Are persistent organic pollutants and metals in eel muscle predictive for the ecological water quality?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Ael, Evy; Belpaire, Claude; Breine, Jan; Geeraerts, Caroline; Van Thuyne, Gerlinde; Eulaers, Igor; Blust, Ronny; Bervoets, Lieven

2014-01-01

Relationships between the presence of PCBs, OCPs and metals in aquatic ecosystems and the ecological water quality were investigated by combining datasets of long-term monitoring of chemicals in European eel (Anguilla anguilla, N = 1156) in Flanders (Belgium) and the Ecological Quality Ratio (EQR), based on the assessment of fish assemblages at 185 locations. For most pollutants, EQR scores were lower when pollutant levels were higher. Threshold concentrations for a good quality could be formulated for PCB's, most metals and OCPs. Mixed models suggested that the ecological water quality was significantly correlated with the presence of PCBs. However, the low R 2 indicates that other environmental pressures may significantly influence the biotic integrity of fish communities. Empirical data and their analyses are essential to enable defining threshold values of bioaccumulated levels to allow better protection of the aquatic environment and its biota through associated food webs as demanded by the Water Framework Directive. -- Highlights: • Relation between ecological water quality and pollution load in eel was studied. • Ecological Quality Ratio was lower when concentrations in eel were higher. • Threshold levels for a good quality status were formulated. • EQS possibly too stringent for Hg and too high for Cd and Pb compared to our results. • Mixed models suggest a significant influence of PCBs on ecological water quality. -- The ecological water quality, as reflected in the biotic integrity of fish communities, is lower when concentrations of PCBs, OCPs and metals in locally sampled eels are higher

Working Paper 4: Institutions for Effective Water Demand ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2012-01-23

Jan 23, 2012 ... Working Paper 4: Institutions for Effective Water Demand ... This working paper is part of WaDImena 's four Research Series on Water Demand Management ... Improving Water Demand Management Addressing Socioeconomic Inequalities and ... Women's rights and access to water and sanitation in Delhi.

Impact of Inter‐Basin Water Transfer Projects on Regional Ecological Security from a Telecoupling Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuan Quan

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Inter‐basin water transfer projects (IBWTPs offer one of the most important means to solve the mismatch between supply and demand of regional water resources. IBWTPs have impacts on the complex ecosystems of the areas from which water is diverted and to which water is received. These impacts increase damage or risk to regional ecological security and human wellbeing. However, current methods make it difficult to achieve comprehensive analysis of the impacts of whole ecosystems, because of the long distance between ecosystems and the inconsistency of impact events. In this study, a model was proposed for the analysis of the impacts of IBWTPs on regional ecological security. It is based on the telecoupling framework, and the Driver‐Pressure‐State‐ Impact‐Response (DPSIR model was used to improve the analysis procedure within the telecoupling framework. The Middle Line of the South‐to‐North Water Diversion Project was selected as a case study to illustrate the specific analysis procedure. We realized that information sharing is a key issue in the management of regional security, and that the ecological water requirement, in the form of a single index, could be used to quantitatively assess the impacts on ecological security from IBWTPs.

Water Demand Management Policy Brief No

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Bob Stanley

Water demand management ― WDM ― can be hard to define. More an issue of policy than of technology, it is about managing and moderating our demands for good quality fresh water. It is less a matter of piping and pumps and more a tool ...

Identifying water price and population criteria for meeting future urban water demand targets

Science.gov (United States)

Ashoori, Negin; Dzombak, David A.; Small, Mitchell J.

2017-12-01

Predictive models for urban water demand can help identify the set of factors that must be satisfied in order to meet future targets for water demand. Some of the explanatory variables used in such models, such as service area population and changing temperature and rainfall rates, are outside the immediate control of water planners and managers. Others, such as water pricing and the intensity of voluntary water conservation efforts, are subject to decisions and programs implemented by the water utility. In order to understand this relationship, a multiple regression model fit to 44 years of monthly demand data (1970-2014) for Los Angeles, California was applied to predict possible future demand through 2050 under alternative scenarios for the explanatory variables: population, price, voluntary conservation efforts, and temperature and precipitation outcomes predicted by four global climate models with two CO2 emission scenarios. Future residential water demand in Los Angeles is projected to be largely driven by price and population rather than climate change and conservation. A median projection for the year 2050 indicates that residential water demand in Los Angeles will increase by approximately 36 percent, to a level of 620 million m3 per year. The Monte Carlo simulations of the fitted model for water demand were then used to find the set of conditions in the future for which water demand is predicted to be above or below the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power 2035 goal to reduce residential water demand by 25%. Results indicate that increases in price can not ensure that the 2035 water demand target can be met when population increases. Los Angeles must rely on furthering their conservation initiatives and increasing their use of stormwater capture, recycled water, and expanding their groundwater storage. The forecasting approach developed in this study can be utilized by other cities to understand the future of water demand in water-stressed areas

Concept and Connotation of Water Resources Carrying Capacity in Water Ecological Civilization Construction

Science.gov (United States)

Chao, Zhilong; Song, Xiaoyu; Feng, Xianghua

2018-01-01

Water ecological civilization construction is based on the water resources carrying capacity, guided by the sustainable development concept, adhered to the human-water harmony thoughts. This paper has comprehensive analyzed the concept and characteristics of the carrying capacity of water resources in the water ecological civilization construction, and discussed the research methods and evaluation index system of water carrying capacity in the water ecological civilization construction, finally pointed out that the problems and solutions of water carrying capacity in the water ecological civilization construction and put forward the future research prospect.

Long-term water demand for electricity, industry and households

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bijl, David L.; Bogaart, Patrick W.; Kram, Tom; de Vries, Bert J M; van Vuuren, Detlef P.

2016-01-01

Better water demand projections are needed in order to better assess water scarcity. The focus in this paper is on non-agricultural water demand, as this is the fastest-growing and least well-modelled demand component. We describe an end use-oriented model for future water demand in the electricity,

­­Drought, water conservation, and water demand rebound in California

Science.gov (United States)

Gonzales, P.; Ajami, N.

2017-12-01

There is growing recognition that dynamic community values, preferences, and water use behaviors are important drivers of water demand in addition to external factors such as temperature and precipitation. Water demand drivers have been extensively studied, yet they have traditionally been applied to models that assume static conditions and usually do not account for potential societal changes in response to increased scarcity awareness. For example, following a period of sustained low demand such as during a drought, communities often increase water use during a hydrologically wet period, a phenomenon known as "rebounding" water use. Yet previous experiences show the extent of this rebound is not a straightforward function of policy and efficiency improvements, but may also reflect short-term or long-lasting change in community behavior, which are not easily captured by models that assume stationarity. In this study we explore cycles of decreased water demand during drought and subsequent water use rebound observed in California in recent decades. We have developed a novel dynamic system model for water demand in three diverse but interconnected service areas in the San Francisco Bay Area, exposing local trends of changing water use behaviors and long-term impacts on water demand since 1980 to the present. In this model, we apply the concept of social memory, defined as a community's inherited knowledge about hazardous events or degraded environmental conditions from past experiences. While this concept has been applied to further conceptual understanding of socio-hydrologic systems in response to hydrological extremes, to the best of our knowledge this the first study to incorporate social memory to model the water demand rebound phenomenon and to use such a model in the examination of changing dynamics validated by historical data. In addition, we take a closer look at water demand during the recent historic drought in California from 2012-16, and relate our

Objective classification of ecological status in marine water bodies using ecotoxicological information and multivariate analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Beiras, Ricardo; Durán, Iria

2014-12-01

Some relevant shortcomings have been identified in the current approach for the classification of ecological status in marine water bodies, leading to delays in the fulfillment of the Water Framework Directive objectives. Natural variability makes difficult to settle fixed reference values and boundary values for the Ecological Quality Ratios (EQR) for the biological quality elements. Biological responses to environmental degradation are frequently of nonmonotonic nature, hampering the EQR approach. Community structure traits respond only once ecological damage has already been done and do not provide early warning signals. An alternative methodology for the classification of ecological status integrating chemical measurements, ecotoxicological bioassays and community structure traits (species richness and diversity), and using multivariate analyses (multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis), is proposed. This approach does not depend on the arbitrary definition of fixed reference values and EQR boundary values, and it is suitable to integrate nonlinear, sensitive signals of ecological degradation. As a disadvantage, this approach demands the inclusion of sampling sites representing the full range of ecological status in each monitoring campaign. National or international agencies in charge of coastal pollution monitoring have comprehensive data sets available to overcome this limitation.

Improving Water Demand Management by Addressing ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

IDRC CRDI

Efforts to conserve water by improving water demand management policies .... First, ensure fair access to sustainable water supply, as well as, responsible water use. ... Water policy can also mandate reducing the loss of quantity or quality of ...

The development of water quality methods within ecological ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The development of water quality methods within ecological Reserve ... Water Act (NWA, No 36 of 1998), the ecological Reserve is defined as the quality and quantity ... provide ecologically important flow-related habitat, or geomorphological ...

Using Green Water Farm to Improve Ecological Restoration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuan-Hsiou Chang

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract: Artificial Floating Islands (AFIs are human-made floating structures capable of supporting aquatic vegetation. Previous studies pointed out that most AFIs use aquatic plants to carry out improvement of water quality and ecological conservation. This study proposed a modified AFI system, named Green Water Farm (GWF, to increase the practical application value of traditional AFIs, and added a special design to create an environment that allows for terrestrial plants (including vegetables and flowers to grow and to carry out improvement of water quality and ecological conservation. The research site was located at the waterfront of Li-tze Lake in Pitou Township, Taiwan. A GWF was established to evaluate the improvement of water quality and ecological conservation. During one year, water quality and ecological conservation assessments were recorded to investigate the performance of GWF system. The research results showed that GWF could improve water quality and ecological conservation. In addition, the results of this study can provide useful information for more food sources for humans and animals, and increase biodiversity and ecological conservation.

Conceptual Framework and Computational Research of Hierarchical Residential Household Water Demand

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Baodeng Hou

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Although the quantity of household water consumption does not account for a huge proportion of the total water consumption amidst socioeconomic development, there has been a steadily increasing trend due to population growth and improved urbanization standards. As such, mastering the mechanisms of household water demand, scientifically predicting trends of household water demand, and implementing reasonable control measures are key focuses of current urban water management. Based on the categorization and characteristic analysis of household water, this paper used Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to establish a level and grade theory of household water demand, whereby household water is classified into three levels (rigid water demand, flexible water demand, and luxury water demand and three grades (basic water demand, reasonable water demand, and representational water demand. An in-depth analysis was then carried out on the factors that influence the computation of household water demand, whereby equations for different household water categories were established, and computations for different levels of household water were proposed. Finally, observational experiments on household water consumption were designed, and observation and simulation computations were performed on three typical households in order to verify the scientific outcome and rationality of the computation of household water demand. The research findings contribute to the enhancement and development of prediction theories on water demand, and they are of high theoretical and realistic significance in terms of scientifically predicting future household water demand and fine-tuning the management of urban water resources.

Estimation of water demand in water distribution systems using particle swarm optimization

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Letting, LK

2017-08-01

Full Text Available and an evolutionary algorithm is a potential solution to the demand estimation problem. This paper presents a detailed process simulation model for water demand estimation using the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. Nodal water demands and pipe flows...

Water demand forecasting: review of soft computing methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Ghalehkhondabi, Iman; Ardjmand, Ehsan; Young, William A; Weckman, Gary R

2017-07-01

Demand forecasting plays a vital role in resource management for governments and private companies. Considering the scarcity of water and its inherent constraints, demand management and forecasting in this domain are critically important. Several soft computing techniques have been developed over the last few decades for water demand forecasting. This study focuses on soft computing methods of water consumption forecasting published between 2005 and 2015. These methods include artificial neural networks (ANNs), fuzzy and neuro-fuzzy models, support vector machines, metaheuristics, and system dynamics. Furthermore, it was discussed that while in short-term forecasting, ANNs have been superior in many cases, but it is still very difficult to pick a single method as the overall best. According to the literature, various methods and their hybrids are applied to water demand forecasting. However, it seems soft computing has a lot more to contribute to water demand forecasting. These contribution areas include, but are not limited, to various ANN architectures, unsupervised methods, deep learning, various metaheuristics, and ensemble methods. Moreover, it is found that soft computing methods are mainly used for short-term demand forecasting.

Water brief — Wastewater Reuse for Water Demand Management ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2011-01-04

Jan 4, 2011 ... Water Demand Management (WDM) is a water management approach that aims to ... WDM is simply defined as 'getting the most of the water that we have', while taking into ... Villages in Nepal prepare for weather extremes.

Water Demand Management ― Making the most of the water we ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2010-12-22

Dec 22, 2010 ... Water demand management ― WDM ― can be hard to define. More an issue of policy than of technology, it is about managing and moderating our demands for good quality fresh water. It is less a matter of piping and pumps and more a tool for changing the ways we use water and the rates at which we ...

Water advisory demand evaluation and resource toolkit

OpenAIRE

Paluszczyszyn, D.; Illya, S.; Goodyer, E.; Kubrycht, T.; Ambler, M.

2016-01-01

Cities are living organisms, 24h / 7day, with demands on resources and outputs. Water is a key resource whose management has not kept pace with modern urban life. Demand for clean water and loads on waste water no longer fit diurnal patterns; and they are impacted by events that are outside the normal range of parameters that are taken account of in water management. This feasibility study will determine how the application of computational intelligence can be used to analyse a mix of dat...

A model to assess water tariffs as part of water demand management

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Keywords: water demand management, price elasticity, change in water tariff, block tariff, WC/WDM model. INTRODUCTION ... ever developed for a 6-block pricing structure and allows for limited available input data from ..... Payment Strategies and Price Elasticity of Demand for Water for. Different revenue Groups in Three ...

China's transboundary waters: new paradigms for water and ecological security through applied ecology.

Science.gov (United States)

He, Daming; Wu, Ruidong; Feng, Yan; Li, Yungang; Ding, Chengzhi; Wang, Wenling; Yu, Douglas W

2014-10-01

China is Asia's most important upstream riparian country, sharing 110 rivers and lakes with 18 downstream countries. Consequently, China's management of transboundary water resources must consider both environmental and geopolitical risks.The major threats to and conflicts over international rivers in China revolve around biotic homogenisation due to the installation of transport links, water allocation, water pollution, alteration of natural flow patterns and disruption of fisheries due to the installation of hydropower dams, and droughts and floods exacerbated by climate change. Because these problems have an international component, they fall under China's Peaceful Rise strategy, mandating that transboundary conflicts be resolved amicably as part of the overarching goal of increasing regional economic growth with as little conflict as possible.Science-backed policy is more likely to result in long term, mutually agreeable solutions; the results of applied ecological research have already resulted in a number of mitigation measures, including setting operational thresholds to reduce the downstream impact of dams, designating protected areas along key river stretches where dams cannot be installed (one dam in a critical location has been cancelled), and the installation of terrestrial protected-area networks. Synthesis and applications . Applied ecology will continue to play an important role in the diagnosis and resolution of environmental threats to China's transboundary waters. More importantly, applied ecology can inform the development of a transboundary environmental compensation mechanism and regional consultative mechanisms that support informed, cooperative decision-making for China and its riparian neighbours.

Water Demand Management Policy Brief No

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Bob Stanley

Fair share: Water Demand Management can help provide fair access to water for the poor. Water Policy. Brief no.2 ... management (WDM) can help spread water more equitably, providing a measure of opportunity, security and ... improving health and quality of life for families. WDM measures can improve the efficiency of.

Future land-use related water demand in California

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Tamara; Sleeter, Benjamin M.; Cameron, D. Richard

2016-01-01

Water shortages in California are a growing concern amidst ongoing drought, earlier spring snowmelt, projected future climate warming, and currently mandated water use restrictions. Increases in population and land use in coming decades will place additional pressure on already limited available water supplies. We used a state-and-transition simulation model to project future changes in developed (municipal and industrial) and agricultural land use to estimate associated water use demand from 2012 to 2062. Under current efficiency rates, total water use was projected to increase 1.8 billion cubic meters(+4.1%) driven primarily by urbanization and shifts to more water intensive crops. Only if currently mandated 25% reductions in municipal water use are continuously implemented would water demand in 2062 balance to water use levels in 2012. This is the first modeling effort of its kind to examine regional land-use related water demand incorporating historical trends of both developed and agricultural land uses.

Forecasting urban water demand: A meta-regression analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Sebri, Maamar

2016-12-01

Water managers and planners require accurate water demand forecasts over the short-, medium- and long-term for many purposes. These range from assessing water supply needs over spatial and temporal patterns to optimizing future investments and planning future allocations across competing sectors. This study surveys the empirical literature on the urban water demand forecasting using the meta-analytical approach. Specifically, using more than 600 estimates, a meta-regression analysis is conducted to identify explanations of cross-studies variation in accuracy of urban water demand forecasting. Our study finds that accuracy depends significantly on study characteristics, including demand periodicity, modeling method, forecasting horizon, model specification and sample size. The meta-regression results remain robust to different estimators employed as well as to a series of sensitivity checks performed. The importance of these findings lies in the conclusions and implications drawn out for regulators and policymakers and for academics alike. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Optimised control and pipe burst detection by water demand forecasting

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bakker, M.

2014-01-01

Water demand forecasting The total water demand in an area is the sum of the water demands of all individual domestic and industrial consumers in that area. These consumers behave in repetitive daily, weekly and annual patterns, and the same repetitive patterns can be observed in the drinking water

A Water Demand Management Strategy For The Namibian Tourism Sector

Science.gov (United States)

Schachtschneider, K.; Winter, K.

The arid conditions of Namibia are forcing its decision-makers to resort to new wa- ter resource management approaches, including Water Demand Management (WDM). When Namibia achieved its independence from South Africa 1990, a new opportunity arose to rewrite certain restrictive laws and policies in order to bring about redress, development and transformation. The new Water Policy is one example in which the mindset is changed from a supply to a demand oriented water management ap- proach. Legal support for WDM within the new Water Act is a critical component that will support the implementation of WDM in all economic sectors, such as agri- culture, mining and tourism. It is argued that an appropriate WDM strategy should be designed specifically for each sector, once the typical water use patterns in a sec- tor are understood and key water resource managers at all levels are identified. The Namibian tourism sector is geographically dispersed and control over its operations is compounded by the fact that it is frequently located in extremely remote areas that are arid and ecologically sensitive. In general, WDM is rarely practised, because it is not yet supported by law and there are currently no institutional arrangements to con- trol water use in this geographically dispersed industrial sector through which WDM could be enforced either through metering and/or payments. Managers of tourist en- terprises undertake most of the water management themselves, and have been identi- fied as being crucial to the implementation of WDM strategies. A study of six tourist facilities determined the willingness and motivation of these managers to undertake various WDM initiatives. The study identified three factors which appear to influence the actions of managers, namely external controls, economics and company ethics. It is recommended that a tourism sector WDM strategy should focus on these three factors in order to transform the WDM aims and objectives on the policy level into

Tapping Alternatives: The Benefits of Managing Urban Water Demands.

Science.gov (United States)

Dziegielewski, Benedykt; Baumann, Duane D.

1992-01-01

Presents the California plan for water demand management. Water conservation techniques are used to balance demand with supply. Discusses the implementation process: (1) water-use and service area analysis; (2) water-use forecasts; (3) benefit-cost analysis; (4) and development of a long-term water management plan. (17 references) (MCO)

Modelling Per Capita Water Demand Change to Support System Planning

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia, M. E.; Islam, S.

2016-12-01

Water utilities have a number of levers to influence customer water usage. These include levers to proactively slow demand growth over time such as building and landscape codes as well as levers to decrease demands quickly in response to water stress including price increases, education campaigns, water restrictions, and incentive programs. Even actions aimed at short term reductions can result in long term water usage declines when substantial changes are made in water efficiency, as in incentives for fixture replacement or turf removal, or usage patterns such as permanent lawn watering restrictions. Demand change is therefore linked to hydrological conditions and to the effects of past management decisions - both typically included in water supply planning models. Yet, demand is typically incorporated exogenously using scenarios or endogenously using only price, though utilities also use rules and incentives issued in response to water stress and codes specifying standards for new construction to influence water usage. Explicitly including these policy levers in planning models enables concurrent testing of infrastructure and policy strategies and illuminates interactions between the two. The City of Las Vegas is used as a case study to develop and demonstrate this modeling approach. First, a statistical analysis of system data was employed to rule out alternate hypotheses of per capita demand decrease such as changes in population density and economic structure. Next, four demand sub-models were developed including one baseline model in which demand is a function of only price. The sub-models were then calibrated and tested using monthly data from 1997 to 2012. Finally, the best performing sub-model was integrated with a full supply and demand model. The results highlight the importance of both modeling water demand dynamics endogenously and taking a broader view of the variables influencing demand change.

[Ecological risks of reclaimed water irrigation: a review].

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Wei-Ping; Zhang, Wei-Ling; Pan, Neng; Jiao, Wen-Tao

2012-12-01

Wastewater reclamation and reuse have become an important approach to alleviate the water crisis in China because of its social, economic and ecological benefits. The irrigation on urban green space and farmland is the primary utilization of reclaimed water, which has been practiced world widely. To understand the risk of reclaimed water irrigation, we summarized and reviewed the publications associated with typical pollutants in reclaimed water including salts, nitrogen, heavy metals, emerging pollutants and pathogens, systematically analyzed the ecological risk posed by reclaimed water irrigation regarding plant growth, groundwater quality and public health. Studies showed that salt and salt ions were the major risk sources of reclaimed water irrigation, spreading disease was another potential risk of using reclaimed water, and emerging pollutants was the hot topic in researches of ecological risk. Based on overseas experiences, risk control measures on reclaimed water irrigation in urban green space and farmland were proposed. Five recommendations were given to promote the safe use of reclaimed water irrigation including (1) strengthen long-term in situ monitoring, (2) promote the modeling studies, (3) build up the connections of reclaimed water quality, irrigation management and ecological risk, (4) evaluate the soil bearing capacity of reclaimed water irrigation, (5) and establish risk management system of reclaimed water reuse.

