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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Water Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 18 October 2024 | Viewed by 8274

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Chandra Shekhar Prasad Ojha

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Guest Editor

Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttarakhand 247667, India
Interests: water resources management under climate change; environmental and fluvial hydraulics; surface water and ground water hydrology

Prof. Dr. Vijay P. Singh

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering and Zachry, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
Interests: surface and groundwater hydrology; water quality modeling; stochastic hydrology; irrigation hydraulics; entropy theory; dam breach modeling
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Water scarcity affects more than 40% of the global population. Over one billion people lack access to safe drinking water. Thus, sustainable water resources management and water supply are critical in order to maintain a sustainable economy, environment, ecosystem, and society. Factors such as population growth, standard of living, migration of people from rural areas to urban areas, land use/land cover changes, climate change, global warming, rainfall variability, water pollution, water policies, and increased agricultural and industrial water demand affect the availability and security of water both now and in the future. Further, increased drought and aridification, mismanagement of groundwater resources, seawater intrusion, land degradation, and pollution undermine equitable water supply. Thus, it is important to develop innovative technologies and formulate appropriate government policies, and provide workable institutional arrangements for sustainable water resources management and water supply. These interventions will increase water use efficiency and productivity, as well as environmental security and social wellbeing in the longer term.

This Special Issue aims to address “Sustainable Water Resources Management and water supply.” To this end, we are seeking articles that address problems, challenges, opportunities, tools and technologies, development, and management related to the sustainability of water resources in urban, rural, desert, and mountainous areas and water sources. Potential topics include (but are not limited to):

Water availability.
Water balance.
Water resources development.
Water supply management.
Water demand management.
Water pricing.
Water wastage.
Impact of climate change on water use.
Global warming.
Riverbank filtration.
Water supply distribution.
Rainwater harvesting.
Impact of urbanisation and industrialization on water resources management.
Ground and surface water quality and quantity.
Surface and ground water interactions.
Political and socio-economic challenges in water management and water supply.
Impact of climate change on water resources.
River rejuvenation.
Developments in water use and reuse methods.
Water management strategies for green growth.
Tool and techniques for water management and water supply.
Water use efficiency.
Water recycling.
Water reuse.
Grey water.
Groundwater recharge.
Changes in lifestyle.
Water saving.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Chandra Shekhar Prasad Ojha
Prof. Dr. Vijay P. Singh
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

water balance
water resources development
water supply management
water demand management
water recycling
water reuse
water saving

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 13288 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessing the Performance of State Water Utilities in Nigeria: Towards Achieving the Sustainable Development Goal on Drinking Water

by Victor O. Ojo and M. Sohail

Sustainability 2024, 16(1), 59; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16010059 - 20 Dec 2023

Viewed by 893

Abstract

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on drinking water were reported to have been achieved five years earlier than the target date of 2015 in all the continents, except Africa and Oceania. This study assessed the performance of selected state water utilities in Nigeria in Africa over a period of years to determine improvements, if any, in their service coverage and demand gap in meeting the ambitious SDG target 6.1, which aims to achieve sustainable drinking water for all by 2030. Employing the key performance indicator (KPI) methodology, encompassing operational and maintenance efficiency, investment efficiency, and financial sustainability, this research unveils a widening disparity between water supply and demand gap. Alarming is the revelation that the revenue from water sales falls short of covering operation and maintenance costs, rendering these utilities financially unsustainable. This underperformance of state water utilities signals a formidable barrier to Nigeria’s prospects of attaining the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 6.1, thereby jeopardizing the nation’s ability to ensure universal and affordable access to safe drinking water by 2030. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Water Resources Management and Water Supply)

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14 pages, 1633 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Application of Biofilm Water Conservation and Emission Reduction Technology in the Pond Culture of Largemouth Bass and Japanese Eel

by Zeyu Wang, Yilin Wang and Xinglong Jiang

Sustainability 2023, 15(24), 16663; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152416663 - 08 Dec 2023

