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Governing a shared hidden resource: A review of governance mechanisms for transboundary groundwater security
Abstract
Globally, groundwater is by far the largest store of liquid freshwater, making it a key component of a secure water supply. However, over the past few decades the amount of usable groundwater available around the world has rapidly decreased. This depletion is caused primarily by mismanagement (e.g., overpumping, contamination, and under-regulation), but also by reduced natural recharge due to climate change and urbanization. Management of groundwater resources is particularly challenging for the nearly 600 aquifers that are transboundary, meaning that they extend across international political borders. To understand how governance mechanisms can reduce water insecurity in transboundary groundwater contexts, we review key literature from what we view as the most relevant fields: groundwater management, water security, international water law and international water governance. We then formulate a set of recommendations for improved groundwater governance that can address the specific physical nature of groundwater systems, enhance water security, and apply to transboundary groundwater settings. We argue that groundwater governance in transboundary contexts requires processes that (1) enhance context-specific and flexible international mechanisms; (2) address the perpetual need for groundwater data and information; (3) prioritize the precautionary principle and pollution prevention, in particular; (4) where appropriate, integrate governance of surface and subsurface water and land; and (5) expand institutional capacity, especially of binational or multinational actors.
... This implies that increased human density will put additional strain on subsurface water resources. As a result, the opinions of Albrecht et al. [67], Adeel [68], Aalirezaei et al. [69], Chunxia et al. [70], Mandal et al. [71], and Varady et al. are supported [72]. This suggests that as the population grows, there will be less underground water available in the countries that make up the European Union. ...
... This implies that in EU emerging countries, a 1% increase in population density results in a 1.046% loss in the subsurface water supply. The results of studies on energy policy by Albrecht et al. [67], Aalirezaei et al. [69], and Mandal et al. are in line with this conclusion [71]. According to this study, population development results in increased demand for subterranean water for domestic, industrial, and municipal uses as well as increased competition for it. ...
... This shows that there is a noticeable rise in the quantity of underground water quality deterioration, which occurs more frequently among the 14 emerging economies of the European Union than among the 13 rising economies. As a result, the opinions of Albrecht et al. [67], Adeel [68], Aalirezaei et al. [69], Chunxia et al. [70], Mandal et al. [71], and Varady et al. are supported [72]. This suggests that as the population grows, there will be less underground water available in the countries that make up the European Union. ...
This study's main goal is to evaluate how the research will look at the impact of geothermal energy production on the quality of the subterranean in the 27 European nations from 1990 to 2021. A considerable decline in the subterranean water supply can occur in EU14 emerging nations employing geothermal energy growth compared to EU13 emerging economies, according to research that uses the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL). Fossil fuel use, population growth, and economic expansion are some factors that have a more detrimental effect on the subterranean water supply in EU14 emerging economies than in EU13 emerging nations. In contrast, the study's findings indicate that EU13 emerging nations may be better able to enhance their underground water supply than EU14 emerging economies because of more effective institutional qualities. The findings so indicate that increasing the amount of geothermal energy generation among the 27 European Union countries can accelerate subsurface water degradation at a high capacity and help achieve unionism's 2030 energy-related goals. When this is achieved, climate change will be put to check, as pollution of the environment. All calculations projected were seen to be of a good level of validity, and this is ascertained through three estimators considered in this study.
... Several articles have identified elements, or "pillars," of surface water and groundwater governance (e.g., [10,[37][38][39][40][41]). Regarding groundwater, principles for management, planning, and assessment can be summarized as follows: stakeholder engagement and inclusion, proper assessment and data for analysis, management and planning for groundwater use, integrated water management, and protection of groundwater resources [10,38,39]. ...
... Several articles have identified elements, or "pillars," of surface water and groundwater governance (e.g., [10,[37][38][39][40][41]). Regarding groundwater, principles for management, planning, and assessment can be summarized as follows: stakeholder engagement and inclusion, proper assessment and data for analysis, management and planning for groundwater use, integrated water management, and protection of groundwater resources [10,38,39]. ...
... Long-term planning for sustainable groundwater management also requires both characterization and ongoing monitoring due to the complexity and everchanging conditions of aquifer systems and inherent scientific uncertainty in groundwater evaluation. Management practices need to account for hydrogeological characteristics of transboundary aquifers via such strategies as pollution prevention, integrated land and water management, and context-specific approaches [39,[54][55][56]. ...
Sharing scientific data and information is often cited within academic literature as an initial step of water cooperation, but the transfer of research findings into policy and practice is often slow and inconsistent. Certain attributes—including salience, credibility, and legitimacy of scientific information; iterative information production; and sociocultural factors—may influence how easily scientific information can be used in management and policymaking. However, transnationality usually complicates these sorts of interactions. Accordingly, we argue that the production of scientific information and transboundary water cooperation build upon each other bidirectionally, each informing and enhancing the other. We employ a case-study analysis of the Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Program (TAAP), a binational collaborative effort for scientific assessment of aquifers shared between Mexico and the United States. Here, information sharing was possible only by first completing a formal, jointly agreed-upon cooperative framework in 2009. This framework resulted in a collaborative science production process, suggesting that the relationship between sharing data and information and transboundary groundwater governance is iterative and self-reinforcing. In keeping with the publication of the TAAP’s first binational scientific report in 2016, we demonstrate the bidirectional relationship between science production and water governance in the TAAP and explore remaining challenges after scientific assessment.
... Experts agree that study of groundwater governance institutions and policies is needed to identify models for good groundwater governance [13]. In recent years, groundwater governance has received growing attention in scholarly work [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. Notable efforts involving government officials, academics, and other expert practitioners include the Global Environmental Facility-funded project "Groundwater Governance: A Global Framework for Action" [21], and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Water Governance Initiative, which focuses on governance on all types of water [22]. ...
... In the U.S., research related to groundwater governance and management in the 50 U.S. states is limited. Other analyses have focused on the watershed scale e.g., [23][24][25][26][27], the regional scale [19,28,29], or internationally-shared watersheds e.g., [18,20,[30][31][32]. Though some research has been conducted on state-level groundwater governance and management in the U.S. [33][34][35][36], few researchers have examined water governance and management at the state level, despite the fact that most governance strategies and management actions are focused at this level. ...
... Most of the impediments to sustainable groundwater management observed across the world can be linked to failures in groundwater governance structures [17,20,21]. Many of these impediments are due to challenges related to: fragmented and overlapping jurisdictions and responsibilities, competing priorities, water rights and water pricing structures, and diverging opinions on how it should be governed and managed [53]. ...
Groundwater is increasingly important for meeting water demand across the United States (U.S.). Forward thinking governance and effective management are necessary for its sustainable use. In the U.S., state governments are primarily responsible for groundwater governance (i.e., making laws, policies, and regulations) and management (i.e., implementation of laws, policies, and regulations). This decentralized system results in diverse strategies and practices. We surveyed a water quality professional from each state to better understand commonalities and differences across states. These professionals identify a wide assortment of groundwater issues and concerns, including quality and quantity impairment, staffing and budget issues, private well vulnerability, and overdraft. Respondents indicate contamination problems from natural and anthropogenic sources. Most respondents report that their states have significantly changed groundwater quality policy during the past 30 years. While most states have multiple funding sources for water quality programs, program budgets have decreased in the last decade, thereby hindering effective implementation of new policies. Over half of respondents indicate that water-quality/water-level monitoring and increased groundwater pumping will require more attention over the next decade. Several respondents anticipate groundwater regulation changes in the next five years. We discuss how our findings align with current groundwater uses in the U.S.
... Coordination of intentions, needs, and actions is a wicked problem due to the number of actors interacting in the water governance space. When stakeholders merge their understanding of the issue at stake, they carry political, economic, and racially charged legacies which inevitably define the trajectory of diplomatic relations [27,[32][33][34]. Aquifer governance implies addressing power dimensions in the exchanges between bordering countries that draw from the same transboundary aquifer. ...
... Several authors [34,52] have voiced significant concern for the restriction of the agency and executive power of indigenous members of the IJC, substantiating the suspicion that their de facto marginalization is being masked by tokenism. Hydro-diplomatic practice, in theory, addresses power imbalances and the colonial legacies imprinted in rules of social interaction in political spaces [22,[32][33][34]. In practice, it may take more than the hydro-diplomacy to break the historical marginalization of indigenous leaders in transboundary aquifers. ...
The management of transboundary aquifers across the Americas faces significant challenges, especially as climate change and population growth intensify groundwater stress. Groundwater use has increased to support domestic, industrial, and agricultural demands but has been extracted through unregulated withdrawals, leading to the severe degradation of aquifer health and transboundary frictions. This study focuses on how hydro-diplomacy can accelerate the adaptive governance of shared groundwater resources in three key regions: Canada–USA, USA–Mexico, and Mexico–Guatemala–Belize. We utilized a mixed methodology by integrating a transect approach, borrowed from ecology, into the field of geopolitics. To compare the hydro-diplomatic relations and groundwater governance across a continental gradient in the Americas, we conducted a literature review and employed the TWINS conflict–cooperation matrix to evaluate governance frameworks and hydro-diplomatic interactions across time. Our findings demonstrate that hydro-diplomacy plays a pivotal role in expediting agreements, fostering transboundary data sharing, and supporting participatory governance models. In particular, the presence of supranational bodies such as the International Joint Commission (IJC) between Canada and the USA has been effective in maintaining long-term collaboration through social learning and technical cooperation. Meanwhile, in regions like Mexico–Guatemala–Belize, the absence of robust institutions has hindered progress, with limited financial and knowledge-sharing networks. This study highlights the need for improved cross-border cooperation mechanisms and the establishment of common monitoring protocols to better manage aquifer resources under the pressures of climate change. The results support the development of more adaptive transboundary groundwater management strategies aligned with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.5.2 and call for broader geopolitical cooperation to address the complexities of groundwater governance.
... The formation of agreements over transboundary aquifers is not as advanced, with about 120 agreements mentioning groundwater and only 15 agreements (or treaty-like arrangements) existing solely over transboundary aquifers. 4 Governance arrangements over transboundary aquifers remain quite weak (Albrecht et al., 2017), reflecting how much international law on shared groundwater resources is lagging behind. This is also reflected at the global level, where the 2008 Draft Articles on the Law of Transboundary Aquifers, developed by the International Law Commission, have still not been adopted by the international community and remain highly contested among states and scholars (McCaffrey, 2011). ...
... In light of the persistent lack of attention to the issues of groundwater sharing (Stephan et al., 2022;UN Water, 2022) -both from law, governance, and policy making and, although increasingly less, from research -more efforts are needed to ensure that the world's many transboundary aquifers receive adequate attention to mitigate their continuous deterioration. This includes developing not only a better understanding of the nature of transboundary aquifers -including their linkages to surface waters, which determine the applicability of the legal regime (see examples of treaties in Lautze et al., 2018) -but also a better understanding of the reasons behind the persistent lack of institutionalized cooperative arrangements over shared groundwater resources (such as started by Albrecht et al., 2017). ...
This article explores major findings and evolutions in understanding of transboundary water conflict and cooperation over the last three decades, focusing on the trends emerging from the Transboundary Freshwater Diplomacy Database. It is found that since the 1940s, countries tend to cooperate over shared water resources, in contrast to media portrayals of 'water wars'. Water conflicts, which have increased slightly since 2000, are mostly fuelled by water quantity disputes or unilateral infrastructure developments. Institutions play a role in facilitating cooperation and reducing conflict over shared waters, but their growth and adoption have slowed over the last few decades.
... Transboundary groundwater resources present additional challenges for management due to the difficulty in assessing and monitoring resource sustainability and have remained less well-examined than shared surface waters to date (e.g. Blomquist and Ingram, 2003;Linton and Brooks, 2011;Puri and Aureli, 2005;Conti, 2014;Albrecht et al., 2017;UNESCO, 2022b). ...
... The literature is replete with valuable, broad-spectrum works on approaches to governance, management strategies, climate adaptation, lessons learned, assessments and ways of measuring success (case studies make up the bulk of the literature and are far too numerous to cite, but for selected general writings, see, e.g. Akamani and Wilson, 2011;Blatter and Ingram, 2000;Kliot et al., 2001aKliot et al., , 2001bPuri and Aureli, 2005;Gooch and Stalnacke, 2006;Dellapenna, 2007;Mirumachi and Allan, 2007;Cooley et al., 2009;Wada and Heinrich, 2013;de Sherbinin and Glennie, 2014;Armitage et al., 2015;Gerlak, 2017;McCracken, 2017;McCracken and Meyer, 2018;Varady et al., 2020;Rieu-Clarke et al., 2022). ...
... Optimal groundwater abstraction likely requires one or both countries to credibly commit to reduce their pumping. Trust is critical for this to happen, particularly in an international context where the objectives of multiple countries may be in opposition (Wolf et al., 2005), cooperation produces additional risk (Hoffman, 2002), and complete oversight of groundwater abstraction is impractical given the hidden nature of the resource (Albrecht et al., 2017). Trust building initiatives are essential components of transboundary negotiations over water, particularly in situations where international partners do not have a history of cooperation (Wolf, 2010;Susskind and Islam, 2012;Islam and Susskind, 2013). ...
... We apply game theory to investigate how economic incentives, hydrogeological constraints, and trust can incentivize formal cooperation over shared groundwater. Although these incentives may influence cooperative outcomes, a variety of factors determine whether or not a treaty is signed in any particular aquifer including domestic politics, diplomatic relations, and institutional capacity (Albrecht et al., 2017). As such, the objective of the model is to facilitate an understanding of cooperation rather than for prediction. ...
