Narrow Results

We consider a region suffering from irrigation water scarcity. Candidate crops differ widely in their growth cycles, economic values and water consumption. We develop an integrated dynamic programming-mixed integer programming model to solve for optimal land exploitation over a one year horizon for multiple crops. The model applies deficit irrigation in order to increase the irrigated area at the expense of reducing crop yield per unit area. The dynamic program (DP) guarantees that deficit irrigation is only considered when it is economically efficient. Moreover, it provides optimal combinations of irrigation levels for each growth stage of candidate crops, accounting for the varying impact of water stress over time and the seasonal supply of irrigation water. The output of the DP serves as input to the mixed integer program (MIP). The MIP selects the most profitable crops in the right sequence to benefit the most from the crop-yield dependence on crop predecessor and allocates water and land optimally to maximize total profit. The objective function accounts for the attitude of the decision-maker toward risk by incorporating in its expression a risk-aversion coefficient.

This work considers the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine learning (ML) applied to the agricultural sector within a real-working scenario. More specifically, the aim is to punctually forecast two of the most important meteorological parameters (solar radiation and the rainfall) to determine the amount of water needed by a specific plantation under different contour conditions. Three different state-of-the-art ML approaches, coupled with boosting techniques, have been adopted and compared to obtain hourly forecasting. Real-working conditions are referred to the situation in which training data are missing for a specific weather station near the specific field to be irrigated. A simple but effective approach, based on correlation between available weather stations, is considered to cope with this problem. Results, evaluated considering different metrics as well as the execution time, demonstrate the viability of the proposed solution in real IoT working scenario in which these forecasting are input data to successively evaluate irrigation needing.

An Internet of Things (IoT) device that can automatically measure water consumption can help prevent excessive water usage or leaks. However, automating too many residences or condominiums with multiple IoT devices can lead to extra energy consumption and more network congestion. We propose controlling the energy consumption of an IoT water consumption management system by dynamically controlling its duty cycle. By analyzing the energy consumption of the developed prototype and its duty cycle variation, we calculated how much energy could be saved by controlling the antenna and the water flow sensor used in the IoT device. While controlling the antenna offered some energy savings, having some way to cut down on the water flow sensor’s consumption can have a dramatic impact on the overall IoT energy consumption or its battery longevity. Our results showed that we could get up to 69% extra energy savings compared to just putting the antenna in sleep mode. There is an observable trade-off in saving so much energy, as we can also see that water reading error rates go up alongside the extra energy savings.

The Drinkable Book™: A Book You Wouldn't Mind Getting Wet.

H2O: Managing our Water and Technology.

World Toilet Organisation – Let's Talk about Toilets.

Innovation is of vital importance, not only to commercial companies, but also to governments. For the Dutch, innovation in the field of water management is even a matter of survival, because much of their country lies below sea level. An evaluation of a water innovation program carried out by the Dutch government, using the cyclic innovation model, shows that there is a broad understanding of innovation, that innovators see innovation as a significant break from the "old" and recognize the connection between innovation and future developments, but that, on the other hand, the innovation processes in the innovation program are quite informal, that outside partners are involved sufficiently adhere to the new paradigm of "open innovation, and that the connection with top management at Rijkswaterstaat (as part of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment) could be improved. It is advised, among others, to make a clear distinction between projects and innovation processes, and to adopt a contingency approach to make that different types of innovations (incremental versus radical) are managed differently.

Government agencies, like individuals, can "lose sight" of the impacts of their policies on natural and social systems. Environmental impact analysis (EIA), strategic environmental analysis (SEA), and strategic planning are all aspects of analyzing and projecting the impacts of various management decisions on the public and on natural systems. Integrated river-basin management is another aspect of this type of planning. Integrated management requires several basic conditions. Among these are clear communications among all the actors involved in managing the basin's water resources, one or more sets of data which are shared by all decision-makers, and tools by which the decision-makers can evaluate policies (impact assessment).

In the Souss Massa River Basin in Morocco, the result of un-coordinated policies for economic development has led to declining water tables as well as potentially damaging surface and groundwater pollution. The Government of Morocco (GOM), recognizing the need for coordinated and integrated water management, passed a law creating new River Basin Agencies. Aiding those agencies and their partners in developing integrated management is the objective of the USAID-sponsored Souss-Massa Integrated Water Management (SIWM) project. The project activities have been designed to develop and support communications, data sharing and model building within the institutions in the Souss-Massa Basin as a demonstration for all Moroccan river basins but space and time constraints require a more pointed discussion. The focus of this paper is on capacity building for strategic planning and integrated management being undertaken and, to the extent possible, some of the lessons learned.

Many scholars describe a trend towards stakeholder involvement. Also in Dutch water management, this is expected to generate more support and better-informed information for decision-making. An approach or methodology for the combined involvement of stakeholder and expert inputs in decision-making, however, is lacking (Rinaudo and Garin, 2005; Petts and Brooks, 2006; Leach, 2006; Sabatier et al., 2005; Scholz and Stiftel, 2005). In this article we focus on methodological aspects of an integral stakeholder approach in relation to its expected contribution to decision-making. We describe and analyse an approach of co-valuation for spatial issues, including multiple actors involved. Experiences with this approach in a case study on Dutch spatial water management reconfirm that existing assessment methodology does not provide for the involvement of stakeholder inputs and focuses on expert-based information. An interactive approach of (existing) (e)valuation (methods) may involve these various knowledge bases in assessment.

