This report is intended to serve as a guide for using the screening tool. The WAST can display general basin characteristics, water-use information, and screening-indicator information for over 10,000 watersheds in the state. The tool includes 12 primary functions that allow the user to display watershed information, edit water-use and water-supply information, observe effects downstream from edited water-use information, reset edited values to baseline, load new water-use information, save and retrieve scenarios, and save output as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

Assessment of Shallow-Water Habitat Availability in Modified Dike Structures, Lower Missouri River, 2004

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jacobson, Robert B.; Elliott, Caroline M.; Johnson, Harold E.

2004-01-01

This study documented the effects of wing-dike notching on the availabilit of shallow water habitat in the Lower Missouri River. Five wing dikes were surveyed in late May 2004 after they were notched in early May as part of shallow-water habitat (SWH) rehabilitation activities undertaken by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Surveys included high-resolution hydroacoustic depth, velocity, and substrate mapping. Relations of bottom elevations within the wing dike fields to index discharges and water-surface elevations indicate that little habitat meeting the SWH definition was created immediately following notching. This result is not unexpected, as significant geomorphic adjustment may require large flow events. Depth, velocity, and substrate measurements in the post-rehabilitation time period provide baseline data for monitoring ongoing changes. Differences in elevation and substrate were noted at all sites. Most dike fields showed substantial aggradation and replacement of mud substrate with sandier sediment, although the changes did not result in increased availability of SWH at the index discharge. It is not known how much of the elevation and substrate changes can be attributed directly to notching and how much would result from normal sediment transport variation.

When vegetation change alters ecosystem water availability

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The combined effects of vegetation and climate change on biosphere-atmosphere water vapor (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) exchanges are expected to vary depending, in part, on how biotic activity is controlled by and alters water availability. This is particularly important when a change in ecosystem...

An integrated model for the assessment of global water resources Part 2: Applications and assessments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanasaki, N.; Kanae, S.; Oki, T.; Masuda, K.; Motoya, K.; Shirakawa, N.; Shen, Y.; Tanaka, K.

2008-07-01

To assess global water resources from the perspective of subannual variation in water availability and water use, an integrated water resources model was developed. In a companion report, we presented the global meteorological forcing input used to drive the model and six modules, namely, the land surface hydrology module, the river routing module, the crop growth module, the reservoir operation module, the environmental flow requirement module, and the anthropogenic withdrawal module. Here, we present the results of the model application and global water resources assessments. First, the timing and volume of simulated agriculture water use were examined because agricultural use composes approximately 85% of total consumptive water withdrawal in the world. The estimated crop calendar showed good agreement with earlier reports for wheat, maize, and rice in major countries of production. In major countries, the error in the planting date was ±1 mo, but there were some exceptional cases. The estimated irrigation water withdrawal also showed fair agreement with country statistics, but tended to be underestimated in countries in the Asian monsoon region. The results indicate the validity of the model and the input meteorological forcing because site-specific parameter tuning was not used in the series of simulations. Finally, global water resources were assessed on a subannual basis using a newly devised index. This index located water-stressed regions that were undetected in earlier studies. These regions, which are indicated by a gap in the subannual distribution of water availability and water use, include the Sahel, the Asian monsoon region, and southern Africa. The simulation results show that the reservoir operations of major reservoirs (>1 km3) and the allocation of environmental flow requirements can alter the population under high water stress by approximately -11% to +5% globally. The integrated model is applicable to assessments of various global

Water Quality Assessment of Ayeyarwady River in Myanmar

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thatoe Nwe Win, Thanda; Bogaard, Thom; van de Giesen, Nick

2015-04-01

Myanmar's socio-economic activities, urbanisation, industrial operations and agricultural production have increased rapidly in recent years. With the increase of socio-economic development and climate change impacts, there is an increasing threat on quantity and quality of water resources. In Myanmar, some of the drinking water coverage still comes from unimproved sources including rivers. The Ayeyarwady River is the main river in Myanmar draining most of the country's area. The use of chemical fertilizer in the agriculture, the mining activities in the catchment area, wastewater effluents from the industries and communities and other development activities generate pollutants of different nature. Therefore water quality monitoring is of utmost importance. In Myanmar, there are many government organizations linked to water quality management. Each water organization monitors water quality for their own purposes. The monitoring is haphazard, short term and based on individual interest and the available equipment. The monitoring is not properly coordinated and a quality assurance programme is not incorporated in most of the work. As a result, comprehensive data on the water quality of rivers in Myanmar is not available. To provide basic information, action is needed at all management levels. The need for comprehensive and accurate assessments of trends in water quality has been recognized. For such an assessment, reliable monitoring data are essential. The objective of our work is to set-up a multi-objective surface water quality monitoring programme. The need for a scientifically designed network to monitor the Ayeyarwady river water quality is obvious as only limited and scattered data on water quality is available. However, the set-up should also take into account the current socio-economic situation and should be flexible to adjust after first years of monitoring. Additionally, a state-of-the-art baseline river water quality sampling program is required which

Aggregating available soil water holding capacity data for crop yield models

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Seubert, C. E.; Daughtry, C. S. T.; Holt, D. A.; Baumgardner, M. F.

1984-01-01

The total amount of water available to plants that is held against gravity in a soil is usually estimated as the amount present at -0.03 MPa average water potential minus the amount present at -1.5 MPa water potential. This value, designated available water-holding capacity (AWHC), is a very important soil characteristic that is strongly and positively correlated to the inherent productivity of soils. In various applications, including assessing soil moisture status over large areas, it is necessary to group soil types or series as to their productivity. Current methods to classify AWHC of soils consider only total capacity of soil profiles and thus may group together soils which differ greatly in AWHC as a function of depth in the profile. A general approach for evaluating quantitatively the multidimensional nature of AWHC in soils is described. Data for 902 soil profiles, representing 184 soil series, in Indiana were obtained from the Soil Characterization Laboratory at Purdue University. The AWHC for each of ten 150-mm layers in each soil was established, based on soil texture and parent material. A multivariate clustering procedure was used to classify each soil profile into one of 4, 8, or 12 classes based upon ten-dimensional AWHC values. The optimum number of classes depends on the range of AWHC in the population of oil profiles analyzed and on the sensitivity of a crop to differences in distribution of water within the soil profile.

Ground-water quality assessment of the Georgia-Florida Coastal Plain study unit; analysis of available information on nutrients, 1972-92

USGS Publications Warehouse

Berndt, M.P.

1996-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey is conducting an assessment of water quality in the Georgia-Florida Coastal Plain study unit as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program. An initial activity of the program is to compile and analyze existing water-quality data for nutrients in each study unit. Ground-water quality data were compiled from three data sources, the U.S. Geological Survey, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and Georgia Geologic Survey. A total of 2,246 samples of ground water nutrient data for nitrogen and phosphorus species were compiled from these three data sources. Estimates of 1990 nitrogen and phosphorus inputs by county in the study area were calculated from livestock manure, fertilizers, septic tanks, and rainfall. Data for nitrate nitrogen concentrations in ground water were available from the greatest number of wells; samples from 1,233 wells were available in the U.S. Geological Survey, 820 wells from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and 680 wells from the Georgia Geologic Survey. The maximum contaminant level for nitrate nitrogen in drinking water of 10 milligrams per liter was exceeded in a higher percentage of samples from the U.S. Geological Survey, mostly because this data contained numerous samples near known contamination areas. The maximum contaminant level for nitrate nitrogen was exceeded in 3 percent of samples from Upper Floridan aquifer and 12 percent of samples from surficial aquifer system in U.S. Geological Survey data and less than 1 percent and 2 percent of samples from the Upper Floridan aquifer and surficial aquifer system, respectively, in Florida Department of Environmental Protection data. In Georgia Geologic Survey data, 1 percent of samples had concentrations of nitrate nitrogen exceeding 10 milligrams per liter. Nutrient concentration data were grouped into categories based on land use, hydrogeology (aquifer and confinement of the Upper Floridan aquifer), and land resource

The Great Lakes Water Balance: Data availability and annotated bibliography of selected references

USGS Publications Warehouse

Neff, Brian P.; Killian, Jason R.

2003-01-01

Water balance calculations for the Great Lakes have been made for several decades and are a key component of Great Lakes water management. Despite the importance of the water balance, little has been done to inventory and describe the data available for use in water balance calculations. This report provides a catalog and brief description of major datasets that are used to calculate the Great Lakes water balance. Several additional datasets are identified that could be used to calculate parts of the water balance but currently are not being used. Individual offices and web pages that are useful for attaining these datasets are included. Four specific data gaps are also identified. An annotated bibliography of important publications dealing with the Great Lakes water balance is included. The findings of this investigation permit resource managers and scientists to access data more easily, assess shortcomings of current datasets, and identify which data are not currently being utilized in water balance calculations.

Water data to answer urgent water policy questions: Monitoring design, available data, and filling data gaps for determining whether shale gas development activities contaminate surface water or groundwater in the Susquehanna River Basin

USGS Publications Warehouse

Betanzo, Elin A.; Hagen, Erik R.; Wilson, John T.; Reckhow, Kenneth H.; Hayes, Laura; Argue, Denise M.; Cangelosi, Allegra A.

2016-01-01

Throughout its history, the United States has made major investments in assessing natural resources, such as soils, timber, oil and gas, and water. These investments allow policy makers, the private sector and the American public to make informed decisions about cultivating, harvesting or conserving these resources to maximize their value for public welfare, environmental conservation and the economy. As policy issues evolve, new priorities and challenges arise for natural resource assessment, and new approaches to monitoring are needed. For example, new technologies for oil and gas development or alternative energy sources may present new risks for water resources both above and below ground. There is a need to evaluate whether today’s water monitoring programs are generating the information needed to answer questions surrounding these new policy priorities. The Northeast-Midwest Institute (NEMWI), in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program, initiated this project to explore the types and amounts of water data needed to address water-quality related policy questions of critical concern to today’s policy makers and whether those data are currently available. The collaborating entities identified two urgent water policy questions and conducted case studies in the Northeast-Midwest region to determine the water data needed, water data available, and the best ways to fill the data gaps relative to those questions. This report details the output from one case study and focuses on the Susquehanna River Basin, a data-rich area expected to be a best-case scenario in terms of water data availability.

Sensitivities and Tipping Points of Power System Operations to Fluctuations Caused by Water Availability and Fuel Prices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Connell, M.; Macknick, J.; Voisin, N.; Fu, T.

2017-12-01

The western US electric grid is highly dependent upon water resources for reliable operation. Hydropower and water-cooled thermoelectric technologies represent 67% of generating capacity in the western region of the US. While water resources provide a significant amount of generation and reliability for the grid, these same resources can represent vulnerabilities during times of drought or low flow conditions. A lack of water affects water-dependent technologies and can result in more expensive generators needing to run in order to meet electric grid demand, resulting in higher electricity prices and a higher cost to operate the grid. A companion study assesses the impact of changes in water availability and air temperatures on power operations by directly derating hydro and thermo-electric generators. In this study we assess the sensitivities and tipping points of water availability compared with higher fuel prices in electricity sector operations. We evaluate the impacts of varying electricity prices by modifying fuel prices for coal and natural gas. We then analyze the difference in simulation results between changes in fuel prices in combination with water availability and air temperature variability. We simulate three fuel price scenarios for a 2010 baseline scenario along with 100 historical and future hydro-climate conditions. We use the PLEXOS electricity production cost model to optimize power system dispatch and cost decisions under each combination of fuel price and water constraint. Some of the metrics evaluated are total production cost, generation type mix, emissions, transmission congestion, and reserve procurement. These metrics give insight to how strained the system is, how much flexibility it still has, and to what extent water resource availability or fuel prices drive changes in the electricity sector operations. This work will provide insights into current electricity operations as well as future cases of increased penetration of variable

Assessment of water quality from water harvesting using small farm reservoir for irrigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dewi, W. S.; Komariah; Samsuri, I. Y.; Senge, M.

2018-03-01

This study aims to assess the quality of rainfall-runoff water harvesting using small farm reservoir (SFR) for irrigation. Water quality assessment criteria based on RI Government Regulation number 82 the year 2001 on Water Quality Management and Pollution Control, and FAO Irrigation Water Quality Guidelines 1985. The experiment was conducted in the dry land of Wonosari Village, Gondangrejo District, Karanganyar Regency. SFR size was 10 m x 3 m x 2 m. Water quality measurements are done every week, ten times. Water samples were taken at 6 points, namely: distance of 2.5 m, 5 m, and 7.5 m from the inlet, at depth 25 cm and 175 cm from surface water. In each sampling point replicated three times. Water quality parameters include dissolved oxygen (DO), Turbidity (TSS), water pH, Nitrate (NO3), and Phosphate. The results show that water harvesting that collected in SFR meets both standards quality used, so the water is feasible for agricultural irrigation. The average value of harvested water was DO 2.6 mg/l, TSS 62.7 mg/l, pH 6.6, P 5.3 mg/l and NO3 0.16 mg/l. Rainfall-runoff water harvesting using SFR prospectus for increasing save water availability for irrigation.

Estimated water use and availability in the East Narragansett Bay study area, Rhode Island, 1995-99

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wild, Emily C.

2007-01-01

Water availability became a concern in Rhode Island during a drought in 1999, and further investigation was needed to assess the current demands on the hydrologic system from withdrawals during periods of little to no precipitation. The low ground-water levels and streamflows measured in Rhode Island prompted initiation of a series of studies on water use and availability in each major drainage area in Rhode Island for the period 1995–99. The investigation of the East Narragansett Bay area is the last of these studies. The East Narragansett Bay study area (130.9 square miles) includes small sections of the Ten Mile and Westport River Basins in Rhode Island. The area was divided into three regions (islands and contiguous land areas separated by the bay) within each of which the freshwater water use and availability were assessed. During the study period from 1995 through 1999, three major public water suppliers in the study area withdrew 7.601 million gallons per day (Mgal/d) from ground-water and surface-water reservoirs. The estimated water withdrawals by minor public water suppliers during the study period were 0.063 Mgal/d. Total self-supply domestic, industrial, commercial, and agricultural withdrawals from the study area averaged 1.891 Mgal/d. Total water use in the study area averaged 16.48 Mgal/d, of which about 8.750 Mgal/d was imported from other basins. The average return flow to freshwater within the basin was 2.591 Mgal/d, which included effluent from permitted facilities and septic systems. The average return flow to saltwater (Narragansett Bay) outside of the basin was about 45.21 Mgal/d and included discharges by permitted facilities (wastewater-treatment plants and Rhode Island Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems). The PART program, a computerized hydrographseparation application, was used for the data collected at two selected index stream-gaging stations in the East Narragansett Bay study area to determine water availability on the basis of

Assess water scarcity integrating water quantity and quality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, J.; Zeng, Z.

2014-12-01

Water scarcity has become widespread all over the world. Current methods for water scarcity assessment are mainly based on water quantity and seldom consider water quality. Here, we develop an approach for assessing water scarcity considering both water quantity and quality. In this approach, a new water scarcity index is used to describe the severity of water scarcity in the form of a water scarcity meter, which may help to communicate water scarcity to a wider audience. To illustrate the approach, we analyzed the historical trend of water scarcity for Beijing city in China during 1995-2009, as well as the assessment for different river basins in China. The results show that Beijing made a huge progress in mitigating water scarcity, and that from 1999 to 2009 the blue and grey water scarcity index decreased by 59% and 62%, respectively. Despite this progress, we demonstrate that Beijing is still characterized by serious water scarcity due to both water quantity and quality. The water scarcity index remained at a high value of 3.5 with a blue and grey water scarcity index of 1.2 and 2.3 in 2009 (exceeding the thresholds of 0.4 and 1, respectively). As a result of unsustainable water use and pollution, groundwater levels continue to decline, and water quality shows a continuously deteriorating trend. To curb this trend, future water policies should further decrease water withdrawal from local sources (in particular groundwater) within Beijing, and should limit the grey water footprint below the total amount of water resources.

Geothermal Water Use: Life Cycle Water Consumption, Water Resource Assessment, and Water Policy Framework

DOE Data Explorer

Schroeder, Jenna N.

2014-06-10

This report examines life cycle water consumption for various geothermal technologies to better understand factors that affect water consumption across the life cycle (e.g., power plant cooling, belowground fluid losses) and to assess the potential water challenges that future geothermal power generation projects may face. Previous reports in this series quantified the life cycle freshwater requirements of geothermal power-generating systems, explored operational and environmental concerns related to the geochemical composition of geothermal fluids, and assessed future water demand by geothermal power plants according to growth projections for the industry. This report seeks to extend those analyses by including EGS flash, both as part of the life cycle analysis and water resource assessment. A regional water resource assessment based upon the life cycle results is also presented. Finally, the legal framework of water with respect to geothermal resources in the states with active geothermal development is also analyzed.

Availability of ground water in the middle Merrimack River basin, central and southern New Hampshire

USGS Publications Warehouse

Cotton, J.E.

1976-01-01

Sufficient amounts of water to supply single family homes are available from the bedrock aquifer nearly everywhere in the middle Merrimack River basin in central and southern New Hampshire. Relatively this and narrow, unconsolidated aquifers of sand or sand and gravel commonly capable of yielding more than 200 gallons per minute to properly located and constructed wells are found only in major stream valleys. The map provides a preliminary assessment of the availability of ground water in the basin, as determined by estimating the capability of the aquifers to store and transmit water. On the map, aquifers are rated as having high, medium, or low potential to yield water. Ground water in the middle Merrimack River basin is generally of good chemical quality. Most of it is clear and colorless, contains no suspended matter and practically no bacteria, water may be affected by land-use practices. Degradation of water quality may occur in unsewered residential and village areas, near solid-waste-disposal sites, agricultural land, and major highways. (Woodard-USGS)

15 CFR 768.3 - Foreign availability assessment.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... availability assessment. A foreign availability assessment is an evidentiary analysis that BIS conducts to... if there is no foreign policy reason to deny the license, unless the President exercises a National... foreign policy controls may be considered independent of this part. (b) Types of assessments. There are...

78 FR 27233 - Clean Water Act: Availability of List Decisions

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-05-09

... ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY [FRL-9811-4] Clean Water Act: Availability of List Decisions... announces the availability of EPA's action identifying water quality limited segments and associated pollutants in Louisiana to be listed pursuant to Clean Water Act Section 303(d), and request for public...

USGS assessment of water and proppant requirements and water production associated with undiscovered petroleum in the Bakken and Three Forks Formations

USGS Publications Warehouse

Haines, Seth S.; Varela, Brian; Hawkins, Sarah J.; Gianoutsos, Nicholas J.; Tennyson, Marilyn E.

2017-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has conducted an assessment of water and proppant requirements, and water production volumes, associated with possible future production of undiscovered petroleum resources in the Bakken and Three Forks Formations, Williston Basin, USA. This water and proppant assessment builds directly from the 2013 USGS petroleum assessment for the Bakken and Three Forks Formations, and it has been conducted using a new water and proppant assessment methodology that builds from the established USGS methodology for assessment of undiscovered petroleum in continuous reservoirs. We determined the assessment input values through extensive analysis of available data on per-well water and proppant use for hydraulic fracturing, including trends over time and space. We determined other assessment inputs through analysis of regional water-production trends.

Uncertainties in Past and Future Global Water Availability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sheffield, J.; Kam, J.

2014-12-01

Understanding how water availability changes on inter-annual to decadal time scales and how it may change in the future under climate change are a key part of understanding future stresses on water and food security. Historic evaluations of water availability on regional to global scales are generally based on large-scale model simulations with their associated uncertainties, in particular for long-term changes. Uncertainties are due to model errors and missing processes, parameter uncertainty, and errors in meteorological forcing data. Recent multi-model inter-comparisons and impact studies have highlighted large differences for past reconstructions, due to different simplifying assumptions in the models or the inclusion of physical processes such as CO2 fertilization. Modeling of direct anthropogenic factors such as water and land management also carry large uncertainties in their physical representation and from lack of socio-economic data. Furthermore, there is little understanding of the impact of uncertainties in the meteorological forcings that underpin these historic simulations. Similarly, future changes in water availability are highly uncertain due to climate model diversity, natural variability and scenario uncertainty, each of which dominates at different time scales. In particular, natural climate variability is expected to dominate any externally forced signal over the next several decades. We present results from multi-land surface model simulations of the historic global availability of water in the context of natural variability (droughts) and long-term changes (drying). The simulations take into account the impact of uncertainties in the meteorological forcings and the incorporation of water management in the form of reservoirs and irrigation. The results indicate that model uncertainty is important for short-term drought events, and forcing uncertainty is particularly important for long-term changes, especially uncertainty in precipitation due

Availability of Water in the Kabul Basin, Afghanistan

USGS Publications Warehouse

Mack, Thomas J.; Chornack, Michael P.; Coplen, T.B.; Plummer, Niel; Rezai, M.T.; Verstraeten, Ingrid M.

2010-01-01

The availability of water resources is vital to the social and economic well being and rebuilding of Afghanistan. Kabul City currently (2010) has a population of nearly 4 million and is growing rapidly as a result of periods of relative security and the return of refugees. Population growth and recent droughts have placed new stresses on the city's limited water resources and have caused many wells to become contaminated, dry, or inoperable in recent years. The projected vulnerability of Central and West Asia to climate change (Cruz and others, 2007; Milly and others, 2005) and observations of diminishing glaciers in Afghanistan (Molnia, 2009) have heightened concerns for future water availability in the Kabul Basin of Afghanistan.

Water-saving interventions assessment framework: an application for the Urmia Lake Restoration Program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shadkam, Somayeh; Oel, Pieter; Kabat, Pavel; Ludwig, Fulco

2017-04-01

Increasing water demand often results in unsustainable water use leaving insufficient amounts of water for sustaining natural environments. Therefore, to save natural resources water-saving interventions have been introduced to the environmental policy agenda in many (semi)-arid regions. Many policies, however, have failed reaching their objectives to increase water availability for the environment. This calls for a comprehensive tool to assess water-saving policies. Therefore, this study introduces a constructive framework to assess the policies by estimating five components: 1) Total water demand under socio-economic scenarios, 2) Water supply under climate change scenarios, 3) Water withdrawal for different sectors, 4) Water depletion and 5) Environmental flow. The framework, was applied to assess Urmia Lake Restoration Program (ULRP), which aims to restore the drying Urmia Lake in north-western Iran by increasing the lake inflow by 3.1×106m3yr-1. Results suggest that although the ULRP helps to increase inflow by up to 57% it is unlikely to fully reach its target. The analysis shows that there are three main reasons for the potential poor performance. The first reason is decreasing return flows due to increasing irrigation efficiency. This means that the expected increase in lake inflow volume is smaller than the volume saved by increasing irrigation efficiency. The second reason is increased depletion which is due to neglecting the fact that agricultural water demand is currently higher than available water for agriculture. As a result, increasing water use efficiency may result in increased water depletion. The third reason is ignoring the potential impact of climate change, which might decrease future water availability by 3% to 15%. Our analysis suggests that to reach the intervention target, measures need to focus on reducing Water demand and Water depletion rather than on reducing Water withdrawals. The assessment framework can be used to comprehensively

Regional scaling of annual mean precipitation and water availability with global temperature change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Greve, Peter; Gudmundsson, Lukas; Seneviratne, Sonia I.

2018-03-01

Changes in regional water availability belong to the most crucial potential impacts of anthropogenic climate change, but are highly uncertain. It is thus of key importance for stakeholders to assess the possible implications of different global temperature thresholds on these quantities. Using a subset of climate model simulations from the fifth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5), we derive here the sensitivity of regional changes in precipitation and in precipitation minus evapotranspiration to global temperature changes. The simulations span the full range of available emission scenarios, and the sensitivities are derived using a modified pattern scaling approach. The applied approach assumes linear relationships on global temperature changes while thoroughly addressing associated uncertainties via resampling methods. This allows us to assess the full distribution of the simulations in a probabilistic sense. Northern high-latitude regions display robust responses towards wetting, while subtropical regions display a tendency towards drying but with a large range of responses. Even though both internal variability and the scenario choice play an important role in the overall spread of the simulations, the uncertainty stemming from the climate model choice usually accounts for about half of the total uncertainty in most regions. We additionally assess the implications of limiting global mean temperature warming to values below (i) 2 K or (ii) 1.5 K (as stated within the 2015 Paris Agreement). We show that opting for the 1.5 K target might just slightly influence the mean response, but could substantially reduce the risk of experiencing extreme changes in regional water availability.

Potential climate change impacts on water availability and cooling water demand in the Lusatian Lignite Mining Region, Central Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pohle, Ina; Koch, Hagen; Gädeke, Anne; Grünewald, Uwe; Kaltofen, Michael; Redetzky, Michael

2014-05-01

In the catchments of the rivers Schwarze Elster, Spree and Lusatian Neisse, hydrologic and socioeconomic systems are coupled via a complex water management system in which water users, reservoirs and water transfers are included. Lignite mining and electricity production are major water users in the region: To allow for open pit lignite mining, ground water is depleted and released into the river system while cooling water is used in the thermal power plants. In order to assess potential climate change impacts on water availability in the catchments as well as on the water demand of the thermal power plants, a climate change impact assessment was performed using the hydrological model SWIM and the long term water management model WBalMo. The potential impacts of climate change were considered by using three regional climate change scenarios of the statistical regional climate model STAR assuming a further temperature increase of 0, 2 or 3 K by the year 2050 in the region respectively. Furthermore, scenarios assuming decreasing mining activities in terms of a decreasing groundwater depression cone, lower mining water discharges, and reduced cooling water demand of the thermal power plants are considered. In the standard version of the WBalMo model cooling water demand is considered as static with regard to climate variables. However, changes in the future cooling water demand over time according to the plans of the local mining and power plant operator are considered. In order to account for climate change impacts on the cooling water demand of the thermal power plants, a dynamical approach for calculating water demand was implemented in WBalMo. As this approach is based on air temperature and air humidity, the projected air temperature and air humidity of the climate scenarios at the locations of the power plants are included in the calculation. Due to increasing temperature and decreasing precipitation declining natural and managed discharges, and hence a lower

A vulnerability assessment for water availability related to the impacts of climate change in Banyuasin Valley, South Sumatra, Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hamdani, Y.

2018-03-01

Banyuasin Valley region is located in lowland areas that is potentially subjected to hazard of flooding and submergence. The indication of reduction hazard in water availability is in the period of 2010 with decreasing value of Total Run Off at - 500 mm/year and in the period 2030 is the lowest decline of the region Banyuasin with a value of -100 mm/year. Tanjung Api-api port, built in this area, is feared to be vulnerable to the availability of clean water due to the impact of climate change. The vulnerability components consist of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. The formula means vulnerability to a certain hazard is strengthened by its exposure and its sensitivity and decreased by its adaptive capacity. The results of this study showed that water availability in the baseline condition is in low vulnerability (47.91%) whereas, at the projection condition, vulnerability is in the category of moderate vulnerability (81.28%).

75 FR 23221 - Availability of an Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for a Biological...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-05-03

...] Availability of an Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for a Biological Control Agent for Water Hyacinth AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY... the severity of water hyacinth infestations. Based on its finding of no significant impact, the Animal...

Estimated water use and availability in the South Coastal Drainage Basin, southern Rhode Island, 1995-99

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wild, Emily C.; Nimiroski, Mark T.

2005-01-01

The South Coastal Drainage Basin includes approximately 59.14 square miles in southern Rhode Island. The basin was divided into three subbasins to assess the water use and availability: the Saugatucket, Point Judith Pond, and the Southwestern Coastal Drainage subbasins. Because there is limited information on the ground-water system in this basin, the water use and availability evaluations for these subbasins were derived from delineated surface-water drainage areas. An assessment was completed to estimate water withdrawals, use, and return flow over a 5-year study period from 1995 through 1999 in the basin. During the study period, one major water supplier in the basin withdrew an average of 0.389 million gallons per day from the sand and gravel deposits. Most of the potable water is imported (about 2.152 million gallons per day) from the adjacent Pawcatuck Basin to the northwest. The estimated water withdrawals from the minor water suppliers, which are all in Charlestown, during the study period were 0.064 million gallons per day. The self-supplied domestic, industrial, commercial, and agricultural withdrawals from the basin were 0.574 million gallons per day. Water use in the basin was 2.874 million gallons per day. The average return flow in the basin was 1.190 million gallons per day, which was entirely from self-disposed water users. In this basin, wastewater from service collection areas was exported (about 1.139 million gallons per day) to the Narragansett Bay Drainage Basin for treatment and discharge. During times of little to no recharge, in the form of precipitation, the surface- and ground-water system flows are from storage primarily in the stratified sand and gravel deposits, although there is flow moving through the till deposits at a slower rate. The ground water discharging to the streams, during times of little to no precipitation, is referred to as base flow. The PART program, a computerized hydrograph-separation application, was used at the

Assessment of Long-term Irrigation Water Availability over Highly Managed and Economically Important Agricultural Region of the Columbia River Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barik, M. G.; Rushi, B. R.; Malek, K.; Rajagopalan, K.; Hall, S.; Kruger, C. E.; Brady, M.; Stockle, C.; Adam, J. C.

2016-12-01

Agriculture contributes about 12% in Washington State's economy. Water diverted from the Columbia River Basin (CRB) is the major source of irrigation water in this region. Although agriculture accounts for 80% of this state's total water withdrawal, this sector is the first to be curtailed (i.e., irrigators do not receive their full water right allocation) while there is a water shortage. This snow dominated region is already threatened by climate change. A robust regional-scale analysis of water supply, demand, unmet crop water requirements and associated impacts is critical to develop sustainable water resources plans under climate change. This study uses a dynamically-coupled hydrologic and cropping systems model, VIC-CropSyst, a reservoir management model, ColSim, and a water curtailment model to simulate changes in surface water irrigation demand projecting 30 years in the future in response to various climate, management and economic scenarios. Five downscaled climate scenarios for each of the IPCC's Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5 (rcp4.5) and 8.5 (rcp8.5) are selected in a way that they capture the projected spread of temperature and precipitation changes for the area. Results show an increase in total water availability across the CRB. Water availability is predicted to shift earlier in the season due to warming-induced snowpack reductions. Agricultural water demand is projected to decrease by approximately 5.0% (±0.7%) and 6.9% (±0.7%) respectively across the entire CRB and the Washington portion of the CRB by 2035. Irrigation demand is expected to shift earlier in the season along with water availability. This shift in demand may cause higher amount of early season irrigation water curtailment in some highly managed watersheds of the CRB in Washington State. This reduction and shift in demand is due to a warmer climate and an elevated atmospheric CO2 level which are leading to a shorter but early starting growing season. This study does not

Water availability and trachoma.

PubMed

West, S; Lynch, M; Turner, V; Munoz, B; Rapoza, P; Mmbaga, B B; Taylor, H R

1989-01-01

As part of an epidemiological survey of risk factors for trachoma in 20 villages in the United Republic of Tanzania, we investigated the relationship of village water pumps, distance to water source, and quantity of household water to the risk of inflammatory trachoma. We also evaluated whether there was an association between the cleanliness of children's faces and these water variables. No association was found between the presence of a village water supply and the prevalence of trachoma. However, the risk of trachoma in the household increased with the distance to a water source--although there was no association with the estimated daily amount of water brought into the house. Likewise, children were more likely to have unclean faces if they lived more than 30 minutes from a water source, but whether they had clean faces was not associated with the daily quantity of water brought into the household. The effect of the distance to water supply on trachoma may well reflect the value placed on water within the family, and this determines the priority for its use for hygiene purposes. The results of the study suggest that changing the access to water per se may be insufficient to alter the prevalence of trachoma without also a concomitant effort to change the perception of how water should be utilized in the home.