International transboundary aquifers provide important water supplies to over 150 countries. Long-term sustainability of these aquifers requires transboundary cooperation and yet only a select few (1%) transboundary aquifers are regulated by a treaty. To better understand the incentives that allow treaties to emerge, we develop a two-player game theoretic model that couples groundwater behavior and economic incentives to represent the social dilemma of transboundary aquifer cooperation. The game incorporates economic incentives and hydrogeological features and highlights the importance of trust to evaluate the benefits and risks of a treaty. We demonstrate the ability of the game to reproduce key features of cooperation in the Genevese aquifer, which is governed by the longest-running and most collaborative transboundary aquifer treaty on record. We analyze the comparative statics of the game to explore the role of groundwater connectivity, alternative water supply, water demand, and trust on the emergence of transboundary treaties. The solution space highlights how economic incentives for cooperation are greatest when the value of water is commensurate with the cost of groundwater abstraction. Cooperation requires high trust in situations characterized by water abundance or scarcity. The model results further indicate how two different types of agreements are likely to emerge. Treaties that limit how much is being pumped have greater potential when countries have access to an alternative water source, whereas treaties that restrict where the aquifer is being exploited have greater potential in water-scarce regions with emerging concerns over groundwater depletion. In addition to helping explain the emergence of existing treaties, this framework offers potential to identify aquifers that may be amenable to cooperation.
... When considering transboundary groundwater, a water-security framing sheds light on the dual need for both protections of the physical resource and improved governance (Albrecht et al. 2017). Groundwater is particularly vulnerable to degradation because impacts-such as pollution or overuse-are difficult to monitor and may occur slowly over many decades. ...
... For example, studies of transboundary groundwater emphasize the need for on-going collection and exchange of data and information to address to improve understanding of the resource, promote cross-border cooperation, and enhance water security (Comair et al. 2013;Petersen-Perlman and Wolf 2015). Improved institutional capacity is also a key factor in enabling international cooperation on groundwater (Conti 2014) and is recommended at both the local and binational level to address transboundary groundwater security (Albrecht et al. 2017). For example, in the Guarani Aquifer System in South America, while an agreement exists, increased institutional capacity is needed to enforce groundwater regulations at a national level, and facilitate cross-border exchange of information (Petersen-Perlman and Wolf 2015; Sugg et al. 2015). ...
... multilateral organisations, NGOs) is a delicate matter in (failed) countries where sovereignty is already in jeopardy; the inexistence of previous cooperation on the matter is also a hindering factor. All of which are requirements for proper construction of cross-border water management (Albrecht et al. 2017). ...
... Groundwater is one of the most important sources of water supply in arid regions. With no 'vertical integration' (i.e. between local and national levels), borderlands suffer from the lack of formal projects able to build institutional capacity to foster equitable resource governance (Albrecht et al. 2017). However, when analysing water conflicts happening exclusively within borderlands, one finds that such clashes involve solely local populations for subsistence. ...
This chapter explores the IPE of borders from experiences of the Global South. It studies ‘negative’ aspects of regionalism and the inclusion of borders and borderlands in the regional and global production and power systems. It explores ‘shadow regionalism’ in borderlands by analysing the nodes between formal and informal networks and processes. By applying a global yet bottom-up perspective in specific cases of cross-border interactions, six nodes are identified: the role of corruption and kinship relations in the spreading of transnational crime, the effects of institutional vacuum and an idea of development and industrialisation on cross-border natural resources, and the influence of market demands and conflict on international migratory flows. These nodes are found to be multilevel, interconnected and overlapping, pervading all areas of socio-economic and political relations among states and domestically, affecting regional settings and global systems.
... De acuerdo con la UNESCO y el Programa Hidrológico Internacional (2015), así como los análisis académicos (Robins & Fergusson;Rivera, 2015;Sanchez, Lopez, & Eckstein, 2016;Albrecht et al., 2017), para lograr una adecuada gobernanza de las aguas subterráneas transfronterizas, se debe priorizar su caracterización científi ca y evaluación integral; de lo contrario, es posible la confi guración de confl ictos políticos y la profundización de asimetrías entre las naciones que comparten acuíferos. Esto signifi ca, que la carencia de datos fundamentales que permitan poseer una visión sistémica y homogénea del funcionamiento de los cursos de agua compartidos es, sin duda, un factor de confl icto. ...
... Estos principios están presentes en instrumentos legales vinculantes como el Convenio UNECE (1992) 4 y la Convención de Nueva York (1997). 5 Para autores como Rivera (2015) y Albrecht et al., (2017), el principio que siempre debe prevalecer es el de no causar un daño signifi cativo, pues la extracción irracional del agua alterará irreversiblemente la naturaleza del sistema impactando negativamente su calidad, volumen y capacidad de recarga y descarga del acuífero, impidiendo su función esencial en el sostenimiento de la biodiversidad y, en consecuencia, en el combate al cambio climático. ...
Recientemente, se concluyó la evaluación hidrogeológica binacional de cuatro acuíferos transfronterizos Estados Unidos-México, entre ellos el Acuífero Río San Pedro. Una revisión exhaustiva y crítica del reporte final indica un trabajo de cooperación cercana, no obstante, parece haberse logrado poco con respecto a los aspectos científicos y políticos, ambos imprescindibles en la evaluación de los acuíferos transfronterizos. Este artículo provee, desde un enfoque interdisciplinario (Geografía Política e Hidrogeología), un análisis crítico de las implicaciones científicas y políticas de los resultados de la evaluación del acuífero. Se concluye que, para prevenir el conflicto y fortalecer la evaluación hidrogeológica, es necesario robustecer la conceptualización y visión sistémica del agua subterránea, su monitoreo y la homologación e intercambio de datos para el manejo transfronterizo del acuífero.
English: A binational hydrogeological evaluation of four US-Mexico transboundary aquifers was recently completed, including the San Pedro River aquifer. A thorough and critical review of the final report indicates close cooperation, but listle seems to have been achieved on many sci- entific, technical, legal and political aspects, which are essential for the comprehensive assessment of transboundary groundwater. This article provides a critical analysis of the scientific and political implications of the evaluation of the aquifer from an interdisciplinary approach (political geography and hydrogeology). It concludes that for the prevention of the conflict and the strengthening of the incipient hydrogeological evaluation schemes, it is necessary to strengthen the conceptualization and systemic vision of groundwater functions, monitoring and the homologation and exchange of data for the cross-border management of the aquifer.
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... With the emerging evaluation criteria and the contextual variables that shape and influence groundwater governance (Akhmouch and Clavreul, 2018), the complex social interaction, heterogeneous hydrogeological settings, and the interplay of physical variables, such as changing climate could jeopardise groundwater management (Asprilla-Echeverria, 2021). The context-specific mechanisms (for instance, social institutions and rules that drive the level of cooperation), data and information on groundwater systems, expansion of institutional capacity, and integrating governance of surface and sub-surface water and land could be the mechanisms to improve groundwater governance and enhance water security (Albrecht et al., 2017;Asprilla-Echeverria, 2021). ...
... Jakeman et al. (2016:7) see groundwater governance as a combination of "responsible collective action to ensure control, protection and socially sustainable utilisation of groundwater resources and aquifer systems". It is therefore apparent that groundwater governance can be a complex undertaking, sensitive to contextual differences and aquifer geo-physical characteristics (Albrecht et al., 2017;Varady et al., 2016). ...
This paper analyses groundwater governance within a transfrontier conservation landscape. Given the current heightened interest in groundwater development, it is imperative that more thought be given to how groundwater resources can best be managed in different contexts for multiple uses and users. Transfrontier conservation areas are areas of vast biological diversity whose functioning and ecosystem integrity depends on the availability of water to sustain ecosystems and subsequently derive economic benefit. Further, climate vulnerable rural communities depend on and form an important part of this landscape. The work highlighted in this paper is based on a study conducted in parts of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA), the largest TFCA in the world. Climate induced challenges such as droughts and general poor land use planning have resulted in threats to long term sustainability of freshwater ecosystems and increased incidences of human-wildlife conflicts over limited water resources. Effective groundwater governance can potentially provide pathways for alleviating these challenges. Building on the theoretical fundamentals of polycentric governance, this paper analyses the case of the KAZA TFCA in which multiple levels of governance exist. The paper discusses how to achieve coordination and accountability within a shared landscape to foster sustainable use and management of groundwater. Groundwater within a TFCA context has the potential to alleviate human-wildlife conflict over freshwater, support groundwater dependant ecosystems and sustain smallholder agriculture for the rural communities. Understanding this role of groundwater adds to the framing of freshwater governance and conservation efforts within a TFCA and the identification and development of platforms for the integrated management of groundwater. Bringing together freshwater and conservation institutions in a multi-country context towards integrated water resource management is an initial and novel attempt which forms the foundation for achieving optimal governance approaches in the commons.
... Stringent regulations for groundwater extraction and pollution, along with effective enforcement mechanisms, are essential for protecting ecosystems. A scientifically informed and holistic approach to groundwater management is essential for preserving groundwater-dependent ecosystems for current and future generations [40]. ...
Groundwater, a vital component of the Earth's hydrological cycle, plays a central role in supporting ecosystems worldwide. This research
paper explores the multifaceted relationship between groundwater and ecosystems, emphasizing its critical importance for the health
and resilience of both aquatic and terrestrial habitats. The paper delves into the ecosystem services provided by groundwater, including
habitat provision, water purification, and nutrient cycling. The intricate connection between groundwater availability and biodiversity
is examined, highlighting the significance of groundwater in sustaining diverse habitats such as wetlands, springs, and riparian zones.
Additionally, the research investigates the role of groundwater in hydrological processes, particularly its contribution to base flow in
rivers and the sustenance of stream ecosystems during dry periods. Anthropogenic factors leading to groundwater depletion, such as
over-extraction for agriculture and urbanization, are analyzed, emphasizing the far-reaching consequences for ecosystems. The paper
proposes strategies for sustainable groundwater management, including monitoring, water-efficient agricultural practices, and nature�based solutions. It underscores the importance of policy development, community engagement, and international collaboration in
preserving groundwater-dependent ecosystems. Looking towards the future, the research identifies challenges and opportunities,
including uncertainties related to climate change, population growth, and global water trade. It suggests areas for further research, such
as integrated hydrological models and studies on social-ecological systems, and emphasizes the need for innovative policies that prioritize
ecosystem health. In conclusion, the research emphasizes the critical need for sustainable groundwater management practices,
recognizing groundwater as a finite resource essential for maintaining biodiversity, ecosystem functionality, and human well-being.
... Strengthening groundwater, and more generally water, governance is therefore essential to ensure the long-term availability and quality of groundwater resources (Molle and Closas, 2020;Lezzaik et al., 2018). This requires a comprehensive and integrated approach that engages all stakeholders, promotes sustainable use, and strengthens institutional capacity and international cooperation (Albrecht et al., 2017). ...
Study region: Qatar, Western Asia Study focus: Groundwater is Qatar's main conventional freshwater resource, its cornerstone for agricultural development, and its potential strategic water reserve. We review key literature on Qatar's groundwater resources published over the past four decades (1982-2022) in order to report the current knowledge of the country's resources, update the understanding of the challenges they face, and recommend research-based pathways for their sustainable management. New hydrological insights for the region: There is evidence that Qatar's groundwater resources have been drastically depleted and qualitatively degraded mainly due to long-term over-exploitation. A longstanding ineffectiveness in addressing certain groundwater challenges such as groundwater over-abstraction and groundwater salinization was highlighted. The unsustainability of groundwater resources in the country can be attributed to a lack of understanding of the aquifer systems, the under-regulation of groundwater, and unsustainable agricultural practices. Therefore, to ensure the long-term availability and quality of groundwater in Qatar, it is crucial to: (i) enhance research efforts by improving data availability and accessibility, fostering multidisciplinary approaches and diversifying research methods, and addressing knowledge gaps, (ii) strengthen governance mechanisms by engaging the different stakeholders in the decision-making process to establish and enforce tangible groundwater use and protection policies and strategies, and (iii) adopt sustainable management practices for groundwater quantity and quality control.
... There are uncertainties surrounding the areas where recharge occurs, the characteristics of flow and discharge, and the intricate connections with surface water bodies [17]. Therefore, groundwater resources are more susceptible to irreversible resource degradation than surface water resources, and effective control over land management practices in recharge areas is necessary to prevent aquifer pollution [18]. ...
Groundwater management in transboundary aquifers is complex due to the hidden nature of groundwater and its intricate interactions with surface water. The overarching issue lies in the need for improved tools and strategies to manage transboundary aquifers effectively, given their critical importance to regional water resources and ecosystems. In addressing these challenges, this study focuses on a specific transboundary aquifer system between Estonia and Latvia, situated within the sedimentary rocks of North-East Europe. Here, we propose a conceptual model approach as a valuable tool for comprehending the hydrogeological characteristics of transboundary aquifers and supporting more efficient management strategies. Utilizing open-source software MODFLOW-6, our developed conceptual model integrates the aquifer system’s geological and hydrogeological framework and simulates groundwater flow under transient conditions. Our findings highlight a profound hydrological connection between groundwater and surface water, particularly within the first 200 m of the aquifer. Despite varying cross-border groundwater flows, collaboration remains vital for sustainable transboundary aquifer management, aligning with international agreements such as the Water Convention and the EU Water Framework Directive, benefiting similar systems.
... Globally, the depletion rate increased over the world between 1900 and 2008 from about 500 to ~4000 km 3 yr −1 (Konikow, 2011). Depletion affects North Africa, the Middle East, South and Central Asia and it is caused by human activities and mismanagement, but also by climate change and related stresses (Albrecht et al., 2017). ...