Trading the Economic Value of Unsatisfied Municipal Water Demand

Science.gov (United States)

Telfah, Dua'a. B.; Minciardi, Riccardo; Roth, Giorgio

2018-06-01

Modelling and optimization techniques for water resources allocation are proposed to identify the economic value of the unsatisfied municipal water demand against demands emerging from other sectors. While this is always an important step in integrated water resource management perspective, it became crucial for water scarce Countries. In fact, since the competition for the resource is high, they are in crucial need to trade values which will help them in satisfying their policies and needs. In this framework, hydro-economic, social equity and environmental constraints need to be satisfied. In the present study, a hydro-economic decision model based on optimization schemes has been developed for water resources allocation, that enable the evaluation of the economic cost of a deficiency in fulfilling the municipal demand. Moreover, the model enables efficient water resources management, satisfying the demand and proposing additional water resources options. The formulated model is designed to maximize the demand satisfaction and minimize water production cost subject to system priorities, preferences and constraints. The demand priorities are defined based on the effect of demand dissatisfaction, while hydrogeological and physical characteristics of the resources are embedded as constraints in the optimization problem. The application to the City of Amman is presented. Amman is the Capital City of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, a Country located in the south-eastern area of the Mediterranean, on the East Bank of the Jordan River. The main challenge for Jordan, that threat the development and prosperity of all sectors, is the extreme water scarcity. In fact, Jordan is classified as semi-arid to arid region with limited financial resources and unprecedented population growth. While the easy solution directly goes to the simple but expensive approach to cover the demand, case study results show that the proposed model plays a major role in providing directions to

Trading the Economic Value of Unsatisfied Municipal Water Demand

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. B. Telfah

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Modelling and optimization techniques for water resources allocation are proposed to identify the economic value of the unsatisfied municipal water demand against demands emerging from other sectors. While this is always an important step in integrated water resource management perspective, it became crucial for water scarce Countries. In fact, since the competition for the resource is high, they are in crucial need to trade values which will help them in satisfying their policies and needs. In this framework, hydro-economic, social equity and environmental constraints need to be satisfied. In the present study, a hydro-economic decision model based on optimization schemes has been developed for water resources allocation, that enable the evaluation of the economic cost of a deficiency in fulfilling the municipal demand. Moreover, the model enables efficient water resources management, satisfying the demand and proposing additional water resources options. The formulated model is designed to maximize the demand satisfaction and minimize water production cost subject to system priorities, preferences and constraints. The demand priorities are defined based on the effect of demand dissatisfaction, while hydrogeological and physical characteristics of the resources are embedded as constraints in the optimization problem. The application to the City of Amman is presented. Amman is the Capital City of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, a Country located in the south-eastern area of the Mediterranean, on the East Bank of the Jordan River. The main challenge for Jordan, that threat the development and prosperity of all sectors, is the extreme water scarcity. In fact, Jordan is classified as semi-arid to arid region with limited financial resources and unprecedented population growth. While the easy solution directly goes to the simple but expensive approach to cover the demand, case study results show that the proposed model plays a major role in

Mining residential water and electricity demand data in Southern California to inform demand management strategies

Science.gov (United States)

Cominola, A.; Spang, E. S.; Giuliani, M.; Castelletti, A.; Loge, F. J.; Lund, J. R.

2016-12-01

Demand side management strategies are key to meet future water and energy demands in urban contexts, promote water and energy efficiency in the residential sector, provide customized services and communications to consumers, and reduce utilities' costs. Smart metering technologies allow gathering high temporal and spatial resolution water and energy consumption data and support the development of data-driven models of consumers' behavior. Modelling and predicting resource consumption behavior is essential to inform demand management. Yet, analyzing big, smart metered, databases requires proper data mining and modelling techniques, in order to extract useful information supporting decision makers to spot end uses towards which water and energy efficiency or conservation efforts should be prioritized. In this study, we consider the following research questions: (i) how is it possible to extract representative consumers' personalities out of big smart metered water and energy data? (ii) are residential water and energy consumption profiles interconnected? (iii) Can we design customized water and energy demand management strategies based on the knowledge of water- energy demand profiles and other user-specific psychographic information? To address the above research questions, we contribute a data-driven approach to identify and model routines in water and energy consumers' behavior. We propose a novel customer segmentation procedure based on data-mining techniques. Our procedure consists of three steps: (i) extraction of typical water-energy consumption profiles for each household, (ii) profiles clustering based on their similarity, and (iii) evaluation of the influence of candidate explanatory variables on the identified clusters. The approach is tested onto a dataset of smart metered water and energy consumption data from over 1000 households in South California. Our methodology allows identifying heterogeneous groups of consumers from the studied sample, as well as

Testing water demand management scenarios in a water-stressed basin in South Africa: application of the WEAP model

Science.gov (United States)

Lévite, Hervé; Sally, Hilmy; Cour, Julien

Like many river basins in South Africa, water resources in the Olifants river basin are almost fully allocated. Respecting the so-called “reserve” (water flow reservation for basic human needs and the environment) imposed by the Water Law of 1998 adds a further dimension, if not difficulty, to water resources management in the basin, especially during the dry periods. Decision makers and local stakeholders (i.e. municipalities, water users’ associations, interest groups), who will soon be called upon to work together in a decentralized manner within Catchment Management Agencies (CMAs) and Catchment Management Committees (CMCs), must therefore be able to get a rapid and simple understanding of the water balances at different levels in the basin. This paper seeks to assess the pros and cons of using the Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) model for this purpose via its application to the Steelpoort sub-basin of the Olifants river. This model allows the simulation and analysis of various water allocation scenarios and, above all, scenarios of users’ behavior. Water demand management is one of the options discussed in more detail here. Simulations are proposed for diverse climatic situations from dry years to normal years and results are discussed. It is evident that the quality of data (in terms of availability and reliability) is very crucial and must be dealt with carefully and with good judgment. Secondly, credible hypotheses have to be made about water uses (losses, return flow) if the results are to be meaningfully used in support of decision-making. Within the limits of data availability, it appears that some water users are not able to meet all their requirements from the river, and that even the ecological reserve will not be fully met during certain years. But the adoption of water demand management procedures offers opportunities for remedying this situation during normal hydrological years. However, it appears that demand management alone will not

Remote sensing inputs to water demand modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Estes, J. E.; Jensen, J. R.; Tinney, L. R.; Rector, M.

1975-01-01

In an attempt to determine the ability of remote sensing techniques to economically generate data required by water demand models, the Geography Remote Sensing Unit, in conjunction with the Kern County Water Agency of California, developed an analysis model. As a result it was determined that agricultural cropland inventories utilizing both high altitude photography and LANDSAT imagery can be conducted cost effectively. In addition, by using average irrigation application rates in conjunction with cropland data, estimates of agricultural water demand can be generated. However, more accurate estimates are possible if crop type, acreage, and crop specific application rates are employed. An analysis of the effect of saline-alkali soils on water demand in the study area is also examined. Finally, reference is made to the detection and delineation of water tables that are perched near the surface by semi-permeable clay layers. Soil salinity prediction, automated crop identification on a by-field basis, and a potential input to the determination of zones of equal benefit taxation are briefly touched upon.

Integrating Water, Actors, and Structure to Study Socio-Hydro-Ecological Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Hale, R. L.; Armstrong, A.; Baker, M. A.; Bedingfield, S.; Betts, D.; Buahin, C. A.; Buchert, M.; Crowl, T.; Dupont, R.; Endter-Wada, J.; Flint, C.; Grant, J.; Hinners, S.; Horns, D.; Horsburgh, J. S.; Jackson-Smith, D.; Jones, A. S.; Licon, C.; Null, S. E.; Odame, A.; Pataki, D. E.; Rosenberg, D. E.; Runburg, M.; Stoker, P.; Strong, C.

2014-12-01

Urbanization, climate uncertainty, and ecosystem change represent major challenges for managing water resources. Water systems and the forces acting upon them are complex, and there is a need to understand and generically represent the most important system components and linkages. We developed a framework to facilitate understanding of water systems including potential vulnerabilities and opportunities for sustainability. Our goal was to produce an interdisciplinary framework for water resources research to address water issues across scales (e.g., city to region) and domains (e.g., water supply and quality, urban and transitioning landscapes). An interdisciplinary project (iUTAH - innovative Urban Transitions and Aridregion Hydro-sustainability) with a large (N=~100), diverse team having expertise spanning the hydrologic, biological, ecological, engineering, social, planning, and policy sciences motivated the development of this framework. The framework was developed through review of the literature, meetings with individual researchers, and workshops with participants. The Structure-Water-Actor Framework (SWAF) includes three main components: water (quality and quantity), structure (natural, built, and social), and actors (individual and organizational). Key linkages include: 1) ecological and hydrological processes, 2) ecosystem and geomorphic change, 3) planning, design, and policy, 4) perceptions, information, and experience, 5) resource access, and 6) operational water use and management. Our expansive view of structure includes natural, built, and social components, allowing us to examine a broad set of tools and levers for water managers and decision-makers to affect system sustainability and understand system outcomes. We validate the SWAF and illustrate its flexibility to generate insights for three research and management problems: green stormwater infrastructure in an arid environment, regional water supply and demand, and urban river restoration

An interdisciplinary political ecology of drinking water quality. Exploring socio-ecological inequalities in Lilongwe's water supply network

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rusca, Maria; Boakye-Ansah, Akosua Sarpong; Loftus, Alex; Ferrero, Giuliana; van der Zaag, P.

2017-01-01

Urban political ecology attempts to unravel and politicize the socio-ecological processes that produce uneven waterscapes. At the core of this analysis are the choreographies of power that influence how much water flows through urban infrastructure as well as where it flows, thereby shaping

Pollution source localization in an urban water supply network based on dynamic water demand.

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, Xuesong; Zhu, Zhixin; Li, Tian

2017-10-27

Urban water supply networks are susceptible to intentional, accidental chemical, and biological pollution, which pose a threat to the health of consumers. In recent years, drinking-water pollution incidents have occurred frequently, seriously endangering social stability and security. The real-time monitoring for water quality can be effectively implemented by placing sensors in the water supply network. However, locating the source of pollution through the data detection obtained by water quality sensors is a challenging problem. The difficulty lies in the limited number of sensors, large number of water supply network nodes, and dynamic user demand for water, which leads the pollution source localization problem to an uncertainty, large-scale, and dynamic optimization problem. In this paper, we mainly study the dynamics of the pollution source localization problem. Previous studies of pollution source localization assume that hydraulic inputs (e.g., water demand of consumers) are known. However, because of the inherent variability of urban water demand, the problem is essentially a fluctuating dynamic problem of consumer's water demand. In this paper, the water demand is considered to be stochastic in nature and can be described using Gaussian model or autoregressive model. On this basis, an optimization algorithm is proposed based on these two dynamic water demand change models to locate the pollution source. The objective of the proposed algorithm is to find the locations and concentrations of pollution sources that meet the minimum between the analogue and detection values of the sensor. Simulation experiments were conducted using two different sizes of urban water supply network data, and the experimental results were compared with those of the standard genetic algorithm.

Non-residential water demand model validated with extensive measurements and surveys

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pieterse-Quirijns, I.; Blokker, E.J.M.; van der Blom, E.C.; Vreeburg, J.H.G.

2013-01-01

Existing Dutch guidelines for the design of the drinking water and hot water system of nonresidential buildings are based on outdated assumptions on peak water demand or on unfounded assumptions on hot water demand. They generally overestimate peak demand values required for the design of an

Industrial water demand management and cleaner production ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Processes and systems using water today are being subjected to increasingly stringent environmental regulations on effluents and there is growing demand for fresh water. In Morocco, consumption of water by industries is estimated in 1994 at 1 billion m3, the drinking water constitutes 4%. Water used in the food and drink ...

Multi-scale research of time and space differences about ecological footprint and ecological carrying capacity of the water resources

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jiahong; Lei, Xiaohui; Fu, Qiang; Li, Tianxiao; Qiao, Yu; Chen, Lei; Liao, Weihong

2018-03-01

A multi-scale assessment framework for assessing and comparing the water resource sustainability based on the ecological footprint (EF) is introduced. The study aims to manage the water resource from different views in Heilongjiang Province. First of all, from the scale of each city, the water ecological carrying capacity (ECC) was calculated from 2000 to 2011, and map the spatial distribution of the recent 3 years which show that, the water ecological carrying capacity (ECC) is uneven and has a downward trend year by year. Then, from the perspective of the five secondary partition basins in Heilongjiang Province, the paper calculated the ecological carrying capacity (ECC), the ecological footprint (EF) and ecological surplus and deficit (S&D) situation of water resources from 2000 to 2011, which show that the ecological deficit situation is more prominent in Nenjiang and Suifenhe basins which are in an unsustainable development state. Finally, from the perspective of the province, the paper calculated the ecological carrying capacity (ECC), the ecological footprint (EF) and ecological S&D of water resources from 2000 to 2011 in Heilongjiang Province, which show that the ecological footprint (EF) is in the rising trend, and the correlation coefficient between the ecological carrying capacity (ECC) and the precipitation is 0.8. There are 5 years of unsustainable development state in Heilongjiang. The proposed multi-scale assessment of WEF aims to evaluate the complex relationship between water resource supply and consumption in different spatial scales and time series. It also provides more reasonable assessment result which can be used by managers and regulators.

生态环境用水权的界定和分配%Study on the Definition and Allocation of the Rights to Water Utilization in the Ecological Environment

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

谢永刚; 李云玲

2005-01-01

With the rapid development of population and economy, the conflict between the supply and demand of water resources is becoming outstanding increasingly. In China, many people concern about the problems of ecological environment water expenditure. However, owningto the shortage of water resources and indefinite water rights, "the hustle effect" of per capita water resource is appeared. Moreover, it caused a series of environment problems. This article differentiates and analyzes the relevant concepts about the ecological environment, and puts forward the defined concept of the rights to the ecological environment water utilization. In addition, it points out the characteristic of those rights, and does elementary study on the allocation principle, methods, and steps on the rights.

黄山风景区水生态承载力分析%Analysis of water ecology capacity in Huangshan Resort

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

王群; 章锦河; 杨兴柱

2009-01-01

文章以BODs为纳污水体的水质影响因子,计算出黄山风景区4条主要纳污水体逍遥溪、丞相源、莲花沟和丹霞溪的丰、平、枯水期的日平均纳污量和年纳污量,得出其水生态承载力总体上较弱,且存在时间与空间分布不均的特征.据此,从浓度控制与总量控制相结合的角度,建立了"水量-水质-水生态系统"阈值模型,提出通过降低用水标准、提高出水指标、进行中水回用、采用节水设备,以缓解黄山风景区水生态承载压力.%In the 21st century, controls on contamination emission have transformed from the simple concentration control to the combination with concentration and total amount control. But tourism research on water ecological carrying capacity remains concentrated on the concentration control. Water is one of the most important environmental factors in Huangshan resort. Adding water supply can meet the need of an increasing number of visi-tors. However, concomitant wastewater put tremendous pressure on water ecological car-rying capacity. Taking BOD5 as an influencing factor of water quality, the paper calculates daily average and annual capacities in Xiaoyaoxi, Chengxiangyuan, Lianhuagou and Danxi-axi water bodies during high-flow period, normal water period and low-flow period. Theconclusions are: (1) In general, under the premise of sewage discharge up to standard in the Huangshan resort, four major pollutant-holding water bodies can carry sewage dis-charge from now to 2010. However, after 2010, these four water bodies cannot satisfy sewage discharge the need of and the carrying capacity is saturated. (2) The spatial distri-bution is uneven in the water ecological carrying capacity. Xiaoyaoxi and Chengxiangyuan have relatively high waste load allocations than Lianhuagou and Danxiaxi. But the sites a-round Xiaoyaoxi and Danxiaxi have greater water demand, which lead to supersaturation of water ecological carrying capacity in the middle

The climatic water balance in an ecological context

Science.gov (United States)

Stephenson, N. L.

2011-12-01

Because the climatic water balance describes the seasonal interactions of energy (heat and solar radiation) and water in biologically meaningful ways, it provides a powerful tool for understanding and predicting the effects of climatic changes on the terrestrial biosphere. I begin with a brief overview of the definitions and interpretations of the biologically most important water balance parameters -- actual evapotranspiration (AET) and climatic water deficit (Deficit) -- and how the particular approach used to calculate these parameters depends both on the goals of the study and on the available climatic data. Some authors have attempted to represent aspects of the climatic water balance with indices based on annual potential evapotranspiration (PET) and precipitation (P), such at P/PET or PET - P. However, these and related indices do not reflect soil water dynamics, snow dynamics, or the seasonal interactions of energy and water, and therefore have no biological interpretation. Consequently, such indices are more poorly correlated with ecological patterns and processes than AET and Deficit. Of critical importance, the effects of changing energy and water supplies on the climatic water balance are nearly orthogonal. For example, a plant community growing on shallow soils on a shaded slope and one growing on deep soils on a sunward slope often may have the same amount of measured soil moisture available to them. However, the dynamics of energy and water that resulted in the identical soil moistures were fundamentally different (decreased evaporative demand on the shaded slope versus increased water supply on the deep soils); the associated differences in AET and Deficit will therefore result in different plant communities occupying the sites, in spite of identical soil moistures. In the context of climatic change, the orthogonal effects of energy and water mean that increasing precipitation cannot be expected to counteract the effects of increasing temperature

Water demand and supply co-adaptation to mitigate climate change impacts in agricultural water management

Science.gov (United States)

Giuliani, Matteo; Mainardi, Matteo; Castelletti, Andrea; Gandolfi, Claudio

2013-04-01

Agriculture is the main land use in the world and represents also the sector characterised by the highest water demand. To meet projected growth in human population and per-capita food demand, agricultural production will have to significantly increase in the next decades. Moreover, water availability is nowadays a limiting factor for agricultural production, and is expected to decrease over the next century due to climate change impacts. To effectively face a changing climate, agricultural systems have therefore to adapt their strategies (e.g., changing crops, shifting sowing and harvesting dates, adopting high efficiency irrigation techniques). Yet, farmer adaptation is only one part of the equation because changes in water supply management strategies, as a response to climate change, might impact on farmers' decisions as well. Despite the strong connections between water demand and supply, being the former dependent on agricultural practices, which are affected by the water available that depends on the water supply strategies designed according to a forecasted demand, an analysis of their reciprocal feedbacks is still missing. Most of the recent studies has indeed considered the two problems separately, either analysing the impact of climate change on farmers' decisions for a given water supply scenario or optimising water supply for different water demand scenarios. In this work, we explicitly connect the two systems (demand and supply) by activating an information loop between farmers and water managers, to integrate the two problems and study the co-evolution and co-adaptation of water demand and water supply systems under climate change. The proposed approach is tested on a real-world case study, namely the Lake Como serving the Muzza-Bassa Lodigiana irrigation district (Italy). In particular, given an expectation of water availability, the farmers are able to solve a yearly planning problem to decide the most profitable crop to plant. Knowing the farmers

The water, fundamental ecological base?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bolivar, Luis Humberto

1994-01-01

To speak of ecology and the man's interaction with the environment takes, in fact implicit many elements that, actuating harmoniously generates a conducive entropy to a better to be, however it is necessary to hierarchy the importance of these elements, finding that the water, not alone to constitute sixty five percent of the total volume of the planet, or sixty percent of the human body, but to be the well called molecule of the life, it is constituted in the main element to consider in the study of the ecology. The water circulates continually through the endless hydrological cycle of condensation, precipitation, filtration, retention, evaporation, precipitation and so forth; however, due to the quick growth of the cities, its expansion of the green areas or its border lands, result of a demographic behavior and of inadequate social establishment; or of the advance industrial excessive, they produce irreparable alterations in the continuous processes of the water production, for this reason it is fundamental to know some inherent problems to the sources of water. The water, the most important in the renewable natural resources, essential for the life and for the achievement of good part of the man's goals in their productive function, it is direct or indirectly the natural resource more threatened by the human action

Future United States Domestic Water Demand

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — Population projections, estimated per capita consumption rate, and estimated total annual water demand to 2100 for four future projections based off the IPCC SRES...

Emergy evaluation of water utilization benefits in water-ecological-economic system based on water cycle process

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, X.; Wu, Z.; Lv, C.

2017-12-01

The water utilization benefits are formed by the material flow, energy flow, information flow and value stream in the whole water cycle process, and reflected along with the material circulation of inner system. But most of traditional water utilization benefits evaluation are based on the macro level, only consider the whole material input and output and energy conversion relation, and lack the characterization of water utilization benefits accompanying with water cycle process from the formation mechanism. In addition, most studies are from the perspective of economics, only pay attention to the whole economic output and sewage treatment economic investment, but neglect the ecological function benefits of water cycle, Therefore, from the perspective of internal material circulation in the whole system, taking water cycle process as the process of material circulation and energy flow, the circulation and flow process of water and other ecological environment, social economic elements were described, and the composition of water utilization positive and negative benefits in water-ecological-economic system was explored, and the performance of each benefit was analyzed. On this basis, the emergy calculation method of each benefit was proposed by emergy quantitative analysis technique, which can realize the unified measurement and evaluation of water utilization benefits in water-ecological-economic system. Then, taking Zhengzhou city as an example, the corresponding benefits of different water cycle links were calculated quantitatively by emergy method, and the results showed that the emergy evaluation method of water utilization benefits can unify the ecosystem and the economic system, achieve uniform quantitative analysis, and measure the true value of natural resources and human economic activities comprehensively.

Mitigating the impact of swimming pools on domestic water demand

African Journals Online (AJOL)

need to implement desalination schemes by ensuring water is used in in a 'fit for purpose' manner. This study therefore aims to better understand the impact that pools have on residential water demand through the analysis of metered water demand records and end-use modelling. The study site was the Liesbeek.

China's rising hydropower demand challenges water sector.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Junguo; Zhao, Dandan; Gerbens-Leenes, P W; Guan, Dabo

2015-07-09

Demand for hydropower is increasing, yet the water footprints (WFs) of reservoirs and hydropower, and their contributions to water scarcity, are poorly understood. Here, we calculate reservoir WFs (freshwater that evaporates from reservoirs) and hydropower WFs (the WF of hydroelectricity) in China based on data from 875 representative reservoirs (209 with power plants). In 2010, the reservoir WF totaled 27.9 × 10(9) m(3) (Gm(3)), or 22% of China's total water consumption. Ignoring the reservoir WF seriously underestimates human water appropriation. The reservoir WF associated with industrial, domestic and agricultural WFs caused water scarcity in 6 of the 10 major Chinese river basins from 2 to 12 months annually. The hydropower WF was 6.6 Gm(3) yr(-1) or 3.6 m(3) of water to produce a GJ (10(9) J) of electricity. Hydropower is a water intensive energy carrier. As a response to global climate change, the Chinese government has promoted a further increase in hydropower energy by 70% by 2020 compared to 2012. This energy policy imposes pressure on available freshwater resources and increases water scarcity. The water-energy nexus requires strategic and coordinated implementations of hydropower development among geographical regions, as well as trade-off analysis between rising energy demand and water use sustainability.

China's rising hydropower demand challenges water sector

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Liu, Junguo; Zhao, Dandan; Gerbens-Leenes, Winnie; Guan, Dabo

2015-01-01

Demand for hydropower is increasing, yet the water footprints (WFs) of reservoirs and hydropower, and their contributions to water scarcity, are poorly understood. Here, we calculate reservoir WFs (freshwater that evaporates from reservoirs) and hydropower WFs (the WF of hydroelectricity) in China

Institutions for Effective Water Demand Management

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2010-12-14

Dec 14, 2010 ... The paper also describes the state of South African WDM to highlight ... Download the PDF: Working Paper 4: Institutions for Effective Water Demand Management ​ ... Managing flood risk through collaborative governance.

Assessing the significance of climate and community factors on urban water demand

OpenAIRE

Md Mahmudul Haque; Prasanna Egodawatta; Ataur Rahman; Ashantha Goonetilleke

2015-01-01

Ensuring adequate water supply to urban areas is a challenging task due to factors such as rapid urban growth, increasing water demand and climate change. In developing a sustainable water supply system, it is important to identify the dominant water demand factors for any given water supply scheme. This paper applies principal components analysis to identify the factors that dominate residential water demand using the Blue Mountains Water Supply System in Australia as a case study. The resul...