Reassessment of Ground-Water Recharge and Simulated Ground-Water Availability for the Hawi Area of North Kohala, Hawaii

USGS Publications Warehouse

Oki, Delwyn S.

2002-01-01

An estimate of ground-water availability in the Hawi area of north Kohala, Hawaii, is needed to determine whether ground-water resources are adequate to meet future demand within the area and other areas to the south. For the Hawi area, estimated average annual recharge from infiltration of rainfall, fog drip, and irrigation is 37.5 million gallons per day from a daily water budget. Low and high annual recharge estimates for the Hawi area that incorporate estimated uncertainty are 19.9 and 55.4 million gallons per day, respectively. The recharge estimates from this study are lower than the recharge of 68.4 million gallons per day previously estimated from a monthly water budget. Three ground-water models, using the low, intermediate, and high recharge estimates (19.9, 37.5, and 55.4 million gallons per day, respectively), were developed for the Hawi area to simulate ground-water levels and discharges for the 1990?s. To assess potential ground-water availability, the numerical ground-water flow models were used to simulate the response of the freshwater-lens system to withdrawals at rates in excess of the average 1990?s withdrawal rates. Because of uncertainty in the recharge estimate, estimates of ground-water availability also are uncertain. Results from numerical simulations indicate that for appropriate well sites, depths, and withdrawal rates (1) for the low recharge estimate (19.9 million gallons per day) it may be possible to develop an additional 10 million gallons per day of fresh ground water from the Hawi area and maintain a freshwater-lens thickness of 160 feet near the withdrawal sites, (2) for the intermediate recharge estimate (37.5 million gallons per day) it may be possible to develop an additional 15 million gallons per day of fresh ground water from the Hawi area and maintain a freshwater-lens thickness of 190 feet near the withdrawal sites, and (3) for the high recharge estimate (55.4 million gallons per day) it may be possible to develop at

Hydrologic models and analysis of water availability in Cuyama Valley, California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hanson, R.T.; Flint, Lorraine E.; Faunt, Claudia C.; Gibbs, Dennis R.; Schmid, Wolfgang

2014-01-01

Changes in population, agricultural development practices (including shifts to more water-intensive crops), and climate variability are placing increasingly larger demands on available water resources, particularly groundwater, in the Cuyama Valley, one of the most productive agricultural regions in Santa Barbara County. The goal of this study was to produce a model capable of being accurate at scales relevant to water management decisions that could be considered in the evaluation of the sustainable water supply. The Cuyama Valley Hydrologic Model (CUVHM) was designed to simulate the most important natural and human components of the hydrologic system, including components dependent on variations in climate, thereby providing a reliable assessment of groundwater conditions and processes that can inform water users and help to improve planning for future conditions. Model development included a revision of the conceptual model of the flow system, construction of a precipitation-runoff model using the Basin Characterization Model (BCM), and construction of an integrated hydrologic flow model with MODFLOW-One-Water Hydrologic Flow Model (MF-OWHM). The hydrologic models were calibrated to historical conditions of water and land use and, then, used to assess the use and movement of water throughout the Valley. These tools provide a means to understand the evolution of water use in the Valley, its availability, and the limits of sustainability. The conceptual model identified inflows and outflows that include the movement and use of water in both natural and anthropogenic systems. The groundwater flow system is characterized by a layered geologic sedimentary sequence that—in combination with the effects of groundwater pumping, natural recharge, and the application of irrigation water at the land surface—displays vertical hydraulic-head gradients. Overall, most of the agricultural demand for water in the Cuyama Valley in the initial part of the growing season is

Projections of water resources availability in Crete for the 21st century under the global change perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koutroulis, A. G.; Tsanis, I. K.; Jacob, D.

2012-04-01

A robust signal of a warmer and drier climate over the western Mediterranean region is projected from the majority of climate models. This effect appears more pronounced during warm periods, when the seasonal decrease of precipitation can exceed control climatology by 25-30%. The rapid development of Crete in the last 30 years has exerted strong pressures on the natural resources of the region. Urbanization and growth of agriculture, tourism and industry had strong impact on the water resources of island by substantially increasing water demand. The objective of this study is to analyze and assess the impact of global change on the water resources status for the island of Crete for a range of 24 different scenarios of projected hydro-climatological regime, demand and supply potential. Water resources application issues analyzed and facilitated within this study, focusing on a refinement of the future water demands of the island, and comparing with "state of the art" global climate model (GCM) results and an ensemble of regional climate models (RCMs) under three different emission scenarios, to estimate water resources availability, during the 21st century. A robust signal of water scarcity is projected for all the combinations of emission (A2, A1B and B1), demand and infrastructure scenarios. Despite the uncertainty of the assessments, the quantitative impact of the projected changes on water availability indicates that climate change plays an equally important role to water use and management in controlling future water status in a Mediterranean island like the island of Crete. The outcome of this analysis will assist in short and long-term strategic water resources planning by prioritizing water related infrastructure development.

WATER INFORMATION AVAILABLE FROM THE U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

USGS Publications Warehouse

Showen, Charles R.

1985-01-01

As a part of the Geological Survey's program of releasing water data to the public, two large-scale computerized systems are maintained. The National Water Data Storage and Retrieval System was developed to provide more effective and efficient management of data-releasing activities and provides for the processing, storage, and retrieval of surface-water, ground-water and water-quality data. Another service available is providing assistance to users of water data to identify, locate, and acquire needed data. This service is provided by the National Water Data Exchange, which has the mission to identify sources of water data and to provide the connection between those who acquire and those who use water data.

Impacts of Change in Irrigation Water Availability on Food Production in the Yellow River Basin under Climate Change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yin, Y. Y.; Tang, Q.

2014-12-01

Approximately 9 percent of China's population and 17 percent of its agricultural area are settled in the Yellow River Basins. Irrigation, which plays an important role in agricultural production, occupies the largest share of human consumptive water use in the basin. Given increasing water demands, the basin faces acute water scarcity. Previous studies have suggested that decrease in irrigation water availability under climate change might have an overall adverse impact on the food production of the basin. The timing and area that would face severe water stress are yet to be identified. We used a land surface hydrological model forced with the bias-corrected climatic variables from 5 climate models under 4 Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) to estimate total water availability in the sub-basins of the Yellow River basin. The future socioeconomic conditions, the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), were used to estimate the water requirement in the nonagricultural water use sectors. The irrigation water availability was estimated from the total water availability and nonagricultural water use, and the irrigation water demands were estimated based on the current irrigation project efficiencies. The timing and area of irrigation water shortage were shown and the implication of change in irrigation water availability on food production was assessed. The results show that the sub-basins with high population density and gross domestic product (GDP) are likely to confront severe water stress and reduction in food production earlier because irrigation water was to be appropriated by the rapid increase in nonagricultural water use sectors. The study stresses the need for adaptive management of water to balance agriculture and nonagricultural demands in northern China.

A Blue/Green Water-based Accounting Framework for Assessment of Water Security

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodrigues, D. B.; Gupta, H. V.; Mendiondo, E. M.

2013-12-01

A comprehensive assessment of water security can incorporate several water-related concepts, including provisioning and support for freshwater ecosystem services, water footprint, water scarcity, and water vulnerability, while accounting for Blue and Green Water (BW and GW) flows defined in accordance with the hydrological processes involved. Here, we demonstrate how a quantitative analysis of provisioning and demand (in terms of water footprint) for BW and GW ecosystem services can be conducted, so as to provide indicators of water scarcity and vulnerability at the basin level. To illustrate the approach, we use the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to model the hydrology of an agricultural basin (291 sq.km) within the Cantareira water supply system in Brazil. To provide a more comprehensive basis for decision-making, we compute the BW provision using three different hydrological-based methods for specifying monthly Environmental Flow Requirements (EFRs) for 23 year-period. The current BW-Footprint was defined using surface water rights for reference year 2012. Then we analyzed the BW- and GW-Footprints against long-term series of monthly values of freshwater availability. Our results reveal clear spatial and temporal patterns of water scarcity and vulnerability levels within the basin, and help to distinguish between human and natural reasons (drought) for conditions of insecurity. The Blue/Green water-based accounting framework developed here can be benchmarked at a range of spatial scales, thereby improving our understanding of how and where water-related threats to human and aquatic ecosystem security can arise. Future investigation will be necessary to better understand the intra-annual variability of blue water demand and to evaluate the impacts of uncertainties associated with a) the water rights database, b) the effects of climate change projections on blue and green freshwater provision.

Community exposure and vulnerability to water quality and availability: a case study in the mining-affected Pazña Municipality, Lake Poopó Basin, Bolivian Altiplano.

PubMed

French, Megan; Alem, Natalie; Edwards, Stephen J; Blanco Coariti, Efraín; Cauthin, Helga; Hudson-Edwards, Karen A; Luyckx, Karen; Quintanilla, Jorge; Sánchez Miranda, Oscar

2017-10-01

Assessing water sources for drinking and irrigation along with community vulnerability, especially in developing and rural regions, is important for reducing risk posed by poor water quality and limited water availability and accessibility. We present a case study of rural mining-agricultural communities in the Lake Poopó Basin, one of the poorest regions on the Bolivian Altiplano. Here, relatively low rainfall, high evaporation, salinization and unregulated mining activity have contributed to environmental degradation and water issues, which is a situation facing many Altiplano communities. Social data from 72 households and chemical water quality data from 27 surface water and groundwater sites obtained between August 2013 and July 2014 were used to develop locally relevant vulnerability assessment methodologies and ratings with respect to water availability and quality, and Chemical Water Quality Hazard Ratings to assess water quality status. Levels of natural and mining-related contamination in many waters (CWQHR ≥ 6; 78% of assessed sites) mean that effective remediation would be challenging and require substantial investment. Although waters of fair to good chemical quality (CWQHR ≤ 5; 22% of assessed sites) do exist, treatment may still be required depending on use, and access issues remain problematic. There is a need to comply with water quality legislation, improve and maintain basic water supply and storage infrastructure, build and operate water and wastewater treatment plants, and adequately and safely contain and treat mine waste. This study serves as a framework that could be used elsewhere for assessing and mitigating water contamination and availability affecting vulnerable populations.

Community exposure and vulnerability to water quality and availability: a case study in the mining-affected Pazña Municipality, Lake Poopó Basin, Bolivian Altiplano

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

French, Megan; Alem, Natalie; Edwards, Stephen J.; Blanco Coariti, Efraín; Cauthin, Helga; Hudson-Edwards, Karen A.; Luyckx, Karen; Quintanilla, Jorge; Sánchez Miranda, Oscar

2017-10-01

Assessing water sources for drinking and irrigation along with community vulnerability, especially in developing and rural regions, is important for reducing risk posed by poor water quality and limited water availability and accessibility. We present a case study of rural mining-agricultural communities in the Lake Poopó Basin, one of the poorest regions on the Bolivian Altiplano. Here, relatively low rainfall, high evaporation, salinization and unregulated mining activity have contributed to environmental degradation and water issues, which is a situation facing many Altiplano communities. Social data from 72 households and chemical water quality data from 27 surface water and groundwater sites obtained between August 2013 and July 2014 were used to develop locally relevant vulnerability assessment methodologies and ratings with respect to water availability and quality, and Chemical Water Quality Hazard Ratings to assess water quality status. Levels of natural and mining-related contamination in many waters (CWQHR ≥ 6; 78% of assessed sites) mean that effective remediation would be challenging and require substantial investment. Although waters of fair to good chemical quality (CWQHR ≤ 5; 22% of assessed sites) do exist, treatment may still be required depending on use, and access issues remain problematic. There is a need to comply with water quality legislation, improve and maintain basic water supply and storage infrastructure, build and operate water and wastewater treatment plants, and adequately and safely contain and treat mine waste. This study serves as a framework that could be used elsewhere for assessing and mitigating water contamination and availability affecting vulnerable populations.

Evaluating options for balancing the water-electricity nexus in California: part 1--securing water availability.

PubMed

Tarroja, Brian; AghaKouchak, Amir; Sobhani, Reza; Feldman, David; Jiang, Sunny; Samuelsen, Scott

2014-11-01

The technical potential and effectiveness of different water supply options for securing water availability in a large-scale, interconnected water supply system under historical and climate-change augmented inflow and demand conditions were compared. Part 1 of the study focused on determining the scale of the options required to secure water availability and compared the effectiveness of different options. A spatially and temporally resolved model of California's major surface reservoirs was developed, and its sensitivity to urban water conservation, desalination, and water reuse was examined. Potential capacities of the different options were determined. Under historical (baseline) hydrology conditions, many individual options were found to be capable of securing water availability alone. Under climate change augment conditions, a portfolio approach was necessary. The water savings from many individual options other than desalination were insufficient in the latter, however, relying on seawater desalination alone requires extreme capacity installations which have energy, brine disposal, management, and cost implications. The importance of identifying and utilizing points of leverage in the system for choosing where to deploy different options is also demonstrated. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Country-level assessment of future risk of water scarcity in Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garrote, Luis; Iglesias, Ana; Granados, Alfredo

2018-06-01

A methodology for regional assessment of current and future water availability in Europe is presented in this study. The methodology is based on a proposed indicator of risk of water scarcity based on the projections of runoff and water availability for European countries. The risk of water scarcity is the combined result of hydrological processes, which determine streamflow in natural conditions, and human intervention, which determines water management using the available hydraulic infrastructure and establishes water supply conditions through operating rules. Model results show that changes in runoff and availability obtained for individual GCM projections can be large and even contradictory. These heterogeneous results are summarized in the water scarcity risk index, a global value that accounts for the results obtained with the ensemble of model results and emission scenarios. The countries at larger risk are (in this order) Spain, Portugal, Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, France and Italy. They are mostly Mediterranean countries already exposed to significant water scarcity problems. There are countries, like Slovakia, Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Croatia and Romania, with mild risk. Northern Arctic countries, like Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia, show a robust however mild increase in water availability.

The Influence of Climate Change on Irrigated Water Demands and Surface Water Availability of the Yellow River Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Troy, T. J.; Zhang, J.

2017-12-01

Balancing irrigated water demands and surface water availability is critical for sustainable water resources management. In China, irrigation is the largest water user, and there is concern that irrigated water demands will be affected by climate change. If the relationship between climate change, irrigated water demands and surface water availability is quantified, then effective measures can be developed to maintain food production while ensuring water sustainability. This research focuses on the Yellow River, the second longest in China, and analyzes the impact of historical and projected climate change on agricultural water demands and surface water availability. Corn and wheat are selected as representative crops to estimate the effect of temperature and precipitin changes on irrigated water demands. The VIC model is used to simulate daily streamflow throughout the Yellow River, providing estimates of surface water availability. Overall, results indicate the irrigated water need and surface water availability are impacted by climate change, with spatially varying impacts depending on spatial patterns of climate trends and river network position. This research provides insight into water security in the Yellow River basin, indicating where water efficiency measures are needed and where they are not.

Freshwater availability and water fetching distance affect child health in sub-Saharan Africa.

PubMed

Pickering, Amy J; Davis, Jennifer

2012-02-21

Currently, more than two-thirds of the population in Africa must leave their home to fetch water for drinking and domestic use. The time burden of water fetching has been suggested to influence the volume of water collected by households as well as time spent on income generating activities and child care. However, little is known about the potential health benefits of reducing water fetching distances. Data from almost 200, 000 Demographic and Health Surveys carried out in 26 countries were used to assess the relationship between household walk time to water source and child health outcomes. To estimate the causal effect of decreased water fetching time on health, geographic variation in freshwater availability was employed as an instrumental variable for one-way walk time to water source in a two-stage regression model. Time spent walking to a household's main water source was found to be a significant determinant of under-five child health. A 15-min decrease in one-way walk time to water source is associated with a 41% average relative reduction in diarrhea prevalence, improved anthropometric indicators of child nutritional status, and a 11% relative reduction in under-five child mortality. These results suggest that reducing the time cost of fetching water should be a priority for water infrastructure investments in Africa.

Assessing climate change impacts on water availability of snowmelt-dominated basins of the Upper Rio Grande Basin

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Study Region- Upper Rio Grande, Colorado and New Mexico, USA: Climate change is predicted to further limit the water availability of the arid southwestern U.S. In this study, the Snowmelt Runoff Model is used to evaluate impacts of increased temperature and altered precipitation on snow covered are...

Water sustainability assessment in Brazilian sugarcane expansion area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scarpare, F. V.; Ruiz-Correa, S. T.; Hernandes, T. A.; Scanlon, B. R.; Picoli, M. C. A.; Bonomi, A.

2016-12-01

Due to the increasing demand for ethanol, sugarcane is expanding into Cerrado (Savannahs), where edaphoclimatic characteristics differ significantly from traditional areas in South-eastern Brazil. It is expected that the sugarcane will be irrigated in those areas to increase yields and ensure stable production. The main objective is to assess the sugarcane land occupation and its dynamics relating its occurrence with the potential and actual yields, the irrigation needs, the production costs, and the water footprint in Paranaíba watershed (222,593 km2 drainage area). The Agroecological Zone Model - FAO was used in order to provide essential data for yield and water requirement assessment. For sugarcane stalk yield estimation, several improvements have been made allowing this tool to assess different irrigation scenarios. In this study, full irrigation which aims to replace 100% of the water deficit until senescence period was considered. The sugarcane occupation and expansion was assessed through EVI approach from 2009/2010 to 2012/2013 crop seasons. It was possible to identify that most part of sugarcane occupation is concentrated in the central area, which presents less potential for yield gain through irrigation and significant water availability issues. With regard to the expansion, an increase of 54% of cane occupation (from 616,899 to 946,589 ha) was detected during the assessed period showing that the main dynamic occurred in central part towards west side and at less extent, to southeaster side. The irrigation management were responsible for increase, on average, 108% of yields while decreasing 42% of water footprints. Simulated yields combine with CanaSoft model estimated a 30% decline in production cost. Although several aspects such as land price and infrastructure must to be considered, in conclusion, the expansion dynamic agrees to the areas with greater yield gain potential through irrigation, lower sugarcane production costs and water footprint

Mapping water availability, projected use and cost in the western United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tidwell, Vincent C.; Moreland, Barbara D.; Zemlick, Katie M.; Roberts, Barry L.; Passell, Howard D.; Jensen, Daniel; Forsgren, Christopher; Sehlke, Gerald; Cook, Margaret A.; King, Carey W.; Larsen, Sara

2014-05-01

New demands for water can be satisfied through a variety of source options. In some basins surface and/or groundwater may be available through permitting with the state water management agency (termed unappropriated water), alternatively water might be purchased and transferred out of its current use to another (termed appropriated water), or non-traditional water sources can be captured and treated (e.g., wastewater). The relative availability and cost of each source are key factors in the development decision. Unfortunately, these measures are location dependent with no consistent or comparable set of data available for evaluating competing water sources. With the help of western water managers, water availability was mapped for over 1200 watersheds throughout the western US. Five water sources were individually examined, including unappropriated surface water, unappropriated groundwater, appropriated water, municipal wastewater and brackish groundwater. Also mapped was projected change in consumptive water use from 2010 to 2030. Associated costs to acquire, convey and treat the water, as necessary, for each of the five sources were estimated. These metrics were developed to support regional water planning and policy analysis with initial application to electric transmission planning in the western US.

77 FR 15368 - Clean Water Act; Availability of List Decisions

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-03-15

... ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY [FRL-9646-9] Clean Water Act; Availability of List Decisions...) proposed decision identifying water quality limited segments and associated pollutants in Oregon to be listed pursuant to section 303(d)(2) of the Clean Water Act (CWA). EPA is proposing to add 1004 water...

77 FR 54909 - Clean Water Act: Availability of List Decisions

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-09-06

... ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY [FRL-9724-6] Clean Water Act: Availability of List Decisions... notice announces EPA's decision to identify certain water quality limited waters and the associated pollutant to be listed pursuant to the Clean Water Act Section 303(d)(2) on New York's list of impaired...

Reduction of Turbidity of Water Using Locally Available Natural Coagulants

PubMed Central

Asrafuzzaman, Md.; Fakhruddin, A. N. M.; Hossain, Md. Alamgir

2011-01-01

Turbidity imparts a great problem in water treatment. Moringa oleifera, Cicer arietinum, and Dolichos lablab were used as locally available natural coagulants in this study to reduce turbidity of synthetic water. The tests were carried out, using artificial turbid water with conventional jar test apparatus. Optimum mixing intensity and duration were determined. After dosing water-soluble extracts of Moringa oleifera, Cicer arietinum, and Dolichos lablab reduced turbidity to 5.9, 3.9, and 11.1 nephelometric turbidity unit (NTU), respectively, from 100 NTU and 5, 3.3, and 9.5, NTU, respectively, after dosing and filtration. Natural coagulants worked better with high, turbid, water compare to medium, or low, turbid, water. Highest turbidity reduction efficiency (95.89%) was found with Cicer arietinum. About 89 to 96% total coliform reduction were also found with natural coagulant treatment of turbid water. Using locally available natural coagulants, suitable, easier, and environment friendly options for water treatment were observed. PMID:23724307

A blue/green water-based accounting framework for assessment of water security

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodrigues, Dulce B. B.; Gupta, Hoshin V.; Mendiondo, Eduardo M.

2014-09-01

A comprehensive assessment of water security can incorporate several water-related concepts, while accounting for Blue and Green Water (BW and GW) types defined in accordance with the hydrological processes involved. Here we demonstrate how a quantitative analysis of provision probability and use of BW and GW can be conducted, so as to provide indicators of water scarcity and vulnerability at the basin level. To illustrate the approach, we use the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to model the hydrology of an agricultural basin (291 km2) within the Cantareira Water Supply System in Brazil. To provide a more comprehensive basis for decision making, we analyze the BW and GW-Footprint components against probabilistic levels (50th and 30th percentile) of freshwater availability for human activities, during a 23 year period. Several contrasting situations of BW provision are distinguished, using different hydrological-based methodologies for specifying monthly Environmental Flow Requirements (EFRs), and the risk of natural EFR violation is evaluated by use of a freshwater provision index. Our results reveal clear spatial and temporal patterns of water scarcity and vulnerability levels within the basin. Taking into account conservation targets for the basin, it appears that the more restrictive EFR methods are more appropriate than the method currently employed at the study basin. The blue/green water-based accounting framework developed here provides a useful integration of hydrologic, ecosystem and human needs information on a monthly basis, thereby improving our understanding of how and where water-related threats to human and aquatic ecosystem security can arise.

Water assessment for the Lower Colorado River region-emerging energy technology development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

1981-08-01

Water supply availability for two hypothetical levels of emerging energy technology development are assessed. The water and related land resources implications of such hypothetical developments are evaluated. Water requirement, the effects on water quality, costs of water supplies, costs of disposal of wastewaters, and the environmental, economic and social impacts are determined, providing information for the development of non-nuclear energy research.

Water Quality Assessment and Management

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Overview of Clean Water Act (CWA) restoration framework including; water quality standards, monitoring/assessment, reporting water quality status, TMDL development, TMDL implementation (point & nonpoint source control)

Recharging California's Groundwater: Crop Suitability and Surface Water Availability for Agricultural Groundwater Banking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dahlke, H. E.; Kocis, T. N.; Brown, A.

2016-12-01

Groundwater banking, the intentional recharge of groundwater from surface water for storage and recovery, is an important conjunctive use strategy for water management in California (CA). A largely unexplored approach to groundwater banking, agricultural groundwater banking (ag-GB), utilizes flood flows and agricultural lands (alfalfa/pasture) for recharging groundwater. Understanding soil suitability for ag-GB, crop health and flooding tolerance, leaching of soil nitrate and salts, the availability of surface water for recharge, and the economic costs and benefits of ag-GB is fundamental to assessing the feasibility of local-scale implementation of ag-GB. The study presented here considers both the availability of excess streamflow (e.g., the magnitude, frequency, timing, and duration of winter flood flow) for ag-GB and the risks and benefits associated with using alfalfa fields as spreading grounds for ag-GB. The availability of surface water for winter (Nov to Apr) ag-GB were estimated based on daily streamflow records for 93 stream gauges within the Central Valley, CA. Analysis focused on high-magnitude (>90thpercentile) flows because most lower flows are likely legally allocated in CA. Results based >50 years of data indicate that an average winter/spring (Nov. - Apr.) in the Sacramento River Basin could provide 7 million acre-feet (AF) (8.6 km3) of water for ag-GB from flows above the 90th percentile. These flows originate from few storm events (5-7 events) and occur on average for 25-30 days between November and April. Wintertime on-farm recharge experiments were conducted on a 9-yr old, 15-acre alfalfa field in the Scott Valley, CA, where 135 AF and 107 AF of water were recharged during the winters of 2015 and 2016, respectively. Biomass data collected indicates that pulsed application of 6-10 ft of water on dormant alfalfa results in minimal yield loss (0.5 ton/acre reduction), short-duration saturated conditions in the root-zone, and high recharge

Water use and availability in the West Narragansett Bay area, coastal Rhode Island, 1995-99

USGS Publications Warehouse

Nimiroski, Mark T.; Wild, Emily C.

2006-01-01

During the 1999 drought in Rhode Island, belowaverage precipitation caused a drop in ground-water levels and streamflow was below long-term averages. The low water levels prompted the U. S. Geological Survey and the Rhode Island Water Resources Board to conduct a series of cooperative water-use studies. The purpose of these studies is to collect and analyze water-use and water-availability data in each drainage area in the State of Rhode Island. The West Narragansett Bay study area, which covers 118 square miles in part or all of 14 towns in coastal Rhode Island, is one of nine areas investigated as part of this effort. The study area includes the western part of Narragansett Bay and Conanicut Island, which is the town of Jamestown. The area was divided into six subbasins for the assessment of water-use data. In the calculation of hydrologic budget and water availability, the Hunt, Annaquatucket, and Pettaquamscutt River Basins were combined into one subbasin because they are hydraulically connected. Eleven major water suppliers served customers in the study area, and they supplied an average of 19.301 million gallons per day during 1995–99. The withdrawals from the only minor supplier, which was in the town of East Greenwich in the Hunt River Basin, averaged 0.002 million gallons per day. The remaining withdrawals were estimated as 1.186 million gallons per day from self-supplied domestic, commercial, industrial, and agricultural users. Return flows from self-disposed water (individual sewage-disposal systems) and permitted discharges accounted for 5.623 million gallons per day. Most publicly disposed water (13.711 million gallons per day) was collected by the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, and by the East Greenwich, Fields Point, Jamestown, Narragansett, and Scarborough wastewater-treatment facilities. This wastewater was disposed in Narragansett Bay outside of the study area. The PART program, a computerized hydrograph-separation application

Assessing marginal water values in multipurpose multireservoir systems via stochastic programming

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tilmant, A.; Pinte, D.; Goor, Q.

2008-12-01

The International Conference on Water and the Environment held in Dublin in 1992 emphasized the need to consider water as an economic good. Since water markets are usually absent or ineffective, the value of water cannot be directly derived from market activities but must rather be assessed through shadow prices. Economists have developed various valuation techniques to determine the economic value of water, especially to handle allocation issues involving environmental water uses. Most of the nonmarket valuation studies reported in the literature focus on long-run policy problems, such as permanent (re)allocations of water, and assume that the water availability is given. When dealing with short-run allocation problems, water managers are facing complex spatial and temporal trade-offs and must therefore be able to track site and time changes in water values across different hydrologic conditions, especially in arid and semiarid areas where the availability of water is a limiting and stochastic factor. This paper presents a stochastic programming approach for assessing the statistical distribution of marginal water values in multipurpose multireservoir systems where hydropower generation and irrigation crop production are the main economic activities depending on water. In the absence of a water market, the Lagrange multipliers correspond to shadow prices, and the marginal water values are the Lagrange multipliers associated with the mass balance equations of the reservoirs. The methodology is illustrated with a cascade of hydroelectric-irrigation reservoirs in the Euphrates river basin in Turkey and Syria.

Socioeconomic differentials and availability of domestic water in South Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dungumaro, Esther W.

The past few decades has seen massive efforts to increasing provision of domestic water. However, water is still unavailable to many people most of them located in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and East Asia. Furthermore, availability of water varies greatly both spatially and temporary. While other people pay so dearly for domestic water others have an easy access to adequate clean water and sanitation. Accessibility and affordability of domestic water and sanitation is determined by a great variety of factors including socioeconomic status of households. The main objective of the paper is to inform on factors which need to be taken into account when coming up with projects to provide domestic water. It is more critical when the issue of water pricing comes into the equation. Water pricing has many facets, including equity, willingness to pay and affordability. In this premise, it is deemed important to understand the socioeconomic characteristics of the people before deciding on the amount of money they will have to pay for water consumption. It is argued that understanding people’s socioeconomic situation will greatly help to ensure that principles of sustainability and equity in water allocation and pricing are achieved. To do so, the paper utilized 2002 South Africa General Household Survey (GHS), to analyze socioeconomic variables and availability of domestic water. Analysis was mainly descriptive. However, logistic regression analysis was also utilized to determine the likelihood of living in a household that obtain water from a safe source. The study found that there is a strong relationship between availability of domestic water and socioeconomic conditions. Economic status, household size and to a lesser extent gender of head of household were found to be strong predictors of living in a household which obtained water from a safe source. The paper recommends that needs and priorities for interventions in water provision should take into account

Use of Atmospheric Budget to Reduce Uncertainty in Estimated Water Availability over South Asia from Different Reanalyses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sebastian, Dawn Emil; Pathak, Amey; Ghosh, Subimal

2016-07-01

Disagreements across different reanalyses over South Asia result into uncertainty in assessment of water availability, which is computed as the difference between Precipitation and Evapotranspiration (P-E). Here, we compute P-E directly from atmospheric budget with divergence of moisture flux for different reanalyses and find improved correlation with observed values of P-E, acquired from station and satellite data. We also find reduced closure terms for water cycle computed with atmospheric budget, analysed over South Asian landmass, when compared to that obtained with individual values of P and E. The P-E value derived with atmospheric budget is more consistent with energy budget, when we use top-of-atmosphere radiation for the same. For analysing water cycle, we use runoff from Global Land Data Assimilation System, and water storage from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment. We find improvements in agreements across different reanalyses, in terms of inter-annual cross correlation when atmospheric budget is used to estimate P-E and hence, emphasize to use the same for estimations of water availability in South Asia to reduce uncertainty. Our results on water availability with reduced uncertainty over highly populated monsoon driven South Asia will be useful for water management and agricultural decision making.

Use of Atmospheric Budget to Reduce Uncertainty in Estimated Water Availability over South Asia from Different Reanalyses.

PubMed

Sebastian, Dawn Emil; Pathak, Amey; Ghosh, Subimal

2016-07-08

Disagreements across different reanalyses over South Asia result into uncertainty in assessment of water availability, which is computed as the difference between Precipitation and Evapotranspiration (P-E). Here, we compute P-E directly from atmospheric budget with divergence of moisture flux for different reanalyses and find improved correlation with observed values of P-E, acquired from station and satellite data. We also find reduced closure terms for water cycle computed with atmospheric budget, analysed over South Asian landmass, when compared to that obtained with individual values of P and E. The P-E value derived with atmospheric budget is more consistent with energy budget, when we use top-of-atmosphere radiation for the same. For analysing water cycle, we use runoff from Global Land Data Assimilation System, and water storage from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment. We find improvements in agreements across different reanalyses, in terms of inter-annual cross correlation when atmospheric budget is used to estimate P-E and hence, emphasize to use the same for estimations of water availability in South Asia to reduce uncertainty. Our results on water availability with reduced uncertainty over highly populated monsoon driven South Asia will be useful for water management and agricultural decision making.