The average rate of aquifer exploitation in the Northern
of Algeria was estimated at 80% in 2002 (Boufetta and
Ouadja, 2020). Several studies of severe overexploitation as
in Mitidja plain, Soummam Valley, Sebaou valley, Tafna
basin, Seybouse, etc notified that the measured piezometric
level decreased between 10 and 30 m, more than 50 m in
other critical areas with several wells going dry (Kessasra
et al., 2017). Due to hydrocarbon deposits and Saharan
agricultural extension, implying demographic growth, the
withdrawal worsens depletion and water quality impairment
in the South (Bendida et al., 2021). Indeed, the most strategic
areas as Ouargla, Hassi Messaoud, Hassi Rmel, Adrar, etc. are
characterized by an accelerated development and an increased
local and regional exploitation rates from Terminal Complex
and Continental Intercalar aquifers
... The challenges posed by change in the water supply can have repercussions at the transboundary basin scale. The term transboundary is understood as an area that extends across the international political borders of two or more countries (Albrecht et al., 2017;Lorenz et al., 2001). As the rivers flow from upstream to downstream across different spatial scales, they create hydrosocial territories of people, institutions, and biophysical environments revolving around the control of water (Boelens et al., 2016;. ...
The HKH region is experiencing non-climatic as well as cryospheric drivers of change (high confidence). Cryospheric change in the region has implications for
the lives and livelihoods of more than 1.9 billion people. Understanding the intersections between cryospheric change and societies is essential to undertaking
effective adaptation policies and practices to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
Impacts of non-climatic drivers of change: People in the HKH region are experiencing multiple climatic and non-climatic drivers of change. These drivers of change are interwoven and have significant impact on the lives and livelihoods of mountain people as well as their capacity to respond or adapt to these changes. Mountainous areas in the region have witnessed economic growth and infrastructural and technological development, which is expected to continue (high
confidence). Access of local communities to governmental institutions and their services is improving (high confidence), but this is also resulting in a weakening of
traditional institutions (high confidence), with implications for adaptive capacity.
Impacts of cryospheric change on society The major livelihoods of mountain communities are agriculture, livestock, tourism, and the collection and trading of medicinal and aromatic plants. The contribution of cryospheric services to these mountain livelihoods is high (high confidence). Cryospheric change, particularly
changes in snowfall pattern, have adversely affected the livelihoods of communities (high confidence). Major adverse impacts include crop loss and failure, fodder
shortage, livestock deaths, decrease in the availability of medicinal and aromatic plants, and degradation of aesthetic experiences. In many areas, communities have
abandoned agriculture and pastoralism in response to cryospheric change and other non-climatic drivers to cryospheric change and other non-climatic drivers of change (medium confidence). These impacts have increased the socioeconomic vulnerability of mountain communities (high confidence), including food and nutrition insecurity. However, there are a few short-term positive impacts of cryospheric change on agriculture, pastoralism, and tourism – such as improved access to previously inaccessible sites for animal grazing and tourism. As the cryosphere changes along with the social, economic, and political dynamics in mountain societies, these cryosphere–livelihood linkages may gradually
decrease (low confidence).
High mountain communities in the HKH region are heavily dependent on snow and glacial meltwater to meet their water needs (high confidence). This reliance is not limited to mountainous areas. Water supply systems in downstream regions, including in densely populated urban settlements, are dependent on meltwater for domestic and commercial purposes (high confidence). Along with growing demand,
poor management, and insufficient infrastructure, cryospheric change is likely to further exacerbate water shortages in the region (high confidence). Water stress in transboundary river basins in the HKH region – particularly the Indus, Ganges, and Amu Darya – have led to both conflicts as well as cooperation for managing water
resources among the countries sharing the river basins (medium confidence).
Components of the cryosphere also play a major role in the cultural, religious, and spiritual beliefs and practices of high mountain societies and influence their well-being (medium confidence). Human societies have ascribed spiritual relevance to the high mountains since ancient times; pilgrimages to the mountains have been made since the beginning of recorded human history. Tied to the spiritual reverence Indigenous communities hold for their natural environs is the understanding that there is a need to protect the local environment, including its cryospheric components (low confidence). Loss of the aesthetic properties of the mountains, glaciers, and snow cover could be perceived as a loss of honour and pride and be interpreted as consequences of diminished morality and ethics (low confidence). These effects could potentially decrease the attractiveness of high mountain sites for tourists, impacting local livelihoods (low confidence).
Cryosphere-related hazards in the region have caused significant losses and damages of property, infrastructure, and lives, including tangible and intangible cultural heritage (high confidence). These disasters have led to a loss of traditional knowledge, increased social and economic burdens, and caused psychological stress and displacement (high confidence). People’s perceptions of cryosphere-related risks are shaped by socioeconomic, cultural, religious, and political factors,
all of which determine their responses (low confidence). Cryosphere-related hazards are becoming more complex and devastating as they are increasingly interlinked with other environmental extremes (e.g., landslides, rockfall, seismic activity, and heavy rain), creating cascading hazards (medium confidence). The exposure of people and infrastructure to these hazards has increased due to
a rise in population and an intensification of economic activities in the region (medium confidence). Cryosphere related hazards are projected to increase in the HKH region in the future, adding investment burdens with long-term implications for national and regional economies (medium confidence).
Understanding of the implications of cryospheric change on livelihoods, water supply, and cultural heritage in upstream and downstream communities remains inadequate for robust adaptation action and effective sustainable development (high confidence).
Adaptation to cryospheric change: Adaptation measures adopted by households and communities in response to cryospheric change can be broadly categorised as behavioural, technological, infrastructural, financial, regulatory, institutional, and
informational. Behavioural and technological measures are the most reported across different sectors. These measures are mostly reactive, autonomous, and incremental in nature, and unable to fulfil the necessary speed, depth, and
scope of adaptation (high confidence). With cryospheric change possibly taking on unprecedented trajectories, these measures may not be effective in the long term. There are concerns that communities may not be able to cope with an increased magnitude and complexity of extreme events as they try and navigate persistent socioeconomic challenges (high confidence).
Local communities are already abandoning their traditional livelihoods and settlements, pointing towards an evident adaptation deficit to cryospheric change (medium confidence). Constraints and limits to adaptation, along with insufficient understanding of the interactions between cryospheric and non-climatic drivers and the associated impacts on mountain societies, could potentially hinder the overall target of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (medium confidence). To address this, there is an urgent need to integrate adaptation to cryospheric change with sustainable development, specifically in the high mountains (high confidence).
... The challenges posed by change in the water supply can have repercussions at the transboundary basin scale. The term transboundary is understood as an area that extends across the international political borders of two or more countries (Albrecht et al., 2017;Lorenz et al., 2001). As the rivers flow from upstream to downstream across different spatial scales, they create hydrosocial territories of people, institutions, and biophysical environments revolving around the control of water (Boelens et al., 2016;. ...
... Groundwater is considered the largest resource of fresh water at global scale and plays a vital role in securing the water supply and irrigation in arid environments when surface water resources are limited (Azffri et al., 2022). Due to the expansion of water use, overexploitation and pollution, groundwater availability decreased (Albrecht et al., 2017) and declined in quality. Constituting a reliable source of water for irrigation in the Middle East and North Africa (Molle & Closas, 2017;Wada et al., 2010), groundwater is embedded in irrigation scheme. ...
As a transition hydrogeological area, Biskra (Algeria) holds large groundwater resources in deeply buried aquifers such as the Complex Terminal. Due to a growing demand of drinking water supply and irrigation combined to low recharge, this arid region is facing an acute shortage of water and hence, the need for groundwater investigation. We used an integrated approach including geophysical investigation correlated to the geological and hydrogeological context in the Chetma area. The results highlight a deep structural form with significant hydrogeological features. In fact, two resistant limestone anticlines called Droh corresponding to a piezometric dome and a syncline filled with conductive deposit materials were identified. The Maastrichtian formation, consisting of fractured limestone, about 200 to 350 m thick, together with Lower Eocene marl limestone and limestone form a complex aquifer. At more than 400 m depth, boreholes capturing Maastrichtian limestone offer a high yield ranging from 25 to 90 L/s. Moreover, groundwater yield provides an average of 40 L/s at 300 m of depth. In contrast, synform geometries with high clay and marl content offer a weak groundwater yield. We confirmed the occurence of fractured aquifers which could constitute potentially groundwater production zones. This study provides new insights to enhance groundwater pumping for domestic and irrigation purposes for 2030.
... Much of this literature was motivated by longstanding geographic disagreements and conflicts in major international river basins, for example, over waters in the Colorado, Danube, Indus, Mekong, Nile, Rhine, Senegal and Tigris-Euphrates Rivers. Transboundary groundwater resources present additional challenges for management due to the difficulty of assessing and monitoring resource sustainability and, consequently, have remained less well-examined than shared surface waters [79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86]. ...
Governing and managing the allocation and use of freshwater has always been a complex and fraught undertaking. The challenges to effective and equitable management have been exacerbated by rising pressures on supplies caused by such drivers as population growth, urbanization and climate change. Moreover, vast quantities of water straddle international and other boundaries—four-fifths of the world’s largest river basins and hundreds of aquifers span such borders. This further complicates management and governance, which is subject to disparate legal, political, administrative, financial, cultural and diplomatic conditions. Recognition in the literature and in practice of ‘transboundariness’ dates to the 1970s and has grown since. The authors trace the evolution of transboundary water scholarship and identify five framings used in transboundary water governance and management: conflict and cooperation; hydropolitics; hydrodiplomacy; scale; and disciplinary approaches. Transboundary water management initiatives can be viewed through three broad strands: interventions, advancements in governance strategies and democratization of data and information for strengthening science–policy interaction. The authors close with a discussion of future directions for transboundary water governance and management, emphasizing the need for additional research on how to deal with climate-related and other mounting challenges.
... For groundwater, these dimensions include storage availability, supply productivity, and pollution protection. Recommendations for improving transboundary groundwater security include strengthening institutional capacity, improving data and information exchange, and involving diverse groups of stakeholders (Albrecht et al. 2017). ...
As the reliance on transboundary groundwater is increasing globally, it is important to understand and address the specific issues raised by the assessment and management of transboundary aquifers (TBAs). Building on 20 years of TBA experience and through a three-pillar framework (assessment, cooperation-collaboration, shared management), the key elements to addressing TBA issues are described, including a multidisciplinary approach, identification of hotspot zones, local vs border-wide approaches, appropriate funding models, and an increased recognition of the role and value of each TBA.
... Empowering capacity in the context of groundwater sustainability comes with certain intrinsic challenges that differ from other environmental fields. Groundwater is a common pool resource whose access and use is in large parts of the world of imperative importance (Albrecht et al., 2017;Castilla-Rho et al., 2020;Foster et al., 2020). Yet, it is a hidden, invisible resource which means that groundwater stakeholders and beneficiaries frequently lack an adequate understanding of groundwater fluxes, groundwater-surface interactions, and groundwater vulnerability (Re and Misstear, 2017;Foster, 2020;Fraser et al., 2020;Foster and MacDonald, 2021;Mannix et al., 2021;Nolte et al., 2021;Misstear et al., 2022). ...
Highlights:
• Groundwater data stewardship is a cross-cutting challenge.
• Capacity development responses require case-dependent tailoring of learning formats.
• An overview of field-proven ground-water capacity development modules is provided.
• Lack of sound success verification limits upscaling and weakens long-term impacts.
• Success verification should cover output, outcome and target level of
interventions.
... Groundwater is considered the largest resource of fresh water at global scale and plays a vital role in securing the water supply and irrigation in arid environments when surface water resources are limited (Azffri et al., 2022). Due to the expansion of water use, overexploitation and pollution, groundwater availability decreased (Albrecht et al., 2017) and declined in quality. Constituting a reliable source of water for irrigation in the Middle East and North Africa (Molle & Closas, 2017;Wada et al., 2010), groundwater is embedded in irrigation scheme. ...
Due to occurrence of groundwater in deeply buried aquifers with low recharge, water scarcity in Saharan and arid environments in Algeria was diagnosed in many populated regions such as Biskra. Constituting a transition hydrogeological area between the folded Atlasic domains in the North and the Saharan flat in the South, Biskra contains large groundwater resources in the terminal complex aquifers. 93% of water needs provides from groundwater and only 7% from surface water. But this region is facing to an acute shortage of water supply for domestic and irrigation demands because of the unappreciated groundwater prospecting and potentiality. Using an integrated approach which enclose geophysical investigation combined to geological and hydrogeological contexts at Chetma area, a deep structural form with significant hydrogeological features was highlighted and confirmed the accumulation of groundwater. Two resistant limestone anticlines called Droh anticlines corresponding to a piezometric dome and a syncline filled with conductive deposit materials were identified. Maastrichtian limestone consists of cracked and thick aquifer formation about 200 to 350 m, together with marl limestone and limestone of the lower Eocene forms a complex aquifer. Pumped boreholes, deep about 400 m, present a mixture of water giving large flow rate ranged from 25 to 90 l/s and constitutes a pattern produce zones of water accumulation. Nevertheless, at 300 m of depth, flow rate offers an average of 40 l/s and capturing mainly Maastrichtian limestone aquifer. However, synform geometries involving clay and marl formations have no hydrogeological interest. Occurrence of potential aquifers mostly identified in fractured zones was confirmed. This study gives insight to enhance groundwater prospecting and mobilization for 2030.
... In many low-and middle-income countries, hydrogeological capacity is missing, even when groundwater makes up the largest part of their managed water resources (Foster, 2020). This lack of capacity often comprises both human capacity as well as institutional capacity (Abdolvand et al., 2015;Albrecht et al., 2017). Weak institutional groundwater governance and management, in turn, undermine associated water security (United Nations, 2018). ...
