Water resources professionals have an obligation to conceive and manage water resource systems so that they will fully contribute to an improved quality of life. Those sustainable water resource systems will be able to satisfy the changing demands that will inevitably be placed on them, without significant system degradation. An international group of experts has reviewed various guidelines for achieving greater degrees of sustainability and the extent to which they have been applied in a number of case studies. The group provides approaches for measuring and modeling sustainability and ways...

Aquatic ecosystems have formed the focus of several UNESCO research projects because of the impact on them of human activities such as intensification of agricultural activity, erosion and sedimentation due to irrigation projects, groundwater pollution and eutrophication. Interfaces, or ecotones, between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems were found to have an essential role in the movement of water and materials throughout the landscape. Ecotones are zones where ecological processes are more intense and resources more diversified. They are also zones which react quickly to human influences...

Arid and semi-arid regions face major challenges in the management of scarce freshwater resources under pressures of population, economic development, climate change, pollution and over-abstraction. Groundwater is commonly the most important water resource in these areas. Groundwater models are widely used globally to understand groundwater systems and to guide decisions on management. However, the hydrology of arid and semi-arid areas is very different from that of humid regions, and there is little guidance on the special challenges of groundwater modelling for these areas. This book brings...

Increasing demands for irrigation, domestic and industrial water have generated a massive growth world-wide in the number of large water infrastructure projects involving the transfer of water from basins considered to have surplus water to those where the demand for water has exceeded or is expected to exceed supplies. Using the experiences of projects in Australia, United States, Canada, China and India, this book examines case studies within the diverse geographical, climatic, economic, and policy regimes operating in these countries. It examines the water resources of Australia, the...

Dynamic programming is a method of solving multi-stage problems in which decisions at one stage become the conditions governing the succeeding stages. It can be applied to the management of water reservoirs, allowing them to be operated more efficiently. This is one of the few books dedicated solely to dynamic programming techniques used in reservoir management. It presents the applicability of these techniques and their limits on the operational analysis of reservoir systems. The dynamic programming models presented in this book have been applied to reservoir systems all over the world,...

Arid and semi-arid regions face major challenges in the management of scarce freshwater resources under pressures of population, economic development, climate change, pollution and over-abstraction. Groundwater is commonly the most important water resource in these areas. Groundwater models are widely used globally to understand groundwater systems and to guide decisions on management. However, the hydrology of arid and semi-arid areas is very different from that of humid regions, and there is little guidance on the special challenges of groundwater modelling for these areas. This book brings...

The world is currently experiencing unprecedented global change, with population increase, urbanisation, climate change and environmental degradation combining to make management of freshwater resources a critical policy focus of the twenty-first century. This timely book designs and develops an original, analytical framework for water law reform processes, using case studies across four jurisdictions. Addressing the four principal areas of water law - integrated water resource management (IWRM) and river basin planning, water rights and allocation, water pollution and quality, and water...

This comprehensive volume describes how ecosystem services-based approaches can assist in addressing major global and regional water challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and water security in the developing world, by integrating scientific knowledge from different disciplines, such as hydrological modelling, environmental economics, psychology and international law. Empirical assessments at the national, catchment and regional levels are used to critically appraise this systemic approach, and the merits and potential limitations are presented. The practicalities of this...

This book uses ecosystem services-based approaches to address major global and regional water challenges, for researchers, students, and policy makers.

A trans-disciplinary book offering evaluation-based approaches for effective participatory interventions, for academic researchers, practitioners and policy-makers working in water management.