Use of Atmospheric Budget to Reduce Uncertainty in Estimated Water Availability over South Asia from Different Reanalyses

PubMed Central

Sebastian, Dawn Emil; Pathak, Amey; Ghosh, Subimal

2016-01-01

Disagreements across different reanalyses over South Asia result into uncertainty in assessment of water availability, which is computed as the difference between Precipitation and Evapotranspiration (P–E). Here, we compute P–E directly from atmospheric budget with divergence of moisture flux for different reanalyses and find improved correlation with observed values of P–E, acquired from station and satellite data. We also find reduced closure terms for water cycle computed with atmospheric budget, analysed over South Asian landmass, when compared to that obtained with individual values of P and E. The P–E value derived with atmospheric budget is more consistent with energy budget, when we use top-of-atmosphere radiation for the same. For analysing water cycle, we use runoff from Global Land Data Assimilation System, and water storage from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment. We find improvements in agreements across different reanalyses, in terms of inter-annual cross correlation when atmospheric budget is used to estimate P–E and hence, emphasize to use the same for estimations of water availability in South Asia to reduce uncertainty. Our results on water availability with reduced uncertainty over highly populated monsoon driven South Asia will be useful for water management and agricultural decision making. PMID:27388837

SOURCE WATER ASSESSMENT USING GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS

EPA Science Inventory

The 1996 amendments to Section 1453 of the Safe Drinking Water Act require the states to establish and implement a Source Water Assessment Program (SWAP). Source water is the water taken from rivers, reservoirs, or wells for use as public drinking water. Source water assessment i...

Influence of free water availability on a desert carnivore and herbivore.

PubMed

Kluever, Bryan M; Gese, Eric M; Dempsey, Steven J

2017-04-01

Anthropogenic manipulation of finite resources on the landscape to benefit individual species or communities is commonly employed by conservation and management agencies. One such action in arid regions is the construction and maintenance of water developments (i.e., wildlife guzzlers) adding free water on the landscape to buttress local populations, influence animal movements, or affect distributions of certain species of interest. Despite their prevalence, the utility of wildlife guzzlers remains largely untested. We employed a before-after control-impact (BACI) design over a 4-year period on the US Army Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, USA, to determine whether water availability at wildlife guzzlers influenced relative abundance of black-tailed jackrabbits Lepus californicus and relative use of areas near that resource by coyotes Canis latrans , and whether coyote visitations to guzzlers would decrease following elimination of water. Eliminating water availability at guzzlers did not influence jackrabbit relative abundance. Coyote relative use was impacted by water availability, with elimination of water reducing use in areas associated with our treatment, but not with areas associated with our control. Visitations of radio-collared coyotes to guzzlers declined nearly 3-fold following elimination of water. Our study provides the first evidence of a potential direct effect of water sources on a mammalian carnivore in an arid environment, but the ecological relevance of our finding is debatable. Future investigations aimed at determining water effects on terrestrial mammals could expand on our findings by incorporating manipulations of water availability, obtaining absolute estimates of population parameters and vital rates and incorporating fine-scale spatiotemporal data.

Influence of free water availability on a desert carnivore and herbivore

PubMed Central

Gese, Eric M.; Dempsey, Steven J.

2017-01-01

Abstract Anthropogenic manipulation of finite resources on the landscape to benefit individual species or communities is commonly employed by conservation and management agencies. One such action in arid regions is the construction and maintenance of water developments (i.e., wildlife guzzlers) adding free water on the landscape to buttress local populations, influence animal movements, or affect distributions of certain species of interest. Despite their prevalence, the utility of wildlife guzzlers remains largely untested. We employed a before–after control-impact (BACI) design over a 4-year period on the US Army Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, USA, to determine whether water availability at wildlife guzzlers influenced relative abundance of black-tailed jackrabbits Lepus californicus and relative use of areas near that resource by coyotes Canis latrans, and whether coyote visitations to guzzlers would decrease following elimination of water. Eliminating water availability at guzzlers did not influence jackrabbit relative abundance. Coyote relative use was impacted by water availability, with elimination of water reducing use in areas associated with our treatment, but not with areas associated with our control. Visitations of radio-collared coyotes to guzzlers declined nearly 3-fold following elimination of water. Our study provides the first evidence of a potential direct effect of water sources on a mammalian carnivore in an arid environment, but the ecological relevance of our finding is debatable. Future investigations aimed at determining water effects on terrestrial mammals could expand on our findings by incorporating manipulations of water availability, obtaining absolute estimates of population parameters and vital rates and incorporating fine-scale spatiotemporal data. PMID:29491969

Simulations and field observations of root water uptake in plots with different soil water availability.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cai, Gaochao; Vanderborght, Jan; Couvreur, Valentin; Javaux, Mathieu; Vereecken, Harry

2015-04-01

Root water uptake is a main process in the hydrological cycle and vital for water management in agronomy. In most models of root water uptake, the spatial and temporal soil water status and plant root distributions are required for water flow simulations. However, dynamic root growth and root distributions are not easy and time consuming to measure by normal approaches. Furthermore, root water uptake cannot be measured directly in the field. Therefore, it is necessary to incorporate monitoring data of soil water content and potential and root distributions within a modeling framework to explore the interaction between soil water availability and root water uptake. But, most models are lacking a physically based concept to describe water uptake from soil profiles with vertical variations in soil water availability. In this contribution, we present an experimental setup in which root development, soil water content and soil water potential are monitored non-invasively in two field plots with different soil texture and for three treatments with different soil water availability: natural rain, sheltered and irrigated treatment. Root development is monitored using 7-m long horizontally installed minirhizotubes at six depths with three replicates per treatment. The monitoring data are interpreted using a model that is a one-dimensional upscaled version of root water uptake model that describes flow in the coupled soil-root architecture considering water potential gradients in the system and hydraulic conductances of the soil and root system (Couvreur et al., 2012). This model approach links the total root water uptake to an effective soil water potential in the root zone. The local root water uptake is a function of the difference between the local soil water potential and effective root zone water potential so that compensatory uptake in heterogeneous soil water potential profiles is simulated. The root system conductance is derived from inverse modelling using

Availability of groundwater data for California, water year 2010

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ray, Mary; Orlando, Patricia v.P.

2011-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Federal, State, and local agencies, obtains a large amount of data pertaining to the groundwater resources of California each water year (October 1-September 30). These data constitute a valuable database for developing an improved understanding of the water resources of the State. This Fact Sheet serves as an index to groundwater data for Water Year 2010. It contains a map of California showing the number of wells (by county) with available water-level or water-quality data for Water Year 2010 (fig. 1) and instructions for obtaining this and other groundwater information contained in the databases of the U.S. Geological Survey, California Water Science Center. From 1985 to 1993, data were published in the annual report "Water Resources Data for California, Volume 5. Ground-Water Data"; prior to 1985, the data were published in U.S. Geological Survey Water-Supply Papers.

Metropolitan Water Availability Forecasting Methods and Applications in South Florida

EPA Science Inventory

The availability of adequate fresh water is fundamental to the sustainable management of water infrastructures that support both urban needs and agricultural uses in human society. Recent drought events in the U.S. have threatened drinking water supplies for communities in Maryl...

78 FR 20912 - Clean Water Act: Availability of List Decisions

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-04-08

... ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY [FRL-9798-8] Clean Water Act: Availability of List Decisions.... SUMMARY: The Clean Water Act requires that States periodically submit, and EPA approve or disapprove... are not stringent enough to attain or maintain State water quality standards and for which total...

78 FR 44969 - Notice of Availability of a Draft Environmental Assessment for Allowing Avian Hunting in...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-07-25

... environmental impact statement will not be prepared unless additional information which may affect this decision... INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY AND WATER COMMISSION, UNITED STATES AND MEXICO Notice of Availability of a Draft Environmental Assessment for Allowing Avian Hunting in Designated Areas Along the Rio Grande...

Water Availability for Shale Gas Development in Sichuan Basin, China.

PubMed

Yu, Mengjun; Weinthal, Erika; Patiño-Echeverri, Dalia; Deshusses, Marc A; Zou, Caineng; Ni, Yunyan; Vengosh, Avner

2016-03-15

Unconventional shale gas development holds promise for reducing the predominant consumption of coal and increasing the utilization of natural gas in China. While China possesses some of the most abundant technically recoverable shale gas resources in the world, water availability could still be a limiting factor for hydraulic fracturing operations, in addition to geological, infrastructural, and technological barriers. Here, we project the baseline water availability for the next 15 years in Sichuan Basin, one of the most promising shale gas basins in China. Our projection shows that continued water demand for the domestic sector in Sichuan Basin could result in high to extremely high water stress in certain areas. By simulating shale gas development and using information from current water use for hydraulic fracturing in Sichuan Basin (20,000-30,000 m(3) per well), we project that during the next decade water use for shale gas development could reach 20-30 million m(3)/year, when shale gas well development is projected to be most active. While this volume is negligible relative to the projected overall domestic water use of ∼36 billion m(3)/year, we posit that intensification of hydraulic fracturing and water use might compete with other water utilization in local water-stress areas in Sichuan Basin.

Integrated Assessment of Global Water Scarcity over the 21st Century under Multiple Climate Change Mitigation Policies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hejazi, Mohamad I.; Edmonds, James A.; Clarke, Leon E.

2014-01-01

Water scarcity conditions over the 21st century both globally and regionally are assessed in the context of climate change, by estimating both water availability and water demand within the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM), a leading community integrated assessment model of energy, agriculture, climate, and water. To quantify changes in future water availability, a new gridded water-balance global hydrologic model – namely, the Global Water Availability Model (GWAM) – is developed and evaluated. Global water demands for six major demand sectors (irrigation, livestock, domestic, electricity generation, primary energy production, and manufacturing) are modeled in GCAM at the regional scale (14more » geopolitical regions, 151 sub-regions) and then spatially downscaled to 0.5 o x 0.5o resolution to match the scale of GWAM. Using a baseline scenario (i.e., no climate change mitigation policy) with radiative forcing reaching 8.8 W/m2 (equivalent to the SRES A1Fi emission scenario) and a global population of 14 billion by 2095, global annual water demand grows from about 9% of total annual renewable freshwater in 2005 to about 32% by 2095. This results in almost half of the world population living under extreme water scarcity by the end of the 21st century. Regionally, the demand for water exceeds the amount of water availability in two GCAM regions, the Middle East and India. Additionally, in years 2050 and 2095, 20% and 27% of the global population, respectively, is projected to live in areas (grid cells) that will experience greater water demands than the amount of available water in a year (i.e., the water scarcity index (WSI) > 1.0). This study implies an increasingly prominent role for water in future human decisions, and highlights the importance of including water in integrated assessment of global change.« less

Water availability and subsidence in California's Central Valley

USGS Publications Warehouse

Faunt, Claudia C.; Sneed, Michelle

2015-01-01

California’s Central Valley covers about 52,000 square kilometers (km2) and is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world. More than 250 different crops are grown in the broad alluvial filled structural trough, with an estimated value exceeding $20 billion per year (Faunt 2009) (Figure 1). Central Valley agriculture depends on state and federal water systems that divert surface water, predominantly originating from Sierra Nevada snowmelt, to agricultural fields. Because the valley is semi-arid and the availability of surface water varies substantially from year to year, season to season, and from north to south, agriculture, as it grew, developed a reliance on groundwater for irrigation.

Water fluoridation and the quality of information available online.

PubMed

Frangos, Zachary; Steffens, Maryke; Leask, Julie

2018-02-13

The Internet has transformed the way in which people approach their health care, with online resources becoming a primary source of health information. Little work has assessed the quality of online information regarding community water fluoridation. This study sought to assess the information available to individuals searching online for information, with emphasis on the credibility and quality of websites. We identified the top 10 web pages returned from different search engines, using common fluoridation search terms (identified in Google Trends). Web pages were scored using a credibility, quality and health literacy tool based on Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GAVCS) and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) criteria. Scores were compared according to their fluoridation stance and domain type, then ranked by quality. The functionality of the scoring tool was analysed via a Bland-Altman plot of inter-rater reliability. Five-hundred web pages were returned, of which 55 were scored following removal of duplicates and irrelevant pages. Of these, 28 (51%) were pro-fluoridation, 16 (29%) were neutral and 11 (20%) were anti-fluoridation. Pro, neutral and anti-fluoridation pages scored well against health literacy standards (0.91, 0.90 and 0.81/1 respectively). Neutral and pro-fluoridation web pages showed strong credibility, with mean scores of 0.80 and 0.85 respectively, while anti-fluoridation scored 0.62/1. Most pages scored poorly for content quality, providing a moderate amount of superficial information. Those seeking online information regarding water fluoridation are faced with comprehensible, yet poorly referenced, superficial information. Sites were credible and user friendly; however, our results suggest that online resources need to focus on providing more transparent information with appropriate figures to consolidate the information. © 2018 FDI World Dental Federation.

Sector-wise midpoint characterization factors for impact assessment of regional consumptive and degradative water use.

PubMed

Lin, Chia-Chun; Lin, Jia-Yu; Lee, Mengshan; Chiueh, Pei-Te

2017-12-31

Water availability, resulting from either a lack of water or poor water quality is a key factor contributing to regional water stress. This study proposes a set of sector-wise characterization factors (CFs), namely consumptive and degradative water stresses, to assess the impact of water withdrawals with a life cycle assessment approach. These CFs consider water availability, water quality, and competition for water between domestic, agricultural and industrial sectors and ecosystem at the watershed level. CFs were applied to a case study of regional water management of industrial water withdrawals in Taiwan to show that both regional or seasonal decrease in water availability contributes to a high consumptive water stress, whereas water scarcity due to degraded water quality not meeting sector standards has little influence on increased degradative water stress. Degradative water stress was observed more in the agricultural sector than in the industrial sector, which implies that the agriculture sector may have water quality concerns. Reducing water intensity and alleviating regional scale water stresses of watersheds are suggested as approaches to decrease the impact of both consumptive and degradative water use. The results from this study may enable a more detailed sector-wise analysis of water stress and influence water resource management policies. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Water governance within Kenya's Upper Ewaso Ng'iro Basin: Assessing the performance of water projects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCord, P. F.; Evans, T. P.; Dell'Angelo, J.; Gower, D.; McBride, L.; Caylor, K. K.

2013-12-01

Climate change processes are projected to change the availability and seasonality of streamflow with dramatic implications for irrigated agricultural systems. Within mountain environments, this alteration in water availability may be quite pronounced over a relatively short distance as upstream users with first access to river water directly impact the availability of water to downstream users. Livelihood systems that directly depend on river water for both domestic consumption and practices such as irrigated agriculture are particularly vulnerable. The Mount Kenya region is an exemplary case of a semi-arid upstream-downstream system in which water availability rapidly decreases and directly impacts the livelihoods of river water users existing across this steep environmental gradient. To effectively manage river water within these water-scarce environs, water projects have been established along the major rivers of the Mount Kenya region. These water projects are responsible for managing water within discrete sub-catchments of the region. While water projects develop rules that encourage the responsible use of water and maintenance of the project itself, the efficiency of water allocation to the projects' members remains unclear. This research analyzes water projects from five sub-catchments on the northwest slopes of Mount Kenya. It utilizes data from household surveys and water project management surveys as well as stream gauge data and flow measurements within individual water projects to assess the governance structure and performance of water projects. The performance of water projects is measured through a variety of household level metrics including: farm-level water flow and volume over time, mean and variability in maize yield, per capita crop productivity, household-level satisfaction with water availability, number of days where water volume was insufficient for irrigation, and quantity harvested compared with expected quantity harvested. We present

A GIS COST MODEL TO ASSESS THE AVAILABILITY OF FRESHWATER, SEAWATER, AND SALINE GROUNDWATER FOR ALGAL BIOFUEL PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Venteris, Erik R.; Skaggs, Richard; Coleman, Andre M.

2013-03-15

A key advantage of using microalgae for biofuel production is the ability of some algal strains to thrive in waters unsuitable for conventional crop irrigation such as saline groundwater or seawater. Nonetheless, the availability of sustainable water supplies will provide significant challenges for scale-up and development of algal biofuels. We conduct a limited techno-economic assessment based on the availability of freshwater, saline groundwater, and seawater for use in open pond algae cultivation systems. We explore water issues through GIS-based models of algae biofuel production, freshwater supply, and cost models for supplying seawater and saline groundwater. We estimate that combined, withinmore » the coterminous US these resources can support production on the order of 9.46E+7 m3 yr-1 (25 billion gallons yr-1) of renewable biodiesel. Achievement of larger targets requires the utilization of less water efficient sites and relatively expensive saline waters. Geographically, water availability is most favorable for the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and Florida peninsula, where evaporation relative to precipitation is moderate and various saline waters are economically available. As a whole, barren and scrub lands of the southwestern US have limited freshwater supplies so accurate assessment of alternative waters is critical.« less

Trends in land and water available for outdoor recreation

Treesearch

Lloyd C. Irland; Thomas Rumpf

1980-01-01

A data base for assessing the availability of land for outdoor recreation does not exist. Information on related issues such as vandalism, easements, and land posting is scanty. Construction of a data base for assessing land availability should be a high priority for USFS and HCRS, and for SCORP's and the RPA and RCA assessments.

Assessment of climate change impact on water diversion strategies of Melamchi Water Supply Project in Nepal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shrestha, Sangam; Shrestha, Manish; Babel, Mukand S.

2017-04-01

This paper analyzes the climate change impact on water diversion plan of Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP) in Nepal. The MWSP is an interbasin water transfer project aimed at diverting water from the Melamchi River of the Indrawati River basin to Kathmandu Valley for drinking water purpose. Future temperature and precipitation of the basin were predicted using the outputs of two regional climate models (RCMs) and two general circulation models (GCMs) under two representative concentration pathway (RCP) scenarios which were then used as inputs to Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to predict the water availability and evaluate the water diversion strategies in the future. The average temperature of the basin is projected to increase by 2.35 to 4.25 °C under RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5, respectively, by 2085s. The average precipitation in the basin is projected to increase by 6-18 % in the future. The annual water availability is projected to increase in the future; however, the variability is observed in monthly water availability in the basin. The water supply and demand scenarios of Kathmandu Valley was also examined by considering the population increase, unaccounted for water and water diversion from MWSP in the future. It is observed that even with the additional supply of water from MWSP and reduction of unaccounted for water, the Kathmandu Valley will be still under water scarcity in the future. The findings of this study can be helpful to formulate water supply and demand management strategies in Kathmandu Valley in the context of climate change in the future.

Water availability and land subsidence in the Central Valley, California, USA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Faunt, Claudia C.; Sneed, Michelle; Traum, Jon; Brandt, Justin T.

2016-05-01

The Central Valley in California (USA) covers about 52,000 km2 and is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world. This agriculture relies heavily on surface-water diversions and groundwater pumpage to meet irrigation water demand. Because the valley is semi-arid and surface-water availability varies substantially, agriculture relies heavily on local groundwater. In the southern two thirds of the valley, the San Joaquin Valley, historic and recent groundwater pumpage has caused significant and extensive drawdowns, aquifer-system compaction and subsidence. During recent drought periods (2007-2009 and 2012-present), groundwater pumping has increased owing to a combination of decreased surface-water availability and land-use changes. Declining groundwater levels, approaching or surpassing historical low levels, have caused accelerated and renewed compaction and subsidence that likely is mostly permanent. The subsidence has caused operational, maintenance, and construction-design problems for water-delivery and flood-control canals in the San Joaquin Valley. Planning for the effects of continued subsidence in the area is important for water agencies. As land use, managed aquifer recharge, and surface-water availability continue to vary, long-term groundwater-level and subsidence monitoring and modelling are critical to understanding the dynamics of historical and continued groundwater use resulting in additional water-level and groundwater storage declines, and associated subsidence. Modeling tools such as the Central Valley Hydrologic Model, can be used in the evaluation of management strategies to mitigate adverse impacts due to subsidence while also optimizing water availability. This knowledge will be critical for successful implementation of recent legislation aimed toward sustainable groundwater use.

78 FR 45925 - Clean Water Act: Availability of List Decisions

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-07-30

... ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY [FRL-9840-5] Clean Water Act: Availability of List Decisions... numeric water quality standards marine criterion for dissolved oxygen was not attained in these segments... 6's Web site at http://www.epa.gov/region6/water/npdes/tmdl/index.htm#303dlists , or by writing or...

Impacts of fresh and aged biochars on plant available water and water use efficiency

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The ability of soils to hold sufficient plant available water (PAW) between rainfall events is critical to crop productivity. Most studies indicate that biochar amendments decrease soil bulk density and increase soil water retention. However, limited knowledge exists regarding biochars ability to in...

Water quality assessment of the San Joaquin--Tulare basins, California; analysis of available data on nutrients and suspended sediment in surface water, 1972-1990

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kratzer, Charles R.; Shelton, Jennifer L.

1998-01-01

Nutrients and suspended sediment in surface water of the San Joaquin-Tulare basins in California were assessed using 1972-1990 data from the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water Information System and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's STOrage and RETrieval database. Loads of nutrients and suspended sediment were calculated at several sites and the contributions from point and nonpoint sources were estimated. Trends in nutrient and suspended-sediment concentrations were evaluated at several sites, especially at the basin outlet on the San Joaquin River. Comparisons of nutrient and suspended sediment concentrations were made among three environmental settings: the San Joaquin Valley--west side, the San Joaquin Valley--east side, and the Sierra Nevada.

Optimising The Available Scarce Water Resources At European Scale In A Modelling Environment: Results And Challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Roo, Ad; Burek, Peter; Gentile, Alessandro; Udias, Angel; Bouraoui, Faycal

2013-04-01

As a next step to European drought monitoring and forecasting, which is covered in the European Drought Observatory (EDO) activity of JRC, a modeling environment has been developed to assess optimum measures to match water availability and water demand, while keeping ecological, water quality and flood risk aspects also into account. A multi-modelling environment has been developed to assess combinations of water retention measures, water savings measures, and nutrient reduction measures for continental Europe. These simulations have been carried out to assess the effects of those measures on several hydro-chemical indicators, such as the Water Exploitation Index, Environmental Flow indicators, low-flow frequency, N and P concentrations in rivers, the 50-year return period river discharge as an indicator for flooding, and economic losses due to water scarcity for the agricultural sector, the industrial sector, and the public sector. Also, potential flood damage of a 100-year return period flood has been used as an indicator. This modeling environment consists of linking the agricultural CAPRI model, the land use LUMP model, the water quantity LISFLOOD model, the water quality EPIC model, the combined water quantity/quality and hydro-economic LISQUAL model and a multi-criteria optimization routine. A python interface platform (IMO) has been built to link the different models. The work was carried out in the framework of a new European Commission policy document "Blueprint to Safeguard Europe's Water Resources", COM(2012)673), launched in November 2012. Simulations have been carried out to assess the effects of water retention measures, water savings measures, and nutrient reduction measures on several hydro-chemical indicators, such as the Water Exploitation Index, Environmental Flow indicators, N and P concentrations in rivers, the 50-year return period river discharge as an indicator for flooding, and economic losses due to water scarcity for the agricultural

Developing a water market readiness assessment framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wheeler, Sarah Ann; Loch, Adam; Crase, Lin; Young, Mike; Grafton, R. Quentin

2017-09-01

Water markets are increasingly proposed as a demand-management strategy to deal with water scarcity. Water trading arrangements, on their own, are not about setting bio-physical limits to water-use. Nevertheless, water trading that mitigates scarcity constraints can assist regulators of water resources to keep water-use within limits at the lowest possible cost, and may reduce the cost of restoring water system health. While theoretically attractive, many practitioners have, at best, only a limited understanding of the practical usefulness of markets and how they might be most appropriately deployed. Using lessons learned from jurisdictions around the world where water markets have been implemented, this study attempts to fill the existing water market development gap and provide an initial framework (the water market readiness assessment (WMRA)) to describe the policy and administrative conditions/reforms necessary to enable governments/jurisdictions to develop water trading arrangements that are efficient, equitable and within sustainable limits. Our proposed framework consists of three key steps: 1) an assessment of hydrological and institutional needs; 2) a market evaluation, including assessment of development and implementation issues; and 3) the monitoring, continuous/review and assessment of future needs; with a variety of questions needing assessment at each stage. We apply the framework to three examples: regions in Australia, the United States and Spain. These applications indicate that WMRA can provide key information for water planners to consider on the usefulness of water trading processes to better manage water scarcity; but further practical applications and tests of the framework are required to fully evaluate its effectiveness.

Water availability and land subsidence in the Central Valley, California, USA

USGS Publications Warehouse

Faunt, Claudia; Sneed, Michelle; Traum, Jonathan A.; Brandt, Justin

2016-01-01

The Central Valley in California (USA) covers about 52,000 km2 and is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world. This agriculture relies heavily on surface-water diversions and groundwater pumpage to meet irrigation water demand. Because the valley is semi-arid and surface-water availability varies substantially, agriculture relies heavily on local groundwater. In the southern two thirds of the valley, the San Joaquin Valley, historic and recent groundwater pumpage has caused significant and extensive drawdowns, aquifer-system compaction and subsidence. During recent drought periods (2007–2009 and 2012-present), groundwater pumping has increased owing to a combination of decreased surface-water availability and land-use changes. Declining groundwater levels, approaching or surpassing historical low levels, have caused accelerated and renewed compaction and subsidence that likely is mostly permanent. The subsidence has caused operational, maintenance, and construction-design problems for water-delivery and flood-control canals in the San Joaquin Valley. Planning for the effects of continued subsidence in the area is important for water agencies. As land use, managed aquifer recharge, and surface-water availability continue to vary, long-term groundwater-level and subsidence monitoring and modelling are critical to understanding the dynamics of historical and continued groundwater use resulting in additional water-level and groundwater storage declines, and associated subsidence. Modeling tools such as the Central Valley Hydrologic Model, can be used in the evaluation of management strategies to mitigate adverse impacts due to subsidence while also optimizing water availability. This knowledge will be critical for successful implementation of recent legislation aimed toward sustainable groundwater use.

Army Reserve Comprehensive Water Efficiency Assessments

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McMordie Stoughton, Kate; Kearney, Jaime

The Army Reserve has partnered with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to develop comprehensive water assessments for numerous Army Reserve Centers in all five regions including the Pacific islands and Puerto Rico, and at Fort Buchanan and Fort Hunter Liggett. The objective of these assessments is to quantify water use at the site, and identify innovative water efficiency projects that can be implemented to help reduce water demand and increase efficiency. Several of these assessments have focused on a strategic plan for achieving net zero water to help meet the Army’s Net Zero Directive . The Army Reserve hasmore » also leveraged this approach as part of the energy conservation investment program (ECIP), energy savings performance contracts (ESPCs), and utility energy service contracts (UESCs). This article documents the process involved.« less

Performance assessment of Saskatchewan's water resource system under uncertain inter-provincial water supply

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hassanzadeh, Elmira; Elshorbagy, Amin; Nazemi, Ali; Wheater, Howard

2014-05-01

The trans-boundary Saskatchewan River Basin supports livelihoods and the economy of the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. Water users include irrigated agriculture, hydropower, potash mining, urban centers, and ecosystem services. Water availability in Saskatchewan is highly dependent on the flows from the upstream province of Alberta. These flows mostly originate from the Rocky Mountains headwaters and are highly regulated, due to intensive water use and redistribution before they get to the Alberta/Saskatchewan border. Warming climate and increasing water demands in Alberta have changed the incoming flow characteristics from Alberta to Saskatchewan. It is critical to assess the performance and the viability of Saskatchewan's water resources system under uncertain future inter-provincial inflows. For this purpose, a possible range of future changes in the inflows from Alberta to Saskatchewan is considered in this study. The considered changes include various combinations of shifts in the timing of the annual peak and volumetric change in the annual flow volumes. These shifts are implemented using a copula-based stochastic simulation method to generate multiple realizations of weekly flow series at two key locations of inflow to Saskatchewan's water resources system, in a way that the spatial dependencies between weekly inflows are maintained. Each flow series is of 31-years length and constitutes a possible long term water availability scenario. The stochastically generated flows are introduced as an alternative to the historical inflows for water resources planning and management purposes in Saskatchewan. Both historical and reconstructed inflows are fed into a Sustainability-oriented Water Allocation, Management, and Planning (SWAMP) model to analyze the effects of inflow changes on Saskatchewan's water resources system. The SWAMP model was developed using the System Dynamics approach and entails irrigation/soil moisture, non-irrigation uses and economic

Aqueduct: an interactive tool to empower global water risk assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reig, Paul; Gassert, Francis

2013-04-01

The Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas (Aqueduct) is a publicly available, global database and interactive tool that maps indicators of water related risks for decision makers worldwide. Aqueduct makes use of the latest geo-statistical modeling techniques to compute a composite index and translate the most recently available hydrological data into practical information on water related risks for companies, investors, and governments alike. Twelve global indicators are grouped into a Water Risk Framework designed in response to the growing concerns from private sector actors around water scarcity, water quality, climate change, and increasing demand for freshwater. The Aqueduct framework includes indicators of water stress, variability in supply, storage, flood, drought, groundwater, water quality and social conflict, addressing both spatial and temporal variation in water hazards. It organizes indicators into three categories of risk that bring together multiple dimensions of water related risk into comprehensive aggregated scores, which allow for dynamic weighting to capture users' unique exposure to water hazards. All information is compiled into an online, open access platform, from which decision-makers can view indicators, scores, and maps, conduct global risk assessments, and export data and shape files for further analysis. Companies can use this tool to evaluate their exposure to water risks across operations and supply chains, investors to assess water-related risks in their portfolio, and public-sector actors to better understand water security. Additionally, the open nature of the data and maps allow other organizations to build off of this effort with new research, for example in the areas of water-energy or water-food relationships. This presentation will showcase the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas online tool and the features and functionalities it offers, as well as explain how it can be used for both private and public sector applications. The session will

Asian water futures - Multi scenarios, models and criteria assessment -

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Satoh, Yusuke; Burek, Peter; Wada, Yoshihide; Flrörke, Martina; Eisner, Stephanie; Hanasaki, Naota; Kahil, Taher; Tramberend, Sylvia; Fischer, Günther; Wiberg, David

2016-04-01

A better understanding of the current and future availability of water resources is essential for the implementation of the recently agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Long-term/efficient strategies for coping with current and potential future water-related challenges are urgently required. Although Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) and Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) were develop for the impact assessment of climate change, very few assessments have yet used the SSPs to assess water resources. Then the IIASA Water Futures and Solutions Initiative (WFaS), developed a set of water use scenarios consistent with RCPs and SSPs and applying the latest climate changes scenarios. Here this study focuses on results for Asian countries for the period 2010-2050. We present three conceivable future pathways of Asian water resources, determined by feasible combinations of two RCPs and three SSPs. Such a scenario approach provides valuable insights towards identifying appropriate strategies as gaps between a "scenario world" and reality. In addition, for the assessment of future water resources a multi-criteria analysis is applied. A classification system for countries and watershed that consists of two broad dimensions: (i) economic and institutional adaptive capacity, (ii) hydrological complexity. The latter is composed of several sub-indexes including total renewable water resources per capita, the ratio of water demand to renewable water resource, variability of runoff and dependency ratio to external. Furthermore, this analysis uses a multi-model approach to estimate runoff and discharge using 5 GCMs and 5 global hydrological models (GHMs). Three of these GHMs calculate water use based on a consistent set of scenarios in addition to water availability. As a result, we have projected hot spots of water scarcity in Asia and their spatial and temporal change. For example, in a scenario based on SSP2 and RCP6.0, by 2050, in total 2.1 billion people

Global Floods and Water Availability Driven by Atmospheric Rivers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paltan, Homero; Waliser, Duane; Lim, Wee Ho; Guan, Bin; Yamazaki, Dai; Pant, Raghav; Dadson, Simon

2017-10-01

While emerging regional evidence shows that atmospheric rivers (ARs) can exert strong impacts on local water availability and flooding, their role in shaping global hydrological extremes has not yet been investigated. Here we quantify the relative contribution of ARs variability to both flood hazard and water availability. We find that globally, precipitation from ARs contributes 22% of total global runoff, with a number of regions reaching 50% or more. In areas where their influence is strongest, ARs may increase the occurrence of floods by 80%, while absence of ARs may increase the occurrence of hydrological droughts events by up to 90%. We also find that 300 million people are exposed to additional floods and droughts due the occurrence of ARs. ARs provide a source of hydroclimatic variability whose beneficial or damaging effects depend on the capacity of water resources managers to predict and adapt to them.