Climate change strongly influences freshwater supply and demand globally. Warming of
~1°C over the last half century globally has directly impacted the supply of freshwater through the amplification of precipitation extremes, more frequent and pronounced floods
and droughts, increasing evapotranspiration rates, rising sea levels, and changing precipitation and meltwater regimes. Groundwater, the world’s largest distributed store
of freshwater, is naturally well placed to play a vital role in enabling societies to adapt to
intermittent and sustained water shortages caused by climate change. It is also essential
to satisfy the increased demand for water in order to realize many of the United Nations’
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including no. 2 (zero hunger), 6 (water for all) and
13 (climate action). Aquifers transmitting and storing groundwater can also contribute to
climate change mitigation through the use of geothermal energy to reduce CO2 emissions, as well as the capture and storage of emitted CO2. This chapter reviews the latest understanding of the impacts of climate change on groundwater quantity and quality as well as the opportunities, risks and challenges posed by the development of aquifers for climate change adaptation and mitigation.
... Transboundary groundwater systems, which exist in nearly every country, serve as critical water supplies for populations with distinctive characteristics, histories, and priorities [7,8]. Successful transboundary groundwater management necessitates data and information produced through efforts such as assessments [9]. Collecting and exchanging data to increase understanding regarding these shared resources has emerged as a foundational component of assessments [10]. ...
Transboundary aquifers are critical global water supplies facing unprecedented threats of depletion; existing efforts to assess these resources do not adequately account for the complexities of transboundary human and physical system interactions to the determinant of the impact of assessment outcomes. This study developed a system dynamics model with natural, human, and technical system components for a section of the transboundary Mesilla Basin/Conejos-Médanos aquifer to evaluate the following dynamic hypothesis: how and when information from a transboundary aquifer assessment is reported and perceived, in scenarios where two countries follow identical and different timeframes, dynamically impacts the behaviors of the shared aquifer. Simulation experiments were conducted to quantitatively assess the dynamics of transboundary aquifer assessment information reporting and perception delays. These critical feedbacks have not previously been incorporated practically in simulation and analysis. Simulation results showed that the timing and content of reporting can change the dynamic behavior of natural, human, and technical components of transboundary aquifer systems. This study demonstrates the potential for modeling to assist with prioritization efforts during the data collection and exchange phases to ensure that transboundary aquifer assessments achieve their intended outcomes.
... Instead of acquiring an integrated understanding and developing a shared vision over the aquifer system, the authorities of the implicated country monitor and manage it separately and independently at each side of the border. The lack of cooperation and coordination between nations might generate risks and potentiate conflicts (Albrecht et al., 2017;Eckstein and Eckstein, 2005). ...
The Caplina/Concordia transboundary coastal aquifer system, located in the Atacama Desert, is the primary source of water supply for domestic use and irrigation for La Yarada-Los Palos (Peru) and Concordia (Chile) agriculture districts, and to a lesser extent, for Tacna province public supply use (Peru). Despite the scarce amount of rainfall (<20 mm/year) in the area and the limited recharge coming from the Andean highlands, this transboundary aquifer system has been overexploited mainly for agriculture since before the 2000s on the Peruvian side. Consequently, this has caused groundwater depletion and seawater intrusion. In this study, comprehensive hydrogeological information was integrated to understand the aquifer system's behavior and the effects to which it has been subjected to groundwater overexploitation. To that end, a 3D hydrogeological framework was developed using the LEAPFROG software and a constant-density groundwater flow model with equivalent heads was generated in FEFLOW software, which was adjusted with Monte Carlo analysis and conventional automated calibration. Finally, eight scenarios, considering various water resource management options proposed by the authority and potential climatic trends (CMIP6), were simulated from 2020 to 2040. The results showed that between 2002 and 2020, the increase in the seawater wedge and the average groundwater level decline were 216 hm3/year and 7 m, respectively. It is expected that the depletion will continue with a groundwater level decline between 5 and 8 m and an increase in the seawater wedge between 1120 hm3/year and 1175 hm3/year for the forecast period. The study concludes that the aquifer system will remain unsustainable for the next 20 years, regardless of the selected scenarios, and suggests that any mitigation measure requires the participation of stakeholders from Peru, Chile, and Bolivia.
... Center (IGRAC), el Programa Hidrológico Internacional de la UNESCO (PHI-UNESCO), el Banco Mundial y la Internacional Association of Hydrogeologist (IAH), en América del Norte se identificaron hasta el momento, 21 acuíferos transfronterizos situados entre Canadá y Estados Unidos, y este último con México (UNESCO 2015). No obstante, las recomendaciones especializadas (Rivera 2015;Sánchez et al. 2016;Albrecht et al. 2017;Golovina 2018) indican que es indispensable efectuar estudios más profundos para determinar con precisión aspectos tales como su geometría 3D, el modelo de funcionamiento del agua subterránea que circula dentro del acuífero, la población que habita y depende de los flujos del agua subterránea, la caracterización de las actividades económicas, la proyección futura de los requerimientos que demanden esta agua y la definición del marco legal para su gestión compartida. 17 Para efectuar con éxito dichos estudios y garantizar las condiciones mínimas de su gobernanza y conservación ambiental, es imprescindible la cooperación de los Estados que comparten los flujos de agua y los acuíferos. ...
En la integración energética de América del Norte, Estados Unidos impulsa la expansión geográfica del fracking hacía Canadá y México para extraer gas shale, aprovechando los yacimientos transfronterizos compartidos con ambos países. Aunque, el agua subterránea transfronteriza podría ser un insumo estratégico para dicho proceso, suele considerársele como un asunto estrictamente técnico. Este trabajo analiza desde el enfoque del ciclo hidrosocial, el conjunto de datos relativos a tres componentes clave que indicen en el aprovechamiento del gas shale: los shale play transfronterizos (como yacimientos de hidrocarburos), el fracking (como método extractivo) y los acuíferos transfronterizos (como supuesto “reservorio” hídrico). Los hallazgos refieren distintos niveles de conocimiento, persiste todavía una comprensión espacial fragmentada del fenómeno fracking, como problema escalar regional y transfronterizo que exige una visión que articule distintos saberes y partes interesadas a fin de proteger y conservar el agua subterránea.
... Some of the international guidelines related to transboundary groundwater resources include the 1966 Helsinki Rules, the 1986 Seoul Rules, the 1997 UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of Transboundary Watercourses (UN Watercourses Convention), the 1999 Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, the 2004 Berlin Rules, and the 2008 Draft Articles on the Law of Transboundary Aquifers [29][30][31]. These guidelines serve as a reference for groundwater management. ...
The assessment of transboundary aquifers is essential for the development of groundwater management strategies and the sustainable use of groundwater resources. The Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Program (TAAP) is a joint effort by the United States and Mexico to evaluate shared aquifers. This study examines the TAAP Cooperative Framework as a guide for further transboundary groundwater collaboration. We compared lessons learned from six transboundary aquifers that currently have mechanisms for groundwater collaboration to identify common elements of collaboration. Though the TAAP Cooperative Framework governs an assessment-only program, the elements of collaboration included are consistent with the principles of other institutional agreements around the world. Importantly, all the analyzed agreements included a knowledge-improvement phase, which is the main objective of the TAAP Cooperative Framework. The present study finds evidence of successful outcomes within the TAAP Cooperative Framework consistent with available transboundary groundwater management agreements, demonstrating that this approach is suited to serve as a model for those wishing to engage in transborder aquifer assessments. Furthermore, the TAAP elements of collaboration can help to establish the meaningful and robust binational cooperation necessary for the development of U.S.-Mexico groundwater management agreements at the aquifer level.
... The most important factor in LCC in recent decades has been human development activities (e.g., agricultural, industrial and residential), and water plays a key role in this regard (Ferreira et al., 2009;Wang et al., 2018;Rahman et al., 2019). The Aras River has a transboundary basin, and countries are trying to make the most of the transboundary basins (Albrecht et al., 2017;Barasa et al., 2011). Therefore, one of the most important drivers in the LCCs of Aras Basin can be considered the macro-policies of Turkey in river water consumption (Bybee, 2015;Jongerden, 2010). ...
... Also, collaboration is critical among stakeholders at all levels and must cut across governments and organizations from the local to the international level. Cooperation will enable proper investigation of the socio-economic and ecological implications of collaborative management of shared aquifers (Albrecht et al., 2017) in the face of climate change, and bridging the gap of groundwater sustainability. Collaboration through a multidisciplinary approach can foster protection and restoration of ecosystems that are vital water resources areas (e.g. ...
... Groundwater pumping or a contaminant plume in one region may ultimately impact groundwater or surface water resources in another management jurisdiction. Transboundary aquifers are a major topic of hydrogeological and political studies, with no clear standard for legal resolution (130,131). ...
Depletion and pollution of groundwater, Earth's largest and most accessible freshwater stock, is a global sustainability concern. A changing climate, marked by more frequent and intense hydrologic extremes, poses threats to groundwater recharge and amplifies groundwater use. However, widespread human development and contamination of groundwater reservoirs pose an immediate threat of resource extinction with impacts in many regions with dense population or intensive agriculture. A rapid increase in global groundwater studies has emerged, but this has also highlighted the extreme paucity of data for substantive trend analyses and assessment of the state of the global resource. Noting the difficulty in seeing and measuring this typically invisible resource, we discuss factors that determine the current state of global groundwater, including the uncertainties accompanying data and modeling, with an eye to identifying emerging issues and the prospects for informing local to global resource management in critical regions. We comment on some prospective management strategies.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Volume 45 is October 19, 2020. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
... Also, collaboration is critical among stakeholders at all levels and must cut across governments and organizations from the local to the international level. Cooperation will enable proper investigation of the socio-economic and ecological implications of collaborative management of shared aquifers (Albrecht et al., 2017) in the face of climate change, and bridging the gap of groundwater sustainability. Collaboration through a multidisciplinary approach can foster protection and restoration of ecosystems that are vital water resources areas (e.g. ...
The widespread uncertainty regarding future changes in climate, socioeconomic conditions, and population growth have increased interest in water-energy-food-ecology nexus-based frameworks in relation to the analysis of water resources. A challenge for modeling the water-energy-food-ecology nexus is how to reduce the multidimensional and codependent uncertainties and measure the complicated casual relationships effectively. We propose a methodological solution to the problem, and this solution is demonstrated in this case as an extension to the previous water resource optimization framework. We coupled the water-energy-food-ecology nexus into the Bayesian network, which provides a formal representation of the joint probabilistic behavior of the system, and the method was applied to water resource use analysis and management in the Syr Darya River basin, a transboundary and endorheic basin that has contributed to the Aral Sea ecological crisis as a result of unreasonable water use. The annual scale data of four periods, 1970-1980, 1980-1991, 1991-2005, and 2005-2015, were introduced into the Bayesian network. Before the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the amount of water inflow into the Aral Sea was sensitive to increases in irrigation for agricultural development, increases in water storage of the upstream reservoirs and stochastic runoff. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the amount of water inflow into the Aral Sea was sensitive to the inefficient irrigation water use in the downstream areas of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and the water storage of the reservoir located upstream of Kyrgyzstan. The change resulted from unresolvable disputes between water use for power generation in the upstream area and irrigation in the downstream area. Comprehensive scenario analysis shows that, in the short term, it would be useful to improve the proportion of food crops, improve the efficiency of water use in relation to salt leaching and irrigation, and prevent drought damage. In the long term, based on the increased use of advanced drip irrigation technology from 50% to 80%, the annual inflow into the Aral Sea will increase significantly, reaching 6.4 km3 and 9.6 km3, respectively, and this technology is capable of ameliorating the ecological crisis within the basin.
... Due to the wide spread of Ghanats, reviving this declining water source will help towards reviving sustainable rural communities [51] as well as improving equality to access of water reserves. Due to the inherent Win-Win scenario presented, a Tragedy of Commons [52][53][54][55] is not only avoided, but a Plasmonic Polymer Photovoltaics -CAES will even aid for the revival of a Commons that has been declining for centuries. As opposed to the environmental concerns of renewable energy systems, Ghanat based CAES systems could revive the underground aquatic biodiversity [51] among which microorganisms [56] critical to drug and fuel cell development many be cultivated. ...
In spite of the industrial advances made possible by fossil fuel, it is not possible – economically or environmentally – to fuel growth through non-renewable energy sources. Solar energy has the potential to provide cheap and renewable energy not only locally, but on a national level. To this end, traditional silicon photovoltaics faces limitations with regards to efficiency as well as economics. Thanks to the solution-processing friendly organic solar cells, they are a prime candidate for wide scale use of photovoltaic technologies. The Achilles' heel of organic solar cells lies in their lower efficiency. Herein we present a case study on the use of plasmonic nanoparticles to increase the power conversion efficiency. Based on a case study in Lut Desert of Iran, the increase in power efficiency is demonstrated. A discussion is presented on the case involving the use of 2% of the area for power generation.
... Here, the water-energy nexus is evident as cheaper pumping technology and easier energy access has enabled extraction, often at the individual level (Shah 2014). However, groundwater governance, especially for transboundary aquifers, has yet to be well established (Albrecht et al. 2017). There are also reported cases where efforts to improve irrigation efficiency have not contributed to the reduction of groundwater use, but rather the opposite (Pfeiffer and Lin 2014). ...
Coordinating Lead Author: Peter King (Institute for Global Environmental Strategies)
Lead Authors: Erica Gaddis (Utah Department of Environmental Quality), James Grellier (European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of
Exeter), Anna Maria Grobicki (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [FAO]), Rowena Hay (Umvoto), Naho Mirumachi (King’s College London),
Gavin Mudd (RMIT University), Farhad Mukhtarov (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Walter Rast (Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, Texas State
University),
GEO Fellows: Beatriz Rodríguez-Labajos (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), Jaee Sanjay Nikam (Arizona State University), Patricia Nayna Schwerdtle
(Monash University)
... Another interpretation of water security discourse is driven by delineating and better understanding of hydropolitics which combine elements from transboundary water governance (Albrecht et al. 2017, Earle et al. 2010, Jong et al. 2010, Appelgren and Klohn 1997, Sadoff and Grey 2005 and revision of international security concerns through hydropolitical theories (Wegerich and Warner 2010, Mirumachi 2015, Haefner 2016, Ribeiro and Sant'Anna 2014, Gleditsch et al. 2006, Böhmelt et al. 2014). The essence of hydropolitical approaches lay in exploring possibility to ensure the national water security and deepen complex water cooperation between socio-economic and political-environmental sectors. ...
