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Israel and Palestine are water scarce. As the peace process continues amidst ongoing violence, water remains a political and environmental issue. Water Wisdom is model for those who believe that water conflict can be an opportunity for cooperation rather than violence. Thirty leading Palestinian and Israeli activists, water scientists, politicians, and others met to develop a future vision for the sustainable shared management of water resources. Their work explores the full range of scientific, political, social, and economic issues related to water use in the region; acknowledges areas of continuing controversy; and identifies areas of agreement.

Global groundwater assessments rank Iran among countries with the highest groundwater depletion rate using coarse spatial scales that hinder detection of regional imbalances between renewable groundwater supply and human withdrawals. Herein, we use in situ data from 12,230 piezometers, 14,856 observation wells, and groundwater extraction points to provide ground-based evidence about Iran’s widespread groundwater depletion and salinity problems. While the number of groundwater extraction points increased by 84.9% from 546,000 in 2002 to over a million in 2015, the annual groundwater withdrawal decreased by 18% (from 74.6 to 61.3 km³/y) primarily due to physical limits to fresh groundwater resources (i.e., depletion and/or salinization). On average, withdrawing 5.4 km³/y of nonrenewable water caused groundwater tables to decline 10 to 100 cm/y in different regions, averaging 49 cm/y across the country. This caused elevated annual average electrical conductivity (EC) of groundwater in vast arid/semiarid areas of central and eastern Iran (16 out of 30 subbasins), indicating “very high salinity hazard” for irrigation water. The annual average EC values were generally lower in the wetter northern and western regions, where groundwater EC improvements were detected in rare cases. Our results based on high-resolution groundwater measurements reveal alarming water security threats associated with declining fresh groundwater quantity and quality due to many years of unsustainable use. Our analysis offers insights into the environmental implications and limitations of water-intensive development plans that other water-scarce countries might adopt.

Owing to a long history of anthropogenic pressures, freshwater ecosystems are among the most vulnerable to biodiversity loss. Mitigation measures, including wastewater treatment and hydromorphological restoration, have aimed to improve environmental quality and foster the recovery of freshwater biodiversity. Here, using 1,816 time series of freshwater invertebrate communities collected across 22 European countries between 1968 and 2020, we quantified temporal trends in taxonomic and functional diversity and their responses to environmental pressures and gradients. We observed overall increases in taxon richness (0.73% per year), functional richness (2.4% per year) and abundance (1.17% per year). However, these increases primarily occurred before the 2010s, and have since plateaued. Freshwater communities downstream of dams, urban areas and cropland were less likely to experience recovery. Communities at sites with faster rates of warming had fewer gains in taxon richness, functional richness and abundance. Although biodiversity gains in the 1990s and 2000s probably reflect the effectiveness of water-quality improvements and restoration projects, the decelerating trajectory in the 2010s suggests that the current measures offer diminishing returns. Given new and persistent pressures on freshwater ecosystems, including emerging pollutants, climate change and the spread of invasive species, we call for additional mitigation to revive the recovery of freshwater biodiversity.

In this commentary, we summarize and build upon discussions that emerged during the workshop “Isotope-based studies of water partitioning and plant–soil interactions in forested and agricultural environments” held in San Casciano in Val di Pesa, Italy, in September 2017. Quantifying and understanding how water cycles through the Earth's critical zone is important to provide society and policymakers with the scientific background to manage water resources sustainably, especially considering the ever-increasing worldwide concern about water scarcity. Stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen in water have proven to be a powerful tool for tracking water fluxes in the critical zone. However, both mechanistic complexities (e.g. mixing and fractionation processes, heterogeneity of natural systems) and methodological issues (e.g. lack of standard protocols to sample specific compartments, such as soil water and xylem water) limit the application of stable water isotopes in critical-zone science. In this commentary, we examine some of the opportunities and critical challenges of isotope-based ecohydrological applications and outline new perspectives focused on interdisciplinary research opportunities for this important tool in water and environmental science.

Karst aquifers contribute substantially to freshwater supplies in many regions of the world, but are vulnerable to contamination and difficult to manage because of their unique hydrogeological characteristics. Many karst systems are hydraulically connected over wide areas and require transboundary exploration, protection and management. In order to obtain a better global overview of karst aquifers, to create a basis for sustainable international water-resources management, and to increase the awareness in the public and among decision makers, the World Karst Aquifer Mapping (WOKAM) project was established. The goal is to create a world map and database of karst aquifers, as a further development of earlier maps. This paper presents the basic concepts and the detailed mapping procedure, using France as an example to illustrate the step-by-step workflow, which includes generalization, differentiation of continuous and discontinuous carbonate and evaporite rock areas, and the identification of non-exposed karst aquifers. The map also shows selected caves and karst springs, which are collected in an associated global database. The draft karst aquifer map of Europe shows that 21.6% of the European land surface is characterized by the presence of (continuous or discontinuous) carbonate rocks; about 13.8% of the land surface is carbonate rock outcrop.

