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Flooding is a recurring natural phenomenon that can have both life-giving and destructive aspects. In natural environments, floods are often an important element of the seasonal hydrologic cycle that provides water and nutrients to soil, supporting unique, rich and diverse ecosystems. However, flood events can also represent a destructive force that can endanger lives and cause significant damage in urban areas. Karst areas, in particular, are unique because of their special hydraulic characteristics in terms of flood occurrence, the dependence of ecosystems on such events, and attempts to actively store and manage floods. In this article, the hydraulic response of karst aquifers to heavy precipitation events, flood generation, and engineering interventions for flood control are discussed using several examples from karst areas in the Mediterranean region. Flooding mechanisms and regulatory structures in karst poljes are considered using several typical examples from the Dinaric mountain range. In addition, different variants of groundwater abstraction for increasing storage capacity and flood control are presented using examples from France and Montenegro. Managed aquifer recharge in karst areas and adjacent aquifers is demonstrated with examples from Jordan and Algeria. Finally, failed attempts at flood storage in karst reservoirs are presented with examples from Spain and Montenegro. These examples of flood retention in karst areas show the wide range of planning and technical measures and remind us of possible risks and failures in implementation as well as some positive and negative impacts on the environment and especially on ecosystems.

In the face of drought and desertification, well-designed, water harvesting earthworks such as swales, ponds, and dams are the most effective way to channel water into productive use. The permaculture earthworks handbook is the first dedicated, detailed guide to the proper design and construction of water harvesting earthworks. It covers the function, design, and construction methods for nine main types of water harvesting earthworks across a full range of climates. This practical handbook is the essential resource for permaculture designers, teachers and students, landowners, farmers, homesteaders, landscape architects, and others involved in maximizing the water harvesting potential of any landscape at the lowest cost and impact--Back cover.

A warmer climate increases evaporative demand. However, response to warming depends on water availability. Existing earth system models represent soil moisture but simplify groundwater connections, a primary control on soil moisture. Here we apply an integrated surface-groundwater hydrologic model to evaluate the sensitivity of shallow groundwater to warming across the majority of the US. We show that as warming shifts the balance between water supply and demand, shallow groundwater storage can buffer plant water stress; but only where shallow groundwater connections are present, and not indefinitely. As warming persists, storage can be depleted and connections lost. Similarly, in the arid western US warming does not result in significant groundwater changes because this area is already largely water limited. The direct response of shallow groundwater storage to warming demonstrates the strong and early effect that low to moderate warming may have on groundwater storage and evapotranspiration. New hydrological simulations show for the first time how sensitive groundwater and surface water connections are to systematic warming across the continental United States. The authors here show a clear reduction in subsurface water storage under a warming climate and intensified aridification of north America.

\"From the early twentieth century, a big part of the world - the arid/semiarid tropics - began extracting, storing, and recycling vast quantities of water to sustain population growth and economic development. The idea was not a new one in this geography. It was an intrinsic part of ancient culture, statecraft, and technology. Most ancient projects, however, were local and small in scale. The capability of water extraction on a scale large enough to transform whole regions and create new cities improved in the early twentieth century, giving rise to a sharp break in the long-term population and economic growth pattern from the mid-twentieth century. Ironically, the geography of the arid tropics made transforming landscapes in this way expensive, damaging for the environment, and disputatious. The book describes this troubled history of economic emergence, building on a definition of tropicality\"-- Provided by publisher.

• Root access to bedrock water storage or groundwater is an important trait allowing plant survival in seasonally dry environments. However, the degree of coordination between water uptake depth, leaf-level water-use efficiency (WUEi) and water potential in drought-prone plant communities is not well understood. • We conducted a 135-d rainfall exclusion experiment in a subtropical karst ecosystem with thin skeletal soils to evaluate the responses of 11 co-occurring woody species of contrasting life forms and leaf habits to a severe drought during the wet growing season. • Marked differences in xylem water isotopic composition during drought revealed distinct ecohydrological niche separation among species. The contrasting behaviour of leaf water potential in coexisting species during drought was largely explained by differences in root access to deeper, temporally stable water sources. Smaller-diameter species with shallower water uptake, more negative water potentials and lower WUEi showed extensive drought-induced canopy defoliation and/or mortality. By contrast, larger-diameter species with deeper water uptake, higher leaf-level WUEi and more isohydric behaviour survived drought with only moderate canopy defoliation. • Severe water limitation imposes strong environmental filtering and/or selective pressures resulting in tight coordination between tree diameter, water uptake depth, iso/anisohydric behaviour, WUEi and drought vulnerability in karst plant communities

From the Forward: \"Contemporary groundwater management has moved well beyond a concern with how much water is stored underground or can be extracted from aquifers. Today we recognise that integrated, effective and efficient groundwater management relies on pulling together work in a variety of disciplines such as climate science, ecology, socioeconomics, public policy and law, as well as hydrogeology. However, whilst we realise the importance of multiple perspectives and a diversity of contexts and data, the challenge of integrating and organising all of this information into a decision making framework remains. It is also abundantly clear that sharing and access to water is a fundamentally political issue and that solutions depend on full engagement of stakeholders as well as mobilisation of knowledge and technologies.\"

The use of remote sensing for monitoring and managing droughts is examined in this review study. Drought has a significant impact on how water resources are managed and agricultural production is produced, and remote sensing is a vital technique for assessing and monitoring the severity of drought. A number of remote sensing data sources are discussed in the paper; including precipitation, groundwater and surface water storage, soil moisture, land surface temperature, evaporation, and agricultural indicators. With the use of these data sources, drought indices and indicators that measure the severity and spatiotemporal fluctuations of the drought may be developed. The novel approach of this review study emphasizes the benefits of using remote sensing to gain a full understanding of drought dynamics and to accurately capture fine-scale fluctuations in drought conditions. However, the study also highlights certain limitations, including issues related to data accessibility, data interpretation, and validation difficulties. It emphasizes the significance of using remote sensing to promote the developing policies and strategies to enhance drought resilience and adaptation. The importance of continuous research, technical development, and stakeholder cooperation in order to fully realize remote sensing's promise for tackling the complex problems associated with drought and promoting sustainable water resource management.

GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) has been widely used to evaluate terrestrial water storage (TWS) and groundwater storage (GWS). However, the coarse‐resolution of GRACE data has limited the ability to identify local vulnerabilities in water storage changes associated with climatic and anthropogenic stressors. This study employs high‐resolution (1 km2) GRACE data generated through machine learning (ML) based statistical downscaling to illuminate TWS and GWS dynamics across twenty sub‐regions in the Indus Basin. Monthly TWS and GWS anomalies obtained from a geographically weighted random forest (RFgw) model maintained good consistency with original GRACE data at the 25 km2 grid scale. The downscaled data at 1 km2 resolution illustrate the spatial heterogeneity of TWS and GWS depletion within each sub‐region. Comparison with in‐situ GWS from 2,200 monitoring wells shows that downscaling of GRACE data significantly improves agreement with in‐situ data, evidenced by higher Kling‐Gupta Efficiency (0.50–0.85) and correlation coefficients (0.60–0.95). Hotspots with the highest TWS and GWS decline rate between 2002 and 2023 were Dehli Doab (−442, −585 mm/year), BIST Doab (−367, −556 mm/year), Rajasthan (−242, −381 mm/year), and BARI (−188, −333 mm/year). Based on a general additive model, 47%–83% of the TWS decline was associated with anthropogenic stressors mainly due to increasing trends of crop sown area, water consumption, and human settlements. The decline rate of TWS and GWS anomalies was lower (i.e., −25 to −75 mm/year) in upstream sub‐regions (e.g., Yogo, Gilgit, Khurmong, Kabul) where climatic factors (downward shortwave radiations, air temperature, and sea surface temperature) explained 72%–91% of TWS/GWS changes. The relative influences of climatic and anthropogenic stressors varied across sub‐regions, underscoring the complex interplay of natural‐human activities in the basin. These findings inform place‐based water resource management in the Indus Basin by advancing the understanding of local vulnerabilities. Plain Language Summary We used GRACE data to understand how water storage has changed over time across the Indus Basin at a resolution of 1 square kilometer. We generated the new high‐resolution data using machine learning techniques that implemented statistical methods. The new data for analyzing water storage matched well with the original data on a larger scale. Additionally, comparing this detailed data with measurements from 2,200 wells showed that our new method works well. The new high‐resolution data help us detect hotspots of water storage decline where water availability may face challenges in the future if status quo continues. Human activities like more farming, using more water, and building more areas for people to live are a major driver of the water storage decline. In upstream areas less influenced by human impacts, the decline is driven more by climatic factors. By improving understanding of local vulnerabilities, our study supports planning interventions for specific regions based on the need to reduce the impact of human activities or adapt to climate change. Key Points Terrestrial water storage (TWS)/groundwater storage (GWS) derived from downscaled GRACE data show a declining trend across most sub‐regions of the Indus Basin between 2002 and 2023 Anthropogenic stressors explain 47%–83% of TWS decline in the majority of sub‐regions TWS/GWS changes in upstream sub‐regions, where shortwave radiations mainly control the TWS changes, are well explained by climatic factors

Water storage capacity in the layers of canopy, litter, and soil of forest ecosystems has not yet been thoroughly investigated on a global scale. We estimated the global pattern of water storage capacity of forest ecosystems related to water regulation services (WSCFE) in the above three layers based on 1,288 observations and analyzed their 22 controlling environmental factors. The results show that the global mean WSCFE per unit area is 456.7 mm, and the total volume of WSCFE is 22,662.5 km3. Climatic variables are the leading factors contributing to the variations of WSCFE, followed by forest attributes, terrain factors, soil properties, and litter characteristics. This study advances the understanding of the large‐scale variation mechanisms of WSCFE in different forest types and climate zones and provides scientific evidence for ecological protection according to local conditions. Plain Language Summary Forest ecosystem plays a vital role in the earth's hydrological process, and water storage capacity of forest ecosystems related to water regulation service (WSCFE) is of vital importance for human well‐being. Water can be intercepted by forest canopy, be held by litter, and be stored in soils, which accounts for more than a quarter of the water volumes in the terrestrial hydrologic cycle. The WSCFE is affected by many factors and its global pattern has not been well understood. In this study, based on the observed data from literature, we provided a robust global pattern of the WSCFE in canopy layer, litter layer, and soil layer. The results show that the WSCFE in the canopy and soil layer decrease gradually from tropical climate zone to polar climate zone, while the maximum WSCFE in the litter layer appears in polar and cold climate zone. The main controlling factors have different impacts on the WSCFE in the three layers. These should be considered in the developing protection policies for important ecological functional areas. Key Points Forest water storage capacity related to water regulation decreases from equator to pole, from coast to inland, and from mountains to plains Among the controlling factors, climatic factors have the largest and most positive influence on water storage capacity The quantification of three important water storages provides a basis to delineate global water regulation zones