Forecasting domestic water demand in the Haihe river basin under changing environment

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xiao-Jun; Zhang, Jian-Yun; Shahid, Shamsuddin; Xie, Yu-Xuan; Zhang, Xu

2018-02-01

A statistical model has been developed for forecasting domestic water demand in Haihe river basin of China due to population growth, technological advances and climate change. Historical records of domestic water use, climate, population and urbanization are used for the development of model. An ensemble of seven general circulation models (GCMs) namely, BCC-CSM1-1, BNU-ESM, CNRM-CM5, GISS-E2-R, MIROC-ESM, PI-ESM-LR, MRI-CGCM3 were used for the projection of climate and the changes in water demand in the Haihe River basin under Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) 4.5. The results showed that domestic water demand in different sub-basins of the Haihe river basin will gradually increase due to continuous increase of population and rise in temperature. It is projected to increase maximum 136.22 × 108 m3 by GCM BNU-ESM and the minimum 107.25 × 108 m3 by CNRM-CM5 in 2030. In spite of uncertainty in projection, it can be remarked that climate change and population growth would cause increase in water demand and consequently, reduce the gap between water supply and demand, which eventually aggravate the condition of existing water stress in the basin. Water demand management should be emphasized for adaptation to ever increasing water demand and mitigation of the impacts of environmental changes.

Chemical oxygen demand (cod) attenuation of methyl red in water ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Chemical oxygen demand (cod) attenuation of methyl red in water using biocarbons obtained from Nipa palm leaves. ... eco-friendly and locally accessible biocarbon for mitigation of organic contaminants in water. Keywords: Chemical oxygen demand, biocarbon, methyl red, biodegradation, bioremediation, Nipa palm ...

[Assessment of ecological environment benefits of reclaimed water reuse in Beijing].

Science.gov (United States)

Fan, Yu-Peng; Chen, Wei-Ping

2014-10-01

With the rapid development of the social economy and the sustained growth of population, China is facing increasingly serious water problems, and reclaimed water utilization has become an effective measure to solve water shortage problem and to control further deterioration of the ecological environment. Reclaimed water utilization can not only save a lot of fresh water, but also reduce the environmental impact of wastewater discharge, and thus has great ecological environmental benefits, including resource, environmental and human health benefits and so on. This study used the opportunity cost method to construct an evaluation system for ecological environmental benefits of reclaimed water utilization, and Beijing was taken as an example to conduct an estimation of ecological environmental benefits of reclaimed water utilization. Research results indicated that the reclaimed water utilization in Beijing had considerable environmental benefits for ¥ 1.2 billion in 2010, in which replacement of fresh water accounted for the largest share. The benefits of environmental improvement and groundwater recharge were large, while the other benefits were small or negative. The ecological environment benefits of reclaimed water utilization in Beijing was about 1.8 times that of its direct economic benefits, showing that reclaimed water utilization was in accordance with sustainable development. Related methods and results will provide scientific basis to promote the development of reclaimed water utilization in our country.

Water use demand in the Crans-Montana-Sierre region (Switzerland)

Science.gov (United States)

Bonriposi, M.; Reynard, E.

2012-04-01

Crans-Montana-Sierre is an Alpine touristic region located in the driest area of Switzerland (Rhone River Valley, Canton of Valais), with both winter (ski) and summer (e.g. golf) tourist activities. Climate change as well as societal and economic development will in future significantly modify the supply and consumption of water and, consequently, may fuel conflicts of interest. Within the framework of the MontanAqua project (www.montanaqua.ch), we are researching more sustainable water management options based on the co-ordination and adaptation of water demand to water availability under changing biophysical and socioeconomic conditions. This work intends to quantify current water uses in the area and consider future scenarios (around 2050). We have focused upon the temporal and spatial characteristics of resource demand, in order to estimate the spatial footprint of water use (drinking water, hydropower production, irrigation and artificial snowmaking), in terms of system, infrastructure, and organisation of supply. We have then quantified these as precisely as possible (at the monthly temporal scale and at the municipality spatial scale). When the quantity of water was not measurable for practical reasons or for lack of data, as for the case for irrigation or snowmaking, an alternative approach was applied. Instead of quantifying how much water was used, the stress was put on the water needs for irrigating agricultural land or on the optimal meteorological conditions necessary to produce artificial snow. A huge summer peak and a smaller winter peak characterize the current regional water consumption estimation. The summer peak is mainly caused by irrigation and secondly by drinking water demand. The winter peak is essentially due to drinking water and snowmaking. Other consumption peaks exist at the municipality scale but they cannot be observed at the regional scale. The results show a major variation in water demand between the 11 concerned municipalities and

Chicago's water market: Dynamics of demand, prices and scarcity rents

Science.gov (United States)

Ipe, V.C.; Bhagwat, S.B.

2002-01-01

Chicago and its suburbs are experiencing an increasing demand for water from a growing population and economy and may experience water scarcity in the near future. The Chicago metropolitan area has nearly depleted its groundwater resources to a point where interstate conflicts with Wisconsin could accompany an increased reliance on those sources. Further, the withdrawals from Lake Michigan is limited by the Supreme Court decree. The growing demand and indications of possible scarcity suggest a need to reexamine the pricing policies and the dynamics of demand. The study analyses the demand for water and develops estimates of scarcity rents for water in Chicago. The price and income elasticities computed at the means are -0.002 and 0.0002 respectively. The estimated scarcity rents ranges from $0.98 to $1.17 per thousand gallons. The results indicate that the current prices do not fully account for the scarcity rents and suggest a current rate with in the range $1.53 to $1.72 per thousand gallons.

Forecasting domestic water demand in the Haihe river basin under changing environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

X.-J. Wang

2018-02-01

Full Text Available A statistical model has been developed for forecasting domestic water demand in Haihe river basin of China due to population growth, technological advances and climate change. Historical records of domestic water use, climate, population and urbanization are used for the development of model. An ensemble of seven general circulation models (GCMs namely, BCC-CSM1-1, BNU-ESM, CNRM-CM5, GISS-E2-R, MIROC-ESM, PI-ESM-LR, MRI-CGCM3 were used for the projection of climate and the changes in water demand in the Haihe River basin under Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs 4.5. The results showed that domestic water demand in different sub-basins of the Haihe river basin will gradually increase due to continuous increase of population and rise in temperature. It is projected to increase maximum 136.22  ×  108 m3 by GCM BNU-ESM and the minimum 107.25  ×  108 m3 by CNRM-CM5 in 2030. In spite of uncertainty in projection, it can be remarked that climate change and population growth would cause increase in water demand and consequently, reduce the gap between water supply and demand, which eventually aggravate the condition of existing water stress in the basin. Water demand management should be emphasized for adaptation to ever increasing water demand and mitigation of the impacts of environmental changes.

Responding to increased needs and demands for water

Science.gov (United States)

Hans M. Gregersen; William K. Easter; J. Edward de Steiguer

2000-01-01

The nature of the increased needs and demands for water relate to water quantity and quality, bringing in the dimensions of timing and location of water flows. Some key past international activities related to water and watershed policy are reviewed. The common threads that are shaping likely future responses relate to technical vs. institutional means of addressing...

Integrating the simulation of domestic water demand behaviour to an urban water model using agent based modelling

Science.gov (United States)

Koutiva, Ifigeneia; Makropoulos, Christos

2015-04-01

The urban water system's sustainable evolution requires tools that can analyse and simulate the complete cycle including both physical and cultural environments. One of the main challenges, in this regard, is the design and development of tools that are able to simulate the society's water demand behaviour and the way policy measures affect it. The effects of these policy measures are a function of personal opinions that subsequently lead to the formation of people's attitudes. These attitudes will eventually form behaviours. This work presents the design of an ABM tool for addressing the social dimension of the urban water system. The created tool, called Urban Water Agents' Behaviour (UWAB) model, was implemented, using the NetLogo agent programming language. The main aim of the UWAB model is to capture the effects of policies and environmental pressures to water conservation behaviour of urban households. The model consists of agents representing urban households that are linked to each other creating a social network that influences the water conservation behaviour of its members. Household agents are influenced as well by policies and environmental pressures, such as drought. The UWAB model simulates behaviour resulting in the evolution of water conservation within an urban population. The final outcome of the model is the evolution of the distribution of different conservation levels (no, low, high) to the selected urban population. In addition, UWAB is implemented in combination with an existing urban water management simulation tool, the Urban Water Optioneering Tool (UWOT) in order to create a modelling platform aiming to facilitate an adaptive approach of water resources management. For the purposes of this proposed modelling platform, UWOT is used in a twofold manner: (1) to simulate domestic water demand evolution and (2) to simulate the response of the water system to the domestic water demand evolution. The main advantage of the UWAB - UWOT model

Ecological Citizenship and Social Representation of Water

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marta Biagi

2011-09-01

Full Text Available This article examines the social representations of water in urban cultures of Argentina, placing the subject as a matter of academic and practical interest. Some questions have guided this investigation—What is water for the urban dweller? What are the actions that a citizen is willing to exercise?—A qualitative research was conducted (according to Yin’s case analysis methodology in Gualeguaychú and Buenos Aires. Following the collected data, the authors reconstructed the dominant paradigm in both cities, which was the ecocentric model. However, the acceptance of ecological values and beliefs is not an indicator of the exercise of proecological behavior concerning water. Empirical findings have guided the authors to inquire the degree of relationship between social representations and attributes of Andrew Dobson’s model of ecological citizenship.

Optimal expansion of a drinking water infrastructure system with respect to carbon footprint, cost-effectiveness and water demand.

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Ni-Bin; Qi, Cheng; Yang, Y Jeffrey

2012-11-15

Urban water infrastructure expansion requires careful long-term planning to reduce the risk from climate change during periods of both economic boom and recession. As part of the adaptation management strategies, capacity expansion in concert with other management alternatives responding to the population dynamics, ecological conservation, and water management policies should be systematically examined to balance the water supply and demand temporally and spatially with different scales. To mitigate the climate change impact, this practical implementation often requires a multiobjective decision analysis that introduces economic efficiencies and carbon-footprint matrices simultaneously. The optimal expansion strategies for a typical water infrastructure system in South Florida demonstrate the essence of the new philosophy. Within our case study, the multiobjective modeling framework uniquely features an integrated evaluation of transboundary surface and groundwater resources and quantitatively assesses the interdependencies among drinking water supply, wastewater reuse, and irrigation water permit transfer as the management options expand throughout varying dimensions. With the aid of a multistage planning methodology over the partitioned time horizon, such a systems analysis has resulted in a full-scale screening and sequencing of multiple competing objectives across a suite of management strategies. These strategies that prioritize 20 options provide a possible expansion schedule over the next 20 years that improve water infrastructure resilience and at low life-cycle costs. The proposed method is transformative to other applications of similar water infrastructure systems elsewhere in the world. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Water Demand Management Policy Brief No

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Bob Stanley

Water demand management (WDM) programs have been widely implemented across the MENA region and elsewhere, with varying degrees of success. The criteria below are intended to help policymakers determine how best to develop institutions with the capacity and capability to design, implement and monitor WDM ...

Estimating the Determinants of Residential Water Demand in Italy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giulia Romano

2014-09-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study was to estimate the determinants of residential water demand for chief towns of every Italian province, in the period 2007–2009, using the linear mixed-effects model estimated with the restricted-maximum-likelihood method. Results confirmed that the applied tariff had a negative effect on residential water consumption and that it was a relevant driver of domestic water consumption. Moreover, income per capita had a positive effect on water consumption. Among measured climatic and geographical features, precipitation and altitude exerted a strongly significant negative effect on water consumption, while temperature did not influence water demand. Further, data show that small towns in terms of population served were characterized by lower levels of consumption. Water utilities ownership itself did not have a significant effect on water consumption but tariffs were significantly lower and residential water consumption was higher in towns where the water service was managed by publicly owned water utilities. However, further research is needed to gain a better understanding of the connection between ownership of water utilities and water prices and water consumption.

Management of Water Demand in Africa and the Middle East ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Management of Water Demand in Africa and the Middle East : Current Practices and Future Needs. Couverture du livre Management of Water Demand in Africa and the Middle East : Current Practices. Directeur(s) : David B. Brooks, Eglal Rached et Maurice Saade. Maison(s) d'édition : CRDI. 1 janvier 1997. ISBN : Épuisé.

Management of Water Demand in Africa and the Middle East ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

1997-01-01

Management of Water Demand in Africa and the Middle East : Current Practices and Future Needs. Couverture du livre Management of Water Demand in Africa and the Middle East : Current Practices. Editor(s):. David B. Brooks, Eglal Rached et Maurice Saade. Publisher(s):. CRDI. January 1, 1997. ISBN: Épuisé. 78 pages.

Assessing the adequacy of water storage infrastructure capacity under hydroclimatic variability and water demands in the United States

Science.gov (United States)

Ho, M. W.; Devineni, N.; Cook, E. R.; Lall, U.

2017-12-01

As populations and associated economic activity in the US evolve, regional demands for water likewise change. For regions dependent on surface water, dams and reservoirs are critical to storing and managing releases of water and regulating the temporal and spatial availability of water in order to meet these demands. Storage capacities typically range from seasonal storage in the east to multi-annual and decadal-scale storage in the drier west. However, most dams in the US were designed with limited knowledge regarding the range, frequency, and persistence of hydroclimatic extremes. Demands for water supplied by these dams have likewise changed. Furthermore, many dams in the US are now reaching or have already exceeded their economic design life. The converging issues of aging dams, improved knowledge of hydroclimatic variability, and evolving demands for dam services result in a pressing need to evaluate existing reservoir capacities with respect to contemporary water demands, long term hydroclimatic variability, and service reliability into the future. Such an effort is possible given the recent development of two datasets that respectively address hydroclimatic variability in the conterminous United States over the past 555 years and human water demand related water stress over the same region. The first data set is a paleoclimate reconstruction of streamflow variability across the CONUS region based on a tree-ring informed reconstruction of the Palmer Drought Severity Index. This streamflow reconstruction suggested that wet spells with shorter drier spells were a key feature of 20th century streamflow compared with the preceding 450 years. The second data set in an annual cumulative drought index that is a measure of water balance based on water supplied through precipitation and water demands based on evaporative demands, agricultural, urban, and industrial demands. This index identified urban and regional hotspots that were particularly dependent on water

A model to assess water tariffs as part of water demand management

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... to calculate the predicted change in water use and the associated income. The model takes into account variation in price elasticity per tariff block. The effectiveness of the model as a planning tool is illustrated through an appropriate example. Keywords: water demand management, price elasticity, change in water tariff, ...

Using Demand Side Management to Adapt to Water Scarcity and ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

The Saiss is a sub-basin of the Sebou basin in Northern Morocco. Due to decreased precipitation and increased water demand, the surface waters of the Saiss basin have been greatly reduced. At the current rate of exploitation, the aquifer will be depleted within 25 years. This project will examine whether demand-side ...

Meeting multiple demands: Water transaction opportunities for environmental benefits promoting adaptation to climate change

Science.gov (United States)

McCoy, Amy

2015-04-01

In arid regions, the challenge of balancing water use among a diversity of sectors expands in lock step with conditions of water stress that are exacerbated by climate variability, prolonged drought, and growing water-use demands. The elusiveness of achieving a sustainable balance under conditions of environmental change in the southwestern United States is evidenced by reductions in both overall water availability and freshwater ecosystem health, as well as by recent projections of shortages on the Colorado River within the next five years. The water sustainability challenge in this region, as well as drylands throughout the world, can therefore be viewed through the lens of water stress, a condition wherein demands on land and water -- including the needs of freshwater ecosystems -- exceed reliable supplies, and the full range of water needs cannot be met without tradeoffs across multiple uses. Water stress influences not only ecosystems, but a region's economy, land management, quality of life, and cultural heritage -- each of which requires water to thrive. With respect to promoting successful adaptation to climate change, achieving full water sustainability would allow for water to be successfully divided among water users -- including municipalities, agriculture, and freshwater ecosystems -- at a level that meets the goals of water users and the governing body. Over the last ten to fifteen years, the use of transactional approaches in the western U.S., Mexico, and Australia has proven to be a viable management tool for achieving stream flow and shallow aquifer restoration. By broad definition, environmental water transactions are an equitable and adaptable tool that brings diverse stakeholders to the table to facilitate a fair-market exchange of rights to use water in a manner that benefits both water users and the environment. This talk will present a basic framework of necessary stakeholder engagement, hydrologic conditions, enabling laws and policies

Dynamic modelling of water demand, water availability and adaptation strategies for power plants to global change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koch, Hagen; Voegele, Stefan

2009-01-01

According to the latest IPCC reports, the frequency of hot and dry periods will increase in many regions of the world in the future. For power plant operators, the increasing possibility of water shortages is an important challenge that they have to face. Shortages of electricity due to water shortages could have an influence on industries as well as on private households. Climate change impact analyses must analyse the climate effects on power plants and possible adaptation strategies for the power generation sector. Power plants have lifetimes of several decades. Their water demand changes with climate parameters in the short- and medium-term. In the long-term, the water demand will change as old units are phased out and new generating units appear in their place. In this paper, we describe the integration of functions for the calculation of the water demand of power plants into a water resources management model. Also included are both short-term reactive and long-term planned adaptation. This integration allows us to simulate the interconnection between the water demand of power plants and water resources management, i.e. water availability. Economic evaluation functions for water shortages are also integrated into the water resources management model. This coupled model enables us to analyse scenarios of socio-economic and climate change, as well as the effects of water management actions. (author)

Political ecology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Strohm, H.

1979-01-01

Using facts and examples, this didactically structures textbook gives an insight into the extent and consequences of the damage to the environment, with the subjects - fundamentals of ecology; - population and food problems; - the energy problem; - economic growth; scarcity of resources, recycling; - ground, water, and air pollution, - city and traffic problems; - work protection and medical care; - political alternatives and 'soft technologies'. The analysis of the political and economic reasons is combined with social and technical alternatives from which demands to be made and measures to be taken can be derived for individuals, citizens' interest groups, political groups and trade unions. Teaching models intend to help teachers to work on specific problems of ecology. (orig.) [de

Demand driven decision support for efficient water resources allocation in irrigated agriculture

Science.gov (United States)

Schuetze, Niels; Grießbach, Ulrike Ulrike; Röhm, Patric; Stange, Peter; Wagner, Michael; Seidel, Sabine; Werisch, Stefan; Barfus, Klemens

2014-05-01

Due to climate change, extreme weather conditions, such as longer dry spells in the summer months, may have an increasing impact on the agriculture in Saxony (Eastern Germany). For this reason, and, additionally, declining amounts of rainfall during the growing season the use of irrigation will be more important in future in Eastern Germany. To cope with this higher demand of water, a new decision support framework is developed which focuses on an integrated management of both irrigation water supply and demand. For modeling the regional water demand, local (and site-specific) water demand functions are used which are derived from the optimized agronomic response at farms scale. To account for climate variability the agronomic response is represented by stochastic crop water production functions (SCWPF) which provide the estimated yield subject to the minimum amount of irrigation water. These functions take into account the different soil types, crops and stochastically generated climate scenarios. By applying mathematical interpolation and optimization techniques, the SCWPF's are used to compute the water demand considering different constraints, for instance variable and fix costs or the producer price. This generic approach enables the computation for both multiple crops at farm scale as well as of the aggregated response to water pricing at a regional scale for full and deficit irrigation systems. Within the SAPHIR (SAxonian Platform for High Performance Irrigation) project a prototype of a decision support system is developed which helps to evaluate combined water supply and demand management policies for an effective and efficient utilization of water in order to meet future demands. The prototype is implemented as a web-based decision support system and it is based on a service-oriented geo-database architecture.

A System Dynamics Modeling of Water Supply and Demand in Las Vegas Valley

Science.gov (United States)

Parajuli, R.; Kalra, A.; Mastino, L.; Velotta, M.; Ahmad, S.

2017-12-01

The rise in population and change in climate have posed the uncertainties in the balance between supply and demand of water. The current study deals with the water management issues in Las Vegas Valley (LVV) using Stella, a system dynamics modeling software, to model the feedback based relationship between supply and demand parameters. Population parameters were obtained from Center for Business and Economic Research while historical water demand and conservation practices were modeled as per the information provided by local authorities. The water surface elevation of Lake Mead, which is the prime source of water supply to the region, was modeled as the supply side whereas the water demand in LVV was modeled as the demand side. The study was done from the period of 1989 to 2049 with 1989 to 2012 as the historical one and the period from 2013 to 2049 as the future period. This study utilizes Coupled Model Intercomparison Project data sets (2013-2049) (CMIP3&5) to model different future climatic scenarios. The model simulates the past dynamics of supply and demand, and then forecasts the future water budget for the forecasted future population and future climatic conditions. The results can be utilized by the water authorities in understanding the future water status and hence plan suitable conservation policies to allocate future water budget and achieve sustainable water management.

Ecological Compensation Mechanism in Water Conservation Area: A Case Study of Dongjiang River

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kong Fanbin

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The appropriate economic compensation from downstream to upstream watershed is important to solve China’s social and economic imbalances between regions and can potentially enhance water resources protection and ecological security. The study analyzes the implementation of ecological compensation policy and related legal basis under ecological compensation mechanism theory and practice patterns, based on current natural environment and socio-economic development of national origin in Dongjiang water conservation areas. Under the principle of “Users pay”, the Dongjiang River is the subject of ecological compensation and recipient. By using the “cost-benefit analysis” and “cost method of industrial development opportunity”, we estimate that the total ecological compensation amounted to 513.35 million yuan. When estimated by the indicators such as water quantity, water quality and water use efficiency, we establish the “environmental and ecological protection cost sharing model” and measure the total cost of protecting downstream watershed areas, the Guangdong Province, is about 108.61 million yuan. The implementation of the Dongjiang source region that follows the principles of ecological compensation and approaches are also designed

Remaking "Nature". the Ecological Turn in Dutch Water Management

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Disco, Nil/Cornelis

2002-01-01

The ecological turn in water management has usually been interpreted as a political andcultural rather than technical and professional accomplishment. The dynamics of theuptake of ecological expertise into hydraulic engineering bureaucracies have not beenwell described. Focusing on the controversy

Selection of an evaluation index for water ecological civilizations of water-shortage cities based on the grey rough set

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, X. Y.; Zhu, J. W.; Xie, J. C.; Liu, J. L.; Jiang, R. G.

2017-08-01

According to the characteristics and existing problems of water ecological civilization of water-shortage cities, the evaluation index system of water ecological civilization was established using a grey rough set. From six aspects of water resources, water security, water environment, water ecology, water culture and water management, this study established the prime frame of the evaluation system, including 28 items, and used rough set theory to undertake optimal selection of the index system. Grey correlation theory then was used for weightings in order that the integrated evaluation index system for water ecology civilization of water-shortage cities could be constituted. Xi’an City was taken as an example, for which the results showed that 20 evaluation indexes could be obtained after optimal selection of the preliminary framework of evaluation index. The most influential indices were the water-resource category index and water environment category index. The leakage rate of the public water supply pipe network, as well as the disposal, treatment and usage rate of polluted water, urban water surface area ratio, the water quality of the main rivers, and so on also are important. It was demonstrated that the evaluation index could provide an objectively reflection of regional features and key points for the development of water ecology civilization for cities with scarce water resources. It is considered that the application example has universal applicability.