Water quality and quantity decline due to anthropogenic factors and climate change, affecting 2.3 billion people in water-scarce areas, of whom 733 million reside in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Therefore, this review paper examined sustainable global water management by focussing on four sustainable development goal (SDG #6) indicators, including water use efficiency in agriculture, integrated water management, transboundary water cooperation, and water user participation. The review covered articles from 2016 to 2023, using Scopus and Web of Science databases with specific selection criteria. A total of 216 sources were downloaded, and after data screening, 72 articles were analysed along with additional supplementary materials such as books, conference papers, and United Nations documents. The finding indicates emerging trends in sustainable water management for agriculture, including water-efficient technologies like alternate wetting and drying, drip irrigation, mulching, etc. However, careful implementation is required to address environmental concerns, prevent water pollution, minimise yield reductions, and ensure long-term sustainability. Moreover, integrated water resource management has faced challenges in practical implementation due to governance structures, economic circumstances, cooperation, and collaboration among stakeholders. While over 600 treaties aim to promote international water cooperation, only a few have been effective. In addition, out of 500 transboundary groundwater sources shared by countries, only six have dedicated treaties to govern their use. Thus, clearly defined rights, responsibilities, and sustainable management practises for each shared aquifer would foster the sustainability of these resources. Moreover, engaging communities through inclusive policies, dialogue, and empowerment is vital for sustainable water management. Investment in community education and capacity-building fosters transformative change and addresses global water management challenges, securing the future of precious water resources.

Water scarcity is exacerbating in many regions across North America because of climate change compounded by population growth, overexploitation of freshwater resources, and lack of proper management. Considering the regional urgency, there is an immense need to find more equitable solutions for water management. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the climatic factors impacting the hydrological regime in North America, including changes in surface runoff, groundwater storage, and the forested watershed, based on current trends and future projection scenarios. Moreover, this paper critically overviews need-based solutions for effective water management at a regional scale. The study shows that many areas of North America are exposed to extreme events such as prolonged droughts, devastating floods, wildfires, and altering precipitation patterns. Consequently, these changes are triggering wide-ranging impacts on water resources, leading to water supply deficiencies and influencing water flows and quality in the Southwestern United States, prairie provinces in Canada, and Mexico. The projection of warming around the region experiences spatial and seasonal variations because of the diversity in climatic conditions. Overall, in North America, winter is expected to warm more than other seasons causing earlier runoff and a decline in snowmelt. Given the physical and economic constraints that limit the development of new utilities, emphasis should be placed on strengthening nature-based solutions such as green infrastructure. Thus, the findings suggest an integrated water resource management approach is required, along with climate-induced innovative technologies, to secure the water resources while preparing for the forecasted challenges of tomorrow.

This book examines the politics of water scarcity in the Middle East's Jordan River Basin (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority) between 1920 and 2006. Jeffrey K. Sosland demonstrates that while water scarcity might generate political tension, it does not by itself precipitate war, nor is it likely to do so. At the same time, efforts to promote water cooperation, such as those initiated by the United States, have an identifiable political benefit by creating rules, building confidence, and reducing tensions among adversaries. Sosland concludes that while this alone might not resolve the overall conflict, it does create positive long-term value in achieving peace.

Anthropogenic pressures and climate change are altering water flows worldwide. Better understanding, new economic thinking and an international governance framework are needed to stave off catastrophe. Anthropogenic pressures and climate change are altering water flows worldwide. Better understanding, new economic thinking and an international governance framework are needed to stave off catastrophe. Wide angle view of a large storm cloud over the Amazon river and rainforest

A wide range of hydrological, ecological, environmental, and forensic science applications rely on predictive “isoscape” maps to provide estimates of the hydrogen or oxygen isotopic compositions of environmental water sources. Many water isoscapes have been developed, but few studies have produced isoscapes specifically representing groundwaters. None of these have represented distinct subsurface layers and isotopic variations across them. Here we compiled >6 million well completion records and >27,000 groundwater isotope datapoints to develop a space- and depth-explicit water isoscape for the contiguous United States. This 3-dimensional model shows that vertical isotopic heterogeneity in the subsurface is substantial in some parts of the country and that groundwater isotope delta values often differ from those of coincident precipitation or surface water resources; many of these patterns can be explained by established hydrological and hydrogeological mechanisms. We validate the groundwater isoscape against an independent data set of tap water values and show that the model accurately predicts tap water values in communities known to use groundwater resources. This new approach represents a foundation for further developments and the resulting isoscape should provide improved predictions of water isotope values in systems where groundwater is a known or potential water source.