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Seasonal water storage fluctuations are critical for evaluating water scarcity linked to climate forcing and human intervention. Here we compare seasonal changes in land total water storage anomalies using seven global hydrologic and land surface models (WGHM, PCR‐GLOBWB, and five GLDAS models) to GRACE satellite data in 183 river basins globally. This work builds on previous analysis that focused on total water storage anomaly trends. Results show that most models underestimate seasonal water storage amplitudes in tropical and (semi)arid basins and land surface models generally overestimate amplitudes in northern basins. Some models (CLM‐5.0 and PCR‐GLOBWB) agree better with GRACE than others. Causes of model‐GRACE discrepancies are attributed to missing storage compartments (e.g., surface water and/or groundwater) and underestimation of modeled storage capacities in tropical basins and to variations in modeled fluxes in northern basins. This study underscores the importance of considering water storage, in addition to water fluxes, to improve global models. Plain Language Summary: We are relying more and more on global models to understand the water cycle, but we need to assess the reliability of model output. In this study we compare seasonal amplitudes in land total water storage from global models with those from GRACE satellite data in river basins globally. We found that seasonal amplitudes in total water storage account for more than half of the total signal, except in semiarid basins. Seasonal amplitudes are highest in tropical basins and lowest in semiarid basins. Some models agree better with GRACE than others (CLM‐5.0 and PCR‐GLOBWB). Most models underestimate GRACE‐derived seasonal amplitudes in tropical and semiarid basins but overestimate seasonal amplitudes in northern high latitude basins. The main cause of the discrepancies in tropical basins is likely insufficient storage capacity and lack of surface water inundation to accommodate the large seasonal storage variations. In northern high latitude basins, differences in snow physics and evapotranspiration increase seasonal amplitudes in water storage in newer versions of land surface models, overestimating GRACE‐derived seasonal amplitudes and reducing agreement with GRACE relative to earlier versions. Reliable models of seasonal variations in water storage are critical for assessing water scarcity, estimating response to climate extremes, and managing water resources. Key Points: Modeled seasonal amplitudes are underestimated in tropical and semiarid basins and overestimated in northern basins relative to GRACEModel‐GRACE discrepancies are attributed to insufficient storage capacities in tropical basins and biases in fluxes in northern basinsThis study highlights the value of using water storage, in addition to traditional water flux, in assessing and improving global models [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simulating hydrological processes within the (semi-)arid region of the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB), Australia, is very challenging specially during droughts. In this study, we investigate whether integrating remotely sensed terrestrial water storage changes (TWSC) from the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission into a global water resources and use model enables a more realistic representation of the basin hydrology during droughts. For our study, the WaterGAP Global Hydrology Model (WGHM), which simulates the impact of human water abstractions on surface water and groundwater storage, has been chosen for simulating compartmental water storages and river discharge during the so-called ‘Millennium Drought’ (2001–2009). In particular, we test the ability of a parameter calibration and data assimilation (C/DA) approach to introduce long-term trends into WGHM, which are poorly represented due to errors in forcing, model structure and calibration. For the first time, the impact of the parameter equifinality problem on the C/DA results is evaluated. We also investigate the influence of selecting a specific GRACE data product and filtering method on the final C/DA results. Integrating GRACE data into WGHM does not only improve simulation of seasonality and trend of TWSC, but also it improves the simulation of individual water storage components. For example, after the C/DA, correlations between simulated groundwater storage changes and independent in-situ well data increase (up to 0.82) in three out of four sub-basins. Declining groundwater storage trends - found mainly in the south, i.e. Murray Basin, at in-situ wells - have been introduced while simulated soil water and surface water storage do not show trends, which is in agreement with existing literature. Although GRACE C/DA in MDB does not improve river discharge simulations, the correlation between river storage simulations and gauge-based river levels increases significantly from 0.15 to 0.52. By adapting the C/DA settings to the basin-specific characteristics and reducing the number of calibration parameters, their convergence is improved and their uncertainty is reduced. The time-variable parameter values resulting from C/DA allow WGHM to better react to the very wet Australian summer 2009/10. Using solutions from different GRACE data providers produces slightly different C/DA results. We conclude that a rigorous evaluation of GRACE errors is required to realistically account for the spread of the differences in the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adequate sanitation, wastewater treatment and irrigation infrastructure often lacks in urban areas of developing countries. While treated, nutrient-rich reuse water is a precious resource for crop production in dry regions, excessive salinity might harm the crops. The aim of this study was to quantify, from a system perspective, the nutrient and salt flows a new infrastructure connecting water supply, sanitation, wastewater treatment and nutrient-rich water reuse for the irrigation of agriculture, from a system perspective. For this, we developed and applied a quantitative assessment method to understand the benefits and to support the management of the new water infrastructure in an urban area in semi-arid Namibia. The nutrient and salt flows, as affected by sanitation user behavior, were quantified by mathematical material flow analysis that accounts for the low availability of suitable and certain data in developing countries, by including data ranges and by assessing the effects of different assumptions in cases. Also the nutrient and leaching requirements of a crop scheme were calculated. We found that, with ideal sanitation use, 100% of nutrients and salts are reclaimed and the slightly saline reuse water is sufficient to fertigate 10 m 2 /cap/yr (90% uncertainty interval 7–12 m 2 /cap/yr). However, only 50% of the P contained in human excreta could be finally used for crop nutrition. During the pilot phase fewer sanitation users than expected used slightly more water per capita, used the toilets less frequently and practiced open defecation more frequently. Therefore, it was only possible to reclaim about 85% of nutrients from human excreta, the reuse water was non-saline and contained less nutrient so that the P was the limiting factor for crop fertigation. To reclaim all nutrients from human excreta and fertigate a larger agricultural area, sanitation user behavior needs to be improved. The results and the methodology of this study can be generalized and used worldwide in other semi-arid regions requiring irrigation for agriculture as well as urban areas in developing countries with inadequate sanitation infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Signatures between monthly global Earth gravity field solutions obtained from GRACE satellite mission data are analyzed with respect to continental water storage variability. GRACE gravity field models are derived in terms of Stokes'' coefficients of a spherical harmonic expansion of the gravitational potential from the analysis of gravitational orbit perturbations of the two GRACE satellites using GPS high–low and K-band low–low intersatellite tracking and on-board accelerometry. Comparing the GRACE observations, i.e., the mass variability extracted from temporal gravity variations, with the water mass redistribution predicted by hydrological models, it is found that, when filtering with an averaging radius of 750 km, the hydrological signals generated by the world''s major river basins are clearly recovered by GRACE. The analyses are based on differences in gravity and continental water mass distribution over 3- and 6-month intervals during the period April 2002 to May 2003. A background model uncertainty of some 35 mm in equivalent water column height from one month to another is estimated to be inherent in the present GRACE solutions at the selected filter length. The differences over 3 and 6 months between the GRACE monthly solutions reveal a signal of some 75 mm scattering with peak values of 400 mm in equivalent water column height changes over the continents, which is far above the uncertainty level and about 50% larger than predicted by global hydrological models. The inversion method, combining GRACE results with the signal and stochastic properties of a hydrological model as ‘a priori’ in a statistical least squares adjustment, significantly reduces the overall power in the obtained water mass estimates due to error reduction, but also reflects the current limitations in the hydrological models to represent total continental water storage change in particular for the major river basins. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In recent sea level studies, discrepancies have arisen in ocean mass observations obtained from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment and its successor, GRACE Follow-On, with GRACE estimates consistently appearing lower than density-corrected ocean volume observations since 2015. These disparities have raised concerns about potential systematic biases in sea-level observations, with significant implications for our understanding of this essential climate variable. Here, we reconstruct the global and regional ocean mass change through models of ice and water mass changes on land and find that it closely aligns with both GRACE and density-corrected ocean volume observations after implementing recent adjustments to the wet troposphere correction and halosteric sea level. While natural variability in terrestrial water storage is important on interannual timescales, we find that the net increase in ocean mass over 20 years can be almost entirely attributed to ice wastage and human management of water resources., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

