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The article presents the discussion on estimating the value of lost residential electricity service in Nepal. Topics include high technical and commercial losses, insufficient revenues to finance investment in infrastructure, and many others; and improving electricity dispatch, increasing electricity production, and imports from India though households still experiencing unscheduled outages.

Stream intermittency is predicted to increase where water withdrawals and climate warming are increasing. In regions coupled with high fish diversity, understanding how intermittency influences fish trophic ecology is critical for informing ecosystem function. This study compared fish diets across seasons in perennial and intermittent streams to estimate the immediate and cumulative effects of stream drying on fish foraging patterns. We used gut content analysis to compare the diets of small‐bodied, secondary consumer fishes, including two minnow and three darter species found in the lower Flint River Basin of southwestern Georgia, during both the summer (before stream dry‐down) and fall (post flow resumption) seasons. Fish communities in perennial streams had greater diet richness compared to fishes in intermittent streams for both seasons. Darter diets were characterised by rheophilic aquatic insects in perennial streams and by benthic crustaceans (copepods, cladocerans and isopods) and predatory aquatic insects in intermittent streams. Minnow diets were typified by freshwater sponges, eggs and organic detritus in intermittent streams and by terrestrial insects and diatoms in perennial streams. Fishes in intermittent streams consumed significantly more benthic crustaceans in the fall (37% increase in proportional volume) compared to preflow cessation conditions in the summer, suggesting these organisms play an important, yet relatively unrecognised role in supporting fish communities in southeastern streams. Our findings enhance our understanding of how stream intermittency influences the trophic dynamics of secondary consumer fishes in an agricultural watershed increasingly affected by water scarcity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and human development have significantly altered the processes of natural water cycling, aggravating the challenge of worldwide water governance. China has initiated a new paradigm of water governance. However, the gap between concept and reality widened due to a lack of appropriate data and methodology. Current water management focuses on limiting the water withdrawals and improving the water use efficiency, and is not yet able to ensure the implementation of the new water governance paradigm. After a thorough study of the advanced development and achievement of water governance policies both at home and abroad, the conclusion has been reached that the total water consumption should be introduced as an additional management indicator to implement a dual control of water withdrawal and consumption. The paper proposes to: (1)Establish water consumption monitoring infrastructure with evapotranspiration remote sensing monitoring as its core component. (2) Implement the rigid water resources constraint by determining available water consumption targets of human activities in the basin, considering water requirements of environmental flow and ecosystem restoration, and establish a cascading system assigning targets to the sectors and/or stakeholders. (3) Implement the water consumption reduction schemes by limiting agricultural planting areas and optimizing ecosystem restoration with indigenous species. It is expected that the proposed approaches will effectively ensure the implementation of China′s new water resources governance paradigm with innovative data, methods, and measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Irrigation is the dominant section of human water use, exerting essential impacts on hydrological processes and water resources. To more realistically simulate irrigation processes in water‐rich regions, an irrigation scheme is incorporated into a land surface‐hydrological model. It calculates the irrigation water requirement according to meteorological conditions, cropping area and growing stage, and root‐zone soil moisture, and determines the irrigation water withdrawal based on the available water resources as well as describing water extraction and irrigation processes in the model. The coupled model is applied to the Yangtze River Basin (YRB) in China, and verified using the observed daily river discharge from 1987 to 1990, evapotranspiration and irrigation amounts from 1999 to 2003. The results first show that the model can well reproduce hydrological processes within the basin, and the simulated irrigation largely agrees with the observation, in terms of annual irrigation and its spatial pattern. Second, inclusion of irrigation processes allows the model to better estimate evapotranspiration, with relative biases decreased from about −10% to −3%. It is also found that in comparison to arid/semi‐arid areas, although presenting a less effect on river discharge and groundwater, the irrigation in the YRB significantly alters hydrological processes through water redistribution. The irrigation‐induced evapotranspiration increment and runoff decrease indicate a shift in the surface water and energy balance, implying a potential effect on the atmosphere. Therefore, representing irrigation processes properly is important, particularly for understanding the coupling effect of the nature‐human system and improving the hydrological prediction accuracy. Plain Language Summary: As the human population has dramatically increased, the agricultural irrigation has grown rapidly over the past 200 years. The critical implications of irrigation on water resources exert through impact on hydrological processes and further influence on weather and climate via the surface energy balance. Representing irrigation processes in the hydrological models or in the climate models is meaningful for improving accuracy of hydrological predictions. Therefore, we described irrigation processes in a land surface‐hydrological model, and the coupled model was used for the YRB in China and verified. It has confirmed that the model appropriately reproduces the hydrological processes impacted by climate variability and human activities. In the future, we intend to use the model to study the coupling effect of the nature‐human systems, which is expected to contribute to sustainable water resources management. Key Points: We developed a land surface‐hydrological model that describes irrigation processes by incorporating an irrigation schemeWe used the Global Crop Water Model method to more realistically estimate irrigation and described water extraction and irrigation processesWe conducted verification in terms of river discharge, evapotranspiration, and irrigation water amount to evaluate model performance [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Agriculture is the economic activity which uses water the most in Brazil, particularly in São Francisco River Basin, where water withdrawals for irrigation granted by water authorities amount to 22.3 billion m3 per year, a number which is close to 81% of the total withdrawal. On the other hand, bulk water in Brazil is underpriced. Water charges for agricultural users neither reflect the economic value of water nor induce a rational and efficient use of water resources, two key concepts of the Brazilian water law. Even so, it is common for irrigators to complain about the water prices charged for their use of bulk water. To throw some light on the real impact of charging water in the agriculture sector, this article evaluates the economic value of irrigation water in the São Francisco River basin through the shadow price approach, calculated by using the Residual Value Method. The analysis was performed for the top ten major São Francisco River basin crops in water use terms, namely corn, soybean, mango, beans, coffee bean, banana, cotton, sugar cane, papaya and rice. Results for the 2019 harvests show that except for sugar cane, all water shadow prices were positive, notably mango, beans and papaya. This paper also evaluated water shadow prices interannual variation from 2014 to 2019 for six crops. Except for sugarcane, the other crops have been profitable most of the time in the last 6 years. A wide fluctuation in the shadow price of water was observed over these years due to variations in sales prices and costs of production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Desalinized seawater is a vital freshwater source for regions with coastal water scarcity. Mapping seawater desalination plants enables a spatially detailed water resource assessment. Here, which is the first of its kind, we investigated the potential application of species distribution models (SDMs), which are widely used in ecology, to predict the global spatial distribution of seawater desalination plants. Two regression SDMs, a generalized linear model and a generalized additive model, along with two machine learning SDMs, a random forest model and a generalized boosted regression model, were trained and tested using the cross‐validation method at 0.5°. For each SDM, we considered four explanatory variables: aridity, distance to coastline, gross domestic product per capita, and annual domestic and industrial water withdrawal. Our results showed that machine learning SDMs had a relatively strong performance in capturing the historical