Water Supplies and Economic Growth in an Arid Environment
Author : Maurice M. Kelso
Publisher :
Page : 360 pages
File Size : 11,32 MB
Release : 1973
Category : Nature
ISBN :
Arid Lands Water Evaluation and Management
Author : Robert Maliva
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 1068 pages
File Size : 20,17 MB
Release : 2012-06-09
Category : Science
ISBN : 364229104X
Book Description
A large part of the global population lives in arid lands which have low rainfall and often lack the water required for sustainable population and economic growth. This book presents a comprehensive description of the hydrogeology and hydrologic processes at work in arid lands. It describes the techniques that can be used to assess and manage the water resources of these areas with an emphasis on groundwater resources, including recent advances in hydrologic evaluation and the differences between how aquifer systems behave in arid lands versus more humid areas. Water management techniques are described and summarized to show how a more comprehensive approach to water management is required in these areas, including the need to be aware of cultural sensitivities and conditions unique to many arid regions. The integration of existing resources with the addition of new water sources, such as desalination of brackish water and seawater, along with reusing treated wastewater, will be required to meet future water supply needs. Also, changing climatic conditions will force water management systems to be more robust so that future water supply demands can be met as droughts become more intense and rainfall events become more intense. A range of water management techniques are described and discussed in order to illustrate the methods for integrating these measures within the context of arid lands conditions.
Analysis and Modelling of Water Supply and Demand Under Climate Change, Land Use Transformation and Socio-Economic Development
Author : Katharina Fricke
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 49,96 MB
Release : 2013-12-12
Category : Science
ISBN : 3319016105
Book Description
Located in a narrow grassland corridor between the semi-desert and a mountain range in Northwest China, the research area Urumqi Region is despite its semi-arid climate in a relatively favourable hydrological situation. The nearby mountains provide water for settlements and agriculture, making human development possible in the first place. Due to the development of agriculture, population and economy during the last sixty years and the increasing water consumption, a demand- and population-driven water scarcity exists today and is expected to aggravate. At the same time, the effects of climate change and land use transformations on the hydrological system and the water availability are uncertain. This study evaluates the recent and future situation by combining a hydrological water balance model for the simulation of the water supply based on scenarios of climate and land use change with a socio-economic model for projecting the future water demand including predicted growth of population and economy.
Arizona Water Policy
Author : Bonnie G. Colby
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 273 pages
File Size : 47,14 MB
Release : 2010-09-30
Category : Law
ISBN : 1136525432
Book Description
The central challenge for Arizona and many other arid regions in the world is keeping a sustainable water supply in the face of rapid population growth and other competing demands. This book highlights new approaches that Arizona has pioneered for managing its water needs. The state has burgeoning urban areas, large agricultural regions, water dependent habitats for endangered fish and wildlife, and a growing demand for water-based recreation. A multi-year drought and climate-related variability in water supply complicate the intense competition for water. Written by well-known Arizona water experts, the essays in this book address these issues from academic, professional, and policy perspectives that include economics, climatology, law, and engineering. Among the innovations explored in the book is Arizona‘s Groundwater Management Act. Arizona is not alone in its challenges. As one of the seven states in the Colorado River Basin that depend heavily on the river, Arizona must cooperate, and sometimes compete, with other state, tribal, and federal governments. One institution that furthers regional cooperation is the water bank, which encourages groundwater recharge of surplus surface water during wet years so that the water remains available during dry years. The Groundwater Management Act imposes conservation requirements and establishes planning and investment programs in renewable water supplies. The essays in Arizona Water Policy are accessible to a broad policy-oriented and nonacademic readership. The book explores Arizona‘s water management and extracts lessons that are important for arid and semi-arid areas worldwide.
