Explore the vast range of titles available.

\"Water management is a complex process dealing with a wide range of often conflicting considerations. Especially in flood risk assessment and disaster management, stakeholder involvment is an important component in the decision making process. How to integrate different information sources and how to present them in such a way that even non-experts can capture the situation in a relatively short time and take decisions--that is the overall objective of this research. ... Case study applications focus on the role of 3D information in river delta development, flood disaster management and coastal protection. Implications for next-generation decision support systems are outlined.\"--Back cover.

We compare ensembles of water supply and demand projections from 10 global hydrological models and six global gridded crop models. These are produced as part of the Inter-Sectoral Impacts Model Intercomparison Project, with coordination from the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project, and driven by outputs of general circulation models run under representative concentration pathway 8.5 as part of the Fifth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project. Models project that direct climate impacts to maize, soybean, wheat, and rice involve losses of 400–1,400 Pcal (8–24% of present-day total) when CO2 fertilization effects are accounted for or 1,400–2,600 Pcal (24–43%) otherwise. Freshwater limitations in some irrigated regions (western United States; China; and West, South, and Central Asia) could necessitate the reversion of 20–60 Mha of cropland from irrigated to rainfed management by end-of-century, and a further loss of 600–2,900 Pcal of food production. In other regions (northern/eastern United States, parts of South America, much of Europe, and South East Asia) surplus water supply could in principle support a net increase in irrigation, although substantial investments in irrigation infrastructure would be required.

Quantifying the influence of human activities, such as reservoir building, water abstraction, and land use change, on hydrology is crucial for sustainable future water management, especially during drought. Model-based methods are very time-consuming to set up and require a good understanding of human processes and time series of water abstraction, land use change, and water infrastructure and management, which often are not available. Therefore, observation-based methods are being developed that give an indication of the direction and magnitude of the human influence on hydrological drought based on limited data. We suggest adding to those methods a “paired-catchment” approach, based on the classic hydrology approach that was developed in the 1920s for assessing the impact of land cover treatment on water quantity and quality. When applying the paired-catchment approach to long-term pre-existing human influences trying to detect an influence on extreme events such as droughts, a good catchment selection is crucial. The disturbed catchment needs to be paired with a catchment that is similar in all aspects except for the human activity under study, in that way isolating the effect of that specific activity. In this paper, we present a framework for selecting suitable paired catchments for the study of the human influence on hydrological drought. Essential elements in this framework are the availability of qualitative information on the human activity under study (type, timing, and magnitude), and the similarity of climate, geology, and other human influences between the catchments. We show the application of the framework on two contrasting case studies, one impacted by groundwater abstraction and one with a water transfer from another region. Applying the paired-catchment approach showed how the groundwater abstraction aggravated streamflow drought by more than 200 % for some metrics (total drought duration and total drought deficit) and the water transfer alleviated droughts with 25 % to 80 %, dependent on the metric. Benefits of the paired-catchment approach are that climate variability between pre- and post-disturbance periods does not have to be considered as the same time periods are used for analysis, and that it avoids assumptions considered when partly or fully relying on simulation modelling. Limitations of the approach are that finding a suitable catchment pair can be very challenging, often no pre-disturbance records are available to establish the natural difference between the catchments, and long time series of hydrological data are needed to robustly detect the effect of the human activities on hydrological drought. We suggest that the approach can be used for a first estimate of the human influence on hydrological drought, to steer campaigns to collect more data, and to complement and improve other existing methods (e.g. model-based or large-sample approaches).

Hydraulic transients in long-distance pressurized water pipelines significantly impact their normal operation. This study develops a one-dimensional mathematical model for pressurized water pipelines using the method of characteristics and incorporates water hammer equations for dual-pipeline systems. The model is validated with experimental data, and simulations are conducted under real engineering conditions, focusing on valve closure operations. The analysis examines the transient responses for varying valve closure times ( T ) and the effect of installing surge tanks. Results show that increasing valve closure time and installing surge tanks both mitigate water hammer impacts. Specifically, when valve closure time exceeds 300 seconds, surge tanks reduce maximum pressure below the pipeline’s tolerance ( Pmax ) and decrease the number of nodes experiencing damaging negative pressures. This model effectively simulates hydraulic transients in dual-pipeline systems and provides a foundation for developing protective measures for pipeline operations.