locations of seawater desalination plants. We then mapped the future distribution of seawater desalination plants under different shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) and representative concentration pathways (RCPs). Our predictions showed that the number of predicted locations of seawater desalination plants increased by 31%, 47%, 55%, 57% in 2030, 2050, 2070, and 2090, respectively, relative to 2014. The largest increase occurred under SSP3_RCP7.0, while the lowest increase was found under SSP1_RCP2.6, which is mainly determined by the differences in the volume of annual domestic and industrial water withdrawal. Our study provides an insight into how SDMs can be used to predict the geographic locations of water management facilities. Key Points: We presented a novel application of species distribution models (SDMs) to predict the location of seawater desalination plantsMachine learning SDMs had a relatively strong performance according to multiple evaluation metricsAn ensemble distribution map of global seawater desalination plants was created for both current and future conditions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrological drought is assessed through river flow, which depends on river runoff and water withdrawal. This study proposed a framework to project future hydrological droughts considering agricultural water withdrawal (AWW) for shared socioeconomic pathway (SSP) scenarios. The relationship between AWW and potential evapotranspiration (PET) was determined using a deep belief network (DBN) model and then applied to estimate future AWW using projections of the twelve global climate models (GCMs). 12 GCMs were bias-corrected using the quantile mapping method, climate variables were generated, and river flow was estimated using the soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model. The standardized runoff index (SRI) was used to project the changes in hydrological drought characteristics. The results revealed a higher occurrence of severe droughts in the future. Droughts would be more frequent in the near future (2021–2060) than in the far future (2061–2100) and more severe when AWW is considered. Droughts would also be more severe for SSP5-8.5 than for SSP2-4.5. The study revealed that the increased PET due to rising temperatures is the primary cause of the increased drought frequency and severity. The AWW will accelerate the drought severities in the future in the Yeongsan River basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The withdrawal of cultivated land policy is not only an important task to promote cultivated land rest and alleviate the contradiction between supply and demand of water resources in arid areas, but also an important way to realize the sustainable development of agriculture and social economy. This study adopted the minimum per capita area method, ESPR (Exposure-Sensitivity-Pressure-Response) vulnerability assessment model, grey prediction model, and GIS spatial analysis. Furthermore, based on the characteristics of water resource constraints in the arid zone, Manas County was used as the study area. By exploring and analyzing the area of land retreat, through identifying its occurrence and position, the spatial zoning layout of land retreat can be realized to guarantee the effective implementation of water retreat and reduction. The following points were noted from the results: (1) the upper and lower limits of the area of receding land in Manas County were measured using the minimum per capita area method and the principle of balancing water supply and demand. The receding land in Manas County measured 16,493.68–20,749.90 hm2, which accounted for 24.31–30.58% of the total area of cultivated land. (2) The results obtained from constructing the ESPR vulnerability assessment model, used to assess the vulnerability of cultivated land in Manas County, showed that the overall vulnerability of cultivated land in Manas County was high, with 94.74% of the county's cultivated land being moderately vulnerable or worse, which necessitates the optimization of land use. (3) The area of cultivated land withdrawal under the water resource constraint was used as a constraint for the withdrawal of cultivated land. Based on the evaluation of the vulnerability of cultivated land, with the results arranged from small to large, it was concluded that the area of cultivated land withdrawal in Manas County could reach up to 16,787.34 hm2. There are four types of cultivated land withdrawals: desertified withdrawal, saline withdrawal, groundwater overexploitation withdrawal, and soil contamination withdrawal. The results of this study can provide a reference for Manas County to scientifically formulate a reasonable and orderly withdrawal system of farmland to reduce water use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extensive use of groundwater in the rice–wheat cropping system of northwest India has resulted in groundwater depletion at an alarming rate of 33–88 cm per year over the past 2–3 decades. Projected climate change is likely to affect crop water demand, groundwater withdrawal, and replenishment in future. A modeling study was undertaken to simulate the impact of climate change on groundwater resources under existing rice–wheat cropping system and with revised crop management strategies in the Karnal district of Northwest India. Different cop management strategies considered are marginal shift in sowing dates of rice and wheat, and fractional diversification of rice area to maize. MODFLOW software driven by the projected climate change scenarios under four representative concentration pathways (RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP6.0, and RCP8.5) were used for simulating groundwater behavior in the study area under business as usual and proposed crop management strategies. Simulation results indicated 4.3–61.5 m (28.9–291.2%) additional decline in groundwater levels in different zones of the study area under different RCPs by the end century (2070–2099) period in relation to the reference groundwater level of year 2015 under the existing sowing dates of 15 June for rice and 15 November for wheat. Maintaining rice sowing date at 15 June but advancing wheat sowing date by 10 days can reduce groundwater decline by 9.8–14.4%, 14.4–19.6%, and 18.1–25.8% under different RCPs by the end of early (2010–2039), mid (2040–2069), and end (2070–2099) century periods, respectively, vis-à-vis prevailing sowing dates. Replacing 20%, 30%, and 40% rice area with maize in rice–wheat system is likely to reduce groundwater decline by 7.1 (24.9%), 10.1 (35.3%), and 13.8 m (48.5%), respectively, in comparison to projected end century (2099) decline of 28.5 m under the prevailing sowing dates of rice–wheat. However, declining groundwater trend of rice–wheat would be reversed with the replacement of 80% rice area under maize crop. Simulation results suggest that specific crop management strategies can potentially moderate groundwater decline in the study area under the envisaged climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, 3D detailed numerical modeling was performed to evaluate the performance of an artificial recharge–water intake system installed to secure agricultural water in drought areas. Using a 3D irregular finite element grid, a conceptual model was constructed that reflected the actual scale of the study area and artificial recharge–water intake system and considered the characteristics of saturated–unsaturated aquifers. The optimal design factors for the artificial recharge system were derived through the constructed conceptual model, and were reflected to evaluate the individual performance of the artificial recharge and water intake system in the study area. Finally, an optimal operating scenario for the artificial recharge and water intake system was developed. The operation scenarios were composed of an appropriate injection rate and water withdrawal for each period from March, when the demand for agricultural water was low, to June, when the dry season and farming season overlapped, considering the target water withdrawal amount (30,000 tons) of the region, derived from water budget analysis. The proposed results are expected to be very useful in the future for the efficient operation and management of artificial recharge–water intake systems installed in drought areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extensive interest in sustainable water management reflects the extent to which the global water landscape has changed in the past twenty years, which is a natural development of changes in water resources and an increase in the level of imbalance between water supply and demand. In this paper, a simulation model based on system dynamics (SD) methodology was developed to aid sustainable water management efforts in a semi-arid region. Six policy scenarios were used to study, analyze, and assess water management trends in the Southeast region of New Mexico, USA. The modeling process included two phases: calibration (2000–2015) and future prediction (2016–2050). Several statistical criteria were applied to assess the developed model performance. The findings revealed that the simulated outputs were in excellent agreement with the historical data, indicating accurate model simulation. The SD model's determination coefficients ranged from 0.9288 to 0.9936 and the index of agreement values ranged from 0.9397 to 0.9958. Findings for the business-as-usual scenario indicated that total water withdrawals and total population will continue