In many parts of the world, climate change has already caused a decline in groundwater recharge, whereas groundwater demand for drinking water production and irrigation continues to increase. In such regions, groundwater tables are steadily declining with major consequences for groundwater-surface water interactions. Predominantly gaining streams that rely on discharge of groundwater from the adjacent aquifer turn into predominantly losing streams whose water seeps into the underground. This reversal of groundwater-surface water interactions is associated with an increase of low river flows, drying of stream beds, and a switch of lotic ecosystems from perennial to intermittent, with consequences for fluvial and groundwater dependent ecosystems. Moreover, water infiltrating from rivers and streams can carry a complex mix of contaminants. Accordingly, the diversity and concentrations of compounds detected in groundwater has been increasing over the past decades. During low flow, stream and river discharge may consist mainly of treated wastewater. In losing stream systems, this contaminated water seeps into the adjoining aquifers. This threatens both ecosystems as well as drinking and irrigation water quality. Climate change is therefore severely altering landscape water balances, with groundwater-surface water-interactions having reached a tipping point in many cases. Current model projections harbor huge uncertainties and scientific evidence for these tipping points remains very limited. In particular, quantitative data on groundwater-surface water-interactions are scarce both on the local and the catchment scale. The result is poor public or political awareness, and appropriate management measures await implementation., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Global-scale gradient-based groundwater models are a new endeavor for hydrologists who wish to improve global hydrological models (GHMs). In particular, the integration of such groundwater models into GHMs improves the simulation of water flows between surface water and groundwater and of capillary rise and thus evapotranspiration. Currently, these models are not able to simulate water table depth adequately over the entire globe. Unsatisfactory model performance compared to well observations suggests that a higher spatial resolution is required to better represent the high spatial variability of land surface and groundwater elevations. In this study, we use New Zealand as a testbed and analyze the impacts of spatial resolution on the results of global groundwater models. Steady-state hydraulic heads simulated by two versions of the global groundwater model G 3 M, at spatial resolutions of 5 arc-minutes (9 km) and 30 arc-seconds (900 m), are compared with observations from the Canterbury region. The output of three other groundwater models with different spatial resolutions is analyzed as well. Considering the spatial distribution of residuals, general patterns of unsatisfactory model performance remain at the higher resolutions, suggesting that an increase in model resolution alone does not fix problems such as the systematic overestimation of hydraulic head. We conclude that (1) a new understanding of how low-resolution global groundwater models can be evaluated is required, and (2) merely increasing the spatial resolution of global-scale groundwater models will not improve the simulation of the global freshwater system., (© 2020 The Authors. Groundwater published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of National Ground Water Association.)