Presented thesis offers a comprehensive analysis of national water security in the Mekong River Basin. In the first part of the text, I am debating about what is the water security, what are the actors ensuring the national water security and what kind of factors play role in ensuring national water security. The purpose of this thesis is not to find an ultimate definition or ideal framework based on merely security studies, but rather to show how securing of freshwater resources may be interpreted, who pursue water-related national interests and what exactly various political and apolitical actors (hydrocracy) want to ensure in terms of national water security. My interpretation of water security is therefore embedded into the realm of hydropolitics and water governance where international rivers play important role in ensuring national water security. In the second part of the text, I am debating about capacities, capabilities and involvement of various hydrocracies in water resources management, and forms of political justification that lead to conflict of interests among hydrocracies. Although the ultimate goals (hydrocratic missions) for ensuring national water security are quite clear, some hydrocracies may also pursue their own interests or justify other hydrocratic interests that may potentially ensure the national water security. This political schism is not only limited within but also beyond state’s territory. To demonstrate the conflict of interests among hydrocracies, I modified framework of hydrohegemony in order to analyse not only hydropolitical relations among hydrocracies from various riparian states, but also to show how national water security may be also ensured externally. In the third part of the text, I am delineating parameters and indicators that indicating how particular state is powerful to ensure its national water security or not. My investigations are therefore implemented in part four and five where I am analysing complex Mekong River Basin development between China, Myanmar and Cambodia. To strengthen the credibility of the research, I undertook several research trips in all selected countries and made numerous interviews with governmental authorities, corporate representatives and local communities between years 2016-2018. This helped me to refine my previous observation and to more intensively probe political rhetoric which is justifying basin development. To highlight the current situation in the basin, I have decided to focus on China’s hydrocracy involvement, particularly on development of Chinese hydropower dams that may strengthen or weaken ensuring
national water securities in Myanmar and Cambodia. To conclude, national water security may be ensured various ways and always imply “water security for whom”. Despite none of riparian states fully utilize Mekong waters, China’s hydropower development of the basin bring more positives than negatives.
... The Convention went into force after ratification by 35 countries in 2014 (Zhong et al., 2016). However, it remains applicable only to those countries which ratified it (Albrecht et al., 2017). ...
... The general hypothesis is that there is good groundwater potential in Beles basin, but the surface/groundwater interactions and inter-basin groundwater flows need to be studied in detail. An emerging researchable, trans-border groundwater security needs also to be considered (Albrecht et al. 2017). ...
We have investigated the relevance of the notion of "peripheralism" in the Beles basin. In this lowland border area of Ethiopia, important investments require an evaluation of their socioeconomic and ecological impacts in the light of Ethiopia's Climate-Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) strategy. We contrasted literature of different periods with field observations. In the middle and lower basin, the Gumuz people traditionally practiced shifting cultivation. Resettlement of highlanders is particularly linked to water and land resources. A large irrigation project was initiated in the 1980s, but vegetables and fruits face post-harvest losses. Large water transfers from Lake Tana since 2010 affect the movement of people, the hydrogeomorphology and ecology of the river. In several parts of the basin, the settlers' economy now dominates. Many Gumuz became sedentary but maintained their agricultural system, particularly in the south of the lower basin. Land titling allowed allocation of "vacant" areas to transnational or domestic investors. As a result, the semi-natural vegetation is frequently replaced by open cropland, leading to decreased carbon storage and increased soil erosion. This, and water abstraction for irrigation jeopardises hydropower production, in contradiction with the CRGE objectives. Despite the recent developments, the contrasts in economic activity make the core-periphery dichotomy to remain actual in the Beles basin. The resettlements and permanent cropping tend to make the upper basin part of the core. However, the installation of a transit road and commercial farms in the lower basin do not allow to consider that a non-peripheral integration has taken place.
Time-lapse (4D) geophysics for monitoring subsurface processes comes as an emerging area of hydrogeophysics. The combined use of non-invasive or minimally invasive geophysical methods such as electrical resistivity, time-domain induced polarization, complex resistivity and self-potential, along with traditional approaches have become commonly used to image the near surface. The use of these geophysical methods is of increasing interest as these techniques provide spatial and temporal imaging of the subsurface processes that otherwise can only be measured at few specific spatial locations. This review discusses the studies carried out using 4D geophysics to monitor contaminant transport affecting subsurface water and hence potentially impacting water security of groundwater-dependent communities as well as ecosystems relying on shallow drainage from landfills. This article highlights a series of the recent case studies from different parts of the world, novel trends, and their potential applications to support water security in the Indian scenario.
International law seeks to ensure water security and to prevent or resolve conflicts leading to water insecurity. This relationship is based on a hybrid framework comprising binding and nonbinding instruments. The multi-scalar dimensions of water (in)security are recognized, but further engagement is required. The link between international law and water (in)security is considered primarily through the lens of international water law, which focuses on transboundary (surface) watercourses. Groundwater—the other main source of water and determinant of water (in)security—receives little attention. Further, the traditional state-centric approach, with its emphasis on sovereignty and cooperation, remains the dominant paradigm despite some attempts to redefine it. Several other branches of international law present opportunities for expanding international law's engagement with the water security discourse. Finally, the climate change challenge requires a reconsideration of international law's approach to water (in)security while considering the global dimensions of water.
In this study, we have examined the ionic and physical properties of Gangotri glacier meltwater as well as the prominent weathering process to determine the sources of solute. The meltwater samples were collected throughout the ablation periods of 2015 and 2016 near the snout of the glacier. The results, obtained by chemical analysis of the meltwater indicate that it is somewhat acidic in nature with CaSO4-type water. In the meltwater, Ca2+ is the foremost cation followed by Mg2+, Na+, and K+ as well as SO42− is the leading anion followed by HCO3−, Cl−, and F− during both the ablation periods. Based on the calculated denudation rate of the ions, we conclude that denudation rates of cation were 20.24 and 18.66 ton/km2/ablation in 2015 and 2016 correspondingly, while the anion denudation rates were 89.01 and 92.13 ton/km2/ablation during years 2015 and 2016 correspondingly.
Twenty-seven water samples including precipitation (3), streams (6) and springs (18) from Bringi watershed, southeast Kashmir were bimonthly collected for 1 year and analysed for ionic concentrations, stable isotopes and tritium. The objectives of the study were to recognize the site of recharge for Karst springs, components and mechanism of groundwater recharge. The local meteoric water line (LMWL) is δD = 7.094 × δ18O + 9.791 (r2 = 0.82) on the basis of monthly averages weighted amount. The winter precipitation isotopicIsotopic study composition (average = −10.4‰ for δ18O and −58.2‰ for δD) is reflected in streams (average = −8.5‰ for δ18O and −47.3‰ for δD) and spring water (average = −8.8‰ for δ18O and −51.7‰ for δD) during summer and late spring, which is representative of winter snow melting. Mean elevation of recharge was estimated between 2500 and 2900 m above the mean sea level (amsl) using altitude effect (δ18O = −0.27‰ per 100 m). Based on the isotopic mass balance equations, the average surface to groundwater contribution in peak flow time was 337.35 m3/s, approximately 75% of total discharge from the stream and 7.5 m3/s during lean period, which is approximately 18.6% of total runoff. In addition, average residence time of springs is very short (less than 1 year) and hence responds very quickly to the hydrological events. The quality of surface and groundwater is good for drinking, domestic and agricultural purposes.
The study describes the chemical analysis of water and sediment to understand the hydrogeochemical processes, chemical weathering rates and its intensities in the upper river Jhelum and its major tributaries in Kashmir Basin, Western HimalayaHimalayas. A total of 50 water samples and 15 riverbed sediment samples were analyzed. It was found that Ca and Mg contribute 82% of the major cations and HCO3− contributes 92% of the anion budget with only 4% and 3% contributions from SO4 and Cl, respectively. The Chemical Weathering Rates (CWR) varied spatially among tributaries with Sukhnag showing the lowest and Sindh, the highest CWR during High Flow Period (HFP). However, during the Low Flow Period (LFP), Sukhnag recorded the lowest and Romush recorded the highest CWR thereby reflecting the influence of varied precipitation, discharge, basin lithology, topography and probably active tectonics. The CWR in the main Jhelum river ranged from 31.4 × 102 t/km2/month (LFP) to 107.0 × 102 t/km2/month (HFP) with an annual CWR of 11.1 × 102 t/km2/year. The Left Bank Tributaries (LBT) draining the tectonically active Pir-Panjal range showed higher CWR than the Right Bank Tributaries (RBT) draining the Great Himalayan range (except Sindh). However, in comparison to other Himalayan rivers and World averages (0.36 × 102 t/km2/year), the observed CWR in the main Jhelum river and its tributaries were also found to be higher. Furthermore, the main Jhelum river showed an average annual Silicate Weathering Rate (SWR) of 0.10 t/km2/year and Carbonate Weathering Rate (CrWR) of 0.35 t/km2/year. The Pohru tributary showed the lowest average SWR and CrWR of 0.04 t/km2/year, whereas the Sukhnag showed the highest SWR and CrWR of 0.41 t/km2/year and 0.48 t/km2/year respectively. The Chemical Index of Alteration (CIA) and Chemical Index of Weathering (CIW) support these findings and revealed a moderate weathering in the basin quite usual of cold regions.
A significant number of the groundwater aquifers, rivers and lakes are jointly shared by two or more countries, which cross manmade political borders. The absence of legitimate systems and the hidden nature of transboundary groundwater regimes lead to misunderstanding and confusion on the part of many policymakers. Transboundary aquifers (TBAs)Transboundary aquifers or internationally shared aquifers have performed a decisive part in efficiently utilizing water supply especially for drinking and irrigation. The increasing depletion of groundwater cause considerable unpredictability on provincial farmers, food security of multiple regions and food commodities imported from TBAs with descending groundwater extent. Effective management of groundwater is imminent in order to curtail the overexploitation of TBAs and to maximize the valuable usage of groundwater resources through regional and international efforts. Transboundary aquifersTransboundary aquifers have been constantly under environmental risks due to climate changeClimate change, increasing population, urbanization and human-induced water pollution. The main objective of the chapter is to describe a general idea regarding present situation of TBAs worldwide with special reference to the Indian subcontinent in terms of major studies, research undertaken, focused problems, management efforts and legal aspect including recommendations.
Globally, the groundwater is the most favourable and demandable freshwater resource. The threat to surface water resources and subsurface aquifer systems increased with climate changeClimate change as well as surplus usage of groundwater in highly populated regions. Thus, in present day, groundwater is the primary resource for the sustainability of agriculture, industries and domestic activities in arid and semi-arid areas of the world. The overexploitation of subsurface water initiates land subduction. As water is the source of life on Earth, so it is essential to monitor and predict the capability of groundwater for secure sustainable management of subsurface water with the extreme climate conditions and population growth. The traditional way of keeping a check on groundwater level change is considering in situ or point measurements using the local network of well data. But these measurements are insufficient as hydrological models depend on the spatial data referring over large areas. Global Positioning System (GPS) and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) GRACE hydrochemistry mission are perfect tools to overcome the drawbacks of the traditional groundwater monitoring. It measures the change in ice sheets and glaciers, near-surface and subsurface GWS changes, as well as sea-level changes by GRACEGRACE hydrochemistry 1 mission and GRACEGRACE hydrochemistry, Follow on (FO) mission. Most of the researches are based on GRACE satellite data to monitor GWS changes over a large-scale area as continental or regional achieved successful consequences. Although the past decade GRACEGRACE hydrochemistry studies exhibited that GRACE solution is capable of developing accurate quantitative estimations for GWS scenarios with the high temporal resolution. Still, it restricts only to continental or regional scale studies. Therefore, most of the recent studies took the step for effective downscaling of GRACEGRACE hydrochemistry data.
Optimum management of natural resources is critical for sustainable growth and development. Under rapidly increasing population and industrialization, the groundwater depletion rate is way more than that of the groundwater recharge rate in India. The situation is more alarming in North-West India, where the amount of precipitation is quite low for irrigation purpose. In the present study, groundwater fluctuation in Haryana and Punjab has been monitored during 2005–2015 using GRACEGRACE hydrochemistry satellite data. Since 2002, Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite provided an estimation of various components of Earth’s gravity field as it provides gravity data at 1° × 1° resolution for the estimation of terrestrial water storage change, i.e. surface water and groundwater. The land surface variable has been used to infer how Terrestrial Water Storage (TWS) is contributing to canopy water and soil moisture. In the present study, the groundwater storage change of the Punjab and Haryana was monitored by computing storage changes in GRACE TWS, GLDAS land surface state variables with the terrestrial water balance approach. The results indicate that the Groundwater fluctuation follows the cyclic yearly pattern with highs corresponding to the monsoon. Computed groundwater mean depletion thickness over Haryana was found 1.13 cm and for Punjab is 0.92 cm during 2005–2015 in the study area. There are clear signals of yearly and seasonal variation in the groundwater as well as the impact of the extreme event on the groundwater change. The impact of cumulative water loss through Evapotranspiration (ET) on the groundwater has also been analyzed, which shows a positive correlation with the groundwater fluctuation.