to rise, whereas groundwater storage, agricultural consumptive water use, and total consumptive water use will decrease over the simulated period. Sensitivity analysis using Monte Carlo simulation indicated that cultivated irrigated land change is the most influential parameter affecting groundwater storage, water supply storage change (total withdrawals), agricultural consumptive water use, and total consumptive water use. The changes occurring in the agricultural cultivated area had a great influence on controlling the groundwater system. Overall, the results showed that our SD model has been successful in capturing the system's dynamic behavior, and confirmed its capability in modeling water management issues for policy and decision makers under semi-arid conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional development brings significant changes in industrial structure and water consumption. Researching the trend in water consumption by changes in industrial structure can promote water conservation. The grey niche model describes the industrial changes in China and analyzes the water consumption of different leading industries. Using data from 2014 to 2019, and taking the economy as the influencing reason and the industrial niche as the weight, water consumption was predicted. The average percentage errors of the prediction results were all less than 0.1%. While improving the forecasting accuracy, the water consumption forecasting has been strengthened. The calculation results show that regional industry is undergoing transformation, and tertiary industry is rising in the national economy. The successful implementation of industrial water-saving measures has kept the water consumption of industrially developed cities stable but the rapid development of tertiary industries will increase water consumption. Incorporating changes in industrial structure into water use analysis allows the Chinese government to draft water conservation policies for various industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With an increase in population and economic development, water withdrawals are close to or even exceed the amount of water available in many regions of the world. Modelling water withdrawals could help water planners improve the efficiency of water use, water resources allocation, and management in order to alleviate water crises. However, minimal information has been obtained on how water withdrawals have changed over space and time, especially on a regional or local scale. This research proposes a data-driven framework to help estimate county-level distribution of water withdrawals. Using this framework, spatial statistical methods are used to estimate water withdrawals for agricultural, industrial, and domestic purposes in the Huaihe River watershed in China for the period 1978–2018. Total water withdrawals were found to have more than doubled, from 292.55 × 108 m3 in 1978 to 642.93 × 108 m3 in 2009, and decreased to 602.63 × 108 m3 in 2018. Agricultural water increased from 208.17 × 108 m3 in 1978 to 435.80 × 108 m3 in 2009 and decreased to 360.84 × 108 m3 in 2018. Industrial and domestic water usage constantly increased throughout the 1978–2018 period. In 1978, industrial and domestic demands were 20.35 × 108 m3 and 60.04 × 108 m3, respectively, and up until 2018, the figures were 105.58 × 108 m3 and 136.20 × 108 m3. From a spatial distribution perspective, Moran's I statistical results show that the total water withdrawal has significant spatial autocorrelation during 1978–2018. The overall trend was a gradual increase in 1978–2010 with withdrawal beginning to decline in 2010–2018. The results of Getis-Ord Gi* statistical calculations showed spatially contiguous clusters of total water withdrawal in the Huaihe River watershed during 1978–2010, and the spatial agglomeration weakened from 2010 to 2018. This study provides a data-driven framework for assessing water withdrawals to enable a deeper understanding of competing water use among economic sectors as well as water withdrawal modelled with proper data resource and method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Columbia River Basin (CRB) is heavily regulated by more than 250 dams on its river system while depending significantly on groundwater withdrawals in certain sub‐basins. Neglecting groundwater withdrawals in hydrologic models of the basin could result in inaccurate predictions of its water budget and thus mislead water management decisions in the basin. This study aims to understand the impacts of groundwater pumping on the spatiotemporal patterns of modeling regulated streamflow in the CRB using a modified version of the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model integrated with a water management component that accounts for groundwater withdrawals, irrigation demands, and reservoir operation (VIC‐GIRR). The VIC‐GIRR simulations showed that considering additional groundwater withdrawals would alleviate the stress of irrigation water deficit in the Snake River Basin with an average reduction of 10 km3/year. Such a reduction in water deficit resulted in slight streamflow increase over the CRB with maximum increase up to 40% during dry period in certain locations. We also note that the implementation of groundwater withdrawal does not, however, improve the overall model performance in long‐term averaged streamflow and storage predictions. Our results highlight the efforts needed to examine additional important processes in representing the interactions between water withdrawals and reservoir operations. Such efforts will aid in better simulation of multi‐reservoir system and improve effectiveness for agricultural productivity, power generation, flood control, and navigation purposes. Plain Language Summary: The Columbia River has more than 250 dams that are operated to provide the water demands for different users including irrigation for farmers, electricity supply through hydropower generation, flood control, and navigation purposes. In addition to surface water supplied by the Columbia River, pumping groundwater is a primary source of irrigation in many regions of the basin. While many hydrological models have been developed to simulate the flow of rivers and consider dam operations, few have accounted for the effects of groundwater use on dams. This work studies how using groundwater can alter water flow in the rivers and therefore the operation of dams. We here included groundwater use to the simulation of dams in an existing hydrological model, called Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) or VIC model. Our results showed that considering additional groundwater use leads to up to 40% increase of streamflow during dry period in some locations in the Columbia River Basin. It can reduce about 10 km3 of the annual deficit in irrigation water demand along the Snake River Basin. Our study highlights the importance of connecting groundwater withdrawals and reservoir operation to help identify potential water management alternatives with the availability of both surface and groundwater. Key Points: Introducing groundwater withdrawals scheme into Variable Infiltration Capacity model leads to up to 40% increase of streamflow during dry period in some sitesGroundwater use offsets significant water supply deficit along the upper Snake River Basin and in northwestern WashingtonThe use of groundwater and its priority over surface water resulted in higher inflow into reservoirs [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hydrodynamic design of inland vessels mainly relies on resistance, propulsion, maneuvering, squat, and wash effects. From the propulsion point of view, inland vessels are mostly provided with a stern tunnel to overcome the limitations of the low draft by accommodating a propeller of larger diameter to have higher propulsive efficiency. The present work examines the influence of stern tunnel geometry on the resistance of an inland vessel in fully loaded and ballast conditions using model experiments and CFD investigations. Also, to ensure the propeller immersion in ballast conditions, the stern tunnel water entrainment properties are studied. Furthermore, to understand the stern tunnel-propeller interaction effects and propulsion coefficients, self-propulsion simulations using CFD are performed. The design study presented in this paper highlights the influence of stern tunnel configuration on the propulsion performance of an inland vessel in deep and shallow water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The functioning and sustainability of lotic ecosystems depend to a large extent on their thermal and hydrological regimes. In the Mediterranean region, these factors are very sensitive to climate and anthropization which have undergone deep changes over the last four decades. Having noted the drying up of many permanent streams in Morocco, we conducted in 2015-2017 a new study with the aim of analyzing and assessing abiotic changes in the Upper Sebou (Middle Atlas, Morocco). A former study was carried out in 1981-1985. Indeed, over the last four decades, this river has been exposed to multiple disturbances, due to both recurrent droughts and human pressures. To describe and assess these changes, we used 16 abiotic variables that were measured in 11 ecosystems along the central course of the river. The comparison was mainly carried out using the multiple factorial correspondence analysis (MFCA), through a ternary matrix "variables x stations x time", gathering old and new data in the same