Design and implementation of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program: a United States example: understanding the limitations of using compliance-monitoring data to assess the water quality of a large river basin

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wangsness, David J.

1997-01-01

In the 1980s it was determined that existing ambient and compliance-monitoring data could not satisfactorily evaluate the results of hundreds of billions of dollars spent for water-pollution abatement in the United States. At the request of the US Congress, a new programme, the National Water-Quality Assessment, was designed and implemented by government agency, the US Geological Survey (USGS). The Assessment has reported status and trends in surface- and ground-water quality at national, regional, and local scales since 1991. The legislative basis for US monitoring and data-sharing policies are identified as well as the successive phases of the design and implementation of the USGS Assessment. Application to the Danube Basin is suggested. Much of the water-quality monitoring conducted in the United States is designed to comply with Federal and State laws mandated primarily by the Clean Water Act of 1987 and the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1986. Monitoring programs generally focus on rivers upstream and downstream of point-source discharges and at water-supply intakes. Few data are available for aquifer systems, and chemical analyses are often limited to those constituents required by law. In most cases, the majority of the available chemical and streamflow data have provided the information necessary to meet the objectives of the compliance-monitoring programs, but do not necessarily provide the information requires for basin-wide assessments of the water quality at the local, regional, or national scale.

Identification of glacial meltwater runoff in a karstic environment and its implication for present and future water availability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Finger, D.; Hugentobler, A.; Huss, M.; Voinesco, A.; Wernli, H.; Fischer, D.; Weber, E.; Jeannin, P.-Y.; Kauzlaric, M.; Wirz, A.; Vennemann, T.; Hüsler, F.; Schädler, B.; Weingartner, R.

2013-08-01

Glaciers all over the world are expected to continue to retreat due to the global warming throughout the 21st century. Consequently, future seasonal water availability might become scarce once glacier areas have declined below a certain threshold affecting future water management strategies. Particular attention should be paid to glaciers located in a karstic environment, as parts of the meltwater can be drained by underlying karst systems, making it difficult to assess water availability. In this study tracer experiments, karst modeling and glacier melt modeling are combined in order to identify flow paths in a high alpine, glacierized, karstic environment (Glacier de la Plaine Morte, Switzerland) and to investigate current and predict future downstream water availability. Flow paths through the karst underground were determined with natural and fluorescent tracers. Subsequently, geologic information and the findings from tracer experiments were assembled in a karst model. Finally, glacier melt projections driven with a climate scenario were performed to discuss future water availability in the area surrounding the glacier. The results suggest that during late summer glacier meltwater is rapidly drained through well-developed channels at the glacier bottom to the north of the glacier, while during low flow season meltwater enters into the karst and is drained to the south. Climate change projections with the glacier melt model reveal that by the end of the century glacier melt will be significantly reduced in the summer, jeopardizing water availability in glacier-fed karst springs.

Water-quality assessment of the Trinity River Basin, Texas - Review and analysis of available pesticide information, 1968-91

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ulery, R.L.; Brown, M.F.

1995-01-01

Review of all available data showed that pesticides were detected to a substantial degree in various sample media over the time period covered by this report. The authors were able to locate little pesticide-sample data for ground water or for tributary streams because sampling efforts historically have been concentrated on the mainstem Trinity River.

A parsimonious dynamic model for river water quality assessment.

PubMed

Mannina, Giorgio; Viviani, Gaspare

2010-01-01

Water quality modelling is of crucial importance for the assessment of physical, chemical, and biological changes in water bodies. Mathematical approaches to water modelling have become more prevalent over recent years. Different model types ranging from detailed physical models to simplified conceptual models are available. Actually, a possible middle ground between detailed and simplified models may be parsimonious models that represent the simplest approach that fits the application. The appropriate modelling approach depends on the research goal as well as on data available for correct model application. When there is inadequate data, it is mandatory to focus on a simple river water quality model rather than detailed ones. The study presents a parsimonious river water quality model to evaluate the propagation of pollutants in natural rivers. The model is made up of two sub-models: a quantity one and a quality one. The model employs a river schematisation that considers different stretches according to the geometric characteristics and to the gradient of the river bed. Each stretch is represented with a conceptual model of a series of linear channels and reservoirs. The channels determine the delay in the pollution wave and the reservoirs cause its dispersion. To assess the river water quality, the model employs four state variables: DO, BOD, NH(4), and NO. The model was applied to the Savena River (Italy), which is the focus of a European-financed project in which quantity and quality data were gathered. A sensitivity analysis of the model output to the model input or parameters was done based on the Generalised Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation methodology. The results demonstrate the suitability of such a model as a tool for river water quality management.

Indicator-based water sustainability assessment - a review.

PubMed

Juwana, I; Muttil, N; Perera, B J C

2012-11-01

In the past few decades, there have been extensive efforts on measuring sustainability. One example is the development of assessment tools based on sustainability indicators. Several individuals and organisations have suggested various indices for assessing sustainability. This paper focuses on the review of water sustainability assessment using the indicator-based approach. It discusses major definitions of sustainable development that have been proposed and more specific concepts of sustainability based on sustainability principles and criteria. It then proceeds with the review of existing definitions, principles and guidelines on sustainable water resource management. The paper then explores elements of indicator-based water sustainability assessment. These elements include the selection of components and indicators, obtaining sub-index values, weighting schemes for components and indicators, aggregation of components and indicators, robustness analysis of the index, and interpretation of the final index value. These six elements are explored considering four existing water sustainability indices and two other sustainability indices that are thought to be useful for the development and use of water sustainability indices. The review presented in this paper on indicator-based water sustainability assessment can provide significant inputs to water stakeholders worldwide for using existing indices, for customising existing indices for their applications, and for developing new water sustainability indices. These indices can provide information on current conditions of water resources, including identifying all factors contributing to the improvement of water resources. This information can be used to communicate the current status of existing water resources to the wider community. Also, the water sustainability indices can be used to assist decision makers to prioritise issues, challenges and programmes related to water resource management. Copyright © 2012

Water availability and usage on the New Mexico/Mexico border.

PubMed

Li, Yongmei; Arnold, Stephen D; Kozel, Charles; Forster-Cox, Sue

2005-10-01

New Mexico, one of four states on the U.S./Mexico border, is faced with a pressing concern--lack of water. Since the region is either arid or semiarid, it is chronically short of continually available surface-water resources. Groundwater resources are used beyond their capacity to be recharged, and most surface-water resources are used to the maximum. The quality of groundwater varies widely. As a result of nonpoint- and point-source contamination, as well as natural occurrence, water in some areas is too salty or has high levels of natural uranium, fluoride, or arsenic. To date, the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) has recognized 1,400 cases of groundwater contamination, and 1,907 water supply wells have been affected (NMED, 2001a). Of approximate 4,000 miles of coninously flowing rivers and streams in New Mexico, 92 perent are affected by nonpoint sources of pollution (NMED, 2001b). Numerous critical water issues exist along the New Mexico/Mexico border as a result of the impending critical issue of water availability, usage, and quality, as well as the fast-growing population. Related public health problems along the New Mexico/Mexico border are indicative of the need for a holistic, concrete, and sustainable solution to meet water demands in New Mexico. In order to accomplish the goals an objectives of Border XXI, Healthy People 2010, and Heathy Border 2010, a comprehensive statewide water management plan is needed. Solutions to the water demands of the region will be addressed in a subsequent manuscript.

A First Estimation of County-Based Green Water Availability and Its Implications for Agriculture and Bioenergy Production in the United States

DOE PAGES

Xu, Hui; Wu, May

2018-02-02

Green water is vital for the terrestrial ecosystem, but water resource assessment often focuses on blue water. In this study, we estimated green water availability for major crops (i.e., corn, soybean, and wheat) and all other users(e.g., forest, grassland, and ecosystem services) at the county level in the United States. We estimated green water resources from effective rain(ER) using three different methods: Smith, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Soil Conservation Service (USDA-SCS), and the NHD plus V2 dataset. The analysis illustrates that, if green water meets all crop water demands, the fraction of green water resources available to all other users variesmore » significantly across regions, from the Northern Plains (0.71) to the Southeast (0.98). At the county level, this fraction varies from 0.23 to 1.0. Green water resources estimated using the three different ER methods present diverse spatiotemporal distribution patterns across regions, which could affect green water availability estimates. The water availability index for green water (WAI_R) was measured taking into account crop water demand and green water resources aggregated at the county level. Beyond these parameters, WAI_R also depends on the precipitation pattern, crop type and spatially differentiated regions. In addition, seasonal analysis indicated that WAI_R is sensitive to the temporal boundary of the analysis.« less

A First Estimation of County-Based Green Water Availability and Its Implications for Agriculture and Bioenergy Production in the United States

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Xu, Hui; Wu, May

Green water is vital for the terrestrial ecosystem, but water resource assessment often focuses on blue water. In this study, we estimated green water availability for major crops (i.e., corn, soybean, and wheat) and all other users(e.g., forest, grassland, and ecosystem services) at the county level in the United States. We estimated green water resources from effective rain(ER) using three different methods: Smith, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Soil Conservation Service (USDA-SCS), and the NHD plus V2 dataset. The analysis illustrates that, if green water meets all crop water demands, the fraction of green water resources available to all other users variesmore » significantly across regions, from the Northern Plains (0.71) to the Southeast (0.98). At the county level, this fraction varies from 0.23 to 1.0. Green water resources estimated using the three different ER methods present diverse spatiotemporal distribution patterns across regions, which could affect green water availability estimates. The water availability index for green water (WAI_R) was measured taking into account crop water demand and green water resources aggregated at the county level. Beyond these parameters, WAI_R also depends on the precipitation pattern, crop type and spatially differentiated regions. In addition, seasonal analysis indicated that WAI_R is sensitive to the temporal boundary of the analysis.« less

Drinking water sources, availability, quality, access and utilization for goats in the Karak Governorate, Jordan.

PubMed

Al-Khaza'leh, Ja'far Mansur; Reiber, Christoph; Al Baqain, Raid; Valle Zárate, Anne

2015-01-01

Goat production is an important agricultural activity in Jordan. The country is one of the poorest countries in the world in terms of water scarcity. Provision of sufficient quantity of good quality drinking water is important for goats to maintain feed intake and production. This study aimed to evaluate the seasonal availability and quality of goats' drinking water sources, accessibility, and utilization in different zones in the Karak Governorate in southern Jordan. Data collection methods comprised interviews with purposively selected farmers and quality assessment of water sources. The provision of drinking water was considered as one of the major constraints for goat production, particularly during the dry season (DS). Long travel distances to the water sources, waiting time at watering points, and high fuel and labor costs were the key reasons associated with the problem. All the values of water quality (WQ) parameters were within acceptable limits of the guidelines for livestock drinking WQ with exception of iron, which showed slightly elevated concentration in one borehole source in the DS. These findings show that water shortage is an important problem leading to consequences for goat keepers. To alleviate the water shortage constraint and in view of the depleted groundwater sources, alternative water sources at reasonable distance have to be tapped and monitored for water quality and more efficient use of rainwater harvesting systems in the study area is recommended.

Assessment of the SWAT model to simulate a watershed with limited available data in the Pampas region, Argentina.

PubMed

Romagnoli, Martín; Portapila, Margarita; Rigalli, Alfredo; Maydana, Gisela; Burgués, Martín; García, Carlos M

2017-10-15

Argentina has been among the world leaders in the production and export of agricultural products since the 1990s. The Carcarañá River Lower Basin (CRLB), a cropland of the Pampas region supplied by extensive rainfall, is located in an area with few streamgauging and other hydrologic/water-quality stations. Therefore, limited hydrologic data are available resulting in limited water-resources assessment. This work explores the application of Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model to the CRLB in the Santa Fe province of the Pampas region. The analysis of field and remote-sensing data characterizing hydrology, water quality, soil types, land use/land cover, management practices, and crop yield, guarantee a comprehensive SWAT modeling approach. A combined manual and automated calibration and validation process incorporating sensitivity and uncertainty analysis is performed using information concerning interior watershed processes. Eleven N/P fertilizer rates are selected to simulate the impact of N fertilizer on crop yield, plant uptake, as well as runoff and leaching losses. Different indices (partial factor productivity, agronomic efficiency, apparent crop recovery efficiency of applied nutrient, internal utilization efficiency, and physiological efficiency) are considered to assess nitrogen-use efficiency. The overall quality of the fit is satisfactory considering the input data limitations. This work provides, for the first time in Argentina, a reliable tool to simulate yield response to soil quality and water availability capable to meet defined environmental targets to support decision making on planning public policies and private activities on the Pampas region. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Ecohydrology of agroecosystems: probabilistic description of yield reduction risk under limited water availability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vico, Giulia; Porporato, Amilcare

2013-04-01

Supplemental irrigation represents one of the main strategies to mitigate the effects of climate variability and stabilize yields. Irrigated agriculture currently provides 40% of food production and its relevance is expected to further increase in the near future, in face of the projected alterations of rainfall patterns and increase in food, fiber, and biofuel demand. Because of the significant investments and water requirements involved in irrigation, strategic choices are needed to preserve productivity and profitability, while maintaining a sustainable water management - a nontrivial task given the unpredictability of the rainfall forcing. To facilitate decision making under uncertainty, a widely applicable probabilistic framework is proposed. The occurrence of rainfall events and irrigation applications are linked probabilistically to crop development during the growing season and yields at harvest. Based on these linkages, the probability density function of yields and corresponding probability density function of required irrigation volumes, as well as the probability density function of yields under the most common case of limited water availability are obtained analytically, as a function of irrigation strategy, climate, soil and crop parameters. The full probabilistic description of the frequency of occurrence of yields and water requirements is a crucial tool for decision making under uncertainty, e.g., via expected utility analysis. Furthermore, the knowledge of the probability density function of yield allows us to quantify the yield reduction hydrologic risk. Two risk indices are defined and quantified: the long-term risk index, suitable for long-term irrigation strategy assessment and investment planning, and the real-time risk index, providing a rigorous probabilistic quantification of the emergence of drought conditions during a single growing season in an agricultural setting. Our approach employs relatively few parameters and is thus easily and

Drought, Land-Use Change, and Water Availability in California's Central Valley

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Faunt, C. C.; Sneed, M.; Traum, J.

2015-12-01

The Central Valley is a broad alluvial-filled structural trough that covers about 52,000 square kilometers and is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world. Because the valley is semi-arid and the availability of surface water varies substantially from year to year, season to season, and from north to south, agriculture developed a reliance on groundwater for irrigation. During recent drought periods (2007-09 and 2012-present), groundwater pumping has increased due to a combination of factors including drought and land-use changes. In response, groundwater levels have declined to levels approaching or below historical low levels. In the San Joaquin Valley, the southern two thirds of the Central Valley, the extensive groundwater pumpage has caused aquifer system compaction, resulting in land subsidence and permanent loss of groundwater storage capacity. The magnitude and rate of subsidence varies based on geologic materials, consolidation history, and historical water levels. Spatially-variable subsidence has changed the land-surface slope, causing operational, maintenance, and construction-design problems for surface-water infrastructure. It is important for water agencies to plan for the effects of continued water-level declines, storage losses, and/or land subsidence. To combat these effects, excess surface water, when available, is artificially recharged. As surface-water availability, land use, and artificial recharge continue to vary, long-term groundwater-level and land-subsidence monitoring and modelling are critical to understanding the dynamics of the aquifer system. Modeling tools, such as the Central Valley Hydrologic Model, can be used in the analysis and evaluation of management strategies to mitigate adverse impacts due to subsidence, while also optimizing water availability. These analyses will be critical for successful implementation of recent legislation aimed toward sustainable groundwater use.

SEEING THE LIGHT: A WATER CLARITY INDEX FOR INTEGRATED WATER QUALITY ASSESSMENTS

EPA Science Inventory

Smith, Lisa M. and Linda C. Harwell. In press. Seeing the Light: A Water Clarity Index for Integrated Water Quality Assessments (Abstract). To be presented at EMAP Symposium 2004: Integrated Monitoring & Assessment for Effective Water Quality Management. 1 p. (ERL,GB R970).
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A comparison of hydrologic models for ecological flows and water availability

Treesearch

Peter V. Caldwell; Jonathan G. Kennen; Ge Sun; Julie E. Kiang; Jon B. Butcher; Michele C. Eddy; Lauren E. Hay; Jacob H. LaFontaine; Ernie F. Hain; Stacy A. C. Nelson; Steve G. McNulty

2015-01-01

Robust hydrologic models are needed to help manage water resources for healthy aquatic ecosystems and reliable water supplies for people, but there is a lack of comprehensive model comparison studies that quantify differences in streamflow predictions among model applications developed to answer management questions. We assessed differences in daily streamflow...

Introduction of water footprint assessment approach to enhance water supply management in Malaysia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moni, Syazwan N.; Aziz, Edriyana A.; Malek, M. A.

2017-10-01

Presently, Water Footprint (WF) Approach has been used to assess the sustainability of a product's chain globally but is lacking in the services sector. Thus, this paper aims to introduce WF assessment as a technical approach to determine the sustainability of water supply management for the typical water supply treatment process (WSTP) used in Malaysia. Water supply is one of the pertinent services and most of WF accounting begins with data obtained from the water supply treatment plant. Therefore, the amount of WF will be accounted for each process of WSTP in order to determine the water utilization for the whole process according to blue, green and grey WF. Hence, the exact amount of water used in the process can be measured by applying this accounting method to assess the sustainability of water supply management in Malaysia. Therefore, the WF approach in assessing sustainability of WSTP could be implemented.

Estimated water use and availability in the Pawcatuck Basin, southern Rhode Island and southeastern Connecticut, 1995-99

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wild, Emily C.; Nimiroski, Mark T.

2004-01-01

well as subtracting out the two low-flow criteria, resulted in various wateravailability values at each index station, which were present in the subbasin after applying the per unit area rates from the index station. The results from the Chipuxet and Arcadia streamgaging stations were lowest in September at the 75th and 25th percentiles, and August flows were lowest for the summer at the 50th percentile. For the other three index stations, September flows were the lowest for the summer. Because water withdrawals and use are greater during the summer than other times of the year, water availability in June, July, August, and September was assessed and compared to water withdrawals in the basin and subbasins. The ratios were calculated by using the water-availability flow scenarios at the 75th, 50th, and 25th percentiles for the subbasins, which are based on total water available from base-flow contributions from till deposits and sand and gravel deposits in the subbasins. For the study period, the withdrawals in August were higher than the other summer months. The ratios were close to one in August for the estimated gross yield and 7-day, 10-year flow criterion, and were close to one in September for the estimated Aquatic Base Flow criterion water-availability scenarios in the Pawcatuck Basin. The closer the ratio is to one, the closer the withdrawals are to the estimated water available, and the net water available decreases. To determine the effects of streamflow depletion from continuous water withdrawals, the program STRMDEPL was used to simulate public wells and well fields at a constant pumping rate based on the 1999 summer average for each withdrawal, over a period of 180 days. The streamflow depletion was 86, 95, 93, 96, and 98 percent at 30 days for Kingston wells 1 and 2, Westerly well fields 1 and 2, and well 3, respectively. A long-term hydrologic budget was calculated for the Pawcatuck Basin to identify and assess the basin and subbasin inflow and outflows

Assessing Groundwater Availability in the High Plains Aquifer in Parts of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming

USGS Publications Warehouse

Qi, Sharon L.; Christenson, Scott

2010-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey's Groundwater Resources Program is conducting an assessment of groundwater availability to gain a clearer understanding of the status of the Nation's groundwater resources and the natural and human factors that can affect those resources. The goals of this national effort are to define the current status and improve understanding of the Nation's groundwater resources, to better estimate availability and suitability of those resources for use in the future, and to provide tools to estimate the future availability of ground-water for its various uses. Assessments will be completed for regional aquifer systems across the Nation to help characterize how much water we have, where groundwater resources are most stressed, how groundwater availability is changing, and where groundwater resources are most available for future use.

Occurrence and availability of ground water in the Athens region, northeastern Georgia

USGS Publications Warehouse

Radtke, D.B.; Cressler, C.W.; Perlman, H.A.; Blanchard, H.E.; McFadden, K.W.; Brooks, Rebekah

1986-01-01

A study was conducted to assess the occurrence and availability of groundwater in the crystalline rocks of the Piedmont area in northeastern Georgia and to determine whether groundwater is a viable alternative or supplemental source for industrial, public and private supplies. The area is underlain by a variety of metamorphic and igneous rocks. The quantity of water that a rock unit can supply to wells is determined by the number, capacity, and interconnection of the secondary openings. Of an estimated 10,000 successful wells drilled in the Athens Region, 972 wells are reported by drilling contractors to supply from 20 to 300 gal/min. Studies of well sites revealed that high yielding wells can be developed only where the water bearing units have undergone significant increases in secondary permeability. This occurs mainly in association with (1) contact zones between rock units of contrasting character, (2) contact zones within multilayered rock units, (3) fault zones, (4) stress-relief fractures, and (5) shear zones. Groundwater may be a viable alternative or supplemental source for industrial, public, and private supplies in much of the Athens Region. In 1980, groundwater made up 38% (18 million gal/day) of the total water used in the area. Yields of 20 to more than 200 gal/min are obtained from wells throughout most of the region, and the water is generally of good chemical quality and is suitable for drinking and many other uses. Concentrations of dissolved constituents are fairly consistent throughout the area. Except for iron, manganese, and fluoride, dissolved constituents rarely exceed drinking water standards. (Lantz-PTT)

Design of Cycle 3 of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program, 2013-2022: Part 1: Framework of Water-Quality Issues and Potential Approaches

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rowe, Gary L.; Belitz, Kenneth; Essaid, Hedeff I.; Gilliom, Robert J.; Hamilton, Pixie A.; Hoos, Anne B.; Lynch, Dennis D.; Munn, Mark D.; Wolock, David W.

2010-01-01

In 1991, the U.S. Congress established the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program to develop long-term, nationally consistent information on the quality of the Nation's streams and groundwater. Congress recognized the critical need for this information to support scientifically sound management, regulatory, and policy decisions concerning the increasingly stressed water resources of the Nation. The long-term goals of NAWQA are to: (1) assess the status of water-quality conditions in the United States, (2) evaluate long-term trends in water-quality conditions, and (3) link status and trends with an understanding of the natural and human factors that affect water quality. These goals are national in scale, include both surface water and groundwater, and include consideration of water quality in relation to both human uses and aquatic ecosystems. Since 1991, NAWQA assessments and findings have fostered and supported major improvements in the availability and use of unbiased scientific information for decisionmaking, resource management, and planning at all levels of government. These improvements have enabled agencies and stakeholders to cost-effectively address a wide range of water-quality issues related to natural and human influences on the quality of water and potential effects on aquatic ecosystems and human health (http://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/xrel.pdf). NAWQA, like all USGS programs, provides policy relevant information that serves as a scientific basis for decisionmaking related to resource management, protection, and restoration. The information is freely available to all levels of government, nongovernmental organizations, industry, academia, and the public, and is readily accessible on the NAWQA Web site and other diverse formats to serve the needs of the water-resource community at different technical levels. Water-quality conditions in streams and groundwater are described in more than 1,700 publications (available

Availability of water in Kalamazoo County, southwestern Michigan

USGS Publications Warehouse

Allen, William Burrows; Miller, John B.; Wood, Warren W.

1972-01-01

of the utmost importance. Levels at Crooked and Eagle Lakes have been maintained by pumping from lower aquifers. Diversion of water from Gourdneck Creek to West and Austin Lakes has helped in maintaining levels. Several relatively undeveloped lakes could be utilized as reservoirs whose storage could be used to augment streamflow or for water supply.Water in streams is generally of good chemical quality; however, several streams, including the Kalamazoo River downstream from Kalamazoo, have been degraded by municipal and industrial waste disposal. Water in the lakes is generally of good chemical quality with the exception of Barton Lake, which has been degraded by waste disposal. There is sufficient surface water available in Kalamazoo County to meet requirements for development of large quantities of water. The total available supply (average discharge of a stream) is about 680 mgd (million gallons per day). The dependable supply (7-day Q2, or average 7-day low flow having a recurrence interval of 2 years) is about 303 mgd. By developing artificial recharge facilities, surface runoff during winter and spring could be utilized to recharge ground-water reservoirs. Surface-water withdrawal in 1966 was about 58 mgd, of which 33 mgd was withdrawn from the Kalamazoo River. The quantity of water now being withdrawn from the ground and surface sources is small compared to the total that may be obtained in the area through full utilization of these resources. Mathematical models were used to simulate hydrologic conditions in the ground-water reservoirs and to evaluate maximum drawdowns for periods of little or no recharge. The practical limits of development as determined for the ground-water reservoirs are estimated to be at the following average withdrawal rates: Kalamazoo, 39 .mgd; Schoolcraft, 17 mgd; Kalamazoo-Portage, 24 mgd; and several small reservoirs, 67 mgd. These total 147 mgd. Further development would require additional artificial recharge facilities. Average

Olive response to water availability: yield response functions, soil water content indicators and evaluation of adaptability to climate change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riccardi, Maria; Alfieri, Silvia Maria; Basile, Angelo; Bonfante, Antonello; Menenti, Massimo; Monaco, Eugenia; De Lorenzi, Francesca

2013-04-01

Climate evolution, with the foreseen increase of temperature and frequency of drought events during the summer, could cause significant changes in the availability of water resources specially in the Mediterranean region. European countries need to encourage sustainable agriculture practices, reducing inputs, especially of water, and minimizing any negative impact on crop quantity and quality. Olive is an important crop in the Mediterranean region that has traditionally been cultivated with no irrigation and is known to attain acceptable production under dry farming. Therefore this crop will not compete for foreseen reduced water resources. However, a good quantitative knowledge must be available about effects of reduced precipitation and water availability on yield. Yield response functions, coupled with indicators of soil water availability, provide a quantitative description of the cultivar- specific behavior in relation to hydrological conditions. Yield response functions of 11 olive cultivars, typical of Mediterranean environment, were determined using experimental data (unpublished or reported in scientific literature). The yield was expressed as relative yield (Yr); the soil water availability was described by means of different indicators: relative soil water deficit (RSWD), relative evapotranspiration (RED) and transpiration deficit (RTD). Crops can respond nonlinearly to changes in their growing conditions and exhibit threshold responses, so for the yield functions of each olive cultivar both linear regression and threshold-slope models were considered to evaluate the best fit. The level of relative yield attained in rain-fed conditions was identified and defined as the acceptable yield level (Yrrainfed). The value of the indicator (RSWD, RED and RTD) corresponding to Yrrainfed was determined for each cultivar and indicated as the critical value of water availability. The error in the determination of the critical value was estimated. By means of a

Water-quality assessment of the Connecticut, Housatonic, and Thames river basins study unit; analysis of available data on nutrients, suspended sediments, and pesticides, 1972-92

USGS Publications Warehouse

Zimmerman, Marc James; Grady, S.J.; Trench, E.C.; Flanagan, S.M.; Nielsen, M.G.

1996-01-01

This retrospective report examines available nutrient, suspended sediment, and pesticide data in surface and ground water in the Connecticut, Housatonic and Thames Rivers Study Unit of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program. The purpose of this study is to improve the under- standing of natural and anthropogenic factors affecting water quality in the study unit. Water-quality data were acquired from various sources, primarily, the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The report examines data for water years 1972-92, focusing on 1980-92, although it also includes additional data from as early as 1905. The study unit lies within the New England Physiographic Province and altitudes range from sea level in coastal Connecticut to 6,288 feet above sea level at Mount Washington, New Hampshire. Two major aquifer types underlie the study unit--unconsolidated glacial deposits and fractured bedrock. The climate generally is temperate and humid, with four distinct seasons. Average annual precipitation ranges from 34 to 65 inches. The study unit has a population of about 4.5 million, which is most highly concentrated in southwestern Connecticut and along the south-central region of the Connecticut River Valley. Surface-water-quality data were screened to provide information about sites with adequate numbers of analyses (50) over sufficiently long periods (1980-90) to enable valid statistical analyses. In order to compare effects of different types of land use on surface-water quality, examination of data required application of several statistical and graphical techniques, including mapping, histograms, boxplots, concentration-discharge plots, trend analysis, and load estimation. Spatial and temporal analysis of surface-water-quality data indicated that, with a single exception, only/stations in the Connecticut water-quality network had sufficient data collected over adequately long time periods to use in detailed analyses. Ground-water

An Assessment of Water Demand and Availability to meet Construction and Operational Needs for Large Utility-Scale Solar Projects in the Southwestern United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klise, G. T.; Tidwell, V. C.; Macknick, J.; Reno, M. D.; Moreland, B. D.; Zemlick, K. M.

2013-12-01

In the Southwestern United States, there are many large utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP) facilities currently in operation, with even more under construction and planned for future development. These are locations with high solar insolation and access to large metropolitan areas and existing grid infrastructure. The Bureau of Land Management, under a reasonably foreseeable development scenario, projects a total of almost 32 GW of installed utility-scale solar project capacity in the Southwest by 2030. To determine the potential impacts to water resources and the potential limitations water resources may have on development, we utilized methods outlined by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to determine potential water use in designated solar energy zones (SEZs) for construction and operations & maintenance (O&M), which is then evaluated according to water availability in six Southwestern states. Our results indicate that PV facilities overall use less water, however water for construction is high compared to lifetime operational water needs. There is a transition underway from wet cooled to dry cooled CSP facilities and larger PV facilities due to water use concerns, though some water is still necessary for construction, operations, and maintenance. Overall, ten watersheds, 9 in California, and one in New Mexico were identified as being of particular concern because of limited water availability. Understanding the location of potentially available water sources can help the solar industry determine locations that minimize impacts to existing water resources, and help understand potential costs when utilizing non-potable water sources or purchasing existing appropriated water. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract

Mechanisms and assessment of water eutrophication*

PubMed Central

Yang, Xiao-e; Wu, Xiang; Hao, Hu-lin; He, Zhen-li

2008-01-01

Water eutrophication has become a worldwide environmental problem in recent years, and understanding the mechanisms of water eutrophication will help for prevention and remediation of water eutrophication. In this paper, recent advances in current status and major mechanisms of water eutrophication, assessment and evaluation criteria, and the influencing factors were reviewed. Water eutrophication in lakes, reservoirs, estuaries and rivers is widespread all over the world and the severity is increasing, especially in the developing countries like China. The assessment of water eutrophication has been advanced from simple individual parameters like total phosphorus, total nitrogen, etc., to comprehensive indexes like total nutrient status index. The major influencing factors on water eutrophication include nutrient enrichment, hydrodynamics, environmental factors such as temperature, salinity, carbon dioxide, element balance, etc., and microbial and biodiversity. The occurrence of water eutrophication is actually a complex function of all the possible influencing factors. The mechanisms of algal blooming are not fully understood and need to be further investigated. PMID:18357622

Using Probabilistic Methods in Water Scarcity Assessments: A First Step Towards a Water Scarcity Risk Assessment Framework

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Veldkamp, Ted; Wada, Yoshihide; Aerts, Jeroen; Ward, Phillip

2016-01-01

Water scarcity -driven by climate change, climate variability, and socioeconomic developments- is recognized as one of the most important global risks, both in terms of likelihood and impact. Whilst a wide range of studies have assessed the role of long term climate change and socioeconomic trends on global water scarcity, the impact of variability is less well understood. Moreover, the interactions between different forcing mechanisms, and their combined effect on changes in water scarcity conditions, are often neglected. Therefore, we provide a first step towards a framework for global water scarcity risk assessments, applying probabilistic methods to estimate water scarcity risks for different return periods under current and future conditions while using multiple climate and socioeconomic scenarios.