Regular on-site inspection is crucial for promptly detecting faults in water supply networks (WSNs) and auxiliary facilities, significantly reducing leakage risks. However, the fragmentation of information and the separation between virtual and physical networks pose challenges, increasing the cognitive load on inspectors. Furthermore, due to the lack of real-time computation in current research, the effectiveness in detecting anomalies, such as leaks, is limited, hindering its ability to provide immediate and direct-decision support for inspectors. To address these issues, this research proposes a mixed reality (MR) inspection method that integrates multi-source information, combining building information modeling (BIM), Internet of Things (IoT), monitoring data, and numerical simulation technologies. This approach aims to achieve in situ visualization and real-time computational capabilities. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through case studies, with user feedback confirming its feasibility. The results indicate improvements in inspection task performance, work efficiency, and standardization compared to traditional mobile terminal-based methods.

This paper analyses the operation of a water supply system located in the Silesian Voivodeship, serving six small localities covering a rural area of about 50 km2 with a total population of 6130. The region’s varied elevation presents challenges to system performance. A hydraulic model was developed in EPANET, then validated and calibrated based on selected measurement points. Previous studies revealed that the network operates under unstable conditions. Although all users receive water under average demand, some areas experience excessive pressure. During peak demand, water shortages occur due to limited inflow to the main reservoir, which the existing pumping system cannot compensate for. In response, the validated model was used in this study to propose a reconstruction strategy to ensure a reliable water supply under all demand conditions. The analysis focused on the introduction of new water intakes, identifying their required capacity and optimal locations. It has been demonstrated that the inclusion of a new water intake positively impacts the stability of the water distribution network, and that a hydraulic model is a valuable tool for supporting the selection of its location. Hydraulic convergence of the model was necessary to optimize and evaluate the proposed solutions. As part of the selection criteria, two parameters were analysed: the percentage of nodes with pressure below 20 m H2O, and the percentage of nodes where the pressure exceeds 55 m H2O. Among the evaluated options, the most effective solution was intake no. 1, directly connected to a DN 160 transmission pipe supplying the area with the lowest recorded pressure. The upgraded system operates stably and meets the demands of all users. The obtained results provide valuable support for water utility management in making decisions on the development and operational optimization of water supply networks.

Man-made reservoirs play a key role in the terrestrial water system. They alter water fluxes at the land surface and impact surface water storage through water management regulations for diverse purposes such as irrigation, municipal water supply, hydropower generation, and flood control. Although most developed countries have established sophisticated observing systems for many variables in the land surface water cycle, long-term and consistent records of reservoir storage are much more limited and not always shared. Furthermore, most land surface hydrological models do not represent the effects of water management activities. Here, the contribution of reservoirs to seasonal water storage variations is investigated using a large-scale water management model to simulate the effects of reservoir management at basin and continental scales. The model was run from 1948 to 2010 at a spatial resolution of 0.25° latitude–longitude. A total of 166 of the largest reservoirs in the world with a total capacity of about 3900 km³ (nearly 60%of the globally integrated reservoir capacity) were simulated. The global reservoir storage time series reflects the massive expansion of global reservoir capacity; over 30 000 reservoirs have been constructed during the past half century, with a mean absolute interannual storage variation of 89 km³. The results indicate that the average reservoir-induced seasonal storage variation is nearly 700 km³ or about 10% of the global reservoir storage. For some river basins, such as the Yellow River, seasonal reservoir storage variations can be as large as 72% of combined snow water equivalent and soil moisture storage.