mesological structure. The analysis revealed the classical upstream-downstream ordering of the studied ecosystems, where most of the ecosystems recorded a downstream migration from their 1981 position. In this evolutionary perspective, the study involves hydrological and thermal factors, which show mainly a reduction in flow and a slight increase in temperature and water mineralization, both in summer and winter. It is assumed that water withdrawals, especially for irrigation, together with climatic droughts in the region, are responsible for these long-term evolutionary trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming enhances atmospheric moisture loading and will likely affect the East-Asian monsoon system across Vietnam. The absence of a long written climate history from Vietnam creates a reliance on geological archives of past monsoon history and regional paleoenvironmental changes to provide a framework for evaluating current climatic trends. Biển Hồ lake (14°03′ N, 108°00′ E) is a volcanic crater (i.e. maar) in Vietnam's Central Highlands that has been accumulating sediment since the Pleistocene. Field campaigns between 2016 and 2018 recovered an abundance of gravity and piston sediment cores extending to a depth of ~15 m, covering approximately the last 30 ka BP. The paleoenvironmental interpretation of Pleistocene and Holocene sediment requires knowledge of modern lacustrine and sedimentary conditions, as well as the origin and transport pathways of the catchment material. Here, we focus on a high-resolution sedimentological and geochemical reconstruction of the recent environmental history - from 1950 AD to the present - based on sediment cores from Biển Hồ maar, in direct comparison with local and regional weather and historic records. The uppermost sedimentary record reflects a substantial anthropogenic influence such as deforestation, military use, crater breaching, dam and sill construction, and reforestation that strongly modified the maar's morphology and hydrology. A strong increase in sedimentation rate during the 1960–70s in Biển Hồ cores coincided with U.S. military activities and water withdrawal. A breach in the maar's rim and the connection to a new external reservoir in 1983-1984 AD increased Biển Hồ water level. Reforestation around most of Biển Hồ's rim in the 1990s curbed erosion and sedimentation rate. Nutrient availability in Biển Hồ declined in the past ~10 years after the installation of a concrete sill between Biển Hồ and the reservoir to limit water exchange with the more nutrient-rich reservoir. This paper is a calibration study on modern sediment to provide an empirical basis for the interpretation of Biển Hồ's deeper Holocene and pre-Holocene sedimentary record. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, in developing countries, the low surface water distribution efficiency and the lack of supplying water needs of farmers by surface water resources are compensated by excessive aquifer water withdrawal. This mismanagement has caused a sharp drop in the groundwater level in many countries. On the other hand, climate change and drought have intensified the pressure on water resources. This study aims to evaluate novel strategies for developing surface water distribution systems for stress reduction of the Najafabad aquifer in Isfahan, central plateau of Iran. The performance of several strategies for agricultural water distribution and delivery, such as hydro-mechanical operating system, manual-based operating system, and centralized automatic operating system, was evaluated in this study. In the first step, two indices, i.e., water distribution adequacy and dependability, were obtained using a flow hydraulic simulation model. Then, the water distribution adequacy map and amount of reduction in the water withdrawal of existing wells were determined for each strategy. Finally, using the MODFLOW groundwater simulation model, the changes in groundwater levels due to the normal and drought scenarios (15 and 30%) were extracted during five years for each strategy. The findings for the normal scenario showed that the centralized automatic operating system strategy had the most significant impact on agricultural water management in the surface water distribution system with a 30% increase in agricultural water distribution adequacy index compared to the current situation. This strategy increased the groundwater level by 11.6 m and closed 35% of the groundwater wells. In this scenario, the hydro-mechanical operating system strategy had the weakest performance by increasing the aquifer level by only 1.31 m. In the 15% and 30% drought scenarios, the centralized automatic operating system strategy exerted the best performance among other strategies by increasing the aquifer water level by 10.18 and 9.4 m, respectively, compared to the current situation. Finally, the results showed that the spatial segmentation of the aquifer exerted better efficiency and better monitoring in the more susceptible regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, with the continuous development of information technology and the advent of the Internet + era, the sharing economy has not only changed people's life and consumption patterns but also reconstructed the value cocreation process between enterprises and customers. Unlike the traditional economic model in which the enterprise is the dominant player, in the sharing economy, the enterprise withdraws from the dominant position in the value creation process and becomes a platform to support and serve the value creation of users (customers in the traditional economic model), and users become the dominant player in value creation. Users are not only the core subject of value cocreation in the sharing economy model but also the key factor determining the profitability of enterprises and the image of the platform. Bilateral users create rich value for individual users, platform enterprises, and society through value creation behaviors such as trading of the right to use idle resources and online and offline communication and interaction. Therefore, it is necessary to study the value cocreation behaviors of bilateral users of shared service platforms. This paper studies the value cocreation of bilateral users of shared service platforms, hoping to help platform enterprises further understand user behavior and needs, better fulfill the role of support and service in the process of value cocreation, provide a good value cocreation environment for bilateral users, enhance the reputation and influence of platform enterprises through user value cocreation behaviors, expand market share, and form competitive advantages. This paper stands in the perspective of intellectual enterprises and studies the problem of knowledge sharing. From the perspective of individuals, it mainly analyzes the willingness and ability of individual knowledge sharing, focusing on the "prisoner's dilemma" in game theory to study the willingness of individuals to share. From the perspective of knowledge, we mainly analyze the interference brought by the implicit and exclusive nature of knowledge to knowledge sharing, focusing on the implicit nature of knowledge. In addition, this paper only studies the influence of value cocreation of consumer users on value cocreation of resource users and does not deeply explore whether the value cocreation of resource users influences the value cocreation of consumer users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plants are concurrently exposed to biotic and abiotic stresses, including infection by viruses and drought. Combined stresses result in plant responses that are different from those observed for each individual stress. We investigated compensatory effects induced by virus infection on the fitness of hosts grown under water deficit, and the hypothesis that water deficit improves tolerance, estimated as reproductive fitness, to virus infection. Our results show that infection by Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) or Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) promotes drought tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana and Nicotiana benthamiana. However, neither CMV nor TuMV had a positive impact on host reproductive fitness following withdrawal of water, as determined by measuring the number of individuals producing seeds, seed grains, and seed germination rates. Importantly, infection by CMV but not by TuMV improved the reproductive fitness of N. benthamiana plants when exposed to drought compared to watered, virus-infected plants. However, no such conditional phenotype was found in Arabidopsis plants infected with CMV. Water deficit did not affect the capacity of infected plants to transmit CMV through seeds. These findings highlight a conditional improvement in biological efficacy of N. benthamiana plants infected with CMV under water deficit, and lead to the prediction that plants can exhibit increased tolerance to specific viruses under some of the projected climate change scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dashte Abbas is one of the fertile plains of the Ilam Province situated in the southwest of Iran, where water resources are scarce, and often the quality of water is not suitable for agricultural uses. To solve the problem of water scarcity, the Karkheh-Dashte Abbas inter-basin water transfer project started operation in 2008. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of different agricultural water management scenarios on the environmental and economic conditions in the Dashte Abbas using the System Dynamics (SD) approach. The conceptual model was considered based on five sub-models, including water demand, water supply, environmental stresses, environment, and water economics. The evaluated water transfer scenarios were allocation of 160, 170, 180, 200 Million Cubic Meters (MCM) water transferred from the Karkheh Dam and 90, 80, 70, and 60 MCM annual groundwater withdrawal from the aquifer, respectively. The results showed that in all scenarios, water transfer increased groundwater level, decreased groundwater quality, reduced soil aeration and drainage, increased salinity of root zone and, consequently, reduced agricultural production in the plain. The results of the SD model demonstrate that the need for drainage is reduced with increasing groundwater consumption. The alternative cropping systems with higher water requirements, including forage crops and sugar beet, may be helpful to reduce drainage problems and to prevent construction of an underground drainage system. The results also confirmed that with the implementation of the first water allocation scenario (allocation of annual 160 MCM surface water transfer and annual 90 MCM of groundwater withdrawal) and cultivation of higher water requirement crops can reduce the rise in groundwater level and drainage problems. In these conditions, the water table remains almost constant at a depth of 10 meters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attempts to establish a regional water convention covering shared water resources in the Arab world have been ongoing for more than a decade. During this time, a Draft Arab Water Convention has been proposed, and the content of this has been subject to a debate that did not gain much attention at the international level. This article seeks to examine this topic to determine whether such an instrument is really needed in the Arab world. The article highlights the advantages and disadvantages of establishing such a convention, on the basis of which specific recommendations are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Karst systems consist of heterogeneous aquifers characterized by non-linear hydrogeological behavior. This is intrinsically linked to the coexistence of saturated versus unsaturated, open-channel versus closed-conduit flow and laminar versus turbulent flows within these aquifers. These multiple dualities together with a lack of knowledge of their internal structure lead to increasing difficulties in the management of groundwater resources related to karst aquifers. However, karst aquifers constitute strategic fresh water resources and many stakeholders carry out withdrawals sometimes continuously or centered on the period of low water level as for the irrigation. These withdrawals generate discharge decreases that can constitute sources of conflicts between upstream and downstream users of the resource. In this study, we propose a methodology to assess the impact of withdrawals on the spring discharge of a karst aquifer based on a conceptual non-linear reservoirs model. This methodology is applied to the second largest karst system in France: The Touvre karst system (La Rochefoucauld). The simulated influence of the total withdrawals on runoff deficit is larger than the total withdrawals in relationship with the non-linearity of the conceptual models. Globally, this impact is about one and a half of the total withdrawal depending of the year under consideration. Moreover, we show that it also implies a decrease from 10% to 20% of the low-flow annual discharge. The next step will be to also address the issues raised by the climate change projections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biological monitoring is important for assessing the ecological condition of surface waters. However, there are challenges in determining what constitutes reference conditions, what assemblages should be used as indicators, and how assemblage data should be converted into quantitative indicator scores. In this study, we developed and applied biological condition gradient (BCG) modeling to fish and macroinvertebrate data previously collected from large, sandy bottom southwestern USA rivers. Such rivers are particularly vulnerable to altered flow regimes resulting from dams, water withdrawals and climate change. We found that sensitive ubiquitous taxa for both fish and macroinvertebrates had been replaced by more tolerant taxa, but that the condition assessment ratings based on fish and macroinvertebrate assemblages differed. We conclude that the BCG models based on both macroinvertebrate and fish assemblage condition were useful for classifying the condition of southwestern USA sandy bottom rivers. However, our fish BCG model was slightly more sensitive than the macroinvertebrate model to anthropogenic disturbance, presumably because we had historical fish data, and because fish may be more sensitive to dams and altered flow regimes than are macroinvertebrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of polluted water bodies for recreation poses a risk of infectious diseases. This fact necessitates taking into account bacteriological indicators to determine the danger of recreational water use. The aim of the article was to develop a new method for assessing the potential risk to population health during recreational water use. A new method for assessing the potential risk to population health during recreational water use has been proposed, which combines the identification of potential risk according to chemical and bacteriological indicators. A new classification of water hazard levels according to the values of risk to population health has been developed. The value of the potential risk to the population health during the recreational use of 6 beaches in the urbanized territories of the city of Kharkiv and its suburbs (Ukraine) was obtained. It was established that bacteriological contamination has the probability of a very large impact on public health (hazard class 5). To compare the methods of assessing the risk to population health during recreational water use, the hazard index (NI) was determined according to the chemical indicators of the quality of water bodies in the city of Kharkiv. The use of the assessment of the potential risk to population health for the environmental regulation of the discharge of pollutants into a water body with wastewater is justified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The level of satisfaction of individuals within a community sharing a common pool resource is essential to strengthening collective actions. In the case of irrigation water, which is becoming a critical resource due to its declining availability in many regions worldwide, the satisfaction level in Water User Associations (WUAs) is not guaranteed and also varies across individuals within these organizations. This study analyzed the satisfaction of users in WUAs and identified organization- and user-level characteristics associated with it. Using a sample of 393 users of 20 WUAs from the Mediterranean portion of Chile, we performed confirmatory factor analysis, correlational analyses, and multilevel regressions. A composite indicator of user satisfaction showed significant correlations with the positive evaluation of the WUA staff performance, the effectiveness of monitoring and enforcement, and the confidence that other users do not withdraw more water than they are allocated. We also compared users' satisfaction levels from WUAs facing higher and lower water scarcity problems and found that user satisfaction is significantly higher in the latter case. The results of the multilevel econometric models show that in WUAs under higher water scarcity, user satisfaction is affected by several structural characteristics (water withdrawal mechanism and location along the canal) and users' human and social capital variables (experience, education, and participation in organizations); in contrast, in WUAs with a low level of scarcity, few covariates were significant while unobserved characteristics became more relevant (34 % of total variance explanation). Our study contributes to the existing literature on user satisfaction in community resource management, which could be useful to promote effective and cohesive governance structures as, ultimately, users determine cooperation rates and willingness to participate in WUA actions. • We measure irrigators' satisfaction (IS) from 20 Water User Associations (WUAs). • IS mainly correlates with the perceived performance of different WUA staff members. • Individuals belonging to WUAs with higher water scarcity show lower IS. • Farm, irrigator, and WUA characteristics explain IS in WUAs with higher scarcity. • Unobserved heterogeneity at the WUA level plays a significant role in IS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Quantifying blue and green water components using VIC-WUR model in Divandareh-Bijar basin. • Assessing input data uncertainties using rain gauge and remote sensing precipitation data. • Analyzing spatial distribution of blue and green water with respect to precipitation and evapotranspiration. • Calculating water scarcity in the study area using simulated water components. • Identifying contribution of variations in precipitation and model parameters to water scarcity metrics. Climate change, rapid increase in population, and urbanization have given rise to over-exploitation and shortage of freshwater resources. Acquiring accurate representations of fresh water availability is therefore crucial