Viewed by 943

Abstract

This study investigates the water-saving and emission-reduction effects of biofilm technology on the pond culture of largemouth bass (Micropterus pallidus) and Japanese eel (Anguilla japonica) using a combination of biofilm water purification grids and a complex microbial preparation. The results show that during the 150-day largemouth bass aquaculture trial, the TN, TAN, TP, nitrite, and LP in the treatment group were significantly lower than those in the control group by 26.2%, 74.7%, 53.9%, 30.7%, and 59.1% (p < 0.01), respectively. During the 145-day aquaculture trial of Japanese eel, the TN, TAN, and TP levels in the treatment group were significantly lower than those in the control group by 30.1%, 68.6%, and 18.7% (p < 0.01), respectively. The nitrite and COD levels were also significantly lower in the treatment group than in the control group by 18.3% and 16.0% (p < 0.05). In addition, largemouth bass and Japanese eel tailwater nitrogen and phosphorus discharges were significantly reduced and culture yields were significantly increased. This biofilm pond culture technology has advantages such as low cost, water saving and emission reduction, increased production, ease of operation, and a wide range of applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Water Resources Management and Water Supply)

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27 pages, 8487 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sustainability Evaluation of the Stormwater Drainage System in Six Indian Cities

by Rajesh Kumar Vishwakarma, Himanshu Joshi and Ashantha Goonetilleke

Sustainability 2023, 15(20), 14906; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152014906 - 16 Oct 2023

Viewed by 1003

Abstract

Over the past several decades, urbanisation has spread rapidly over the globe. Research on the viability of urban stormwater drainage systems and the search for solutions to the related problems constitute an important prerequisite for their sustainability evaluation. The Government of India’s sub-committee for the development of “National sustainable habitat parameters on urban stormwater management” has proposed twenty key indices to promote and monitor the sustainable urban stormwater management paradigm. Their evaluation may be taken up at various stages of development, including planning/design, execution, post-operation audits, impact assessment, etc. Eleven of these sustainability indices, including the “Natural drainage system index (NDSI), the Drainage coverage (constructed) index (DCI), the Permeability Index (PI), Water bodies rejuvenation index (WBRI), Water body vulnerability index (WBVI), Water logging index (WLI), Area vulnerability index (AWI), Stormwater discharge quality index (SWDQI), and Rainfall intensity index (RII)” were evaluated for three Tier I cities (Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai) and three Tier II cities (Varanasi, Chandigarh, and Roorkee) in India based on the available data for 2010 as the datum year and 2020 as the test year. All the considered cities serve as economically and institutionally important urban centres, fall in different climatic zones, and are distributed in two major categories based on the scale of development and population density. All the indices enumerated individually fell within the range of 0 to 1, the two extremities of the sustainability range. Further, ranking of various indices was done employing the Analytical Hierarchy Process, and after deriving the weights for each, aggregation of all these indices was performed to yield an “Overall sustainability index” for each city. Different values were demonstrated along the sustainability scale for all the cities based on performance with regard to various constituent indices in a standalone mode and their interplay in an aggregated mode. The findings are expected to provide important insights to meet the goal of the developing sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDSs). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Water Resources Management and Water Supply)

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34 pages, 6360 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Puebla City Water Supply from the Perspective of Urban Water Metabolism

by David Pérez-González, Gian Carlo Delgado-Ramos, Lilia Cedillo Ramírez, Rosalva Loreto López, María Elena Ramos Cassellis, José Víctor Rosendo Tamariz Flores and Ricardo Darío Peña Moreno

Sustainability 2023, 15(19), 14549; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151914549 - 07 Oct 2023

Viewed by 1615

Abstract

The city of Puebla is a mid-sized Mexican city facing multiple water-related challenges, from overexploitation of water sources and extreme pollution of rivers to water conflicts and contestation processes due to the privatization of water supply. Due to the complexity of urban water systems and their relevance for urban life, a holistic and integrative perspective is therefore needed to inform policymakers addressing such challenges. In this paper, Urban Water Metabolism (UWM) has been used to offer a comprehensive understanding of current water insecurity in the City of Puebla and its metropolitan area. Water inflows and outflows have been estimated using the Material Flow Analysis (MFA) method with data either obtained from official sources or simulated with the Monte Carlo method. Our findings show that the UWM configuration in the City of Puebla and its metropolitan area is effective for generating profits for service providers and water-related businesses, yet ineffective for guaranteeing citizens’ Human Right to Water and Sanitation (HRWS), a right recognized in the Constitution of Mexico. We conclude that to advance towards an inclusive and sustainable long-term provision of water, economic goals must follow socio-ecological goals, not the other way around. We consider UWM accounting useful for informing policy and decision-making processes seeking to build a new water governance based on both the best available knowledge and inclusive and vibrant social participation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Water Resources Management and Water Supply)