The present study describes the status of
glacier resources of Ganglas, Phyang, Khalsar,
Rong, and No. -5 catchments of the Ladakh
Mountain Range (LMR) of upper Indus Basin,
a Trans-Himalayan region. In this region, the
Leh town and its surrounding areas rely
primarily for water supplies on the streams,
springs, and groundwater fed by the glacier
meltwater covering high altitude areas of
LMR. However, during recent years, the
demand for water supplies in this area has
increased rapidly due to the rapid population
growth and urbanization, growing economic
development, and higher influx of tourists.
Therefore, for the assessment of these glacier
resources, the Survey of India (SoI) maps,
Landsat data (TM, ETM+, OLI/TIRS), Google
earth images, and ASTER DEM have been
used. An inventory of 90 glaciers covering an
area of 21.1 km2 comprising 2.6% of the total
area of the study basins has been generated for
2017 (OLI/TIRS). The glaciers are small in
size (mean size − 0.24 km2), high altitude
(mean elevation − 5570 m amsl), northerly
facing (NW-NE), and moderately steep (10°–
40°). Using SoI as a base map, the glaciers
indicated a loss of 21.2% (5.1 km2) at a rate of
93 m2/year from 1962 to 2017. However,
using the TM-2000 scene as a base map, the
glaciers indicated a loss of 12.5% (2.7 km2) at
a rate of 160 m2/year from 2000 to 2017, a
recent time period. The small glaciers
(size <0.12 km2) indicated a loss of 17.9%
whereas the glaciers lying in the elevation zone
of 5800–6000 m (amsl) and above indicated a
loss of 44.1%. The glaciers with a steep slope
(50°–60°) and southerly aspect indicated a loss
of 18.9% and 20.7%, respectively. Overall, the
small and high altitude glaciers with a southerly
aspect and steep slope indicated a higher
area loss. This glacier loss may have a strong
influence on the downstream water resources
and supplies of the area. Nevertheless, these
observations may help in planning and developing
better strategies for the management of
various sources of water supplies in this area.
A changing climate is expected to introduce uncertainty into water resource management decision making. We examined the latest publicly-available, state-level guidance regarding the management of water supplies and demands concerning risks associated with drought, flooding, and climate change. We found state-level guidance supplementing the federally-backed flood mitigation program to be updated most regularly (54% in the last 5 years; 84% in the last decade). Yet, the underlying floodplain mapping data these local planning efforts rely on are acknowledged by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to be chronically outdated. Drought planning guidance was found to be most outdated (16% last updated in the last 5 years; 18% almost two decades ago), and across the U.S., almost universally (94%) reactive (emergency response) rather than proactive (mitigation or management). Although 79–94% of states provide some level of guidance regarding water supply and demand, the projections themselves may significantly predate the guidance. Many (70%) U.S. states still lack climate change impact guidance, particularly non-coastal states and those impacted by increased water scarcity rather than flooding. Strategies are rare (4%) for addressing the impacts of increased variability and uncertainty to meet inelastic demands with finite supplies. We conclude significant gaps exist in planning to address known or projected risks of climate-related impacts. Specific recommendations, including the implementation of a nationwide water census, are provided to improve both the data and knowledge base of water management and reduce current vulnerabilities.
Water security has emerged as a major framing template in environmental governance and resource management. The term and underlying concepts have attracted the attention of governmental and nongovernmental organizations, private industry, and the academy in policy and practice. Notwithstanding the palpable rise in its use, a comprehensive understanding of how water security is conceptualized and employed in different contexts around the world is limited. We aim to address this gap, by assessing how water security is considered, articulated , and operationalized in place-based studies. We employ a two-part methodological approach that includes (1) a systematic analysis of 124 articles, books, and book chapters published between 2010-2015 using a standardized coding framework to examine trends and patterns in place-based water security research, and (2) an analysis of the treatment of governance as a subset of this body of research to reveal how water governance is framed and understood in place-based water security scholarship. We find broad diffusion of water security across geographic regions and scales, expansive framing of water security, and evolving approaches to indicator formulation. The narratives around future pathways for governance practices include the promotion of parti-cipatory processes, solutions that engage both quantitative and qualitative methods, and a mix of both hard-and soft-path approaches to achieve water security. The persistent diversity in perspectives and applications of water security suggests that scholars adapt the concept to the contexts of the cases they are studying. The variation in how water security is utilized in different regions and spatial scales underscores the importance of incorporating community context in how we understand and employ water security. By empirically assessing the diversity and utility of water-security analyses, highlighting regional differences, and tracing evolving conceptions over time, our research can inform future project design, policy-making, and management from the international to the local levels.
The crucial role of groundwater and the centrality of water governance in accommodating growing water demands sustainably are becoming well recognized. We review 10 case studies of groundwater governance—representing diverse global regions and local contexts—from the perspective of four well-established elements: (1) institutional setting; (2) availability and access to information and science; (3) robustness of civil society; and (4) economic and regulatory frameworks. For institutional setting, we find that governing is often a thankless task that paradoxically requires popularity; legislation does not always translate to implementation; conflict resolution is central to governance; and funding is critical for governance. In terms of information access, we see: a need for research for natural systems, social systems, and institutions; trust as an essential element in research; and that urbanized landscapes are critical components of groundwater governance. Looking at civil society robustness, we observe that equity is an essential element for governance; community-based governance requires intention; and leaders can play a powerful role in uniting stakeholders. As for frameworks, the cases suggest that economic incentives sometimes yield unintended results; “indirect” management should be used cautiously; and economic incentives’ effectiveness depends on the system employed. Collectively, the lessons speak to the need for shared governance capacities on the part of governments at multiple levels and civil society actors.
One of the aspects highlighted in the Framework for Action and other key documents produced by the Groundwater Governance Project (funded by GEF and implemented by UNESCO, FAO, World Bank and IAH) is the interdependence between groundwater and human activities related to other physical components of the real world. Consequently, it is important in groundwater governance to make essential linkages with other components of the water cycle (IWRM), with sanitation and wastewater management, with land use and land use practices, with energy and with the uses of subsurface space and other subsurface resources. This paper presents an overall description of the multiple uses of the subsurface space and of the exploitation and management of subsurface resources. It attempts to give an impression of intensities and trends in use and exploitation, of the possible interactions and of current and potential efforts to control negative impacts of such interactions. It concludes by briefly summarizing in three simple steps how to improve groundwater governance by making appropriate linkages with uses of the subsurface space and subsurface resources.
The paper analyses geopolitical dimensions of the 1997 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non- Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (UNWC) using quantitative data on transboundary flows and qualitative data on basin State location within a watercourse. The UNWC has had a long and difficult history. A tendency for downstream support for, and upstream ambivalence/opposition to, the UNWC is identified. It appears not widely recognized that adverse effects can be caused by any State on other States, regardless of their upstream or downstream location. Thus downstream States consider that their actions cannot harm upstream States, and upstream States consider that the UNWC provides them with greater obligations than downstream States. Clarification of the UNWC with the principle of reciprocal obligations on all States, both upstream and downstream, will remove any ambiguity, correct misperceptions, have clear policy implications for all States, promote UNWC engagement of upstream States, and contribute to long- Term global water security.
The complexity of natural resource use processes and dynamics is now well accepted and described in theories ranging across the sciences from ecology to economics. Based upon these theories, management frameworks have been developed within the research community to cope with complexity and improve natural resource management outcomes. Two notable frameworks, Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) and Adaptive Management (AM) have been developed within the domain of water resource management over the past thirty or so years. Such frameworks provide testable statements about how best to organise knowledge production and use to facilitate the realisation of desirable outcomes including sustainable resource use. However evidence for the success of IWRM and AM is mixed and they have come under criticism recently as failing to provide promised benefits. This paper critically reviews the claims made for IWRM and AM against evidence from their implementation and explores whether or not criticisms are rooted in problems encountered during the translation from research to practice. To achieve this we review the main issues that challenge the implementation of both frameworks. More specifically, we analyse the various definitions and descriptions of IWRM and AM. Our findings suggest that similar issues have affected the lack of success that practitioners have experienced throughout the implementation process for both frameworks. These findings are discussed in the context of the broader societal challenge of effective translation of research into practice, science into policy and ambition into achievement.
This book presnts a unique and up-to-date summary of what is known about groundwater on our planet, from a global perspective and in trems of area-specific factual information.
See: https://www.crcpress.com/Groundwater-around-the-World-A-Geographic-Synopsis/Margat-Gun/9781138000346
Study region: Canada–USA border.
Study focus: Since 2005, Canada has followed international developments in transboundary groundwater issues in cooperation with its southern neighbor the United States (USA) within the Internationally Shared Aquifer Resources Management Initiative (ISARM) of UNESCO. As a result, 10 Transboundary Aquifer Systems (TAS) were identified along the border between Canada and the USA. This study is an extensive review of the current state of the 10 TAS. Documentation of scientifically-based knowledge on TAS is an important step in identifying potential issues in policies that might be adopted to address shared water-resource issues.
New hydrological insights for the region: This analysis emphasizes the need for more scientific data, widespread education and training, and a more clearly defined governments’ role to manage groundwater at the international level. The study reviews the current legal framework and summarises the current scientific knowledge for the TAS with respect to the hydrologic and geologic framework as well as some of the major drivers for supply and demand. It also describes the links, approach and relevance of studies on the TAS to the UN Law of Transboundary Aquifers and on how these might fit in the regional strategy for the assessment and management of the TAS. Clear communication, shared knowledge and common objectives in the management of TAS will prepare the countries for future negotiations and cooperative binational programs.
The water–energy–food nexus is being promoted as a conceptual tool for achieving sustainable development. Frameworks for implementing nexus thinking, however, have failed to explicitly or adequately incorporate sustainable livelihoods perspectives. This is counterintuitive given that livelihoods are key to achieving sustainable development. In this paper we present a critical review of nexus approaches and identify potential linkages with sustainable livelihoods theory and practice, to deepen our understanding of the interrelated dynamics between human populations and the natural environment. Building upon this review, we explore the concept of ‘environmental livelihood security’ – which encompasses a balance between natural resource supply and human demand on the environment to promote sustainability – and develop an integrated nexus-livelihoods framework for examining the environmental livelihood security of a system. The outcome is an integrated framework with the capacity to measure and monitor environmental livelihood security of whole systems by accounting for the water, energy and food requisites for livelihoods at multiple spatial scales and institutional levels. We anticipate this holistic approach will not only provide a significant contribution to achieving national and regional sustainable development targets, but will also be effective for promoting equity amongst individuals and communities in local and global development agendas.
Climate change, rapid urbanization, and the emerging carbon economy, among other factors, have elevated the energy-water nexus from an operational tool to a new joint-resource management and policy paradigm. Nowhere in North America, and in few regions globally, is this need greater than in the Southwest United States and Northwest Mexico. In the states of Arizona and Sonora, investment is inadequate to meet energy and water infrastructure needs. On par with critical infrastructure in economic development terms, agriculture is likewise energy-intensive and currently consumes the largest share of water resources in both states. The important gains to be made through coupled energy- and water-based conservation, including the potential of certain types of renewable energy development to reduce water requirements for electricity generation, raise questions over conventional plans to rapidly increase investments in infrastructure. The purpose of this paper is to assess the region's energy-water nexus through analysis of data on water supply, electrical power generation, and energy consumption. Four cases are examined to illustrate the coupled nature of policies for energy and water: (1) rapidly growing urban centers; (2) water consumed in power generation and the "virtual water" implications of regional interstate power trade; (3) the irrigation-electrical power nexus in agriculture; and (4) coastal desalination and proposed trans-boundary transfer schemes. The paper concludes that conventional water management for cities has a large and rising energy footprint. Conversely, power generation that is often considered "non-consumptive" in this arid region is a major consumer of water. Similarly, there is a major opportunity for energy and water conservation in groundwater irrigation. Finally, desalination may hold promise, particularly for coastal communities, but current costs and institutional barriers suggest that transboundary transfer of desalinated water for general purposes, including environmental conservation and agriculture, has low feasibility.
The global climate circles one hears the expression ‘water security’ used with ever increasing frequency, together with declarations about the urgency to increase water security in these times of unprecedented global change and future uncertainty. There is no agreement among experts on terminology, and some show little concern over its precise meaning, but it is generally conceived as the interaction between the physical stress on water resources, the risk of water-related hazards and the coping capacity in water management of the society concerned.
The soft path seeks to improve the overall productivity of water use and deliver water services matched to the needs of end users, rather than seeking sources of new supply.