China’s rising hydropower demand challenges water sector

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Junguo; Zhao, Dandan; Gerbens-Leenes, P. W.; Guan, Dabo

2015-01-01

Demand for hydropower is increasing, yet the water footprints (WFs) of reservoirs and hydropower, and their contributions to water scarcity, are poorly understood. Here, we calculate reservoir WFs (freshwater that evaporates from reservoirs) and hydropower WFs (the WF of hydroelectricity) in China based on data from 875 representative reservoirs (209 with power plants). In 2010, the reservoir WF totaled 27.9 × 109 m3 (Gm3), or 22% of China’s total water consumption. Ignoring the reservoir WF seriously underestimates human water appropriation. The reservoir WF associated with industrial, domestic and agricultural WFs caused water scarcity in 6 of the 10 major Chinese river basins from 2 to 12 months annually. The hydropower WF was 6.6 Gm3 yr−1 or 3.6 m3 of water to produce a GJ (109 J) of electricity. Hydropower is a water intensive energy carrier. As a response to global climate change, the Chinese government has promoted a further increase in hydropower energy by 70% by 2020 compared to 2012. This energy policy imposes pressure on available freshwater resources and increases water scarcity. The water-energy nexus requires strategic and coordinated implementations of hydropower development among geographical regions, as well as trade-off analysis between rising energy demand and water use sustainability. PMID:26158871

Household Water Demand in Andorra: Impact of Individual Metering and Seasonality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arnaud Reynaud

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Despite the large literature focused on residential water use, our knowledge of the impact of individual metering on household water consumption remains limited. Our work aims to fill this gap by providing the first estimate of the residential water demand function in the Principality of Andorra, where collective and individual metering coexists. Using a panel dataset covering the years 2006 to 2015, we propose estimating a domestic water demand function for the municipality of Andorra La Vella (the capital of Andorra. Our estimates reveal a price elasticity of the residential water demand equal to –0.7. Facing a price increase of 10 percent, households will react in the short run by reducing their water consumption by 7 percent. Interestingly, the price elasticity is found to be significantly different in single-family units compared to multi-family units. This may suggest a significant impact of individual metering on domestic water consumption in Andorra.

Handling Uncertain Gross Margin and Water Demand in Agricultural Water Resources Management using Robust Optimization

Science.gov (United States)

Chaerani, D.; Lesmana, E.; Tressiana, N.

2018-03-01

In this paper, an application of Robust Optimization in agricultural water resource management problem under gross margin and water demand uncertainty is presented. Water resource management is a series of activities that includes planning, developing, distributing and managing the use of water resource optimally. Water resource management for agriculture can be one of the efforts to optimize the benefits of agricultural output. The objective function of agricultural water resource management problem is to maximizing total benefits by water allocation to agricultural areas covered by the irrigation network in planning horizon. Due to gross margin and water demand uncertainty, we assume that the uncertain data lies within ellipsoidal uncertainty set. We employ robust counterpart methodology to get the robust optimal solution.

Open Source Tools for Assessment of Global Water Availability, Demands, and Scarcity

Science.gov (United States)

Li, X.; Vernon, C. R.; Hejazi, M. I.; Link, R. P.; Liu, Y.; Feng, L.; Huang, Z.; Liu, L.

2017-12-01

Water availability and water demands are essential factors for estimating water scarcity conditions. To reproduce historical observations and to quantify future changes in water availability and water demand, two open source tools have been developed by the JGCRI (Joint Global Change Research Institute): Xanthos and GCAM-STWD. Xanthos is a gridded global hydrologic model, designed to quantify and analyze water availability in 235 river basins. Xanthos uses a runoff generation and a river routing modules to simulate both historical and future estimates of total runoff and streamflows on a monthly time step at a spatial resolution of 0.5 degrees. GCAM-STWD is a spatiotemporal water disaggregation model used with the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM) to spatially downscale global water demands for six major enduse sectors (irrigation, domestic, electricity generation, mining, and manufacturing) from the region scale to the scale of 0.5 degrees. GCAM-STWD then temporally downscales the gridded annual global water demands to monthly results. These two tools, written in Python, can be integrated to assess global, regional or basin-scale water scarcity or water stress. Both of the tools are extensible to ensure flexibility and promote contribution from researchers that utilize GCAM and study global water use and supply.

Designing cost effective water demand management programs in Australia.

Science.gov (United States)

White, S B; Fane, S A

2002-01-01

This paper describes recent experience with integrated resource planning (IRP) and the application of least cost planning (LCP) for the evaluation of demand management strategies in urban water. Two Australian case studies, Sydney and Northern New South Wales (NSW) are used in illustration. LCP can determine the most cost effective means of providing water services or alternatively the cheapest forms of water conservation. LCP contrasts to a traditional approach of evaluation which looks only at means of increasing supply. Detailed investigation of water usage, known as end-use analysis, is required for LCP. End-use analysis allows both rigorous demand forecasting, and the development and evaluation of conservation strategies. Strategies include education campaigns, increasing water use efficiency and promoting wastewater reuse or rainwater tanks. The optimal mix of conservation strategies and conventional capacity expansion is identified based on levelised unit cost. IRP uses LCP in the iterative process, evaluating and assessing options, investing in selected options, measuring the results, and then re-evaluating options. Key to this process is the design of cost effective demand management programs. IRP however includes a range of parameters beyond least economic cost in the planning process and program designs, including uncertainty, benefit partitioning and implementation considerations.

Multi-Model Prediction for Demand Forecast in Water Distribution Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rodrigo Lopez Farias

2018-03-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a multi-model predictor called Qualitative Multi-Model Predictor Plus (QMMP+ for demand forecast in water distribution networks. QMMP+ is based on the decomposition of the quantitative and qualitative information of the time-series. The quantitative component (i.e., the daily consumption prediction is forecasted and the pattern mode estimated using a Nearest Neighbor (NN classifier and a Calendar. The patterns are updated via a simple Moving Average scheme. The NN classifier and the Calendar are executed simultaneously every period and the most suited model for prediction is selected using a probabilistic approach. The proposed solution for water demand forecast is compared against Radial Basis Function Artificial Neural Networks (RBF-ANN, the statistical Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA, and Double Seasonal Holt-Winters (DSHW approaches, providing the best results when applied to real demand of the Barcelona Water Distribution Network. QMMP+ has demonstrated that the special modelling treatment of water consumption patterns improves the forecasting accuracy.

Promoting biodiversity values of small forest patches in agricultural landscapes: Ecological drivers and social demand.

Science.gov (United States)

Varela, Elsa; Verheyen, Kris; Valdés, Alicia; Soliño, Mario; Jacobsen, Jette B; De Smedt, Pallieter; Ehrmann, Steffen; Gärtner, Stefanie; Górriz, Elena; Decocq, Guillaume

2018-04-01

Small forest patches embedded in agricultural (and peri-urban) landscapes in Western Europe play a key role for biodiversity conservation with a recognized capacity of delivering a wide suite of ecosystem services. Measures aimed to preserve these patches should be both socially desirable and ecologically effective. This study presents a joint ecologic and economic assessment conducted on small forest patches in Flanders (Belgium) and Picardie (N France). In each study region, two contrasted types of agricultural landscapes were selected. Open field (OF) and Bocage (B) landscapes are distinguished by the intensity of their usage and higher connectivity in the B landscapes. The social demand for enhancing biodiversity and forest structure diversity as well as for increasing the forest area at the expenses of agricultural land is estimated through an economic valuation survey. These results are compared with the outcomes of an ecological survey where the influence of structural features of the forest patches on the associated herbaceous diversity is assessed. The ecological and economic surveys show contrasting results; increasing tree species richness is ecologically more important for herbaceous diversity in the patch, but both tree species richness and herbaceous diversity obtain insignificant willingness to pay estimates. Furthermore, although respondents prefer the proposed changes to take place in the region where they live, we find out that social preferences and ecological effectiveness do differ between landscapes that represent different intensities of land use. Dwellers where the landscape is perceived as more "degraded" attach more value to diversity enhancement, suggesting a prioritization of initiatives in these area. In contrast, the ecological analyses show that prioritizing the protection and enhancement of the relatively better-off areas is more ecologically effective. Our study calls for a balance between ecological effectiveness and welfare

Integral statistical eco-indices - effective complementary tool for assessment of ecological state of and ecological risks for water ecosystems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bashamkova, I

2010-01-01

Eco-indices are successfully used for assessment of the ecological state and risks of water reservoirs. They allow, already at early stages, to detect negative effects on water ecosystems caused by progressive anthropogenic impacts and widening of the spectrum of pollutants, and to quantitatively evaluate ecological risks and damage for water reservoirs. Implementing these modern tools to water quality assessment is one of the lines to make decisions concerning challenging environmental problems.

Ecological risk assessment of RAPS waste water disposal in RPS Lake

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Verma, P.C.; Hegde, A.G.; Sharma, L.L.; Venkatramani, B.

2007-01-01

The ecological risk assessment is important tool in predicting the likelihood of future adverse effects from a given facility. Ecological risk assessment in itself has several features that contribute to effective environmental decision making for supporting the management actions. This paper attempts to asses the ecological risk evaluated on the basis of thermal ecological studies carried out at Rana Pratap Sagar (RPS) lake during 2002-2005. The study includes monitoring of several water quality parameters, biological and bacterial parameters and data on thermal stratification in respect of RPS reservoir. The monitored data on water quality were subjected to statistical analysis to evaluate the risk. Using fuzzy synthetic evaluation system on the basis of water quality guidelines from WHO, BIS and ICMR with combination of expert perception the water quality belongs to desirable category during all the seasons through out the year. The study reveals that there is no adverse effect on RPS water quality due to release of warmed effluents from Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS). Moreover, it shows that RPS water is nearly homogeneous and shows weak thermocline and chemocline patterns. Based on monitoring data, the reservoir can be assigned mild eutrophic status. (author)

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

Science.gov (United States)

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

2014-05-01

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

Analytical optimization of demand management strategies across all urban water use sectors

Science.gov (United States)

Friedman, Kenneth; Heaney, James P.; Morales, Miguel; Palenchar, John

2014-07-01

An effective urban water demand management program can greatly influence both peak and average demand and therefore long-term water supply and infrastructure planning. Although a theoretical framework for evaluating residential indoor demand management has been well established, little has been done to evaluate other water use sectors such as residential irrigation in a compatible manner for integrating these results into an overall solution. This paper presents a systematic procedure to evaluate the optimal blend of single family residential irrigation demand management strategies to achieve a specified goal based on performance functions derived from parcel level tax assessor's data linked to customer level monthly water billing data. This framework is then generalized to apply to any urban water sector, as exponential functions can be fit to all resulting cumulative water savings functions. Two alternative formulations are presented: maximize net benefits, or minimize total costs subject to satisfying a target water savings. Explicit analytical solutions are presented for both formulations based on appropriate exponential best fits of performance functions. A direct result of this solution is the dual variable which represents the marginal cost of water saved at a specified target water savings goal. A case study of 16,303 single family irrigators in Gainesville Regional Utilities utilizing high quality tax assessor and monthly billing data along with parcel level GIS data provide an illustrative example of these techniques. Spatial clustering of targeted homes can be easily performed in GIS to identify priority demand management areas.

Perspective: The challenge of ecologically sustainable water management

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Bernhardt, E

2006-10-01

Full Text Available Sustainable water resource management is constrained by three pervasive myths; that societal and environmental water demands always compete with one another; that technological solutions can solve all water resource management problems...

Demonstrating demand response from water distribution system through pump scheduling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Menke, Ruben; Abraham, Edo; Parpas, Panos; Stoianov, Ivan

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Water distribution systems can profitably provide demand response energy. • STOR and FFR are financially viable under a wide range of operating conditions. • Viability depends on the pump utilisation and peak price of the electricity tariff. • Total GHG emissions caused by the provision of reserve energy are <300 gCO_2/kW h. • These are lower than those from the major reserve energy provision technologies. - Abstract: Significant changes in the power generation mix are posing new challenges for the balancing systems of the grid. Many of these challenges are in the secondary electricity grid regulation services and could be met through demand response (DR) services. We explore the opportunities for a water distribution system (WDS) to provide balancing services with demand response through pump scheduling and evaluate the associated benefits. Using a benchmark network and demand response mechanisms available in the UK, these benefits are assessed in terms of reduced green house gas (GHG) emissions from the grid due to the displacement of more polluting power sources and additional revenues for water utilities. The optimal pump scheduling problem is formulated as a mixed-integer optimisation problem and solved using a branch and bound algorithm. This new formulation finds the optimal level of power capacity to commit to the provision of demand response for a range of reserve energy provision and frequency response schemes offered in the UK. For the first time we show that DR from WDS can offer financial benefits to WDS operators while providing response energy to the grid with less greenhouse gas emissions than competing reserve energy technologies. Using a Monte Carlo simulation based on data from 2014, we demonstrate that the cost of providing the storage energy is less than the financial compensation available for the equivalent energy supply. The GHG emissions from the demand response provision from a WDS are also shown to be smaller than

A study of ecological sanitation as an integrated urban water supply system: case study of sustainable strategy for Kuching City, Sarawak, Malaysia.

Science.gov (United States)

Seng, Darrien Mah Yau; Putuhena, Frederik Josep; Said, Salim; Ling, Law Puong

2009-03-01

A city consumes a large amount of water. Urban planning and development are becoming more compelling due to the fact of growing competition for water, which has lead to an increasing and conflicting demand. As such, investments in water supply, sanitation and water resources management is a strong potential for a solid return. A pilot project of greywater ecological treatment has been established in Kuching city since 2003. Such a treatment facility opens up an opportunity of wastewater reclamation for reuse as secondary sources of water for non-consumptive purposes. This paper aims to explore the potential of the intended purposes in the newly developed ecological treatment project. By utilizing the Wallingford Software model, InfoWorks WS (Water Supply) is employed to carry out a hydraulic modeling of a hypothetical greywater recycling system as an integrated part of the Kuching urban water supply, where the greywater is treated, recycled and reused in the domestic environment. The modeling efforts have shown water savings of about 40% from the investigated system reinstating that the system presents an alternative water source worth exploring in an urban environment.

面向生态的陕西省渭河流域水资源合理配置%Ecology-Oriented Rational Allocation of Water Resources of Weihe River Basin in Shaanxi Province

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

孙甜; 董增川; 苏明珍

2015-01-01

结合陕西省渭河流域的水资源开发利用现状，对其水资源优化管理进行研究。通过分析流域社会经济发展的特点及生态环境形势，以定额法为基础对2020年流域的生活、生产和生态需水进行了预测。根据系统概化图和配水目标，综合考虑水资源配置中的生态指标、社会指标和经济指标，建立了面向生态的水资源合理配置模型。将混沌优化算法与遗传算法相结合对模型进行求解，结果表明：陕西省渭河流域2020年75％保证率下的缺水率为18．1％。%Combining with the development and utilization of water resources in the Weihe River in Shaanxi Province,this paper discussed the optimal management of water resources. After analyzing the characteristics of socio-economic development and ecological environment, it adopted the quota method as the essential method to forecast the life water demand,production water demand and ecological water demand in 2020. Ecological targets,social and economic targets were the main water distribution objectives. According to the network outline map of the water resources system,considering the demand of ecosystem,it established the reasonable water resources deployment model. Chaos op-timization algorithm and genetic algorithm were combined to solve the model. The results show that the water shortage rate under the condi-tiors of 75% guarantee rate in 2020 is 18. 1% and the gap is still large.

On inclusion of water resource management in Earth system models - Part 1: Problem definition and representation of water demand

Science.gov (United States)

Nazemi, A.; Wheater, H. S.

2015-01-01

Human activities have caused various changes to the Earth system, and hence the interconnections between human activities and the Earth system should be recognized and reflected in models that simulate Earth system processes. One key anthropogenic activity is water resource management, which determines the dynamics of human-water interactions in time and space and controls human livelihoods and economy, including energy and food production. There are immediate needs to include water resource management in Earth system models. First, the extent of human water requirements is increasing rapidly at the global scale and it is crucial to analyze the possible imbalance between water demands and supply under various scenarios of climate change and across various temporal and spatial scales. Second, recent observations show that human-water interactions, manifested through water resource management, can substantially alter the terrestrial water cycle, affect land-atmospheric feedbacks and may further interact with climate and contribute to sea-level change. Due to the importance of water resource management in determining the future of the global water and climate cycles, the World Climate Research Program's Global Energy and Water Exchanges project (WRCP-GEWEX) has recently identified gaps in describing human-water interactions as one of the grand challenges in Earth system modeling (GEWEX, 2012). Here, we divide water resource management into two interdependent elements, related firstly to water demand and secondly to water supply and allocation. In this paper, we survey the current literature on how various components of water demand have been included in large-scale models, in particular land surface and global hydrological models. Issues of water supply and allocation are addressed in a companion paper. The available algorithms to represent the dominant demands are classified based on the demand type, mode of simulation and underlying modeling assumptions. We discuss

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

Science.gov (United States)

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

2017-12-01

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

Balancing food security and water demand for freshwater ecosystems

Science.gov (United States)

Pastor, Amandine; Palazzo, Amanda; Havlik, Petr; Obersteiner, Michael; Biemans, Hester; Wada, Yoshihide; Kabat, Pavel; Ludwig, Fulco

2017-04-01

Water is not an infinite resource and demand from irrigation, household and industry is constantly increasing. This study focused on including global water availability including environmental flow requirements with water withdrawal from irrigation and other sectors at a monthly time-step in the GLOBIOM model. This model allows re-adjustment of land-use allocation, crop management, consumption and international trade. The GLOBIOM model induces an endogenous change in water price depending on water supply and demand. In this study, the focus was on how the inclusion of water resources affects land-use and, in particular, how global change will influence repartition of irrigated and rainfed lands at global scale. We used the climate change scenario including a radiative forcing of 8.5 W/m2 (RCP8.5), the socio-economic scenario (SSP2: middle-of-road), and the environmental flow method based on monthly flow allocation (the Variable Monthly Flow method) with high and low restrictions. Irrigation withdrawals were adjusted to a monthly time-step to account for biophysical water limitations at finer time resolution. Our results show that irrigated land might decrease up to 40% on average depending on the choice of EFR restrictions. Several areas were identified as future hot-spots of water stress such as the Mediterranean and Middle-East regions. Other countries were identified to be in safe position in terms of water stress such as North-European countries. Re-allocation of rainfed and irrigated land might be useful information for land-use planners and water managers at an international level to decide on appropriate legislations on climate change mitigation/adaptation when exposure and sensitivity to climate change is high and/or on adaptation measures to face increasing water demand. For example, some countries are likely to adopt measures to increase their water use efficiencies (irrigation system, soil and water conservation practices) to face water shortages, while

A Framework for Sustainable Urban Water Management through Demand and Supply Forecasting: The Case of Istanbul

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Murat Yalçıntaş

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The metropolitan city of Istanbul is becoming overcrowded and the demand for clean water is steeply rising in the city. The use of analytical approaches has become more and more critical for forecasting the water supply and demand balance in the long run. In this research, Istanbul’s water supply and demand data is collected for the period during 2006 and 2014. Then, using an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA model, the time series water supply and demand forecasting model is constructed for the period between 2015 and 2018. Three important sustainability metrics such as water loss to supply ratio, water loss to demand ratio, and water loss to residential demand ratio are also presented. The findings show that residential water demand is responsible for nearly 80% of total water use and the consumption categories including commercial, industrial, agriculture, outdoor, and others have a lower share in total water demand. The results also show that there is a considerable water loss in the water distribution system which requires significant investments on the water supply networks. Furthermore, the forecasting results indicated that pipeline projects will be critical in the near future due to expected increases in the total water demand of Istanbul. The authors suggest that sustainable management of water can be achieved by reducing the residential water use through the use of water efficient technologies in households and reduction in water supply loss through investments on distribution infrastructure.

Hierarchical prediction of industrial water demand based on refined Laspeyres decomposition analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Shang, Yizi; Lu, Shibao; Gong, Jiaguo; Shang, Ling; Li, Xiaofei; Wei, Yongping; Shi, Hongwang

2017-12-01

A recent study decomposed the changes in industrial water use into three hierarchies (output, technology, and structure) using a refined Laspeyres decomposition model, and found monotonous and exclusive trends in the output and technology hierarchies. Based on that research, this study proposes a hierarchical prediction approach to forecast future industrial water demand. Three water demand scenarios (high, medium, and low) were then established based on potential future industrial structural adjustments, and used to predict water demand for the structural hierarchy. The predictive results of this approach were compared with results from a grey prediction model (GPM (1, 1)). The comparison shows that the results of the two approaches were basically identical, differing by less than 10%. Taking Tianjin, China, as a case, and using data from 2003-2012, this study predicts that industrial water demand will continuously increase, reaching 580 million m 3 , 776.4 million m 3 , and approximately 1.09 billion m 3 by the years 2015, 2020 and 2025 respectively. It is concluded that Tianjin will soon face another water crisis if no immediate measures are taken. This study recommends that Tianjin adjust its industrial structure with water savings as the main objective, and actively seek new sources of water to increase its supply.

Analysis of Water Resources Supply and Demand and Security of Water Resources Development in Irrigation Regions of the Middle Reaches of the Heihe River Basin, Northwest China

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

JI Xi-bin; KANG Er-si; CHEN Ren-sheng; ZHAO Wen-zhi; XIAO Sheng-chun; JIN Bo-wen

2006-01-01

Based on the data for meteorology, hydrology, soil, planting, vegetation, and socio-economic development of the irrigation region in the middle reaches of the Heihe River basin, Northwest China, the model of balance of water supply and demand in the region was established, and the security of water resource was assessed, from which the results that the effects of unified management of water resources in the Heihe River basin between Gansu Province and Inner Mongolia on regional hydrology are significant with a decrease in water supply diverted from Heihe River and an increase in groundwater extracted. In addition, it was found that the groundwater level has been steadily decreasing due to over pumping and decrease in recharges. In present year (2003), the volume of potential groundwater in the irrigation districts is far small because of the groundwater overdraft; even in the particular regions, there is no availability of groundwater resources for use. By 2003, water supply is not sufficient to meet the water demand in the different irrigation districts, the sustainable development and utilization of water resources are not secured, and the water supply crisis occurs in Pingchuan irrigation district. Achieving water security for the sustainable development of society, agriculture, economy, industry, and livelihoods while maintaining or improving the abilities of the management and planning of water resources, determining of the reasonable percentage between water supply and groundwater utilization and water saving in agricultural irrigation are taken into account. If this does not occur, it is feared that the present performance of water development and planning may further aggravate the problem of scarcities of water resources and further damage the fragile ecological system.

Economic concepts to address future water supply-demand imbalances in Iran, Morocco and Saudi Arabia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hellegers, P.J.G.J.; Immerzeel, W.; Droogers, P.

2013-01-01

In Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries, renewable groundwater and surface water supply are limited while demand for water is growing rapidly. Climate change is expected to increase water demand even further. The main aim of this paper is to evaluate the water supply–demand imbalances in

Water stress as a trigger of demand change: exploring the implications for drought planning

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia, M. E.; Islam, S.; Portney, K. E.

2015-12-01

Drought in the Anthropocene is a function of both supply and demand. Despite its importance, demand is typically incorporated into planning models exogenously using a single scenario of demand change over time. Alternatively, demand is incorporated endogenously in hydro-economic models based on the assumption of rationality. However, actors are constrained by limited information and information processing capabilities, casting doubt on the rationality assumption. Though the risk of water shortage changes incrementally with demand growth and hydrologic change, significant shifts in management are punctuated and often linked to periods of stress. The observation of lasting decreases in per capita demands in a number of cities during periods of water stress prompts an alternate hypothesis: the occurrence of water stress increases the tendency of cities to promote and enforce efficient technologies and behaviors and the tendency of users to adopt them. We show the relevance of this hypothesis by building a model of a hypothetical surface water system to answer the following question: what is the impact of reservoir operation policy on the reliability of water supply for a growing city? The model links the rate of demand decreases to the past reliability to compare standard operating policy (SOP) with hedging policy (HP). Under SOP, demand is fulfilled unless available supply drops below demand; under HP, water releases are reduced in anticipation of a deficit to decrease the risk of a large shortfall. The model shows that reservoir storage acts both as a buffer for variability and as a delay triggering oscillations around a sustainable level of demand. HP reduces the threshold for action thereby decreasing the delay and the oscillation effect. As a result per capita demand decrease during periods of water stress are more frequent but less drastic and the additive effect of small adjustments decreases the tendency of the system to overshoot available supplies.