Water Resources in the Arid Realm
Author : Clive Agnew
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 348 pages
File Size : 28,60 MB
Release : 2024-04-03
Category : Science
ISBN : 1040006248
Book Description
Originally published in 1992, this book dispels some of the myths that surround water resource problems of arid lands and the notion that there are simple ‘once and for all’ solutions. Population growth, industrialization, environmental mismanagement and land degradation have led to droughts, poverty and famine with the result that the need for space, food and key natural resources such as water has become the most critical issue in global development. Nowhere is this crisis more apparent than in arid lands, where water resources provide the key to economic and environmental development. The authors argue that as the arid land environment is highly variable the key to success is flexibility. The book is divided into four sections, dealing with the geography of the arid realm; the water resource problems they face: the methods available for enhancing water supplies and finally, management of this resource. The book will be of use to undergraduate and postgraduate student and for those actively engaged in the development of arid land water resources.
Water Bankruptcy in the Land of Plenty
Author : Franck Poupeau
Publisher : CRC Press
Page : 640 pages
File Size : 20,43 MB
Release : 2017-12-21
Category : Nature
ISBN : 1315349760
Book Description
As the American Southwest faces its deepest drought in history, this book explores the provocative notion of “water bankruptcy” with a view towards emphasizing the diversity and complexity of water issues in this region. It bridges between the narratives of growth and the strategies or policies adopted to pursue competing agendas and circumvent the inevitable. A window of opportunity provided by this current long-term drought may be used to induce change by dealing with threats that derive from imbalances between growth patterns and available resources, the primary cause of scarcity. A first of its kind, this book was developed through close collaboration of a broad range of natural scientists, social scientists, and resource managers from Europe and United States. It constitutes a collective elaboration of a transdisciplinary approach to unveiling the inner workings of how water was fought for, allocated and used in the American Southwest, with a focus on Arizona. Specifically, it offers an innovative scientific perspective that produces a critical diagnostic evaluation of water management, with a particular view to identifying risks for the Tucson region that is facing continuous urban sprawl and economic growth.
Economics of Water Use in Semi-Arid Environment
Author : Issam A.W Mohamed
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 12,58 MB
Release : 2014
Category :
ISBN :
Book Description
Environmental, climatic and economic human influences contribute to the problem of water scarcity in arid and semi-arid areas of the world, particularly in the less developed countries. This has impeded economic development in these regions. Thus, the call is for better methodological approaches for investigating the problem from an interdisciplinary perspective and at a local scale, i.e., the bottom-up approach. This study investigates the nature of water use in a selected drought-inflicted village and develops an analytical framework for assessing the water demands of alternative economic development scenarios. A review of hydro-climatologically characteristics, land use practices, and technological development provides information on water resources availability and human activities in the region. Surveys of human activities and water use in the study village, Kutum indicate the following conditions: water scarcity, unsustainable agricultural development, and subsequent food and economic insecurity. Further investigations indicate that groundwater is the most dependable source of water. Its use is dominated by agricultural activities especially irrigation and animal rearing. These are the most water intensive activities based on the ratio of water use to income generation. Results of the study provide useful information for the development of predictive models and water conservation strategies. Estimates of direct and total requirements of both economic and ecological commodities showed sparse sectoral interdependence within the economic system but a heavy dependence of the economy on the environment. Such dependence is more on water, a scarce commodity in this semi-arid environment. The most intensive users of water based on the direct effects include animal husbandry, building and irrigated agriculture; based on total effects are catering, building and animal husbandry, in descending order.
Adaptation and Resilience
Author : Bonnie G. Colby
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 289 pages
File Size : 29,22 MB
Release : 2012-06-25
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 1136521933
Book Description
In America's arid southwest, climate change will occur in the context of already-keen competition for water for agriculture, urban growth, electricity generation, water-based recreation, and environmental protections. This book explores the challenges that climate change and variability pose for water and energy managers and users, communities, and policy makers in the arid Southwest and demonstrates the application of economic methods to address these challenges. It provides valuable tools for both those interested in resource management and climate change, and those seeking to understand how economic methods can be used to analyze contemporary social problems and craft appropriate responses. The book considers both adaptation to long-term climate change and more immediate issues of water and electricity management in the face of inter-annual climate variability and drought. Thus, no matter what one's perspective on long-run climate change projections, the book provides useful lessons for some of the region's most pressing resource management problems.