Although groundwater has traditionally supplied a significant portion of the water that humans use for drinking, agricultural and industrial purposes, it has not been a mainstream topic in environmental politics and in the environment policy-making process. This is despite the importance of the groundwater’s contribution to the development of local economies and the livelihood of people. Transboundary aquifers, in particular, play a key role in international politics and diplomatic relations. The International Shared Aquifer Resources Management (ISARM) initiative, which was institutionalized by the International Hydrological Program (IHP) of UNESCO, aims to improve the understanding of the multi-disciplinary issues related to groundwater governance. ISARM’s second phase, which began in 2011, focuses mainly on filling the gaps for effective groundwater management and on building a coherent and operative framework of action on groundwater governance. This framework will particularly provide rules and practices for decision- making and policy-making on groundwater and for the implementation of decisions and policies with cross-country and cross-sectoral stakeholders. In this paper, the governance of transboundary aquifers is discussed in light of Michel Foucault’s definition of governmentality, a key concept in environmental governance studies. This concept can be used to analyze environmental governance within a broader context, hence facilitating the design of policy strategies and legal mechanism that are both effective and practical. The case study described in this paper is the Guaraní aquifer system in South America. This aquifer system is one in which the notion of governmentality was used to respond to the challenges related to transboundary groundwater governance, and demonstrates the potential synergies that may emerge between ministries and other forms of governments horizontally and vertically when this approach is applied. It is hoped that this analysis will be of assistance to those who are considering regional-based governance mechanisms in other parts of the world
In the past two decades, integrated water resources management (IWRM) hascome to represent a dominant policy narrative in the field of water policy and governance.However, IWRM has come under strong criticism in recent years for what critics see as apoor record of implementation and heavy emphasis on technocratic solutions. We outlinehow the present debate around IWRM has become narrowly construed by focusingexclusively on IWRM as an analytical and prescriptive concept. We argue that this narrowconceptualization of IWRM, or the
prescriptive
epistemic form, which sets forth a set of guidelines for implementation in accordance with the logic of instrumentality, has in partresulted in a stalemate manifested in less research on the subject and scarcer attention of policy makers. To help advance beyond the stalemate, we propose two additional epistemicforms:
discursive
, as a point of reference for the discussion of power and values in watermanagement and
practical
, or experiential and context-based understanding of watermanagement. Recognizing this diversity of epistemic forms of IWRM to include thediscursive and practical can create a shared space for multiple conflicting epistemologiesand allow ways of knowing of non-expert stakeholders, thereby lessening the polarizednature of the discourse. Our typology of three epistemic forms—prescriptive, discursiveand practical—offers public policy scholars a heuristic tool to approach policy conceptsfrom multiple dimensions. Recognizing multiple epistemic forms requires new skills frompolicy workers and analysts, as well as institutional arrangements for articulating andtranslating across these forms.
This paper develops an analytical framework to investigate the relationship between water and armed conflict, and applies it to the 'Summer War' of 2006 between Israel and Lebanon (Hezbollah). The framework broadens and deepens existing classifications by assessing the impact of acts of war as indiscriminate or targeted, and evaluating them in terms of international norms and law, in particular International Humanitarian Law (IHL). In the case at hand, the relationship is characterised by extensive damage in Lebanon to drinking water infrastructure and resources. This is seen as a clear violation of the letter and the spirit of IHL, while the partial destruction of more than 50 public water towers compromises water rights and national development goals. The absence of pre-war environmental baselines makes it difficult to gauge the impact on water resources, suggesting a role for those with first-hand knowledge of the hostilities to develop a more effective response before, during, and after armed conflict.
As the world's largest distributed store of fresh water, ground water
plays a central part in sustaining ecosystems and enabling human
adaptation to climate variability and change. The strategic importance
of ground water for global water and food security will probably
intensify under climate change as more frequent and intense climate
extremes (droughts and floods) increase variability in precipitation,
soil moisture and surface water. Here we critically review recent
research assessing the impacts of climate on ground water through
natural and human-induced processes as well as through
groundwater-driven feedbacks on the climate system. Furthermore, we
examine the possible opportunities and challenges of using and
sustaining groundwater resources in climate adaptation strategies, and
highlight the lack of groundwater observations, which, at present,
limits our understanding of the dynamic relationship between ground
water and climate.
What is the one thing that no one can do without? Water. Where water crosses boundaries – be they economic, legal, political or cultural – the stage is set for disputes between different users trying to safeguard access to a vital resource, while protecting the natural environment. Without strategies to anticipate, address, and mediate between competing users, intractable water conflicts are likely to become more frequent, more intense, and more disruptive around the world. In this book, Delli Priscoli and Wolf investigate the dynamics of water conflict and conflict resolution, from the local to the international. They explore the inexorable links between three facets of conflict management and transformation: Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), public participation, and institutional capacity. This practical guide will be invaluable to water management professionals, as well as to researchers and students in engineering, economics, geography, geology, and political science who are involved in any aspects of water management.
Transboundary aquifers are ubiquitous and strategically important to global food and water security. Yet these shared resources are being depleted at an alarming rate. Focusing on the Disi aquifer, a key nonrenewable source of groundwater shared by Jordan and Saudi Arabia, this study develops a two-stage game that evaluates optimal transboundary strategies of common-pool resource exploitation under various assumptions. The analysis relies on estimates of agricultural water use from satellite imagery, which were obtained using three independent remote sensing approaches. Drawdown response to pumping is simulated using a 2-D regional aquifer model. Jordan and Saudi Arabia developed a buffer-zone strategy with a prescribed minimum distance between each country's pumping centers. We show that by limiting the marginal impact of pumping decisions on the other country's pumping costs, this strategy will likely avoid an impeding tragedy of the commons for at least 60 years. Our analysis underscores the role played by distance between wells and disparities in groundwater exploitation costs on common-pool overdraft. In effect, if pumping centers are distant enough, a shared aquifer no longer behaves as a common-pool resource and a tragedy of the commons can be avoided. The 2015 Disi aquifer pumping agreement between Jordan and Saudi Arabia, which in practice relies on a joint technical commission to enforce exclusion zones, is the first agreement of this type between sovereign countries and has a promising potential to avoid conflicts or resolve potential transboundary groundwater disputes over comparable aquifer systems elsewhere.
More than a billion people in the developing world lack safe drinking water — an amenity those in the developed world take for granted. Nearly three billion people live without access to adequate sanitation systems necessary for reducing exposure to water-related diseases. The failure of the international aid community, nations and local organizations to satisfy these basic human needs has led to substantial, unnecessary and preventable human suAering. This paper argues that access to a basic water requirement is a fundamental human right implicitly and explicitly supported by international law, declarations and State practice. Governments, international aid agencies, nongovernmental organizations and local communities should work to provide all humans with a basic water requirement and to guarantee that water as a human right. By acknowledging a human right to water and expressing the willingness to meet this right for those currently deprived of it, the water community would have a useful tool for addressing one of the most fundamental failures of 20th century development. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
In recent years, different international institutions have repeatedly called for states to enter into agreements on the transboundary aquifers they share. Nevertheless, very few agreements have been established. This article examines the few ad hoc legal mechanisms that are in existence, and identifies some possible reasons for states’ reluctance. Finally, this article suggests that there is a need for the international community to stimulate a more cooperative approach to the management of this natural resource based on the preventive and precautionary principles.
This article reviews and contrasts two approaches that water security researchers employ to advance understanding of the complexity of water-society policy challenges. A prevailing reductionist approach seeks to represent uncertainty through calculable risk, links national GDP tightly to hydro-climatological causes, and underplays diversity and politics in society. When adopted uncritically, this approach limits policy-makers to interventions that may reproduce inequalities, and that are too rigid to deal with future changes in society and climate. A second, more integrative, approach is found to address a range of uncertainties, explicitly recognise diversity in society and the environment, incorporate water resources that are less-easily controlled, and consider adaptive approaches to move beyond conventional supply-side prescriptions. The resultant policy recommendations are diverse, inclusive, and more likely to reach the marginalised in society, though they often encounter policy-uptake obstacles. The article concludes by defining a route towards more effective water security research and policy, which stresses analysis that matches the state of knowledge possessed, an expanded research agenda, and explicitly addresses inequities.
Groundwater resources are increasingly being put under pressure owing to population growth, technological progress and economic development. Many countries, however, are unable to address groundwater depletion and pollution owing to weak legal and institutional frameworks. This applies both within national contexts and in respect of international or trans-boundary aquifers (or aquifer systems). The issue is being widely debated within international fora, numbers of countries are revising their water legislation in order to include more specific provisions for groundwater, and in parallel the UN International Law Commission (ILC) is studying transboundary groundwater resources with a view to a codification of the law in this regard. However, the key characteristics of groundwater are often misunderstood by non-specialists and, unless resource lawyers and groundwater specialists work much more closely together, there is likelihood of erroneous interpretations of the applicable legal regime. This paper aims to highlight basic concepts and pragmatic management needs, so as to provide a framework within which national and international legislation on groundwater management and protection should be shaped.
The water–energy–food nexus is being promoted as a conceptual tool for achieving sustainable development. Frameworks for implementing nexus thinking, however, have failed to explicitly or adequately incorporate sustainable livelihoods perspectives. This is counterintuitive given that livelihoods are key to achieving sustainable development. In this paper we present a critical review of nexus approaches and identify potential linkages with sustainable livelihoods theory and practice, to deepen our understanding of the interrelated dynamics between human populations and the natural environment. Building upon this review, we explore the concept of ‘environmental livelihood security’ – which encompasses a balance between natural resource supply and human demand on the environment to promote sustainability – and develop an integrated nexus-livelihoods framework for examining the environmental livelihood security of a system. The outcome is an integrated framework with the capacity to measure and monitor environmental livelihood security of whole systems by accounting for the water, energy and food requisites for livelihoods at multiple spatial scales and institutional levels. We anticipate this holistic approach will not only provide a significant contribution to achieving national and regional sustainable development targets, but will also be effective for promoting equity amongst individuals and communities in local and global development agendas
Increasing populations and industrial and agricultural development worldwide are placing much greater demands on groundwater supplies. Many of these groundwater basins or aquifers underlie two or more countries and are, thus, international or transboundary. Unfortunately, international law and treaty practice are only at a beginning stage. With the goal of advancing international law and institutions on the matter, a multi-disciplinary group of specialists over an eight-year period have developed a draft international groundwater treaty. The draft provides mechanisms for the international aquifers in critical areas to be managed by mutual agreement rather than continuing to be subjected to unilateral taking. The treaty addresses contamination, depletion, drought and transboundary transfers as well as withdrawal and recharge issues. The fundamental goal is to achieve joint, optimum utilization and avoidance or resolution of disputes over shared groundwaters in a time of ever-increasing pressures upon this priceless resource. -from Authors
International water law has made a major contribution to the great projects of national security and sustainable development by driving home the basic principle that common rivers and associated groundwaters should be shared by all riparian states. Water issues, historically and traditionally, have been addressed at the national or river basin level. In countries with 'bad hydrology' the challenge has been to capture more run-off or to exploit groundwater to meet evolving agricultural, energy, industrial and urban demands. Water shortage fears were carried to the arid Mediterranean 7 and then across the new world. However, this fear receded as our faith in science and technology to help us to adapt to harsh climates rose. The IPPC water report contains numerous examples of water stress across the world, which will only become more difficult in the future, especially when conflicts-of-use result in adverse impacts beyond national sovereign borders.
International groundwater problems represent a distinct and important category of transboundary groundwater problems, but not all transboundary groundwaters are international. This paper considers transboundary groundwater problems in both intranational and international settings. First, difficulties attending the resolution of transboundary groundwater problems are identified, with intranational and international setting compared as general categories. Second, a set of intranational transboundary groundwater problems in the U.S. setting of southern California is compared with the analysis and recommendations that have emerged in the literature of recent decades on international transboundary groundwaters. The purpose of these comparisons of intranational with international transboundary groundwater problems is to more fully identify and understand what is, and is not, special about the challenges of resolving international groundwater problems. While international transboundary problems require the involvement (and in many instances the development) of different institutional arrangements, there are sound reasons to believe that in both international and intranational settings, the processes by which problem resolution is achieved may be more important than the content of the resolution.
How does transboundary water cooperation begin at the initial stages, and how can third parties help to foster said cooperation? Many nations with transboundary waters do not cooperate or have ceased cooperation. Yet cooperation often prevails, resulting in 688 water-related treaties signed from 1820 to 2007. We address the following: by which practices can development partners best design and implement cooperative projects at the state level to enhance basin water security in the earliest stages? This article identifies strategies for initiating cooperation and lessons drawn from reviewing select cases. We compiled from the Oregon State University Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database all transboundary water resources projects over the last decade with multinational participation. We selected 10 case studies that enhance water security that fit the following filtering criteria: (1) Funding exclusively/primarily from outside sources, (2) Including nonofficial stakeholders in project design/implementation, (3) Absence of formal relations around water resources between or among the riparian nations before the project was discussed, (4) Project design possibly enhancing hydropolitical relations. Findings suggest that to enhance water security, project designs should respect participating riparians' autonomies, create basin-wide networks of scientists, allow for each partner to garner responsibility for project activities, and consult a diverse group of stakeholders.
Water is a key component of critical ecosystems, a marketable commodity, a foundation of local communities and cultures, and a powerful means of social control. It has become a source of contentious politics and social controversy on a global scale, and the management of water conflicts is one of the biggest challenges in the effort to achieve effective global environmental governance.
In Governing Water Ken Conca examines political struggles to create a global framework for the governance of water. Threats to the world's rivers, watersheds and critical freshwater ecosystems have resisted the establishment of effective global agreements through intergovernmental bargaining because the conditions for successful interstate cooperation—effective state authority, stable knowledge frameworks, and a territorialized understanding of nature—cannot be imposed upon water controversies. But while interstate water diplomacy has faltered, less formalized institutions--socially and politically embedded rules, roles, and practices--have emerged to help shape water governance locally and globally.
Conca examines the politics of these institutions, presenting a framework for understanding global environmental governance based on key institutional presumptions about territoriality, authority, and knowledge. He maps four distinct processes of institution building: formal international regimes for shared rivers; international networking among water experts and professionals; social movements opposing the construction of large dams; and the struggle surrounding transnational water "marketization." These cases illustrate the potential for alternative institutional forms in situations where traditional interstate regimes are ineffective.
***Winner of the International Studies Association's Harold and Margaret Sprout Award for best book on international environmental affairs
To understand transboundary groundwater governance in the South American Guarani Aquifer System, we surveyed global and regional experts about the region’s groundwater quantity and quality, ownership and rights, and regulation and administration. Respondents (1) perceived groundwater quality and withdrawal as under-regulated, and relevant information and data as inadequate; (2) suggested that contamination and overdrafting remain mostly incipient and localized along international borders; and (3) viewed groundwater as a shared resource administered by the state for the public, rather than as private property. Respondents suggested that while there is progress towards implementing a formal transboundary aquifer agreement, local-to-national-scale governance is important.