Assessing GHG emissions, ecological footprint, and water linkage for different fuels.

Science.gov (United States)

Chavez-Rodriguez, Mauro F; Nebra, Silvia A

2010-12-15

Currently, transport is highly dependent on fossil fuels and responsible for about 23% of world energy-related GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions. Ethanol from sugar cane and corn emerges as an alternative for gasoline in order to mitigate GHG emissions. Additionally, deeper offshore drilling projects such as in the Brazilian Pre-Salt reservoirs and mining projects of nonconventional sources like Tar Sands in Canada could be a solution for supplying demand of fossil fuels in the short and midterm. Based on updated literature, this paper presents an assessment of GHG emissions for four different fuels: ethanol from sugar cane and from corn and gasoline from conventional crude oil and from tar sands. An Ecological Footprint analysis is also presented, which shows that ethanol from sugar cane has the lowest GHG emissions and requires the lowest biocapacity per unit of energy produced among these fuels. Finally, an analysis using the Embodied Water concept is made with the introduction of a new concept, the "CO(2)-Water", to illustrate the impacts of releasing carbon from underground to atmosphere and of the water needed to sequestrate it over the life cycle of the assessed fuels. Using this method resulted that gasoline from fossil fuels would indirectly "require" on average as much water as ethanol from sugar cane per unit of fuel energy produced.

Residential water demand and water consumption: an econometric analysis on municipal panel data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Musolesi, Antonio; Nosvelli, Mario

2005-01-01

This paper focuses on residential water demand estimation, a rather neglected issue in the Italian environmental economics literature as compared to other European countries and the USA. This may depend on the difficulties in gathering proper data and, most of all, panel data. In some cases statistical information are not suitably collected, while in other cases legal privacy ties put some obstacles to data set transfer. Our panel data set refers to 102 municipalities in Lombardy (Italy) for the period 1998-2002. When estimating the effect of water price, we control for other relevant variables such as: income, households demographical variables - (age structure, number of component for each family) number of firms in tertiary sector, water system length. In the considered period, the data show both an increase in population (1,5 %) and in the number of water consumers (7%) associated, on aggregate, with a slight reduction in water consumption (-1,1 %). Water demand models are estimated both in a static and in a dynamic framework. In the former, the emphasis is set on the sources of endogeneity in the average price by estimating a system of simultaneous equations and relevant variables for assessing consumer behaviour - such as socio demographic ones - are incorporated in the model. In the latter, econometric methods especially designed for endogeneity in panel data models (Arellano e Bond, 1991), are employed in order to estimate the long run elasticity of water demand with respect to average price. We find evidence both that consumers significantly respond to average price only in the long run with an elasticity of about - 0,3-0,4 and that income and demographic variables are crucial in explaining consumers' behaviour. Furthermore, water consumption presents a strong auto-regressive component, showing the emergence of inertia and path dependency in consumption habits. Such results suggest important implications for water policy planning. On one side demographic

Modelling global water stress of the recent past: on the relative importance of trends in water demand and climate variability

Science.gov (United States)

Wada, Y.; van Beek, L. P. H.; Bierkens, M. F. P.

2011-12-01

During the past decades, human water use has more than doubled, yet available freshwater resources are finite. As a result, water scarcity has been prevalent in various regions of the world. Here, we present the first global assessment of past development of water stress considering not only climate variability but also growing water demand, desalinated water use and non-renewable groundwater abstraction over the period 1960-2001 at a spatial resolution of 0.5°. Agricultural water demand is estimated based on past extents of irrigated areas and livestock densities. We approximate past economic development based on GDP, energy and household consumption and electricity production, which are subsequently used together with population numbers to estimate industrial and domestic water demand. Climate variability is expressed by simulated blue water availability defined by freshwater in rivers, lakes, wetlands and reservoirs by means of the global hydrological model PCR-GLOBWB. We thus define blue water stress by comparing blue water availability with corresponding net total blue water demand by means of the commonly used, Water Scarcity Index. The results show a drastic increase in the global population living under water-stressed conditions (i.e. moderate to high water stress) due to growing water demand, primarily for irrigation, which has more than doubled from 1708/818 to 3708/1832 km3 yr-1 (gross/net) over the period 1960-2000. We estimate that 800 million people or 27% of the global population were living under water-stressed conditions for 1960. This number is eventually increased to 2.6 billion or 43% for 2000. Our results indicate that increased water demand is a decisive factor for heightened water stress in various regions such as India and North China, enhancing the intensity of water stress up to 200%, while climate variability is often a main determinant of extreme events. However, our results also suggest that in several emerging and developing economies

Forecasting Hourly Water Demands With Seasonal Autoregressive Models for Real-Time Application

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Jinduan; Boccelli, Dominic L.

2018-02-01

Consumer water demands are not typically measured at temporal or spatial scales adequate to support real-time decision making, and recent approaches for estimating unobserved demands using observed hydraulic measurements are generally not capable of forecasting demands and uncertainty information. While time series modeling has shown promise for representing total system demands, these models have generally not been evaluated at spatial scales appropriate for representative real-time modeling. This study investigates the use of a double-seasonal time series model to capture daily and weekly autocorrelations to both total system demands and regional aggregated demands at a scale that would capture demand variability across a distribution system. Emphasis was placed on the ability to forecast demands and quantify uncertainties with results compared to traditional time series pattern-based demand models as well as nonseasonal and single-seasonal time series models. Additional research included the implementation of an adaptive-parameter estimation scheme to update the time series model when unobserved changes occurred in the system. For two case studies, results showed that (1) for the smaller-scale aggregated water demands, the log-transformed time series model resulted in improved forecasts, (2) the double-seasonal model outperformed other models in terms of forecasting errors, and (3) the adaptive adjustment of parameters during forecasting improved the accuracy of the generated prediction intervals. These results illustrate the capabilities of time series modeling to forecast both water demands and uncertainty estimates at spatial scales commensurate for real-time modeling applications and provide a foundation for developing a real-time integrated demand-hydraulic model.

Deconstructing Demand: The Anthropogenic and Climatic Drivers of Urban Water Consumption.

Science.gov (United States)

Hemati, Azadeh; Rippy, Megan A; Grant, Stanley B; Davis, Kristen; Feldman, David

2016-12-06

Cities in drought prone regions of the world such as South East Australia are faced with escalating water scarcity and security challenges. Here we use 72 years of urban water consumption data from Melbourne, Australia, a city that recently overcame a 12 year "Millennium Drought", to evaluate (1) the relative importance of climatic and anthropogenic drivers of urban water demand (using wavelet-based approaches) and (2) the relative contribution of various water saving strategies to demand reduction during the Millennium Drought. Our analysis points to conservation as a dominant driver of urban water savings (69%), followed by nonrevenue water reduction (e.g., reduced meter error and leaks in the potable distribution system; 29%), and potable substitution with alternative sources like rain or recycled water (3%). Per-capita consumption exhibited both climatic and anthropogenic signatures, with rainfall and temperature explaining approximately 55% of the variance. Anthropogenic controls were also strong (up to 45% variance explained). These controls were nonstationary and frequency-specific, with conservation measures like outdoor water restrictions impacting seasonal water use and technological innovation/changing social norms impacting lower frequency (baseline) use. The above-noted nonstationarity implies that wavelets, which do not assume stationarity, show promise for use in future predictive models of demand.

Evaluation of sea water chlorine demand in condenser cooling water at TAPS 1 and 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Papachan, Deepa; Gupta, P.K.; Patil, D.P.; Save, C.B.; Anilkumar, K.R.

2008-01-01

To prevent microbiological growth in the condenser tubes, condenser cooling water chlorination is very important. For effective chlorination, chlorine dose rate and frequency of dosing has to be determined on the basis of sea water chlorine demand. TAPS 1 and 2 is located near Arabian sea and draws water from this sea for its condenser cooling. The present practice of chlorine dosing at TAPS 1 and 2, based on the analysis carried out by GE in 1969, is 2500 kg/day/CWpump and 90 kg/day/SSWpump for a contact period of 25 minutes. Normal frequency of dosing is once per 8 hour and booster dose is once in a week at the same rate for 1 hour. The criteria of effective chlorination is to get residual chlorine of 2-3 ppm at the condenser water box outlet during chlorination at water box inlet/CW pump suction header in the recommended dose rate. The other option of chlorination was continuous dosing to get 0.5 ppm residual chlorine. This option has its own limitations as it is more expensive and also that micro organisms get immune to chlorine eventually due to continuous dosing. Nevertheless higher chlorine dosing is detrimental to AI-brass condenser tubes. Therefore the second option was not adopted at TAPS 1 and 2. Tarapur Atomic Power Station-1 is in the process of replacement of condenser tubes due to frequent condenser tube failures in the recent years. It was essential to analyse the present sea water chlorine demand and re-determine the chlorine dose rate because of development of industries under Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) and simultaneous population growth around this area over a period of three decades. This paper discusses the experimental observations regarding significant change in sea water chlorine demand over this period and the effect of seasonal changes on sea water chlorine demand. (author)

Correlation Analysis of Water Demand and Predictive Variables for Short-Term Forecasting Models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. M. Brentan

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Operational and economic aspects of water distribution make water demand forecasting paramount for water distribution systems (WDSs management. However, water demand introduces high levels of uncertainty in WDS hydraulic models. As a result, there is growing interest in developing accurate methodologies for water demand forecasting. Several mathematical models can serve this purpose. One crucial aspect is the use of suitable predictive variables. The most used predictive variables involve weather and social aspects. To improve the interrelation knowledge between water demand and various predictive variables, this study applies three algorithms, namely, classical Principal Component Analysis (PCA and machine learning powerful algorithms such as Self-Organizing Maps (SOMs and Random Forest (RF. We show that these last algorithms help corroborate the results found by PCA, while they are able to unveil hidden features for PCA, due to their ability to cope with nonlinearities. This paper presents a correlation study of three district metered areas (DMAs from Franca, a Brazilian city, exploring weather and social variables to improve the knowledge of residential demand for water. For the three DMAs, temperature, relative humidity, and hour of the day appear to be the most important predictive variables to build an accurate regression model.

Development of water demand coefficients for power generation from renewable energy technologies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ali, Babkir; Kumar, Amit

2017-01-01

Highlights: • Water consumption and withdrawals coefficients for renewable power generation were developed. • Six renewable energy sources (biomass, nuclear, solar, wind, hydroelectricity, and geothermal) were studied. • Life cycle water footprints for 60 electricity generation pathways were considered. • Impact of cooling systems for some power generation pathways was assessed. - Abstract: Renewable energy technology-based power generation is considered to be environmentally friendly and to have a low life cycle greenhouse gas emissions footprint. However, the life cycle water footprint of renewable energy technology-based power generation needs to be assessed. The objective of this study is to develop life cycle water footprints for renewable energy technology-based power generation pathways. Water demand is evaluated through consumption and withdrawals coefficients developed in this study. Sixty renewable energy technology-based power generation pathways were developed for a comprehensive comparative assessment of water footprints. The pathways were based on the use of biomass, nuclear, solar, wind, hydroelectricity, and geothermal as the source of energy. During the complete life cycle, power generation from bio-oil extracted from wood chips, a biomass source, was found to have the highest water demand footprint and wind power the lowest. During the complete life cycle, the water demand coefficients for biomass-based power generation pathways range from 260 to 1289 l of water per kilowatt hour and for nuclear energy pathways from 0.48 to 179 l of water per kilowatt hour. The water demand for power generation from solar energy-based pathways ranges from 0.02 to 4.39 l of water per kilowatt hour, for geothermal pathways from 0.04 to 1.94 l of water per kilowatt hour, and for wind from 0.005 to 0.104 l of water per kilowatt hour. A sensitivity analysis was conducted with varying conversion efficiencies to evaluate the impact of power plant performance on

Water Demand Management for Social Justice | IDRC - International ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2012-01-18

Jan 18, 2012 ... Water Demand Management for Social Justice ... Women play larger role in Latin America's commercial urban waste management ... the management of solid waste in Latin America, according to research supported by IDRC.

Assessing the impacts of combined climate and land use changes for water availability and demands in a Mediterranean watershed.

Science.gov (United States)

Jacinto, Rita; Nunes, João Pedro; Santos, Juliana

2014-05-01

framework will also allow an analysis of the socio-ecological impacts of past severe droughts for the 2005 and 2012 episodes, the consequences of which can be extrapolated for the future considering the lower water availability and higher demands. This work will provide insights on the different impacts of climate and land-use on hydrological processes, water availability and demand in this region, as well as provide useful information for future water management strategies, particularly the water transfers needed to adapt to global change.

The development of a municipal water conservation and demand ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The implementation of water conservation and water demand management ... and the municipalities do not have the necessary financial, technical and institutional capacity to support such a ... The methodology for this study was developed as part of the ... Study' for the Vaal River system (DWAF, 2006; DWAF, 2009).

The determinants of domestic water demand. Empirical evidence from Emilia-Romagna municipal data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mazzanti, Massimiliano; Montini, Anna

2004-01-01

This paper presents empirical evidence on the determinants of water demand for domestic use in one Italian region, the Emilia Romagna, by using municipal data. Two main stems in urban/domestic demand analysis cab be found in the empirical literature. The first deals with the estimation of price or income demand elasticities in the short and the long run. The price demand elasticities can be used for water demand managements purpose while the income price elasticities can be useful in the forecasting process of the water requirements. The second one deals with the estimate of customer willingness to pay increasing in water service quality in holistic sense or concerning single characteristics of the service: safety, flavour, continuity, appearance, pollution rate and cost. The aim of the analysis in this case the elicitation of the direct use, indirect use and non-use values associated to the water resource consumption, by means of direct or indirect techniques. In this paper we focused the analysis in the first stem of the empirical literature in which a cross section data set is required. The paper explores the topic problems of the estimating process whit the analysis of the empirical literature (with particular regard to investigations that use municipal data) and with the analysis of the econometric problems related to the demand estimate. The theoretical model for the water demand analysis is also presented and discussed. Two datasets have been implemented: one with 125 municipalities and four years, the other with 40 municipalities and eleven years. Both the databases bring together municipal water consumption and tariffs data provided by local water utilities and other municipal data (inhabitants, surface, household, income, etc.) stemming from official sources. The econometric analysis is based on both fixed effects, performing better than random effects models, and dynamic panel models. The estimated coefficient of the tariff variable arises always

Evaluating Outdoor Water Use Demand under Changing Climatic and Demographic Conditions: An Agent-based Modeling Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Kanta, L.; Berglund, E. Z.; Soh, M. H.

2017-12-01

Outdoor water-use for landscape and irrigation constitutes a significant end-use in total residential water demand. In periods of water shortages, utilities may reduce garden demands by implementing irrigation system audits, rebate programs, local ordinances, and voluntary or mandatory water-use restrictions. Because utilities do not typically record outdoor and indoor water-uses separately, the effects of policies for reducing garden demands cannot be readily calculated. The volume of water required to meet garden demands depends on the housing density, lawn size, type of vegetation, climatic conditions, efficiency of garden irrigation systems, and consumer water-use behaviors. Many existing outdoor demand estimation methods are deterministic and do not include consumer responses to conservation campaigns. In addition, mandatory restrictions may have a substantial impact on reducing outdoor demands, but the effectiveness of mandatory restrictions depends on the timing and the frequency of restrictions, in addition to the distribution of housing density and consumer types within a community. This research investigates a garden end-use model by coupling an agent-based modeling approach and a mechanistic-stochastic water demand model to create a methodology for estimating garden demand and evaluating demand reduction policies. The garden demand model is developed for two water utilities, using a diverse data sets, including residential customer billing records, outdoor conservation programs, frequency and type of mandatory water-use restrictions, lot size distribution, population growth, and climatic data. A set of garden irrigation parameter values, which are based on the efficiency of irrigation systems and irrigation habits of consumers, are determined for a set of conservation ordinances and restrictions. The model parameters are then validated using customer water usage data from the participating water utilities. A sensitivity analysis is conducted for garden

Linking Bayesian and agent-based models to simulate complex social-ecological systems in semi-arid regions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aloah J Pope

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Interdependencies of ecologic, hydrologic, and social systems challenge traditional approaches to natural resource management in semi-arid regions. As a complex social-ecological system, water demands in the Sonoran Desert from agricultural and urban users often conflicts with water needs for its ecologically-significant riparian corridors. To explore this system, we developed an agent-based model to simulate complex feedbacks between human decisions and environmental conditions in the Rio Sonora Watershed. Cognitive mapping in conjunction with stakeholder participation produced a Bayesian model of conditional probabilities of local human decision-making processes resulting to changes in water demand. Probabilities created in the Bayesian model were incorporated into the agent-based model, so that each agent had a unique probability to make a positive decision based on its perceived environment at each point in time and space. By using a Bayesian approach, uncertainty in the human decision-making process could be incorporated. The spatially-explicit agent-based model simulated changes in depth-to-groundwater by well pumping based on an agent’s water demand. Changes in depth-to-groundwater feedback to influence agent behavior, as well as determine unique vegetation classes within the riparian corridor. Each vegetation class then provides varying stakeholder-defined quality values of ecosystem services. Using this modeling approach allowed us to examine effects on both the ecological and social system of semi-arid riparian corridors under various scenarios. The insight provided by the model contributes to understanding how specific interventions may alter the complex social-ecological system in the future.

Dynamic modelling of a PV pumping system with special consideration on water demand

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Campana, Pietro Elia; Li, Hailong; Yan, Jinyue

2013-01-01

Highlights: ► Evaluation of water demand and solar energy is essential for PV pumping system. ► The design for a PV water pumping system has been optimized based on dynamic simulations. ► It is important to conduct dynamic simulations to check the matching between water demand and water supply. ► AC pump driven by the fixed PV array is the most cost-effective solution. - Abstract: The exploitation of solar energy in remote areas through photovoltaic (PV) systems is an attractive solution for water pumping for irrigation systems. The design of a photovoltaic water pumping system (PVWPS) strictly depends on the estimation of the crop water requirements and land use since the water demand varies during the watering season and the solar irradiation changes time by time. It is of significance to conduct dynamic simulations in order to achieve the successful and optimal design. The aim of this paper is to develop a dynamic modelling tool for the design of a of photovoltaic water pumping system by combining the models of the water demand, the solar PV power and the pumping system, which can be used to validate the design procedure in terms of matching between water demand and water supply. Both alternate current (AC) and direct current (DC) pumps and both fixed and two-axis tracking PV array were analyzed. The tool has been applied in a case study. Results show that it has the ability to do rapid design and optimization of PV water pumping system by reducing the power peak and selecting the proper devices from both technical and economic viewpoints. Among the different alternatives considered in this study, the AC fixed system represented the best cost effective solution

Combined desalination, water reuse, and aquifer storage and recovery to meet water supply demands in the GCC/MENA region

KAUST Repository

Ghaffour, Noreddine

2013-01-01

Desalination is no longer considered as a nonconventional resource to supply potable water in several countries, especially in the Gulf Corporation Countries (GCC) and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as most of the big cities rely almost 100% on desalinated water for their supply. Due to the continuous increase in water demand, more large-scale plants are expected to be constructed in the region. However, most of the large cities in these countries have very limited water storage capacity, ranging from hours to a few days only and their groundwater capacity is very limited. The growing need for fresh water has led to significant cost reduction, because of technological improvements of desalination technologies which makes it an attractive option for water supply even in countries where desalination was unthinkable in the past. In the GCC/MENA region, operating records show that water demand is relatively constant during the year, while power demand varies considerably with a high peak in the summer season. However, desalination and power plants are economically and technically efficient only if they are fully operated at close to full capacity. In addition, desalination plants are exposed to external constraints leading to unexpected shutdowns (e.g. red tides). Hybridization of different technologies, including reverse osmosis and thermal-based plants, is used to balance the power to water mismatch in the demand by using the idle power from co-generation systems during low power demand periods. This has led to consideration of storage of additional desalinated water to allow for maximum production and stability in operation. Aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) would then be a good option to store the surplus of desalinated water which could be used when water demand is high or during unexpected shutdowns of desalination plants. In addition, increased reuse of treated wastewater could bring an integrated approach to water resources management. In this

Demand-driven water withdrawals by Chinese industry: a multi-regional input-output analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Bo; Chen, Z. M.; Zeng, L.; Qiao, H.; Chen, B.

2016-03-01

With ever increasing water demands and the continuous intensification of water scarcity arising from China's industrialization, the country is struggling to harmonize its industrial development and water supply. This paper presents a systems analysis of water withdrawals by Chinese industry and investigates demand-driven industrial water uses embodied in final demand and interregional trade based on a multi-regional input-output model. In 2007, the Electric Power, Steam, and Hot Water Production and Supply sector ranks first in direct industrial water withdrawal (DWW), and Construction has the largest embodied industrial water use (EWU). Investment, consumption, and exports contribute to 34.6%, 33.3%, and 30.6% of the national total EWU, respectively. Specifically, 58.0%, 51.1%, 48.6%, 43.3%, and 37.5% of the regional EWUs respectively in Guangdong, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Fujian are attributed to international exports. The total interregional import/export of embodied water is equivalent to about 40% of the national total DWW, of which 55.5% is associated with the DWWs of Electric Power, Steam, and Hot Water Production and Supply. Jiangsu is the biggest interregional exporter and deficit receiver of embodied water, in contrast to Guangdong as the biggest interregional importer and surplus receiver. Without implementing effective water-saving measures and adjusting industrial structures, the regional imbalance between water availability and water demand tends to intensify considering the water impact of domestic trade of industrial products. Steps taken to improve water use efficiency in production, and to enhance embodied water saving in consumption are both of great significance for supporting China's water policies.

Have Chinese water pricing reforms reduced urban residential water demand?

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, B.; Fang, K. H.; Baerenklau, K. A.

2017-06-01

China continues to deal with severe levels of water scarcity and water pollution. To help address this situation, the Chinese central government initiated urban water pricing reforms in 2002 that emphasized the adoption of increasing block rate (IBR) price structures in place of existing uniform rate structures. By combining urban water use records with microlevel data from the Chinese Urban Household Survey, this research investigates the effectiveness of this national policy reform. Specifically, we compare household water consumption in 28 cities that adopted IBR pricing structures during 2002-2009, with that of 110 cities that had not yet done so. Based on difference-in-differences models, our results show that the policy reform reduced annual residential water demand by 3-4% in the short run and 5% in the longer run. These relatively modest reductions are consistent with the generous nature of the IBR pricing structures that Chinese cities have typically chosen to implement. Our results imply that more efforts are needed to address China's persistent urban water scarcity challenges.

Estimating the Determinants of Residential Water Demand in Italy

OpenAIRE

Giulia Romano; Nicola Salvati; Andrea Guerrini

2014-01-01

The aim of this study was to estimate the determinants of residential water demand for chief towns of every Italian province, in the period 2007–2009, using the linear mixed-effects model estimated with the restricted-maximum-likelihood method. Results confirmed that the applied tariff had a negative effect on residential water consumption and that it was a relevant driver of domestic water consumption. Moreover, income per capita had a positive effect on water consumption. Among measured cli...