to sustainable development. Based on the underlying hydrological processes and storage types, fresh water can be divided into blue and green water components. Hence, quantification of the spatio-temporal distribution of blue and green water requires estimating the components of terrestrial water cycle. In this study, a framework is proposed to evaluate the water scarcity using the blue and green water concept. In this framework, the Wageningen Institute and Research (WUR) version of the Variable Infiltration Capacity Model (VIC) is employed to simulate terrestrial water cycle. Compared to VIC model, VIC-WUR model employs additional modules to account for sectoral water demands, return flows, and groundwater withdrawals, however, very limited number of its applications have been reported so far. The Divandareh-Bijar (DBJ) basin in west of Iran is selected because it has experienced severe anthropogenic alterations in the past three decades. To address precipitation and parameter uncertainty, the VIC-WUR model is separately calibrated for three precipitation datasets. As a part of this framework, the calibrated model is used to simulate blue and green water components and their corresponding scarcity metrics for the first time. According to the results, blue and green water resources in the DBJ are relatively scarce. The results also highlight the importance of considering anthropogenic impacts on the spatiotemporal dynamics of green and blue water resources. Additionally, quantification of the uncertainty in blue and green water components can help produce more reliable estimations for intelligent management of water resources. The ANalysis Of VAriance (ANOVA) method is therefore used to quantify the contribution of three major factors, including precipitation inputs, model parameters, and the interaction of these two, on the uncertainty of calculated water scarcity metrics. Structural uncertainty is implicitly addressed through the use of the modified version of the VIC model. The results indicate seasonality of these contributions for the two metrics under investigation and the differences in relative contribution of different sources to the overall uncertainty. The proposed framework could be employed to identify water stress in various spatiotemporal scales across the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Shift in water scarcity and productivity was assessed over China during 1979–2020. • Water scarcity trends turned from upward to downward in the early 21st century. • Accelerating water productivity (WP) was dominated by nonagricultural sector. • The correlation between water scarcity and WP shifted from positive to negative. Increasing water productivity has been viewed as an important strategy for reducing regional water scarcity in many countries, including China. However, some studies argue that improving water productivity may lead to a rebound effect that reversely aggravates water scarcity. This contradictory relationship is because that previous empirical assessments mostly focus on limited time spans, which raises a theoretical hypothesis that their correlation would presumably shift over long-term period under different development stages. Thus, this study performed a comprehensive analysis over China based on multiple survey-based datasets and revealed the shifts in water scarcity and productivity in terms of their trends and correlation during 1979–2020. Results showed significant turning points of water scarcity from upward to downward trends across China in the early 21st century, except in southwestern China where water scarcity continuously intensified. Water productivity showed a widespread accelerating trend because of large increase in nonagricultural water productivity. Furthermore, the correlation between water scarcity and productivity was positive in the early stage of China's development pathway when both of them were low but simultaneously increasing for more profit. Then, their positive correlation shifted to negative in response to the necessity for water scarcity alleviation, and increasing water productivity would be effective to reduce water scarcity with the complement of water-related policies that prevent its rebound effect. The results broadened our knowledge on the long-term evolution of regional water scarcity, and highlighted the changing relationship between water scarcity and productivity that was essential for guiding water policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Analytical model of optimal groundwater pumping including surface water capture. • Economic and hydrological setting define quadrants of optimal withdrawal strategies. • Global map of quadrants, optimal withdrawal rates and depletion trajectories. • Global assessment of the Gisser-Sanchéz effect for areas with groundwater depletion. We revisit the classic problem of determining economically optimal groundwater withdrawal rates for irrigation. The novelty compared to previous mathematical analyses is the inclusion of non-linear groundwater-surface water interaction that allows for incorporating the impact of capture, i.e. the fact that all or part of the pumped groundwater comes out of reduced surface water flow or increased recharge. We additionally included the option to internalize environmental externalities (e.g. streamflow depletion) and maximize social welfare rather than farmer's profit. This analysis results in a fixed optimal groundwater withdrawal rate q opt when withdrawal q remains smaller than some critical withdrawal rate (maximum capture) q cri t and provides depletion trajectories, either under competition or optimal control, if q is larger than q crit. Based on the relative value of q , q crit and q opt it also yields four quadrants of distinct withdrawal strategies. Using global hydrogeological and hydroeconomic datasets we map the global occurrence of these four quadrants and provide global estimates of optimal groundwater withdrawal rates and depletion trajectories. For the quadrants with groundwater depletion (q > q crit) we derive and compare depletion trajectories under competition, optimal control and optimal control including environmental externalities, and assessed globally where the differences between these depletion modes are small, which is known as the Gisser-Sánchez effect. We find that the Gisser-Sánchez effect is globally ubiquitous, but only if environmental externalities are ignored. The inclusion of environmental externalities in optimal control withdrawal result in notably reduced groundwater decline and larger values of social welfare in many of the major depletion areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• ELM v1 accurately predicts TWS trends in 4 biomes,7 climate zones. • Climate change has the most significant impact on TWS trends. • Forest-to-cropland shifts positively affect TWS. • Elevated CO 2 drives TWS changes in humid areas. • Long-term P, E, and R imbalances are crucial for TWS trends. Global warming is expected to cause changes in terrestrial water storage (TWS) across the land surface, with widespread impacts on ecosystems and society. Although extensive research has been performed to analyze TWS changes and possible drivers during the post-2000 period, longer-term evolution of TWS and associated environmental forcings remain relatively unexplored. In this study, we evaluated the performance of the Energy Exascale Earth System model (E3SM) land model ELM version 1 (ELM v1) in simulating global TWS, and used factorial simulations of ELMv1 to quantify global TWS changes and their drivers during 1948–2012. We found that ELM's agreed best with existing satellites and reconstruction datasets in temperate regions unaffected by irrigation. Biome- and climate zone-averaged TWS mainly increased at rates between 0 and 10 mm/year over 1948–2012, but the second half of that period saw smaller positive trends than the first half or even negative trends. Climate change explained >80 % of the TWS trends across most biomes and climate zones, followed by land use and land cover change. The physiological and phenological effects of CO 2 primarily induced noticeable TWS trends in the more humid biomes and climate zones across different latitudes. In contrast, nitrogen deposition and aerosol deposition generally had smaller and negative impacts across the biomes and climate regions. Among the meteorological drivers analyzed, the long-term average imbalance between precipitation (P), evapotranspiration (E), and runoff (Q) contributed >50 % of the TWS trends in most biomes and climate zones, with nonlinearity being induced by spatially heterogenous changes in E/P and Q/P ratios. The accumulated detrended anomalies in P, E, and Q also often contributed substantially, while the trends difference between P, E, and Q contributed little. Together, these findings unveiled an intensification of the global TWS and its diverse patterns of climate change and different non-withdrawal human-induced alterations, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding and projection of the global water cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A SWAT model with good performance is established for the watershed with irrigation interference. • Evapotranspiration of winter wheat was precisely considered. • The optimized SWAT accurately estimates agricultural evaporation. Evapotranspiration (ET) is the true water consumption of the watershed and is key to achieving water conservation. The accurate estimation of ET by distributed hydrological model can provide an