Fuel for Growth
Author : Douglas E. Kupel
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 45,36 MB
Release : 2022-06-21
Category : Nature
ISBN : 0816549885
Book Description
Cities in the arid West would not be what they are today without water and the technology needed to deliver it to users. The history of water development in Arizona goes hand in hand with the state's economic growth, and Arizona's future is inextricably tied to this scarce resource. Fuel for Growth describes and interprets the history of water resource development and its relationship to urban development in Arizona's three signature cities: Phoenix, Tucson, and Flagstaff. These three urban areas could hardly be more different: a growth-oriented metropolis, an environmentally conscious city with deep cultural roots, and an outdoor-friendly mountain town. Despite these differences, their community leaders and public officials have taken similar approaches to developing water resources with varying degrees of success and acceptance. Douglas Kupel has created a new vision of water history based on the Arizona experience. He challenges many of the traditional assumptions of environmental history by revealing that the West's aridity has had relatively little impact on the development of municipal water infrastructure in these cities. While urban growth in the West is often characterized as the product of an elite group of water leaders, the development of Arizona's cities is shown to reflect the broad aspirations of all their citizens. The book traces water development from the era of private water service to municipal ownership of water utilities and examines the impact of the post-World War II boom and subsequent expansion. Taking in the Salt River Project, the Central Arizona Project, and the Groundwater Management Act of 1980, Kupel explores the ongoing struggle between growth and environmentalism. He advocates public policy measures that can sustain a water future for the state. As the urban West enters a new century of water management, Arizona's progress will increasingly be tied to that of its ever-expanding cities. Fuel for Growth documents an earlier era of urban water use and provides important recommendations for the future path of water development in the West's key population centers.
Water and Sustainability in Arid Regions
Author : Graciela Schneier-Madanes
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 361 pages
File Size : 35,58 MB
Release : 2009-12-01
Category : Science
ISBN : 9048127769
Book Description
International voices fill the pages of Water and Sustainability in Arid Regions, forming an original scientific exploration of current water research and management issues. In arid regions, agriculture that is ill-adapted to the environment, accelerated urbanization, poverty, and increasing pollution challenge access to and uses of water. Understanding these issues requires incorporating findings from both the physical and social sciences at different temporal and spatial scales. The chapters in this book were written by hydrologists, remote sensing specialists, ecologists, historians, economists, political scientists, architects, archaeologists, and other experts who live in and study arid lands. The authors present updates, overviews, and analyses of water challenges these areas have faced and are striving to address, from salinization in the fabled Taklimakan Desert in China to land degradation in the northern Mediterranean to groundwater over-exploitation in the southwestern United States. The book also examines desertification, remote sensing, qanat systems, architecture, arsenic contamination, and other case studies from Iran, the Maghreb region, Argentina and Chile, and Mexico. From this conceptual mosaic of comparative perspectives and research methods emerges a strong assumption: an interdisciplinary approach that combines physical and social sciences is the first step toward globally and comprehensively addressing water and sustainability."This book is a valuable and welcome contribution to the discussion of water and sustainable development. Through the collection of chapters, the book clearly illustrates the contemporary diversity of approaches to water scarcity and presents pertinent and new research findings that readers generally do not find compiled together. The result is a highly relevant, accessible, and timely resource that is unique in its international and interdisciplinary content. This is a must-read for anyone working on environmental and sustainability issues in arid lands."André Mariotti, University Pierre et Marie Curie, and INSU - CNRS (National Institute for Earth Sciences and Astronomy-National Center for Scientific Research/Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), France "Anyone who reads this book will find himself or herself contemplating the need to rethink how we approach the issue of water and sustainability in arid lands. Drawing on the expertise of both physical and social scientists, the chapters taken as a whole present global, historic, and current perspectives on water scarcity in a multi-layered way that rarely has been done before." Miguel Solanes, Madrid Water Institute, Spain