Water demand studies. [central and southern California regions

Science.gov (United States)

Bowden, L. W.; Estes, J. E.; Churchman, C. W.; Johnson, C. W.; Huning, J. R.; Rozelle, K.; Hamilton, J.; Washburn, G.; Tinney, L. R.; Thaman, R. R.

1973-01-01

The areas of focus of the Santa Barbara and Riverside groups in conducting water demand studies are the central and southern California regional test sites, respectively. Within each test site, sub-areas have been selected for use in the making of detailed investigations. Within each of these sub-areas an in-depth evaluation is being made as to the capability of remote sensing systems to provide pertinent data relative to water demand phenomena. These more limited sub-areas are: (1) Kern County and the San Joaquin Basin; (2) Chino-Riverside Basin; and (3) the Imperial Valley. Rational for the selection of these subareas included the following: Much of the previous remote sensing research had been conducted in these areas and therefore a great deal of remote sensing imagery and pertinent ground truth for the areas was already available.

A new framework for assessing river ecosystem health with consideration of human service demand.

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Zengliang; Zuo, Qiting; Shao, Quanxi

2018-06-01

In order to study river health status from harmonic relationship between human and natural environment, a river health evaluation method was proposed from the aspects of ecosystem integrity and human service demand, and the understanding of river health connotation. The proposed method is based on the harmony theory and two types of river health assessment methods (the forecasting model and index evaluation). A new framework for assessing river water health was then formed from the perspective of harmony and dynamic evolution between human service demand and river ecosystem integrity. As a case study, the method and framework were applied to the Shaying River Basin, a tributary of the most polluted Huaihe River Basin in China. The health status of the river's ecosystem and its effect on the mainstream of Huaihe River were evaluated based on water ecological experiment. The results indicated that: (1) the water ecological environment in Shaying River was generally poor and showed a gradual changing pattern along the river. The river health levels were generally "medium" in the upstream but mostly "sub-disease" in the midstream and downstream, indicating that the water pollution in Shaying River were mainly concentrated in the midstream and downstream; (2) the water pollution of Shaying River had great influence on the ecosystem of Huaihe River, and the main influencing factors were TN, followed by TP and COD Mn ; (3) the natural attribute of river was transferring toward to the direction of socialization due to the increasing human activities. The stronger the human activity intervention is, the faster the transfer will be and the more river's attributes will match with human service demand. The proposed framework contributes to the research in water ecology and environment management, and the research results can serve as an important reference for basin management in Shaying River and Huaihe River. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Comprehensive Forecast of Urban Water-Energy Demand Based on a Neural Network Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ziyi Yin

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Water-energy nexus has been a popular topic of rese arch in recent years. The relationships between the demand for water resources and energy are intense and closely connected in urban areas. The primary, secondary, and tertiary industry gross domestic product (GDP, the total population, the urban population, annual precipitation, agricultural and industrial water consumption, tap water supply, the total discharge of industrial wastewater, the daily sewage treatment capacity, total and domestic electricity consumption, and the consumption of coal in industrial enterprises above the designed size were chosen as input indicators. A feedforward artificial neural network model (ANN based on a back-propagation algorithm with two hidden layers was constructed to combine urban water resources with energy demand. This model used historical data from 1991 to 2016 from Wuxi City, eastern China. Furthermore, a multiple linear regression model (MLR was introduced for comparison with the ANN. The results show the following: (a The mean relative error values of the forecast and historical urban water-energy demands are 1.58 % and 2.71%, respectively; (b The predicted water-energy demand value for 2020 is 4.843 billion cubic meters and 47.561 million tons of standard coal equivalent; (c The predicted water-energy demand value in the year 2030 is 5.887 billion cubic meters and 60.355 million tons of standard coal equivalent; (d Compared with the MLR, the ANN performed better in fitting training data, which achieved a more satisfactory accuracy and may provide a reference for urban water-energy supply planning decisions.

Applying Place-Based Social-Ecological Research to Address Water Scarcity: Insights for Future Research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonio J. Castro

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Globally, environmental and social change in water-scarce regions challenge the sustainability of social-ecological systems. WaterSES, a sponsored working group within the Program for Ecosystem Change and Society, explores and compares the social-ecological dynamics related to water scarcity across placed-based international research sites with contrasting local and regional water needs and governance, including research sites in Spain and Sweden in Europe, South Africa, China, and Alabama, Idaho, Oklahoma, and Texas in the USA. This paper aims to provide a commentary on insights into conducting future solutions-oriented research on water scarcity based on the understanding of the social-ecological dynamics of water scarce regions.

A novel approach for examining future US domestic water demand

Science.gov (United States)

Costs of repairing and expanding aging infrastructure and competing demands for water from other sectors such as industry and agriculture are stretching policy makers’ abilities to meet essential domestic drinking water needs for future generations. Using Bayesian statistic...

Electric Water Heater Modeling and Control Strategies for Demand Response

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Diao, Ruisheng; Lu, Shuai; Elizondo, Marcelo A.; Mayhorn, Ebony T.; Zhang, Yu; Samaan, Nader A.

2012-07-22

Abstract— Demand response (DR) has a great potential to provide balancing services at normal operating conditions and emergency support when a power system is subject to disturbances. Effective control strategies can significantly relieve the balancing burden of conventional generators and reduce investment on generation and transmission expansion. This paper is aimed at modeling electric water heaters (EWH) in households and tests their response to control strategies to implement DR. The open-loop response of EWH to a centralized signal is studied by adjusting temperature settings to provide regulation services; and two types of decentralized controllers are tested to provide frequency support following generator trips. EWH models are included in a simulation platform in DIgSILENT to perform electromechanical simulation, which contains 147 households in a distribution feeder. Simulation results show the dependence of EWH response on water heater usage . These results provide insight suggestions on the need of control strategies to achieve better performance for demand response implementation. Index Terms— Centralized control, decentralized control, demand response, electrical water heater, smart grid

Environmental and ecological water requirement of river system: a case study of Haihe-Luanhe river system

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

无

2001-01-01

In order to reduce the environmental and ecological problems induced by water resources development and utilization, this paper proposes a concept of environmental and ecological water requirement. It is defined as the minimum water amount to be consumed by the natural water bodies to conserve its environmental and ecological functions. Based on the definition, the methods on calculating the amount of environmental and ecological water requirement are determined. In the case study on Haihe-Luanhe river system, the water requirement is divided into three parts, i.e., the basic in-stream flow, water requirement for sediment transfer and water consumption by evaporation of the lakes or everglades. The results of the calculation show that the environmental and ecological water requirement in the river system is about 124×108 m3, including 57×108 m3 for basic in-stream flow, 63×108m3 for sediment transfer and 4×l08m3 for net evaporation loss of lakes. The total amount of environmental and ecological water requirement accounts for 54% of the amount of runoff (228×108 m3). However, it should be realized that the amount of environmental and ecological water requirement must be more than that we have calculated. According to this result, we consider that the rational utilization rate of the runoff in the river systems must not be more than 40%. Since the current utilization rate of the river system, which is over 80%, has been far beyond the limitation, the problems of environment and ecology are quite serious. It is imperative to control and adjust water development and utilization to eliminate the existing problems and to avoid the potential ecological or environmental crisis.

Workshops capacity building for agricultural water demand management; final report

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vehmeijer, P.W.; Wolters, W.

2004-01-01

Agricultural Water Demand Management (AWDM) is at the core of the Water for Food Programme launched as a result of a pledge by the Netherlands' Minister for Agriculture at the 2nd World Water Forum in March 2000, The Hague. One of the projects that was started after the March 2000 pledge was

Modelling global water stress of the recent past: on the relative importance of trends in water demand and climate variability

Science.gov (United States)

Wada, Y.; van Beek, L. P. H.; Bierkens, M. F. P.

2011-08-01

During the past decades, human water use more than doubled, yet available freshwater resources are finite. As a result, water scarcity has been prevalent in various regions of the world. Here, we present the first global assessment of past development of water scarcity considering not only climate variability but also growing water demand, desalinated water use and non-renewable groundwater abstraction over the period 1960-2001 at a spatial resolution of 0.5°. Agricultural water demand is estimated based on past extents of irrigated areas and livestock densities. We approximate past economic development based on GDP, energy and household consumption and electricity production, which is subsequently used together with population numbers to estimate industrial and domestic water demand. Climate variability is expressed by simulated blue water availability defined by freshwater in rivers, lakes and reservoirs by means of the global hydrological model PCR-GLOBWB. The results show a drastic increase in the global population living under water-stressed conditions (i.e., moderate to high water stress) due to the growing water demand, primarily for irrigation, which more than doubled from 1708/818 to 3708/1832 km3 yr-1 (gross/net) over the period 1960-2000. We estimate that 800 million people or 27 % of the global population were under water-stressed conditions for 1960. This number increased to 2.6 billion or 43 % for 2000. Our results indicate that increased water demand is the decisive factor for the heightened water stress, enhancing the intensity of water stress up to 200 %, while climate variability is often the main determinant of onsets for extreme events, i.e. major droughts. However, our results also suggest that in several emerging and developing economies (e.g., India, Turkey, Romania and Cuba) some of the past observed droughts were anthropogenically driven due to increased water demand rather than being climate-induced. In those countries, it can be seen

Eco-environmental impact of inter-basin water transfer projects: a review.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhuang, Wen

2016-07-01

The objective reality of uneven water resource distribution and imbalanced water demand of the human society makes it inevitable to transfer water. It has been an age-old method to adopt the inter-basin water transfers (IBTs) for alleviating and even resolving the urgent demand of the water-deficient areas. A number of countries have made attempts and have achieved enormous benefits. However, IBTs inevitably involve the redistribution of water resources in relevant basins and may cause changes of the ecological environment in different basins. Such changes are two-sided, namely, the positive impacts, including adding new basins for water-deficient areas, facilitating water cycle, improving meteorological conditions in the recipient basins, mitigating ecological water shortage, repairing the damaged ecological system, and preserving the endangered wild fauna and flora, as well as the negative impacts, including salinization and aridification of the donor basins, damage to the ecological environment of the donor basins and the both sides of the conveying channel system, increase of water consumption in the recipient basins, and spread of diseases, etc. Because IBTs have enormous ecological risk, it is necessary to comprehensively analyze the inter-basin water balance relationship, coordinate the possible conflicts and environmental quality problems between regions, and strengthen the argumentation of the ecological risk of water transfer and eco-compensation measures. In addition, there are some effective alternative measures for IBTs, such as attaching importance to water cycle, improving water use efficiency, developing sea water desalination, and rainwater harvesting technology, etc.

Historical effects of CO2 and climate trends on global crop water demand

Science.gov (United States)

Urban, Daniel W.; Sheffield, Justin; Lobell, David B.

2017-12-01

A critical question for agricultural production and food security is how water demand for staple crops will respond to climate and carbon dioxide (CO2) changes1, especially in light of the expected increases in extreme heat exposure2. To quantify the trade-offs between the effects of climate and CO2 on water demand, we use a `sink-strength' model of demand3,4 which relies on the vapour-pressure deficit (VPD), incident radiation and the efficiencies of canopy-radiation use and canopy transpiration; the latter two are both dependent on CO2. This model is applied to a global data set of gridded monthly weather data over the cropping regions of maize, soybean, wheat and rice during the years 1948-2013. We find that this approach agrees well with Penman-Monteith potential evapotranspiration (PM) for the C3 crops of soybean, wheat and rice, where the competing CO2 effects largely cancel each other out, but that water demand in maize is significantly overstated by a demand measure that does not include CO2, such as the PM. We find the largest changes in wheat, for which water demand has increased since 1981 over 86% of the global cropping area and by 2.3-3.6 percentage points per decade in different regions.

Planning for community resilience to future United States domestic water demand

Science.gov (United States)

Costs of repairing and expanding aging infrastructure and competing demands for water from other sectors such as industry and agriculture are stretching water managers’ abilities to meet essential domestic drinking water needs for future generations. Using Bayesian statistical mo...

Household demand for water in Sweden with implications of a potential tax on water use

Science.gov (United States)

HöGlund, Lena

1999-12-01

The purpose of this paper is to estimate empirically the effects of a water tax on water use and on the size and stability of the tax revenues. A tax exceeding value-added tax can be motivated on efficiency grounds when there are environmental external costs of water use and when water is a scarce resource. A household demand function for water is estimated using community level data for 282 (out of 286) Swedish communities studied annually over the period 1980-1992. Static and dynamic demand functions are estimated using panel data methods. The results show a long-run price elasticity of -0.10 in marginal price models and -0.20 in average price models. The findings imply that a tax of 1 Swedish Kronor (SEK) m-3 of water used (corresponding to a 5% increase in the mean average price) would generate ˜600 million SEK in tax revenues per year when levied on all households in Sweden. The water consumption would, however, only be reduced by ˜1%.

A bottom-up approach of stochastic demand allocation in water quality modelling

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Blokker, E.J.M.; Vreeburg, J.H.G.; Beverloo, H.; Klein Arfman, M.; Van Dijk, J.C.

2010-01-01

An “all pipes” hydraulic model of a drinking water distribution system was constructed with two types of demand allocations. One is constructed with the conventional top-down approach, i.e. a demand multiplier pattern from the booster station is allocated to all demand nodes with a correction factor

Combined desalination, water reuse, and aquifer storage and recovery to meet water supply demands in the GCC/MENA region

KAUST Repository

Ghaffour, NorEddine; Missimer, Thomas M.; Amy, Gary L.

2013-01-01

it an attractive option for water supply even in countries where desalination was unthinkable in the past. In the GCC/MENA region, operating records show that water demand is relatively constant during the year, while power demand varies considerably with a high

From hydrological regimes to water use regimes: influence of the type of habitat on drinking water demand dynamics in alpine tourist resorts.

Science.gov (United States)

Calianno, Martin

2017-04-01

In the last decades, integrated water resources management studies produced integrated models that focus mainly on the assessment of water resources and water stress in the future. In some cases, socioeconomic development results to cause more impacts on the evolution of water systems than climate (Reynard et al., 2014). There is thus a need to develop demand-side approaches in the observation and modeling of human-influenced hydrological systems (Grouillet et al., 2015). We define the notion of water use cycle to differentiate water volumes that are withdrawn from the hydrological system and that circulate through anthropic hydro-systems along various steps: withdrawals, distribution, demands, consumption, restitution (Calianno et al., submitted). To address the spatial distribution and the temporal dynamics of the water use cycle, we define the concepts of water use basins and water use regimes (Calianno et al., submitted). The assessment of the temporal variability of water demands is important at thin time steps in touristic areas, where water resource regimes and water demands are highly variable. This is the case for are alpine ski resorts, where the high touristic season (winter) takes place during the low flow period in nival and glacio-nival basins. In this work, a monitoring of drinking water demands was undergone, at high temporal resolution, on different types of buildings in the ski resort of Megève (France). A dataset was created, from which a typology of water demand regimes was extracted. The analysis of these temporal signatures highlighted the factors influencing the volumes and the dynamics of drinking water demand. The main factors are the type of habitat (single family, collective, house, apartment blocks), the presence of a garden or an infrastructure linked to high standing chalets (pool, spa), the proportion of permanent and temporary habitat, the presence of snow in the ski resort. Also, temporalities linked to weekends and weekly tourism

Estimating anthropogenic ecological water stress in the US great lakes region

Science.gov (United States)

Anthropocentric water resources management that prioritizes socio-economic growth can cause harmful ecological water stress by depriving aquatic ecosystems of the water needed to sustain habitats. It is important to better understand the impacts of water withdrawal by different economic sectors (e.g...

Water availability, water quality water governance: the future ahead

Science.gov (United States)

Tundisi, J. G.; Matsumura-Tundisi, T.; Ciminelli, V. S.; Barbosa, F. A.

2015-04-01

The major challenge for achieving a sustainable future for water resources and water security is the integration of water availability, water quality and water governance. Water is unevenly distributed on Planet Earth and these disparities are cause of several economic, ecological and social differences in the societies of many countries and regions. As a consequence of human misuse, growth of urbanization and soil degradation, water quality is deteriorating continuously. Key components for the maintenance of water quantity and water quality are the vegetation cover of watersheds, reduction of the demand and new water governance that includes integrated management, predictive evaluation of impacts, and ecosystem services. Future research needs are discussed.

[Dynamic changes of ecological footprint and ecological capacity in Fujian Province].

Science.gov (United States)

Weng, Boqi; Wang, Yixiang; Huang, Yibin; Ying, Zhaoyang; Huang, Qinlou

2006-11-01

The analysis on the dynamic changes of ecological footprint and ecological capacity in Fujian Province showed that in 1999-2003, the ecological footprint per capita in the Province increased from 1.428 hm2 to 1.658 hm2, while the ecological capacity per capita decreased from 0.683 hm2 to 0.607 hm2, with an increased ecological deficit year after year. The contradiction between the ecological footprint and ecological capacity pricked up gradually, and the ecological environment was at risk. There existed a severe imbalance in the supply and demand of ecological footprint per capita. The main body of the demands was grassland and fossil fuel, accouting for 55.74% - 63.43% of the total, while their supply only occupied 0.77% - 0.82% and next to nothing of the ecological capacity per capita, respectively. As a whole, the ecological footprint per ten thousand yuan GDP declined in the five years, indicating that the resources use efficiency in the Province was improved gradually. Based on the analysis of the present situation of the economic development and resources distribution in the Province, the strategies on reducing ecological deficit were put forward.

Estimating the own-price elasticity of demand for irrigation water in the Musi catchment of India

Science.gov (United States)

Davidson, Brian; Hellegers, Petra

2011-10-01

SummaryAs irrigation water is an input into a production process, its demand must be 'derived'. According to theory, a derived demand schedule should be downward sloping and dependent on the outputs produced from it, the prices of other inputs and the price of the water itself. Problems arise when an attempt is made to estimate the demand for irrigation water and the resulting own-price elasticity of demand, as the uses to which water is put are spatially, temporarily and geographically diverse. Because water is not generally freely traded, what normally passes for an estimate of the own-price elasticity of demand for irrigation water is usually a well argued assumption or an estimate that is derived from a simulation model of a hypothesized producer. Such approaches tend to provide an inadequate explanation of what is an extremely complex and important relationship. An adequate explanation of the relationship between the price and the quantity demanded of water should be one that not only accords with the theoretical expectations, but also accounts for the diversity of products produced from water (which includes the management practices of farmers), the seasons in which it is used and over the region within which it is used. The objective in this article is to present a method of estimating the demand curve for irrigation water. The method uses actual field data which is collated using the Residual Method to determine the value of the marginal product of water deployed over a wide range of crops, seasons and regions. These values of the marginal products, all which must lie of the input demand schedule for water, are then ordered from the highest value to the lowest. Then, the amount of irrigation water used for each product, in each season and in each region is cumulatively summed over the range of uses according to the order of the values of the marginal products. This data, once ordered, is then used to econometrically estimate the demand schedule from which

Understanding the Ecological Adoption of Solar Water Heaters Among Customers of Island Economies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pudaruth Sharmila

2017-04-01

Full Text Available This paper explores the major factors impacting upon the ecological adoption of solar water heaters in Mauritius. The paper applies data reduction technique by using exploratory factor analysis on a sample of 228 respondents and condenses a set of 32 attributes into a list of 8 comprehensible factors impacting upon the sustained adoption of solar water heater in Mauritius. Multiple regression analysis was also conducted to investigate upon the most predictive factor influencing the adoption of solar water heaters in Mauritius. The empirical estimates of the regression analysis have also depicted that the most determining factor pertaining to the ‘government incentives for solar water heaters’ impacts upon the adoption of solar water heaters. These results can be related to sustainable adoption of green energy whereby targeted incentive mechanisms can be formulated with the aim to accelerate and cascade solar energy adoption in emerging economies. A novel conceptual model was also proposed in this paper, whereby, ecological stakeholders in the sustainable arena could use the model as a reference to pave the way to encourage adoption of solar water heating energy. This research represents a different way of understanding ecological customers by developing an expanding on an original scale development for the survey on the ecological adoption of solar water heaters.

Co-Adapting Water Demand and Supply to Changing Climate in Agricultural Water Systems, A Case Study in Northern Italy

Science.gov (United States)

Giuliani, M.; Li, Y.; Mainardi, M.; Arias Munoz, C.; Castelletti, A.; Gandolfi, C.

2013-12-01

Exponentially growing water demands and increasing uncertainties in the hydrologic cycle due to changes in climate and land use will challenge water resources planning and management in the next decade. Improving agricultural productivity is particularly critical, being this sector the one characterized by the highest water demand. Moreover, to meet projected growth in human population and per-capita food demand, agricultural production will have to significantly increase in the next decades, even though water availability is expected to decrease due to climate change impacts. Agricultural systems are called to adapt their strategies (e.g., changing crop patterns and the corresponding water demand, or maximizing the efficiency in the water supply modifying irrigation scheduling and adopting high efficiency irrigation techniques) in order to re-optimize the use of limited water resources. Although many studies have assessed climate change impacts on agricultural practices and water management, most of them assume few scenarios of water demand or water supply separately, while an analysis of their reciprocal feedbacks is still missing. Moreover, current practices are generally established according to historical agreements and normative constraints and, in the absence of dramatic failures, the shift toward more efficient water management is not easily achievable. In this work, we propose to activate an information loop between farmers and water managers to improve the effectiveness of agricultural water management practices by matching the needs of the farmers with the design of water supply strategies. The proposed approach is tested on a real-world case study, namely the Lake Como serving the Muzza-Bassa Lodigiana irrigation district (Italy). A distributed-parameter, dynamic model of the system allows to simulate crop growth and the final yield over a range of hydro-climatic conditions, irrigation strategies and water-related stresses. The spatial component of the

Ecological Risk Assessment in Water Resource Management ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The US EPA published guidelines for the application of ecological risk assessment (ERA) in the USA in 1998 (US EPA 1998). The process diagram derived by Murray and Claassen (1999) in an evaluation of the US EPA framework is discussed in the context of the South African National Water Act. The evaluation discusses ...

The use of particle packing models to design ecological concrete

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fennis, S.A.A.M.; Walraven, J.C.; Den Uijl, J.A.

2009-01-01

Ecological concrete can be designed by replacing cement with fillers. With low amounts of cement it becomes increasingly important to control the water demand of concrete mixtures. In this paper a cyclic design method based on particle packing is presented and evaluated on the basis of experiments

Modeling and Forecasting of Water Demand in Isfahan Using Underlying Trend Concept and Time Series

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. Sadeghi

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Accurate water demand modeling for the city is very important for forecasting and policies adoption related to water resources management. Thus, for future requirements of water estimation, forecasting and modeling, it is important to utilize models with little errors. Water has a special place among the basic human needs, because it not hampers human life. The importance of the issue of water management in the extraction and consumption, it is necessary as a basic need. Municipal water applications is include a variety of water demand for domestic, public, industrial and commercial. Predicting the impact of urban water demand in better planning of water resources in arid and semiarid regions are faced with water restrictions. Materials and Methods: One of the most important factors affecting the changing technological advances in production and demand functions, we must pay special attention to the layout pattern. Technology development is concerned not only technically, but also other aspects such as personal, non-economic factors (population, geographical and social factors can be analyzed. Model examined in this study, a regression model is composed of a series of structural components over time allows changed invisible accidentally. Explanatory variables technology (both crystalline and amorphous in a model according to which the material is said to be better, but because of the lack of measured variables over time can not be entered in the template. Model examined in this study, a regression model is composed of a series of structural component invisible accidentally changed over time allows. In this study, structural time series (STSM and ARMA time series models have been used to model and estimate the water demand in Isfahan. Moreover, in order to find the efficient procedure, both models have been compared to each other. The desired data in this research include water consumption in Isfahan, water price and the monthly pay

Approaches for integrated assessment of ecological and eutrophication status of surface waters in Nordic Countries

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Jesper H.; Aroviita, Jukka; Carstensen, Jacob

2016-01-01

We review approaches and tools currently used in Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) for integrated assessment of ‘ecological status’ sensu the EU Water Framework Directive as well as assessment of ‘eutrophication status’ in coastal and marine waters. Integration principles for...... principles applied within BQEs are critical and in need of harmonisation if we want a better understanding of potential transition in ecological status between surface water types, e.g. when riverine water enters a downstream lake or coastal water body.......We review approaches and tools currently used in Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) for integrated assessment of ‘ecological status’ sensu the EU Water Framework Directive as well as assessment of ‘eutrophication status’ in coastal and marine waters. Integration principles...

