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An in-depth review of sustainable concepts in water resources management under climate change  Climate change continues to intensify existing pressures in water resources management, such as rapid population growth, land use changes, pollution, damming of rivers, and many others. Securing a reliable water supply-critical for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)-requires understanding of the relation between finite water resources, climate variability/change, and various elements of sustainability. Water, Climate Change, and Sustainability is a timely and in-depth examination of the concept of sustainability as it relates to water resources management in the context of climate change risks.  Featuring contributions by global authors, this edited volume is organized into three sections: Sustainability Concepts; Sustainability Approaches, Tools, and Techniques; and Sustainability in Practice. Detailed chapters describe the linkage between water and sustainable development, highlight the development and use of new measuring and reporting methods, and discuss the implementation of sustainability concepts in various water use sectors. Topics include localizing and mainstreaming global water sustainability initiatives, resilient water infrastructure for poverty reduction, urban water security for sustainable cities, climate actions and challenges for sustainable ecosystem services, and more. This important resource:  Reviews contemporary scientific research and practical applications in the areas of water, climate change and sustainability in different regions of the world   Discusses future directions of research and practices in relation to expected patterns of climate changes  Covers a wide range of concepts, theories, and perspectives of sustainable development of water resources  Features case studies of field and modelling techniques for analyzing water resources and evaluating vulnerability, security, and associated risks  Discusses practical applications of water resources in contexts such as food security, global health, clean energy, and climate action   Water, Climate Change, and Sustainability?is an invaluable resource for policy makers water managers, researchers, and other professionals in the field, and an ideal text for graduate students in hydrogeology, climate change, geophysics, geochemistry, geography, water resources, and environmental science. 

Increasing demands for irrigation, domestic and industrial water have generated a massive growth world-wide in the number of large water infrastructure projects involving the transfer of water from basins considered to have surplus water to those where the demand for water has exceeded or is expected to exceed supplies. Using the experiences of projects in Australia, United States, Canada, China and India, this book examines case studies within the diverse geographical, climatic, economic, and policy regimes operating in these countries. It examines the water resources of Australia, the driest inhabited continent, and explores inter-basin water transfer projects in the United States, Canada, China and India, examining their benefits and impacts within these nations' contrasting economies and governance systems. This comprehensive and well-illustrated text will be of great interest to professionals and researchers in the fields of hydrology, water resources, and to those engaged in environmental science, policy and regulation.

Water resources and related issues are of great significance in 21st century politics. In Africa, for example, hydropolitics affect politics and policymaking at the local, national, and international levels. To investigate water politics, this unique work focuses on the issue transboundary water governance in Southern and Eastern Africa. Based on extensive field research, it offers a comparative study of the Orange Senqu and Nile basins in Africa, arguing that both causal and behavioral factors (such as localization and trust building) drive the multi-leveled development of cooperative management norms and foster the creation of regional communities of interest. The book combines theory, analysis, and fieldwork within the framework of Constructivism as well as a wide range of examples to identify and analyze the nature of norms in hydropolitics. By doing so, it will help shape the debate on how water conflict and cooperative governance should evolve and will interest anyone studying African politics, hydropolitics, and issues of development.

Using a variety of case studies, this book provides an overview of how societies have gradually developed their water resources and furthers our understanding of how such resources can be managed successfully or unsuccessfully. Discussing how and why particular options are selected, and why a particular course of events eventually prevails, the book stresses the importance of context and a multidisciplinary approach in moving towards sustainable and equitable development.

Examines the politics of transnational water resource management through case studies of the Aral Sea basin and the Danube, Euphrates, and Mekong river basins. As the governance of transboundary rivers becomes a subject of growing importance due to the increasing pressure on freshwater resources, this timely collection examines water scarcity and efforts to better manage rivers and river basins. Most specialists agree that states face many institutional inadequacies when dealing with shared resources and that new governance mechanisms are needed to improve water management. Using case studies of the Aral Sea basin and the Danube, Euphrates, and Mekong river basins, the contributors develop a new approach to water governance: the concept of multi-governance, an effort to collectively solve public problems by involving a series of relevant actors from the local to the global level, such as institutions, states, civil society, and business.

Private water supply systems consisting of a domestic well and septic system are used throughout the world where households lack access to public water supply and sewers. In residential areas with a high housing density, septic contamination of private wells is common and associated with multiple health concerns. This situation can give rise to social dilemmas, where individual costs de-incentivize homeowners from investing in enhanced septic systems that would reduce well contamination and bring communal benefits. We combine a stylized game theoretical model with a probabilistic groundwater model to characterize how economic and hydrogeological conditions interact to produce misaligned incentives conducive to social dilemmas. The occurrence of social dilemmas depends on the relative costs of well contamination versus the cost of installing an enhanced septic treatment system and the relative probabilities of cross-contamination versus self-contamination. The game reveals three types of social dilemmas that occur in such systems, with each calling for distinct policy solutions. We demonstrate how the model can be applied to existing systems, using a case study of St. Joseph County, Indiana, where high nitrate contamination rates have raised public health concerns. This analysis represents a step towards identifying alternative policy solutions for a problem that has remained difficult to address for decades.

The act of ensuring freshwater is considered the most essential and basic need for humanity. Although the planet is water-rich in some terms, the freshwater sources available for human consumption and beneficial uses are very limited. Excess population growth, industrial development coupled with improving living standards have caused an unprecedented need for freshwater all over the world. Regions once rich in water resources are struggling to meet the ever increasing demands in recent years. In addition, climate change and unsustainable management practices have led to a situation called “drought” in many regions. Water supplies in drought conditions can be addressed by taking two major approaches related to management and technology development. The management approaches include demand mitigation and supply enhancement. Demand mitigation can be done by implementing water conservation practices, and by enforcing a mechanism to influence user-responsible behavior through higher water fares and other billing routes. Supply enhancement can be achieved by utilizing the methods available for water reclamation, reuse and recycle including rain harvesting. This paper provides a critical insight of the causes for drought and the issues caused by persistent drought conditions followed by discussion of management and technological approaches required to maintain adequate water resources around the world. Challenges and opportunities involved in implementation of desalination and water reuse technologies in addressing global water scarcity are discussed in detail with case studies

Intermittent water supply (IWS) is widely used around the world, and with the increase in population and predicted future water scarcity, IWS applications seem to continue. While most of the existing studies on water supply concentrate on continuous water supply (CWS), the research focused on the IWS is now becoming mainstream. Hydraulic modelling is an effective tool for the process of planning, design, rehabilitation, and operation of water distribution systems. It helps significantly in engineers’ decision-making processes. The necessity of modelling IWS systems arises from the complexity and variety of problems caused by intermittency. This paper offers a review of the state-of-the-art IWS modelling and identifies the key strengths and limitations of the available approaches, and points at potential research directions. Currently, neither computer software nor a practically used approach is available for modelling IWS. For a rigorous simulation of IWS, system characteristics first need to be understood, i.e., the user behaviour under pressure-deficient conditions, water losses, and filling and emptying processes. Each of them requires further attention and improvement. Additionally, the necessity of real data from IWSs is stressed. Accurate modelling will lead to the development of improved measures for the problems caused by intermittency.