Water data to answer urgent water policy questions: Monitoring design, available data and filling data gaps for determining the effectiveness of agricultural management practices for reducing tributary nutrient loads to Lake Erie

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bentanzo, Elin A.; Choquette, Anne F.; Reckhow, Kenneth H.; Hayes, Laura; Hagan, Erik R; Argue, Denise M.; Cangelosi, A.A.

2015-01-01

Throughout its history, the United States has made major investments in assessing natural resources, such as soils, timber, oil and gas, and water. These investments allow policy makers, the private sector and the American public to make informed decisions about cultivating, harvesting or conserving these resources to maximize their value for public welfare, environmental conservation and the economy. As policy issues evolve, new priorities and challenges arise for natural resource assessment, and new approaches to monitoring are needed. For example, informed conservation and use of the nation’s finite fresh water resources in the context of increasingly intensive land development is a priority for today’s policy decisionmakers. There is a need to evaluate whether today’s water monitoring programs are generating the information needed to answer questions surrounding these new policy priorities. The Northeast-Midwest Institute (NEMWI), in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program, initiated this project to explore the types and amounts of water data needed to address water-quality related policy questions of critical concern to today’s policy makers. The collaborating entities identified two urgent water policy questions and conducted case studies in the Northeast-Midwest region to determine the water data needed, water data available, and the best ways to fill the data gaps relative to those questions. This report details the output from one case study and focuses on the Lake Erie drainage basin, a data-rich area expected to be a best-case scenario in terms of water data availability.

Assessing timber availability in upland Hardwood Forests

Treesearch

Dennis M. May; Chris B. LeDoux

1992-01-01

Reported forest inventory statistics gathered by the USDA Forest Service, Southern Forest Experiment Station, Forest Inventory and Analysis (SOFIA) have been criticized because not all of the inventory volume reported is truly available for harvest. In response to this criticism, a procedure has been developed for assessing timber availability from reported inventory...

Evaluation of Ground-Water Resources From Available Data, 1992, East Molokai Volcano, Hawaii

USGS Publications Warehouse

Anthony, Stephen S.

1995-01-01

Available ground-water data for East Molokai Volcano consist of well-construction information and records of ground-water pumpage, water levels, and chloride concentrations. Ground-water pumpage records are available for ten wells. Seventeen long-term (10 years or more) records of water-level and/or chloride concentration are available for eleven wells; however, only seven of these records are for observation wells. None of the available data show significant long-term changes in water level or chloride concentration; however, short-term changes due to variations in the quantity of water pumped, and rainfall are evident. Evaluation of the historical distribution and rates of ground-water pumpage, and variations in water levels and chloride concentrations is constrained by the scanty distribution of spatial and temporal data. Data show a range in water levels from greater than 850 feet above mean sea level in wells located in the windward valley of Waikolu to about 10 feet in wells located east of Kualapuu to 1 to 5 feet in the wells located along the south shore of East Molokai Volcano. An accurate contour map of water levels and chloride concentrations at the surface of the basal-water body cannot be constructed for any time period. Because water-level and chloride data are not collected at regular time intervals, many long-term records are incomplete. Information on the variation in chloride concentration with depth through the freshwater part of the basal-water body and into the zone of transition between freshwater and saltwater does not exist.

76 FR 20664 - Clean Water Act Section 303(d): Availability of List Decisions

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-04-13

... ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY [FRL-9294-5] Clean Water Act Section 303(d): Availability of List... notice announces the availability of EPA's action identifying water quality limited segments and associated pollutants in Louisiana to be listed pursuant to Clean Water Act Section 303(d), and request for...

75 FR 52735 - Clean Water Act Section 303(d): Availability of List Decisions

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-27

... ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY [FRL-9189-7] Clean Water Act Section 303(d): Availability of List...: This notice announces the availability of EPA's decision identifying 12 water quality limited waterbodies and associated pollutants in South Dakota to be listed pursuant to the Clean Water Act Section 303...

Batch experiments versus soil pore water extraction--what makes the difference in isoproturon (bio-)availability?

PubMed

Folberth, Christian; Suhadolc, Metka; Scherb, Hagen; Munch, Jean Charles; Schroll, Reiner

2009-10-01

Two approaches to determine pesticide (bio-)availability in soils (i) batch experiments with "extraction with an excess of water" (EEW) and (ii) the recently introduced "soil pore water (PW) extraction" of pesticide incubated soil samples have been compared with regard to the sorption behavior of the model compound isoproturon in soils. A significant correlation between TOC and adsorbed pesticide amount was found when using the EEW approach. In contrast, there was no correlation between TOC and adsorbed isoproturon when using the in situ PW extraction method. Furthermore, sorption was higher at all concentrations in the EEW method when comparing the distribution coefficients (K(d)) for both methods. Over all, sorption in incubated soil samples at an identical water tension (-15 kPa) and soil density (1.3 g cm(-3)) appears to be controlled by a complex combination of sorption driving soil parameters. Isoproturon bioavailability was found to be governed in different soils by binding strength and availability of sorption sites as well as water content, whereas the dominance of either one of these factors seems to depend on the individual composition and characteristics of the respective soil sample. Using multiple linear regression analysis we obtained furthermore indications that the soil pore structure is affected by the EEW method due to disaggregation, resulting in a higher availability of pesticide sorption sites than in undisturbed soil samples. Therefore, it can be concluded that isoproturon sorption is overestimated when using the EEW method, which should be taken into account when using data from this approach or similar batch techniques for risk assessment analysis.

Assessment of future changes in water availability and aridity

DOE PAGES

Greve, P.; Seneviratne, S. I.

2015-07-04

Substantial changes in the hydrological cycle are projected for the 21st century, but these projections are subject to major uncertainties. In this context, the “dry gets drier, wet gets wetter” (DDWW) paradigm is often used as a simplifying summary. However, recent studies cast doubt on the validity of the paradigm and also on applying the widely used P-E (precipitation - evapotranspiration) metric over global land surfaces. Here we show in a comprehensive CMIP5-based assessment that projected changes in mean annual P - E are generally not significant, except for high-latitude regions showing wetting conditions until the end of the 21stmore » century. Significant increases in aridity do occur in many subtropical and also adjacent humid regions. However, combining both metrics still shows that approximately 70% of all land area will not experience significant changes. Finally, based on these findings, we conclude that the DDWW paradigm is generally not confirmed for projected changes in most land areas.« less

75 FR 68783 - Clean Water Act Section 303(d): Availability of List Decisions

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-11-09

... ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY [FRL-9223-5] Clean Water Act Section 303(d): Availability of List Decisions AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ACTION: Notice of availability. SUMMARY: This action announces the availability of EPA decisions identifying water quality limited segments and...

Assessing climate change impacts on water resources in remote mountain regions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buytaert, Wouter; De Bièvre, Bert

2013-04-01

From a water resources perspective, remote mountain regions are often considered as a basket case. They are often regions where poverty is often interlocked with multiple threats to water supply, data scarcity, and high uncertainties. In these environments, it is paramount to generate locally relevant knowledge about water resources and how they impact local livelihoods. This is often problematic. Existing environmental data collection tends to be geographically biased towards more densely populated regions, and prioritized towards strategic economic activities. Data may also be locked behind institutional and technological barriers. These issues create a "knowledge trap" for data-poor regions, which is especially acute in remote and hard-to-reach mountain regions. We present lessons learned from a decade of water resources research in remote mountain regions of the Andes, Africa and South Asia. We review the entire tool chain of assessing climate change impacts on water resources, including the interrogation and downscaling of global circulation models, translating climate variables in water availability and access, and assessing local vulnerability. In global circulation models, mountain regions often stand out as regions of high uncertainties and lack of agreement of future trends. This is partly a technical artifact because of the different resolution and representation of mountain topography, but it also highlights fundamental uncertainties in climate impacts on mountain climate. This problem also affects downscaling efforts, because regional climate models should be run in very high spatial resolution to resolve local gradients, which is computationally very expensive. At the same time statistical downscaling methods may fail to find significant relations between local climate properties and synoptic processes. Further uncertainties are introduced when downscaled climate variables such as precipitation and temperature are to be translated in hydrologically

Estimated water use and availability in the Pawtuxet and Quinebaug River basins, Rhode Island, 1995-99

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wild, Emily C.; Nimiroski, Mark T.

2007-01-01

Water availability became a concern in Rhode Island during a drought in 1999, and an investigation was needed to assess demands on the hydrologic system from withdrawals during periods of little to no precipitation. The low water levels during the drought prompted the U.S. Geological Survey and the Rhode Island Water Resources Board to begin a series of studies on water use and availability in each drainage area in Rhode Island for 1995–99. The study area for this report, which includes the Pawtuxet River Basin in central Rhode Island (231.6 square miles) and the Quinebaug River Basin in western Rhode Island (60.97 square miles), was delineated as the surface-water drainage areas of these basins. During the study period from 1995 through 1999, two major water suppliers withdrew an average of 71.86 million gallons per day (Mgal/d) from the Pawtuxet River Basin; of this amount, about 35.98 Mgal/d of potable water were exported to other basins in Rhode Island. The estimated water withdrawals from minor water suppliers were 0.026 Mgal/d in the Pawtuxet River Basin and 0.003 Mgal/d in the Quinebaug River Basin. Total self-supply withdrawals were 2.173 Mgal/d in the Pawtuxet River Basin and 0.360 Mgal/d in the Quinebaug River Basin, which has no public water supply. Total water use averaged 18.07 Mgal/d in the Pawtuxet River Basin and 0.363 Mgal/d in the Quinebaug River Basin. Total return flow in the Pawtuxet River Basin was 30.64 Mgal/d, which included about 12.28 Mgal/d that were imported from other basins in Rhode Island. Total return flow was 0.283 Mgal/d in the Quinebaug River Basin. During times of little to no recharge in the form of precipitation, the surface- and ground-water flows are from storage primarily in the stratified sand and gravel deposits; water also flows through the till deposits, but at a slower rate. The ground water discharging to the streams during times of little to no recharge from precipitation is referred to as base flow. The PART

Changes in soil water availability in vineyards can be traced by the carbon and nitrogen isotope composition of dried wines.

PubMed

Spangenberg, Jorge E; Zufferey, Vivian

2018-04-13

The grapevine is one of the most important edible fruit plants cultivated worldwide, and it is highly sensitive to changes in the soil water content. We studied the total carbon and nitrogen contents and stable isotope compositions (C/N WSR , δ 13 C WSR and δ 15 N WSR values) of the solid residues obtained by freeze-drying wines produced from two white grapevine cultivars (Vitis vinifera L. cv Chasselas and Petite Arvine) field grown under different soil water regimes while maintaining other climatic and ecopedological conditions identical. These experiments simulated the more frequent and extended climate change-induced periods of soil water shortage. The wines were from the 2009-2014 vintages, produced using the same vinification procedure. The plant water status, reflecting soil water availability, was assessed by the predawn leaf water potential (Ψ pd ), monitored in the field during the growing seasons. For both wine varieties, the δ 13 C WSR values are highly correlated with Ψ pd values and record the soil water availability set by soil water holding capacity, rainfall and irrigation water supply. These relationships were the same as those observed for the carbon isotope composition of fruit sugars (i.e., must sugars) and plant water status. In Chasselas wines, the nitrogen content and δ 15 N WSR values decreased with soil water deficit, indicating control of the flux of soil-water soluble nutrients into plants by soil water availability. Such a correlation was not found for Petite Arvine, probably due to different N-metabolism processes in this genetically atypical cultivar. The results presented in this study confirm and generalize what was previously found for red wine (Pinot noir); the carbon isotope composition of wine solid residues is a reliable indicator of the soil and the plant water status and thus can be used to trace back local climatic conditions in the vineyard's region. In most wines (except Petite Arvine) the C/N WSR and δ 15 N WSR

How uncertain are climate model projections of water availability indicators across the Middle East?

PubMed

Hemming, Debbie; Buontempo, Carlo; Burke, Eleanor; Collins, Mat; Kaye, Neil

2010-11-28

The projection of robust regional climate changes over the next 50 years presents a considerable challenge for the current generation of climate models. Water cycle changes are particularly difficult to model in this area because major uncertainties exist in the representation of processes such as large-scale and convective rainfall and their feedback with surface conditions. We present climate model projections and uncertainties in water availability indicators (precipitation, run-off and drought index) for the 1961-1990 and 2021-2050 periods. Ensembles from two global climate models (GCMs) and one regional climate model (RCM) are used to examine different elements of uncertainty. Although all three ensembles capture the general distribution of observed annual precipitation across the Middle East, the RCM is consistently wetter than observations, especially over the mountainous areas. All future projections show decreasing precipitation (ensemble median between -5 and -25%) in coastal Turkey and parts of Lebanon, Syria and Israel and consistent run-off and drought index changes. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) GCM ensemble exhibits drying across the north of the region, whereas the Met Office Hadley Centre work Quantifying Uncertainties in Model ProjectionsAtmospheric (QUMP-A) GCM and RCM ensembles show slight drying in the north and significant wetting in the south. RCM projections also show greater sensitivity (both wetter and drier) and a wider uncertainty range than QUMP-A. The nature of these uncertainties suggests that both large-scale circulation patterns, which influence region-wide drying/wetting patterns, and regional-scale processes, which affect localized water availability, are important sources of uncertainty in these projections. To reduce large uncertainties in water availability projections, it is suggested that efforts would be well placed to focus on the understanding and modelling of both

Availability of irrigation water for domestic use in Pakistan: its impact on prevalence of diarrhoea and nutritional status of children.

PubMed

van der Hoek, Wim; Feenstra, Sabiena G; Konradsen, Flemming

2002-03-01

This study assessed whether availability of water for domestic use had any impact on nutritional status of children in an area where people depend on irrigation water for all their domestic water needs. During May 1998-April 1999, data on the occurrence of diarrhoea among 167 children aged less than five years were collected from 10 villages in the command area of the Hakra 6R canal in southern Punjab, Pakistan. Anthropometric measurements were taken at the end of the study period. Additional surveys were conducted to collect information on the availability of water, sanitary facilities, hygiene, and socioeconomic status. Height-for-age and longitudinal prevalence of diarrhoea were used as outcome measures. Quantity of water available in households was a strong predictor of height-for-age and prevalence of diarrhoea. Children from households with a large storage capacity for water in the house had a much lower prevalence of diarrhoea and stunting than children from families without this facility. Having a toilet was protective for diarrhoea and stunting. Increased quantity of water for domestic use and provision of toilet facilities were the most important interventions to reduce burden of diarrhoea and malnutrition in this area. An integrated approach to water management is needed in irrigation schemes, so that supply of domestic water is given priority when allocating water in time and space within the systems.

Hydrologic modeling for monitoring water availability in Eastern and Southern Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McNally, A.; Harrison, L.; Shukla, S.; Pricope, N. G.; Peters-Lidard, C. D.

2017-12-01

Severe droughts in 2015, 2016 and 2017 in Ethiopia, Southern Africa, and Somalia have negatively impacted agriculture and municipal water supplies resulting in food and water insecurity. Information from remotely sensed data and field reports indicated that the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) Land Data Assimilation (FLDAS) accurately tracked both the anomalously low soil moisture, evapotranspiration and runoff conditions. This work presents efforts to more precisely monitor how the water balance responds to water availability deficits (i.e. drought) as estimated by the FLDAS with CHIRPS precipitation, MERRA-2 meteorological forcing and the Noah33 land surface model.Preliminary results indicate that FLDAS streamflow estimates are well correlated with observed streamflow where irrigation and other channel modifications are not present; FLDAS evapotranspiration (ET) is well correlated with ET from the Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance model (SSEBop) in Eastern and Southern Africa. We then use these results to monitor availability, and explore trends in water supply and demand.

National Water Model assessment for water management needs over the Western United States.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Viterbo, F.; Thorstensen, A.; Cifelli, R.; Hughes, M.; Johnson, L.; Gochis, D.; Wood, A.; Nowak, K.; Dahm, K.

2017-12-01

The NOAA National Water Model (NWM) became operational in August 2016, providing the first ever, real-time distributed high-resolution forecasts for the continental United States. Since the model predictions occur at the CONUS scale, there is a need to evaluate the NWM in different regions to assess the wide variety and heterogeneity of hydrological processes that are included (e.g., snow melting, ice freezing, flash flooding events). In particular, to address water management needs in the western U.S., a collaborative project between the Bureau of Reclamation, NOAA, and NCAR is ongoing to assess the NWM performance for reservoir inflow forecasting needs and water management operations. In this work, the NWM is evaluated using different forecast ranges (short to medium) and retrospective historical runs forced by North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) analysis to assess the NWM skills over key headwaters watersheds in the western U.S. that are of interest to the Bureau of Reclamation. The streamflow results are analyzed and compared with the available observations at the gauge sites, evaluating different NWM operational versions together with the already existing local River Forecast Center forecasts. The NWM uncertainty is also considered, evaluating the propagation of the precipitation forcing uncertainties in the resulting hydrograph. In addition, the possible advantages of high-resolution distributed output variables (such as soil moisture, evapotranspiration fluxes) are investigated, to determine the utility of such information for water managers in terms of watershed characteristics in areas that traditionally have not had any forecast information. The results highlight the NWM's ability to provide high-resolution forecast information in space and time. As anticipated, the performance is best in regions that are dominated by natural flows and where the model has benefited from efforts toward parameter calibration. In highly regulated basins, the

A water availability gradient reveals the deficit level required to affect traits in potted juvenile Eucalyptus globulus

PubMed Central

Potts, Brad M.; Hovenden, Mark J.; Brodribb, Timothy J.; Davies, Noel W.; Rodemann, Thomas; McAdam, Scott A. M.; O’Reilly-Wapstra, Julianne M.

2017-01-01

Background and aims Drought leading to soil water deficit can have severe impacts on plants. Water deficit may lead to plant water stress and affect growth and chemical traits. Plant secondary metabolite (PSM) responses to water deficit vary between compounds and studies, with inconsistent reports of changes to PSM concentrations even within a single species. This disparity may result from experimental water deficit variation among studies, and so multiple water deficit treatments are used to fully assess PSM responses in a single species. Methods Juvenile Eucalyptus globulus were grown for 8 weeks at one of ten water deficit levels based on evapotranspiration from control plants (100 %). Treatments ranged from 90 % of control evapotranspiration (mild water deficit) to 0 % of control evapotranspiration (severe water deficit) in 10 % steps. Plant biomass, foliar abscisic acid (ABA) levels, Ψleaf, leaf C/N, selected terpenes and phenolics were quantified to assess responses to each level of water deficit relative to a control. Key Results Withholding ≥30 % water resulted in higher foliar ABA levels and withholding ≥40 % water reduced leaf water content. Ψleaf became more negative when ≥60 % water was withheld. Plant biomass was lower when ≥80 % water was withheld, and no water for 8 weeks (0 % water) resulted in plant death. The total oil concentration was lower and C/N was higher in dead and desiccated juvenile E. globulus leaves (0 % water). Concentrations of individual phenolic and terpene compounds, along with condensed tannin and total phenolic concentrations, remained stable regardless of water deficit or plant stress level. Conclusions These juvenile E. globulus became stressed with a moderate reduction in available water, and yet the persistent concentrations of most PSMs in highly stressed or dead plants suggests no PSM re-metabolization and continued ecological roles of foliar PSMs during drought. PMID:28073772

A generic hydroeconomic model to assess future water scarcity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Neverre, Noémie; Dumas, Patrice

2015-04-01

We developed a generic hydroeconomic model able to confront future water supply and demand on a large scale, taking into account man-made reservoirs. The assessment is done at the scale of river basins, using only globally available data; the methodology can thus be generalized. On the supply side, we evaluate the impacts of climate change on water resources. The available quantity of water at each site is computed using the following information: runoff is taken from the outputs of CNRM climate model (Dubois et al., 2010), reservoirs are located using Aquastat, and the sub-basin flow-accumulation area of each reservoir is determined based on a Digital Elevation Model (HYDRO1k). On the demand side, agricultural and domestic demands are projected in terms of both quantity and economic value. For the agricultural sector, globally available data on irrigated areas and crops are combined in order to determine irrigated crops localization. Then, crops irrigation requirements are computed for the different stages of the growing season using Allen (1998) method with Hargreaves potential evapotranspiration. Irrigation water economic value is based on a yield comparison approach between rainfed and irrigated crops. Potential irrigated and rainfed yields are taken from LPJmL (Blondeau et al., 2007), or from FAOSTAT by making simple assumptions on yield ratios. For the domestic sector, we project the combined effects of demographic growth, economic development and water cost evolution on future demands. The method consists in building three-blocks inverse demand functions where volume limits of the blocks evolve with the level of GDP per capita. The value of water along the demand curve is determined from price-elasticity, price and demand data from the literature, using the point-expansion method, and from water costs data. Then projected demands are confronted to future water availability. Operating rules of the reservoirs and water allocation between demands are based on

Assessment of lesser prairie-chicken use of wildlife water guzzlers

USGS Publications Warehouse

Boal, Clint W.; Borsdorf, Philip K.; Gicklhorn, Trevor S.

2014-01-01

Man-made water sources have been used as a management tool for wildlife, especially in arid regions, but the value of these water sources for wildlife populations is not well understood. In particular, the value of water as a conservation tool for Lesser Prairie-Chickens (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) is unknown. However, this is a relevant issue due to a heightened conservation concern for the species and its occupancy of an arid landscape anticipated to experience warmer, drier springs and winters. We assessed if Lesser Prairie-Chickens would use commercially available wildlife water guzzlers and if there was any apparent selection between two design types. We confirmed that Lesser Prairie-Chickens would use bird friendly designed wildlife water guzzlers. Use was primarily during the lekking-nesting period (March–May) and the brood rearing period (June–July) and primarily by males. Although both designs were used, we found significantly greater use of a design that had a wider water trough and ramp built into the tank cover compared to a design that had a longer, narrower trough extending from the tank.Although we were unable to assess the physiological need of surface water by Lesser Prairie-Chickens, we were able to verify that they will use wildlife water guzzlers to access surface water. If it is found surface water is beneficial for Lesser Prairie-Chickens, game bird friendly designed guzzlers may be a useful conservation tool for the species.

Increasing the availability and consumption of drinking water in middle schools: a pilot study.

PubMed

Patel, Anisha I; Bogart, Laura M; Elliott, Marc N; Lamb, Sheila; Uyeda, Kimberly E; Hawes-Dawson, Jennifer; Klein, David J; Schuster, Mark A

2011-05-01

Although several studies suggest that drinking water may help prevent obesity, no US studies have examined the effect of school drinking water provision and promotion on student beverage intake. We assessed the acceptability, feasibility, and outcomes of a school-based intervention to improve drinking water consumption among adolescents. The 5-week program, conducted in a Los Angeles middle school in 2008, consisted of providing cold, filtered drinking water in cafeterias; distributing reusable water bottles to students and staff; conducting school promotional activities; and providing education. Self-reported consumption of water, nondiet soda, sports drinks, and 100% fruit juice was assessed by conducting surveys among students (n = 876), preintervention and at 1 week and 2 months postintervention, from the intervention school and the comparison school. Daily water (in gallons) distributed in the cafeteria during the intervention was recorded. After adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics and baseline intake of water at school, the odds of drinking water at school were higher for students at the intervention school than students at the comparison school. Students from the intervention school had higher adjusted odds of drinking water from fountains and from reusable water bottles at school than students from the comparison school. Intervention effects for other beverages were not significant. Provision of filtered, chilled drinking water in school cafeterias coupled with promotion and education is associated with increased consumption of drinking water at school. A randomized controlled trial is necessary to assess the intervention's influence on students' consumption of water and sugar-sweetened beverages, as well as obesity-related outcomes.

Availability and quality of ground water, southern Ute Indian Reservation, southwestern Colorado

USGS Publications Warehouse

Brogden, Robert E.; Hutchinson, E. Carter; Hillier, Donald E.

1979-01-01

Population growth and the potential development of subsurface mineral resources have increased the need for information on the availability and quality of ground water on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Southern Ute Tribal Council, the Four Corners Regional Planning Commission, and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, conducted a study during 1974-76 to assess the ground-water resources of the reservation. Water occurs in aquifers in the Dakota Sandstone, Mancos Shale, Mesaverde Group, Lewis Shale, Pictured Cliffs Sandstone, Fruitland Formation, Kirtland Shale, Animas and San Jose Formations, and terrace and flood-plain deposits. Well yields from sandstone and shale aquifers are small, generally in the range from 1 to 10 gallons per minute with maximum reported yields of 75 gallons per minute. Well yields from terrace deposits generally range from 5 to 10 gallons per minute with maximum yields of 50 gallons per minute. Well yields from flood-plain deposits are as much as 25 gallons per minute but average 10 gallons per minute. Water quality in aquifers depends in part on rock type. Water from sandstone, terrace, and flood-plain aquifers is predominantly a calcium bicarbonate type, whereas water from shale aquifers is predominantly a sodium bicarbonate type. Water from rocks containing interbeds of coal or carbonaceous shales may be either a calcium or sodium sulfate type. Dissolved-solids concentrations of ground water ranged from 115 to 7,130 milligrams per liter. Water from bedrock aquifers is the most mineralized, while water from terrace and flood-plain aquifers is the least mineralized. In many water samples collected from bedrock, terrace, and flood-plain aquifers, the concentrations of arsenic, chloride, dissolved solids, fluoride, iron, manganese, nitrate, selenium, and sulfate exceeded U.S. Public Health Service (1962) recommended limits for drinking water. Selenium in the ground water in excess of U

Assessment of global grey water footprint of major food crops

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Hong; Liu, Wenfeng; Antonelli, Marta

2016-04-01

Agricultural production is one of the major sources of water pollution in the world. This is closely related to the excess application of fertilizers. Leaching of N and P to water bodies has caused serious degradation of water quality in many places. With the persistent increase in the demand for agricultural products, agricultural intensification evident during the past decades will continue in the future. This will lead to further increase in fertilizer application and consequently water pollution. Grey water footprint is a measure of the intensity of water pollution caused by water use for human activities. It is defined as the volume of water that is required to assimilate a load of pollutants to a freshwater body, based on natural background concentrations and water quality standards. This study conducts a global assessment of grey water footprint for major cereal crops, wheat, maize and rice. A crop model, Python-based EPIC (PEPIT), is applied to quantify the leaching of N and P from the fertilizer application in the three crops on a global scale with 0.5 degree spatial resolution. The hotspots of leaching are identified. The results suggest that, based on the definition and method of grey water footprint proposed by the World Water Footprint Network, the grey water footprint in many parts of the world has exceeded their total water resources availability. This indicates the seriousness of water pollution caused by agricultural production. However, the situation may also call for the development of a realistic measurement of grey water footprint which is more pertinent to water resources management. This paper proposes some alternatives in measuring grey water footprint and also discusses incorporation of grey water footprint assessment into water policy formulation and river basins plan development.

Perceptions about availability and adequacy of drinking water in a large California school district.

PubMed

Patel, Anisha I; Bogart, Laura M; Uyeda, Kimberly E; Rabin, Alexa; Schuster, Mark A

2010-03-01

Concerns about the influence of sugar-sweetened beverage consumption on obesity have led experts to recommend that water be freely available in schools. We explored perceptions about the adequacy of drinking water provision in a large California school district to develop policies and programs to encourage student water consumption. From March to September 2007, we used semistructured interviews to ask 26 California key stakeholders - including school administrators and staff, health and nutrition agency representatives, and families - about school drinking water accessibility; attitudes about, facilitators of, and barriers to drinking water provision; and ideas for increasing water consumption. Interviews were analyzed to determine common themes. Although stakeholders said that water was available from school drinking fountains, they expressed concerns about the appeal, taste, appearance, and safety of fountain water and worried about the affordability and environmental effect of bottled water sold in schools. Stakeholders supported efforts to improve free drinking water availability in schools, but perceived barriers (eg, cost) and mistaken beliefs that regulations and beverage contracts prohibit serving free water may prevent schools from doing so. Some schools provide water through cold-filtered water dispensers and self-serve water coolers. This is the first study to explore stakeholder perceptions about the adequacy of drinking water in US schools. Although limited in scope, our study suggests that water available in at least some schools may be inadequate. Collaborative efforts among schools, communities, and policy makers are needed to improve school drinking water provision.

Increasing water availability during afterschool snack: evidence, strategies, and partnerships from a group randomized trial.

PubMed

Giles, Catherine M; Kenney, Erica L; Gortmaker, Steven L; Lee, Rebekka M; Thayer, Julie C; Mont-Ferguson, Helen; Cradock, Angie L

2012-09-01

Providing drinking water to U.S. children during school meals is a recommended health promotion strategy and part of national nutrition policy. Urban school systems have struggled with providing drinking water to children, and little is known about how to ensure that water is served, particularly in afterschool settings. To assess the effectiveness of an intervention designed to promote water as the beverage of choice in afterschool programs. The Out of School Nutrition and Physical Activity Initiative (OSNAP) used a community-based collaboration and low-cost strategies to provide water after school. A group RCT was used to evaluate the intervention. Data were collected in 2010-2011 and analyzed in 2011. Twenty afterschool programs in Boston were randomized to intervention or control (delayed intervention). Intervention sites participated in learning collaboratives focused on policy and environmental changes to increase healthy eating, drinking, and physical activity opportunities during afterschool time (materials available at www.osnap.org). Collaboration between Boston Public Schools Food and Nutrition Services, afterschool staff, and researchers established water-delivery systems to ensure children were served water during snack time. Average ounces of water served to children per day was recorded by direct observation at each program at baseline and 6-month follow-up over 5 consecutive school days. Secondary measures directly observed included ounces of other beverages served, other snack components, and water-delivery system. Participation in the intervention was associated with an increased average volume of water served (+3.6 ounces/day; p=0.01) during snack. On average, the intervention led to a daily decrease of 60.9 kcals from beverages served during snack (p=0.03). This study indicates the OSNAP intervention, including strategies to overcome structural barriers and collaboration with key actors, can increase offerings of water during afterschool snack

Contribution potential of glaciers to water availability in different climate regimes

PubMed Central

Kaser, Georg; Großhauser, Martin; Marzeion, Ben

2010-01-01

Although reliable figures are often missing, considerable detrimental changes due to shrinking glaciers are universally expected for water availability in river systems under the influence of ongoing global climate change. We estimate the contribution potential of seasonally delayed glacier melt water to total water availability in large river systems. We find that the seasonally delayed glacier contribution is largest where rivers enter seasonally arid regions and negligible in the lowlands of river basins governed by monsoon climates. By comparing monthly glacier melt contributions with population densities in different altitude bands within each river basin, we demonstrate that strong human dependence on glacier melt is not collocated with highest population densities in most basins. PMID:21059938

An integrated model for the assessment of global water resources - Part 2: Anthropogenic activities modules and assessments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanasaki, N.; Kanae, S.; Oki, T.; Shirakawa, N.