important basis for watershed water resources management. At present, the traditional approach calibrating distributed hydrological model parameters by runoff has low accuracy in watersheds under human interference. The reason is that the measured runoff is no longer natural due to various human activities such as river water withdrawals, reservoir regulation and inter-basin water transfer. While using ET for model calibration can effectively overcome this interference, making it a more accurate approach for watersheds under human interference. Therefore, we calibrated the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model using PMLV_2 ET in Ziya River under frequent human activities. The results indicated that calibrating the model with remote sensing ET could improve the model's simulation performance, increasing the NS from 0.65 to 0.83. However, the annual ET calculated by the model was 21.7% lower than PMLV_2 ET. The largest underestimation was for the annual ET of cropland (agricultural ET), which was underestimated by 24.4%. This is partly because the model did not account for irrigation evaporation from cropland. Therefore we used Landsat 8 data to extract the planting areas of winter wheat, which consumes the highest irrigation water in the Ziya River Basin, from 2013 to 2018. The planting areas and irrigation regimes of winter wheat were incorporated into the SWAT model to calculate the agricultural ET. The results indicate that the agricultural ET calculated by the SWAT model that considers irrigation evaporation is 6.9% lower than that of PMLV_2 ET. The simulation accuracy of ET is significantly improved. This study provides a reference for accurate estimation of agricultural ET and a basis for ET management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unequal water distribution in the universe has resulted in more than 2 billion people living in water-stressed areas. Globally, withdrawals of water resources are still below the critical level. Pakistan is also affected by this serious problem. In the context of environmental evaluation, irrigation scheduling, and water resource management, evapotranspiration predictions are crucial. The evapotranspiration estimation methods may need to be evaluated daily or monthly to understand the climate change effects in the local areas. This paper investigates spatial-temporal interpolation of evapotranspiration data from 41 Pakistani meteorological stations. To estimate evapotranspiration, we have used the average time series data between 2006 and 2015 on temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and solar radiation. We developed a new modified Hargreaves equation to estimate evapotranspiration and evaluate the performance of different models. We found that our modified Hargreaves model could perform better than the original Hargreaves model. To analyze trends in different seasons, such as rainy, dry, and annual, FAO-56 Penman-Monteith, Blaney-Criddle, and Hargreaves-Samani models are used. We used Ordinary Kriging for Functional Data to map and predict evapotranspiration spatially and temporally in various locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal fractures are crucial in affecting the production of methane from coal. Multiscale fracturing and its implications on coalbed methane production have still not been fully understood. Herein, we present a case study, combining underground coal mine surveying and specimen, thin section, and scanning electron microscope observations for illustrating the ~m-, ~cm-, ~mm-, and ~μm-scale fractures present in the Baode area, eastern Ordos Basin, China. Then, the fracture connectivity is evaluated by helium permeability and mercury porosimetry measurement. The coals are mainly of semibright, semidull, and dull macrolithotypes. And main maceral composition is vitrinite, accounting for 73%~95%, with around 26% inertinite. The coals are ultralow-ash and low-ash content, belonging to high-volatile bituminous coal. The ~m scale fractures can penetrate the whole coal seams, dominant by S-N and following E-W direction, which were generated during the Yanshanian and Himalayan movements. The ~cm fractures are generally parallel to the lamina, influenced by the bright and dull coal band extension caused by the depositional differences. The ~mm fractures are mainly shown as endogenous fractures perpendicular to the lamina restricted within bright macrolithotypes. There are also ~mm fractures that are perpendicular to the lamina while penetrating dull components and fractures parallel to the lamina. The ~μm fractures are widely distributed and connect each other. Some of the fractures are filled with carbonate and clay minerals and are beneficial for methane migration, caused by hydraulic fracturing. The average mercury withdrawal efficiency of the coals was 75%. The helium permeability of the coals was between 10 × 10 − 3 and 50 × 10 − 3 μm2, indicating good fracture connectivity. The study findings, which indicated the presence of fractures of different scales in the coals studied, can be used for fully understanding the coalbed methane performance of medium- and low-rank coals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to clarify the effect of solar-power water lifting equipment in the application of water supply in Qinghai pastoral areas, this paper uses the solar water supply model to establish a pilot site for solar-power water supply in these areas. Based on the field test observation data, the equipment practical application of solar deep well water lifting, solar shallow well DC pump water lifting, and solar battery water lifting are analyzed. The results indicate that the daily water withdrawals of the battery-free water lifting equipment are the highest in July and August, and the lowest in December. The stable output characteristics also have battery equipment achieving the standard of three consecutive days without energy storage, and ensuring water supply needs. The guarantee rate of water supply for 3 types of equipment is 91.5%, 92.3% and 95.7% respectively, which can meet the annual water supply demand of water users in Qinghai pastoral areas. This paper can provide a theoretical basis for the promotion of clean energy water supply in Qinghai pastoral areas, which is of great significance to ensure safe water supply for pastoralists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimation of withdrawal water and filtered sediment amounts are important to obtain maximum efficiency from an intake structure. The purpose of this study is to develop empirical equations to predict Water Capturing Performance (WCP) and Sediment Release Efficiency (SRE) for Coanda type intakes. These equations were developed using 216 sets of experimental data. Intakes were tested under six different slopes, six screens, and three water discharges. In SRE experiments, sediment concentration was kept constant. Dimensionless parameters were first developed and then subjected to multicollinearity analysis. Then, nonlinear equations were proposed whose exponents and coefficients were obtained using the Genetic Algorithm method. The equations were calibrated and validated with 70 and 30% of the data, respectively. The validation results revealed that the empirical equations produced low MAE and RMSE and high R2 values for both the WCP and the SRE. Results showed outperformance of the empirical equations against those of MNLR. Sensitivity analysis carried out by the ANNs revealed that the geometric parameters of the intake were comparably more sensitive than the flow characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lakes, either artificial or natural, are greatly important as a component in their catchments' hydrology, but also as ecosystem service providers. However, due to climate change, they have begun to face numerous problems with their water quality and quantity. Furthermore, general circulation models (GCMs) show future climate change with a reduction in rainfall and increase in temperature. The aim of the current study is to present an application where GCMs and state-of-the-art hydrological modelling system MIKE SHE/MIKE 11 are combined for assessing the response of a Greek lake in terms of its water balance and water level under climate change. Four general circulation models (GCMs; GFDL-CM3, MIROC-ESM-CHEM, MIROC-ESM, IPSL-CM5A-LR) for the extreme climate change scenario of RCP8.5 were used in the basin of Lake Zazari in Greece as a case study. Results showed that, by keeping the irrigated demands (the main water user) unchanged in the future, the lake exhibited a lower water level for all GCMs, fluctuating from −0.70 to −1.8 m for the mean (min) water level and from −0.30 to −1.20 m for the mean (max) water level. Instead of the above and by preserving the amount of withdraw water n from the lake at a certain percentage of inflows, the irrigated area should be reduced from 54.1% to 64.05% depending on the circulation model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantification of the global irrigation water use (IWU) is crucial to understanding the anthropogenic disturbance of the natural hydrological cycle and optimal agricultural water management. However, it is challenging to obtain time series data with the conventional survey‐based approach, while the current satellite‐based IWU estimations are subject to data gaps and the model structure. In this paper, we propose a comprehensive framework to couple the different processes associated with irrigation and integrate multiple satellite observations