More than a billion people in the developing world lack safe drinking water - an amenity those in the developed world take for granted. Nearly three billion people live without access to adequate sanitation systems necessary for reducing exposure to water-related diseases. The failure of the international aid community, nations and local organizations to satisfy these basic human needs has led to substantial, unnecessary and preventable human suffering. This paper argues that access to a basic water requirement is a fundamental human right implicitly and explicitly supported by international law, declarations and State practice. Governments, international aid agencies, nongovernmental organizations and local communities should work to provide all humans with a basic water requirement and to guarantee that water as a human right. By acknowledging a human right to water and expressing the willingness to meet this right for those currently deprived of it, the water community would have a useful tool for addressing one of the most fundamental failures of 20th century development.
The article discusses the development of international groundwater law from the first codification efforts of modern water law until present and raises relevant issues for the way forward. It first traces international groundwater law from the 1960s until the end of the last century. It then reviews the growing attention groundwater has received during the last decade and third discusses the status quo. It places particular emphasis on the 2008 Draft Articles on the Law of Transboundary Aquifers adopted by the International Law Commission and the legal arrangements made for five of the 273 transboundary aquifers. It concludes with thoughts on the way forward in this important and understudied area of international law.
Groundwater banking is the use of aquifers to store water to balance seasonal or longer-term variations in supply and demand. The large storage capacity provided by aquifers can be a valuable tool for conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater as well as other elements of integrated water resources management. Successful groundwater banking requires favorable hydrogeological conditions to efficiently recharge, store, and abstract large volumes of water. Additionally, groundwater banking is also highly dependent upon water management and operational policies to ensure that stored water is not abstracted by other users and that the water accounting system of the bank remains in balance. Accumulated credits to withdraw water should not exceed the capacity of an aquifer to safely produce the water at the design rate-of-return for the bank. System participants need to have confidence that credits issued for recharge can be safely recovered when needed. Groundwater banking systems can cause significant local adverse impacts to other aquifer users and sensitive environments during recovery periods. Groundwater modeling is required to develop a sustainable management system that accounts for temporal and spatial variations in the impacts of both recharge and abstraction activities.
Aquifers and groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDEs) are facing increasing pressure from water consumption, irrigation and climate change. These pressures modify groundwater levels and their temporal patterns and threaten vital ecosystem services such as arable land irrigation and ecosystem water requirements, especially during droughts. This review examines climate change effects on groundwater and dependent ecosystems. The mechanisms affecting natural variability in the global climate and the consequences of climate and land use changes due to anthropogenic influences are summarised based on studies from different hydrogeological strata and climate zones. The impacts on ecosystems are discussed based on current findings on factors influencing the biodiversity and functioning of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The influence of changes to groundwater on GDE biodiversity and future threats posed by climate change is reviewed, using information mainly from surface water studies and knowledge of aquifer and groundwater ecosystems. Several gaps in research are identified. Due to lack of understanding of several key processes, the uncertainty associated with management techniques such as numerical modelling is high. The possibilities and roles of new methodologies such as indicators and modelling methods are discussed in the context of integrated groundwater resources management. Examples are provided of management impacts on groundwater, with recommendations on sustainable management of groundwater.
Illustrated with case studies explaining key concepts and providing practical examples, this book forms a comprehensive introduction to water management issues from a European perspective. Initially detailing the history of water management, the book then puts forward the major frameworks used for managing water, and provides a synoptic treatment of major water management issues in all 27 EU nations.
The interactions between groundwater and surface water are complex. To understand these interactions in relation to climate, landform, geology, and biotic factors, a sound hydrogeoecological framework is needed. All these aspects are synthesized and exemplified in this overview. In addition, the mechanisms of interactions between groundwater and surface water (GW–SW) as they affect recharge–discharge processes are comprehensively outlined, and the ecological significance and the human impacts of such interactions are emphasized. Surface-water and groundwater ecosystems are viewed as linked components of a hydrologic continuum leading to related sustainability issues. This overview concludes with a discussion of research needs and challenges facing this evolving field. The biogeochemical processes within the upper few centimeters of sediments beneath nearly all surface-water bodies (hyporheic zone) have a profound effect on the chemistry of the water interchange, and here is where most of the recent research has been focusing. However, to advance conceptual and other modeling of GW–SW systems, a broader perspective of such interactions across and between surface-water bodies is needed, including multidimensional analyses, interface hydraulic characterization and spatial variability, site-to-region regionalization approaches, as well as cross-disciplinary collaborations.
Groundwater is a critical component of the water supply for agriculture, urban areas, industry, and ecosystems, but managing it is a challenge because groundwater is difficult to map, quantify, and evaluate. Until recently, study and assessment of governance of this water resource has been largely neglected. A survey was developed to query state agency officials about the extent and scope of groundwater use, groundwater laws and regulations, and groundwater tools and strategies. Survey responses revealed key findings: states' legal frameworks for groundwater differ widely in recognizing the hydrologic connection between surface water and groundwater, the needs of groundwater-dependent ecosystems, and the protection of groundwater quality; states reported a range in capacity to enforce groundwater responsibilities; and states have also experienced substantial changes in groundwater governance in the past few decades. Overall, groundwater governance across the United States is fragmented. States nevertheless identified three common priorities for groundwater governance: water quality and contamination, conflicts between users, and declining groundwater levels. This survey represents an initial step in a broader, continuing effort to characterize groundwater governance practices in the United States.
Many people think of transboundary water in terms of national security. However, water is not, nor is it likely to become, a cause of war. Rather, the need is for water security, which implies that water management must balance the goals of efficiency, equity, sustainability and implementability. This article suggests how a joint management structure for fresh water can be designed to promote ongoing resolution of issues, and do so in a way that de-nationalizes and de-securitizes transboundary water. Though designed with the Israeli–Palestinian case in mind, the approach is applicable wherever water divides rather than unites states or peoples.
Societal use of freshwater, ecosystems’ dependence on water, and hydroclimatic processes interact dynamically.
Changes in any of these subsystems can cause unpredictable feedback, resulting in water insecurity for humans
and ecosystems. By drawing on resilience theory, we extend current productive–destructive framings of water
security to better address societal–ecosystem–hydroclimatic (SEH) interactions, dynamics, and uncertainties
that drive insecurity but also offer response opportunities. Strengthening water security in this sense requires
strategies that (1) conceptually and practically interlink SEH subsystems; (2) recognize extreme conditions and
thresholds; and (3) plan for water security via structured exchanges between researchers and decision makers in
ways that account for institutions and governance frameworks. Through scrutiny of case evidence from waterscarce
regions in western North America and the Central Andes, we assert that ensuring water security requires
adaptive management (interactive planning that accounts for uncertainties, initiates responses, and iteratively
assesses outcomes). Researchers and stakeholders from these regions are pursuing a multiyear series of workshops
that promote science-based decision making while factoring in the political implications of water planning.
This study briefly reviews an emerging water security initiative for the arid Americas that aims to enhance
understanding of adaptive approaches to strengthen water security. Finally, by synthesizing efforts in the arid
Americas, we offer insights for other water-insecure regions
Irrigation has always been central to life and society in the plains of South Asia. According to Alfred Deakin, a three-time Australian prime minister and an irrigation enthusiast of early 20th century who toured India in 1890, the region had 12 million hectares (ha) of irrigated land compared with 3 million ha in the United States, 2 million ha in Egypt, 1.5 million ha in Italy and a few hundred thousand ha each in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), France, Spain, and Victoria (Australia) (The Age 1891). Although Egypt and Sri Lanka are better known as hydraulic civilizations, a century ago British India was the world’s irrigation champion.
During the past 40 years, however, much of what was British India has witnessed more development in irrigation than in the preceding two centuries. Available statistics—better today than a hundred years ago—suggest that in 2002, the world had some 300 million ha under irrigation, and of these, more than 90 million ha was in today’s India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh—lands that were the bulk of British India before 1947.
This book is about the growing anarchy in South Asia’s irrigation economy. From antiquity until the 1960s, water mobilization and management for agriculture were predominantly the affair of village communities or the state. Today, however, the region’s agriculture has come to depend on explosive growth in irrigation from individually owned groundwater wells, and the current irrigation regime is wholly new. The resulting groundwater stress poses an environmental threat, but it also raises questions about the future of a vast agrarian system founded on a boom that seems destined to go bust.
Large swaths of western and southern South Asia are withdrawing much more water from underground aquifers than man and nature can put back into them, and society has yet to find a way of restoring the balance. The hard-rock aquifers in inland peninsular India offer so little scope for large-scale groundwater use that hydrogeologists would consider intensive irrigation with groundwater suicidal in these regions; nevertheless, smallholder agriculture in these parts has come to depend heavily on groundwater wells. Along the coasts, pumping groundwater on a large scale tips the precarious balance between coastal aquifers and the sea, threatening saltwater intrusion; nevertheless, many coastal areas are witnessing a runaway groundwater boom. In the Indus basin in the northwest, even though vast alluvial aquifers are recharged by the network of canals from the Indus Basin Irrigation System, farmers pumping groundwater bring up the salts accumulated thousands of years ago, when most of the region was under the sea, and deposit them on the fields, progressively reducing the productivity of soils. When fields are drained, these salts enter the river system and help make the Indus a salt-laden drain by the time it arrives in Sind. Only in the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin on the eastern front—where the alluvium is 600 meters deep and the annual runoff exceeds 1,400 km3(Shiklomanov 1993, 16)—did there seem an opportunity for large-scale groundwater irrigation without major collateral damage. In recent years, however, arsenic has shown up in groundwater.
Drained wetlands and low-flowing rivers, falling water levels and rising pumping costs, deteriorating groundwater quality and new public health hazards—these are all consequences of South Asia’s anarchic groundwater development. Agricultural opportunism has been the driving force, and intelligent resource governance, a casualty.
There are fervent calls to end the anarchy, but this is more easily said than done. This book explores why. It describes how irrigation has enhanced the welfare of the region’s poor even as the groundwater boom threatens to create “illfare” on a comparable scale. It considers irrigation’s changing nature, drivers, and impacts on South Asia’s still predominantly agrarian society. Above all, it asks how South Asia will manage this irrigation anarchy.
The book begins by tracing the ascent of water-managed agriculture to situate irrigation today in its historical context. This prelude is essential for understanding the forces that drive South Asia’s irrigation economy, and for analyzing how public policies and institutions can bring order to this chaotic economy without undermining its stupendous benefits. When we compare the South Asian situation with the experience of other irrigating countries of the world, the historical background becomes critical to developing the central policy argument of the book: that to be effective, irrigation policies in South Asia must address the unique socioecological characteristics of the region and its people.
Here is a brief tour of the book. Chapter 1 traces the evolution of irrigation in South Asia, and elsewhere in the world, with emphasis on the progression of events during the 19th and 20th centuries. Chapter 2 analyzes the unique dynamic of South Asia’s groundwater boom and explains why it must be understood as a phenomenon in itself rather than as part of the global socioecology of groundwater irrigation. Chapter 3 analyzes how gravity-flow irrigation is shrinking in South Asia and why it will continue to do so, absent any change in policy. Chapter 4 recounts the welfare that groundwater irrigation has created for South Asia’s agrarian poor; Chapter 5 deals with the disaster it threatens to create unless the region implements an effective strategy for managing this runaway groundwater irrigation economy. Chapter 5 also analyzes how the groundwater irrigation boom is silently reconfiguring river basins, upsetting old calculations and challenging received wisdom on river basin management. It suggests that establishing effective river basin management in South Asia may depend on understanding how farming communities respond to groundwater development in different aquifer conditions. Chapter 6 proposes a set of hypotheses to facilitate such an understanding and adduces evidence in their support. Chapter 7 presents a comparative analysis of other countries’ experience in managing the demand for groundwater and describes how nascent efforts at demand management in South Asia are driven to chart their own distinctive course. Chapter 8 concludes the book by arguing for a practical, short- to medium-term groundwater governance strategy for South Asia that is society-centric rather than state-centric.
A note about geographical terms: Thus far I have used both “British India” and “South Asia” to refer to the vast landmass that is the stage of the drama described in this book. In reality, however, there is little groundwater irrigation in the middle Himalayas or in Bhutan and Burma (Myanmar), or in India’s northeastern states, except Assam. The “groundwater anarchy” is occurring in what were the princely state of Hyderabad, in a cluster of more than 200 small princely states of Kathiawar, in the Terai areas of Nepal, and in northern and eastern areas of Sri Lanka—none of which were part of British India. Throughout this book, then, I use “South Asia” to describe what is happening in the plains of Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan, while taking an occasional look at the rapidly growing groundwater irrigation in northern Sri Lanka.
And finally, a note about the approach and methodology. The book takes a broad sweep to describe and analyze broad trends in South Asian irrigation that may overlook local details. It proposes several new hypotheses and introduces evidence in their support but does not necessarily offer rigorous tests for them. Its approach is intuitive more than formal, its aim being to design a frame that can center the current reality of South Asia’s irrigation economy. The Streeten-Kuhn maxim (Kuhn 1962) underlines the approach taken: a model (or framework) is never defeated by facts, however damaging, but only by another model.
This article analyzes the water security risks in the Orontes basin shared between Syria, Lebanon and Turkey. A complete description of the watershed's hydrography and hydrology is presented, and then, using a geographic database, an optimization method is used based on the nine factors of the UN Convention to allocate water equitably between the co-riparians. The optimization results show that Turkey and Lebanon could benefit from additional water if new negotiations are initiated. We conclude that the role of Geographic Information System (GIS) in transboundary basins is essential once a multilateral agreement occurs, whereby GIS will assist in data sharing and standardization to evaluate future policy alternatives.