2007-10-01

To assess global water resources from the perspective of subannual variation in water resources and water use, an integrated water resources model was developed. In a companion report, we presented the global meteorological forcing input used to drive the model and two natural hydrological cycle modules, namely, the land surface hydrology module and the river routing module. Here, we present the remaining four modules, which represent anthropogenic activities: a crop growth module, a reservoir operation module, an environmental flow requirement module, and an anthropogenic withdrawal module. In addition, we discuss the results of a global water resources assessment using the integrated model. The crop growth module is a relatively simple model based on heat unit theory and potential biomass and harvest index concepts. The performance of the crop growth module was examined extensively because agricultural water comprises approximately 70% of total water withdrawal in the world. The estimated crop calendar showed good agreement with earlier reports for wheat, maize, and rice in major countries of production. The estimated irrigation water withdrawal also showed fair agreement with country statistics, but tended to underestimate countries in the Asian monsoon region. In the reservoir operation module, 452 major reservoirs with more than 1 km³ each of storage capacity store and release water according to their own rules of operation. Operating rules were determined for each reservoir using an algorithm that used currently available global data such as reservoir storage capacity, intended purposes, simulated inflow, and water demand in the lower reaches. The environmental flow requirement module was newly developed based on case studies from around the world. The integrated model closes both energy and water balances on land surfaces. Global water resources were assessed on a subannual basis using a newly devised index that locates water-stressed regions that were

Assessing Lake Level Variability and Water Availability in Lake Tana, Ethiopia using a Groundwater Flow Model and GRACE Satellite Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hasan, E.; Dokou, Z.; Kirstetter, P. E.; Tarhule, A.; Anagnostou, E. N.; Bagtzoglou, A. C.; Hong, Y.

2017-12-01

Lake Tana is the source of the Blue Nile and Ethiopia's largest natural buffer against seasonal variations of rainfall. Assessing the interactions between the lake level fluctuation, hydroclimatic variabilities and anthropogenic factors is essential to detect drought conditions and identify the role of human management in controlling the Lake water balance. Via an extended record of Total Water Storage (TWS) anomalies for the period 1960-2016, a water budget model for the lake water inflow/outflow was developed. Estimates of Lake Level Altimetry (LLA) based on in-situ and satellite altimetry were composited from 1960-2016 and compared to the extended TWS anomalies, the self-calibrated Palmer Drought Severity Index (scPDSI), the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the historical lake water levels and releases. In addition, the simulated lake levels and water budget from a coupled groundwater and lake model of the Lake Tana basin were compared to the above results. Combining the different approaches, the water budget of the lake can be monitored, the drought conditions can be identified and the role of human management in the lake can be determined. For instance, three major drought periods are identified, 1970 to 1977, 1979 to 1987 and 1990 to 1998, each succeeded with an interposed flooding related recovery year, i.e. 1978, 1988 and 1999. The drought/flooding events were attributed mainly to the ENSO interactions that resulted in lake level fluctuations. The period from 2002-2006 was associated with a remarkable decline of the lake level that was attributed partly in drought conditions and the full flow regulation of the Chara Chara weir at the lake outlet, initiated in 2001.

A Framework Predicting Water Availability in a Rapidly Growing, Semi-Arid Region under Future Climate Change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, B.; Benner, S. G.; Glenn, N. F.; Lindquist, E.; Dahal, K. R.; Bolte, J.; Vache, K. B.; Flores, A. N.

2014-12-01

Climate change can lead to dramatic variations in hydrologic regime, affecting both surface water and groundwater supply. This effect is most significant in populated semi-arid regions where water availability are highly sensitive to climate-induced outcomes. However, predicting water availability at regional scales, while resolving some of the key internal variability and structure in semi-arid regions is difficult due to the highly non-linearity relationship between rainfall and runoff. In this study, we describe the development of a modeling framework to evaluate future water availability that captures elements of the coupled response of the biophysical system to climate change and human systems. The framework is built under the Envision multi-agent simulation tool, characterizing the spatial patterns of water demand in the semi-arid Treasure Valley area of Southwest Idaho - a rapidly developing socio-ecological system where urban growth is displacing agricultural production. The semi-conceptual HBV model, a population growth and allocation model (Target), a vegetation state and transition model (SSTM), and a statistically based fire disturbance model (SpatialAllocator) are integrated to simulate hydrology, population and land use. Six alternative scenarios are composed by combining two climate change scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) with three population growth and allocation scenarios (Status Quo, Managed Growth, and Unconstrained Growth). Five-year calibration and validation performances are assessed with Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency. Irrigation activities are simulated using local water rights. Results show that in all scenarios, annual mean stream flow decreases as the projected rainfall increases because the projected warmer climate also enhances water losses to evapotranspiration. Seasonal maximum stream flow tends to occur earlier than in current conditions due to the earlier peak of snow melting. The aridity index and water deficit generally increase in the

Risk assessment for produced water discharges to Louisiana Open Bays

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Meinhold, A.F.; DePhillips, M.P.; Holtzman, S.

Data were collected prior to termination of discharge at three sites (including two open bay sites at Delacroix Island and Bay De Chene) for the risk assessments. The Delacroix Island Oil and Gas Field has been in production since the first well drilling in 1940; the Bay De Chene Field, since 1942. Concentrations of 226Ra, 228Ra, 210Po, and 228Th were measured in discharges. Radium conc. were measured in fish and shellfish tissues. Sediment PAH and metal conc. were also available. Benthos sampling was conducted. A survey of fishermen was conducted. The tiered risk assessment showed that human health risks frommore » radium in produced water appear to be small; ecological risk from radium and other radionuclides in produced water also appear small. Many of the chemical contaminants discharged to open Louisiana bays appear to present little human health or ecological risk. A conservative screening analysis suggested potential risks to human health from Hg and Pb and a potential risk to ecological receptors from total effluent, Sb, Cd, Cu, Pb, Ni, Ag, Zn, and phenol in the water column and PAHs in sediment; quantitiative risk assessments are being done for these contaminants.« less

Bacterial invasion potential in water is determined by nutrient availability and the indigenous community.

PubMed

Van Nevel, Sam; De Roy, Karen; Boon, Nico

2013-09-01

In drinking water (DW) and the distribution systems, bacterial growth and biofilm formation have to be controlled both for limiting taste or odour development and preventing clogging or biocorrosion problems. After a contamination with undesired bacteria, factors like nutrient availability and temperature will influence the survival of these invaders. Understanding the conditions enabling invaders to proliferate is essential for a holistic approach towards microbial risk assessment in DW. Pseudomonas putida was used as a model invader because this easy-growing bacterium can use a wide range of substrates. Invasion experiments in oligo- to eutrophic waters showed the requirement of both a carbon and phosphate source for survival of P. putida in DW. Addition of C, N and P enabled P. putida to grow in DW from 5.80 × 10(4) to 1.84 × 10(8) cells mL(-1) and survive for at least 12 days. However, in surface water with similar nutrient concentrations, P. putida did not survive, indicating the concomitant importance of the present indigenous microbial community of the specific water sample. Either extensive carbon or phosphate limitation can be used in water treatment design in order to obtain a DW which is not susceptible for unwanted bacterial growth. © 2013 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. All rights reserved.

Assessing the controls of the snow energy balance and water available for runoff in a rain-an-snow environment

Treesearch

Adam B. Mazurkiewicz; David G. Callery; Jeffrey J. McDonnell

2008-01-01

Rain-on-snow (ROS) melt production and its contribution to water available for runoff is poorly understood. In the Pacific Northwest (PNW) of the USA, ROS drives many runoff events with turbulent energy exchanges dominating the snow energy balance (EB). While previous experimental work in the PNW (most notably the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest (HJA» has quantified...

Ground water security and drought in Africa: linking availability, access, and demand.

PubMed

Calow, Roger C; Macdonald, Alan M; Nicol, Alan L; Robins, Nick S

2010-01-01

Drought in Africa has been extensively researched, particularly from meteorological, agricultural, and food security perspectives. However, the impact of drought on water security, particularly ground water dependent rural water supplies, has received much less attention. Policy responses have concentrated on food needs, and it has often been difficult to mobilize resources for water interventions, despite evidence that access to safe water is a serious and interrelated concern. Studies carried out in Ghana, Malawi, South Africa, and Ethiopia highlight how rural livelihoods are affected by seasonal stress and longer-term drought. Declining access to food and water is a common and interrelated problem. Although ground water plays a vital role in buffering the effects of rainfall variability, water shortages and difficulties in accessing water that is available can affect domestic and productive water uses, with knock-on effects on food consumption and production. Total depletion of available ground water resources is rarely the main concern. A more common scenario is a spiral of water insecurity as shallow water sources fail, additional demands are put on remaining sources, and mechanical failures increase. These problems can be planned for within normal development programs. Water security mapping can help identify vulnerable areas, and changes to monitoring systems can ensure early detection of problems. Above all, increasing the coverage of ground water-based rural water supplies, and ensuring that the design and siting of water points is informed by an understanding of hydrogeological conditions and user demand, can significantly increase the resilience of rural communities to climate variability.

Identification of glacial melt water runoff in a karstic environment and its implication for present and future water availability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Finger, D.; Hugentobler, A.; Huss, M.; Voinesco, A.; Wernli, H.; Fischer, D.; Weber, E.; Jeannin, P.-Y.; Kauzlaric, M.; Wirz, A.; Vennemann, T.; Hüsler, F.; Schädler, B.; Weingartner, R.

2013-03-01

Glaciers all over the world are expected to continue to retreat due to the global warming throughout the 21st century. Consequently, future seasonal water availability might become scarce once glacier areas have declined below a certain threshold affecting future water management strategies. Particular attention should be paid to glaciers located in a karstic environment, as parts of the melt water can be drained by souterrain karst systems. In this study tracer experiments, karst modeling and glacier melt modeling are combined in order to identify flow paths in a high alpine, glacierized, karstic environment (Glacier de la Plaine Morte, Switzerland) and to investigate current and predict future downstream water availability. Flow paths through the karst underground were determined with natural and fluorescent tracers. Subsequently, tracer results and geologic information were assembled in a karst model. Finally, glacier melt projections driven with a climate scenario were performed to discuss future water availability in the area surrounding the glacier. The results suggest that during late summer glacier melt water is rapidly drained through well-developed channels at the glacier bottom to the north of the glacier, while during low flow season melt water enters into the karst and is drained to the south. Climate change projections reveal that by the end of the century glacier melt will be significantly reduced in the summer, jeopardizing water availability in glacier-fed karst springs.

Growth is required for perception of water availability to pattern root branches in plants.

PubMed

Robbins, Neil E; Dinneny, José R

2018-01-23

Water availability is a potent regulator of plant development and induces root branching through a process termed hydropatterning. Hydropatterning enables roots to position lateral branches toward regions of high water availability, such as wet soil or agar media, while preventing their emergence where water is less available, such as in air. The mechanism by which roots perceive the spatial distribution of water during hydropatterning is unknown. Using primary roots of Zea mays (maize) we reveal that developmental competence for hydropatterning is limited to the growth zone of the root tip. Past work has shown that growth generates gradients in water potential across an organ when asymmetries exist in the distribution of available water. Using mathematical modeling, we predict that substantial growth-sustained water potential gradients are also generated in the hydropatterning competent zone and that such biophysical cues inform the patterning of lateral roots. Using diverse chemical and environmental treatments we experimentally demonstrate that growth is necessary for normal hydropatterning of lateral roots. Transcriptomic characterization of the local response of tissues to a moist surface or air revealed extensive regulation of signaling and physiological pathways, some of which we show are growth-dependent. Our work supports a "sense-by-growth" mechanism governing hydropatterning, by which water availability cues are rendered interpretable through growth-sustained water movement. Copyright © 2018 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.

Growth is required for perception of water availability to pattern root branches in plants

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

Water availability is a potent regulator of plant development and induces root branching through a process termed hydropatterning. Hydropatterning enables roots to position lateral branches toward regions of high water availability, such as wet soil or agar media, while preventing their emergence where water is less available, such as in air. The mechanism by which roots perceive the spatial distribution of water during hydropatterning is unknown. Using primary roots of Zea mays (maize) we reveal that developmental competence for hydropatterning is limited to the growth zone of the root tip. Past work has shown that growth generates gradients in water potential across an organ when asymmetries exist in the distribution of available water. Using mathematical modeling, we predict that substantial growth-sustained water potential gradients are also generated in the hydropatterning competent zone and that such biophysical cues inform the patterning of lateral roots. Using diverse chemical and environmental treatments we experimentally demonstrate that growth is necessary for normal hydropatterning of lateral roots. Transcriptomic characterization of the local response of tissues to a moist surface or air revealed extensive regulation of signaling and physiological pathways, some of which we show are growth-dependent. Our work supports a “sense-by-growth” mechanism governing hydropatterning, by which water availability cues are rendered interpretable through growth-sustained water movement. PMID:29317538

Water availability drives gas exchange and growth of trees in northeastern US, not elevated CO2 and reduced acid deposition.

PubMed

Levesque, Mathieu; Andreu-Hayles, Laia; Pederson, Neil

2017-04-10

Dynamic global vegetation models (DGVM) exhibit high uncertainty about how climate change, elevated atmospheric CO 2 (atm. CO 2 ) concentration, and atmospheric pollutants will impact carbon sequestration in forested ecosystems. Although the individual roles of these environmental factors on tree growth are understood, analyses examining their simultaneous effects are lacking. We used tree-ring isotopic data and structural equation modeling to examine the concurrent and interacting effects of water availability, atm. CO 2 concentration, and SO 4 and nitrogen deposition on two broadleaf tree species in a temperate mesic forest in the northeastern US. Water availability was the strongest driver of gas exchange and tree growth. Wetter conditions since the 1980s have enhanced stomatal conductance, photosynthetic assimilation rates and, to a lesser extent, tree radial growth. Increased water availability seemingly overrides responses to reduced acid deposition, CO 2 fertilization, and nitrogen deposition. Our results indicate that water availability as a driver of ecosystem productivity in mesic temperate forests is not adequately represented in DGVMs, while CO 2 fertilization is likely overrepresented. This study emphasizes the importance to simultaneously consider interacting climatic and biogeochemical drivers when assessing forest responses to global environmental changes.

Water risk assessment in China based on the improved Water Risk Filter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hong, G.; Yaqin, Q.; Qiong, L.; Cunwen, N.; Na, W.; Jiajia, L.; Jongde, G.; Na, Z.; Xiangyi, D.

2014-09-01

Finding an effective way to deal with the water crisis and the relationship between water and development is a major issue for all levels of government and different economic sectors across the world. Scientific understanding of water risk is the basis for achieving a scientific relationship between water and development, and water risk assessment is currently an important research focus. To effectively deal with the global water crisis, the World Wide Fund for Nature and German Investment and Development Company Limited proposed the concept of water risk and released an online Water Risk Filter in March 2012, which has been applied to at least 85 countries. To comprehensively and accurately reflect the situation of water risk in China, this study adjusts the water risk assessment indicators in the Water Risk Filter, taking the actual situation in China and the difficulty of obtaining the information about the indicators into account, and proposes an index system for water risk evaluation for China which consists of physical risk, regulatory risk and reputational risk. The improved Water Risk Filter is further used to assess the sources and causes of the water risks in 10 first-class and seven second-class water resource areas (WRAs). The results indicate that the water risk for the whole country is generally medium and low, while those for different regions in the country vary greatly, and those for southern regions are generally lower than those for northern regions. Government regulatory and policy implementation as well as media supervision in northern regions should be strengthened to reduce the water risk. The research results may provide decision support and references for both governments and industrial enterprises in identifying water risks, formulating prevention and control policies, and improving water resources management in China.

Analysis of the Development of Available Soil Water Storage in the Nitra River Catchment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tárník, Andrej; Leitmanová, Mária

2017-10-01

World is changing dramatically. Every sphere of our life is influenced by global climate changes, including agriculture sector. Rising air temperature and temporal variability of rainfall are crucial outcomes of climate changes for agricultural activities. Main impact of these outcomes on agriculture is the change of soil water amount. Soil water is an exclusive resource of water for plants. Changes of soil water storage are sensed very sensitively by farmers. Development of soil water storage was analysed in this paper. The Nitra River catchment is covered by nets of hydrological and meteorological stations of Department of Biometeorology and Hydrology, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra. Quantity of available soil water storage for plants was calculated every month in the years from 2013 to 2016. Calculations were done based on real measurements for soil horizon 0-30 cm. Ratio between a real available soil water storage and a potential available soil water storage was specified. Amount of potential available soil water storage was derived by retention curves of soil samples. Map of risk areas was created in GIS in pursuance of these calculations. We can see the negative trends of available soil water storage in years 2015 and 2016. Main addition of this paper is a selection of areas where soil moisture is a limiting factor of agriculture. In these areas, it is necessary to do the mitigation measures for sustainable development of agricultural activities.

Water availability change in central Belgium for the late 21st century

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tabari, Hossein; Taye, Meron Teferi; Willems, Patrick

2015-08-01

We investigate the potential impact of climate change on water availability in central Belgium. Two water balance components being precipitation and potential evapotranspiration are initially projected for the late 21st century (2071-2100) based on 30 Coupled Models Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) models relative to a baseline period of 1961-1990, assuming forcing by four representative concentration pathway emission scenarios (RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP6.0, RCP8.5). The future available water is then estimated as the difference between precipitation and potential evapotranspiration projections. The number of wet days and mean monthly precipitation for summer season is projected to decrease in most of the scenarios, while the projections show an increase in those variables for the winter months. Potential evapotranspiration is expected to increase during both winter and summer seasons. The results show a decrease in water availability for summer and an increase for winter, suggesting drier summers and wetter winters for the late 21st century in central Belgium.

The Upper Colorado River; National Water-Quality Assessment Program; surface-water-monitoring network

USGS Publications Warehouse

Spahr, Norman E.; Driver, Nancy E.; Stephens, Verlin C.

1996-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey began full implementation of the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program in 1991. The long-term goals of the NAWQA program are to (1) describe current water-quality conditions for a large part of the Nation's freshwater streams, rivers, and aquifers; (2) describe how water quality is changing over time; and (3) improve understanding of the primary natural and human factors that affect water-quality conditions (Leahy and others, 1990). To meet these goals, 60 study units representing the Nation's most important river basins and aquifers are being investigated. The program design balances the unique assessment requirements of individual study units with a nationally consistent design structure that incorporates a multiscale, interdisciplinary approach for assessment of surface and ground water.

ASSESSING WATER CLARITY AS A COMPONENT OF WATER QUALITY IN GULF OF MEXICO ESTUARIES

EPA Science Inventory

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) uses water clarity as a water quality indicator for integrated assessments. After the publication of the first National Coastal Condition Report, the national water clarity reference v...

Life cycle-based water assessment of a hand dishwashing product: opportunities and limitations.

PubMed

Van Hoof, Gert; Buyle, Bea; Kounina, Anna; Humbert, Sebastien

2013-10-01

It is only recently that life cycle-based indicators have been used to evaluate products from a water use impact perspective. The applicability of some of these methods has been primarily demonstrated on agricultural materials or products, because irrigation requirements in food production can be water-intensive. In view of an increasing interest on life cycle-based water indicators from different products, we ran a study on a hand dishwashing product. A number of water assessment methods were applied with the purpose of identifying both product improvement opportunities, as well as understanding the potential for underlying database and methodological improvements. The study covered the entire life cycle of the product and focused on environmental issues related to water use, looking in-depth at inventory, midpoint, and endpoint methods. "Traditional" water emission driven methods, such as freshwater eutrophication, were excluded from the analysis. The use of a single formula with the same global supply chain, manufactured in 1 location was evaluated in 2 countries with different water scarcity conditions. The study shows differences ranging up to 4 orders in magnitude for indicators with similar units associated with different water use types (inventory methods) and different cause-effect chain models (midpoint and endpoint impact categories). No uncertainty information was available on the impact assessment methods, whereas uncertainty from stochastic variability was not available at the time of study. For the majority of the indicators studied, the contribution from the consumer use stage is the most important (>90%), driven by both direct water use (dishwashing process) as well as indirect water use (electricity generation to heat the water). Creating consumer awareness on how the product is used, particularly in water-scarce areas, is the largest improvement opportunity for a hand dishwashing product. However, spatial differentiation in the inventory and

Global monthly water scarcity: blue water footprints versus blue water availability.

PubMed

Hoekstra, Arjen Y; Mekonnen, Mesfin M; Chapagain, Ashok K; Mathews, Ruth E; Richter, Brian D

2012-01-01

Freshwater scarcity is a growing concern, placing considerable importance on the accuracy of indicators used to characterize and map water scarcity worldwide. We improve upon past efforts by using estimates of blue water footprints (consumptive use of ground- and surface water flows) rather than water withdrawals, accounting for the flows needed to sustain critical ecological functions and by considering monthly rather than annual values. We analyzed 405 river basins for the period 1996-2005. In 201 basins with 2.67 billion inhabitants there was severe water scarcity during at least one month of the year. The ecological and economic consequences of increasing degrees of water scarcity--as evidenced by the Rio Grande (Rio Bravo), Indus, and Murray-Darling River Basins--can include complete desiccation during dry seasons, decimation of aquatic biodiversity, and substantial economic disruption.

Sensitivity of power system operations to projected changes in water availability due to climate change: the Western U.S. case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Voisin, N.; Macknick, J.; Fu, T.; O'Connell, M.; Zhou, T.; Brinkman, G.

2017-12-01

Water resources provide multiple critical services to the electrical grid through hydropower technologies, from generation to regulation of the electric grid (frequency, capacity reserve). Water resources can also represent vulnerabilities to the electric grid, as hydropower and thermo-electric facilities require water for operations. In the Western U.S., hydropower and thermo-electric plants that rely on fresh surface water represent 67% of the generating capacity. Prior studies have looked at the impact of change in water availability under future climate conditions on expected generating capacity in the Western U.S., but have not evaluated operational risks or changes resulting from climate. In this study, we systematically assess the impact of change in water availability and air temperatures on power operations, i.e. we take into account the different grid services that water resources can provide to the electric grid (generation, regulation) in the system-level context of inter-regional coordination through the electric transmission network. We leverage the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) hydrology simulations under historical and future climate conditions, and force the large scale river routing- water management model MOSART-WM along with 2010-level sectoral water demands. Changes in monthly hydropower potential generation (including generation and reserves), as well as monthly generation capacity of thermo-electric plants are derived for each power plant in the Western U.S. electric grid. We then utilize the PLEXOS electricity production cost model to optimize power system dispatch and cost decisions for the 2010 infrastructure under 100 years of historical and future (2050 horizon) hydroclimate conditions. We use economic metrics as well as operational metrics such as generation portfolio, emissions, and reserve margins to assess the changes in power system operations between historical and future normal and extreme water

Availability of drinking water in US public school cafeterias.

PubMed

Hood, Nancy E; Turner, Lindsey; Colabianchi, Natalie; Chaloupka, Frank J; Johnston, Lloyd D

2014-09-01

This study examined the availability of free drinking water during lunchtime in US public schools, as required by federal legislation beginning in the 2011-2012 school year. Data were collected by mail-back surveys in nationally representative samples of US public elementary, middle, and high schools from 2009-2010 to 2011-2012. Overall, 86.4%, 87.4%, and 89.4% of students attended elementary, middle, and high schools, respectively, that met the drinking water requirement. Most students attended schools with existing cafeteria drinking fountains and about one fourth attended schools with water dispensers. In middle and high schools, respondents were asked to indicate whether drinking fountains were clean, and whether they were aware of any water-quality problems at the school. The vast majority of middle and high school students (92.6% and 90.4%, respectively) attended schools where the respondent perceived drinking fountains to be clean or very clean. Approximately one in four middle and high school students attended a school where the survey respondent indicated that there were water-quality issues affecting drinking fountains. Although most schools have implemented the requirement to provide free drinking water at lunchtime, additional work is needed to promote implementation at all schools. School nutrition staff at the district and school levels can play an important role in ensuring that schools implement the drinking water requirement, as well as promote education and behavior-change strategies to increase student consumption of water at school. Copyright © 2014 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Global Monthly Water Scarcity: Blue Water Footprints versus Blue Water Availability

PubMed Central

Hoekstra, Arjen Y.; Mekonnen, Mesfin M.; Chapagain, Ashok K.; Mathews, Ruth E.; Richter, Brian D.

2012-01-01

Freshwater scarcity is a growing concern, placing considerable importance on the accuracy of indicators used to characterize and map water scarcity worldwide. We improve upon past efforts by using estimates of blue water footprints (consumptive use of ground- and surface water flows) rather than water withdrawals, accounting for the flows needed to sustain critical ecological functions and by considering monthly rather than annual values. We analyzed 405 river basins for the period 1996–2005. In 201 basins with 2.67 billion inhabitants there was severe water scarcity during at least one month of the year. The ecological and economic consequences of increasing degrees of water scarcity – as evidenced by the Rio Grande (Rio Bravo), Indus, and Murray-Darling River Basins – can include complete desiccation during dry seasons, decimation of aquatic biodiversity, and substantial economic disruption. PMID:22393438

Characterization of drinking water treatment for virus risk assessment.

PubMed

Teunis, P F M; Rutjes, S A; Westrell, T; de Roda Husman, A M

2009-02-01

Removal or inactivation of viruses in drinking water treatment processes can be quantified by measuring the concentrations of viruses or virus indicators in water before and after treatment. Virus reduction is then calculated from the ratio of these concentrations. Most often only the average reduction is reported. That is not sufficient when treatment efficiency must be characterized in quantitative risk assessment. We present three simple models allowing statistical analysis of series of counts before and after treatment: distribution of the ratio of concentrations, and distribution of the probability of passage for unpaired and paired water samples. Performance of these models is demonstrated for several processes (long and short term storage, coagulation/filtration, coagulation/sedimentation, slow sand filtration, membrane filtration, and ozone disinfection) using microbial indicator data from full-scale treatment processes. All three models allow estimation of the variation in (log) reduction as well as its uncertainty; the results can be easily used in risk assessment. Although they have different characteristics and are present in vastly different concentrations, different viruses and/or bacteriophages appear to show similar reductions in a particular treatment process, allowing generalization of the reduction for each process type across virus groups. The processes characterized in this paper may be used as reference for waterborne virus risk assessment, to check against location specific data, and in case no such data are available, to use as defaults.

Community-based risk assessment of water contamination from high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing.

PubMed

Penningroth, Stephen M; Yarrow, Matthew M; Figueroa, Abner X; Bowen, Rebecca J; Delgado, Soraya

2013-01-01

The risk of contaminating surface and groundwater as a result of shale gas extraction using high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has not been assessed using conventional risk assessment methodologies. Baseline (pre-fracking) data on relevant water quality indicators, needed for meaningful risk assessment, are largely lacking. To fill this gap, the nonprofit Community Science Institute (CSI) partners with community volunteers who perform regular sampling of more than 50 streams in the Marcellus and Utica Shale regions of upstate New York; samples are analyzed for parameters associated with HVHHF. Similar baseline data on regional groundwater comes from CSI's testing of private drinking water wells. Analytic results for groundwater (with permission) and surface water are made publicly available in an interactive, searchable database. Baseline concentrations of potential contaminants from shale gas operations are found to be low, suggesting that early community-based monitoring is an effective foundation for assessing later contamination due to fracking.

High sensitivity of northeastern broadleaf forest trees to water availability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Levesque, M.; Pederson, N.; Andreu-Hayles, L.

2015-12-01

Temperate deciduous forests of eastern US provide goods and services to millions of people and play a vital role in the terrestrial carbon and hydrological cycles. However, ongoing climate change and increased in CO2 concentration in the atmosphere (ca) are expected to alter growth and gas exchange of trees, and ultimately forest productivity. Still, the magnitude of these effects is unclear. A better comprehension of the species-specific responses to environmental changes will better inform models and managers on the vulnerability and resiliency of these forests. Tree-ring analysis was combined with δ¹³C and δ18O measurements to investigate growth and physiological responses of red oak (Quercus rubra L.) and tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera L.) in northeastern US to changes in water availability and ca for the period 1950-2014. We found very strong correlations between summer climatic water balance (June-August) and isotopic tree-ring series for δ¹³C (r = -0.65 and -0.73), and δ18O (r = -0.59 and -0.70), for red oak and tulip poplar, respectively. In contrast, tree-ring width was less sensitive to summer water availability (r = 0.33-0.39). Prior to the mid 1980s, low water availability resulted in low stomatal conductance, photosynthesis, and growth. Since that period, pluvial conditions occurring in northeastern US have increased stomatal conductance, carbon uptake, and growth of both species. These findings demonstrate that broadleaf trees in this region could be more sensitive to drought than expected. This appears especially true since much of the calibration period looks wet in a multi-centennial perspective. Further, stronger spatial correlations were found between climate data with tree-ring isotopes than with tree-ring width and the geographical area of the observed δ18O-precipitation response (i.e. the area over which correlations are > 0.5) covers most of the northeastern US. Given the good fit between the isotopic time series and water

Water availability limits tolerance of apical damage in the Chilean tarweed Madia sativa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gonzáles, Wilfredo L.; Suárez, Lorena H.; Molina-Montenegro, Marco A.; Gianoli, Ernesto

2008-07-01

Plant tolerance is the ability to reduce the negative impact of herbivory on plant fitness. Numerous studies have shown that plant tolerance is affected by nutrient availability, but the effect of soil moisture has received less attention. We evaluated tolerance of apical damage (clipping that mimicked insect damage) under two watering regimes (control watering and drought) in the tarweed Madia sativa (Asteraceae). We recorded number of heads with seeds and total number of heads as traits related to fitness. Net photosynthetic rate, water use efficiency, number of branches, shoot biomass, and the root:shoot biomass ratio were measured as traits potentially related to tolerance via compensatory responses to damage. In the drought treatment, damaged plants showed ≈43% reduction in reproductive fitness components in comparison with undamaged plants. In contrast, there was no significant difference in reproductive fitness between undamaged and damaged plants in the control watering treatment. Shoot biomass was not affected by apical damage. The number of branches increased after damage in both water treatments but this increase was limited by drought stress. Net photosynthetic rate increased in damaged plants only in the control watering treatment. Water use efficiency increased with drought stress and, in plants regularly watered, also increased after damage. Root:shoot ratio was higher in the low water treatment and damaged plants tended to reduce root:shoot ratio only in this water treatment. It is concluded that water availability limits tolerance to apical damage in M. sativa, and that putative compensatory mechanisms are differentially affected by water availability.

Assessing Tsunami Vulnerabilities of Geographies with Shallow Water Equations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aras, Rifat; Shen, Yuzhong

2012-01-01

Tsunami preparedness is crucial for saving human lives in case of disasters that involve massive water movement. In this work, we develop a framework for visual assessment of tsunami preparedness of geographies. Shallow water equations (also called Saint Venant equations) are a set of hyperbolic partial differential equations that are derived by depth-integrating the Navier-Stokes equations and provide a great abstraction of water masses that have lower depths compared to their free surface area. Our specific contribution in this study is to use Microsoft's XNA Game Studio to import underwater and shore line geographies, create different tsunami scenarios, and visualize the propagation of the waves and their impact on the shore line geography. Most importantly, we utilized the computational power of graphical processing units (GPUs) as HLSL based shader files and delegated all of the heavy computations to the GPU. Finally, we also conducted a validation study, in which we have tested our model against a controlled shallow water experiment. We believe that such a framework with an easy to use interface that is based on readily available software libraries, which are widely available and easily distributable, would encourage not only researchers, but also educators to showcase ideas.