Clustering and Support Vector Regression for Water Demand Forecasting and Anomaly Detection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonio Candelieri

2017-03-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a completely data-driven and machine-learning-based approach, in two stages, to first characterize and then forecast hourly water demand in the short term with applications of two different data sources: urban water demand (SCADA data and individual customer water consumption (AMR data. In the first case, reliable forecasting can be used to optimize operations, particularly the pumping schedule, in order to reduce energy-related costs, while in the second case, the comparison between forecast and actual values may support the online detection of anomalies, such as smart meter faults, fraud or possible cyber-physical attacks. Results are presented for a real case: the water distribution network in Milan.

Climate change and water supply and demand in western Canada

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lawford, R.G.

1990-01-01

There is reason to be concerned that water resources on the Canadian Prairies could be at considerable risk due to climatic change. The Canadian Prairies frequently experience variations in the climate, which can reduce crop production by 25-50% and annual volumetric river flows by 70-90%. The potential impacts of climatic change on the Prairies are discussed. Consumptive water uses on the Prairies are dominated by irrigation and the water demands arising from thermal power generation. The overall effect of climatic change on water supplies will depend on the ways in which the various components of the hydrological cycle are affected. At the present time it is unsure whether complementary equations are more realistic in estimating evaporation than mass balance techniques. There is a need to obtain good baseline data which will allow the unequivocal resolution of the most accurate technique for estimating evaporation on the Prairies. Climate change could lead to a decrease in spring runoff, and would also lead to earlier snowmelt and peak flows. This could lead to a longer period of low flows during the summer and fall and a further drawdown of moisture reserves. Some appropriate strategies for adapting to climate change would be: encouraging water conservation; reductions in agricultural water use by developing/utilizing strains of plants with lower water demand; controlling new water developments; and enhancing on-farm retention. 10 refs

A high turndown, ultra low emission low swirl burner for natural gas, on-demand water heaters

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rapp, Vi H. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Cheng, Robert K. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Therkelsen, Peter L. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

2017-06-13

Previous research has shown that on-demand water heaters are, on average, approximately 37% more efficient than storage water heaters. However, approximately 98% of water heaters in the U.S. use storage water heaters while the remaining 2% are on-demand. A major market barrier to deployment of on-demand water heaters is their high retail cost, which is due in part to their reliance on multi-stage burner banks that require complex electronic controls. This project aims to research and develop a cost-effective, efficient, ultra-low emission burner for next generation natural gas on-demand water heaters in residential and commercial buildings. To meet these requirements, researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) are adapting and testing the low-swirl burner (LSB) technology for commercially available on-demand water heaters. In this report, a low-swirl burner is researched, developed, and evaluated to meet targeted on-demand water heater performance metrics. Performance metrics for a new LSB design are identified by characterizing performance of current on-demand water heaters using published literature and technical specifications, and through experimental evaluations that measure fuel consumption and emissions output over a range of operating conditions. Next, target metrics and design criteria for the LSB are used to create six 3D printed prototypes for preliminary investigations. Prototype designs that proved the most promising were fabricated out of metal and tested further to evaluate the LSB’s full performance potential. After conducting a full performance evaluation on two designs, we found that one LSB design is capable of meeting or exceeding almost all the target performance metrics for on-demand water heaters. Specifically, this LSB demonstrated flame stability when operating from 4.07 kBTU/hr up to 204 kBTU/hr (50:1 turndown), compliance with SCAQMD Rule 1146.2 (14 ng/J or 20 ppm NOX @ 3% O2), and lower CO emissions than state

Demand Estimation for Irrigation Water in the Moroccan Drâa Valley using Contingent Valuation

OpenAIRE

Storm, Hugo; Heckelei, Thomas; Heidecke, Claudia

2010-01-01

Irrigation water management is crucial for agricultural production and livelihood security in Morocco as in many other parts of the world. For the implementation of an effective water management knowledge about farmers’ irrigation water demand is crucial to assess demand reactions of a water pricing policy, to establish a cost-benefit analysis of water supply investments or to determine the optimal water allocation between different users. Previously used econometric methods providing this in...

Natural cycles and agricultural inputs: a farm gate Ecological Footprint analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Passeri, Nicolo; Blasi, Emanuele; Borucke, Michael; Galli, Alessandro; Franco, Silvio

2014-05-01

Land suitability for different crops depends on soil, water and climate conditions, as well as farmers' cultivation choices. Moreover, the use of agricultural inputs affects the natural cycles of crops and impacts their production. By assessing the ecological performance of farms as influenced by crop types, cultivation choices and land suitability one can therefore evaluate the effectiveness of agricultural practices and governance's options. Ecological Footprint accounts can be used to measure such ecological performance. These accounts track human demand for natural resources and ecological services and compare this demand with nature ability to regenerate these resource and services. This regenerative capacity is called biocapacity. Both demand (Footprint) and supply (biocapacity) are expressed in global hectares. Farming different from most other human activities, not only uses natural resources, but also enhances or erodes ecological supply. It therefore affects all factors that determine both Footprint and biocapacity. Climate, farmers' skills and choices (fertilizers, pesticides, machines) determine crop productivity, and to what extent crops preserve or compromise soils. The aim of this work is to evaluate how farmer's choices affect resources overexploitation. The study analysed how the use of inputs influences natural cycles within farm boundaries. This result from a pilot case study will show how particular farming practices affect both the farm's biocapacity and Ecological Footprint. Such analysis is relevant for informing involved stakeholders, namely the farmers on more sustainable agricultural practices and the policy makers on more suitable agricultural policies.

Modeling and managing urban water demand through smart meters: Benefits and challenges from current research and emerging trends

Science.gov (United States)

Cominola, A.; Giuliani, M.; Castelletti, A.; Piga, D.; Rizzoli, A. E.

2015-12-01

Urban population growth, climate and land use change are expected to boost residential water demand in urban contexts in the next decades. In such a context, developing suitable demand-side management strategies is essential to meet future water demands, pursue water savings, and reduce the costs for water utilities. Yet, the effectiveness of water demand management strategies (WDMS) relies on our understanding of water consumers' behavior, their consumption habits, and the water use drivers. While low spatial and temporal resolution water consumption data, as traditionally gathered for billing purposes, hardly support this understanding, the advent of high-resolution, smart metering technologies allowed for quasi real-time monitoring water consumption at the single household level. This, in turn, is advancing our ability in characterizing consumers' behavior, modeling, and designing user-oriented residential water demand management strategies. Several water smart metering programs have been rolled-out in the last two decades worldwide, addressing one or more of the following water demand management phases: (i) data gathering, (ii) water end-uses characterization, (iii) user modeling, (iv) design and implementation of personalized WDMS. Moreover, the number of research studies in this domain is quickly increasing and big economic investments are currently being devoted worldwide to smart metering programs. With this work, we contribute the first comprehensive review of more than 100 experiences in the field of residential water demand modeling and management, and we propose a general framework for their classification. We revise consolidated practices, identify emerging trends and highlight the challenges and opportunities for future developments given by the use of smart meters advancing residential water demand management. Our analysis of the status quo of smart urban water demand management research and market constitutes a structured collection of information

Temporal variation in the ecology of Kuramo water, Lagos Nigeria ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Temporal variation in the ecology of Kuramo water was studied in the Lagos lagoon complex. Physicochemical parameters and heavy metals concentration were analyzed. Eight sites were marked using the geographical positioning system (GPS model-12). Water chemistry was determined for 8 months and sampling was ...

[Spatiotemporal variation of Populus euphratica's radial increment at lower reaches of Tarim River after ecological water transfer].

Science.gov (United States)

An, Hong-Yan; Xu, Hai-Liang; Ye, Mao; Yu, Pu-Ji; Gong, Jun-Jun

2011-01-01

Taking the Populus euphratica at lower reaches of Tarim River as test object, and by the methods of tree dendrohydrology, this paper studied the spatiotemporal variation of P. euphratic' s branch radial increment after ecological water transfer. There was a significant difference in the mean radial increment before and after ecological water transfer. The radial increment after the eco-water transfer was increased by 125%, compared with that before the water transfer. During the period of ecological water transfer, the radial increment was increased with increasing water transfer quantity, and there was a positive correlation between the annual radial increment and the total water transfer quantity (R2 = 0.394), suggesting that the radial increment of P. euphratica could be taken as the performance indicator of ecological water transfer. After the ecological water transfer, the radial increment changed greatly with the distance to the River, i.e. , decreased significantly along with the increasing distance to the River (P = 0.007). The P. euphratic' s branch radial increment also differed with stream segment (P = 0.017 ), i.e. , the closer to the head-water point (Daxihaizi Reservoir), the greater the branch radial increment. It was considered that the limited effect of the current ecological water transfer could scarcely change the continually deteriorating situation of the lower reaches of Tarim River.

Estimation of area and income elasticities of water demand in a number of cities and towns in Gauteng

OpenAIRE

2012-01-01

M.Ing. Water demand prediction can be useful for future planning and has a significant economic effect on a city, town or suburb. There are numerous factors influencing water demand and therefore influencing the prediction thereof. The effect of each of these factors on the water demand is called the elasticity of that factor. The main aim of this study is to determine area and income elasticities of demand. This will enable the reader to predict water demand by taking stand size (area) an...

Tourism and water use: Supply, demand, and security. An international review

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gössling, S.; Peeters, P.M.; Hall, C.M.; Ceron, J.P.; Dubois, G.; Lehmann, L.V.; Scott, D.

2012-01-01

This article reviews direct freshwater consumption in tourism from both quantitative and qualitative viewpoints to assess the current water demand of the tourism sector and to identify current and future management challenges. The article concludes that even though tourism increases global water

Thermo-ecological optimization of a solar collector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Szargut, J.; Stanek, W.

2007-01-01

The depletion of non-renewable natural exergy resources (the thermo-ecological cost) has been accepted as the objective function for thermo-ecological optimization. Its general formulation has been cited. A detailed form of the objective function has been formulated for a solar collector producing hot water for household needs. The following design parameters have been accepted as the decision variables: the collector area per unit of the heat demand, the diameter of collector pipes, the distance of the pipe axes in the collector plate. The design parameters of the internal installation (the pipes, the hot water receiver) have not been taken into account, because they are very individual. The accumulation ability of hot water comprising one day has been assumed. The objective function contains the following components: the thermo-ecological cost of copper plate, copper pipes, glass plate, steel box, thermal insulation, heat transfer liquid, electricity for driving the pump of liquid, fuel for the peak boiler. The duration curves of the flux of solar radiation and absorbed heat have been elaborated according to meteorological data and used in the calculations. The objective function for economic optimization may have a similar form, only the cost values would be different

An ecological compensation standard based on emergy theory for the Xiao Honghe River Basin.

Science.gov (United States)

Guan, Xinjian; Chen, Moyu; Hu, Caihong

2015-01-01

The calculation of an ecological compensation standard is an important, but also difficult aspect of current ecological compensation research. In this paper, the factors affecting the ecological-economic system in the Xiao Honghe River Basin, China, including the flow of energy, materials, and money, were calculated using the emergy analysis method. A consideration of the relationships between the ecological-economic value of water resources and ecological compensation allowed the ecological-economic value to be calculated. On this basis, the amount of water needed for dilution was used to develop a calculation model for the ecological compensation standard of the basin. Using the Xiao Honghe River Basin as an example, the value of water resources and the ecological compensation standard were calculated using this model according to the emission levels of the main pollutant in the basin, chemical oxygen demand. The compensation standards calculated for the research areas in Xipin, Shangcai, Pingyu, and Xincai were 34.91 yuan/m3, 32.97 yuan/m3, 35.99 yuan/m3, and 34.70 yuan/m3, respectively, and such research output would help to generate and support new approaches to the long-term ecological protection of the basin and improvement of the ecological compensation system.

Piped water consumption in Ghana: A case study of temporal and spatial patterns of clean water demand relative to alternative water sources in rural small towns.

Science.gov (United States)

Kulinkina, Alexandra V; Kosinski, Karen C; Liss, Alexander; Adjei, Michael N; Ayamgah, Gilbert A; Webb, Patrick; Gute, David M; Plummer, Jeanine D; Naumova, Elena N

2016-07-15

Continuous access to adequate quantities of safe water is essential for human health and socioeconomic development. Piped water systems (PWSs) are an increasingly common type of water supply in rural African small towns. We assessed temporal and spatial patterns in water consumption from public standpipes of four PWSs in Ghana in order to assess clean water demand relative to other available water sources. Low water consumption was evident in all study towns, which manifested temporally and spatially. Temporal variability in water consumption that is negatively correlated with rainfall is an indicator of rainwater preference when it is available. Furthermore, our findings show that standpipes in close proximity to alternative water sources such as streams and hand-dug wells suffer further reductions in water consumption. Qualitative data suggest that consumer demand in the study towns appears to be driven more by water quantity, accessibility, and perceived aesthetic water quality, as compared to microbiological water quality or price. In settings with chronic under-utilization of improved water sources, increasing water demand through household connections, improving water quality with respect to taste and appropriateness for laundry, and educating residents about health benefits of using piped water should be prioritized. Continued consumer demand and sufficient revenue generation are important attributes of a water service that ensure its function over time. Our findings suggest that analyzing water consumption of existing metered PWSs in combination with qualitative approaches may enable more efficient planning of community-based water supplies and support sustainable development. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Chlorine demand and residual chlorine decay kinetics of Kali river water at Kaiga project area

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krishna Bhat, D.; Prakash, T.R.; Thimme Gowda, B.; Sherigara, B.S.; Khader, A.M.A.

1995-01-01

The nuclear power plant at Kaiga would use Kali river water for condenser cooling. This necessitated studies on the chemistry of chlorination such as chlorine demand, kinetics of chlorination and other water characteristics aimed at obtaining base line data. The study revealed significant seasonal variation of chlorine demand ranging from 0.5 ppm to 1.7 ppm (3.0 ppm dose, 30 min contact time) and total consumption of 5.0 ppm (10.0 ppm dose, 48 hours contact time). The reaction follows first order kinetics in chlorine. High correlation of chlorine demand with chlorophyll a, suspended matter, turbidity, silica, nitrite, phosphate and sulphate indicated that chlorine demand is greatly influenced by water quality. (author). 3 refs., 1 tab

Water resources adaptation to climate and demand change in the Potomac river

Science.gov (United States)

The effects of climate change are increasingly considered in conjunction with changes in water demand and reservoir sedimentation in forecasts of water supply vulnerability. Here, the relative effects of these factors are evaluated for the Washington, DC metropolitan area water supply for the near f...

Water demand management in times of drought: What matters for water conservation

Science.gov (United States)

Maggioni, Elena

2015-01-01

Southern California is subject to long droughts and short wet spells. Its water agencies have put in place voluntary, mandatory, and market-based conservation strategies since the 1980s. By analyzing water agencies' data between 2006 and 2010, this research studies whether rebates for water efficient fixtures, water rates, or water ordinances have been effective, and tests whether structural characteristics of water agencies have affected the policy outcome. It finds that mandates to curb outdoor water uses are correlated with reductions in residential per capita water usage, while water rates and subsidies for water saving devices are not. It also confirms that size is a significant policy implementation factor. In a policy perspective, the transition from a water supply to a water demand management-oriented strategy appears guided by mandates and by contextual factors such as the economic cycle and the weather that occur outside the water governance system. Three factors could improve the conservation effort: using prices as a conservation tool, not only as a cost recovering instrument; investing in water efficient tools only when they provide significant water savings; supporting smaller agencies in order to give them opportunities to implement conservation strategies more effectively or to help them consolidate.

Estimating irrigation water demand in the Moroccan Drâa Valley using contingent valuation.

Science.gov (United States)

Storm, Hugo; Heckelei, Thomas; Heidecke, Claudia

2011-10-01

Irrigation water management is crucial for agricultural production and livelihood security in Morocco as in many other parts of the world. For the implementation of an effective water management, knowledge about farmers' demand for irrigation water is crucial to assess reactions to water pricing policy, to establish a cost-benefit analysis of water supply investments or to determine the optimal water allocation between different users. Previously used econometric methods providing this information often have prohibitive data requirements. In this paper, the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) is adjusted to derive a demand function for irrigation water along farmers' willingness to pay for one additional unit of surface water or groundwater. An application in the Middle Drâa Valley in Morocco shows that the method provides reasonable results in an environment with limited data availability. For analysing the censored survey data, the Least Absolute Deviation estimator was found to be a more suitable alternative to the Tobit model as errors are heteroscedastic and non-normally distributed. The adjusted CVM to derive demand functions is especially attractive for water scarce countries under limited data availability. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A multi-scale relevance vector regression approach for daily urban water demand forecasting

Science.gov (United States)

Bai, Yun; Wang, Pu; Li, Chuan; Xie, Jingjing; Wang, Yin

2014-09-01

Water is one of the most important resources for economic and social developments. Daily water demand forecasting is an effective measure for scheduling urban water facilities. This work proposes a multi-scale relevance vector regression (MSRVR) approach to forecast daily urban water demand. The approach uses the stationary wavelet transform to decompose historical time series of daily water supplies into different scales. At each scale, the wavelet coefficients are used to train a machine-learning model using the relevance vector regression (RVR) method. The estimated coefficients of the RVR outputs for all of the scales are employed to reconstruct the forecasting result through the inverse wavelet transform. To better facilitate the MSRVR forecasting, the chaos features of the daily water supply series are analyzed to determine the input variables of the RVR model. In addition, an adaptive chaos particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to find the optimal combination of the RVR model parameters. The MSRVR approach is evaluated using real data collected from two waterworks and is compared with recently reported methods. The results show that the proposed MSRVR method can forecast daily urban water demand much more precisely in terms of the normalized root-mean-square error, correlation coefficient, and mean absolute percentage error criteria.

Evaluation of ecological instream flow using multiple ecological indicators with consideration of hydrological alterations

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Qiang; Gu, Xihui; Singh, Vijay P.; Chen, Xiaohong

2015-10-01

Dam-induced hydrological alterations and related ecological problems have been arousing considerable concern from hydrologists, ecologists, and policy-makers. The East River basin in China is the major provider of water resources for mega-cities within the Pearl River Delta and meets 80% of annual water demand of Hong Kong. In this study, ecodeficit and ecosurplus were analyzed to determine the ecological impact of water impoundments. Also, Do and DHRAM were employed to evaluate the degree of alteration of hydrological regimes, and ERHIs were analyzed to evaluate the influence of hydrological alterations on ecological diversity. Results indicate that: (1) the magnitude and frequency of high flows decrease and those of low flows increase due to the regulation of reservoirs; (2) variations of annual ecosurplus are mainly the result of precipitation changes and the annual ecodeficit is significantly influenced by reservoirs. However, ecodeficit and ecosurplus in other seasons, particularly autumn and winter, are more influenced by reservoir regulation; (3) impacts of reservoirs on hydrological regimes and eco-flow regimes are different from one station to another due to different degrees of influence of reservoirs on hydrological processes at different stations. The longer the distance between a reservoir and a hydrological station is, the weaker the influence the water reservoir has on the hydrological processes; (4) ecodeficit and ecosurplus can be accepted in the evaluation of alterations of hydrological processes at annual and seasonal time scales. Results of Shannon Index indicate decreasing biological diversity after the construction of water reservoirs, implying negative impacts of water reservoirs on biological diversity of a river basin and this should arouse considerable human concerns. This study provides a theoretical background for water resources management with consideration of eco-flow variations due to reservoir regulation in other highly

A Probabilistic Short-Term Water Demand Forecasting Model Based on the Markov Chain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francesca Gagliardi

2017-07-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a short-term water demand forecasting method based on the use of the Markov chain. This method provides estimates of future demands by calculating probabilities that the future demand value will fall within pre-assigned intervals covering the expected total variability. More specifically, two models based on homogeneous and non-homogeneous Markov chains were developed and presented. These models, together with two benchmark models (based on artificial neural network and naïve methods, were applied to three real-life case studies for the purpose of forecasting the respective water demands from 1 to 24 h ahead. The results obtained show that the model based on a homogeneous Markov chain provides more accurate short-term forecasts than the one based on a non-homogeneous Markov chain, which is in line with the artificial neural network model. Both Markov chain models enable probabilistic information regarding the stochastic demand forecast to be easily obtained.

Macroalgae and phytoplankton as indicators of ecological status of Danish coastal waters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Carstensen, Jacob; Krause-Jensen, Dorte; Dahl, Karsten

This report contributes to the development of tools that can be applied to assess the five classes of ecological status of the Water Framework Directive based on the biological quality elements phytoplankton and macroalgae. Nitrogen inputs and concentrations representing reference conditions...... and boundaries between the five ecological status classes were calculated from estimates of nitrogen inputs from Denmark to the Danish straits since 1900 combined with expert judgement of the general environmental conditions of Danish waters during different time periods. From these calculated nitrogen...... concentrations and a macroalgal model ecological status class boundaries were established for six macroalgal indicators in a number of Danish estuaries and coastal areas. Furthermore, site-specific correlations between concentrations of nitrogen and chlorophyll a were used to define reference conditions...

LOW WATER DEMAND CEMENTS - WAY OF EFFICIENT USE OF CLINKER AND MINERAL FILLERS IN CONCRETES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khokhryakov Oleg Viktorovich

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Subject: the provisions in the updated edition of the technical specifications for cements are analyzed. A trend to decrease the clinker volume in Portland cement due to the wider use of mineral additives, up to 95%, was observed. Research objectives: substantiation of the most complete and efficient use of Portland cement and mineral additives in the composition of low water demand cements. Materials and methods: portland cement, mineral additives and superplasticizer were used as raw materials for obtaining cements of low water demand. The experimental methods comply with the current standards. Results: comparative properties of low water demand cements and cements with mineral additives are presented. The properties of cement-water suspensions of these binders have been studied, and, on their basis, heavy concretes have been made. The results of the grindability of Portland cement and mineral components with a superplasticizer are given. Conclusions: it is shown that the cement of low water demand, in which the advantages of both Portland cement and mineral additives are more fully and efficiently presented, complies with the tendency to decrease the clinker volume to the greatest degree. It is established that the clinker volume index for heavy concrete prepared on low water demand cement is almost four times lower than that for heavy concrete based on common Portland cement.