to estimate the global IWU. The ensemble IWU estimate demonstrates an improved performance when compared to the IWU obtained from individual satellite observations. The results show reasonable correlation with the survey‐based irrigation water withdrawal in states of the US (bias = −0.42 km3), provinces of China (bias = −3.10 km3), and country statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization (bias = −10.84 km3). Large amounts of IWU are apparent in India, China, the US, Europe, and Pakistan, making up >70% of the global IWU. A general underestimation of IWU is found both in this work and previous studies, due to the coarse resolution and asynchronism of the various satellite products, the changes in irrigated areas, and the deficiency in detecting irrigation events under the case of saturated soil moisture. Nevertheless, we demonstrate advantages in integrating multiple satellite observations to reduce the uncertainty in estimating global IWU. However, additional efforts are needed to produce high‐quality and finer spatiotemporal resolution satellite‐based products, to further improve the accuracy of the global IWU estimation. Key Points: An integrated framework is proposed to estimate global irrigation water use (IWU) from multiple satellite‐based productsThe IWU estimation scheme can capture the trends of irrigation dynamics well during the study periodThe underestimation in global IWU can be mainly attributed to the coarse resolution of the satellite‐based products [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calotriton arnoldi is an endemic amphibian inhabiting Montseny Natural Park and Biosphere Reserve (PNRBM), listed as "critically endangered (CR)" by IUCN. At the end of 2016, the Life Tritó del Montseny (LIFETM) project (LIFE15 NAT/ES/000757) was launched. The aim of the project was to promote around fifty actions to ensure the conservation of C. arnoldi and its natural habitat, and this entailed five strategic lines: (1) Increasing the scientific and technical knowledge with regard to C. arnoldi's conservation status and its habitat management. (2) Expanding its geographic distribution. (3) Involving and engaging stakeholders in the conservation of the Montseny brook newt. (4) Eliminating or minimizing threats that exist in the riparian habitat. (5) Establishing proper legal coverage and defining long-term strategic planning. The successes and failures experienced throughout the process provide us with essential information that will enable us to develop an adaptive management of the habitat. In order to eliminate or minimize threats to the newt's habitat, some of the actions that are currently being carried out are: (a) Land acquisitions and land exchanges with private properties. (b) Land stewardship procedures, with two custody agreements being signed. (c) Reduction of water withdrawal with nine water catchments and distribution being remodeled. (d) Improvement of water treatments and storage by installing ecological wastewater treatment facilities. (e) Ensuring ecological connectivity and riparian forest restoration. Here, we present an evaluation of the actions carried out to improve the habitat of this species, including the necessary considerations for them to be implemented correctly and to be successful in a natural area, which is under public-private management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cambodian floodplains experience a yearly flood pulse that is essential to sustain fisheries and the agricultural calendar. Sixty years of data, from 1960–2019, are used to track the changes to the flood pulse there. We find that minimum water levels over 2010–2019 increased by up to 1.55 m at Kratie and maximum water levels decreased by up to 0.79 m at Prek Kdam when compared to 1960–1991 levels, causing a reduction of the annual flood extent. Concurrently, the duration of the flooding season has decreased by about 26 d (Kampong Cham) and 40 d (Chaktomuk), with the season starting later and ending much earlier. Along the Tonle Sap River, the average annual reverse flow from the Mekong to the Tonle Sap Lake has decreased by 56.5 %, from 48.7 km 3 in 1962–1972 to 31.7 km 3 in 2010–2018. As a result, wet-season water levels at Tonle Sap Lake dropped by 1.05 m in 2010–2019 compared to 1996–2009, corresponding to a 20.6 % shrinkage of the lake area. We found that upstream contributors such as current hydropower dams cannot fully account for the observed decline in flood pulse. Instead, local anthropogenic causes such as irrigation and channel incision are important drivers. We estimate that water withdrawal in the Cambodian floodplains is occurring at a rate of (2.1 ± 0.3) km 3 yr -1. Sediment decline and ongoing sand-mining operations have also caused channel erosion. As the flood pulse is essential for the ecological habitats, fisheries and livelihoods of the region, its reduction will have major implications throughout the basin, from the Tonle Sap system to the Vietnamese Mekong Delta downstream. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the availability and extent of environmental performance and objectives data reported in corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports published by the world largest food companies. Methods for content analysis that recognize two types of environmental information were implemented for reviewing 75 sustainability reports. Plant‐ and animal‐origin food companies responded to requirements of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards to communicate about their sustainable development. It was found that plant‐origin food companies' reporting was more compliant with GRI requirements. Information gaps within greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data have been identified as a common characteristic for both food sectors. The most frequent performance indicators reported by companies were about water withdrawal. Average annual reductions in four major environmental dimensions such as energy consumption, GHG emissions, water withdrawal, and total waste were calculated. These results reveal patterns of food companies' behavior in CSR reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salt water intrusion through the New Sea Lock of IJmuiden, Netherlands requires mitigation to ensure availability of enough fresh water further inland. For this purpose, a salt screen has been proposed for selective withdrawal of salt water from the Noordzeekanaal in the vicinity of the lock complex. Formulas to assess the withdrawal rate of selective withdrawal are based on idealized layouts and conditions. In the case of IJmuiden, the flow surrounding a salt screen has a strong nonuniform character, such that these formulas are not applicable to predict the correct withdrawal rate and the effectiveness of selective withdrawal accurately. In this case physical scale modeling or computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling can be applied. This article discusses the limitations of the formulas for a three-dimensional (3D) flow application near the locks of IJmuiden and presents the use of CFD and physical scale model research to assess the flow patterns around the salt screen and the effectiveness of selective withdrawal. The CFD model was validated against the physical scale model and represented the complex flow fields around the salt screen to within acceptable deviations for both steady and transient states. This gives confidence in applying these more advanced modeling tools for the design and positioning of salt screens in confined complex 3D flow areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article evaluates the impact of upstream water withdrawal on downstream land use and livelihood changes in the Teesta River basin, using a combination of geospatial and social data. Results show that water bodies gradually decreased, indicating a low volume of water discharge from upstream of the Teesta River basin due to the construction of several barrages. During the study period, a significant change in the area of water bodies was observed between 2012 and 2016, from 881 to 1123 Ha, respectively. The cropland area increased because farmers changed their cropping practice due to water scarcity and floods. Trend analyses of riverbank erosion and accretion patterns suggest an increase in accretion rates compared to the rate of riverbank erosion. A household survey was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire where 450 respondents have participated (farmers: 200 and fishermen: 250). Survey results show that most of the farmers (65.5%) and fishermen (76.8%) think that the construction of upstream barrages caused harm to them. The majority of farmers and fishermen feel water scarcity, mainly in the dry season. We found that a large number of participants in the study area are willing to change their occupations. Furthermore, participants observed that many local people are migrating or willing to migrate to other places nowadays. Our study also found that farmers who face water scarcity in their area are more likely to change their location than their counterparts, while those who face problems in their cultivation are less likely to move. On the other hand, upstream barrages, fishing effects, and getting support in crisis significantly predict fishermen's occupation changes. We believe our results provide essential information on the significance of transboundary water-sharing treaties, sustainable water resource management, and planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]