Assessing reliability of global models is critical because of increasing reliance on these models to address past and projected future climate and human stresses on global water resources. Here, we evaluate model reliability based on a comprehensive comparison of decadal trends (2002-2014) in land water storage from seven global models (WGHM, PCR-GLOBWB, GLDAS NOAH, MOSAIC, VIC, CLM, and CLSM) to trends from three Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite solutions in 186 river basins (∼60% of global land area). Medians of modeled basin water storage trends greatly underestimate GRACE-derived large decreasing (≤-0.5 km 3 /y) and increasing (≥0.5 km 3 /y) trends. Decreasing trends from GRACE are mostly related to human use (irrigation) and climate variations, whereas increasing trends reflect climate variations. For example, in the Amazon, GRACE estimates a large increasing trend of ∼43 km 3 /y, whereas most models estimate decreasing trends (-71 to 11 km 3 /y). Land water storage trends, summed over all basins, are positive for GRACE (∼71-82 km 3 /y) but negative for models (-450 to -12 km 3 /y), contributing opposing trends to global mean sea level change. Impacts of climate forcing on decadal land water storage trends exceed those of modeled human intervention by about a factor of 2. The model-GRACE comparison highlights potential areas of future model development, particularly simulated water storage. The inability of models to capture large decadal water storage trends based on GRACE indicates that model projections of climate and human-induced water storage changes may be underestimated., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2018 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.)

Water footprinting has emerged as an important approach to assess water use related effects from consumption of goods and services. Assessment methods are proposed by two different communities, the Water Footprint Network (WFN) and the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) community. The proposed methods are broadly similar and encompass both the computation of water use and its impacts, but differ in communication of a water footprint result. In this paper, we explain the role and goal of LCA and ISO-compatible water footprinting and resolve the six issues raised by Hoekstra (2016) in "A critique on the water-scarcity weighted water footprint in LCA". By clarifying the concerns, we identify both the overlapping goals in the WFN and LCA water footprint assessments and discrepancies between them. The main differing perspective between the WFN and LCA-based approach seems to relate to the fact that LCA aims to account for environmental impacts, while the WFN aims to account for water productivity of global fresh water as a limited resource. We conclude that there is potential to use synergies in research for the two approaches and highlight the need for proper declaration of the methods applied.

Transdisciplinary research (TDR) aims at identifying implementable solutions to difficult sustainability problems and at fostering social learning. It requires a well-managed collaboration among multidisciplinary scientists and multisectoral stakeholders. Performing TDR is challenging, particularly for foreign researchers working in countries with different institutional and socio-cultural conditions. There is a need to synthesize and share experience among researchers as well as practitioners regarding how TDR can be conducted under specific contexts. In this paper, we aim to evaluate and synthesize our unique experience in conducting TDR projects in Asia. We applied guiding principles of TDR to conduct a formative evaluation of four consortium projects on sustainable land and water management in China, the Philippines, and Vietnam. In all projects, local political conditions restricted the set of stakeholders that could be involved in the research processes. The set of involved stakeholders was also affected by the fact that stakeholders in most cases only participate if they belong to the personal network of the project leaders. Language barriers hampered effective communication between foreign researchers and stakeholders in all projects and thus knowledge integration. The TDR approach and its specific methods were adapted to respond to the specific cultural, social, and political conditions in the research areas, also with the aim to promote trust and interest of the stakeholders throughout the project. Additionally, various measures were implemented to promote collaboration among disciplinary scientists. Based on lessons learned, we provide specific recommendations for the design and implementation of TDR projects in particular in Asia., Competing Interests: Compliance with ethical standardsThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

By means of a questionnaire the authors checked the views of dialysis teams on ethical and psycho-emotional questions, on on the adaptation of dialysis patients and on dialysis work itself. The results show that psycho-emotional considerations are of considerable importance in the contact with patients over long periods. The staff think about them but are often not able to arrive at a clear opinion. This indicates that psychological training of the staff is necessary in oder to facilitate and encourage the formation of clear points of view.