An Assessment of the Knowledge and Demand of Young Residents regarding the Ecological Services of Urban Green Spaces in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yat Yen

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The fast and steady economic growth and social changes in recent years in Cambodia have brought rapid expansion and restructuring to its cities. These phenomena have brought numerous challenges including threats to urban green spaces (UGS’s. This study addresses problems of UGS’s by investigating the knowledge and perceptions of young residents of Phnom Penh (YRPPs toward UGS’s in relation to the following: (1 basic knowledge of YRPPs on ecological services (KES of UGS’s; (2 perceptions of YRPPs on the current state of UGS’s (PUGS’s in Phnom Penh; (3 demand of YRPPs for UGS’s in the city (DUGS; and (4 associations between KES, PUGS’s, social profiles (SoPs, and DUGS. A questionnaire was designed to solicit knowledge from 554 respondents randomly selected from the study area. The findings revealed that 83.1% of total respondents strongly recognized ecological services of UGS’s. Four subgroups of ecological services, namely microclimate (89.7%, environmental quality and functions (83.8%, recreational and public health services (88.5%, and economic benefits (70.4% were all rated highly. Because the current state of UGS’s was very poor (68.4%, demand for UGS’s was high (94.43%. Public toilets (84.7% and rubbish bins (75.6% were both rated the poorest. The PUGS’s were significantly associated with KES (r = 0.307, F (3, 543 = 18.83, p < 0.001. This study offers a deep understanding about knowledge and demand of YRPPs for UGS’s.

Ecological aspects of water coal fuel transportation and application

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna SHVORNIKOVA

2010-01-01

Full Text Available This paper deals with the aspects of influence of transportation process and burning of water coal fuel on an ecological condition of environment. Also mathematical dependences between coal ash level and power consumption for transportation are presented.

Life cycle water demand coefficients for crude oil production from five North American locations.

Science.gov (United States)

Ali, Babkir; Kumar, Amit

2017-10-15

The production of liquid fuels from crude oil requires water. There has been limited focus on the assessment of life cycle water demand footprints for crude oil production and refining. The overall aim of this paper is address this gap. The objective of this research is to develop water demand coefficients over the life cycle of fuels produced from crude oil pathways. Five crude oil fields were selected in the three North American countries to reflect the impact of different spatial locations and technologies on water demand. These include the Alaska North Slope, California's Kern County heavy oil, and Mars in the U.S.; Maya in Mexico; and Bow River heavy oil in Alberta, Canada. A boundary for an assessment of the life cycle water footprint was set to cover the unit operations related to exploration, drilling, extraction, and refining. The recovery technology used to extract crude oil is one of the key determining factors for water demand. The amount of produced water that is re-injected to recover the oil is essential in determining the amount of fresh water that will be required. During the complete life cycle of one barrel of conventional crude oil, 1.71-8.25 barrels of fresh water are consumed and 2.4-9.51 barrels of fresh water are withdrawn. The lowest coefficients are for Bow River heavy oil and the highest coefficients are for Maya crude oil. Of all the unit operations, exploration and drilling require the least fresh water (less than 0.015 barrel of water per barrel of oil produced). A sensitivity analysis was conducted and uncertainty in the estimates was determined. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The increasing importance of atmospheric demand for ecosystem water and carbon fluxes

Science.gov (United States)

Kimberly A. Novick; Darren L. Ficklin; Paul C. Stoy; Christopher A. Williams; Gil Bohrer; Andrew C. Oishi; Shirley A. Papuga; Peter D. Blanken; Asko Noormets; Benjamin N. Sulman; Russell L. Scott; Lixin Wang; Richard P. Phillips

2016-01-01

Soil moisture supply and atmospheric demand for water independently limit-and profoundly affect-vegetation productivity and water use during periods of hydrologic stress1-4. Disentangling the impact of these two drivers on ecosystem carbon and water cycling is difficult because they are often correlated, and experimental tools for manipulating...

Evaluation of water demand and supply in the south of Iraq

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Al-Furaiji, Mustafa; Karim, Usama F.A.; Augustijn, Dionysius C.M.; Waisi, Basma; Hulscher, Suzanne J.M.H.

2016-01-01

This paper presents results from the first study that focuses on water resources availability and demand for different purposes in the four oil-rich provinces of southern Iraq. The region accounts for 23% of the surface area and 18% of the country's population, but holds 88% of its oil. A water

Expanded ethanol production: Implications for agriculture, water demand, and water quality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

De La Torre Ugarte, Daniel G.; He, Lixia; Jensen, Kimberly L.; English, Burton C.

2010-01-01

Feedstock production for large scale development of the U.S. ethanol industry and introduction of cellulose-to-ethanol technology will require extensive changes in land use and field management. Hence, this production will likely have significant impact on water demand and quality. This study compares two 'what if' scenarios for attaining a 227.1 hm 3 of ethanol by 2030 and 3.8 hm 3 of biodiesel by 2012. In the first scenario cellulose-to-ethanol technology is introduced in 2012, while in the second scenario the technology is delayed until 2015. Results show that the timing of introduction of cellulose-to-ethanol technology will affect the water use and water quality related input use in primarily in the eastern part of the nation. Results also suggest policy emphasis on reduced and no-till practices needs to be complementary to increased crop residue use. (author)

Correlates of potable water demand among farming households in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study estimated the correlates of potable water demand among farming households through the use of cross-sectional data collected from 100 households in Abak, Nigeria. Based on the fact that heterogeneity and homogeneity exist within and among the clans and also to ensure equal representation of people from all ...

Effect of land area on average annual suburban water demand ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

AADD) in South Africa are based on residential plot size. This paper presents a novel, robust method for estimating suburban water demand as a function of the suburb area. Seventy suburbs, identified as being predominantly residential, were ...

Optimal and Learning-Based Demand Response Mechanism for Electric Water Heater System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bo Lin

2017-10-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates how to develop a learning-based demand response approach for electric water heater in a smart home that can minimize the energy cost of the water heater while meeting the comfort requirements of energy consumers. First, a learning-based, data-driven model of an electric water heater is developed by using a nonlinear autoregressive network with external input (NARX using neural network. The model is updated daily so that it can more accurately capture the actual thermal dynamic characteristics of the water heater especially in real-life conditions. Then, an optimization problem, based on the NARX water heater model, is formulated to optimize energy management of the water heater in a day-ahead, dynamic electricity price framework. A genetic algorithm is proposed in order to solve the optimization problem more efficiently. MATLAB (R2016a is used to evaluate the proposed learning-based demand response approach through a computational experiment strategy. The proposed approach is compared with conventional method for operation of an electric water heater. Cost saving and benefits of the proposed water heater energy management strategy are explored.

Ecological operation for Three Gorges Reservoir

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wen-xian Guo

2011-06-01

Full Text Available The traditional operation of the Three Gorges Reservoir has mainly focused on water for flood control, power generation, navigation, water supply, and recreation, and given less attention to the negative impacts of reservoir operation on the river ecosystem. In order to reduce the negative influence of reservoir operation, ecological operation of the reservoir should be studied with a focus on maintaining a healthy river ecosystem. This study considered ecological operation targets, including maintaining the river environmental flow and protecting the spawning and reproduction of the Chinese sturgeon and four major Chinese carps. Using flow data from 1900 to 2006 at the Yichang gauging station as the control station data for the Yangtze River, the minimal and optimal river environmental flows were analyzed, and eco-hydrological targets for the Chinese sturgeon and four major Chinese carps in the Yangtze River were calculated. This paper proposes a reservoir ecological operation model, which comprehensively considers flood control, power generation, navigation, and the ecological environment. Three typical periods, wet, normal, and dry years, were selected, and the particle swarm optimization algorithm was used to analyze the model. The results show that ecological operation modes have different effects on the economic benefit of the hydropower station, and the reservoir ecological operation model can simulate the flood pulse for the requirements of spawning of the Chinese sturgeon and four major Chinese carps. According to the results, by adopting a suitable re-operation scheme, the hydropower benefit of the reservoir will not decrease dramatically while the ecological demand is met. The results provide a reference for designing reasonable operation schemes for the Three Gorges Reservoir.

Water ecological carrying capacity of urban lakes in the context of rapid urbanization: A case study of East Lake in Wuhan

Science.gov (United States)

Ding, Lei; Chen, Kun-lun; Cheng, Sheng-gao; Wang, Xu

With the excessive development of social economy, water scarcity and water environment deterioration become a common phenomenon in metropolis. As a crucial component of urban water environment system, urban lake is mainly influenced by social economic system and tourism system. In this paper, a framework for quantitatively evaluating development sustainability of urban lake was established by a multi-objective model that represented water ecological carrying capacity (WECC). And nine key indicators including population, irrigation area, tourist quantity, the average number of hotel daily reception, TP, TN, CODMn, BOD5 were chosen from urban social-economy system and natural resilience aspects, with their index weight was determined by using the Structure Entropy Weight method. Then, we took Wuhan East Lake, the largest urban lake in China as a case study, and selected five time sections including 2002, 2004, 2007, 2009 and 2012 to synthetically evaluate and comparatively analyze the dynamic change of WECC. The results showed that: firstly, the water ecological carrying capacity values of the East Lake in five time sections were 1.17, 1.07, 1.64, 1.53 and 2.01 respectively, which all exceeded 1 and increased fluctuation. The rapid growth of population and GDP lead to sharply increasing demand for water quantity. However, a large amount of the domestic sewage and industrial waste led by economic development increases pressure on ecological environment of urban lakes. Secondly, the carrying capacity of the East Lake for tourist activities was still low. The value in 2012 was only 0.22, keeping at a slowly increasing phase, which indicates that the East Lake has large opportunity and space for developing the water resource carrying capacity and could make further efforts to attract tourists. Moreover, the WECC of the East Lake was mainly affected by rapid social and economic development and water environment damage caused by organic pollutants. From the view of urban

Development of life cycle water-demand coefficients for coal-based power generation technologies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ali, Babkir; Kumar, Amit

2015-01-01

Highlights: • We develop water consumption and withdrawals coefficients for coal power generation. • We develop life cycle water footprints for 36 coal-based electricity generation pathways. • Different coal power generation technologies were assessed. • Sensitivity analysis of plant performance and coal transportation on water demand. - Abstract: This paper aims to develop benchmark coefficients for water consumption and water withdrawals over the full life cycle of coal-based power generation. This study considered not only all of the unit operations involved in the full electricity generation life cycle but also compared different coal-based power generating technologies. Overall this study develops the life cycle water footprint for 36 different coal-based electricity generation pathways. Power generation pathways involving new technologies of integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) or ultra supercritical technology with coal transportation by conventional means and using dry cooling systems have the least complete life cycle water-demand coefficients of about 1 L/kW h. Sensitivity analysis is conducted to study the impact of power plant performance and coal transportation on the water demand coefficients. The consumption coefficient over life cycle of ultra supercritical or IGCC power plants are 0.12 L/kW h higher when conventional transportation of coal is replaced by coal-log pipeline. Similarly, if the conventional transportation of coal is replaced by its transportation in the form of a slurry through a pipeline, the consumption coefficient of a subcritical power plant increases by 0.52 L/kW h

Elucidation of circulation mechanism on climatic changing vapor caused by water field ecology system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harada, Shigeki; Doi, Taeko; Watanabe, Masataka; Inamori, Yuhei

1999-01-01

As climatic change caused by increase of carbon dioxide amounts emitted by industrial development is much anxious, it is well-known that water field ecology system relaxes change of carbon dioxide in atmosphere. Carbon dioxide, which is a climatic changing gas and has a closed relationship to the earth warming, is caught from atmosphere in the water field ecology system to be fixed as organic carbon and constitutes a starting point of food chains thereafter. In this study, in order to examine change of carbon dioxide, which is one of climatic changing gas or greenhouse effect gas caused by water field ecology system, 14-C was added to microcosm, which constructs a water field ecology system model, to measure 14-C amounts in each organism. As a result, it was found that carbon transfer in the system could be examined. And, it was also found that it was possible to understand more precise flow of substances and to elucidate quantitatively absorption of carbon dioxide and flow of carbon thereafter under different conditions, by future attempts on upgrading precision such as changing amounts of adding RI, and so forth. (G.K.)

Better Water Demand and Pipe Description Improve the Distribution Network Modeling Results

Science.gov (United States)

Distribution system modeling simplifies pipe network in skeletonization and simulates the flow and water quality by using generalized water demand patterns. While widely used, the approach has not been examined fully on how it impacts the modeling fidelity. This study intends to ...

Ecological Screening Values for Surface Water, Sediment, and Soil: 2005 Update

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Friday, G. P.

2005-07-18

One of the principal components of the environmental remediation program at the Savannah River Site (SRS) is the assessment of ecological risk. Used to support CERCLA, RCRA, and DOE orders, the ecological risk assessment (ERA) can identify environmental hazards and evaluate remedial action alternatives. Ecological risk assessment is also an essential means for achieving DOE's risk based end state vision for the disposition of nuclear material and waste hazards, the decommissioning of facilities, and the remediation of inactive waste units at SRS. The complexity of an ERA ranges from a screening level ERA (SLERA) to a full baseline ERA. A screening level ecological risk assessments, although abbreviated from a baseline risk assessment, is nonetheless considered a complete risk assessment (EPA, 2001a). One of the initial tasks of any ERA is to identify constituents that potentially or adversely affect the environment. Typically, this is accomplished by comparing a constituent's maximum concentration in surface water, sediment, or soil with an ecological screening value (ESV). The screening process can eliminate many constituents from further consideration in the risk assessment, but it also identifies those that require additional evaluation. This document is an update of a previous compilation (Friday, 1998) and provides a comprehensive listing of ecological screening values for surface water, sediment, and soil. It describes how the screening values were derived and recommends benchmarks that can be used for ecological risk assessment. The sources of these updated benchmarks include the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the State of Florida, the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME), the Dutch Ministry of the Environment (RIVM), and the scientific literature. It

Greywater reuse: A strategy for water demand management in Harare?

Science.gov (United States)

Madungwe, Emaculate; Sakuringwa, Saniso

Greywater is wastewater from baths, sinks and washing machines, accounting for about 60% of the outflow from homes. It contains little pathogens and 90% less nitrogen than toilet water, so does not require the same treatment process. With the increasing demand for freshwater, its use may reduce irrigation water needs, increasing its availability of freshwater for other primary uses. Agriculture is the main water consumer in Africa, which cannot be compromised due to its role in domestic food security and export supplies. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate findings of the research done on benefits of greywater reuse in some countries, applicable to African countries. In Australia, greywater reuse has reduced freshwater demand, strain on wastewater treatment plants and energy consumption. Aquifer recharge has improved due to increased infiltration flows from greywater uses. In Lebanon, greywater is a valuable resource for encouraging plant growth from nutrients that may otherwise have been wasted. Palestine shares similar climate and water scarcity conditions with most arid sub-Saharan African countries, yet utilizes grey water in production of crops and citrus fruits. Thus use of grey water should be possible in African cities such as Harare, where nearly two thirds of the population rely on agriculture for livelihoods. The problem of blue green algae in sewerage ponds and water reservoirs is significantly reduced by household reuse of grey water in Mexico. Water savings are increased and expenses reduced, as illustrated by the reduction in consumption of municipality freshwater supplies in South African urban areas. Rural communities and schools in Namibia and Egypt have raised funds from grey water reuse in banana plantations. A possible constraint to this strategy could be the unavailability of appropriate technology for primary treatment of grey water before reuse. This strategy may pose health risks where water quality tests are unknown or unavailable

EVALUATING THE ECOLOGICAL RESILIENT DRIVEN PERFORMANCE OF A TROPICAL WASTE STABILIZATION POND SYSTEM USING ECOLOGICAL SIGNATURE OF BIOLOGICAL INTEGRITY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susmita Lahiri Ganguly

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Using ecological signature of biological integrity as a measure of performance, the reclamation efficiency of waste stabilization ponds was evaluated over a period of four years in a tropical sewage treatment plant – cum fish culture consisting of two anaerobic, two facultative and four maturation ponds located serially across the sewage effluent gradient. The four maturation ponds were used for batch culture of fish. Samples of surface and bottom water as well as surface sediment were collected twice a month from different ponds of the system and examined for some nutrient cycling bacteria, primary production, chlorophyll content of micro-algae, phytoplankton, zooplankton abundance, fish growth and water quality parameters. Computation of ecological signature using aerobic mineralization index for heterotrophic and ammonifying bacteria revealed steady increase across the sewage effluent gradient. The heterotrophic and ammonifying bacterial populations appeared to have a direct function with the concentrations of chemical oxygen demand of water. The sum of total scores for different optimal conditions for fish growth increased as a function of the distance from the source of effluent implying that ecological resilience of the waste stabilization ponds has been accomplished by the sedimentation, chelation, and biological functional attributes mediated through redundancy of different subsystems, self- purification capacity of the system as a whole.

Managing Water Demand : Policies, Practices and Lessons from the ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

30 août 2005 ... Managing Water Demand : Policies, Practices and Lessons from the Middle East and North Africa Forums. Couverture du livre ... L'organisation HarassMap, soutenue par le CRDI, a une fois de plus incité à apporter des changements progressifs dans le domaine de la lutte contre le harcèlement sexuel.

The Political Economy of the Water Footprint: A Cross-National Analysis of Ecologically Unequal Exchange

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jared B. Fitzgerald

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Water scarcity is an important social and ecological issue that is becoming increasingly problematic with the onset of climate change. This study explores the extent to which water resources in developing countries are affected by the vertical flow of exports to high-income countries. In examining this question, the authors engage the sociological theory of ecologically unequal exchange, which argues that high-income countries are able to partially externalize the environmental costs of their consumption to lower-income countries. The authors use a relatively new and underutilized measure of water usage, the water footprint, which quantifies the amount of water used in the entire production process. Ordinary least squares (OLS and robust regression techniques are employed in the cross-national analysis of 138 countries. The results provide partial support of the propositions of ecologically unequal exchange theory. In particular, the results highlight the importance of structural position in the global economy for understanding the effects of trade on water resources.

Look Who's Talking. Explaining Water-Related Information Sharing and Demand for Action Among Ugandan Villagers

Science.gov (United States)

Holvoet, Nathalie; Dewachter, Sara; Molenaers, Nadia

2016-11-01

Many national water policies propagate community-based participatory approaches to overcome weaknesses in supply-driven rural water provision, operation, and maintenance. Citizen involvement is thought to stimulate bottom-up accountability and broaden the information base, which may enrich design and implementation processes and foster improved water accessibility and sustainability. Practices on the ground, however, are embedded in socio-political realities which mediate possible beneficial effects of participatory approaches. This paper builds on full social network data collected in a Ugandan village to study the social and political reality of two distinct levels of participation, i.e. local information sharing among citizens and a more active appeal to fellow citizens to improve water services. We use Logistic Regression Quadratic Assignment Procedure to explore what type of actor and network traits influence information sharing and whether the same factors are in play in the demand for action to remedy water-related problems. Whereas social aspects (social support relations) and homophily (using the same water source, the same gender) play an important role in information sharing, it is the educational level, in particular, of the villager who is called upon that is important when villagers demand action. Our findings also demonstrate that those most in need of safe water do not mobilize their information sharing ties to demand for action. This indicates that building local water policies and practice exclusively on locally existing demand for action may fail to capture the needs of the most deprived citizens.

Impact of oil prices, economic diversification policies and energy conservation programs on the electricity and water demands in Kuwait

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wood, Michael; Alsayegh, Osamah A.

2014-01-01

This paper describes the influences of oil revenue and government's policies toward economic developments and energy efficiency on the electricity and water demands. A Kuwait-specific electricity and water demand model was developed based on historic data of oil income, gross domestic product (GDP), population and electric load and water demand over the past twelve years (1998–2010). Moreover, the model took into account the future mega projects, annual new connected loads and expected application of energy conservation programs. It was run under six circumstances representing the combinations of three oil income scenarios and two government action policies toward economic diversification and energy conservation. The first government policy is the status quo with respect to economic diversification and applying energy conservation programs. The second policy scenario is the proactive strategy of raising the production of the non-oil sector revenue and enforcing legislations toward energy demand side management and conservation. In the upcoming 20 years, the average rates of change of the electric load and water demand increase are 0.13 GW and 3.0 MIGD, respectively, per US dollar oil price increase. Moreover, through proactive policy, the rates of average load and water demand decrease are 0.13 GW and 2.9 MIGD per year, respectively. - Highlights: • Kuwait-specific electricity and water demand model is presented. • Strong association between oil income and electricity and water demands. • Rate of change of electric load per US dollar oil price change is 0.13 GW. • Rate of change of water demand per US dollar oil price change is 3.0 MIGD. • By 2030, efficiency lowers electric load and water demand by 10 and 6%, respectively

Water quality of Danube Delta systems: ecological status and prediction using machine-learning algorithms.

Science.gov (United States)

Stoica, C; Camejo, J; Banciu, A; Nita-Lazar, M; Paun, I; Cristofor, S; Pacheco, O R; Guevara, M

2016-01-01

Environmental issues have a worldwide impact on water bodies, including the Danube Delta, the largest European wetland. The Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) implementation operates toward solving environmental issues from European and national level. As a consequence, the water quality and the biocenosis structure was altered, especially the composition of the macro invertebrate community which is closely related to habitat and substrate heterogeneity. This study aims to assess the ecological status of Southern Branch of the Danube Delta, Saint Gheorghe, using benthic fauna and a computational method as an alternative for monitoring the water quality in real time. The analysis of spatial and temporal variability of unicriterial and multicriterial indices were used to assess the current status of aquatic systems. In addition, chemical status was characterized. Coliform bacteria and several chemical parameters were used to feed machine-learning (ML) algorithms to simulate a real-time classification method. Overall, the assessment of the water bodies indicated a moderate ecological status based on the biological quality elements or a good ecological status based on chemical and ML algorithms criteria.

Derivation of Ecological Protective Concentration using the Probabilistic Ecological Risk Assessment applicable for Korean Water Environment: (I) Cadmium.

Science.gov (United States)

Nam, Sun-Hwa; Lee, Woo-Mi; An, Youn-Joo

2012-06-01

Probabilistic ecological risk assessment (PERA) for deriving ecological protective concentration (EPC) was previously suggested in USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Netherland. This study suggested the EPC of cadmium (Cd) based on the PERA to be suitable to Korean aquatic ecosystem. First, we collected reliable ecotoxicity data from reliable data without restriction and reliable data with restrictions. Next, we sorted the ecotoxicity data based on the site-specific locations, exposure duration, and water hardness. To correct toxicity by the water hardness, EU's hardness corrected algorithm was used with slope factor 0.89 and a benchmark of water hardness 100. EPC was calculated according to statistical extrapolation method (SEM), statistical extrapolation methodAcute to chronic ratio (SEMACR), and assessment factor method (AFM). As a result, aquatic toxicity data of Cd were collected from 43 acute toxicity data (4 Actinopterygill, 29 Branchiopoda, 1 Polychaeta, 2 Bryozoa, 6 Chlorophyceae, 1 Chanophyceae) and 40 chronic toxicity data (2 Actinopterygill, 23 Branchiopoda, 9 Chlorophyceae, 6 Macrophytes). Because toxicity data of Cd belongs to 4 classes in taxonomical classification, acute and chronic EPC (11.07 μg/l and 0.034 μg/l, respectively) was calculated according to SEM technique. These values were included in the range of international EPCs. This study would be useful to establish the ecological standard for the protection of aquatic ecosystem in Korea.

Ecological characterization of surface waters in the province of Overijssel, The Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Verdonschot, P.F.M.

1990-01-01

Nowadays many surface waters in The Netherlands tend to become ecologically uniform with the same mediocre quality. A differentiated approach to water management is necessary to stop this process of impoverishment of aquatic ecosystems. In The Netherlands the provincial