Assessing Method to Identifying Water Resilience Against Natural and Climate Change Hazards.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amril, Rofi; Maryono

2018-02-01

A geographic region may become vulnerable toward water resources in a variety of ways. Common issues arise when man-made infrastructure such as housing, industrial, agriculture and other spatial land use policy implementation exceeds more than desired level. Vulnerability of a region due to water resources could be interpreted as the inability of the region to sustaining economic and social activity associated to socio-economic water availability. This study assess four aspects of water resilience: water quantity, water distribution, water quality, and water requirements. Literature review then followed by interview with academic expert used as method of study. This study found that four aspect of water vulnerability mostly have been applied to asses water resource vulnerability. Each aspect have a specific characteristic and could be define more specific and detail indicator according to the local content.

Water availability predicts forest canopy height at the global scale.

PubMed

Klein, Tamir; Randin, Christophe; Körner, Christian

2015-12-01

The tendency of trees to grow taller with increasing water availability is common knowledge. Yet a robust, universal relationship between the spatial distribution of water availability and forest canopy height (H) is lacking. Here, we created a global water availability map by calculating an annual budget as the difference between precipitation (P) and potential evapotranspiration (PET) at a 1-km spatial resolution, and in turn correlated it with a global H map of the same resolution. Across forested areas over the globe, Hmean increased with P-PET, roughly: Hmean (m) = 19.3 + 0.077*(P-PET). Maximum forest canopy height also increased gradually from ~ 5 to ~ 50 m, saturating at ~ 45 m for P-PET > 500 mm. Forests were far from their maximum height potential in cold, boreal regions and in disturbed areas. The strong association between forest height and P-PET provides a useful tool when studying future forest dynamics under climate change, and in quantifying anthropogenic forest disturbance. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

Impact of Unconventional Energy Development using Hydraulic Fracturing on Louisiana Water Resources Availability.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Unruh, H. G., Sr.; Habib, E. H.; Borrok, D. M.

2017-12-01

Unconventional oil and gas extraction around United States has been deployed significantly in the recent years. The current study focuses on the impact of Hydraulic fracturing (HF) on the sustainability of water resources in Louisiana. This impact is measured by quantifying the stress for current and future scenarios of HF water use in the two-main shale plays in Louisiana, the Haynesville and Tuscaloosa. The assessment is conducted at the HUC-12 fine catchment spatial scale. Initially, sectored stress metrics were calculated for surface and groundwater, respectively, without including HF water use. Demand sectors involved in this first stress estimation are power generation, public supply, industrial, etc. Once both stress metrics were estimated with the reported water sources and uses in Louisiana corresponding to the 2010 year, several scenarios for both sources were evaluated. In the first scenario, a peak year (2011) of HF water use was added as a water demand new category into the stress calculation matrices. The results indicate that a significant variability in the calculated stress metric with and without HF is reflected only for the groundwater sector. On the other hand, surface water sector doesn't seem to be affected for the HF water use. However, this apparent abundant surface water in the catchment, the location of the wells is not always adjacent to the body of water, and then trucking or piping of water may be required. For this reason, availability of groundwater in situ is a relevant factor in terms of production cost. Additional tested scenarios consist of increasing the number of wells in both shale play locations. Existing wells scenario calculates the stress including the water use of the total number of wells that currently exist in both shale plays in a short period (one year). The other additional tested scenario consists of increase of 100% of the required number of wells to extract the expected total shale play capacity. Results of the

Framework for a ground-water quality monitoring and assessment program for California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Belitz, Kenneth; Dubrovsky, Neil M.; Burow, Karen; Jurgens, Bryant C.; John, Tyler

2003-01-01

The State of California uses more ground water than any other State in the Nation. With a population of over 30 million people, an agricultural economy based on intensive irrigation, large urban industrial areas, and naturally elevated concentrations of some trace elements, there is a wide range of contaminant sources that have the potential to contaminate ground water and limit its beneficial uses. In response to the many-and different-potential sources of ground-water contamination, the State of California has evolved an extensive set of rules and programs to protect ground-water quality, and agencies to implement the rules and programs. These programs have in common a focus on compliance with regulations governing chemical use and (or) ground-water quality. Although appropriate for, and successful at, their specific missions, these programs do not at present provide a comprehensive view of ground-water quality in the State of California. In October 2001, The California Assembly passed a bill, AB 599, establishing the Ground-Water- Quality Monitoring Act of 2001.' The goal of AB 599 is to improve Statewide comprehensive ground-water monitoring and increase availability of information about ground-water quality to the public. AB 599 requires the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), in collaboration with an interagency task force (ITF) and a public advisory committee (PAC), to develop a plan for a comprehensive ground-water monitoring program. AB 599 specifies that the comprehensive program should be capable of assessing each ground-water basin in the State through direct and other statistically reliable sampling approaches, and that the program should integrate existing monitoring programs and design new program elements, as necessary. AB 599 also stresses the importance of prioritizing ground-water basins that provide drinking water. The United States Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the SWRCB, and in coordination with the ITF and PAC, has

Produced water discharges to the Gulf of Mexico: Background information for ecological risk assessments

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Meinhold, A.F.; Holtzman, S.; DePhillips, M.P.

1996-06-01

This report reviews ecological risk assessment concepts and methods; describes important biological resources in the Gulf of Mexico of potential concern for produced water impacts; and summarizes data available to estimate exposure and effects of produced water discharges. The emphasis is on data relating to produced water discharges in the central and western Gulf of Mexico, especially in Louisiana. Much of the summarized data and cited literature are relevant to assessments of impacts in other regions. Data describing effects on marine and estuarine fishes, mollusks, crustaceans and benthic invertebrates are emphasized. This review is part of a series of studiesmore » of the health and ecological risks from discharges of produced water to the Gulf of Mexico. These assessments will provide input to regulators in the development of guidelines and permits, and to industry in the use of appropriate discharge practices.« less

Mediterranean shrub vegetation: soil protection vs. water availability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

García Estringana, Pablo; Nieves Alonso-Blázquez, M.; Alegre, Alegre; Cerdà, Artemi

2014-05-01

Soil Erosion and Land Degradation are closely related to the changes in the vegetation cover (Zhao et al., 2013). Although other factors such as rainfall intensiy or slope (Ziadat and Taimeh, 2013) the plant covers is the main factor that controls the soil erosion (Haregeweyn, 2013). Plant cover is the main factor of soil erosion processes as the vegetation control the infiltration and runoff generation (Cerdà, 1998a; Kargar Chigani et al., 2012). Vegetation cover acts in a complex way in influencing on the one hand on runoff and soil loss and on the other hand on the amount and the way that rainfall reaches the soil surface. In arid and semiarid regions, where erosion is one of the main degradation processes and water is a scant resource, a minimum percentage of vegetation coverage is necessary to protect the soil from erosion, but without compromising the availability of water (Belmonte Serrato and Romero Diaz, 1998). This is mainly controlled by the vegetation distribution (Cerdà, 1997a; Cammeraat et al., 2010; Kakembo et al., 2012). Land abandonment is common in Mediterranean region under extensive land use (Cerdà, 1997b; García-Ruiz, 2010). Abandoned lands typically have a rolling landscape with steep slopes, and are dominated by herbaceous communities that grow on pasture land interspersed by shrubs. Land abandonment use to trigger an increase in soil erosion, but the vegetation recovery reduces the impact of the vegetation. The goal of this work is to assess the effects of different Mediterranean shrub species (Dorycnium pentaphyllum Scop., Medicago strasseri, Colutea arborescens L., Retama sphaerocarpa, L., Pistacia Lentiscus L. and Quercus coccifera L.) on soil protection (runoff and soil losses) and on rainfall reaching soil surface (rainfall partitioning fluxes). To characterize the effects of shrub vegetation and to evaluate their effects on soil protection, two field experiments were carried out. The presence of shrub vegetation reduced runoff by

Drinking water quality assessment.

PubMed

Aryal, J; Gautam, B; Sapkota, N

2012-09-01

Drinking water quality is the great public health concern because it is a major risk factor for high incidence of diarrheal diseases in Nepal. In the recent years, the prevalence rate of diarrhoea has been found the highest in Myagdi district. This study was carried out to assess the quality of drinking water from different natural sources, reservoirs and collection taps at Arthunge VDC of Myagdi district. A cross-sectional study was carried out using random sampling method in Arthunge VDC of Myagdi district from January to June,2010. 84 water samples representing natural sources, reservoirs and collection taps from the study area were collected. The physico-chemical and microbiological analysis was performed following standards technique set by APHA 1998 and statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS 11.5. The result was also compared with national and WHO guidelines. Out of 84 water samples (from natural source, reservoirs and tap water) analyzed, drinking water quality parameters (except arsenic and total coliform) of all water samples was found to be within the WHO standards and national standards.15.48% of water samples showed pH (13) higher than the WHO permissible guideline values. Similarly, 85.71% of water samples showed higher Arsenic value (72) than WHO value. Further, the statistical analysis showed no significant difference (P<0.05) of physico-chemical parameters and total coliform count of drinking water for collection taps water samples of winter (January, 2010) and summer (June, 2010). The microbiological examination of water samples revealed the presence of total coliform in 86.90% of water samples. The results obtained from physico-chemical analysis of water samples were within national standard and WHO standards except arsenic. The study also found the coliform contamination to be the key problem with drinking water.

Recommendations for assessing water quality and safety on board merchant ships.

PubMed

Grappasonni, Iolanda; Cocchioni, Mario; Degli Angioli, Rolando; Saturnino, Andrea; Sibilio, Fabio; Scuri, Stefania; Amenta, Francesco

2013-01-01

Health and diseases on board ships may depend on water. Interventions to improve the quality of water may bring to significant benefits to health and water stores/supply and should be controlledto protect health. This paper has reviewed the main regulations for the control of water safety and qualityon board ships and presents some practical recommendations for keeping water healthy and safe in passenger and cargo merchant ships. The main international regulations and guidelines on the topic were analysed. Guidelines forWater Quality on Board Merchant Ships Including Passenger Vessels of Health Protection Agency, World Health Organisation (WHO) Guide to Ship Sanitation, WHO Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality, WHO Water Safety Plan and the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention Vessel Sanitation Program were examined. Recommendations for passenger and, if available, for cargo ships were collected and compared. Recommended questionnaire: A questionnaire summarising the main information to collect for assessingthe enough quality of water for the purposes it should be used on board is proposed. The need of havinga crew member with water assessment duties on board, trained for performing these activities properlyis discussed. Water quality on board ships should be monitored routinely. Monitoring should be directedto chemical and microbiological parameters for identifying possible contamination sources, using specifickits by a designed crew member. More detailed periodic assessments should be under the responsibility ofspecialised personnel/laboratories and should be based on sample collection from all tanks and sites of waterdistribution. It is important to select a properly trained crew member on board for monitoring water quality.

75 FR 71431 - Clean Water Act Section 303(d): Availability of List Decisions Correction

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-11-23

... ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY [FRL-9230-1] Clean Water Act Section 303(d): Availability of List... Availability. SUMMARY: This action corrects a Federal Register notice that published on November 9, 2010 at 75 FR 68783 announcing the availability of EPA decisions identifying water quality limited segments and...

77 FR 44610 - Notice of Availability of Draft Environmental Assessment

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-07-30

.... 12968-001-CT] Notice of Availability of Draft Environmental Assessment FirstLight Hydro Generating...). Staff prepared a draft environmental assessment (EA), which analyzes the potential environmental effects... human environment. A copy of the draft EA is available for review at the Commission in the Public...

Viability of commercially available bleach for water treatment in developing countries.

PubMed

Lantagne, Daniele S

2009-11-01

Treating household water with low-cost, widely available commercial bleach is recommended by some organizations to improve water quality and reduce disease in developing countries. I analyzed the chlorine concentration of 32 bleaches from 12 developing countries; the average error between advertised and measured concentration was 35% (range = -45%-100%; standard deviation = 40%). Because of disparities between advertised and actual concentration, the use of commercial bleach for water treatment in developing countries is not recommended without ongoing quality control testing.

The Coupling of Ecosystem Productivity and Water Availability in Dryland Regions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scott, R. L.; Biederman, J. A.; Barron-Gafford, G.

2014-12-01

Land cover and climatic change will alter biosphere-atmosphere exchanges of water vapor and carbon dioxide depending, in part, on feedbacks between biotic activity and water availability. Eddy covariance observations allow us to estimate ecosystem-scale productivity and respiration, and these datasets are now becoming sufficiently mature to advance understanding of these ecohydrological interactions. Here we use a network of sites in semiarid western North America representing gradients of water availability and functional plant type. We examine how precipitation (P) controls evapotranspiration (ET), net ecosystem production (NEP), and its component fluxes of ecosystem respiration (Reco) and gross ecosystem production (GEP). Despite the high variability in seasonal and annual precipitation timing and amounts that we expect to influence ecosystem function, we find persistent overall relationships between P or ET and the fluxes of NEP, Reco and GEP across the network, indicating a commonality and resilience in ecosystem soil and plant response to water availability. But we also observe several important site differences such as prior seasonal legacy effects on subsequent fluxes which vary depending on dominant plant functional type. For example, multiyear droughts, episodic cool-season droughts, and hard winter freezes seem to affect the herbaceous species differently than the woody ones. Nevertheless, the overall, strong coupling between hydrologic and ecologic processes at these sites bolsters our ability to predict the response of dryland ecosystems to future precipitation change.

Water use, availability, and net demand in the Tennessee River watershed within Alabama, 2005

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gill, Amy C.; Harper, Michael J.; Littlepage, Thomas M.

2013-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey worked in cooperation with the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs—Office of Water Resources to estimate water use and water availability for 2005 for the portion of the Tennessee River watershed contained within the borders of the State of Alabama. Estimates of water use and availability are an important part of planning for population and economic growth in the Tennessee River watershed in Alabama. Total water use for the region in 2005 was 5,197 million gallons per day (Mgal/d). Total surface-water withdrawals were 5,139 Mgal/d, and total groundwater withdrawals were about 58 Mgal/d. About 92 percent of the total water withdrawn was surface water used for once-through cooling for thermoelectric power generation. Self-supplied industrial and public-supply water uses accounted for the next greatest uses of water, constituting approximately 49 and 42 percent, respectively, of the total water use excluding thermoelectric power use. Summaries of water use by county and subbasin indicated the areas of greatest water withdrawals and use within the Tennessee River watershed. Limestone (2,012 Mgal/d), Jackson (1,498 Mgal/d), and Colbert (1,363 Mgal/d) Counties were the counties with the greatest total water use in 2005 and had large amounts of water withdrawn for thermoelectric power generation. When water use from thermoelectric power generation was not considered, the counties with the greatest withdrawals were Morgan (124 Mgal/d), Madison (72 Mgal/d), Colbert (69 Mgal/d), and Lawrence (67 Mgal/d). The subbasin with the greatest total water use was Wheeler Lake (2,260 Mgal/d) in the Middle Tennessee—Elk subregion. Wheeler Lake subbasin also had the greatest public-supply, irrigation, industrial, mining, and thermoelectric withdrawals of any subbasin in the Tennessee River watershed within Alabama. Total water availability for the Tennessee River watershed within Alabama was estimated to be 34,567 Mgal/d by the Geological

Evaluating water management strategies with the Systems Impact Assessment Model: SIAM version 4

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bartholow, John M.; Heasley, John; Hanna, Blair; Sandelin, Jeff; Flug, Marshall; Campbell, Sharon; Henriksen, Jim; Douglas, Aaron

2005-01-01

The apparent disparity between restoration benefits and costs for the Klamath River may suggest to some that water resources on the Klamath be reallocated to environmentally friendly nonmarket uses. The economic analysis rests in part on the information made available to the survey designers by the biological, hydrologic, and water quality data incorporated in The System Impact Assessment Model (SIAM). It is our hope that SIAM can be used to improve the river's water quality and fishery, and strengthen the important regional economy.

Water shortage risk assessment considering large-scale regional transfers: a copula-based uncertainty case study in Lunan, China.

PubMed

Gao, Xueping; Liu, Yinzhu; Sun, Bowen

2018-06-05

The risk of water shortage caused by uncertainties, such as frequent drought, varied precipitation, multiple water resources, and different water demands, brings new challenges to the water transfer projects. Uncertainties exist for transferring water and local surface water; therefore, the relationship between them should be thoroughly studied to prevent water shortage. For more effective water management, an uncertainty-based water shortage risk assessment model (UWSRAM) is developed to study the combined effect of multiple water resources and analyze the shortage degree under uncertainty. The UWSRAM combines copula-based Monte Carlo stochastic simulation and the chance-constrained programming-stochastic multiobjective optimization model, using the Lunan water-receiving area in China as an example. Statistical copula functions are employed to estimate the joint probability of available transferring water and local surface water and sampling from the multivariate probability distribution, which are used as inputs for the optimization model. The approach reveals the distribution of water shortage and is able to emphasize the importance of improving and updating transferring water and local surface water management, and examine their combined influence on water shortage risk assessment. The possible available water and shortages can be calculated applying the UWSRAM, also with the corresponding allocation measures under different water availability levels and violating probabilities. The UWSRAM is valuable for mastering the overall multi-water resource and water shortage degree, adapting to the uncertainty surrounding water resources, establishing effective water resource planning policies for managers and achieving sustainable development.

Water quality assessment of the River Nile system: an overview.

PubMed

Wahaab, Rifaat A; Badawy, Mohamed I

2004-03-01

The main objective of the present article is to assess and evaluate the characteristics of the Nile water system, and identify the major sources of pollution and its environmental and health consequences. The article is also aimed to highlight the importance of water management via re-use and recycle of treated effluents for industrial purpose and for cultivation of desert land. An intensive effort was made by the authors to collect, assess and compile the available data about the River Nile. Physico-chemical analyses were conducted to check the validity of the collected data. For the determination of micro-pollutants, Gas Chromatography (GC) and High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) were used. Heavy metals were also determined to investigate the level of industrial pollution in the river system. The available data revealed that the river receives a large quantity of industrial, agriculture and domestic wastewater. It is worth mentioning that the river is still able to recover in virtually all the locations, with very little exception. This is due to the high dilution ratio. The collected data confirmed the presence of high concentrations of chromium and manganese in all sediment samples. The residues of organo-chlorine insecticides were detected in virtually all locations. However, the levels of such residues are usually below the limit set by the WHO for use as drinking water. The most polluted lakes are Lake Maryut and Lake Manzala. Groundwater pollution is closely related to adjacent (polluted) surface waters. High concentrations of nutrients, E. coli, sulfur, heavy metals, etc. have been observed in the shallow groundwater, largely surpassing WHO standards for drinking water use. A regular and continuous monitoring scheme shall be developed for the River Nile system. The environmental law shall be enforced to prohibit the discharge of wastewater (agricultural, domestic or industrial) to River Nile system.

Water quality assessment with hierarchical cluster analysis based on Mahalanobis distance.

PubMed

Du, Xiangjun; Shao, Fengjing; Wu, Shunyao; Zhang, Hanlin; Xu, Si

2017-07-01

Water quality assessment is crucial for assessment of marine eutrophication, prediction of harmful algal blooms, and environment protection. Previous studies have developed many numeric modeling methods and data driven approaches for water quality assessment. The cluster analysis, an approach widely used for grouping data, has also been employed. However, there are complex correlations between water quality variables, which play important roles in water quality assessment but have always been overlooked. In this paper, we analyze correlations between water quality variables and propose an alternative method for water quality assessment with hierarchical cluster analysis based on Mahalanobis distance. Further, we cluster water quality data collected form coastal water of Bohai Sea and North Yellow Sea of China, and apply clustering results to evaluate its water quality. To evaluate the validity, we also cluster the water quality data with cluster analysis based on Euclidean distance, which are widely adopted by previous studies. The results show that our method is more suitable for water quality assessment with many correlated water quality variables. To our knowledge, it is the first attempt to apply Mahalanobis distance for coastal water quality assessment.

Viability of Commercially Available Bleach for Water Treatment in Developing Countries

PubMed Central

2009-01-01

Treating household water with low-cost, widely available commercial bleach is recommended by some organizations to improve water quality and reduce disease in developing countries. I analyzed the chlorine concentration of 32 bleaches from 12 developing countries; the average error between advertised and measured concentration was 35% (range = –45%–100%; standard deviation = 40%). Because of disparities between advertised and actual concentration, the use of commercial bleach for water treatment in developing countries is not recommended without ongoing quality control testing. PMID:19762657

NATIONAL WATER-QUALITY ASSESSMENT (NAWQA) PROGRAM

EPA Science Inventory

The National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program is designed to describe the status and trends in the quality of the Nations ground- and surface-water resources and to provide a sound understanding of the natural and human factors that affect the quality of these resources. ...

Assessing habitat selection when availability changes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Arthur, S.; Garner, G.; ,

1996-01-01

We present a method of comparing data on habitat use and availability that allows availability to differ among observations. This method is applicable when habitats change over time and when animals are unable to move throughout a predetermined study area between observations. We used maximum-likelihood techniques to derive an index that estimates the probability that each habitat type would be used if all were equally available. We also demonstrate how these indices can be used to compare relative use of available habitats, assign them ranks, and assess statistical differences between pairs of indices. The set of these indices for all habitats can be compared between groups of animals that represent different seasons, sex or age classes, or experimental treatments. This method allows quantitative comparisons among types and is not affected by arbitrary decisions about which habitats to include in the study. We provide an example by comparing the availability of four categories of sea ice concentration to their use by adult female polar bears, whose movements were monitored by satellite radio tracking in the Bering and Chukchi Seas during 1990. Use of ice categories by bears was nonrandom, and the pattern of use differed between spring and late summer seasons.

Water quality evaluation system to assess the status and the suitability of the Citarum river water to different uses.

PubMed

Fulazzaky, Mohamad Ali

2010-09-01

Water quality degradation in the Citarum river will increase from the year to year due to increasing pollutant loads when released particularly from Bandung region of the upstream areas into the river without treatment. This will be facing the problems on water quality status to use for multi-purposes in the downstream areas. The water quality evaluation system is used to evaluate the available water condition that distinguishes into two categories, i.e., the water quality index (WQI) and water quality aptitude (WQA). The assessment of water quality for the Citarum river from 10 selected stations was found that the WQI situates in the bad category generally and the WQA ranges from the suitable quality for agriculture and livestock watering uses to the unsuitable for biological potential function, drinking water production, and leisure activities and sports in the upstream areas of Saguling dam generally.

Understanding surface-water availability in the Central Valley as a means to projecting future groundwater storage with climate variability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goodrich, J. P.; Cayan, D. R.

2017-12-01

surface water data are compiled. We can then develop groundwater pumping and storage predictions in real time, and make them available to water managers. In addition, we are working toward future projections by coupling the regional CVHM to downscaled GCM output to assess future scenarios of water availability in this critical region.

Integrated Water Resources Planning and Management in Arid/Semi-arid Regions: Data, Modeling, and Assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gupta, H.; Liu, Y.; Wagener, T.; Durcik, M.; Duffy, C.; Springer, E.

2005-12-01

Water resources in arid and semi-arid regions are highly sensitive to climate variability and change. As the demand for water continues to increase due to economic and population growth, planning and management of available water resources under climate uncertainties becomes increasingly critical in order to achieve basin-scale water sustainability (i.e., to ensure a long-term balance between supply and demand of water).The tremendous complexity of the interactions between the natural hydrologic system and the human environment means that modeling is the only available mechanism for properly integrating new knowledge into the decision-making process. Basin-scale integrated models have the potential to allow us to study the feedback processes between the physical and human systems (including institutional, engineering, and behavioral components); and an integrated assessment of the potential second- and higher-order effects of political and management decisions can aid in the selection of a rational water-resources policy. Data and information, especially hydrological and water-use data, are critical to the integrated modeling and assessment for water resources management of any region. To this end we are in the process of developing a multi-resolution integrated modeling and assessment framework for the south-western USA, which can be used to generate simulations of the probable effects of human actions while taking into account the uncertainties brought about by future climatic variability and change. Data are being collected (including the development of a hydro-geospatial database) and used in support of the modeling and assessment activities. This paper will present a blueprint of the modeling framework, describe achievements so far and discuss the science questions which still require answers with a particular emphasis on issues related to dry regions.

Water use and availability in the Woonasquatucket and Moshassuck River basins, north-central Rhode Island

USGS Publications Warehouse

Nimiroski, Mark T.; Wild, Emily C.

2005-01-01

stream-gaging station to determine water availability based on the 75th, 50th, and 25th percentiles of the total base flow, the base flow minus the 7-day, 10-year flow criteria, and the base flow minus the Aquatic Base Flow criteria. The index station selected was the Branch River at Forestdale, which is close to the study area and has a similar percentage of sand and gravel area. Water availability was estimated on the basis of baseflow contributions from sand and gravel deposits and till deposits at the index station. Flows were computed for June, July, August, and September 1957–2000, and a percentage of the total flow was determined to come from either sand and gravel deposits, or till, by using a regression equation. The base-flow contributions were converted to a flow per unit area at the station for the till and for the sand and gravel deposits and then applied to the deposits in the study area basins. These values were used to estimate the gross yield of base flow, as well as to subtract the two low flows (7-day, 10-year flow, and Aquatic Base Flow criteria). The results from the Branch River stream-gaging station were lowest in August at the 75th, 50th, and 25th percentile for total flow with either flow criteria subtracted. The estimated August gross yield at the 50th percentile from the Woonasquatucket River Basin was 12.94 million gallons per day, and 5.91 million gallons per day from the Moshassuck River Basin.A ratio was calculated that is equal to total withdrawals divided by water availability. Water-availability flow scenarios at the 75th, 50th, and 25th percentiles for the basins, which are based on total water available from base-flow contributions from till and sand and gravel deposits in the basins, were assessed. The ratios were the highest in July for the 50th percentile estimated gross yield minus Aquatic Base Flow (ABF) flow criteria, where withdrawals are close to the available water. Ratios are not presented if the available water is less

Long term growth responses of loblolly pine to optimal nutrient and water resource availability

Treesearch

Timothy J. Albaugh; H. Lee Allen; Phillip M. Dougherty; Kurt H. Johnsen

2004-01-01

A factorial combination of four treatments (control (CW), optimal growing season water availability (IW), optimum nutrient availability (FW), and combined optimum water and nutrient availability (FIW)) in four replications were initiated in an 8-year- old Pinus taeda stand growing on a droughty, nutrient-poor, sandy site in Scotland County, NC and...

Water availability and environmental temperature correlate with geographic variation in water balance in common lizards.

PubMed

Dupoué, Andréaz; Rutschmann, Alexis; Le Galliard, Jean François; Miles, Donald B; Clobert, Jean; DeNardo, Dale F; Brusch, George A; Meylan, Sandrine

2017-12-01

Water conservation strategies are well documented in species living in water-limited environments, but physiological adaptations to water availability in temperate climate environments are still relatively overlooked. Yet, temperate species are facing more frequent and intense droughts as a result of climate change. Here, we examined variation in field hydration state (plasma osmolality) and standardized evaporative water loss rate (SEWL) of adult male and pregnant female common lizards (Zootoca vivipara) from 13 natural populations with contrasting air temperature, air humidity, and access to water. We found different patterns of geographic variation between sexes. Overall, males were more dehydrated (i.e. higher osmolality) than pregnant females, which likely comes from differences in field behaviour and water intake since the rate of SEWL was similar between sexes. Plasma osmolality and SEWL rate were positively correlated with environmental temperature in males, while plasma osmolality in pregnant females did not correlate with environmental conditions, reproductive stage or reproductive effort. The SEWL rate was significantly lower in populations without access to free standing water, suggesting that lizards can adapt or adjust physiology to cope with habitat dryness. Environmental humidity did not explain variation in water balance. We suggest that geographic variation in water balance physiology and behaviour should be taken account to better understand species range limits and sensitivity to climate change.

Metabolomic response of Calotropis procera growing in the desert to changes in water availability.

PubMed

Ramadan, Ahmed; Sabir, Jamal S M; Alakilli, Saleha Y M; Shokry, Ahmed M; Gadalla, Nour O; Edris, Sherif; Al-Kordy, Magdy A; Al-Zahrani, Hassan S; El-Domyati, Fotouh M; Bahieldin, Ahmed; Baker, Neil R; Willmitzer, Lothar; Irgang, Susann

2014-01-01

Water availability is a major limitation for agricultural productivity. Plants growing in severe arid climates such as deserts provide tools for studying plant growth and performance under extreme drought conditions. The perennial species Calotropis procera used in this study is a shrub growing in many arid areas which has an exceptional ability to adapt and be productive in severe arid conditions. We describe the results of studying the metabolomic response of wild C procera plants growing in the desert to a one time water supply. Leaves of C. procera plants were taken at three time points before and 1 hour, 6 hours and 12 hours after watering and subjected to a metabolomics and lipidomics analysis. Analysis of the data reveals that within one hour after watering C. procera has already responded on the metabolic level to the sudden water availability as evidenced by major changes such as increased levels of most amino acids, a decrease in sucrose, raffinose and maltitol, a decrease in storage lipids (triacylglycerols) and an increase in membrane lipids including photosynthetic membranes. These changes still prevail at the 6 hour time point after watering however 12 hours after watering the metabolomics data are essentially indistinguishable from the prewatering state thus demonstrating not only a rapid response to water availability but also a rapid response to loss of water. Taken together these data suggest that the ability of C. procera to survive under the very harsh drought conditions prevailing in the desert might be associated with its rapid adjustments to water availability and losses.

Metabolomic Response of Calotropis procera Growing in the Desert to Changes in Water Availability

PubMed Central

Ramadan, Ahmed; Sabir, Jamal S. M.; Alakilli, Saleha Y. M.; Shokry, Ahmed M.; Gadalla, Nour O.; Edris, Sherif; Al-Kordy, Magdy A.; Al-Zahrani, Hassan S.; El-Domyati, Fotouh M.; Bahieldin, Ahmed; Baker, Neil R.; Willmitzer, Lothar; Irgang, Susann

2014-01-01

Water availability is a major limitation for agricultural productivity. Plants growing in severe arid climates such as deserts provide tools for studying plant growth and performance under extreme drought conditions. The perennial species Calotropis procera used in this study is a shrub growing in many arid areas which has an exceptional ability to adapt and be productive in severe arid conditions. We describe the results of studying the metabolomic response of wild C procera plants growing in the desert to a one time water supply. Leaves of C. procera plants were taken at three time points before and 1 hour, 6 hours and 12 hours after watering and subjected to a metabolomics and lipidomics analysis. Analysis of the data reveals that within one hour after watering C. procera has already responded on the metabolic level to the sudden water availability as evidenced by major changes such as increased levels of most amino acids, a decrease in sucrose, raffinose and maltitol, a decrease in storage lipids (triacylglycerols) and an increase in membrane lipids including photosynthetic membranes. These changes still prevail at the 6 hour time point after watering however 12 hours after watering the metabolomics data are essentially indistinguishable from the prewatering state thus demonstrating not only a rapid response to water availability but also a rapid response to loss of water. Taken together these data suggest that the ability of C. procera to survive under the very harsh drought conditions prevailing in the desert might be associated with its rapid adjustments to water availability and losses. PMID:24520340

Water availability and genetic effects on wood properties of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda)

Treesearch

C. A. Gonzalez-Benecke; T. A. Martin; Alexander Clark; G. F. Peter

2010-01-01

We studied the effect of water availability on basal area growth and wood properties of 11-year-old loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) trees from contrasting Florida (FL) (a mix of half-sib families) and South Carolina coastal plain (SC) (a single, half-sib family) genetic material. Increasing soil water availability via irrigation increased average wholecore specific...

Exploring the Influence of Smallholders' Perceptions Regarding Water Availability on Crop Choice and Water Allocation Through Socio-Hydrological Modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuil, L.; Evans, T.; McCord, P. F.; Salinas, J. L.; Blöschl, G.