Oil and gas pipelines serve as critical infrastructure for ensuring energy resource supply and security. Stacking load, as one of the most widespread loads, frequently acts on the soil surface overlying buried polyethylene (PE) pipelines, influencing stress-strain dynamics and potential failure mechanisms. In this study, a numerical simulation model of pipeline-soil interaction for buried PE pipelines exposed to stacking load was established and verified. The variations in deformation and stress behavior were systematically analyzed. The results revealed that the maximum deformation of buried PE pipelines under stacking load occurred at the pipeline’s center, with upper and lower deformations, as well as diameter variations, diminishing progressively as the distance from the center increased. Furthermore, the difference between the upper and lower deformations was reduced as burial depth increased. Notably, the maximum deformation exhibited a direct proportionality with the stacking load, while both the deformation and its rate of reduction decreased with buried depth increased. Additionally, the peak stress within the buried PE pipeline emerged at the center of the load’s footprint, escalating in tandem with the increase in stacking load. Intriguingly, the stress response diverged between pipelines subjected to smaller and larger stacking loads, and the peak stress gradually attenuated as the pipeline’s diameter expanded. These findings highlight the importance of considering both stacking loads and buried depths in the design and installation for PE pipelines to safeguard structural integrity and extend operational lifespan.

The Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra (IGB) river basins provide about 900 million people with water resources used for agricultural, domestic, and industrial purposes. These river basins are marked as “climate change hotspots”, where climate change is expected to affect monsoon dynamics and the amount of meltwater from snow and ice, and thus the amount of water available. Simultaneously, rapid and continuous population growth as well as strong economic development will likely result in a rapid increase in water demand. Since quantification of these future trends is missing, it is rather uncertain how the future South Asian water gap will develop. To this end, we assess the combined impacts of climate change and socio-economic development on the future “blue” water gap in the IGB until the end of the 21st century. We apply a coupled modelling approach consisting of the distributed cryospheric–hydrological model SPHY, which simulates current and future upstream water supply, and the hydrology and crop production model LPJmL, which simulates current and future downstream water supply and demand. We force the coupled models with an ensemble of eight representative downscaled general circulation models (GCMs) that are selected from the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios, and a set of land use and socio-economic scenarios that are consistent with the shared socio-economic pathway (SSP) marker scenarios 1 and 3. The simulation outputs are used to analyse changes in the water availability, supply, demand, and gap. The outcomes show an increase in surface water availability towards the end of the 21st century, which can mainly be attributed to increases in monsoon precipitation. However, despite the increase in surface water availability, the strong socio-economic development and associated increase in water demand will likely lead to an increase in the water gap during the 21st century. This indicates that socio-economic development is the key driver in the evolution of the future South Asian water gap. The transgression of future environmental flows will likely be limited, with sustained environmental flow requirements during the monsoon season and unmet environmental flow requirements during the low-flow season in the Indus and Ganges river basins.

Water management problem are one of the major concerns in the Indian Territory due to decrease in water level alongside mismanagement of water distribution systems. It was found that the earlier drinking water supply networks has many drawbacks and indeed requirement to modify them. So, there are several governments projects having major concern to mitigate the leakages, unnecessary loss, tap modification, reservoir and best water distribution system. Hence, this study provides an efficient approach to improve water distribution system with minimizing the cost alongside fulfillment of adequate water demand and pressure to the consumer end. The procedure opted to design that should satisfied the parameters like pipe material, velocity of flow in pipe, residual nodal pressure, reservoir level, unit head-loss, peak factor and available commercial pipe diameters in adherence to the CPHEEO manual clauses. This study also simulates the water distribution network and calibrates the different parameters for implementing in the rural area. Therefore, a case at Cossipore, located in the Northern part of East Kolkata in West Bengal, India was carried out. In order to mitigate the menace of high arsenic concentration in ground water in the district, it was decided to supply surface water with adequate and proper treatment for human consumption as a long-term measure to save the people from Arsenic contamination. The water loss management in the Cossipore service zone, taken up as a pilot project in Kolkata towards the improvement of quality and the sustainability in water supply and specifically in water distribution management.