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26 pages, 8476 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Modeling Soil Hydraulic Properties Using Dynamic Variability of Soil Pore Size Distribution

by Saurabh Kumar and Richa Ojha

Sustainability 2023, 15(13), 10133; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151310133 - 26 Jun 2023

Viewed by 981

Abstract

The knowledge of temporal variability of soil hydraulic properties (SHPs) in agricultural fields can help in reliable assessment of crop water requirement, thus improving irrigation water usage efficiency. The Fokker–Planck equation (FPE) and its modified forms are popularly used to describe temporal variation in SHPs. These models consider statistical description of soil pore size distribution (PSD) as a probability density function to estimate SHP evolution with time. In this study, we compare four different models to describe the temporal evolution of PSD and SHPs for multiple datasets across the world with different soil types, tillage conditions and crop cover. Further, field experiments were carried out at an experimental agricultural field at IIT Kanpur for rice crops, and the performance of these models was also evaluated for Indian conditions. It is observed that existing models have low accuracy for small pore radii values, and the prediction ability of these models is more affected by soil type rather than tillage conditions. More observations can improve the performance of FPE-based numerical and analytical models. The POWER Model is the least accurate because of its inherent power law assumption of PSD, which results in incorrect values for low pore radii. The FPE analytical model can be reliably used for predicting PSD and SHP evolution at most of the field sites. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Water Resources Management and Water Supply)

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21 pages, 3790 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Long-Term Tillage Practices on Runoff and Soil Erosion in Sloping Croplands of Himalaya, India

by Deepak Singh, Alok Kumar Mishra, Sridhar Patra, Anuj Kumar Dwivedi, Chandra Shekhar Prasad Ojha, Vijay P. Singh, Sankar Mariappan, Subhash Babu, Nisha Singh, Devideen Yadav, Prabhat Ranjan Ojasvi, Gopal Kumar, Made Gowda Madhu, Dipak Ranjan Sena, Lekh Chand and Suresh Kumar

Sustainability 2023, 15(10), 8285; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15108285 - 19 May 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1578

Abstract

Slopy agricultural lands are more susceptible to soil erosion and hence are priority sites for the application of protective soil management practices. A conservation agriculture field experiment was established at a 6% field slope in 2011 at the ICAR-IISWC Research Farm, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, which is situated in the Northwestern Himalayan Region, India. The objective of this study was to experimentally determine the long-term effects of tillage practices on runoff and soil erosion. The tillage practices opted for were conventional tillage (CT), minimum tillage (MT), and zero tillage (ZT). Event-based runoff and soil loss were monitored during three monsoon seasons (June to September) from 2018 to 2020. Results showed lower runoff and soil loss in the ZT plot than in CT and MT plots. CT produced 1.51 and 2.53 times higher runoff than MT and ZT, respectively. Moreover, this increased runoff generated 1.84 and 5.10 times higher soil erosion in CT than in MT and ZT, respectively. The extreme rainfall events being less than 10% generated 54.93%, 57.35%, and 63.43% of the total runoff volume which resulted in 82.08%, 85.49%, and 91.00% of the total soil loss in CT, MT, and ZT plots, respectively. For the same amount of rainfall, the reduction in soil loss was 39% and 68% in the CT and ZT plots, respectively, at the highest growth stage in comparison to the initial crop growth stage. The values of runoff reduction benefit (RRB) and sediment reduction benefit (SRB) showed a reduction in runoff (63.53%) and soil loss (80.39%) in the CT. Results concluded that conservation tillage reduced runoff and soil loss significantly even in extreme rainfall events. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Water Resources Management and Water Supply)

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