2018-04-01

While it is known that farmers adopt different decision-making behaviors to cope with stresses, it remains challenging to capture this diversity in formal model frameworks that are used to advance theory and inform policy. Guided by cognitive theory and the theory of bounded rationality, this research develops a novel, socio-hydrological model framework that can explore how a farmer's perception of water availability impacts crop choice and water allocation. The model is informed by a rich empirical data set at the household level collected during 2013 in Kenya's Upper Ewaso Ng'iro basin that shows that the crop type cultivated is correlated with water availability. The model is able to simulate this pattern and shows that near-optimal or "satisficing" crop patterns can emerge also when farmers were to make use of simple decision rules and have diverse perceptions on water availability. By focusing on farmer decision making it also captures the rebound effect, i.e., as additional water becomes available through the improvement of crop efficiencies it will be reallocated on the farm instead of flowing downstream, as a farmer will adjust his (her) water allocation and crop pattern to the new water conditions. This study is valuable as it is consistent with the theory of bounded rationality, and thus offers an alternative, descriptive model in addition to normative models. The framework can be used to understand the potential impact of climate change on the socio-hydrological system, to simulate and test various assumptions regarding farmer behavior and to evaluate policy interventions.

Integrated assessment of global water scarcity over the 21st century under multiple climate change mitigation policies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hejazi, M. I.; Edmonds, J.; Clarke, L.; Kyle, P.; Davies, E.; Chaturvedi, V.; Wise, M.; Patel, P.; Eom, J.; Calvin, K.

2014-08-01

Water scarcity conditions over the 21st century both globally and regionally are assessed in the context of climate change and climate mitigation policies, by estimating both water availability and water demand within the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM), a leading community-integrated assessment model of energy, agriculture, climate, and water. To quantify changes in future water availability, a new gridded water-balance global hydrologic model - namely, the Global Water Availability Model (GWAM) - is developed and evaluated. Global water demands for six major demand sectors (irrigation, livestock, domestic, electricity generation, primary energy production, and manufacturing) are modeled in GCAM at the regional scale (14 geopolitical regions, 151 sub-regions) and then spatially downscaled to 0.5° × 0.5° resolution to match the scale of GWAM. Using a baseline scenario (i.e., no climate change mitigation policy) with radiative forcing reaching 8.8 W m-2 (equivalent to the SRES A1Fi emission scenario) and three climate policy scenarios with increasing mitigation stringency of 7.7, 5.5, and 4.2 W m-2 (equivalent to the SRES A2, B2, and B1 emission scenarios, respectively), we investigate the effects of emission mitigation policies on water scarcity. Two carbon tax regimes (a universal carbon tax (UCT) which includes land use change emissions, and a fossil fuel and industrial emissions carbon tax (FFICT) which excludes land use change emissions) are analyzed. The baseline scenario results in more than half of the world population living under extreme water scarcity by the end of the 21st century. Additionally, in years 2050 and 2095, 36% (28%) and 44% (39%) of the global population, respectively, is projected to live in grid cells (in basins) that will experience greater water demands than the amount of available water in a year (i.e., the water scarcity index (WSI) > 1.0). When comparing the climate policy scenarios to the baseline scenario while maintaining

Assessment of water pipes durability under pressure surge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pham Ha, Hai; Minh, Lanh Pham Thi; Tang Van, Lam; Bulgakov, Boris; Bazhenova, Soafia

2017-10-01

Surge phenomenon occurs on the pipeline by the closing valve or pump suddenly lost power. Due to the complexity of the water hammer simulation, previous researches have only considered water hammer on the single pipe or calculation of some positions on water pipe network, it have not been analysis for all of pipe on the water distribution systems. Simulation of water hammer due to closing valve on water distribution system and the influence level of pressure surge is evaluated at the defects on pipe. Water hammer on water supply pipe network are simulated by Water HAMMER software academic version and the capacity of defects are calculated by SINTAP. SINTAP developed from Brite-Euram projects in Brussels-Belgium with the aim to develop a process for assessing the integrity of the structure for the European industry. Based on the principle of mechanical fault, indicating the size of defects in materials affect the load capacity of the product in the course of work, the process has proposed setting up the diagram to fatigue assessment defect (FAD). The methods are applied for water pipe networks of Lien Chieu district, Da Nang city, Viet Nam, the results show the affected area of wave pressure by closing the valve and thereby assess the greatest pressure surge effect to corroded pipe. The SINTAP standard and finite element mesh analysis at the defect during the occurrence of pressure surge which will accurately assess the bearing capacity of the old pipes. This is one of the bases to predict the leakage locations on the water distribution systems. Amount of water hammer when identified on the water supply networks are decreasing due to local losses at the nodes as well as the friction with pipe wall, so this paper adequately simulate water hammer phenomena applying for actual water distribution systems. The research verified that pipe wall with defect is damaged under the pressure surge value.

Plant-available and water-soluble phosphorus in soils amended with separated manure solids.

PubMed

Gasser, M-O; Chantigny, M H; Angers, D A; Bittman, S; Buckley, K E; Rochette, P; Massé, D

2012-01-01

Physical, chemical, or biological treatment of animal liquid manure generally produces a dry-matter rich fraction (DMF) that contains most of the initial phosphorus (P). Our objective was to assess the solubility and plant availability of P from various DMFs as a function of soil P status. Eight different DMFs were obtained from liquid swine (LSM) and dairy cattle (LDC) manures treated by natural decantation, anaerobic digestion, chemical flocculation, composting, or mechanical separation. The DMFs were compared with mineral P fertilizer in a pot experiment with oat ( L.) grown in four soils with varied P-fixing capacities and P saturation levels. The DMFs were added at a rate of 50 mg P kg soil and incubated 14 d before seeding. Soil water-extractable P (P) at all water:soil extraction ratios (2:1, 20:1, and 200:1) was slightly higher when DMFs were derived from LDC rather than LSM. Soil P at the 2:1 ratio was lower with anaerobically digested LSM. At the 2:1 extraction ratio, DMF P was less soluble than mineral P as P saturation in soils increased. In soils with a lower P-fixing capacity, DMF P appeared less water soluble than mineral P under 20:1 and 200:1 extraction ratios. After 72 d of plant growth, DMFs produced yields comparable to mineral P fertilizer. Although the plant availability of P from DMFs was comparable to mineral P fertilizer, P from DMFs could be less vulnerable to leaching or runoff losses in soils with a high P saturation level or low P-fixing capacity. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

Integrated risk assessment and screening analysis of drinking water safety of a conventional water supply system.

PubMed

Sun, F; Chen, J; Tong, Q; Zeng, S

2007-01-01

Management of drinking water safety is changing towards an integrated risk assessment and risk management approach that includes all processes in a water supply system from catchment to consumers. However, given the large number of water supply systems in China and the cost of implementing such a risk assessment procedure, there is a necessity to first conduct a strategic screening analysis at a national level. An integrated methodology of risk assessment and screening analysis is thus proposed to evaluate drinking water safety of a conventional water supply system. The violation probability, indicating drinking water safety, is estimated at different locations of a water supply system in terms of permanganate index, ammonia nitrogen, turbidity, residual chlorine and trihalomethanes. Critical parameters with respect to drinking water safety are then identified, based on which an index system is developed to prioritize conventional water supply systems in implementing a detailed risk assessment procedure. The evaluation results are represented as graphic check matrices for the concerned hazards in drinking water, from which the vulnerability of a conventional water supply system is characterized.

Lake-level variability and water availability in the Great Lakes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wilcox, Douglas A.; Thompson, Todd A.; Booth, Robert K.; Nicholas, J.R.

2007-01-01

In this report, we present recorded and reconstructed (pre-historical) changes in water levels in the Great Lakes, relate them to climate changes of the past, and highlight major water-availability implications for storage, coastal ecosystems, and human activities. 'Water availability,' as conceptualized herein, includes a recognition that water must be available for human and natural uses, but the balancing of how much should be set aside for which use is not discussed. The Great Lakes Basin covers a large area of North America. The lakes capture and store great volumes of water that are critical in maintaining human activities and natural ecosystems. Water enters the lakes mostly in the form of precipitation and streamflow. Although flow through the connecting channels is a primary output from the lakes, evaporation is also a major output. Water levels in the lakes vary naturally on timescales that range from hours to millennia; storage of water in the lakes changes at the seasonal to millennial scales in response to lake-level changes. Short-term changes result from storm surges and seiches and do not affect storage. Seasonal changes are driven by differences in net basin supply during the year related to snowmelt, precipitation, and evaporation. Annual to millennial changes are driven by subtle to major climatic changes affecting both precipitation (and resulting streamflow) and evaporation. Rebounding of the Earth's surface in response to loss of the weight of melted glaciers has differentially affected water levels. Rebound rates have not been uniform across the basin, causing the hydrologic outlet of each lake to rise in elevation more rapidly than some parts of the coastlines. The result is a long-term change in lake level with respect to shoreline features that differs from site to site. The reconstructed water-level history of Lake Michigan-Huron over the past 4,700 years shows three major high phases from 2,300 to 3,300, 1,100 to 2,000, and 0 to 800

Shifting species interactions in terrestrial dryland ecosystems under altered water availability and climate change

USGS Publications Warehouse

McCluney, Kevin E.; Belnap, Jayne; Collins, Scott L.; González, Angélica L.; Hagen, Elizabeth M.; Holland, J. Nathaniel; Kotler, Burt P.; Maestre, Fernando T.; Smith, Stanley D.; Wolf, Blair O.

2012-01-01

Species interactions play key roles in linking the responses of populations, communities, and ecosystems to environmental change. For instance, species interactions are an important determinant of the complexity of changes in trophic biomass with variation in resources. Water resources are a major driver of terrestrial ecology and climate change is expected to greatly alter the distribution of this critical resource. While previous studies have documented strong effects of global environmental change on species interactions in general, responses can vary from region to region. Dryland ecosystems occupy more than one-third of the Earth's land mass, are greatly affected by changes in water availability, and are predicted to be hotspots of climate change. Thus, it is imperative to understand the effects of environmental change on these globally significant ecosystems. Here, we review studies of the responses of population-level plant-plant, plant-herbivore, and predator-prey interactions to changes in water availability in dryland environments in order to develop new hypotheses and predictions to guide future research. To help explain patterns of interaction outcomes, we developed a conceptual model that views interaction outcomes as shifting between (1) competition and facilitation (plant-plant), (2) herbivory, neutralism, or mutualism (plant-herbivore), or (3) neutralism and predation (predator-prey), as water availability crosses physiological, behavioural, or population-density thresholds. We link our conceptual model to hypothetical scenarios of current and future water availability to make testable predictions about the influence of changes in water availability on species interactions. We also examine potential implications of our conceptual model for the relative importance of top-down effects and the linearity of patterns of change in trophic biomass with changes in water availability. Finally, we highlight key research needs and some possible broader impacts

Shifting species interactions in terrestrial dryland ecosystems under altered water availability and climate change.

PubMed

McCluney, Kevin E; Belnap, Jayne; Collins, Scott L; González, Angélica L; Hagen, Elizabeth M; Nathaniel Holland, J; Kotler, Burt P; Maestre, Fernando T; Smith, Stanley D; Wolf, Blair O

2012-08-01

Species interactions play key roles in linking the responses of populations, communities, and ecosystems to environmental change. For instance, species interactions are an important determinant of the complexity of changes in trophic biomass with variation in resources. Water resources are a major driver of terrestrial ecology and climate change is expected to greatly alter the distribution of this critical resource. While previous studies have documented strong effects of global environmental change on species interactions in general, responses can vary from region to region. Dryland ecosystems occupy more than one-third of the Earth's land mass, are greatly affected by changes in water availability, and are predicted to be hotspots of climate change. Thus, it is imperative to understand the effects of environmental change on these globally significant ecosystems. Here, we review studies of the responses of population-level plant-plant, plant-herbivore, and predator-prey interactions to changes in water availability in dryland environments in order to develop new hypotheses and predictions to guide future research. To help explain patterns of interaction outcomes, we developed a conceptual model that views interaction outcomes as shifting between (1) competition and facilitation (plant-plant), (2) herbivory, neutralism, or mutualism (plant-herbivore), or (3) neutralism and predation (predator-prey), as water availability crosses physiological, behavioural, or population-density thresholds. We link our conceptual model to hypothetical scenarios of current and future water availability to make testable predictions about the influence of changes in water availability on species interactions. We also examine potential implications of our conceptual model for the relative importance of top-down effects and the linearity of patterns of change in trophic biomass with changes in water availability. Finally, we highlight key research needs and some possible broader impacts

Toxicological risk assessment and prioritization of drinking water relevant contaminants of emerging concern.

PubMed

Baken, Kirsten A; Sjerps, Rosa M A; Schriks, Merijn; van Wezel, Annemarie P

2018-06-13

Toxicological risk assessment of contaminants of emerging concern (CEC) in (sources of) drinking water is required to identify potential health risks and prioritize chemicals for abatement or monitoring. In such assessments, concentrations of chemicals in drinking water or sources are compared to either (i) health-based (statutory) drinking water guideline values, (ii) provisional guideline values based on recent toxicity data in absence of drinking water guidelines, or (iii) generic drinking water target values in absence of toxicity data. Here, we performed a toxicological risk assessment for 163 CEC that were selected as relevant for drinking water. This relevance was based on their presence in drinking water and/or groundwater and surface water sources in downstream parts of the Rhine and Meuse, in combination with concentration levels and physicochemical properties. Statutory and provisional drinking water guideline values could be derived from publically available toxicological information for 142 of the CEC. Based on measured concentrations it was concluded that the majority of substances do not occur in concentrations which individually pose an appreciable human health risk. A health concern could however not be excluded for vinylchloride, trichloroethene, bromodichloromethane, aniline, phenol, 2-chlorobenzenamine, mevinphos, 1,4-dioxane, and nitrolotriacetic acid. For part of the selected substances, toxicological risk assessment for drinking water could not be performed since either toxicity data (hazard) or drinking water concentrations (exposure) were lacking. In absence of toxicity data, the Threshold of Toxicological Concern (TTC) approach can be applied for screening level risk assessment. The toxicological information on the selected substances was used to evaluate whether drinking water target values based on existing TTC levels are sufficiently protective for drinking water relevant CEC. Generic drinking water target levels of 37 μg/L for

Assessing the Impacts of Climate Change on the Water-Energy Nexus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mo, W.; Jacobs, J. M.

2014-12-01

Water-energy nexus refers to the fact that a lot of energy is used for treating and delivering water, and a large amount of water is needed for energy production. This interrelation reinforces water and energy consumptions and challenges the sustainable management of both resources in light of growing population, developing economy, and dwindling resources. Climate change often exacerbates the negative effects of the water-energy nexus by intervening water and energy allocation, availability, and quality, forcing communities to seek more energy dependent alternative water sources and/or more water dependent alternative energy sources. The climate-water-energy interrelations play an important role in water and energy management, yet our understandings on the interactions between climate and the water-energy nexus are still very limited. Therefore, this study aims at qualitatively and quantitatively assessing the impacts of climate change from the water-energy nexus perspective by investigating previous literatures, case studies, climate change patterns, and recent extreme climate events. Management difficulties resulted from climate related source shifts as well as policy and regulation changes will be illustrated and discussed. Research needs and gaps on the climate-water-energy interrelations will be addressed.

When vegetation change alters ecosystem water availability.

PubMed

Scott, Russell L; Huxman, Travis E; Barron-Gafford, Greg A; Darrel Jenerette, G; Young, Jessica M; Hamerlynck, Erik P

2014-07-01

The combined effects of vegetation and climate change on biosphere-atmosphere water vapor (H2 O) and carbon dioxide (CO2 ) exchanges are expected to vary depending, in part, on how biotic activity is controlled by and alters water availability. This is particularly important when a change in ecosystem composition alters the fractional covers of bare soil, grass, and woody plants so as to influence the accessibility of shallower vs. deeper soil water pools. To study this, we compared 5 years of eddy covariance measurements of H2 O and CO2 fluxes over a riparian grassland, shrubland, and woodland. In comparison with the surrounding upland region, groundwater access at the riparian sites increased net carbon uptake (NEP) and evapotranspiration (ET), which were sustained over more of the year. Among the sites, the grassland used less of the stable groundwater resource, and increasing woody plant density decoupled NEP and ET from incident precipitation (P), resulting in greater exchange rates that were less variable year to year. Despite similar gross patterns, how groundwater accessibility affected NEP was more complex than ET. The grassland had higher respiration (Reco ) costs. Thus, while it had similar ET and gross carbon uptake (GEP) to the shrubland, grassland NEP was substantially less. Also, grassland carbon fluxes were more variable due to occasional flooding at the site, which both stimulated and inhibited NEP depending upon phenology. Woodland NEP was large, but surprisingly similar to the less mature, sparse shrubland, even while having much greater GEP. Woodland Reco was greater than the shrubland and responded strongly and positively to P, which resulted in a surprising negative NEP response to P. This is likely due to the large accumulation of carbon aboveground and in the surface soil. These long-term observations support the strong role that water accessibility can play when determining the consequences of ecosystem vegetation change. © 2013 John Wiley

Incorporating availability/bioavailability in risk assessment and decision making of polluted sites, using Germany as an example.

PubMed

Kördel, Werner; Bernhardt, Cornelia; Derz, Kerstin; Hund-Rinke, Kerstin; Harmsen, Joop; Peijnenburg, Willie; Comans, Rob; Terytze, Konstantin

2013-10-15

Nearly all publications dealing with availability or bioavailability of soil pollutants start with the following statement: the determination of total pollutant content will lead to an over-estimation of risk. However, an assessment of contaminated sites should be based on the determination of mobile fractions of pollutants, and the fractions with potential for mobilisation that threaten groundwater and surface water, and the actual and potential fractions available for uptake by plants, soil microflora and soil organisms. After reviewing the literature for method proposals concerning the determination of available/bioavailable fractions of contaminants with respect to leaching, plants, microorganisms (biodegradation) and soil organisms, we propose a testing and assessment scheme for contaminated sites. The proposal includes (i) already accepted and used methods, (ii) methods which are under standardisation, and (iii) methods for which development has just started in order to promote urgently needed research. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Estimating plant available water content from remotely sensed evapotranspiration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Dijk, A. I. J. M.; Warren, G.; Doody, T.

2012-04-01

Plant available water content (PAWC) is an emergent soil property that is a critical variable in hydrological modelling. PAWC determines the active soil water storage and, in water-limited environments, is the main cause of different ecohydrological behaviour between (deep-rooted) perennial vegetation and (shallow-rooted) seasonal vegetation. Conventionally, PAWC is estimated for a combination of soil and vegetation from three variables: maximum rooting depth and the volumetric water content at field capacity and permanent wilting point, respectively. Without elaborate local field observation, large uncertainties in PAWC occur due to the assumptions associated with each of the three variables. We developed an alternative, observation-based method to estimate PAWC from precipitation observations and CSIRO MODIS Reflectance-based Evapotranspiration (CMRSET) estimates. Processing steps include (1) removing residual systematic bias in the CMRSET estimates, (2) making spatially appropriate assumptions about local water inputs and surface runoff losses, (3) using mean seasonal patterns in precipitation and CMRSET to estimate the seasonal pattern in soil water storage changes, (4) from these, calculating the mean seasonal storage range, which can be treated as an estimate of PAWC. We evaluate the resulting PAWC estimates against those determined in field experiments for 180 sites across Australia. We show that the method produces better estimates of PAWC than conventional techniques. In addition, the method provides detailed information with full continental coverage at moderate resolution (250 m) scale. The resulting maps can be used to identify likely groundwater dependent ecosystems and to derive PAWC distributions for each combination of soil and vegetation type.

Life Cycle Water Consumption and Water Resource Assessment for Utility-Scale Geothermal Systems: An In-Depth Analysis of Historical and Forthcoming EGS Projects

DOE Data Explorer

Schroeder, Jenna N.

2013-08-31

This report is the third in a series of reports sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy Geothermal Technologies Program in which a range of water-related issues surrounding geothermal power production are evaluated. The first report made an initial attempt at quantifying the life cycle fresh water requirements of geothermal power-generating systems and explored operational and environmental concerns related to the geochemical composition of geothermal fluids. The initial analysis of life cycle fresh water consumption of geothermal power-generating systems identified that operational water requirements consumed the vast majority of water across the life cycle. However, it relied upon limited operational water consumption data and did not account for belowground operational losses for enhanced geothermal systems (EGSs). A second report presented an initial assessment of fresh water demand for future growth in utility-scale geothermal power generation. The current analysis builds upon this work to improve life cycle fresh water consumption estimates and incorporates regional water availability into the resource assessment to improve the identification of areas where future growth in geothermal electricity generation may encounter water challenges.

77 FR 27770 - Clean Water Act Section 303(d): Availability of List Decisions

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-11

... ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY [FRL-9670-5] Clean Water Act Section 303(d): Availability of List...: This notice announces EPA's decision identifying certain water quality limited waterbodies, and the associated pollutant, in Utah to be listed pursuant to the Clean Water Act Section 303(d)(2), and requests...

Cost Analysis of Water Transport for Climate Change Impact Assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Szaleniec, V.; Buytaert, W.

2012-04-01

It is expected that climate change will have a strong impact on water resources worldwide. Many studies exist that couple the output of global climate models with hydrological models to assess the impact of climate change on physical water availability. However, the water resources topology of many regions and especially that of cities can be very complex. Changes in physical water availability do therefore not translate easily into impacts on water resources for cities. This is especially the case for cities with a complex water supply topology, for instance because of geographical barriers, strong gradients in precipitation patterns, or competing water uses. In this study we explore the use of cost maps to enable the inclusion of water supply topologies in climate change impact studies. We use the city of Lima as a case study. Lima is the second largest desert city in the world. Although Peru as a whole has no water shortage, extreme gradients exist. Most of the economic activities including the city of Lima are located in the coastal desert. This region is geographically disconnected from the wet Amazon basin because of the Andes mountain range. Hence, water supply is precarious, provided by a complex combination of high mountain ecosystems including wetlands and glaciers, as well as groundwater aquifers depending on recharge from the mountains. We investigate the feasibility and costs of different water abstraction scenarios and the impact of climate change using cost functions for different resources. The option of building inter basins tunnels across the Andes is compared to the costs of desalinating seawater from the Pacific Ocean under different climate change scenarios and population growth scenarios. This approach yields recommendations for the most cost-effective options for the future.

Water Availability Indices – A Literature Review

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Xu, Hui; Wu, May M.

Fresh water is a critical resource for humanity and the ecosystem. In general, water resources can be partitioned into two major categories: blue water and green water (Falkenmark and Rockström 2006). Precipitation that runs off or percolates into the deep aquifer is defined as blue water, and precipitation that filtrates into soil, which eventually returns to the atmosphere as evaporation, is called green water (Hoekstra et al. 2011). For human purposes, green water is almost exclusively used for agricultural production, but blue water can be used for multiple competing sectors, such as irrigation and municipal water.

Designing monitoring for conservation impact assessment in water funds in Latin America: an approach to address water-data scarcity (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nelson, J. L.; Chaplin-Kramer, R.; Ziv, G.; Wolny, S.; Vogl, A. L.; Tallis, H.; Bremer, L.

2013-12-01

The risk of water scarcity is a rising threat in a rapidly changing world. Communities and investors are using the new institution of water funds to enact conservation practices in watersheds to bolster a clean, predictable water supply for multiple stakeholders. Water funds finance conservation activities to support water-related ecosystem services, and here we relate our work to develop innovative approaches to experimental design of monitoring programs to track the effectiveness of water funds throughout Latin America. We highlight two examples: the Fund for the Protection of Water (FONAG), in Quito, Ecuador, and Water for Life, Agua por la Vida, in Cali, Colombia. Our approach is meant to test whether a) water funds' restoration and protection actions result in changes in water quality and/or quantity at the site scale and the subwatershed scale, and b) the suite of investments for the whole water fund reach established goals for improving water quality and/or quantity at the basin scale or point of use. Our goal is to create monitoring standards for ecosystem-service assessment and clearly demonstrate translating those standards to field implementation in a statistically robust and cost-effective way. In the gap between data-intensive methods requiring historic, long-term water sampling and more subjective, ad hoc assessments, we have created a quantitative, land-cover-based approach to pairing conservation activity with appropriate controls in order to determine the impact of water-fund actions. To do so, we use a statistical approach in combination with open-source tools developed by the Natural Capital Project to optimize water funds' investments in nature and assess ecosystem-service provision (Resource Investment Optimization System, RIOS, and InVEST). We report on the process of identifying micro-, subwatershed or watershed matches to serve as controls for conservation 'impact' sites, based on globally-available land cover, precipitation, and soil data

Availability of ground water in the lower Pawcatuck River basin, Rhode Island

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gonthier, Joseph B.; Johnston, Herbert E.; Malmberg, Glenn T.

1974-01-01

The lower Pawcatuck River basin in southwestern Rhode Island is an area of about 169 square miles underlain by crystalline bedrock over which lies a relatively thin mantle of glacial till and stratified drift. Stratified drift, consisting dominantly of sand and gravel, occurs in irregularly shaped linear deposits that are generally less than a mile wide and less than 125 feet thick; these deposits are found along the Pawcatuck River, its tributaries, and abandoned preglacial channels. Deposits of stratified sand and gravel constitute the principal aquifer in the lower Pawcatuck basin and the only one capable of sustaining yields of 100 gallons per minute or more to individual wells. Water available for development in this aquifer consists of water in storage--potential ground-water runoff to streams--plus infiltration that can be induced from streams. Minimum annual ground-water runoff from the sand and gravel aquifer is calculated to be at least 1.17 cubic feet per second per square mile, or 0.76 million gallons per day per square mile. Potential recharge by induced infiltration is estimated to range from about 250 to 600 gallons per day per linear foot of streambed for the principal streams. In most areas, induced infiltration from streams constitutes the major source of water potentially available for development by wells. Because subsurface hydraulic connection in the sand and gravel aquifer is poor in several places, the deposits are conveniently divisible into several ground-water reservoirs. The potential yield from five of the most promising ground-water reservoirs is evaluated by means of mathematical models. Results indicate that continuous withdrawals ranging from 1.3 to 10.3 million gallons per day, and totaling 31 million gallons per day, are obtainable from these reservoirs. Larger yields may be recovered by different well placement, spacing, construction and development, pumping practice, and so forth. Withdrawals at the rates indicated will reduce

Distribution and Availability of State and Areawide Water Quality Reports in Oklahoma Libraries.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McClure, Charles R.; Million, Anne

This report examines the distribution and availability of water quality reports in the state of Oklahoma. Based on legislation from the Clean Water Act and regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency's "Public Participation Handbook for Water Quality Management," depository libraries must be established to provide citizen access to…

Human health implications, risk assessment and remediation of As-contaminated water: A critical review.

PubMed

Shakoor, Muhammad Bilal; Nawaz, Rab; Hussain, Fida; Raza, Maimoona; Ali, Shafaqat; Rizwan, Muhammad; Oh, Sang-Eun; Ahmad, Sajjad

2017-12-01

Arsenic (As) is a naturally occurring metalloid and Class-A human carcinogen. Exposure to As via direct intake of As-contaminated water or ingestion of As-contaminated edible crops is considered a life threatening problem around the globe. Arsenic-laced drinking water has affected the lives of over 200 million people in 105 countries worldwide. Limited data are available on various health risk assessment models/frameworks used to predict carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health effects caused by As-contaminated water. Therefore, this discussion highlights the need for future research focusing on human health risk assessment of individual As species (both organic and inorganic) present in As-contaminated water. Various conventional and latest technologies for remediation of As-contaminated water are also reviewed along with a discussion of the fate of As-loaded waste and sludge. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Water resources vulnerability assessment in the Adriatic Sea region: the case of Corfu Island.

PubMed

Kanakoudis, Vasilis; Tsitsifli, Stavroula; Papadopoulou, Anastasia; Cencur Curk, Barbara; Karleusa, Barbara

2017-09-01

Cross-border water resources management and protection is a complicated task to achieve, lacking a common methodological framework. Especially in the Adriatic region, water used for drinking water supply purposes pass from many different countries, turning its management into a hard task to achieve. During the DRINKADRIA project, a common methodological framework has been developed, for efficient and effective cross-border water supply and resources management, taking into consideration different resources types (surface and groundwater) emphasizing in drinking water supply intake. The common methodology for water resources management is based on four pillars: climate characteristics and climate change, water resources availability, quality, and security. The present paper assesses both present and future vulnerability of water resources in the Adriatic region, with special focus on Corfu Island, Greece. The results showed that climate change is expected to impact negatively on water resources availability while at the same time, water demand is expected to increase. Water quality problems will be intensified especially due to land use changes and salt water intrusion. The analysis identified areas where water resources are more vulnerable, allowing decision makers develop management strategies.

Modeling of Soil Water Availability for Agricultural Planning at Pelaga Village, Badung Regency, Bali, Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suyarto, R.; Sunarta, I. N.; Wiyanti; Padmayani, N. K. H.

2017-12-01

Pelaga Village is located in Badung regency which has the advantage in agriculture with the cultivation of coffee plants, oranges, carrots, cabbage, and chili. The physical condition of Pelaga Village which has high rainfall, bumpy areas, and sandy-sandy ground texture causes air to air to be available for plants. Based on these questions then conducted a study to determine the comparison between the available water and water requirement for agriculture. Available water was difference field capacity and permanent wilting point method and crop water requirement was using Blaney-Criddle method. The results from this research was deficit between available air and crop water requirements. Available water was 12,12% and crop water requirement in initial stage, dev. Stage, mid-season stage, and late season stage respectively, coffee 11.28%, 24.19%, 35.49%, 29.04%; cabbage 19.58%, 19.58%, 33.10%, 27.74%: carrot 14.82%, 28.61%, 28.61%, 27.95%: Orange 14.82%, 28.61%, 28.61%, 27.23%; chili, 17.37%,17.37%, 34.80%, 30.46%. Soil management that must be done is by short-term land management by sprinkling long-term soil management by means of organic material valuation, irrigation making, and terracing making.

Responses of plant available water and forest productivity to variably layered coarse textured soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Mingbin; Barbour, Lee; Elshorbagy, Amin; Si, Bing; Zettl, Julie

2010-05-01

Reforestation is a primary end use for reconstructed soils following oil sands mining in northern Alberta, Canada. Limited soil water conditions strongly restrict plant growth. Previous research has shown that layering of sandy soils can produce enhanced water availability for plant growth; however, the effect of gradation on these enhancements is not well defined. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of soil texture (gradation and layering) on plant available water and consequently on forest productivity for reclaimed coarse textured soils. A previously validated system dynamics (SD) model of soil moisture dynamics was coupled with ecophysiological and biogeochemical processes model, Biome-BGC-SD, to simulate forest dynamics for different soil profiles. These profiles included contrasting 50 cm textural layers of finer sand overlying coarser sand in which the sand layers had either a well graded or uniform soil texture. These profiles were compared to uniform profiles of the same sands. Three tree species of jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.), white spruce (Picea glauce Voss.), and trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) were simulated using a 50 year climatic data base from northern Alberta. Available water holding capacity (AWHC) was used to identify soil moisture regime, and leaf area index (LAI) and net primary production (NPP) were used as indices of forest productivity. Published physiological parameters were used in the Biome-BGC-SD model. Relative productivity was assessed by comparing model predictions to the measured above-ground biomass dynamics for the three tree species, and was then used to study the responses of forest leaf area index and potential productivity to AWHC on different soil profiles. Simulated results indicated soil layering could significantly increase AWHC in the 1-m profile for coarse textured soils. This enhanced AWHC could result in an increase in forest LAI and NPP. The increased extent varied with soil

Power Plant Water Intake Assessment.