Based on longitudinal data, and relying on the tragedy of the commons and the tragedy of the anti-commons theoretical frameworks, we argue: (1) groundwater permit patterns in Oklahoma are likely to contribute to the tragic overuse of groundwater resources; and (2) involvement of large and opposing groups that operate within an environment of fragmented access rights undermines the emergence of an efficient water management regime for Sardis Lake on Native American land in southeastern Oklahoma. Based on quantitative and qualitative research approaches, this study seeks to reveal patterns of groundwater overexploitation and deconstruct the complex processes surrounding the water dispute over Sardis Lake so that policymakers understand the relevant dangers and are able to identify sound policy solutions to manage common pool resources.

Worldwide, aquatic ecosystems subsist on water leftover from agricultural, industrial, and municipal water uses. While bi-national agreements have temporarily provided water for the Colorado River Delta (Delta) in Mexico, dedication of water to support aquatic ecosystems is rare. High-level U.S. – Mexico negotiations are underway to consider whether and how to provide water for the Delta once the current pilot program ends in 2017. Better understanding of the value of aquatic ecosystems can be useful in securing water to sustain them. This paper reports research findings on values held by visitors from nearby Mexican communities for environmental flows in the Delta. Based on surveys conducted at five recreation locations, this contingent valuation methodology (CVM) study assesses visitors' willingness-to-pay (WTP) for an assured source of water to sustain the Delta's ecosystem and the recreational opportunities it provides. Results indicate strong support for Delta restoration, with the majority of respondents indicating positive WTP to ensure adequate amounts of water to sustain a healthy and vibrant Delta ecosystem. Econometric model results indicate a median WTP ranging from $97 to $168 MXN (approximately $7–$13 USD at the time of analysis) per car per entry. These values represent only a subset of recreational users, and recreation values are only one of many components of the ecosystem services provided by the Delta. While only a fraction of recreation value and total economic value, it is important to understand values held by local recreation visitors. These values gauge support for preserving aquatic ecosystems in nearby communities. Furthermore, values held in the local area affect water management and policy decisions regarding restoration of this unique aquatic ecosystem.

The extent of recommended conservation practices is crucial for addressing natural resource concerns on the farms. The practices implementation is supported by working lands conservation programs, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Conservation Stewardship Program. The paper applies a propensity score matching approach to evaluate the effects of enrollment in the two federal conservation programs on irrigation water conservation practices adoption in Louisiana row crop agriculture. The analysis reveals that enrollment in the programs leads to statistically significant greater adoption of water management practices. The analysis provides correction for selection bias in adoption that can result from not accounting for the differences between program participants and non-participants. The analysis enables to provide a stronger and relatively accurate argument about the impact of conservation support programs on the adoption of conservation on the ground.

Sustainable water management is challenging because of the wide range of agents who need water and the different kinds of use, in a context of limited water availability. The availability of water for use, at a given point in time and space, depends on numerous physical and climatic variables, as well as upstream uses and downstream commitments. Therefore, any analysis of water use and management must inevitably be made in the context of such variability. This paper develops an integrated, multiregional, hydro-economic modeling framework to analyze the spatial and temporal dependencies between economic agents in the different regions and areas of a river basin. We combine hydro-economic modeling (partial economic equilibrium) and a multiregional input–output model (general equilibrium) to take advantage of both methodologies. Spatial variability is considered in the input–output models, but variability in both time and space is also considered by the hydro-economic model. Hydro-economic models are used to quantify direct impacts, but not indirect impacts in some specific sectors of the economy, while the input–output model reveals the relationships between all sectors and regions, and facilitates the assessment of total impacts (direct plus indirect) of a range of scenarios. While the methodology described in this paper is applicable to any river basin, the case study considered is the Ebro River Basin, in Spain. To show the potential of the modeling framework, two scenarios are simulated to assess the impacts on water use, value added, and jobs across scales. The results of these scenarios show that decreases in water availability have negative impacts on socio-economic variables (value added and employment). The trade-off between water availability and socio-economic variables depends on the temporal and spatial variability of the resource, and affects each location in the basin in a different way, demonstrating the importance of the methodology developed.

The Colorado River is a river system spanning seven states in the United States (US) and two in Mexico. Water in the river has been over-allocated, which has led the Colorado River Delta in Mexico to dry up, thus endangering the indigenous species. The two nations made several temporary, costly allocation agreements to transfer water to the Delta for ecological restoration. However, there is still no long-term economic solution for the Delta, which is what this study aims to address. In this work, I investigate solutions for rerouting water to the Delta that will minimize costs without causing excessive damage to the agrarian economy in the US. The cost of conserving water for the Delta was analyzed using numerical simulations with crop data from the Imperial Irrigation District in California. The objective is to find a policy that would help allocate 100,000 acre-feet per year to the Colorado River Delta at a minimum lifetime cost. Two scenarios are studied that would yield enough water for a sustainable restoration of the ecosystem: fallowing croplands and changing the irrigation system to be more water-efficient. Results indicate that fallowing 20,000 ac of alfalfa would be the least costly way of accumulating this resource at a cost ranging from $5.5 million to $13 million per year for a 31-year time horizon. This paper provides new insight into ways in which the US and Mexico can secure the future of ecosystems like the Colorado River Delta.

Changing climate threatens our water systems: Droughts, fires, and floods disrupt access to safe water and no country is immune. The aging infrastructure crisis offers an opportunity to build resiliency into our future water systems with approaches like (non-)potable reuse. Such strategies require participation by end-users, which we propose can be championed by water utilities through: (1) Raising awareness of water challenges, (2) education about current water realities and opportunities, and (3) providing resources to implement and sustain water solutions.